hafizsanesia

yet another trip to seoul, and a record breaking since in just one week I went daejeon-seoul-daejeon three times! but it was anyway, with each trip gave me new things to see and even some events to laugh about..

last trip was a trip to meet my professors from indonesia, that came to seoul to accompany our head master in signing some mou with a university in seoul. we went with 14.53 mugunghwa train and went straighly to the hotel where the professors stayed.  after that was a big dinner -and first time eating samgyetang or chicken ginseng soup, the famous summer dish-

since we had to be back in the dormitory at eleven, we left the dinner around eight, went to seoul station by taxi -another first time by ourselves- and decided to take the bullet train KTX -since we had to be at daejeon around 10.30 and luckily we also had ‘financial’ support for coming to seoul from big hearted ’sponsors’ :-) 

lucky for us, 영 민- a korean friend who could speak indonesian- was also working at the ticket counter, so we could have the tickets without communication problems -although she kept speaking korean with very BIIIIG smile on her face and I had to reply with my broken korean :p -   you got me,영 민!

it’s also a surprise rendezvous, since I tried to meet her everytime I went to seoul station but always failed to do so.  sometimes she was off duty, but mostly she was very busy with the passengers and didn’t notice that I was there.  another proof of korean hard and serious working etos, that simply put you in concentration of your work and doesn’t have time to fool around.  very different from my beloved country :p

the ktx ride was also fun, and beny ‘broke his cherry’ in riding one of the fastest train on earth -around 290 km/hour!- and only around four countries that had it: france, germany, japan and south korea.  and the funny event we witnessed when we arrived in daejeon was when two young executives who would board the ktx at the daejeon station took their time to smoke at the station platform and suddenly realized that the ktx door had been closed. they tried to open the door (that open and close automatically using some kind of hydraulic system), but  it was useless.  the ktx started moving slowly, then faster and faster, leaving both men stranded in the station platform, cursing their selves and might be also the train :p   

poor them.. a little smoking time that actually cost them much!

and sorry for no pics in this blog until next month post, since I had used all pics posting availability this month.. another ‘record breaking’

a beautiful fan from shanghai

jason ho, fellow graduate student in woosong went home to shanghai last week to accompany his professor and also colleagues to attend a design conference there. and as memento, he gave me this fan from shanghai.  and I do like the panda drawing on the fan. xie xie!

yesterday -actually until around 3am this morning- was a beautiful day.  I managed finishing two more background drawings for my animation project, heard news from my school back home about the big yudicium day -an announcement for the final year students that they passed the final project presentations and most of them getting an A grade-, then another news for me that I also managed to get good grades for all the subjects I took last semester -thanks God for that-, one big dinner from one of the colleague here  celebrating her finished work in school, nice chats with friends back home, seoul and daejeon, and finally an ‘almost dawn’ sms replies from indonesia..  what a surprise! 

and for the new-born scholars of dkv, congratulations!  happy to hear that most of you had an outstanding result

hikki’s newest album: ultra blue, and she wore red for the cover, ha ha ha..

loves the song ‘keep trying’, since I still keep trying to finish my animation work here..

keep trying..
keep trying..
keep trying.. 

last saturday, I made yet another trip to seoul.  but this time, I went by myself to visit several places and exhibitions that I’d planned several weeks earlier.  actually, there was an exhibition that caught my eyes when flipping through an art magazine.  the exhibition was entittled "curious design" - and later on I found out that ‘curious’ was actually a series special made paper for special purpose.  first, I thought it was about curious design…

the trip started from the insadong, and I did take my time exploring the area, taking lots of photos, esp at the ssamziegil.  and to be honest, there were lots of things that I wanted to buy at insadong, especially korean related stuffs.  poor me.. :p

the trip continued to the deongsugung, to the seoul museum of art.  but this time I didn’t see the picasso exhibit again, but just wandering around to see ‘the art in bloom’ displays in the museum’s open area.  looking at that bunny fairy in the open garden, I thought that sarey would really love the figures, might even want to keep one :p

the next destination was the deongsugung (gung means a palace), a royal palace in seoul plaza area, just the side of seoul’s city hall.  the palace complex is not very big, but there are several different archictures in the buildings.  from the traditional korean buildings to a more western influenced buildings.  and actually there are some kind of philosophies regarding the structures, the building positions and even why there is always a bridge in front of every royal palace.  and that saturday, at nearly noon, there was some kind of ‘attraction’ from the palace guards, dressed in korean traditional palace uniforms.

next round was a visit to mmmg store -abbreviation from millimeter/milligram-, located  at the side of gyeongbokgung palace -the main royal palace- that was no too far from the city hall.  just walked  along the street, passing the gwanghwamun  intersection,  until you reached the gyeongbokgung palace, then took a right turn, walked a long side its highrise wall.  the nice little shop of mmmg would be on your right, just across the street.

I happened to know about this shop from vera, from an article in the IdN magz she usually read. vera said that there are one of the mmmg branch in seoul.  the mmmg itself designed & produced various stationery, notes, bags, purses and other unique stuffs.  and actually, there are several other branches of mmmg in seoul, mostly located as a counter inside another big store -usually a big book store-.  I really enjoyed being in that nice little store.  the stuffs were unique and pretty and they didn’t cost too expensive. thanks for the info, vera..

the last place to visit for the day is the kyobo book center -which I went to with beny and gyu seung the previous trip- and this time I took a journey around the big book store.  I browsed the mmmg counter inside, then cd store where I found (and finally bought) hikki’s latest album ‘ultra blue’ -but sadly I couldn’t find van tomiko’s farewell album-, then the foreign book area and to the dvd counter in which I found all the movies I’d been searching for lately..  on the animation shelf were sitting the oseam dvd, mari yagi dvd, wonderful days dvd, patlabor ovas dvd, arrrgh… ToT

it was a tiring trip, since most of the trip was by foot because all the places I visited were quite near.  but it did make me happy, especially by visiting that really nice little shop of mmmg..   

for the photos of this trip, just visit:

http://asia.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/hafizsan/album?.dir=27ef&

today I still felt that the energy I used for the 4th trip to seoul  had not came back,  but still there were things that I’d like to share.

the trip was the last class from the digital content theory from professor Han, and we spent most or the trip visiting galleries and museums.  it was indeed a pleasure trip, and as usual, a perfect chance to broaden my mind, especially in the world of arts.

the trip started from the bukchon area then we went arount the gyeongbokgung area, had a japanese yet korean tempura udon -because it was actually tempura udon, japanese style but served with bibimbap and kimchi- and finished the trip at gwanghwamun area, by visiting the kyobo book center -it was not on the trip list, but since we wanted to know the big book stores in seoul, so we add that additional trip-.  finally, and english sections for english speaking readers!

might be the greatest part was to visit the picasso exhibition at the seoul museum of arts -although it did cost a lot for the admission ticket-  but, it’s picasso! and might be you never had the chance to see his original works anywhere else..  if you’re an art lovers -which is one of us didn’t think so, ha ha ha…

well, tomorrow will be my fifth trip and next wednesday would be my sixth.  might be I’d better live at seoul, since I often went there recently?  naaah, just kidding, he he he…

for the complete photos of this trip, go to:
http://asia.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/hafizsan/album?.dir=6f18&

and I will update the visual diary again soon enough. thank you!

actually, I just browsed my visual datas and I found that I forgot to upload these pics..  so, here they are, although it seemed out of date.. mian hamnida..

this week is all hard work days..  two subjects required me to present the final project, just within days.  the first one I finished on thuesday -see the previous post- and the other one, just a few minutes ago..  actually, the last work hasn’t finished yet, but it is left for the computer to count and render the 1200 animation frames.  just hoping that the rendering works fine and on monday morning I get the expected result.  since I still have to compile the frames into an animation movie in premiere pro after this, copy it into CD and give it to the professor on monday morning..

just remember the old days, and now I face it again: deadlines from the professors..! no wonder my students back home are quite bashful about this kind of things, ha ha ha..