G20 Summit in Seoul

Hi everyone,

I know I have said I would talk about the Hi Seoul Festival and my observations of Korean people in general, but I will talk about that some other time. I'm quite busy now because of the Midterms that are coming up next week. It looks like I'm having fun all the time and not doing anything at the university, but that's not true. Most of the time I'm writing papers, preparing for presentations and doing projects. But who wants to hear about that? =)

There is one thing I would quickly like to say. The G20 Summit 2010 will be held in Seoul. The dates for the world debates are November 11th and 12th.

There is an opportunity to record a video and ask the world leaders something relevant. If you could ask them something, what would you ask? I'm thinking about sending a video soon.

 
To the people who forgot what the G20 Summit is about, here's an introduction for you guys.

Twenty world leaders will come together in Seoul this November to discuss the state of the global economy as it emerges from the financial crisis. Together, they will take the necessary steps to reduce market volatility and move past the crisis, creating sustainable growth going forward. The fall meeting will be the fifth leaders summit and the first in an emerging country, reflecting shifts in the global economic balance and a growing understanding of the interdependence of countries and regions in the international financial system. In addition to heads of government from the twenty member countries, central bankers and finance ministers, the heads of key international institutions, including the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Financial Stability Board, will participate in the  meetings, November 11-12. Member countries include the G8 developed economies along with emerging economies such as the Republic of Korea. Together, the members of the G20 represent over 85% of the world economy.

K1 Kickbox World GP 2010

Hi everyone,

on the 2nd of October I went to see the K1 World GP 2010 in Seoul. This was the kickboxing event with the final 16 kickboxers from all over the world to fight for the next round. There were about four or five fighters from the Netherlands which was a surprise to me. It made me feel proud. The event was held in the Olympic Gymnasium at the Seoul Olympic Park. It was the same venue where the 1988 Summer Olympics were held in Korea. I went to the event with Florian from Germany, Cyril and Olivier from France, Jakob from Denmark and Jeremy from Switzerland. We ordered the tickets online and picked them up at the event. The tickets we bought were 77.000 Won which is about 50 euro. We could choose between 22.000 Won (14 euro), 220.000 Won (141 euro) and 1.100.000 Won (707 euro) tickets. We wanted good and affordable seats so we bought the 77.000 Won tickets. We thought this event would be sold out. It's kickboxing, a popular sport. And it's held in Seoul, a city with 24.5 million inhabitants. But it still wasn't sold out. Amazing. When I was at the event I met Thijs from the Netherlands. He bought the 22.000 Won tickets. It turned out the event wasn't sold out. That's why we just walked around to sit somewhere else.  People kept on coming to us saying we were sitting on their seats. Awkward.....Eventually we sat down at a good place. Thijs and his friends did the same thing. He sat down behind us. That sucks. He paid less.

The fights were so much fun to watch! I even saw one knock out. I wanted to see some blood. I never knew I had that in me. Haha. It was funny to watch because no one expected that the fighter would fall on the floor when he got hit. He wanted to fight on but his body rejected it. Eventually he had to be carried out. One French fighter thought he had won, but the referee argued it was a tie. He didn't like the outcome and left the stage. Eventually the other fighter won by default. That's not a nice way to win or lose. The even was set up very nicely. The lights, the music, the beautiful women that came on stage between the rounds. It looked very professional. It was a very nice and memorable day.

By the way I've made a video about this so you can check out what's it's been like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiBa3rlmhlw

Tomorrow I will blog about the Hi Seoul Festival I've been to. This was a huge event here in Seoul. With fireworks, music, dance, parades etc. You should def. see the pictures and video I've made then. I will also write about Koreans and my observations of them. Stay tuned. =)

My Youtube Channel

Hi everyone,

I have a Youtube Channel. I have the link on this website but you'll have to scroll down. Some people didn't know about this, so here you go!

http://www.youtube.com/user/DutchinKorea

Chuseok: Trip to Gyeongju and Busan #4

UPDATE: I have made a video about my stay in Gyeongju and Busan. There's a surprise at the end of the video. In some countries my video is banned because of the use of particular music. That's why I also posted the video on my facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=431873199723&subj=578234723

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf4oqJswBdk

After a long day of shopping and walking around the city a few of us went to get a drink at a coffee shop. Matti, Jouni, Daniel, Greta, Annie and me. The coffeeshop was located across the Reebok store. It was called 'The Cafe ; Coffee'. It has a relaxed atmosphere. I had a Vanilla Coffee with a cheesecake. The others wanted to see what my outfit was and asked if I wanted to dress up for them. I was crazy enough to go to a toilet and show them what I bought =D. We were talking about things to do at night. We eventually ended up at a bar. I forgot the name of the bar, but it has a Warner Brothers sign, a Catwoman and Spiderman statue on it. We talked for hours and hours about our lives and got to know each other very good. It was nice being in such a multicultural environment and making new friends. We also played drinking games. I was the only one drinking cola and water, so I had no problems with the game. After the bar we went to a noraebang. This is a uniquely Korean karaoke place. You can rent a room per hour and have so much fun. This is a way to break the ice in Korea. This should definitely be introduced in the Netherlands too. We stayed there for two hours. We did not sleep at all. Haha. But we left the next day early in the morning so it wasn't all that bad. But I do know I'm not going to stay up all night anymore. Daniel even wanted stay longer at the noraebang. And I was shocked he still had energy. I thought I could've easily slept for 24 hours after a day like that.

Chuseok: Trip to Gyeongju and Busan #3

We arrived at the guest house in Busan (also spelled as Pusan) around 7 p.m. We had to sleep on the floor again, but this time we had hot water! I never knew I appreciated hot water that much. It made my day. This hostel was located right next to the beach and we had a very nice view of it. Just like Gyeongju, Busan is a coastal city. Both cities have very unique characters, but it's unfair to compare the two cities. Gyeongju has a population of about 260000, whilst Busan has a population of more than 3.6 million people. It's a modern city like Seoul, but also the most important port city of Korea. The first day the weather was quite bad, but I had no great expectations. The first night we went outside beside the beach to see more of the city. We had dinner and after that we ended up at a hotel. The name of the hotel was Paradise Hotel. It had a very nice club and it even had a casino. There was no entrance fee. The dj's were suprisingly very good. We weren't there for a long time because we wanted to see the city by night.

The view from our guesthouse in Busan.

The next day, while the weather was slowly getting better, me Tyren and Mid, A Korean German, went to Atwosome Place (we call it Awesome with a T) to have breakfast. Korea is filled with coffee places. They're just everywhere! Maybe some need it to stay up all day. I had soup with bread, broccoli, cheese and mushrooms. And a Mocca coffee with a chocolate muffin ( said as muppin in Korean styled English ). It was a nice way to wake up. I had a nice conversation with Mid. I'm thinking about doing my internship in Heidelberg, Germany. He's from Heidelberg and I talked to other Germans from other cities that advised me to do my internship there. It's also a great city learn how to speak German fluently. After our breakfast I went to meet Annette, Greta, Daniel and Jouni. They were having breakfast at the Angel-in-us coffeeshop. We were talking about what to do that day. We planned to go to the Gukje foreigners market to see if it's really as good as people say it is. We had to take two cabs because we couldn't fit in one cab. Annette and Greta took one cab right away. And me Daniel and Jouni couldn't find a cab for half an hour. This was very frustrating because it took a long time and it was raining. This would never happen in Seoul. There are cabs everywhere in Seoul. Hoinking all the time for people to get in. Maybe there weren't a lot of cabs because of Chuseok? I don't know.














Before we went to the markets and shopping area we went to see Busan Tower. It's 120 meters high standing on a 69-meter high hilltop. It was nice to see the Tower from upclose. It wasn't as amazing as the N Seoul Tower, but Busan is as I've mentioned before building a 510m-supertall Lotte Super Tower. This tower is to become the world's third tallest building in 2013.





After seeing Busan Tower and its surroundings we went to the shopping area of downtown Busan. This was next to Gukje Market. We went out for dinner and got some pizza. I was outside taking pictures because I wasn't quite hungry, but after seeing the pizza's I knew I had to take a slice. It was overpriced in my opinion. About 27000 KRW (17 euro) per pizza. I'm just used to Sinchon student prices.

Busan has all the international fashion brands you can imagine. The streets are very clean and wide. It looked very good. But the thing that bothered me was that I couldn't find a trash bin. This wasn't an issue for me only in Busan, but in all the places I've been to in Korea so far. And I wonder how they keep their streets clean. Sometimes I do see a trash pile somewhere in an alley.
I saw brands such as Calvin Klein, Nike, Adidas, Fila, Zara and there's even a store called SAMSUNG FASHION. I also saw a huge poster saying that Uniqlo, the Japanese brand, will be opening their store on the 25th of September. Unfortunately we left the 23rd. After that we went to Gukje market. It had lots of accessories. I bought a hat, a vest, a jacket, a trouser, a belt and a tshirt. The area also had cheap shops next to the market. It was too bad the sizes were quit small. And everything is super tight. I guess their XL is a medium in the Netherlands. The shop employees kept on saying 'it's Korean style'. Haha.




















We also went to the fish market. I didn't see as much as the others did, but Tyren took some great pictures at the place. You have to see this place if you're planning to visit Busan. I'm going back to the city during my visit here. Two days of Busan just isn't enough.