Spring Roadtrip

Kevin was our wheels in Korea. But more than that, he was our friend, and a very caring and thoughtful one. Though the gas price in Korea is 4x the price here, he never hesitated to bring us around nice places in Daejeon.

Today, Kevin brought us to Daecheong Dam Park. It is a dam, surprise.
But damn! The cherry blossoms--in full bloom, lining the pedestrian, gracing the lifeless gray roads, falling like pink snow on our heads--were such creations to behold!

Here is our party: The guy with a pink inner wear is Jinhyeong, my 1st semester Korean buddy;

Tanya, my most beautiful co-scholar from the Philippines;

and Freda (Singapore) and Kenneth (Malaysia), my barkada in those times.


What I like about parks in Korea is that they are never boring, even if you go there without a girlfriend or a boyfriend. Daecheong Dam is just one of the few educational parks where visitors can get to know how hydroelectric power is generated by strong water currents and a turbine. This park also has a museum that showcases miniature setup of a hydroelectric plant, live aquatic organisms that thrive well within the operating perimeters of the dam, and information boards on how there should be very minimal footprints of development on ecology.



This day was really a walk to remember for the six of us. Driving back, I bid farewell to the cherry blossoms whose life is transitory, as it was beautiful, as my 10-month stay in Korea.

The Chronicles of the Northern Kimchi 3 of ~

After dinner and a short dabble in the East Sea, we prepared for our 3-kilometer walk towards a high-school near the 38th parallel. The place where we are now is the most proximate town to North Korea. (Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name; I hope I would dream of it since I always dream lucidly). We were chanting "dongil-euro", which means "towards unification" while walking under the pouring rain, side by side with fired-up Daejeon University students. It was good that we were provided with raincoats that we used for this march and for hiking Mt. Geumgang. This raincoat is one of my valuable possessions since it has been rained upon both in the South and North. I am keeping it safe in my drawer.

Anyhow, upon reaching the high school, we watched an on-stage performance of Daejeon University students. There were things of sorts and wacky stunts that I've never really seen anywhere: head-smashing a huge watermelon, a drama that I really didn't understand, thanks to my diligence studying Korean, and a tribute of happy (and some lugubrious) parents who are really proud of their children who are participating in this reunification march.
But what struck me most was the rubberband stunt performed by two male Daejeon University students where they both wore five huge rubberbands encircling their bodies, walked apart from each other till the rubberbands snap off, flinching their backs and tummies. Ouch, ouch! I'm so sorry for them. And I'm also sorry for the two famous rappers who took the stage and brought the house down though it was raining like hiking the next day would be impossible.

The Chronicles of the Northern Kimchi 1 of ~
The Chronicles of the Northern Kimchi 2 of ~

I Remember Saying this Line

a month to go before leaving Korea...

"I am grateful to become a victim of a fairytale that has an implicit promise to never end..."

A Kaleidoscopic Bibimbapish Post, Samut-saring Karanasan ng mga Ipinalit-pinagpalit na Magaaral

Alumni’s Experiences : International College Student Exchange Program between
the Republic of Korea and ASEAN Nations.




I belong to Batch 2007.

What is exchange student in Filipino? Anyone?

Shard Struck: A Precious Wound (Kimchi Pot Chronicles #1)

Every click of My Pictures folder, every hit of Play button of WMP, every Korean song I play-- are the shards that keep my gaping wound open and as fresh as the first day that everything that has been had been...
Since I've been back from Korea, I found it very hard to move on. I'm now inflicted with a chronic laziness that my thesis had been stalled for two months; I've never produced anything that amounts greater than a bug's fart. The stasis has been formed and it's where I'm living now. I think what's more serious is that I am participating in my self incarceration. I know that if I stay inside for long, I'll just rot inside with the memories and friendships I cherish. And these fragments of life had already given me a hell load of joy and lessons learned; they have done their purpose. They are now expired. Should I stay longer, I'll expire too..And clearly, doing that is committing intellectual and interpersonal suicide. So starting tomorrow, I'd start moving in for the kill. I'll work for my future, leave the stasis behind in my growing museum for memories.
My wound will not close, for I will never permit it to.
The certain throbbing sensation will forever remind me that I have lived once in a way that I never will live again...

1st Fragment: The Stasis Forms (Korea Chronicles #1)

My most dreaded day has come. I am about to leave for Korea. That night, I borrowed a weighing scale from my neighbor who sells rice and vegetables. This time, however, it is not the rice nor the vegetables that will be weighed—it would be my clothes. Two of my closest friends Ej and Jabez, whose houses are 2 hours away from mine went that night to help me pack my stuff. It felt the real essence of farewell when I saw them folding and compressing my clothes, praying that my luggage would just weigh all right. As they are graduating this month (March), we spent our last few hours together watching TV, reminiscing college life in UPLB, in the Purple Room (Jabez' dorm unit where we usually hang out). I also fixed Ej's PC for I was their only technician who never asks for fees. Everything that night was not at all an emotional experience for me--perhaps not yet. The atmosphere was such in a state of ambiguity-- that one second I felt like I'm leaving and then in another second I felt that it's just like any ordinary night for me and my family. If there's anything sure, it would be that it was the longest moment in my life. The Waiting. It is the time of my life where I felt that the past, present and future all converge into one uberly cramped time frame. It was a deluge of stimuli of what I had been, what I am now, and what I'm going to be and what will it be in Korea. Agony, excitement, assurance, anxiety, anticipation were all mixed in my head and it's definitely disorienting.
Time to rest. Tomorrow will be the beginning of something really special. It was around 3am that we all slept... Looking at the clock, fixing my eyes on every second that passes by, knowing that I would spend 10 months in a different time zone...the thought made me all the more more jittery. I fell asleep on my bed for the last time. I prayed a lot, close to sweating blood. Next night I’d be in the Land of Kimchi--unseasoned, perhaps a bit bland, but will get savory as each day begins and ends.

The Beginning of the Start (Kimchi Pot Chronicles Prologue)

I hated number 4. And I have the Chinese Feng Shui to blame for that. It says it means death and illness. But it was just now when I'm writing this blog entry that I came to realize that the day my life has changed--where my real self was rubbed out of the cramped, imprisoning lamp--was 4-14, March 14, 2007.
Not everyone would be celebrating March 14, 2007. For me, it is the highlight of my life so far. And it would be harbored in my dear hypothalamus for many years to come. 4-14 was the day I flew to Korea to study in DJU as an exchange student. I never thought that my 10-month experience there would be so life changing, as it was so much fun beyond all the betraying adjectives man know of.
From this point on, I'll backtrack from the point when I was packing all my stuff, emptying my drawer, watching movies for the last time with my best friends...yeah, I'll try to recollect all the memories before all my neural connections snap off.