I am currently sitting in the shadow of the Great Wall under the Great Chinese Firewall. That means no Facebook, Twitter or even Blogspot for me until I make it to Hong Kong. Therefore I have asked my dad to put up a few posts for me in my absence. The next one will hopefully go up tomorrow. Photos will follow either once I send them to my dad or once I get back online.
I made it to China about a week ago after spending five days up in Seoul. The rest of my time in Korea was pretty hectic and busy. Right after camp I stayed in Jinju for a few days filming a “music video” for one of my Kiwi coworkers who raps in Korean and a casting video with another of my coworkers who just moved to Korea with his wife from
Spain. I’ve never shot a music video before so this should be interesting. Shortly afterward my computer broke so I haven’t had a chance to start editing either project yet.
As I mentioned earlier I went to Gyeonju for the temple stay on the Tuesday after camp ended and then spent another day and a half in Jinju before heading up to Seoul on Friday afternoon. That night I met up with my coworker, Taylor, to go out in Itaewon, the foreigner hub of Seoul near the US Army base. It was quite a late night so I got a bit of a late start the next morning. On Saturday, I spent most of the afternoon trying to get my computer fixed before finding out that it was going to take too long for them to get it done before I left for Beijing the following week. That night at dinner my friend, Angelo, who I worked with at the camp two years ago told me it sounded like they might have to replace the computer’s motherboard, which would mean reformatting the entire thing. That totally freaked me out so I was rather stressed for the next few days.
On Sunday, I attended a service at the sister church of the church I attended as a child south of the city in Yatap. One of the young church members, Brian, who had attended boarding school in the U.S. for about five years acted as my translator when I met with the pastor and his wife. The pastor was incredibly gracious, even arranging for me to get a ride 20 minutes away to meet a childhood friend and her husband to go to movies in the afternoon. Brian and his dad then came to pick me up afterward and brought me out to dinner at an Italian restaurant near a lake with Pastor Lee and his wife. I guess everyone thought that I wanted a break from all of the spicy Korean food.
On Monday, I basically spent the day trying to get some errands done like exchanging money and shipping a few things back to the States. Then on Tuesday I met up with Taylor again to film a tea ceremony at a traditional hanok called Yoo’s Family House near some of the former royal palaces. We had filmed at the hanok during a recent episode of “House Hunters International” and I asked if I could come back to shoot another short segment with the hopes of selling the video to the Travel Channel through the connections I made at the Travel Channel Academy last year. Whether or not I sell the video, I will eventually post it on here once I finally have the chance to edit it. The filming went well and Taylor was even game enough to put on the traditional hanbok outfit for the ceremony.
In the afternoon I was supposed to meet one of the former employees at the hanok for a tour of the Changdeok Palace down the street. She had to cancel on me so I ended up going in by myself and wandering around for a few hours. In the late afternoon it started to rain so I ducked into a restaurant and tried traditional Korean porridge soup for the first time. It was definitely a very hearty meal that totally filled me up after I had basically skipped lunch earlier. Once I was done eating, the rain had let up a bit so I walked around the neighborhood for a while and went to some of the shops in the Bukchon Hanok Village between the Changdeok Palace and the main Gyeongbok Palace. The area features many traditional artisans making items such as kites and embroidered wall hangings as well as more modern art galleries and museums.
The next day I just had time to run a few more errands before it was off to the airport for my flight to Beijing. I was quite late arriving at the airport, but it actually paid off to my advantage. Since there were no more window seats, I was given an aisle seat in business class (though theoretically was not eligible for business class service... whatever that means.) For once in my life I wish the flight had been longer than two hours. I could have used a good long nap.
Next up... Beijing!
Posted courtesy of George Merrick
I made it to China about a week ago after spending five days up in Seoul. The rest of my time in Korea was pretty hectic and busy. Right after camp I stayed in Jinju for a few days filming a “music video” for one of my Kiwi coworkers who raps in Korean and a casting video with another of my coworkers who just moved to Korea with his wife from
Spain. I’ve never shot a music video before so this should be interesting. Shortly afterward my computer broke so I haven’t had a chance to start editing either project yet.
As I mentioned earlier I went to Gyeonju for the temple stay on the Tuesday after camp ended and then spent another day and a half in Jinju before heading up to Seoul on Friday afternoon. That night I met up with my coworker, Taylor, to go out in Itaewon, the foreigner hub of Seoul near the US Army base. It was quite a late night so I got a bit of a late start the next morning. On Saturday, I spent most of the afternoon trying to get my computer fixed before finding out that it was going to take too long for them to get it done before I left for Beijing the following week. That night at dinner my friend, Angelo, who I worked with at the camp two years ago told me it sounded like they might have to replace the computer’s motherboard, which would mean reformatting the entire thing. That totally freaked me out so I was rather stressed for the next few days.
On Sunday, I attended a service at the sister church of the church I attended as a child south of the city in Yatap. One of the young church members, Brian, who had attended boarding school in the U.S. for about five years acted as my translator when I met with the pastor and his wife. The pastor was incredibly gracious, even arranging for me to get a ride 20 minutes away to meet a childhood friend and her husband to go to movies in the afternoon. Brian and his dad then came to pick me up afterward and brought me out to dinner at an Italian restaurant near a lake with Pastor Lee and his wife. I guess everyone thought that I wanted a break from all of the spicy Korean food.
On Monday, I basically spent the day trying to get some errands done like exchanging money and shipping a few things back to the States. Then on Tuesday I met up with Taylor again to film a tea ceremony at a traditional hanok called Yoo’s Family House near some of the former royal palaces. We had filmed at the hanok during a recent episode of “House Hunters International” and I asked if I could come back to shoot another short segment with the hopes of selling the video to the Travel Channel through the connections I made at the Travel Channel Academy last year. Whether or not I sell the video, I will eventually post it on here once I finally have the chance to edit it. The filming went well and Taylor was even game enough to put on the traditional hanbok outfit for the ceremony.
In the afternoon I was supposed to meet one of the former employees at the hanok for a tour of the Changdeok Palace down the street. She had to cancel on me so I ended up going in by myself and wandering around for a few hours. In the late afternoon it started to rain so I ducked into a restaurant and tried traditional Korean porridge soup for the first time. It was definitely a very hearty meal that totally filled me up after I had basically skipped lunch earlier. Once I was done eating, the rain had let up a bit so I walked around the neighborhood for a while and went to some of the shops in the Bukchon Hanok Village between the Changdeok Palace and the main Gyeongbok Palace. The area features many traditional artisans making items such as kites and embroidered wall hangings as well as more modern art galleries and museums.
The next day I just had time to run a few more errands before it was off to the airport for my flight to Beijing. I was quite late arriving at the airport, but it actually paid off to my advantage. Since there were no more window seats, I was given an aisle seat in business class (though theoretically was not eligible for business class service... whatever that means.) For once in my life I wish the flight had been longer than two hours. I could have used a good long nap.
Next up... Beijing!
Posted courtesy of George Merrick
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