Hometown Blues

Recently, our Kim song seng nim took us to her hometown for a visit. We went to her house, which is very spacious, and also has a kindergarten (her mother runs the kindergarten). After that, we went to several other places.


Keeper of the grove: woof.


Class in session: Piyin (Thailand, from a crafts programme, but in the same Korean class as me), Pele, Kim See Roo, me, Tascha, Damon, doggie.


Not Shirley's Temple: We visited a temple while in Ssongwang. The town is nestled somewhere between the mountains, and so the backdrop can be absolutely beautiful.


Stoned: At the temple, there are many flat stones piled on top of each other. Tradition dictates that you build your own pile, making a wish as you do so. If the pile falls, that dream will not come true.


Stone Temple Pilots (Eipe 2006): The entrance to the temple is guarded by several big, stone statues. It is believed that before, they are the guards, protecting the temple from evil influences like the devil and the Japs (ho hum).


Punch line: To understand this picture, you must understand that in every one of her class, Kim song seng nim hits me. "FIKRI!" she would exclaim, before motioning me over: "Come here..." PUNCH! PUNCH! PUNCH! "Why are you late?!" It would help, I think, if I'm not late every morning... :>


Under one roof: At most temples, they allow you the chance to write messages on roof tiles. For the life of me, I can't remember why now...


Chip monk (Eipe 2006): Cuter than Joanne's squirrel.


Another temple: Different temple, same beauty.


Korean dessert: Fresh water is on tap for people to wash their faces or just to drink (it's very cooling). And why Korean dessert? Because we once had Korean dessert in a restaurant, and it was even bigger than the main course. :>


Keeper of the Kimchis: bark.


Fire man: After the temples, we went to visit a primary school (very big and impressive). Here, Damon sees me on top of the climbing rack...


ANEEYOOOO!!!: ...and the chance to relight my fire. Ho hum.


Tong seng city: The school also has a small park, with different animal statues. Here, I find my long lost 'brother'.

It was a fun day, and after that, we went back to Kim song seng nim's house to chill for a bit and watch Men In Black II (good watch on a Saturday afternoon).

Take care, and have a nice day!

*Pictures courtesy of Pele shi nen and Tascha nim.

TASCHA! TASCHA!

Recently, it was Tascha's birthday (May 16th). To mark the occasion, we did a little celebration in Sabine's room, and had a tonne of fun (as usual). Here are some of the pics.


Food, glorious food: Cake, watermelon and fried tofu rice. Yum.


Singing a song seng nim: Our teacher Seo dropped by for a quick visit. He actually caught me studying in my room. Upon finding out about Tascha's party, he hung around for a bit.


The holy omma: Sabine later said that our song seng nim was surprised at how we are we each other. "In a good way?" I asked. "Yeah."


Kimchi!: Me and my trusty Canon.


Well, that takes the cake: Notice the rabbit(?) 'smoking' a candle. Bad rabbit...


Hair today, gone tomorrow: "Hmm, what lovely hair Fikri's got..."

Of course, no celebration is complete without the money shot of the birthday girl.


Sticking it to them: Eating cake with...chopstick.

Hope you had a good one, Tash. Here's to many more. Happy birthday.

*Pictures courtesy of Amphon Kuwatanasilpa.

Life's A Beach

Last weekend, our seong seng nim, Kim Se Roo, decided to take us to the beach for fun, seafood, and impromptu test-e. Having nothing else on our plates (so to speak), we took her up on the offer, and set off on a nice little trip some two hours away (probably would've been around one if she hadn't got lost on the way. "Sorry, sorry..." she kept saying). We didn't mind, because seong seng nim has an incredible taste in music. Nice, mellow tunes, from Ryan Cabrera's True to...err, MYMP from the Philippines.


Myst-erious looking: Cool.



Relight my fire: The barbeque spot on the table. A lot of Korean food places (including plenty of the high end restaurants) have these on the table. Usually it's used to cook and keep the food warm. On this occasion, it'll be used to burn little shrimps.



Shrimping ain't easy: the calm before the storm.



Shell shocked: They're still alive when we throw them on the fire. As they burn slowly, you can hear the 'pop, pop' sound, and see some of them move around. We wait for all of them to die first, watching on with sympathy, before getting stuck in. The sea snails are the most resilient; they don't die easily. Bloody crustaceans.



"Ahh, what a lovely morni...wait, what's this? It's a little hot in here. What's going on...aargh....ANEEEYOOOOOOO!!!!!" (pop) :>



Scissors sisters: at the cutting edge of technology. Or the technology of cutting edge.



All at sea: After she sold sea shell by the sea side, we went on a short drive to another part of the shore, and came here. There's a long pier leading to a red tower that doesn't actually serve any purpose. It makes for good, multilayered pictures, though. And there's a fair amount of flies there, hovering over some dead fish. Not pleasant, but if you can shut your smelling sense, the view is quite alright.



Tower of strength: If only we know what that strength is...

After that, we went back. The end.

*Pictures courtesy of Tascha shi nen.

Cinema Paradiso

For the past week or so, I've been practically living downtown Jeonju. Why? Because the 7th Jeonju International Film Festival was in town, that's why. It's the biggest event bar none on the calendar for Jeonju, so everyone goes all out for it.


Street people: A view of JIFF at night, when most people come to watch movies. The event takes place at Cinema Street, which is exactly what it says on the tin. Cinema Street is home to at least four or five multiplexes. For JIFF, they shut the whole street off, and populate it with plenty of decorations, such as...



...old fridges. Yes, really, they just take it and leave it there. It might seem ridiculous, but for some reason it works, adding a sense of artisticness (is that a word) to the whole event. But if you think that's strange...



...then what about this? :>



Lost?: You shouldn't be. Turn left for JIFF. And right. And straight...you get the idea.



Spotted during lunch: Bear for 3,000 wons (3 USD), anyone?



Outdoor class: Tired from walking around and watching three movies in one day? Have a seat and pay attention...



...to the plethora of live music on show. There's at least a couple of shows each day, and they're all good. Very, very cool.



Starlight cinema: Depending on the time of the day, you'd either be enjoying live music or not-so-live movie screenings. Good movies as well; one night, they showed Oliver Twist, the Roman Polanski one.



Big balls: Silver spheres with words and phrases (English and Korean) carved out, making for a nice effect when the lights are turned on.



Delovely: Not love, actually.



Freedom reigns: If you're free and bored, then you can have a quick scribble.



Can't hardly wait: Another event they have is the Masterclass, where they have industry people come in to give special lectures and talks. Here, people wait for the Choi Min Sik Masterclass. Choi Min Sik is often mentioned as Korea's greatest actor. Having seen some of his works, I would compare it to...err, Tom Hanks, perhaps, as far as diversity and quality goes.



A class act: The great man himself. He even answered one of my questions, but his best answer was saved for Kirsten ("I like to give people wedgies on set. The more they say no, the more I do it," when asked on what he does in between takes).



The JIFF Guest Centre: Where guests of the festival (like me), go and chill, taking in free coffee or watch videos of any of the movies.*



An epiphany: I realised something when I took this picture.

The event finished yesterday. After that, I went to watch Mission Impossible 3 straight away.

There's only so much artistic movies that one can take...


*Also, as a guest of the festival, I can watch any of the movies...for free :>

Seoul Survivor

We went on another trip to Seoul to attend the 8th Women's Film Festival in Seoul. No pictures relating to that, however (nothing that has me in it, anyway).


Shaken not stirred: Tascha tries to catch me offguard but no cigar, my dear :>



The Han River: Runs through the city. Han literally means Korean in Korean. Apparently, the river defines the city itself; the those living north of the river (apparent bourgeoisie) looks down (so to speak) on their southern brothers and sisters (the apparent proletariat). The feeling's mutual.



Goldfish: in front of the restaurant named after my movie with my 'omma' (mother in Korean). We have taken to calling her omma because she does everything for us :>



Something smells fishy: A local delicacy, pastry stuffed with red bean paste. Their curry puff without the curry. Only served in winter, though.



Biting the hand that feeds me: Goldfish got me to Korea. Now I got to Goldfish...



...and so did they.



Nosing about: My fellow filmmakers have taken to calling me 'Kokiri', which means elephant in Korean. Why? Because it sounds like Fikri. Duh :>

More next time.