For the third year in a row, I present to you my top albums and movies of the year. As I was preparing these lists, I looked back on the previous two year’s lists and I must say that I am embarrassed by some of my choices for previous year’s top tens. Oh well, I suppose one’s preferences change as time goes by.
This year I have decided to do something different with the lists and include a new category: top albums of the previous year. I chose to do this because a lot of albums came out last year that I didn’t discover until this year - enough for me to make a top ten list out of it.
Also, I didn’t see many movies in theatres this year, so the movie list is a tad short. I’m ashamed that I have to include some of the movies I saw in the list, but most of the movies I watched this year were older, so despite the fact that I saw a lot of films, most of them don’t qualify for the list. Otherwise, everything is as normal.
Top 10 Albums of 2005 (That I Didn’t Hear Until 2006)
10) Epik High - Swan Songs
09) Coldplay - X&Y
08) David Crowder Band - A Collision or (3+4=7)
07) Ben Folds - Songs For Silverman
06) The Rocket Summer - Hello, Good Friend
05) Kanye West - Late Registration
04) Terminal - How the Lonely Keep
03) Death Cab for Cutie - Plans
02) Daphne Loves Derby - On the Strength of All Convinced
01) Bright Eyes - I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning
Top 10 Albums of 2006
10) Men Women & Children - Men Women & Children
09) The Hush Sound - Like Vines
08) Kevin Devine - Put Your Ghost To Rest
07) Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope
06) Saves the Day - Sound the Alarm
05) Manchester Orchestra - I’m Like a Virgin Losing a Child
04) Underoath - Define the Great Line
03) Copeland - Eat, Sleep, Repeat
02) The Format - Dog Problems
01) Brand New - The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me
Top 8 Movies of 2006
08) When A Stranger Calls
07) Underworld: Evolution
06) Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
05) Mission: Impossible III
04) X-Men: The Last Stand
03) The Departed
02) Casino Royale
01) V for Vendetta
I haven’t written for about a week.
We did a lot of things after my last post - too much to talk about now that I am back in the USA. I really enjoyed Korea and I wish I was still there. I hope to go back soon, maybe this upcoming summer or fall for studying. I’m not sure when, but I will definitely set foot in the country again.
Tuesday we went to Seoul. We got there around 1 pm and made our way to Gyeongbok Palace only to find out that it is closed on Tuesday and only Tuesday. I took some photos of the outside and we moved on.
Our next stop was a McDonald’s in Myeongdong. We were on our way to Namsan Tower and just happened to stop there. I don’t know why we ate in McDonald’s, but we did. Of course, we saw Americans there. I would have been surprised if we didn’t.
After our meal we headed up Namsan Tower. Well, we didn’t actually go up the tower (it was free, though), but we did go all the way up the mountain which provided us with a great view of Seoul and all of its smog. We took the cable car down the mountain after walking part of the way up and taking the bus the rest of the way up.
We took a cab back to Myeongdong after seeing Namsan and proceeded to shop until 6. I bought a coat at TBJ which I really like. I’m trying to see if I can find a website that sells TBJ and will ship to America because I really like a lot of their clothes. Myeongdong had a lot of cool stores, and I wish we had gone in more of them but for some reason we didn’t. Tomorrow we are going shopping again so hopefully I will be able to buy myself some more clothes then.
At 6 we took the subway to COEX Mall (which is the only real, western-style mall in Korea) and met a friend from school there. We ate dinner at some Chinese restaurant. The dish I had was pretty hot, but not the worst I’ve ever had. After eating we looked around the mall at various stores at which I bought a few things for myself and others.
We left the mall after who knows how long and got on the subway. We parted ways with our friend when we got off at Gangnam Station. We found the nearest jjimjilbang and stayed the night there.
The next morning we got up and took a cab to the nearest subway station and then took the subway to Insadong where we shopped. They have a lot of cool traditional Korean things there and cool souvenir-type items. After shopping for a while we walked down the street to the Cheongyecheon stream and checked it out.
Seeing as our first visit to Gyeongbok Palace was a bust, we decided to go back and see it for real. It was a huge place and I’m sure we only saw a very small part of it, but what we saw was really cool. It definitely made me feel like I was in Asia, as the buildings were in stereotypical Asian style.
Once we finished at Gyeongbokgung we took the bus back to Daejeon and rested for a while. We met up with some of Daniel’s friend for dinner, two of whom I knew from church and the other two I had never met. We had some extremely hot food, the hottest I’ve had here so far. It wasn’t bad at all, just very hot. We went to a noraebang (karaoke) after we ate, and it was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be. Apparently we are getting one in Champaign during second semester, so I will definitely be taking some American friends to it.
Today I did absolutely nothing, which is sad because at around $83 a day (only taking into account the ticket), Korea is too expensive to sit and do nothing. As I said earlier, we are going shopping again tomorrow, so I hope to buy some more cool clothes.
There are a ton of new photographs on flickr, but I’m sure that anyone reading this has already seen them because I uploaded them over a day ago. Look for new photos tomorrow.
In my boredom today I fiddled with the blog’s design a bit, so if something seems different you didn’t go crazy - I probably changed it. I hope it is easier to read and navigate now.
Today and yesterday were do-nothing days.
Yesterday I went to church with Daniel and his family. It was the same as American church except it was in Korean. Nothing unexpected happened and I felt very comfortable there. The church was actually on the 7th floor of some building, and at the end of the service they opened a curtain and you could see out over the city. Definitely not something that happens at my church.
After church Daniel, two of his friends, and I went out to eat at some Japanese restaurant. I had some sort of fried pork which was good. With some very small exceptions, all the food I have had here has been excellent. I think I’ve already said that, but who cares. After eating, we went to a PC bang (PC room). The concept of a PC bang is very simple: you pay very little money to use a computer for however long you’d like. The rates start at 1,000 won/hour (around a dollar an hour). There are a ton of computers crammed into the room and all have tons of video games installed on them so you can play. Most games required accounts, however, and since I don’t have accounts for any of the Korean versions of the games, I couldn’t play. That was okay, though, because I had the rest of the internet to browse. The computer itself keeps track of how long you have used it, so when you are done you take a card you were given to the front desk. They scan it and you pay them for whatever you owe. We stayed for a little over an hour, so I had to pay 1,200 won which is equivalent to $1.20. Not too bad I’d say. The room itself is dark and noisy and smells of cigarette smoke because a ton of people in Korea smoke, and many do it here.
Once we were finished with the PC bang, we came back home and did a lot of nothing. Daniel’s parents were gone, so his sister made us some really western dinner with pasta and some other stuff. Nothing else really happened that night.
Today I woke up and had breakfast with Daniel and his sister while watching Oprah. The episode was about eating healthy. I don’t know why I chose to include that. After breakfast nothing really happened until lunch. I don’t even remember what we had, but it included meat. It was some sort of kalbi, I think. As I said, I don’t really remember.
After lunch Daniel and I went to rent a movie to watch. We ended up getting a movie called “The King’s Man”. It was pretty good, but it had a lot of gay stuff in it. Not as bad as Brokeback Mountain, but certainly worse than a lot of other movies.
About ten minutes after we finished the movie, Daniel, his sister and mom, and I met his dad at a restaurant across the street. We had some very good pork kalbi there (see photographs on flickr). Since we ate I have been uploading pictures to the web and listening to Radiohead. Daniel went to meet a friend, his parents are hanging out with some of their friends here, and I think his sister is watching the movie we rented.
I don’t know what I’m going to do for the rest of the night. I’ll probably go to bed early since we have to get up somewhat early tomorrow morning as we are going to Seoul tomorrow. I’m really excited about going to Seoul. We are going to see some historical sites and do a lot of shopping. I’m more excited about the shopping than the historical sites, but both will be fun. I haven’t spent much money here yet, so I will have plenty to buy things with there. I’ll bring my laptop there, so I shall be able to update still. Woooooot.
This morning I woke up to find that it had snowed overnight. It just started coming down again, and I haven’t been outside yet, so I am not sure how much we got. I’m pretty excited about it, though!
Today I woke up around 10 am. My sleep was pretty good and I felt quite rested when I woke up. Somehow I avoided a big case of jet lag as I only feel a little tired today. Maybe it’ll catch up with me tomorrow. I guess we will just see.
For breakfast I had some toast with jelly, apples, and pears. It was pretty good, but as Daniel said, very American. After breakfast I unpacked my stuff and took a shower. By the time I was done it was time to have lunch, so we had some rice with a seafood dish that had squid, shrimp, peppers, and mushrooms in it. Despite the fact seafood isn’t my favourite food (although it isn’t terrible), it was pretty good.
After eating, we headed out to shop. Daniel was going to meet some of his friends, and since everything was going to be in Korean I decided that I’d go shopping with his mom and sister instead. It turned out that Daniel met some of his friends that I had talked to online but never in real life, so he called me and I ended up hanging out with them for about half an hour. Afterwards, he went to go hang out with more of his friends, so I went back with his mom and sister shopping. I don’t really know how long we shopped for, but we got back to the apartment around 5.30 pm.
I’m not too sure what’s going on the rest of the night, but so far today was fun. Here is a link to some of the photographs I took today.
Well, it finally happened - I am in South Korea. It all started on Tuesday when my dad took Daniel and I to O’Hare for our 8 am flight on Wednesday. We flew to San Fransisco where we changed planes and began the horrendous thirteen hour flight from California to Incheon. I slept for a lot of both flights, which was very good. I didn’t end up feeling sick, either, which surprised me. We arrived in Korea around 6.45 pm on Thursday, December 14. We went through customs and got our luggage without any problems whatsoever and then purchased our bus tickets to Daejeon where Daniel lives. I rented a cellphone, as well. It’s a decent phone, but not the one I wanted to rent, as they were out of it. Our bus arrived at 9 pm and we then had what was supposed to be a 3 hour drive in front of us, but thanks to the amazing bus driver it only took us 2 hours to get there. We waited a few minutes at the bus stop for Daniel’s parents to come pick us up, and then went back to their apartment where we are currently staying. It is 2 am now and I am feeling quite tired, so I’ll just post the link to my flickr photoset of some of the pictures I have taken thus far. All in all today was an uneventful day, so I promise the posts in coming days will be much more interesting.
My plane leaves for Korea in a little less than 17 hours. I start the journey to the airport in a little less than 11.
More updates when I’m there. Also, photographs on flickr when I’m there.