AUTUMINATOR!

AUTUMN IN SEOUL!~

Without realizing a third Korean autumn has knocked on my door already. This is by far my most favorite season! And every year I believe it is more beautiful than the previous year.

Right now I ended up sitting in possibly one of the worst coffee shops you can imagine. It is located on campus next to the College of Music and called Neu Tim Namu (느팀 나무). Although you would expect a College of Music to have a nice and cozy coffee shop with good music, the opposite is true. It’s cold and the music is terrible: some Korean cheap-sounding pop/rap, I don’t know how to name it. Every two seconds a waitress is calling saying that the rightful costumer should come and get the drinks. The hot chocolate I ordered is poorly poured into a paper/plastic cup and already finished by now, as they only give me half the regular portion. While sipping on my already leftover hot choco I’m putting on my scarf. It really is chilly in here. GRMBL. I look to the right and notice that the interior decoration is awful too. Despite the tastelessness and poor drinks, many students wearing seasonal autumn clothes are coming in and out the coffee shop. Outside it starts to drizzle. (Ja, ook dat nog!) It doesn’t rain a lot in Korea and just because of that people tend to feel moody or even sad when it does (such as Lili, cheer up girl, cold weather is to wear nice warm clothes and big scarfs!). ;) Already tending towards a grumpy mood I decided to write something on my blog to keep it and myself alive and going!

How many autumn leaves can you recognize? According to the colors their leaves turn into, here some typical autumn trees!:

American Beech

Yellow Birch

Ginkgo

Black Oak

Sweetgum

Tulip Poplar

Winged Sumac

Silver Maple

Red Maple

Sassafras

      

Bradford Pear

White Oak

Gingko trees turn yellow... their fruits are really smelly... like animal poo.. or just rotten things in general.

Autumn is truly mesmerizing here.  The leaves of the trees and their colors are vivid and warm. Walking around to see the trees is as if one is walking in a dream, a very colorful one. Autumn foliage lasts quite long in Korea... about 3 weeks or so. Which colors do you love the most? Cadmium yellow like the Ginko trees? Burning red like the Japanse Maple trees? Or Dutch orange like the leaves of an American Beech? A melancholic person like me cannot but feel gloomy and euforic.

on SNU Campus

In the center of our campus

Last Saturday some friends (Net, my American classmate; Lili and Nurlia, two girls I met while doing volunteer work in Indonesia) and I picked a date to go and do 등산 (‘dingsan’, mountain climbing, hiking) on Gwanak, the mountain on our campus. And… We could not have chosen a better day to enjoy the autumn foliage: it rained all the way to the top. Instead of making us grumpy the unusual rain has given us a memorable experience. The scenery was misty and wet, giving the mountain a mystical atmosphere. The highlight of our outdoor adventure was an ajusshi (middle aged man) giving us change so we could buy ourselves a cup of coffee out of the vending machine on the top of the mountain. My appreciation for cheap ass vending machine coffee has drastically grown stronger. Before I would never have thought that a simple hot cup of coffee can warm up a whole body like that. Actually, before the hike Lili and Nurlia had not met Net yet (it rhymes!), but hiking always proves to be a good way to get to know people better and have fun! With hands cold as ice and a numb body longing for a steamy hot shower, we slowly came down the mountain. Happy that we reached back almost but not totally wet we treated ourselves a good afternoon lunch. I spent the rest of the day under a hot shower and lying hidden under my 8kg winter blanket. This hike will be remembered as the wettest attempt to enjoy the beauty of Korean autumn foliage. :)

The view we were supposed to see!

Like ajusshis and ajumas me drank mageolli on the mountain! :)

The Gwanak observatory

The autumn festival on our campus. They put leaves they collected elsewhere on campus on the main walking road... to maximize the autumn experience! ;)

Om in de sfeer te blijven..

Autumn festival on campus

The little pond next to my department