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| Monday, 8-Jan-2007 00:00 |
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korean landscape
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I guess everything nice happens around the temples here so these two pictures are taken in the area surrounding the temple. The little branch in the top left corner of the second picture is a bit unfortunate but there was no way i could avoid it. Better composition next time...
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*listening to: Patricia Kaas "Mademoiselle chante le blues". since i'm at my parents place right now i get reminded about all these songs that i used to listen when i was younger. I very much enjoy that!
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| Friday, 5-Jan-2007 00:00 |
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Prayer
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This picture is also taken at the temple and the women is actually writing a prayer that she will later put in front of Buddha's house. I like this custom cause i like to look at people's faces while they are writing( they are more serene than usual). I liked the lady in the picture especially cause she was really nice to me when i asked her about taking the picture and even showed me a smile (which is rather unusual behavior towards foreigners here, but not because they're mean people but rather because they're not that used to foreigners and are a bit afraid of us I think).
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*listening to: Peter Gabriel "Digging in the Dirt" ( he used to be one of my fav. singers and i love all his songs. He has some nice social and political messages in his songs)
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| Wednesday, 3-Jan-2007 00:00 |
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Temple stay
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First of all, thank you for all the wishes and the comments you've left on my page.
I guess i will continue with the pictures I have already on my computer and wanted to share with you (made with the Canon). Today's pictures were made during my stay at the temple, when we also visited two other temples. The first two pictures are taken at the Girimsa (in korean Ki Rim Sa) temple. The building in the first picture is actually the headquarters of the “righteous army” of Korean Buddhist monks to fight the Japanese during the Imjin War. In the third picture is it a pagoda of some sort also from a Buddhist temple(i think). We weren't really sure what it is actually since our guide did not speak a word of english and he would just drop us off at these sites without any explanations. We couldn't really understand what this pagoda was all about. 
I hope to post some pictures with my new camera soon but unfortunately it's been raining the past two days (which is great cause it is the dry season over here). So i still need to have some patience.
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*listening to: "Downtown" Petula Clark
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| Monday, 1-Jan-2007 00:00 |
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New Year...New baby!
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Hello everybody, I hope you had a great New Year's Eve and wish you all the best for 2007!
As the new year started I wanted to share a happy news with you guys...Since my bday is tomorrow and my dad is out of town 2morrow we decided to celebrate it today...I already knew that my present was the camera that I received when I arrived in Korea so i didn't make a bit fuss about the presents...It was a big surprise when I got to open a new present and to find a new camera inside...Yeah, they really fooled me!!!! The camera that i've been using in the past month and thought that it was mine is actually their new camera...
Soooooo, it is my great pleasure (and happiness) to present to you my new baby cam: a Nikon D70s!!!
And since it's new equipment I'll present it in its entirety: the camera came with the super hot 18-200mm Nikon lens, the SB-600 flashgun and a remote cord for shutter release. Plus a UV filter and I still intend to buy a ND 4 filter in the next few days... I'm so happy with the lens because it has such a wide range and I don't need to change lenses or take them out of the camera! Can't wait to try it out, but until then I made a picture of myself and my precious!
well these are the news!! Oh I almost forgot to tell you this weird story! When I arrived in Korea I decided to post on the blog any unusual experiences (bad or good or just funny) that I have here so don't be amazed if out of the blue I write about a random event...For New Year's eve I bought a new dress to wear for the party and since I didn't have any shoes that would match I also had to buy new shoes. I was really surprised to find out that actually you can't buy female shoes my size anywhere in Korea! The only kind of shoes that i would be able to buy here would be male shoes!  I found this hilarious especially since i don't have very big feet! Anyhow...it seems that in Korea I'm some sort of female Big Foot! 
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| Saturday, 23-Dec-2006 00:00 |
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Meeeeerry Christmas! HO-HO-HO!!!
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Hi Everybody, I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Thanks to everybody who is taking the time to read my blog and I hope to see you all in 2007 as well!!
As a true photographer(at heart), I decided to photograph my tree to make the xmas card! I was really proud when my parents decided to send it as xmas card this year!
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*listening to: Wham "Last Christmas" (i listen to it millions of times every year at Christmas time). Since i like it so much i decided to post a LINK to the song for anyone who would like to listen to it again!
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| Wednesday, 20-Dec-2006 00:00 |
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Golgulsa temple...
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So over the week-end I did this temple stay program where you can live in a temple for 24 hours and follow the same program as that of the monks..I chose one temple 60 km away from where I live. Golgulsa temple is the only one in Korea that practices sunmudo, which is a type of martial arts.
Not only we ate at the table and the same food as the monks there but we also got to practice sunmudo for one introductory lesson. Our teacher was actually from Norway as he was the only one there who was able to speak English. In total we were 5 foreign girls taking the class and i think he had a lot of fun at our expense by making us do all these funny stretches and very flexible movements that we weren't able to perform. It was more laugh then sunmudo in the end, but now at least i know what it's all about
At 4 a.m we had to wake up and do the morning chanting in Buddha's house and after half an hour of chanting we had another half an hour of zen meditation. I've been meditating before on some occasions but for me 4.30 a.m is surely not an hour at which i can meditate...
After taking the morning walk for another half an hour we had the breakfast ceremony...Breakfast for Buddhist monks is an entire ceremony and we've been briefed beforehand about what we should do and the order in which we have to eat. I think breakfast for me was the hardest thing from all the stay...not only you don't choose what or how much you eat, but you also need to clean the dishes with water and drink it afterwards...i think it sounds more horrible then it is actually...it wasn't that bad with the exception of a seaweed soup that we needed to eat...i had the impression 6 times that i'm going to throw up that soup but i managed to eat it in the end and so did the other girls...All in all i think we managed the ceremony really good....I was happy that it was a korean women who made some noise with her bowl ( the breakfast is taken in perfect silence) and not us.
After breakfast came the best part...we had a tea ceremony with the headmaster of the temple and we were able to ask questions and discuss about Buddhism with him. It was a very pleasant meeting and he tried to keep it very informal and was making lots of jokes.
For me it was a very interesting experience from which i learned a lot about Buddhism, the Korean culture and even about myself so i wanted to share it with you guys...if you're ever in Korea i highly recommend it.
now about the pictures....the first one is a carving of Buddha in a mountain in the temple's garden...The carving is approx. 6-7 m high so it's very impressive...the other two i think they speak for themselves...
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*listening to: Shakira "Illegal" (very nice ballad)
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| Monday, 18-Dec-2006 00:00 |
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kimchi pots II
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this is the second and final set of pics from the kimchi pottery. We made our pots on manual wheels but one of the man there was kind enough to show some of the kids how to make the pottery on an electric wheel. The kids seemed really happy about the experience. I especially like the first picture since there is a certain harmony between the two as they bend over the wheel.
Next time I will post some fresh pictures from my stay at a Buddhist temple this week-end. Nice experience but somehow i'm still tired from it and didn't put the pictures on the computer yet.
and on a different subject...are you curious who did Time magazine designate as the man of the year? You can find out HERE. Couldn't agree more with the article...It's one of those moments when i see the good part of humanity as well
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| Wednesday, 13-Dec-2006 00:00 |
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kimchi pots I
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Last weekend I was at a pottery workshop in a village that is famous for it's kimchi( a traditional Korean food made out of cabbage) pottery. Besides visiting the area we were able to make our own pots. I failed miserably at this task since in general I don't have any artistic sense. The only pot that i was able to take home is a heart shaped bowl with a little flower which was made for me as an example of what I should be doing by one of the craftsman. So much for my pottery career.....
On the other hand I was lucky enough to take some pics...I will post them in two different entries since i don't like to post many pics in one entry. In the first picture you can see(more or less) how the kimchi pots look like.
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| Monday, 11-Dec-2006 00:00 |
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little birds...
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so i'm still getting to know my new camera and taking lots of pictures.. The one posted above was taken indoors, as most of my photography these days. These are my mom's little birds who were scared by the kitten earlier on. They're very loud and they fight all the time, but they also sing very pretty...
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| Friday, 8-Dec-2006 00:00 |
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experiments
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so i promised a friend some time ago that i will post an entry with my new colored lenses and since i had to do that i also played around with the camera...I made a kind of before/after shoot this is what came out...I know...i know...my natural eye color looks better but for the fun of it i'll have green eyes for the next two months besides...i was also trying to shoot some interesting eye pictures...and no, i didn't put make up on just to take the picture...i took the photos before going to a concert so that explains the make up
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