Pre New years Exploration

So everyone here is setting up for the new years and stuff looks great. Carl heard of an artsy place that happened to be by our actual university, so we decided to check it out. We saw a few cool things, but in reality… there was nothing here. It was just people… being people…

Not mention it was freezing that day, I found a new meaning for the word frigid. During our korean lesson that day, this one girl named Amy came back from her sick day… still sick… along with this other guy named Nathan who also came in sick (with aparently respiratory bronchitis… Carl and I look at each other and know we’re going to get sick just because we entered that room (which has no ventilation btw… ugh…)

The next day carl and I split up and explored on our own. The area carl and I are staying at is called Anguk. It is was mad busy.

I wanted to draw some people on the train station because i needed some practice life drawing practice. It helps a ton, but people seem to get weirded out buy it. This old man sent a younger man to go see what i was drawing. When he found out i was drawing him he decided not to move as much which was quite nice. All the other people moved and made i more difficult for me… So when the train stopped I ended up in some random town, dont know the name of it, but it is was nice… kinda…

I walked around, grabbed some food, but didn’t get chopsticks so i had to go find some. I got quickly tired of this lonely town. It was right at the edge of seoul, so not much was going on around here. Carl on the other hand went around anguk and took pictures. Im not 100% sure what happened. But they are nice.

The next day was filled with a bunch of nothing. I once again drew all day. I went to this cafe called Coffee Bean, in Insadong and got the best hot chocolate ive ever had. The cafe has a really nice atmosphere.

I traveled around insadong even more and headed to the train station. I stumbled upon a chegi chugi tournament (which is pretty much just hacky sack wit a prettier ball).

That guy hit it about 64 times

it was ridiculous.

In the begining there was Seoul…

p r o l o g u e . . .

Greetings from South Korea (Seoul specifically). My name is Mel (멜) Garber, and I’m a CAT student at Bloomfield College. Most of you know me… those of you that don’t have probably seen me. I pretty much live in Westminster. You may be asking yourself why would I say greetings from Seoul… Well I’m actually over here studying it up. It all started in the summer of 2007 during the East Meets West Program, where a handful of Bloomfield students got to meet Korean students and do projects with them, and then eventually fly to Korea. I was in that program, along with my collaborator Carl Mckevitt (http://carlmckevitt.wordpress.com/), who also has a blog up about this expedition. While we were over there we decided we had to come back. Being a 3d modeler and animator I was exposed to some of the best animation and modeling I have ever seen in my life, and knew I had to come back and learn these secrets… And i did. So now I’m here studying in South Korea…

A b o u t m e . . .

I am currently a Junior in Bloomfield College. My major is… I dunno my major. Things were going crazy and nothing seemed to be going in my favor… so I decided to make up my own major… My major is (well should be very soon) something along the lines of “International Animation for Video Games”. I do 2d and 3d art and animation, and i take it very seriously, which is kinda why I came to Korea.

n o w . . .

So now onto our plans while we’re actually here… We are currently in Seoul studying the language at this school named GaNada School. We have a Korean Class 3 hours a day and it’s a great environment to learn a language. The teacher is incredibly informative, knowledgeable and shes hilarious.

But alas we only have two more weeks of this class. Once March hits we will be heading to Jeonju University (전주대학교). When we get there, Carl will continue to do more language classes whereas I will be taking advanced animation classes and 3d modeling classes. Their semester begins in March which is different from the system in America. Their winter break it quite long but they pay for it in the summer. In Bloomfield we just have long breaks regardless and it drives me insane… Jeonju University finishes their semester late june, so we will be back July 1st.

m o v i n g o n . . .

Thats pretty much it for right now. I will update later with many pictures of Seoul and such. Oh and before I forget… Send Carl and I feedback please… There is really no point in keeping up the blog if no one reads it. You’ll get to watch Carl and I have a blast.. what more could you ask for. Keep reading, and I’ll update shortly…

안녕…