Spain’s National Day

Yesterday it was October 12th, Spain’s National Day. To celebrate this day, the Spanish Embassy in South Korea organizes a reception to which all Spaniards living in South Korea are invited, so there we went! 😀

This year the reception was at Lotte Hotel, one of the most luxurious hotels in Seoul. Unfortunately, I don’t have any good pictures to post here (all of them are blurry:S), but I can say it was a very nice reception, with representatives from many embassies wearing the official suites and all that stuff you can see in political official acts. There was also lots of food from Spain: jamón, cheese, wine… and also Korean and Chinese food.

After that we went to have some beers, and at night we went out in Sinchon area. It’s jut unbelievable how many bars there are in Sinchon, and all of them were crowded. Seriously, it was something I’ve never seen in Spain or in the US. At 5 in the morning streets and bars were crowded with people and roads crowded with taxis taking people home. It reminded me of Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve in Spain, but in Seoul it seems to be like this every weekend!

I didn’t have my camera with me last night, but just to post some picture of a bar, here is one of our international soccer team socializing after practice:

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This bar is also in Sinchon area and what you can see on the walls are all pictures people took in this bar.

Air Force Show

Finally I get some time to post about the Air Force Show!

Last Saturday I went to Osan, a city 35 km. south from Seoul. I went with Yoon-Jung and two of her friends, Ki-Eun and Sung-Min, two very funny guys with whom I’m sure I’ll get very much along with. They were enjoying some vacation days from the military service, as military service is still mandatory for almost every Korean, during almost two years. Once there we met another friend of Sung-Min, Tae-Kyeong who was actually on duty, with uniform and everything.

The show was at Osan Air Base, a military base which is shared by the Korean and US army (from what I understood). This event takes place once a year, and supposedly only Korean and US citizens are allowed to walk into the base… supposedly 😀

There was lots of food, music, many planes from the US and Korean armies, and exhibition of the US fighters throwing bombs and everything… just amazing! We could also see a performance of Samul-Nori. I want to write a post about this, but give me some time 😉

Here are some pics:

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From left to right, Sung-Min, Yoon-Yung, and Ki-Eun.

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With Yoon-Jung, in front of a Korean fighter.

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Sung-Min and Ki-Eun fooling around a bit:P

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With Yoon-Jung’s friends in a helicopter.

And more pictures here!

Meeting Blaire

Today I met with Blaire! From now on I’ll call her Yoon-Jung, as it’s her Korean name, and I’m now in Korea:P I was so nice to see her again! She cut her hair a little shorter, which makes her look even cutter, and of course she’s as charming as always:) It’s just awesome to see how I keep seeing people I thought I would never see again. The world is much smaller than it seems;)

We went to Sinchon area to have dinner with the guys from the office and some other spaniards currently living in Seoul.

Here is a picture of all of us (with some Yonsei students) after having dinner:

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And this is Seoul’s Ballyhoo, I think I’m going to spend many hours in this place:

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First Day?

This isn’t really my first day in Seoul, but I’m as excited as if it was. I came with four more Spanish guys and all of us will be working at the Office of Foreign Trade of the Embassy of Spain in Seoul. During the first three months we will be studying Korean at Yonsei University, traveling as much as we can, and enjoying life in the capital city of South Korea:D

View from my room

This picture is the view from my room, just awesome!