Monday, June 13, 2011

A Belated Cherry Blossom Post

All right, so I've decided, since I have about three metric tons of photographs (which is quite a feat, as digital files don't weigh very much) that I will just start posting short, image-heavy entries in this blog until I get caught up. So, have some cherry blossoms!

You can see cherry trees blooming all over Korea from early April to about the first week or so of May. The trees themselves only bloom for a couple weeks each before all the flowers fall off, but different trees in different regions bloom at different times, stretching the cherry blossom season out to about a month. Or at least, that's how it was this year. And man, it was gorgeous.

Cherry blossoms have a very delicate, sweet scent, and in such high concentrations it was like a soft perfume hanging in the air all the time. When the flowers fell to the ground at season's end, they created an even stronger but not unpleasant aroma as they rapidly decomposed.

Walking down the street, it was as though the trees were supporting great, sweet-smelling clouds of pinkish white. Absolutely breathtaking.

Anyway, on to the photos. Some of these I took with my iPod, most with the good camera.

Taken with iPod near my school and apartment:







Night time:




View from my apartment roof:





Down my alley/street:















That's my apartment building there.



Sick of these yet?





Have some close-ups!




The local park puts up lanterns around this time of year to decorate for Festival Season (which is, apparently, every weekend between April once the cherry blossoms come out and whenever it gets cold again).







And that's pretty much it. Next post, I'll start in on Chris' visit. There will be a few more cherry blossom pics, I'm sure, but Chris will be in some of them this time.

Enjoy your mountain of picspam. Hopefully it won't crash the blog (or your computer).


Cheers,

-Maria

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Still Alive

Not quite a Portal reference (okay, it was), but just a quick post here to let you all know I'm still alive. It's just been a bit hectic lately. Every time I've sat down to write a new blog post, I've either been stumped as to where I should begin, or just so cripplingly homesick and stressed that everything comes out as a long-winded whinefest. So, now I've put off posting for about two months.

I'm not sure I'm up for writing a full post even now, but I figured I should give you guys a preview of what I'm meant to be writing.

So, in our next episode(s?) of Hold the Kimchee:

-I will post about the cherry blossoms, pictures included!
-I will post an outline and photos of my boyfriend Chris' visit to Korea.
-I will post various other random photos I've taken lately and the stories that go with them. I don't even remember everything that's happened lately offhand, but the pictures and videos will jog my memory.
-I will discuss fainting and associated problems.
-I will give a shout out to my new friends.

And that should get me caught up. I intend to get this blog post up by next weekend. Because other stuff will be happening next weekend, so I'll want to blog about that as well.

All right, I think that's all I've got steam to write for now, so signing off.

Cheers,

-Maria