Annyeonghaseyo!
What a boring title. LOL. I bet those who have been reading my posts will automatically turn off the moment you saw the post title. Haha. I promise I’ll write this as interesting as I can so that I won’t bore you. This won’t be a long post too, because I just wanna share with you the universities and college that I went to during our one-week trip.
You must be wondering what me and my friends did at the universities we went to. I assure you we didn’t enroll in some short course or anything, haha. Some we went for a specific reason (eherm.. k-entertainment related) and some for sight seeing and learning (about the Korean culture et cetera).
Sook Myung Women’s University, Seoul (숙명여자대학교)
- The Second Foundation Campus
Sook Myung Dae is just a few stations away from Myeongdong and we were in this university to attend a concert. Yes, CONCERT! But the concert was not of any Kpop idols with dancing boys or girls on stage, it was an awesome acoustical or unplugged concert by “EZ Hyung and 10cm”.
The Concert Poster
Who are they? Perhaps that’s exactly what came into your mind right now. But I shall leave you with that question till I write a post on that awesome concert later. I’m sure you can find some info on them if you are diligent enough to surf Google. 🙂
Sook Myung Women’s University, as the name suggested, is a university only for female students. It’s a private university situated in Yongsan-gu, Seoul and was found in 1906, as Korea’s first royal private educational institution for women.
There are two main campus for Sook Myung Women’s University and both are situated opposite each other. We went to The Second Foundation Campus where Theater S in the The Art Center was situated. Theater S was the venue for the concert.
Finding the university was not hard, we took a cab from the Sook Myung station and the fare was only 2,400 won (divided by 4, so 600 won each). But finding the concert venue was even harder as even the students didn’t know there was a concert there. LMAO. Plus we were all so tired (and grumpy) from climbing up and down TWO HILLS earlier, it makes things even worse.
But as soon as the concert started, and we heard EZ Hyung’s super soothing voice, all the tiredness disappeared. Hehe. I’ll write a fan account of that concert soon.
Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul (성균관 대학교)
- The Entrance to Sungkyunkwan University
Yes, Sungkyunkwan from the famous KBS drama, “Sungkyunkwan Scandal” starring Yoo Ah In, Micky Yoochun, Park Min Young and Song Joong Ki. To say that I’m a big fan of the drama would be overrated, but I enjoyed watching it. So having the chance to visit the university where most of the scenes were filmed at kind of made me excited.
We reached the university quite early, on empty tummies. (-_-“) But there were just so much memories on the quartet I kept on touring around the area. I don’t really know what else to say about this university, so let the pictures do the talking shall we? Hehe.
The Dormitory in Sungkyungkwan
Yours truly
best friend forevah, Shambie
Bahie's S-line - wooohooo!!
Kyungsung University, Busan (경성대학교)
Kyungsung Student Union Hall
Thanks to Abonim, we managed to have a FIRST CLASS tour around this university. His friend took us for lunch and then every place we visited, there’s one officer in charge of explaining to us. Wooohooo. Kyungsung University was not in our itinerary (I haven’t even heard about it before), but I can’t thank Abonim enough for bringing us there.
Perhaps me being a teacher made Abonim excited to show us to this university. Prior to this visit, we even went to a primary school near his apartment and had a guided tour by the vice principal too. Hehe. I enjoyed both visits, because education is my field, but I don’t know about my travel buddies. I sincerely hope they enjoyed the tour too.
A cup of coffee after lunch in Kyungsung Dae
A visit to Kyungsung University, we were brought to its Cultural Museum. Abonim and his friend were amazed at how “literate” we were (okay maybe just Erenah – LOL) about the Korean culture. They even commented that even Korean youngsters don’t know what we do. Awwwwww.. what a compliment. Maybe I should just live in Korea?
We visited the Bird Museum too. There were thousands of bird species in the museum and man we were very amazed just by the fact that there’s a Bird Museum in a university!
A visit to the library was very fascinating too. The fact that Abonim and our guide prefer to climb up the stairs fascinated us too, when actually there’s an elevator in the library. LOL. Abonim, who’s (I think) fascinated about our religion too (after knowing we had some restrictions in Islam), offered me to look for the Quran. A librarian helped me find it, and we found a Korean Tafsir (Quran translated/interpreted into Korean) and I thought it’s very amazing.
The Korean Tafseer Quran
We were so overwhelmed by the tour, we didn’t even ask Abonim what is his friend’s name. Abonim, we know we have thanked him that day, but if you’re reading this could you tell him we said thanks A LOT for the memorable tour? And also for the refreshing kiwi and orange juice at the cafe! LOL
Seoul Institute of The Arts (서울예술대학)
Seoul Institute of The Arts (Seoul Arts) was founded by Chi-Jin Yoo in 1962. To those who are not “CNBLUE-literate” (lol) must be wondering why did I visited this university. Hehe. Seoul Arts was the filming location for the upcoming MBC drama, “Heartstrings” starring CNBLUE’s Jung Yonghwa and Kang Minhyuk and also actress Park Shinhye.
I was hoping to be able to watch the filming, but yeah, luck was never on my side. The day I went to visit Seoul Arts, there was no filming at all so me, Shambie and Saturn onnie just walk around the campus. The next day, the casts filmed the whole day, from morning till night. Me and my bad timing, AGAIN. (-_-“)
Unlike all the universities I visited before, Seoul Arts is VERY DIFFERENT. In a good way, that is. The campus is not too big, and it gives a very cozy and calm feeling when you walk around it. Once in a while you’ll be shocked though. Juniors here will greet their Sunbaes (seniors) in a VERY LOUD voice, so if you’re around when they did that, don’t be alarmed. It’s just their way to show respect to the seniors. LOL
About two weeks after I came back from the trip, the producer of the drama invites the fans to watch the filming. My friends were in Seoul at that time and I arranged their meeting with Saturn onnie to visit the Ansan campus where Seoul Arts is located. I shall not elaborate more on this because this is too heartbreaking for me.
* * * * *
These visits to the educational centers made my trip even more meaningful. Some are not planned, but turned out to be the best tour I had. Though some of my plans didn’t fall through during this trip, I was grateful enough to be able to visit these four universities. 🙂
{ Food (part II).Concert Review.People }
-coming soon-
Burning Fizzy 