Visit to Paju, Heyri Art Village, and English Village

After a long week of midterms I finally got out of Seoul. This weekend I visited Paju. Paju is a city to the south of Seoul which resembles a quite suburb compared to the fast pace city life of Seoul. 

One of my main stops was to the famous Heyri Art Village. Heyri is supposedly well known as a melting pot for artists, musicians, and architects in the vicinity of beautiful cafés and restaurants.  Heyri was pretty neat there were loads of museums, fancy modern architecture, unique statues, and beautiful cafes. My two favorite places were the Chocolate Design Gallery and the Bookhouse. The Chocolate Design Gallery had the most delicious chocolate-fudge bars and their cookies were superb! The Bookhouse was pretty neat because of the interior décor but after midterms the last thing I wanted to do was eat in café full of books.

The Chocolate Design Gallery

Chocolate Design Gallery Chocolate

Inside the Bookhouse

Inside the Bookhouse

Paju Bridge

The second main stop was the English Village. The English Village is pretty much a language learning area where Korean’s can experience and learn English. The village promotes English so you must use English at the stores, shops, etc. It’s also mainly a language camp for students where English-speaking teachers help Korean students become more proficient in English.

To me the English Village seemed a little strange. The outside resembled Stonehenge and the entry to the Village was a recreation of an airplane terminal where you get your passport (ticket) and go through customs. But the overall architectural layout of the village was really…different. It seemed  to resemble buildings from Shrek’s farfaraway land. But nonetheless it was still pretty neat to see!

Stonehenge at the English Village?

Gyeonggi English Village Paju Camp

Midterm Week

It's officially midterm week at Yonsei University and classes are canceled! As fun as it may sound, it isn't. I have never ever studied this hard in my entire life; and I don't know why! Maybe it's because I'm in Asia and my inner Asian is coming out. For the past 2 weeks or so I've been diligently studying and I've never felt so exhausted before. Recently my home has been Yonsei's Samsung Library.

Yonsei's Samsung Library is connected to the central library and was recently built a few years ago. The library is AMAZING! It's the largest library in all of Korea; and has state of the art technology, computers, elevators, and study rooms. 

Outside the central library

What I like most about the Samsung library are the table reservation terminals. First you use your student ID and scan it under the RFID scanner, then you can reserve a computer, table, or room for up to four hours. 

You can also use large touch screen placed around the library to read articles, books, etc.

Study rooms here look like futuristic dome pods

See through/light speed elevators (super fast)

 The only problem about this library is that during midterm week it becomes impossible to reserve a spot anywhere! Since Yonsei is one of the top 3 schools in Korea, the students take their studies very VERY seriously. You can see hundreds of students constantly studying in the 24 hour library. There are also two cafes in case you need some coffee to stay up late into the night.

Rainy Ansan Hike

In the midst of studying for midterms, I planned to go bike riding along the Han river. In the spring hundreds of people go to walk, bike, or have picnics at the Han river. But the weather was dark, windy, and raining pretty hard, so plans got canceled. But instead of canceling the event completely they suggested to go and hike 안산 (Ansan) mountain...in the rain. Ansan mountain is the mountain right next to Yonsei and within walking distance from the dorms. There was apparently an ongoing festival (for the cherry blossoms) and there were lanterns and decorations throughout the main path.

After passing the golden Buddhist statue we began out hike...our wet, cold, muddy hike which would result in me being partially soaked, very cold, and tired. Never have I ever hiked in such conditions. 

After a 30 minute hike we finally got to the peak of Ansan. It was nice, but the view was very limited due to the heavy rain clouds and fog which hindered our view. Not to mention the strong winds prevented us from taking a lot of pictures, by the time we would take out our cameras the wind would blow our umbrellas inside out! But luckily I was able to get a few shots.

Finally at the top

As we began our walk down, we went through a beautiful path that had cherry blossoms everywhere! This weekend is supposedly the last weekend that the cherry blossoms will be in peak, and by the end of this week most of the trees will be stripped of their beautiful flowers and leaves will begin to grow back.

When we got to main cherry blossom spot I was shocked by the beauty of the cherry blossoms. The view was amazing and because of the rain and the wind, petals would fall from the trees creating temporary cherry blossom showers! Overall, the cold, wind, rain, and mud was definitely worth it. I just wish midterms were not around the corner.