The Integral » South Korea

#245 Innocence

Aditya — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:30:51 +0000

What touches my heart the most… is innocence!

Clip from one of my favorite Korean movies ‘Maeumi’

Posted in Life, South Korea Tagged: innocence, korean

#224 Farewell…

Aditya — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 05:50:33 +0000

Rashmi, Sriram, and Satish... Thanks for absolutely everything...

Rashmi, Saunvit, Prateek, Sriram... Thanks for the awe-kasam Smoky Trip :)

Rashmi, Ramya... Thanks for all the meals we had together... :)

Jae, Heera... Thanks for the most amazing Bibimbap and your warmth... :)

Chicago... Thank You...

New York... Thank You :)

Fall... Thanks for the most beautiful moments that you gave me and my camera :)

Snow... Thanks for the mind-blowing cold and an amazing experience...

And Guru (for the amazing talks of everything starting from China to Peru, vada-pav to chai-at-a-tapri, NCC to ‘bakch**di’…), Anna, Chris (on the Metra), Jing, Sally, Liliana (whom I may never meet again), Kunal, Riya and everybody else…
I know there are many more…

Thanks,
Goodbye…

23340.9466

Posted in Aditya, Life, People, Photography, South Korea, Travel Tagged: bibimbap, chicago, evanston, fall, farewell, korean, memories, new york, photographs, snow, Travel, trip, US, us2008

#212 Life like what?

Aditya — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 05:04:20 +0000

A long page full of pictures, did that make my blog a spot to watch? I made a blog to be read, it just got a bit deviated, just a bit carried away…

Living in a place, ‘thousands’ of kilometers away from home, decades of degree Fahrenheit apart and half a day on the other side of the world, it is a feeling that does not go down so well, or may be it does but I cannot realise it. Things are different, very different from the way I see them in homeland or closer to homeland.

I always had this notion in my head, “I do not want to go to US” and I would tell it loud and clear to people. And they would ask me “why?”… I would go on and give them all reasons, whether they made sense or not, I went on… I have been fascinated by some places that are almost never on a person’s wishlist to travel. Places like Russia, China, Mongolia, Turkey, Georgia, Israel seemed more “calling” to me than the West.

Fortunate I was to travel to the magnificent and uber-cute land of Daehan Minguk, South Korea. I was there for a little under three months, and I traveled almost the whole of that little country, tasted almost all of its deliciously healthy cuisine, understood and appreciated the technology decades ahead of Indo, learnt and almost perfected the script, and totally enjoyed my first stay abroad. I maintained a good blog and filled it with a lot of photos of almost everything I saw, everyone I met and everywhere I went. People who saw it, loved it, and wondered how they never knew Korea was so wonderful!

Here I am today, on the other side of the globe… Trying to maintain a blog, busy work schedule means I cannot do this more often, trying to enjoy the cuisine, but… “________” and trying to be happy…

This is a great country. I must say so and I appreciate it when I say so. The roads are perfect, the buildings are exuberant and the cities are brilliant. Things are pretty good here, in the shops and showrooms, clothes, accessories, electronics, chocolates, drinks are cheap here and superior in quality. Water supply is almost unlimited and comes in two temperatures. Perfect. Period. Food is great! Yes, food is great. I keep going back to the tiny Korean restaurant JK Cafe on Clark in Evanston to have that great delicacy called ‘Bibimbap’ – do you remember? I keep going back to the Korean restaurant to have sushi rolls, to have kimchi, to have odeng, to have ramyeon! I keep going back for more reasons than the food. I go there to socialise. I am happy to meet and interact with the cute Korean couple that runs the restaurant. I asked them their names, ‘Handsome man’ and ‘Pretty Ooman’ (in the typical Korean accent came the reply). I was glad, and gladly wrote down my name Aditya in Korean script on my business card and handed it to them. They are more than happy to see me there almost everyday. This is not a story about the Great America, it is a story about a small Korean restaurant that I have come across right in front of my office.

I go there almost every other day and the things I love the most at their restaurant are not Bibimbap, rolls or coffee milkshake… but the love and the warmth they show and serve me with. They feel as if I am one of them. I started eating rolls out there with a certain customization. When I first went there, I told them I want california rolls, but no fish and only vegetarian ingredients. They kept asking me if “fish is ok”, “tofu is ok?”, “radish is ok” and I kept answering “yes” or “no” and at the end of it, I had a fully customised roll all for me… Since then, whenever I have been there, all I tell Hara (the Korean lady) is “Can I have a roll please” and she shouts back inside here kitchen “Adi-tta roll juseyeo” (Get him ‘Aditya Rolls’). With so much and more warmth, as I go and take my seat, her husband brings up a number of banchans (side dishes) like kimchi, yellow radish and soy sauce for me to enjoy… and makes sure that he himself comes and serves me my fully customised ‘Aditta Rolls’.

I am touched.

Last friday, I wasn’t very hungry and decided to go to JK Cafe and eat a california roll. These rolls are very delicious, very healthy, have almost zero fat and are not filling at all. So I thought, I would have them and I would be done. Given their generosity, warmth and liking for me, they would not let me eat just the rolls and within minutes of my taking a seat, my table was filled with more than the regular set of banchans.. and a sweet potato dish made in the shape of a fish… It was yummy, but by the end of my meal, I was full, more than full.

I was filled. I was filled with emotions, I was overwhelmed by their selfless attitude and care for my taste buds. Last afternoon I even got them a couple of Samosas from the local Indian restaurant in Evanston. It happened that the lady dint get any of it to taste as Mr Handsome Man loved and finished them himself. In the evening when I went there again, he told me “I loved your samosas… I have enjoyed it earlier in Indonesia with beer. Fantastic”. The smile on their faces and the smile on my face never seems to fade away. They work hard. It is perhaps the only restaurant in the Northwestern Univ area that stays open late till about 2 or 3 am every night. But the warmth with which the bells rings when I open the door and enter JK and the warmth with which Hara wishes me “Annyeong Haseyeo” and the warmth with which Handsome Man waves at me from inside the kitchen, touches me. Touches me more than anything else.

Things like these keep me going on. And on. Yes, I miss Korea to date. I miss my Korean friends, Yunseong, Daeseong, Jaejin and everyone else I met in Korea. I miss those cute girls moving around in the trains, on the streets and everywhere else. I miss those jingles the vendors used to shout at their street side bbq shops. I miss that smell of kimchi. I miss that language… I miss Korea.

But here I am in a totally different country. It is not much different from what I have seen it as in the movies, and the television. Perhaps it is much different and definitely better once you are here. Life is convenient. It is safe. It is the greatest country of the world. When I go back to India, I will tell people that my notion about this country was not completely correct. Now I am convinced about it. It was incomplete.

Everything is perfect, but the warmth was left behind in Asia…

19898.6900

Posted in Aditya, Life, People, South Korea, Travel, United States Tagged: Aditya, america, asia, bibimbap, cafe, evanston, humble, humility, jk cafe, korea, love, rolls, South Korea, us2008, USA, warmth

#170: 37,000 km in search of… 비빔밥

Aditya — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:19:19 +0000

What sucks?

Life sucks,
People suck,
Studies suck,
Mess food sucks,
Gravity sucks.

Lol.. poor joke. I only intended to magnify so many things that actually Suck! It has been a short semester.. so far.. I wish it was longer… I’ve slept so much. Ive slept more than I had ever slept in my life. I sleep and I eat. That is all I do these days. I wish I did something more fruitful.

What am I blogging about btw?

In 2007, I travelled a total of 37000 km. Now so many of you travelled to the US and back! That by itself would make so much :( So let me exclude the flying miles to and back from Korea. That leaves me with 26000 km. Now isn’t that a big number? Over twenty five thousand kilometers of domestic travel. I like it :) But the very unfortunate part of it was that I hardly visited any new city in these 26000 km. Nevermind, I predict 2008 to be a big year, and 2009 to be the year of Aditto!

And the one thing that I am still searching for in India, is a place where I can get to eat Bibimbap! Do you know what that is?

Bibimbap is served as a bowl of warm white rice topped with namul (sautéed and seasoned vegetables), beef, a fried egg, and gochujang (chile pepper paste). The ingredients are stirred together thoroughly just before eating. It can be served either cold or hot.

Vegetables commonly used in bibimbap include julienned cucumber, zucchini, mudaikon), mushrooms, (doraji (bellflower root), and gim, as well as spinach, soybeangosari (bracken fern stems). Dubu (tofu), either plain or sautéed, or a leaf of lettuce may be added, or chicken or seafood may be substituted for beef. For visual appeal, the vegetables are placed so that adjacent colors complement each other. Many areas of Korea typically serve a vegetarian version of the dish which may well be the more traditional alternative.

Wikipedia

So go ahead and check it out!

# 162 Korean Laughter @ kh kh kh ㄲ ㄲ ㄲ

Aditya — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:42:00 +0000

This is a very special symbol. Some people see it as cute, some as very irritating. I see it as very cute and very naughty :)It is the way Korean’s laugh, well not really at all!! But while using messengers, sms or chats, YES!!

Its one of the cutest Korean terms I’ve come across :)

ㄲ ㄲ ㄲ

#160: Plagiarism of some sweet Korean Memories

Aditya — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 11:48:00 +0000

I have been back in India since almost a month now, but the Korean memories wont just leave me.
What do I do? In the mean while, I got interactive on Cyworld and often keep in touch with my Korean friends over Cyworld. http://www.cyworld.com/aditya0401From my trip to the East Coast and Gangneung City, I have kept and will always keep the sweet memories close to me. After the trip, Jeong Hwa put up the following post in her cyworld blog. This is what she wrote…

This is the Choding we met in the bus who actually introduced me to her :)
—

처음에 이아이가 우비를 입고 갑자기 나타나

“여기 버스 6시 50분에나 오는데?”

하고 말을 던졌을때 우리는 스물몇살쯤 된 정신지체아인줄 알았다;;

First, when this child said suddenly putting on a rainwear “bus is coming at 6 : 50 here”, we thought he was a mentally retarded child about twenty years

—

그러나 이아이는 우리가 대꾸를 하던 안하던 우리를 보며

쉴새없이 예의가 없거나 개념이 없거나 하여튼 무언가 부족한

이야기들을 쏟아내서 우리를 정신없이 만들었다;;;

But he said a little strange story continuously seeing us without our answering, so we were out of our senses.

—

덕분에 묻지않고도 이아이가 초딩6학년의 역도선수이며

얼마전 대회에서 1등으로 200만원을 상금으로 받았으며

나에게 관심이 있다는 것을 알게되었다(ㄲ ㅑ ㅇ ㅏ!!!)

At result, we knew he is 6th grade of an elementary school without asking him and he won weight lifting mass meeting, so he was awarded 200 man-won. And he was interested to me. (kha –a!!!)

—
He wanted to talk to me, but he knew no english, and I knew no Korean… Miss Jeong Hwa sitting behind me, translated for us… and in the process started talking to me too… :)

우연히 강릉시외버스터미널로 향하던 버스에서 만난 아티

(놀랍게도 같은 기차를 타고 정동진으로 왔던 아티가

정동진에서 마구잡이로 찍은 사진중엔 우리의 사진도 한장 있었다)

We met aditya in a bus to Gang Lon bus terminal by chance (to our surprise, aditya who was getting on same train to Jun Dong Gin , he took a picture which our figure is there)

—

Actually it happened that I was taking some pictures of the Jeongdongjin station even much before I met her. Later while coming back to Incheon in the bus, while I was showing her my camera pics, she saw herself in one of those pics. Coincidence!
—

4개국어를 할줄알지만 한국어를 못하는 바람에;;;

곤란해 하던 아티는 나의 부족한 영어에도 매우 감격해했다…ㅋ

He can speak 4 language , except Korean… he felt difficult but he was deeply impressed even by my low English.

—

인도 봄베이에서 인하대학교에 3개월 교환학생으로 온 아티

Aditya who is coming to Inha Univ. from India Mumbai for 3 months as an interchange student.

—

22살이라는 믿기지 않는 나이임에도 불구하고

Though his age is 22 years old that is unbelievable.

—

나이답게 호기심이 많고 순수했다.

Was curious and pure like his age…

—

인도사람인 아티는 한국사람들은 왜 사진찍을때마다

Aditya who is Indian wondered why all of Korean people do ‘V’ of finger every time when they take a picture.

—

I miss you!! and all the Korean memories like you…

#159 Farewell…

Aditya — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 08:48:00 +0000

…at Professor Won’s house…
but whose farewell was it?

#158 Colours and Sounds from another Culture

Aditya — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 08:43:00 +0000

Just outside Yongsan Station…

Click here to watch the video on my old blog

#157 Simply Amazing: Seoul City

Aditya — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 13:45:00 +0000

Let the pictures speak for themselves…

#156 Busan @ 300 kmph… KTX

Aditya — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 02:36:00 +0000

Hi everyone… this may be my last posting from Korea, but I am not sure… This Sunday I travelled down south to city of Busan (Pusan). Busan is the second largest city of South Korea, it also hosted the Asian Games in 2002. Busan is a city with many hills around. Roads are up and down and smaller than Seoul and Incheon roads. Overall, I think Incheon is a modern city with much better planning.

It is said that night life is best in Busan, but I neither had the time nor the luck. I also felt that Seoul / Incheon girls are much much prettier than Busan girls :) hahah :)

The key point of the trip was travel by KTX. It is the High Speed Railway connecting Seoul to Busan and the technology is French (TGV). The top speed was 303 kmph and the average speed was 140 kmph. It was just awesome to whizzzzzzzzzzzzz past the beautiful Korean country side. Also the return journey was splendid.

The bus ride, that cost me just 40 % of the KTX fare, took just 4 hr 45 minutes for the 430 km!!!! Isn’t that awesome? And on top of that, I got down from the bus right near the university.

KTX route from Seoul to BusanJust outside Seoul Station

At the entrance of Seoul Station…

Cool architecture at Seoul Station…

Once inside… Ticket Counters

Waiting lounge and cafeterias…

Go up the stairs to board the KTX…

Entrance to the tracks… you cant just reach the platform, without a proper ticket!

The tracks… come come my KTX…

Voila!!!! C’est tres bien!!

Ohh!! Let us accelerate, oh my KTX… read 260.9 km/h

Wowie… Top Speed: 303.6 km/h

Korean country side whizzing past…

Inside the cabin…

zzzzzzzzz Sleepy heads…

11.50 am: Busan Station

Architecture Magnificent! Simply Awesome structure @ Busan Station
Front view: Busan Station

A part of Busan City :)
Station Square…

Pretty picture… Candid!

Look at the double decker bus… I wish I was in it!

Haeundae Beach… Most famous in Korea

And more…

Choding Power :P

And more…

And more… aham aham

Goding power…

Ooooohhh!

Aah… this was somewhere between Seoul and Busan, on my way back to Seoul. It is a river, with embankments constructed to convert it into a picnic spot. The Koreans love to sit by the river and fish!

…………………

All in all a good trip, and great journey!

Note: Well, there are more pics, but I dont think they are suitable for public display ㅋㅋ (kh kh). Contact me personally if you wanna take a look :P