16th Seoul Photo Contest 2011

The Seoul Metropolitan Government will hold the 16th Tour Seoul Photo Contest to procure outstanding new photos of the Korean capital.

The Tour Seoul Photo Contest has been held annually since 1996 to promote the image of Seoul as an attractive tourism destination.

In order to encourage participation by people from all walks of life, including ordinary citizens and professionals, the event comprises two categories, i.e., general and special fields. Applications will be accepted from July 7 to August 26.
Notably, to discover characteristic images unique to Seoul and to encourage participation by Koreans and foreign participants, Lomography will organize the special field category of the contest.

This year exceptionally generous prizes will be presented to the winners of the contest, as more than 40 million won (40,000 USD) will be awarded to 20 winners under various themes in the general field. This represents a significant increase from the prizes given in the 15th Tour Seoul Photo Contest. The grand prize has been increased to 5 million won (5,000 USD), compared with 3 million won (3,000 USD) last year, while the gold prize has been increased to 3 million won (3,000 USD) compared with 1 million won (1,000 USD) last year, so as to provide more generous incentives. In the special field, a Lomography camera will be presented as a supplementary prize, and the winning photos will be published in the Lomography City Guide Seoul booklet, among other perks and benefits.

For more information on Tour Seoul Photo Contest visit this Website: http://photo.visitseoul.net

Lomography Website: http://www.lomography.co.kr/

Inquiries

General Field: Staff in charge of the photo contest, Seoul Tourism Organization at Tel: 82-2-3788-0852,
- email: mjkim@seoulwelcome.com

Special Field: Staff in charge of the photo contest,
Lomography Korea at Tel: +82-2-326-0255,
-email: magazine@lomography.co.kr

2018 Winter Olympics to be held in South Korea

Pyeong Chang is chosen to host the 23rd Winter Olympics in 2018 beating two European rivals Wednesday in a landslide vote - Munich (Germany) and Annecy (France) - in the first round of a secret ballot of the International Olympic Committee. Needing 48 votes for victory, Pyeongchang received 63 of the 95 votes cast. Munich received 25 and Annecy seven.

"Koreans have been waiting for 10 years to host the Winter Games," bid leader Cho Yang-ho said. "Now we have finally achieved our dream."

Pyeongchang will be the first city in Asia outside Japan to host the Winter Games. Japan held the games in Sapporo in 1972 and Nagano in 1998.




The lucky charm for Korea was the Star figure-skater and World Champion: Yuna Kim. Since her presentation at IOC ... she was all over the news - getting praise for her presentation - which is a contributing factor for bringing Olympics to South Korea(besides other factors & the politics involved).

Congratulations PYEONG CHANG (평장)!!



photocredits@ESPN

School in Mastung Area in Baluchistan

Adult Literacy Center at Mastung



I watched a documentry today on BBC about a Girls School and College in Mastung, Baluchistan. It highlighted how having have a road now...has made a difference all round. When I googled about Mastung, I could not find much about this place on the internet. Mastung district is located in the north western part of Baluchistan and prior to 1991, it was a part of Kalat District - situated between Quetta and Kalat at an elevation of 6,000 feet (1,800 meters). It has a population of 180,349 people as of 2005.. The valley of Mastung is famous for its irrigated crops of potatoes, onions, tobacco, spices, melons, vegetables, almonds, apricots, peaches, plums, grapes and apples.

According to the BBC report, roads and education system has improved a lot over the past few years, now there is a girls high school there. The principal said that their main problem is 'non availability' of transport for girls. They only have one school bus that makes 3 trips to pick students from all the different areas & in winters the girls get back home by sunset. Parents can not afford to hire private transport and hence, girls just can not attend school. However, the students who are lucky to join this school are excited about it and were keenly learning the basics of how to use a computer besides other subjects - when asked if any of them have a computer at home, the answer was in negative. It was indeed great to hear that at least they get a chance to work with and know about computers at school.

Apart from the above mentioned situation another problem that Mastung is facing according to Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) is the convertion of land into dunes. Since irrigation water is not adequate for the entire cultivable land, some of it must remain idle for as long as 4 or 5 years, during which time livestock is allowed to graze on the spontaneous weed-growth, and woody shrubs are up-rooted to provide fuel which in turn exposes the topsoil and the rest of the damage is done because of wind erosion during the dry summer season. Over 10 square miles (26 square kilometers) of the valley's productive land has, in this manner, already been turned into unproductive mobile dunes, whose presence threatens roads and neighboring fields, and reduces yields by the abrasive action of the drifting sands. FAO with local organizations has come up with some indeginious projects to minimize the damage. BBC's report credits the current Cheif Mininter of Baluchistan for the improvements that Mastung is seeing lately.




I really wish and hope that we have a Cheif Mininter, Prime Minister or President from every town in Pakistan for a while - because this is the only way to develop these cities (constituencies), having have proper schools and basic amneties of life otherwise...education, healthcare, sanitation will remain a distant cry for most of the Pakistanies!

Volunteer Activities in Korea

I have met many people who are interested in using their spare time to benefit others by joining hands with organizations - doing volunteering in Seoul and different parts of Korea. When I moved to Seoul, the first organization I joined was Yheesan. Yheesan is dedicated to volunteering at orphanages (Korea-wide) and I used to go to Nooryoungjin Orphanage in Yongsan gu, Seoul - twice a week. They can be reached at http://yheesun.com/
Volunteering involves spending one afternoon a week at an orphanage or signing up for more activities according to your schedule. Anybody can join through their website above.

CCAP: Cross-Cultural Awareness Program is another organization that I'm still associated with. Here students in particular and anybody in general can register at the CCAP program run by UNESCO. One has to give a lecture to a group of students at Korean Public Schools about their culture. Registeration is possible at their website http://ccap.unesco.or.kr/

Global Village Centers associated with Seoul Global Center ( I have written about it in one of the posts) offers monthly volunteer activities at the center for the disabled, Welfare Centers for Senior Citizens or orphanages etc. One such activity is run by Itaewon Global village Center and can be reached by contacting: pthussey@citizens.seoul.kr or visiting: http://global.seoul.go.kr/itaewon

Animal Shelter Volunteers are needed to play with abandoned pets in shelters. There's a group that goes every weekend to a shelter near Seoul. For more information visit ARK website.
To volunteer to join a weekend group, contact one of the following: tim.vasudeva@gmail.com, goesslry@gmail.com, ansauvage@yahoo.ca.
Some local cat shelters also need volunteers.

BEAN is an active networking, volunteering and social group for young professionals in Seoul. BEAN seeks to connect busy people, both Korean and expats, with professional backgrounds through Leadership, Friendship, and Service. They organize regular visits to orphanages to play with children and teach them English, as well as other monthly volunteer and social events. Contact person is: jurica@gmail.com

Seoul Global Center need volunteers on regular basis as mentioned above so don't forget to visit this website.

Back to Korean Language Classes!

Well, last time I took Korean language was in 2009 and since then, I had a long break - from actually studying Korean. At the time, I finished level 5 but unfortunately, have not been using the language as often as I should hence, I've forgotten quite a bit - particularly grammar, vocab and spellings [so what is left behind? ;-)]....but most important of all, I was a bit nervous to physically go and take classes since the last time I did something like this was almost two years ago.
I'm sitting with Level 4 students and have learned many new thing - not that I absorbed a lot but it was refreshing and any change is good. We are following Korea University's Language Book No: 4. Have a vocab test as well as homework. This is a 2 month program (intensive course) with 5 and a half hours of class every day from 9:00 a.m to 3:30p.m. with an hours' lunch break in between. I'm planning to take TOPIK 3/4 by this year - I mean September, so let us see!
Today's topic was "Housekeeping=집안의일상"

The new vocab for today - which made many of us felt like desperate housekeeping vocab learners - must know the following vocab by heart...gosh:

분리수거:seperating garbage
다림질:ironing
구겨지다:to get wrinkled
먼지:dust
굴러다니다:to roll around
쑬다:to sweep
걸레질:mopping
어질러놓다:to make a mess
분담하다:to split up (a job)
준수하다:to be refined
깔끔을떨다:cleaning freak
정돈하다:to put in order
빗자주: broom/ cleaning brush
행주: kitchen cloth
흐트러지다:to be untidy
반듯하다:to be neat and tidy
구석구석: every nook and corner
탁탁털다:to shake off (all the dust)
널다:to to hang
가족돌보기:taking care of family
짜다:rinse
빨래집게: clips
빨랫줄:clothes line
빨래행어:clothes stand
옷걸이:hanger
세제:washing powder
얼룩:stain
표백제:stain remover (bleach)
끈적끈적하다:to be sticky
단단하다:to be hard
전담하다:to take full charge of
요구하다:to request/to demand
잔소리: nagging
경제적부담:financial burden

Seoul: 12 Things to do in 24 hours

People while taking short trips have different priorities of what/where/how to cover a whole city. When it comes to Seoul - very populous and a lot of intersting things to see that are scattered all over the place then my list goes like this:

1- Seoul City Tour Bus: By taking this tour one can cover all the major toursit spots worth seeing (such as palaces, museums) with a hop on/off option for mere 10 USD or 10,000 won...there is a night tour option- which is worth a try!



2- Namsan Tower: Special environmentally friendly buses are run by the Seoul city government for only 1$ or 1000 won a ride...from here one can have a panoramic view of entire Seoul and can dine at their revolving restaurant and visit the mini bear museum.

3- Itaewon: From Namsan - just take a bus down to Itaewon and here we have hundreds of restaurants from all the different corners of the world such as Bulgarian, Serbian, Greek, Morroccan and countless Halal Indian/Pakistani restaurants as well as the Islamic Center of Korea and the only mosque of Seoul.

4- War Memorial of Korea: A 5 minutes drive from Itaewon between Noksapyeong and Samgakchi is this amazing War Memorial!

5- Namdaemun Market: Take a taxi from war memorial and it may only cost you 3$ or 3,000 won and a 10 minutes drives to get to one of the 'Traditional Markets' of Seoul...here you can buy almost everything and much cheaper than at any other place!

6- Myeong Dong: Take a Bus from exit 5 of Namdaemun and get off at Myeong Dong - famous place for baragains and great deals ranging from fashion accessories, clothes, shoes and bags...it also has a good number of restaurants!

7- Cheonggye[chun] Stream (Gwanghwamun Area): From Myeong Dong take subway and get off at Gwanghwamun Station - exit:5...you will be in front of KT building - in and around the vicinity are the Lee Sungshin's statue and also King Sejong's statue, This is Sejongno...where we have the Duty Free shops, Sejong Arts Center, Cheongyyechun Stream, Gyeongbok Palace, major government offices as Ministry of Tourism and Culture and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

9- Insadong Street/Jogyesa Temple.: This is a 'must see' spot - a small street filled with coffee shops, cafes, restaurants, art gallaries, souvenirs (the best ones in Korea). Just around the corner is Jogyesa- one of the main temples of Jogye Buddhism and its head quarter. With a few hundred years of history and right in the heart of the city- one must not miss it. This is also the main venue of "Buddah's Birthday" celebrations.

10- Bukchon: Tradional Hanoks or Korean houses are here. This neighborhood in Joseon Dynasty was the residential area for ministers or the yangban (nobles) of the time etc.

11- Gangnam/COEX: One place that one must visit is the Gangnam area..both sides of the street has very intersting shops and activities and loads of young people...just nearby, if you get off at Samsong Station and take exit 5...you will be at COEX...a lot of shopping malls, CGV theater, open air concerts and just around the corner is another temple: Bongeungsa...do visit it...this is a mellange of traditional and modern architectural site!


12- Yeouido Island/Ferry Ride: Another important site...its importance is the same as the Wall Street- New York - with Korea's Stock Exchange and the tallest building in Korea 63 Building...are the main attractions..one can also take a ferry ride from here to explore the Han River for just 7,000 won or 7$!

Minimum Wage in South Korea

In an article Prof.Bang Joon-shik, of Youngsan University Law School noted that 'Minimum Wage Council' failed to come up with a minimum wage for the year 2012. He came up with a few suggestions as to why the reform in the current system is required and the reasons why, he support a slightly different approach which is borrowed from Japan and the US. His insightful artcile can be read here in detail.
2011's minimum wage was set at 4,320 KRW (4$) per hour.
One can visit the Ministry of Labor and Employment website to get the latest updates!

To settle a minimum wage issue has always been a hot issue since it has considerable influence on the overall employment market and domestic economy. Last year, after an intense tug-of-war, the hourly minimum wage was set at 4,320 won, up about 5.1 percent rise from the previous year’s 4,110 won. Employers are calling for a 30 won raise from this year’s 4,320 won ($4) per hour and workers are demanding a 1,000 won (1$) hike. The amount applies to all workplaces hiring more than one employee. Those who pay below the minimum wage face penalties of either up to three-year imprisonment or up to 20 million won (20,000 USD) fine.

NOTE:
As of July 13, 2011 - a 6% increase in minimum wage has been finalized. For details read here.

Film Festivals in Seoul

If you are one of those who are not travelling overseas and will stay in Korea during the month of July then look out for the film festivals in and around Seoul. One such festival is the third 'CGV Multicultural Film Festival' that has already kicked off on June 30th, 2011 and will conitune though July 13, 2011. The first film that was shown was India's "3 - idiots (2009)". A total of eight films from around the world as well as four homegrown works will be screened with English and Japanese subtitles at CGV Daehangno and CGV Guro. Organizers say the films were selected by quality and popularity, mostly from Asian and European countries.
The other movies are Germany's "The Hairdresser" (2010) to be shown on July 4th; Canadian-French “Incendies” (2010) to be shown on July 5th; Other works include “Oriume” (Japan, 2002), “Sarah’s Key” (France, 2010) and “Griff the Invisible” (Australia, 2010).

Korean films include the romantic comedy “Finding Mr. Destiny” (2010), “Late Autumn” (2010), which was shown at the Berlin Film Festival this year, an action thriller “The Man from Nowhere” (2010) and “Haunters” (2010).

Ticket ranges between 8,000 KRW (8USD) on weekdays and 9,000 KRW (9 USD) on weekends! Foreigners will get a 2,000 KRW of additonal discount.

CGV Daehangno is located near exit 4 of Hyehwa Station on subway line 4.
CGV Guro is located through the exit that leads to AK Plaza of Guro Station on subway line 1. For more details visit:www.cgv.co.kr.

Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan) is a representative event in Bucheon, a mecca of visual culture that encompasses movies, cartoons and games. As one of the most dynamic and energetic film festivals in the nation, PiFan has, over the last 10 years or so, garnered support of the movie goers both at home and from abroad. At PiFan, visitors can watch movies of various genres and of controversial topics, and attend discussions with film directors. The opening film is a Bollywood film - again - these are fast making neiche in the North Asian market. Besides the fact that 2011 is the year of India- Korea Relations and hence, a lot of exchanges in all generes are taking place.

The most interesting film for the young audience is going to be the screeing of the film 'Pretty Boy Terror Event Series' starring the boy band Super Junior. The film, to be released July 26, will premiere on the 20th July at the festival. After the screening, director Lee Kwon and cast members will hold a talk with the audience...




SUPER JUNIOR fans...go 4 it!

Date : Jul. 14, 2011 - Jul. 24, 2011
Venue: Bucheon Citizens’ Hall and City Hall, Bucheon CGV
Transportation: Songnae Station (Subway Line 1), Exit 2.Take Bus 16 or 70, and get off at the next stop.
Contact: +82-32-1330 (Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese)

Fingerprinting to be introduced for Foreigners in Korea

Korea Times reported that from today (June 30, 2011), foreign nationals aged over 17 who enter South Korea for a stay of more than 91 days will have their fingerprints scanned at immigration offices in line with a new law, the Ministry of Justice said Thursday.

Those who have already lived here for more than three months will be required to present the biometric information to the authorities from January next year, the ministry said.

Collected fingerprints will be used to identify those involved in crimes or accidents, it said.

This is the first collection of fingerprints of long-staying foreigner nationals in nearly eight years, following its abolishment in 2003 over human rights concerns. The revised Immigration Act that justifies the collection was passed in May last year.

For more details read here

Free Classes for Foreigners in Seoul/Around!

Seoul Global Center is conducting "special classes for foreigners" this July in collaboration with its 8 subsidiary village centers in Seoul. I will highlight the ones that are for 'Free of Charge'and are equally important!

The one I'm taking part in is :

1- Making Lamp with Hanji (traditional Korean paper) at Seorae Global Village Center

if you would like to participate as well then call: 02- 2155-8916

2- CPR and First Aid Training Session at Itaewon Global Village center (02- 2199-8883-5).

3-Painting on a Traditional Fan also at Seorae Global Center (2155-8916)

Apart from these there are cooking classes and an event for multicultural families (for those married to Koreans).

Where to Stay in Seoul: Find Various Types of Accommodations in Seoul

A Hanok Guest House in Jeonju

After finalizing our trip outside our hometown, the first thing that one has to deal with is of course, accommodation as well as the options available in our budget. Particularly, if it has to be an overseas trip...then, finding a room is more difficult.

I will suggest a few options for accommodation depending on the length of stay while coming to Korea. The most important question is how long one gets to stay on their trip to Korea? If you are looking for an accommodation in Seoul then this post will surely help you find in finding a place to stay.

LOOKING FOR A PLACE TO STAY THEN CLICK HERE: UPDATED (JANUARY 2015) - HOMESTAY WITH KOREAN GRANDPARENTS FROM MAY,2014 ONWARDS - FIRST COME FIRST SERVED - DETAILS HERE- (POSTED BY BLOG OWNER)!

Some of the choices are below:

Hotel is the most common option that we all know  of however, some cheaper choices include - motels, inns, youth hostels, guest houses, home-stays etc. - that are littered all over the place, in every neighborhood and city. They are very economical compared to Europe and the US with price ranging from 10,000 won or 10USD/night ~ 50,000 won (50 USD) and of course more expensive options are there.

A very typical /economical types of housing in Korea include:

- "Sauna" or (Jim-Jil Bang=찜질방)
- "Hasuk Jib"or (하숙집)
- "Go Shi Won" or (고시원)
- and "One-Room" or (원룸)

The above mention places are good for a short term stay. If you don't have a lot of luggage and you are mainly traveling during the day, youth hostel & guest houses are a very good choice with deals starting from 25,000 won per night(25 USD) - depending on its location and size of your room.

If you are a backpacker - then start off with SAUNA (sweat rooms) :-) Korea is full of Saunas - where entrance fee starts off with 7,000 won (7USD) and stay there as long as you want! One easy sauna option is at Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon starting off at 8,000 won.!

Hasuk Jib(하숙집) is the same as a Bed and Breakfast in Korea's case (my detailed post on it is HERE), sometimes, breakfast and a dinner is also provided. There are all different types of these Hasuk jibs...price ranges from 300, 000 won - 500, 000 won(300-500 USD) and onwards - they are located in 3 to 4 story building with a laundry room on each floor. At times they provide for a kitchen - where one has an option to do their own cooking (with slightly different rent). The owners or caretakers are middle age women- called Ajummas (아줌마), they are responsible to cater to all our problems etc. The average price of a Hasu Jib room is between 350,000 Korean won (about 350 ~ 400 US dollars) to 500,000 Korean won (about 500~550 US dollars) per month, depending on how big your room is. Major localities for Hasuk Jibs are the university neighborhoods.

Go Shi Won(고시원) is basically a building with dozens of small rooms inside - this can be a choice only if one needs enough time before moving into a better/bigger/descent room or house but in the past few years newly built Gosiwons have improved incredibly. However, I will never recommend them to anybody but since a lot of people are living there - its important to introduce them to those who just wanna explore few options! I have visited one Goshiwon - with a friend and it was scarey...the room is slightly bigger than the bed with no windows at all and just an exhorst fan - a small desk/chair+bed! The prices starts with 250,000 won (250USD) a month and goes upto 600USD.A very comprehensive Goshiwon site is Gosi1.net (in Korean but get help from your Korean friend) and also another website for Goshiwon and hasukjib search in English is Goshipages dot com.

Before finalizing any deal, make sure to check every thing out and also the contract to avoid serious problems there. 

One-Room is another option and it is what we call a 'studio' in the rest of the world. There quality and style are gtting better by day. They can be furnished or unfurnished and often, one has to pay a deposit money to move into one of these. This refundable deposit starts with 5 million won (5,000 USD) in addition to a monthly rent of 550,000 won (550 USD)minimum. Utilities are billed seprately! They can be as expensive as 1300 USD. One important thing to note is: the bigger the deposit money, the less amount of money one has to pay as rent! Check out this website in Korean: Oneroom dot com and Oneroomtel dot com (in Korean only but comprehensive covering the whole country).

All these accommodations are fast evolving to be better by providing air conditioning, free Internet (Wi fi) and heating, cooking options!

Another option is HOMESTAY!

In homestay, you get to live with a Korean family in their house...either teaching English to their kids or having have a cultural exchange.  This form of accommodation is Seoul is fast evolving and is getting very popular. Students are preferred over others but then anybody can give it a try. There is whole website committed for homestay in which you have to register first and send in your personal information and finally also have to pay the fee which is a percentage of the homestay. From this website almost all homestays are asking for some monthly rent too but conditions vary so check this website: HOMESTAYKOREA dot com. There are many people interested in homestays and hence, one can also make a good use by posting your ad. at either "Seoul Craiglist" or Seoul Global Center's Forums. . This is not an easy option to get hold of but nevertheless, one of the many ideas that u can work on and !

Also check out: Korea4Expats website and WorknPlay Korea. They are frequented by expats and expats living in Korea also offer accommodations, sublets, homestays, sharing of room/house hence, check that out.

Some Options for Accommodation in Seoul w.r.t. Guesthouses are:

1) Seoul Youth Hostel

2) Kim's Guest House

3) Seoul Backpackers Hostel

4) Guest House in Jeju-do

5) Kimchi Seoul Guest House in Hongdae Area (김치 서울 게스트하우스 is located close to Sinchon - Ehwa/Yonsei/Sogang Univ.)

6) BLU Guest House

7) Bebop Guest House near Hongik Univ

8) One Room Residence (in Korean) here.

9) Goshiwon (in Korean) - follow the link provided.

A very nice introductory article by 'Hi Seoul' on Housing in Korea!

A list of Guest Houses is HERE!

All the best in finding accommodation, I know it is a stressful process but maybe you will go through a wonderful or interesting and memorable experience.

Happy house searching to you all!

Please share your tips and sites that have helped you in house search so that it benefits people who visit this page.




Photocredits@ David of Randomwire

Duck Eggs!

These two duck eggs were used to make an omellete for lunch.
Fresh, organic and tasted great. I remember, when I was a grade 1 and 2 student one of my classmates Saira used to bring scramble duck eggs - tasted different, more orange and of course for a kid - an interesting experience! It has been decades and it took me back to my early school days ~ wow!

Mushrooms and Carrots!

Rain in Seoul: Heater is on (June 25th, 2011)!

(Dripping Umbrellas outside the rooms)

We have entered day 5 of continious rain...though many are battling with the rain to prove that it is still OK however, I came across a lot of people who have finally taken out their spring jackets again...It is the end of June and the highest temperature was 15 degree celcius and the lowest was 13 degree celcius, when I last checked it!

It is really cold/wetty and I have turned on the heater, had a few cups of coffee, tea and a simmering hot soup for dinner!

The good news is that on Monday & Tuesday, we will have a partly cloudy day and hence, a bit dry but light showers are expected in the evening!

Pictures of the Day!

Pakistani Cooking Shows

Chappati in the making!

When I went to Pakistan last year - I saw an explosion of cooking shows, morning shows, curret affairs or breaking news - this defines television in Pakistan. I think TV means entertainment but if this is an entertainment then I'm better off without it. The result was to move TV from my room and keeping it to a minimum operational level - it turned out much entertaining!

I will talk only of cooking shows which I have no clue who do they cater to? The ingredients that they use (which actually make any recipe tastes good) such as chicken, mutton, dry fruits, cheese, mushrooms, broccoli, endless quantity of oils and ghee (purified butter) etc are not in a common man's reach with many mouths to feed and meagre salaries that the majority gets - such programs are of no help to these folks however, they do create a kind of categorization within masses within the food culture. Food for "haves" and "have nots"!

In a country where people have to wait a whole year to get hold of meat which they get during Eid ul Azha (in charity)- what sort of a purpose do these programs serve??
Use of ovens and high tech gadgets in a country which has severe power shutdowns - it is beyond my comprehension! I have personally emailed a few TV shows to do variations within Pakistani cuisine, trying fusion...but to no avail. I also suggested to inculde palak/saag (spinach), dal (lentils), yogurt to add to their receipies...but well, this fall on deaf ears!

Will we be able to create a cooking show with a premise of creating tasty, creative, budgetted and nutricious recipes?? Recipies for all - recipes for someone who doesn't have much more than the super basics in the kitchen?? Recipies for "haves" on our cooking shows must avoid to try them out if they want to live longer and healthier because these folks are already over weight - having problems such as high cholestrol levels, heart diseases, diebetes etc.

All I have to say is that these cooking shows must follow some ethics, some considerations and some basic common sense: "A Sense To Cook with a Purpose" - here I mean keeping in view our economic, cultural, religious, agricultural and most important of all the nutritional and weather related needs!


I will conclude by saying that simpler and easy to cook foods are the best. If I were to ask to give suggestions to these dorks - I would have suggested them to travel to villages and request these folks to share with us their age old "food habits", "their traditional recipies and ingredients" - no wonder people are still healthier in rural than in urban areas - physically, spiritually and mentally!

Dedicated to a Continious Rain...

...which of course bring all sorts of memories!
Song:비오는거리 (Bee O' nun Khourie)
Singer: 이승훈 (Lee, Seung-hun)

Walking Tour Contest for Students in Korea

Starting on June 15th, Korean university students can team up with their foreign friends to explore Seoul on foot and develop tour courses of the Korean capital city with such themes as culture, shopping, ecology, etc. The teams will then submit their thematic Seoul tour course scenarios to the 2011 Seoul Walking Tour Scenario Contest by July 18th for the preliminary round of evaluation. Subsequently, 50 teams will be selected to proceed to the next and final round, for which they will try out their proposed tours, make necessary revisions and submit the final scenario along with multimedia contents like photos and user created content (UCC).
More info☞ Contest PeriodPreliminary Round: June 15–July 18
Preliminary Round Results: July 27 (Total of 50 teams will be selected.)
Final Round: July 28–August 4
Awards Ceremony: August 18
☞ Participation InformationMaximum 4 people per team, with at least one non-Korean.
☞ Homepage: walkingtour.visitseoul.net (Korean)
☞ Inquiries: +82-2-3788-8123 (Korean, Japanese, Chinese), +82-2-724-7783 (Korean, English)☞ 1330 tt call center: +82-2-1330 (Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese)

Official Site of Korea Tourism Org. (KTO): Islamic Cultural Spots in Itaewon

I have blogged about Islam, muslims, mosques and halal food in Korea and in Seoul - here at this blog and would highly recommend to read the link below by KTO.
Major reasons to put up this link include problems muslims face while visiting Korea and particularly, when they don't know the language of the land. Though Koreans speak English pretty well but they are 'way too shy' to practise their language skills.
Read in detail KTO's: Islamic Cultural Spots in Itaewon .

Season of Roses!

These days roses are all over the place..
..in abundance!
The pathways are full of them!
I love this rose bush and this shade blooming and the air around has rose aroma - it indicates that summer has finally - fully kicked in!