Exploring Daegu

My girlfriend did not seen yet really Daegu, excluding Bu-ku (North) area where my exchange university is. The last time we had been to Daegu City centre, it was closed due to the Chuesok Holiday. There had been not much interesting to seen excluding the parks, but the food vendor and museum been closed.

I token her to the places which I had visited here on my arrival with my English friends.  We had a look around the town - there is just no more activities in the town as used to be during the IAAF Games. As all the tourist have gone home - the activities in town also have stopped.

Therefore we just had gone to buy some small gifts for family and friends.

New friends

Today I had Strategy Management. The professor had assigned us into groups for the semester on where we will be working teams on case study and group project. The professor gave a deeper understanding of Strategy and make sure to have next time a study for the class.

After class I went into the book store and purchased all the books I needed for class and also finally a bag so I do not need to carry my pen and paper in my hands from class room to class room.

Later for lunch I met my new friends on whom I met last week. We had gone for some lunch and cup of lemon juice.  It was a great place, which maybe on you would never find. As the Koreans like to build good restaurants and bar on top floor, and usually myself looks on stores on the ground floor.

Later in the day my girlfriend and me had meet up with my friends at the fountain to practise our presentation speech for Persuasive speech. The area on focus is the usage of body language. I knew I had a few problems, but with the help of Toastmaster and A1 Speakers in Newcastle – I managed to resolve some of the issues.

We had just a few chats, as they met my girlfriend for the first time. It was a nice relaxing chill out again at the fountain.

Relax at the fountain

Today I visited the Immigration Office with KNU to apply for my Alien Register Card and Student Visa D-2.  It was a fairly easy process, KNU thought we would spend 2-3 hours but we already been on the way back home after 1 ½ hour.

For the rest of the day I had no plans so just wondered around and saw a society for photography and I asked them if I could join them.  Therefore I have joined them and they told me they will get in touch with me in October time for orientation (welcome) session of the society.

In the evening I had met up with my friends at the fountain of the university to socialize with a few chicken and snack. Chicken is very common to eat as students here in Daegu. The plan was to play a few card games, but we did not come to it. We had so much to talk and shown pictures of our home countries or home university cities where we study. 

Daegu Down Town

Today we had meet up with a friend from Japan, Malaysia and Germany at the main gate and decided to visit the city centre (down town). As some of them did not seen it yet. The plan was taking a city tour bus, but I guessed due to the 50km Race Walk it would be hard to find or even does not take place as it needs to go through the race parts. We still could explore the town on our own, as I had been there a few times I acted as a little tour guide.

The first stop had been the Medicine street, where we had try out various medical products. They shall be good for our body and natural from Daegu, at least we presume they are.

As we come just for lunch time, there did not had been many activities inside the city, I ask the group if we may shall check out the two parks. The 28th February Park and  Gukchae-bosang Memorial Park. Neither of these park had been any activities, just young people and elderly hang out together and played music on the open Piano or played cards. In the second park we walked a bit around and token a few pictures and suddenly we saw our friends from America and France. It had been a big surprise to find them in a one million people city. The plan was to go for a Korean ice-cream, therefore we have invited them to come along.

As we had been now more people, we have ordered a giant ice-cream to share in Korean way.

It is very unique on what I also had in Taiwan. As in Korea they dont stack the fruits to a mountain, they just lay them down and put also a few cereals inside. It has then a different taste, as all of it gets mixed together instant eating from top to bottom.

If you ever come across visiting Korea, you shall try to find an ice-cream shop and eat a Korean ice-cream.

After the ice cream we had split ourself up, as some needed to go back to dorm to meet other people. A few of us stayed in town and thought something still must be happen. We decided to walk up the shopping street and come across the park Gyeongsang-gamyeong Park, where activities had taken place of Korean culture. One of the activities had been to play the traditional Korean games and wear traditional clothes of Korea.

We also had been awarded by staying longer that at six o'clock the played the bell in the park.

I will try to keep this post short, but it just to much has happen on one day. As we also had been to a kind of Korean McDonalds to try Bimbibam (my spelling might be wrong). It is a traditional Korean dish and the night was finished of in a Western Style rather then Korean style with a beer in the near by bar.

Bullo-dong and Dalseong Park

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My friends from the UK had decided to stay one day longer here in Daegu. So we had taken a look on the map off what we could visit in Daegu. I notice there are some ancient tombs around 5kms away from the university ground, so we could pay a visit to it.  The usage of Naver and Google is getting better, as Naver can tell us how to walk and with Google just douple check that it is the correct place which has been input. As soon I will be able to use Korean language, I just can use Naver.

What is Naver some off you might be now asking; it is nearly the same as Google just in Korean and for Korea. It is a good search information site and you can get even street view with Naver Map, whereas Google Maps did not yet pay a visit to Korea.  

The walk has taken us around half an hour along the street, most people I guess would take either the taxi or the bus, but then I think you miss out on Korean culture. A bus is useful if it is a long distance (>10km), as I am sure no one fancy to walk a long way. You can stop also anytime and take pictures, if you like me very slow in getting the camera set up for an image.

At the ancient tomb which is called Bullo-dong Ancient Tomb. It is free to visit, and there is not much information on the location, more a place to relax and have a look around and see the city from the top. I am sure I will find another place in Daegu to see the town further from the top. As there is many mountains around it shall be not a problem.

At Bullo-dong the peace does not get hold for long as just nearby is the Military Air Force, so if you like military air craft I guess it will be a good spot on to watch them start and land. We decided to move on backwards into Daegu and come by a residential area where we sat down on the children playground and had another look into the map on where we shall go. We had been recommended by the South Korean Telecom, on where we had given the free calls, that we shall visit Dalseong Park. We did not know actually what it would be, we thought is just a zoo.

It is a good park, it has a small zoo with animals you would expect and not expect, such as chicken and dogs.

We had spent there a good time and did some sport exercise on the material which had been provided there.  Some people have demonstrated us on how to do a few exercises on them, as the images did not been clear enough on what shall be done.  I would recommend visiting this park if you are close to down town.