Bismillahirrohmanirrohim....
This is the place where I am
jotting down my daily lives, my experiences, travels, joys, and
things I cherish in life..
along with my family's journeys.
This has been a great and will
be a beautifully ridden life.
In short, did that, been there,
will be...all those vistas.
안녕하세요?...Welcome to Suray's World & Beyond
where you will see what I treasure and cherish in simple yet wonderful life.
Now that I live in Seoul...I kinda miss my home back home in Jogjakarta. Of course...Seoul is like a home to me now. But, surely...it's different. I mean...I did hot have as many spacious spaces as I used to have back home in Jogja. Living in a 2-room rental house in Seoul is surely expensive. Not to mention the monthly rent and its utility bills. And....no movie theater...since I am a movie freak. ^^
(hint: I got to say goodbye to my DVD player back home since it's gone now....^^) Thank you, my dearest movie player...
I also miss my book shelves where I could just stuff all of my books there. Lots of things to read and dump^^. And..the fact that it's spacious is enough to make me feel.....oh...relaxing.
I remembered having fish as pet back then. All the menagerie I had on the shelf was like a little treasure, although they were no more than just little knick-knack or brick a brack...
Whenever I felt like it, I remembered removing the TV set as to where I wanted to enjoy movie. Well, back then...it was a good-old days where I still had to take care of the house for the small family...
This is the facade when our house was still being built. I remembered going there almost on a daily basis to check and recheck its development. It's a very small house 123 meter squares. But, boy...the thought of having a home with our own budget was a relieving thought...especially when one's just got married.
I like..I mean..my wife liked to decorate the house according to our taste. So, practically...we bought the curtain material, have it sewn at t nearby tailor and have them adorned the home...to our taste. We bought flower beds to decorate the back of the house..and other corners where our touches were needed.
Oh yes...the small green couch for couch potatoes like us was a must-have item at that time. I remembered buying that comfy-green couch with our own saving...yes..literally coin saving. We were like...collecting every unused little pennies we had and ...in a year..to our surprise...we managed to afford that cute thing.
now...bye-bye..but the memories still linger on.
Gosh..how I miss my home sweet home back in Jogjakarta.
A party? yes...I guess it was a kind of luggage packaging party. My fellow students who happened to be on a trip to Korea spent three day visit at hour house. Two day trip in Seoul had apparently made their luggage bloated. They bought lots of Korean souvenirs...from Namdaemun.
Farah and Nano bought most of the souvenirs not for themselves....but rather...most of them were the request of others. ^^So, a night before they left Seoul, they got to pack all of the things they bought.
To end the day of their visit, their other fellow friends who happened to be currently spending their 1-year program at Kyunghee University (Melizza & Asma) came to our house and ...this was when the party started.
Simply to have a light dinner or so, I packed the meat-free pizzas from Seoul Cheese Pizza which happened to be our fave pizza in the neighborhood. Inexpensive, clean, yummy, and more importantly..it served no-ham nor no pork pizza ....that we could just order upon request.
Yes...it's been a few years ago since I watched this movie. This movie had left me with an impressive feeling of wanting to go back home and embrace the warmth of my grandma.
oh..one more thing...this is the very movie that introduced me to the sweetness of Choco Pie^^ (Korean snack that has delved into the realm of every child (including me) who watched the movie.
First thing first, this movie has no famous star starring in it. No one. The director (Ms. Lee Jeong Hyang) -- I think-- had a different purpose of doing this. Well, it turned out that the movie was such a great and moving story about two unlikely couple (a grandmother and his grandson ----wait for it-----whom he never taken care of before).
Ok.....
The movie starts with a mere and simple plot actually. It all comes down to the point of what would an 8-year old grandson-- brought up and raised in a city-- do when he has to live for 2 months with his grandmother in a remote village out of nowhere. The common expectation would be....would they be able to stand and bear to live with each other?
The movie's simplicity turns out to be the strength of the movie itself. I love it sooo much. I kept guessing of what would the boy do next or what would the 77-year old grandmother do to please her grandson who seems to have no manner whatsoever.
Although the tone of the movie is sometimes a bit long overdrawn into monotonous portrayal of a serene village life, it is the monotonous depiction that also makes the movie gain its strength. and I think the director did well on this.
Oh, did I mention that.....the grandmother is played by a real grandmother who lives in a village...she never played on any movie before....even I guess...she'd never been to Seoul herself (maybe). So,....the coming of her grandson (Sangu) really turns her life upside down. She never manages to comprehend what her grandson says or does. He brings along with him....robot, toys, and a kind of video game that really preoccupies most of his time---disregarding what his grandmother says and asks him to do.
Poor the old woman...for her grandson seems to ignore her most of the time.
But...this is the central point of the movie itself.
I feel pity for the grandmother...but on the other hand....what can I expect for a city boy who never knows or simply indifferent or unaware of the consequences of what he wants or does.
I remember interesting moments from the movie:
first: the time when Sangu has to go to hwajangsil or byeonsil. Well, of course in the village (back then..I guess)..there are no such things as hwajangsil like the one that city people have. Those in the remote village where he is now.....is far apart from the house. So, he has no other choice but to go outside whenever he wants to go to the byeonsil ^^. To make matter worse, it is dark outside. So,.....no other choice......but........to have his natural call.....in the house...!! THank God...his understanding grandmother provides a kind of small bowl. Oh...NOooo...what a sight! But. ...it was so funny.
Then...
second: the time when Sangu wants to eat chicken..fried chicken like the one he has back home in the city.....^^ like that in KFC! Instead of asking her mother to cook or prepare him takgoki (Korean word for chicken), he uses an English word "chicken" in Korean pronunciation "chikin". So, there starts a series of misunderstanding ..one after another...until finally....her grandmother prepares him a kind of whole chicken boiled in a stew like soup. ^^
Funnily entertaining.
This really portrays the generation gap of Korean society back then.
I wonder if this situation still could persist in Korea. ( I doubt it).
But...back to the movie....
The series of unfortunate messes...one after another...during the whole movie....really got me.
I was so deeply touched by how a simple and ordinary life being portrayed in the movie imbued by the power of love and devotion as shown by a simple grandmother has finally been able to change and melt away the stubborn boy who at first ......ignores and disrespect his grandmother.
The communication gap and the possible misfortunes that may arise between the two people.....are solved through the power of love...a simple one.
Gosh....I want to go back and hug my grandmother and mom...when I see the movie.
I was crying at the end of the movie. Happy and a kind of mixed feeling of .....being involved in the journey to the home where heart is......
Is this Korean movie worth-watching, then? DEFINITELY:) ^^
So, it was late at night and things always get merrier whenever it gets dark. Well...what I mean is that...the kids go to bed late....and they seem to have this electrifying and ever-evolving energy to boost themselves up. I mean..it is around 10 but still they did not (do not) want to go to bed.
They turned out to be......either playing something, writing something, or doing stuffs they deem cool to spend the night time.
Once: they like putting or attaching stickers (any they could find or any that they just bought) on any paper they could find.
Then: they started playing around with the cho-cho train......! It would not be this bothersome.....had the train been small in size......but....wait...the trains are small. It's just....the rail and tracks are NOT. It has to occupy the whole lot of space in the room, that we need to roll up the sleeping mattress.....so as to make them be able to play with them.
Ok.....that does it.
but.....it is sometimes ok, though.
they do have fun.
Later.....they were playing with the paper-plane.
it would not have been this nerve-wrecking....had the planes been ready to play with.
But...I.....had to make them first.!!!
yes.....I got to cut and paste the model from the book and assembly them into a somewhat life-like planes........only..these ones were made out of paper. Still...they were so darn difficult to make. Well.....I did the best I could to please them.
and they were pleased.
Oh, Eyra ...oh Freya....
you always make Daddy busy....with your seemingly never-ending ideas of playing.
But...I learn ....this is what children are about. They love playing.
From playing..comes the essence of learning.
That's what I believe.
....and now...
they are crazy head over heels about the newest Pororo puzzles they received as a present from their auntie Seon hee.
Never have they been this intrigued by puzzles like this one before. Well...what to expect...
It IS afterall....Pororo.
Children's favorite characters in Korea.^^
One of the presents that our daughters had in Korea. The Blocks.
The party for the girls was not over yet. They were so excited of having been able to play the stacks and builds.
Look at their faces when they opened up the boxes of treasures.
It was actually almost midnight, but the excitement that they had really overpowered their tiredness(?). All of kinds of imaginable shapes and things they could build were already in their minds.
At times they seem to have no feeling of being tired or bored of trying to build up new things. Good exercise, I guess.
Our family was greet by our friends who have been so helpful and dear to us. Wawan, Min Seonhee, and Cha Heeran or our Yuliana sonsaengnim were the first friends to greeted us at home.
It was a relived feeling to have such lovely friends like them. Wawan helped us by managing the first dinner for us.
Once again...we did not have time or better yet...we had not dared ourselves to try any Korean food since it was our first time (at least to my wife and the kids).
So, Wawan ordered Seoul Cheeze Pizza..^^ (another Koreanized western food). It is the pizza near our campus . We eat a lot—to be truthful. ^^. It is relatively inexpensive and delicious. ^^. And...they have veggie pizza and cheeze pizza and potato pizza that we love.
Anyway...the first house-warming was held on Dec. 10, 2011...simply because our friends were ready to help us there. Good, eh? Then, after our friends bid goodbyes for our first night in Seoul.....my kids continued their night-time snacking before going to bedJ ^^...well, another left-over pizza, then......
I still vividly remembered the first time they enjoyed their time with their Daddy in Korea....^^. And what’s more: Eyra just loved meeting with her new friends.....lots of dolls that I had prepared for them. She just loves them.
