GIC Day -- Sep 16 2007

The typhoon hit the south Korea on the same day as GIC day was planned on. The whole event was ruined by the rain and strong winds. In the afternoon at 2:10 PM, a bus picked us up from infront of the GIST admin building. We arrived at city hall where the event was planned at 2:30. After getting off from the bus we took shelter under the tents erected by the organizers. They provided us with the free raincoat and raffle ticket. I tried food from India, Nepal and Mexico. The food from Nepal was better than all which also got the first prize. The talent contest presented some dancing and singing events. Before that there was arm wrestling for men and women and yogurt drinking competition. Balu won the yogurt drinking competition. Another game of standing on a newspaper with a female partner and removing stockings using your foot muscles while picking your partner on the back. I qualified for the final round and lost there. After the contest there was the announcement of results for the raffle. I heard that no. 16 (my raffle ticket no.) was also called but I did not notice and lost a precious prize like digital camera or mp3 player while I was waiting in cue for the Mexican food. The event finished at 6:30 PM. The bus dropped us back at GIST. That was a terrible day and my back was aching because of unavailability of sitting place and standing 4 hours straight.

Ramzan 2007 in GIST

This year Ramazan comes on Sep 13 in South Korea.
We have a nice gathering of Pakistani students in GIST. We all make Seher and Iftar together.
On Saturday 15th, we cooked a lot of food and invited people from all over Gwangju on Iftar. We cooked 8 chickens, boiled rice, chaat and lots of Pakoray.
On Monday 17th, Tariq bhai invited all of our mess members including Raheel, Favzihan, Aslam bhai, Fahad bhai, Fevzihan, Farrukh, Tallal, Hussain and Indonesian guy (I dont know his name) on Iftar. The food included Pakoray, chaat, apple, grapes, biryani and meethi sawaiyan. That was delicious. Thanks Tariq bhai.

ITISF, Daegu -- Aug 23-25 2007

At Kyungbook National University (KNU), Daegu, IT International Student Fair (ITISF) was held from Aug 23 to Aug 25. Many students from all over the Korea joined the fair. In the morning at 9, the buses picked us up from GIST and took us to KNU. After getting there we were assigned a room in the dormitory. My room mate was Umer. In the afternoon we went to the opening ceremony where traditional Korean singing performance was presented along with the speeches from eminent persons from Ministry of Science, IT Scholarship and KNU. The other events include job fair, presentations by companies, talent contest, martial arts performance, POSCO visit and Gyeongju visit.

Gwangju International Performing Arts Festival

On Aug 18 and 21 I went to Gwangju International Performing Arts Festival held in Gwangju Culture and Art Centre in Unam Dong area. Aug 18 Russian dance performance was spectacular. Bus 16 goes directly there from GIST. The ticket price for russian dance performance was 10000 won. On Aug 18 I went alone but on Aug 21 I went there with Umer. On Aug 21 two performances were held. First performance was by an American company called Brian Brooks Company and the second performance was from a Korean company called Soon Dance company. The ticket price was 5000 won for both performances. Since there were many seats available so we sat on the front seats even though we bought the cheapest ticket for the rear seats.

Uchi Park

Today me and Khisa went to Uchi Park from GIST on bicycles. This park is located in the north east of Gwangju city. It takes around half an hour and the entrance ticket is 1500 won. Kumho Family Land is also located besides the Uchi Park whose entrance ticket is 5000 won. Inside the family land you can enjoy many rides like roller coaster, swinging boat. There is also a maritime museum or aquarim inside whose entrance ticket is also 5000 won. Roller coaster ride costs 4000 won.