Jejudo Group Meets Again @ Ashley, Gangnam

So, after more than a month or so, wait....after more than a year...!!! because the last time we met was on December 2012. Well, of course most of us were still curious of what we've been doing. 

Btw, we were the Korea Brand Communicator group who went to Jejudo together last year.

We hang out a lot and since we did not meet for quite sometime, we decided to give it a go again this time.

After a looong over-due talk via Kakao Talk about where to go: we finally decided to go to Ashley, dubbed to be American Buffet Restaurant in Seoul. 

Lee Byeong-hyeon, Hwang Ji-sang, Parvina, Lee Chae-yeon, Heekyung, Jung Yu-jeong, and me...^^

Well, we met at Sinnohyeon station at about 5 pm with some drama from me since I took the wrong exit..(gosh..a 10-minute walk in the midst of the cold)

But...it all paid up....after I had a perfect dinner (well, at least to my vegetarian standard)^^

First, how could I not be so excited when what I encountered was rambutan!! yes..yes..yes rambutan. This has been one of my wish to eat rambutan in Korea. Well, being an Indonesian in Korea, having a tropical fruit is like a privilege in itself. So, upon finding this fruit, I just grabbed three for my appetizer. 

And..yes..pineapple.

Being a vegetarian, the Ashley buffet provided me with lots of vegetables and salad and 4 different types of rice that I could simply combine into my favorite edible dinner.^^

To top it off, the cheese cake and the brownies and of course the fruit salad were all my favorite.

I think this was a worth-it dinner.

Wanna go there again sometime? You Bet.

Thanks my friends for --finally--decided to have dinner there.

We could've asked someone else to take our picture, but as usual, we just make a selca for ourselves. The one having the longest hand did the job of taking the picture. Lee Byung-hyeon did it this time. He's cute;) 

This was another example of group selca (Self-camera) we took after getting out of Ashley with full stomach. Well, Hwang Ji-sang did it this time and that's why he's the one's with full frontal face on the camera. As the rest of us...we were just supporting roles. 

Another one we took. Wait..I think this picture's the same with the one I already uploaded at the start of this entry. Oh, swell....Ok, I'll comment on the wines. See the wines? Well, in Ashely all-you-can drink wines are served to the guests' heart's content. 

The photo-shopped + edited + brightened version of earlier picture of us.

Let me comment on something else: Full Dinner Buffet could indeed make people full and happy. 

But..I was wrong about being full. I was surprised to find that...my Korean friends continued their meeting to have the 2nd dinner!!! What? Well, it's the 2nd course for them. It's a kind of culture right here in Korea to have another small dinner, drinks, snacks, coffee at coffee shops even after big and sumptuous dinner.

Well, I left them early and did not join them....

Just got a picture from Kakao-Talk that they HAD this. ^^

what a wonderful and happy night.

See you again, guys.

KBC 2012 Done^^

Gosh, time flies so fast that I could not even believe it. It was just like yesterday when I started joining the Korea Brand Communicator Program organized by the Presidential Council on Nation Branding. Indeed, it was such an overwhelmingly insightful program that I joined.

On December 17, 2012...it was finally coming to a close, well for good reason. I am sure that next year more juniors or the 5th batch of communicators will be selected. As for me, having been selected to be one of the communicators in this wonderful program has been a  blessing in itself. 

Surely I would miss my friends and fellow communicators who have been with me for almost a year..travelling, blogging, chatting, discussing, talking, arguing, meeting, sharing...and more and more ...ING in the process of its program.

Gosh, gonna miss you guys. But, hey time goes on and we all have other things ahead of us to do and challenge ourselves to be a better person, right?

Now, this is a picture we took on our last trip to Yangdon Folk Village at Gyeongju. It was a bright day in the last day of Autumn or the first week of Winter. Being one of the two villages, along with Hahoe Village at Andong, this UNESCO designated heritage was indeed a worth-visiting village. 

...a single-look at our care-free and carpe-diem kind-of-attitude 

while having a rest on a rest-area en route to Gyeongju.

Bye, friends. I know that we are still together in Korea, but the fact that there won't be 

any more programs make me sad...but...the best things are yet to come, so they say.

So, I am looking forward to hearing more of you are doing.

Been a great pleasure being with you...

Gyeongju & Pohang Steel - POSCO trip

A simple-looking yet sumptuous meal--at least for me being a vegetarian. Served fresh with the protein-rich rice. Oh....^^it was my dinner at the hotel..

Now where was I? I was taking the picture of the night we had the last meeting on our November field trip. 

We lit the candles and said our prayers, wishes, remarks, memories, nostalgia, and things we wanted to share...

While holding our candles, we were expressing our thoughts and feeling of what we've been through as a group for one year...

Morning lurked in....and as I was so curios as to where I was staying, I stepped outside of the hotel only to find out this kinda-deserted but-actually-not-since-it-was-still-morning kind of atmosphere...^^

I love Gyeongju. If only this would happen in Seoul at least once a week.^^ hahaha.

Isn't this lovely..since it would cleanse away the pollution for one day--at least...^^See the barren trees on the roadside? Yes, it was late Autumn, no..it was the first days of Winter...

I guess..I was only one among very few people who must have been awake...at that time. Ready to explore the city? I would love to...but...we were not to.

Another angle of the street at Gyeongju during the morning rush-hour (what rush hour? ^^)

Even an alley near the hotel I stayed in...was also like an empty lot. But, hey..I simply loved it since it was so much different from what we have in Seoul.

The morning sun ray was blazing right into the window of my hotel room. I could not stare at it directly of course. So, this is what it turned out as I took the picture. The silhouette looked so amazingly bizarre. 

Another dark-looming projection from the lenses of my camera managed to capture the morning silhouette..

Now...we were in POSCO. One of the world's biggest steel companies. Look at the bright color on one of its buildings. 

Now, the history lessons first. We visited the museum where it all started. It was the real first placate of the company when it was first erected by the late President Park Chung-Hee. 

Even, we could see the rendition of statues of the president and other dignitaries during the inauguration of the company. 

Even, we could see and touch the real company building which was reassembled inside the museum. The facade indeed tells a long worn out history accompanying the company striving for the best.

Oh, another picture of the president Park Chung Hee officially opened the factory.

Another one. I was impressed by the fact that Korea --thanks to his perseverance--managed to build a steel factory although the raw material was not available that much in Korea. In fact, I was so..

flabbergasted with awe....to find the fact that it took a president's rigorous and persistence in realizing the dream of a nation in the making.

It looked like a UFO or stuff like that. Well, it was like an incinerator or kind of thing that became the major part of steel companies. it looked indeed so impressive.

The commemorative mold firstly created by the president to celebrate the first steel-related products from Pohang or POSCO companies at that time.

Pohang City at night. Although I did not experience it directly, I guess what the company gives back to its people surrounding the area was really a worth-mentioning fact. I am sure the people living in Pohang really loves POSCO.

 

Chinmi...in front of the comic or graffiti like wall posted on the POSCO museum office.

Another look at one of the POSCO's sections. The green+the modernity...

Bye - bye...everyone's going back to the bus and ready to another place of fieldtrip.

What I remember most: Natural Resources are limited, but Creativity is NOT.

JEJUDO

On board the Eaststar Airlines, along with other fellow members of Korea Brand Communicator, we had a field trip to Jeju (Sept. 6-8, 2012). 

I did not know why I always sit right next to my Indian fellow, Bushan Kumar^^. Guess, we'd been together along everywhere we go on the trip organized by Korea Brand Communicator. 

We were so excited to have what we were going to experience in Jeju. Surely, it would be a great time for all of us. Okey, let's start...with......

Jeju Island...here we come..... What a beautiful island, Jeju is...

Ok, the first picture...comes from a sky captured by my friend, lee byul hyun, who was keen enough to seize the moment over the sky in Jeju. 

Another picture taken on board the Eaststar Airlnies. We were taking the 11.30 

 plane heading to Jeju International Airport, scheduled to arrive at 12.35.

Surely, I would'nt miss the chance to capture the boarding pass we got on our hand before boarding the plane...^^  

Ok, a little flash back of the commotion we made right in front of the ticket counter and some snack bar in Kimpo International Airport...

We took a pic but this time, with my not-that-smart smartphone camera....^^ it's dark. Or, the user is not smart since I did not know how to adjust the setting on the camera? (Chuckles^^^^^^.^.^)

OH, just to make it brief, after a 55 minute flight, we landed safely at Jeju International Airport where I noticed an exhibition on Indonesia at the arrival hall of the airport. Too bad, I did not have a chance to see what's being displayed.

The first notion that I got as soon as I stepped outside of the airport was....the palm trees that dotted the landscape and the surroundings...."WOW". I think I felt like not being in Korea...I was in a subtropical country..

A snapshot pic we took with my group. I think it was taken in Tamna Kingdom ruins where the legend of Jeju's first ancestors came from...

It was taken on the top of Ilchulbung, one of the wonders of Jeju. (more about JEJUDO on my other posts^^)