Intro | Café | Seoul Subway | My Room | Cheju Island | Reunion | Karaoke

Intro

Since the end of July 2003 I'm in Seoul Korea to do some research in the Computer and Communication Lab of the Yonsei University. I'm having a pretty good time so far. I get to know a lot of people and everyone is really kind and fun to hang out with.
Also I love Korean food. Like Kimchi, Bulgogi and of course always soup. It's so good and it's much cheaper than in Vienna. I go out eating everyday. Well surely I have no clue how to cook Korean food. Even if I would, my room doesn't have a kitchen (well of course I can always make ramen). But since it's cheap to eat out, I just go for lunch and dinner.

In the lab I spend most of my time programming on a transmission protocol for calendar events (caltella). Which is the fundament for a paper I'm going to write about P2P systems. However, it's a great laboratory with nice people.

That's the Engineering building where I'm working.

Café

As a little surprise to me, I found even more coffee houses in Seoul than there seem to be in Vienna!

And I'm not talking about some kind of Starbucks. I'm talking about a nice place to hang out, with service and ceramic cups. I even found places with newspapers available, not in English but still. That's nice to see.

Above is the picture of Café Tous Les Jours a European-style bakery. My favorite place.

Seoul Subway

Some important places in Seoul

	station	line
Yonsei Universtiy (that's where I'm)	Sinchon	2
Kyobo Bookstore	Gangnam	2
SungWoo's place	Apgujeong	3
Huge Elektronic market	Itaewon	6
Market	Yongson	1
JinWoo's apartment (Exit 6)	Shin Yong San	4
Market	Dongdaemun	1,4

My room

My apartment, or should I say room, is rather small with about 3.5m2. As a matter of fact, when I flip over my (green) matrace and stretch out diagonaly I can touch all four walls of my room at once.

Wow, I have never been in a room that small. However, when I open my window I can see the lab where I'm working. I could even trow a stone at it, since it's so close. That kind a makes up for the small size. Plus, with 200.000Won/Month, which is about 150 Euro, it's pretty cheap. Surely I wouldn't wanna stay forever but, for the time I'm here it's ok.

You can see my window within the red circle.

Cheju Island

During the national celebration day of Korea (15th August) SungWoo, his family and I went to the wonderful Cheju Island. As SungWoo's father explaned to me, Cheju is famous for three things: the weather, food and woman.
Surely, I can agree with him.

Reunion...

...with my friends from Stanford.
Jun, Janet, Angela, Patrick, Tony, David and BonSung

Karaoke-night in Jonggak

Judi, Patrick and Kara


Soni


"At first I was afraid, I was petrified
Kept thinkin I could never live without you by my side
But then I spent so many nights thinkin how you did me wrong
And I grew strong and I learned how to get along"

Labels: Asia, Stanford