Return to Seoul

I took Brand Management course in my exchange semester where the professor asked every student to come up with brand slogans to advertise the country they came from. Some worked in groups, but I was the only one from South Korea so I had to struggle alone to think of something creative and catchy.

“Seoul, Modern and Traditional Soul of Asia”

What I came up indeed was not creative at all, because I merely combined words from already existing ad slogans. I thought Soul of Asia was a brilliant idea like Malaysia, truly Asia. Although I do admit that my slogan applies to a few other fiercely developing countries in Asia, nonetheless Seoul is a mixture of tradition and modern technology. Maybe the feeling of always changing or the word “dynamic” to describe the country is the result of these ongoing procedure of the two sides pushing and pulling each other.

As a citizen who has lived in Seoul for almost 18 years, I know more than enough about the city. But it was a great pleasure to come back after 4 months of long vacation.  Of course Vienna and other European cities were great, but I was getting a little bit tired of so many adventures and wanted to be cuddled[?] in familiar environment with Korean FOOD! (I now understand better when people say its bittersweet to ~. I felt just the same before leaving Vienna) I had to miss WU ball and ski trip, but I was determined to come back by then. 

A couple of days before my arrival, a LOT of snow hit Korea recording unprecedented amount in 100 years. The city was covered with white snow and news reporters were busy delivering live news about the current situation in XX,YY area. I was briefly stuck in traffic jam too on the way from the airport. It was ok though. Bearable. My dad picked me up from Lotte Hotel where I shievered in cold for 2o minutes because airport limousine was much faster than my dad’s expectation. My mom was preparing one of my favorite dish, Kimchi-jjigae, and I squaked with joy! I showed them my pictures from Europe after dinner and we talked about a lot of subjects including my brother passing an exam and my mom’s new haircut. Somewhat trivial but very happy-to-be-home moments :)

15-year-old Heather’s daily cartoon series

The Tick

Created by Violet

Last Days in Vienna

Der Nusscracker- Ballet at the State Opera (12/30)

The second ballet performance after The New Ballet in the OK program. I went with Magda, Gizem and Yanwen. Fumi was also there with her friends and we met some other exchange students as well. This ballet was so lovely. Not that I know much about ballet, but little boys and girls were very adorable!!! The choice of the color of ballerina clothes were just exquisite. Vienna State Opera offers standing tickets for 3-4 euros – especially suitable for poor souls of exchange students/tourists short of budget. It requires quite a strength, so you better be in good condition to watch the performance through two hours with 15 min intermission between. Luckily, I was feeling great this day :)

Fireworks at the City Hall(Rathaus) (12/31)


New Year’s Eve in front of the city hall was fantastic with friends from Haus Erasmus and Panorama. The fireworks, frankly speaking, was not big but with all the people who had thd same face of hope and happiness, I was very pleased to be in Vienna. The cheap Champagne we had tasted surprisingly amazing. Before our adventure to the city center, we had a party on 6th floor kitchen and it was the first moment when I had… Viennetta icecream! Hmmm, even though I do not like chocolate that much, this was quite good..

Revisited Belevedere


I wanted to take pictures of the Belvedere Palace when it was sunny. Originally we planned to go to Schonbrunn too, but we were just too cold and hungry to do it :P

MAK (1/2)

Asian potteries including Korea’s Bunchung and Baekja, Turkish tapestry carpets called Kilim
Me and Gizem explained what we know well to each other! These were the special exhibition held downstairs of MAK(Austrian Museum of Applied Arts and Contemporary Art). What I liked the most here was the Book Art Collection for children and the poster collection for cultural activities/events.

Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze at Secession

I think this is a MUST if you like Klimt’s painting. Most people are satisfied with his famous painting the Kiss, but among all paintings of his I saw, this is the one I actually purchased the poster (for 10 euros!). Gustav Klimt was inspired by Beethoven’s IX Symphony and created this monumental 34 meter fresco. The frieze was originally designed as a decoration for the duration of the exhibition that was to be removed afterwards. However, a private collector bought this and later arranged them to be cut into 7 sections. It is now permanently displayed to the public at Secession after the Austrian government bought it in 1973. This is where I learned about Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) movement in Vienna.

Revisited MUMOK & Leopold… followed by Vapino(?)
MUMOK (Modern art museum at Museums Quartier) gives free entry to students under 27 from 2010. Clap, clap! Though, I was quite disappointed with the current exhibition “Gender Check.” I guess the theme of self-injury and unesthetic nudity makes me uncomfortable. In contrast, Edvard Munch’s exhibition – the famous painting “scream” – was beyond my expectation. In addition, I am now madly in love with Egon Schiele’s self-portraits focused on his facial expression. Three best friends (after 12/23) – me, Magda and Gizem – had a very fulfiling meal at Vapino or Vapiano? on Mariahilfer street. Carbononara and Fungi was DELICIOUS :D

No Heating at Haus Erasmus
For past few days since Christmas, there is no heating in Haus Erasmus. Now that most people left, is the house manager seriously trying to make us freeze or what? I used to wear a short sleeve but now I’m all covered up with thick sweaters and warming up myself with hot tea. About an hour ago, there was a fire alarm downstairs – for the first time in this semester, did I hear the alarm – because somebody at the party room was smoking near the alarm. Ok, so either shiever in cold and die or get burned and die. This is a dilemma…lol

Kalenberg – Get off at Helligenstatt U4 and transfer to bus 38A. Get off at “Kalenberg” stn. Cobenzl is also a good stop to look around the vineyard and still enjoy the view of Donau river. You will see Hundertwasser’s incinerator near WU too. There is a university at this top of the hill called MODUL vienna for tourism studies. My Austrian friend’s brother goes here. He told me interesting story; the reason they built school up there was to present itself as eco/environmental-friendly figure, but ironically most students drive their car to get to school…

Art History Museum – the one I have been saved to go with Violet, but i sensed that she won’t be coming due to her busy schedule in Rome and Paris. I loved Vermeer’s “The Artist’s Studio.” Partly because a man was drawing it beside the real painting.

Viennese Boy’s Choir – On every Sunday at Hofburg chapel from 9:15 am, you can hear them singing! Its better to go there at 8:30 to line up for free standing tickets. These boys are so lovely. I went on 27th Dec, which was last week of the year. Usually I heard they only sing a couple of songs after the mass in front of all the tourists who came to see them, but this time they sang over 4-5 songs including Christmas carols such as ‘Silent Night’.

Annie Leibowitz’s exhibition at Kunsthaus Wien. She’s renowned photographer who shoot various covers for Vanity Fair and Vogue. Even if you don’t know her name, you might have seen her pictures – pregnant Demi Moore, John Lennon and Yoko Ono(remember? I mentioned this in “Museum Night” post)… Again this museum is designed by Hundertwasser. There’s a restaurant, gift shop and museum – two floors dedicated to the designer’s life and works while the other two are for Leibowitz’s exhibition until Feb 2010.

Heather trembles at the thought of..

Title of the post: Heather trembles at the thought of.. leaving only 1 year to graduate or rather she’s senior already. This friend of mine who has the talent of annoying others remarkably with only a few sentences or word choices just got an intership at a very famous bank. Even though I feel quite upset from time to time when I talk with her, she’s still my friend. (I sincerely hope she realizes she lacks good communication skill and will try to be a different person:) ) Regardless of my feeling about her, I feel really happy that she got this fancy internship thing and am proud of her. It’s good to see her effort turning into a tangible potential job offer. After congratulating her, the fact that i am a senior undergraduate and soon-to-be nothing (if i don’t have a job lol) suddenly striked me. Senior, 4th grade in university, seemed so distant when I first entered as a freshman. I think so far my blog posts have been all about “how time flies so fast.” And this post will be the highlight of my realization, once again, in terms of my career path. The thing is my friend has set a specific goal last semester and started implementing plans for her dream. I was still wandering trying to find something that intrigues me. When I go back to Korea, I have a list of things to do/buy. For instance, I will make a neat resume and re-write my CV, adding my internship this summer and reorganize them into a format that I learned in the career workshop during  my course here in WU. I’m thinking of sending my CVs to companies that I’m interested in, even though they are not recruiting now. Jinsun, another close friend of mine, suggested working on PR/marketing/idea competition. I have lots of tedious other plans, but as for now, I am going to end my post here to prepare for my exam tomorrow..

Craving for Korean food

Mussels in Lyon de Brussels, Paris

In a month, I will be back in Korea. When I first came to Vienna, I desired to stay one more semester. But ever since i visited Violet in Germany and seeing her with loving parents and her caring sick brother – hope he doesnt have the flu – I suddenly wanted to go back and cuddle in my mom’s ‘품’. Most of all, I really miss Korean food. I weighed myself yesterday and furk i weigh 3 more kgs than in September. It was the same machine near loco & ride club where me and my friends usually take night bus back home after clubbing. So i worked out this morning and did sauna (yeah how cool is that, having sauna in a dormitory) with Jenn. In fact, I met Emilie and Gizem too. I guess they felt the same thing after our night out yesterday. (I shared a kebab with Kyle…again! those kebabs are just too hard to resist)

Anyway, I am writing down what i want to eat when i get back home… :P

명동칼국수
놀부보쌈
놀부 부대찌개
냉면
짜장면/ 짬뽕 (아 학교앞 중국집 가고싶다. 갑자기 이름까먹었어. 아 복성각!!)
탕수육
삼겹살
아편 김치찌개
나물 반찬…ㅠㅠ

Journey continues…in Budapest

BUDAPEST.

First day: National Holiday. Hungarian friends advised us not to go to city center (near parliament) because there might be demonstrations or protests. So we went to Hero Square and the big city park (Varosliget) near our hostel. Inside the park, there is a famous spa called Szechenyi and Vajdahunyad Castle. It was built after a castle in Romania. The statue of Anonymous gave me a chill..The superstition says touching his pen brings good luck. I only knew this as I was searching it after I came back :0

On the second day in Budapest, we decided to check out FREE tour. It is free indeed, and we can later tip the guide only if we want to. Even though I also tipped, no one was forcing me to do so. I liked that the guide was very honest. He always told people two sides of the story, not just a good side of the city. That is what we tourists are all interested in. Anyway, we were all satisfied :) My friends and I constantly were behind, so the guide was always shouting “ERASMUS! COME!!!” I felt bad…hehe

Thanks,guide!

The tour finished here in Fisherman’s Bastion. Here we started our own tour after having lunch in the nearby mall. We went up on Gallert hill, Citadella and went inside a cave church! It was cool!!!

I am back again with more stories

I SERIOUSLY can not believe how fast time flies. The last post was almost a month ago! I was always busy as usual, but this time with more work and studying! There were quite a lot of readings piled up and group assignments that needed to be done in advance. Despite all the academic obstacles, I managed to go to Budapest and Prague on separate weekends with other exchange students. Both trips were organized individually, not with the buddynetwork. I think it was a good idea, much cheaper and more freedom to travel flexibly.

Budapest, Hungary was really memorable partially because of the hostel we stayed for 2 nights and typical Hungarian food. The name of the hostel was “Baroque Hostel” which was absolutely my style. Bohemian style interior with purple curtains and my favorite disco ball on the ceiling! The living room with satelite tv and dark brown couch was very cozy. I almost did not feel to go out because of its attractiveness.. Also the owner of the hostel recommended Hungarian restaurant just two blocks away. Not surprisingly, the restaurant PAPRIKA :) It reminded me of Shantel’s song “Citizen of Planet Paprika.” If you are curious, look his music video on youtube. hilarious..lol

Of course the night view was pretty with bridges and the parliament building, but I wasn’t deeply impressed by the view of outside city center. But still, with good people and good food, I always have a good time.. :)

my favorite pic!

Journey continues…

Blissful moments at ‘Long Night of the Museums’

 
I am in the study room, 8th floor, Haus Erasmus! sucking up internet from here…well i’m kind of studying and blogging at the same time, while pondering upon which movie I should download.

Yesterday was a museum night. The official name of this event is “Long Night of the Museums.” If you buy a pass to this event, you have free access to almost 100 museums plus hop on & hop off bus that can take you from one to another. Participating museums were opened from 6pm to 2am. I decided to go 3-4 exhibitions since you can get pretty tired and I did not want the opportunity to be a torture, a pressure that you should go as many as possible. Art is there to enjoy. One does not have to rush to savor every moment of happiness.

 

My first destination was Albertina Musuem, where exhibition on Impressionism was held unitil January 2010. Paintings of famous artists such as Renoir, Manet, Monet, Cézanne and Pissarro were all there. The ones I only saw in art books or on internet was there. I myself prefer contemporary art than the paintings at the Albertina, but still i was cherishing every moment at the museum. What I like the most about the exhibition was the fact that I could grasp methods and techniques of the inpressionist era beyond its history. For instance, one painting drawn in the scene(outside) had a bud which sprout from a seed blown by the wind. The painter later covered it with paint but we could still see a small lump at the left corner of the painting. Some paintings showed they were fixed to a certain canvas equipment, leaving a blank spot on the painting. Moving on to the next exhibition on a different floor was Albertina’s permanenet exhibition of its modern art collections. I remembered reading an exchange report about Rothko’s Safron was there. (I saw a couple of pieces back home at Leeum – i recall…if my memory is correct – when I took a course about modern art taught by a lecturer who works at the Chosun Daily, in charge of Culture section of the newspaper. She also has a certificate from the Christies) I loved Miro and Chagall’s paintings. Miro’s ‘metamorphosis’ and Chagall’s ‘Vitelosk, Village Scene’  were my favorites. Metamorphosis immediately led me to think of the novel which has the same name, written by Kafka. Chagall’s was cartoonish and kitsch – although very different from the usual term ‘kitsch’ used to describe piece of rather.. vulgarity – but very detailed and imaginative. He even used dotted lines to depict a subject. Then I ran into Toulouse-lautec’s painting, ’Englishman at Moulin Rouge,’ another piece I remember from seeing it from an art history book. My legs were soring a little but the pain went away quickly. On the first floor, there was a photography exhibition called ‘Body and Language.’ Along with the portraits of Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Michael Jackson, were diverse pictures that portray different parts of body, some with shopping bags on and some stuffed into a garbage bin with two legs sticking out. Very fun haha :)

I headed to Museum Quartier, where many musuems are situated together, to go to the Leopold Museum. I first saw another photography exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien. This one was also a good one! If one is interested in taking pictures, he/she will definitely like this one. Barbara Klemm who participated in the exhibition brought a phrase from Cartier Bresson’s The Decisive Moment that a good photograph consists of three things:psychological feeling, decisive moment and the right camera position. (Heather nodds and quickly writes this down..lol) I sat down on a stool and flipped through a book on portraits. I encountered a portrait of John Lennon and Yoko Ono lying on the floor. Yoko with her eyes gazing somewhere distant, her hair fully stretched out while John’s naked body tightly pushed against his wife’s body. It overwhelmed me. Another photo that grabbed my attention was Taishi Hirokawa’s. Underneath his pieces, next to the title and his name was “Inn owner, 1986, costume: Comme de Garcon” I will find more info about this later. The actual exhibition deserved much attention too, many of them with detailed explanations of the artist and his/her quotes.

Leopold Museum was my last destination as I was getting quite tired, (as i’m writing this, feeling same thing lol) It had the largest collection of Egon Schiele’s pieces. Before going in, I could not resist myself and finally bought a pack of coasters with his paintings on them and a small souvenir pin/brooch. Each cost 4 and 1 euro – not bad, huh? ;) I never knew Schiele died at such a young age (28) so I could imagine how many Schiele fans were deeply shocked and sad at the same time. After an hour of Schiele, Klimt and Kokoschka, I met with Jenn and Ale came home with 49 tram. It was such a well-spent night in Vienna.