Christmas Decorations

Merry Christmas! Happy Boxing Day!!!!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas holiday with your friends and family and a fabulous start to 2011!

If you knew me in Toronto, you would probably know that I try to decorate my home for Christmas every year, and first year in Uni was definitely the year where I spent a lot of time with my housemate decorating! :)

Well this year, I didn't decorate my house in HK for Christmas, it's just not something we do in HK, and it really does make us forget about Christmas. However, at work we decided very late to do a little bit of decoration, get a tree and keep things simple. In the end I did keep it simple, but I think it was the simplicity that made the decorations so stunning! Unfortunately the photos I took will never do it justice, however, I hope they will offer you some ideas for next year's Christmas..... .

I got some fabric for a christmas dinner that I was doing for church, and so picked up some red fabric for the office. I then tied the doors with fabric like they were christmas presents.

Merry Christmas!

What decorating tips do you have to share?

Some not so recent photos

Over the summer, I took a beginner's photography course and here are

some photos from our practice sessions. Learned

some basic techniques, but I think I will only be able to really use my camera when I am traveling and have time to really get to know what all the buttons and functions are. :)

My cousin joined me as well, but he was sleeping through most of the classes.

One of the first things we learned that we thought was kind of cool, was that you can take photos and twist the lens to zoom at the same time, so that you can see the streaks focusing on the subject of the photo.

I have to admit the photo on the here is by chance only, as it's quite difficult to get a clear shot of the subject because when I try to twist very fast (as fast as the shutter clicks) then the photo usually ends up blurry cuz my hand holding the camera moves too.... hahaha....

Another thing we did was something known as "light painting" and in HK I think it's pretty popular, as I've seen some friends do it. But the thing is that we had a super dark room, whereas it's usually quite difficult to find such a dark room at home, well my room is not dark at all....

So you have to find a pitch black room, then set your shutter speed to 6s, so that it stays open for 6 seconds, and your aperture ..... hmmmm I've forgotten the exact.... hahaha... but just test it out..... and you have to hold your camera VERY STILL if you don't have a tripod, so just tuck our elbows into your side and hold still....

The person "painting" will use a flashlight, and turn it on and point it into the lens of the camera and draw whatever he wants, and the photo will come out as below. It's quite fun! (my prof used a huge light rod so that's why the lines came out thicker.)

Running for Unicef

I did it!

On Sunday, 28 Nov, 2010 I ran my first 10km run for charity. All proceeds go to Unicef and educating children about AIDS and HIV.

As you may know, I've been training, and done three 10km runs during my training, plus all the other kms that I did added up together.

My family who ran with me:

from left - 1st and 4th - ran 21km

from left 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th - ran 10km

It definitely felt really great to finish the run, although I knew I could do it, but with many factors that are different to the conditions in which I trained (on the day it was in the early morning, there was the sun, there was a slight slope, there were thousands of other people in front of me - stampede!) so I thought that I wouldn't make my goal of finishing the 10km within 70 minutes.

I was feeling quite tired by the last 3km, and just ran through the finish line without looking at the clock. But from my watch, I think I finished within my 70minutes.

Today I checked online for the results, because each runner had a timer chip on their shoe and it will accurately time your run. Guess how long I took????? 1:00:39!!!! I'm so happy with that!

Now my goal is to find another run to join and keep on training. I hope more people will join me for the next one!

left: RANDSTAD at Unicef Charity Run 2010

Karen & Calvin's Wedding

In November, a friend and her long time beau got married, and this time I was a

guest at the wedding. So nice to be able to dress up once in a while!hehehe, I had a lot of fun dressing up.

The wedding was in a very pretty yet strange church, in someways it was almost like it is bipolar... hahaha... because the exterior of the building looks more like a Chinese temple/building, yet it is a Christian church. The interior was again very confusing, it had crystal chandliers and also beams with chinese designs painted on them....

Maybe I'm just used to my church's simplicity, I thought even the ceremony rundown was a bit funny. You know the part when the Reverend asks 'Do you (groom) take (bride....' and vice versa, well he also asks the congregation if we are willing to witness this union.... hehehe....

And here's how I was dressed that day. I'm waiting to see some photos with the bride and groom, but still haven't gotten those yet.

Also my grandpa's birthday was that night, so I was also nicely dressed for his birthday dinner! hehehe.....

I can see how some people say I look like my mom... hahaha.... My face is round like hers... hehehe....

Step by step covering Seoul (6)

Day 8: Noryangjin Fish Market >>> Korean National University of Arts >>> Yeouido

Originally, we had planned to go with Jody and his family to Seoul Grand Park for a camping trip, but things came up at the last minute so we just ended up spending the day together. In fact it turned out to be a really Fun and Amazing day!

We met Jody at Noryangjin Fish Market, this was a special request from me as you can't find these kinds of wholesale and fresh seafood markets in Hong Kong or Canada or the US. (actually, I wanted to go on a fishing boat and catch my own fish, but I'm happy with this too! hehe...)

We walked around the market to have a look at what fishes/seafood we would like to eat, but with our inexperience we really needed Jody's expertise. Jen, it's just like in Family Outing when the family goes to the market in the morning to get food for breakfast! hahaha!

In the end, Jody chose a beautiful flounder for our lunch. The fishmonger sliced up our flounder on the spot and we found a restaurant to enjoy our fresh sashimi!

The bones from the fish were used to make maeuntang (spicy fish soup). Jody showed us how they make maeuntang and added in ramyun. When all the fish and vegetables in the soup was done, Jody added in rice to make juk (congee)! We had sooo much food! But it was so good!

above: photo by eve wu

Flounder KRW25,000
Lettuce & condiments, Maeuntang and drinks in restaurant KRW 15,000
I think for a meal for 3, and the quality of the fish and meal, it was a very good value! (KRW40,000)

After lunch, we left and made our way to Gangnam (south of the Han river), this area is the new downtown and city centre. Houses in this area are usually more expensive and many large MNCs have moved their head office across to this area.

Jody brought us to the Korea National University of Arts and the Seoul Arts Centre to attend a concert that showcases Korean traditional music. At KRW 10,000 for a concert of high calibre, this was a very good deal! We arrived early and got our tickets then walked around the gugak museum (music museum).

above: in the gugak museum

below: the performance auditorium

To be truthful, I was nodding my head and ready to fall asleep during the first two performances as they were very very very slow, and the auditorium was very warm. Good thing the last three performances were much more lively and more interesting with dancing as well so it was quite enjoyable.

The Seoul Arts Centre which presents many large scale productions such as dance, opera, concerts etc is shaped like the hats that scholars wore historically.

Last event of the day was to get to Yeouido for the fireworks. As part of the Hi Seoul Festival's closing ceremony, a fireworks display by China, Canada and Korea was done by the Han river. We decided to take the subway to Yeouido as we knew that the roads would be blocked. Never in a million years would I have imagined that Seoul's subways could be soooo packed!

I've never gone to see the fireworks in Hong Kong, and in Toronto, it was packed, but the crowds were not as big. The 3 of us got on the subway, but we were seriously squished in with everyone else, our faces were like a breath's away from each other.....

yummy fried chicken

When we finally made it to Yeouido, we picked up some fried chicken (another thing that I really wanted to try in Korea) and beer and then headed to the water to pick a spot to watch the fireworks. No later than having picked a spot between some parked cars, the fireworks started. First off was China, they did some really spectacular fireworks Big and Red!

China's firework display

Then Canada came, their display was more subdue and the music that accompanied was very slow.... not that great compared to China..... but I still liked some of the ones that were fired up.

above: some of my favourite shots of Canada's fireworks display

below: photo by eve wu

Lastly came Korea! They did an amazing job! They really put some thought into the design of the fireworks! The music was great and they even added laser lights to the display.

below: photo by eve wu

It's unfortunately that I can't put ALL the photos from the fireworks here, we were constantly taking photos trying to capture the spectacular sights, but these photos definitely don't do it justice.

above: more of Korea's fireworks display

oh, and the fried chicken was SOOOOO yummy! It didn't taste like frozen chicken (like those that are from KFC or McDonalds), the crispy skin and the moist meat.... mmmm, and the beer! It was all perfect! Apparently fried chicken and beer is a really common meal in Korea, a lot of people go for beer and fried chicken after work with co-workers.

Total steps walked: 13,138 steps

photos by eve wu

above: it's not a fire, it was fireworks from the side of the bridge, it was like a waterfall

below: the crowd disperse after the fireworks