Category: 2006

2006 Ottawa

a perfect circle

two years and ten days later, lunato was in Ottawa again. dooh was more than happy to be our gracious host and we stayed with him for three days and two nights. Ottawa didn’t change so much during this time.. all our favourite hang-outs were the same. Shwarma Laguna was exactly like how it was before. the meat-pie place was exactly the same with the same staff even!. Carleton’s campus changed a lot though. new hockey rinks (two of them!! sheesh, my tuition paid for all this and i can’t even use them) and major upgrades to the University centre.

we arrived in Ottawa late at night on the 29th and visited downtown with dooh for some drinks (that’s Pepsi, Sprite, and Ginger Ale.. lol) and then crashed at dooh’s apartment. saturday we spent with shekhar, andrea, diar, tony, and zaynab at T&Z’s nice cosy house in Aylmer, Quebec. actually the very first time lunato and i went somewhere together was when we visited andrea when she participated in the Fleurs de Macadam festival in Aylmer. this was back on May 30th 2003.

tony and zaynab were excellent hosts. they have a lovely house in Aylmer. we were visiting them for the first time and both lunato and i were quite impressed with it. the back deck was especially nice with its own jacuzzi. the pizza, cake, and ice cream were delicious as well.

saturday night was memorable. the clubbing scene in Ottawa might be small compared to Toronto but once the music starts and the dance floor gets crowded it is probably just like any other. as always, whenever we (shekhar, dooh, lunato, and i) gather together we reminisce about the “good ol’ days” and wish naraku was with us as well. we drank to his good health though (again, Pepsi, Red Bull, and Coke.. ah such losers :P)

after sleeping late into sunday afternoon, we packed ours bags, said tatahs to everyone, promised to visit again soon, and headed home after a quick stop at Carleton. the last time i had visited the campus, the UniCentre upgrade was still in progress. the extension of the building was complete now and it looked quite nice. the old tortuous staircase is, sadly, gone and is replaced by a much better one; one that does not force you to climb a 45Ã‚Â° incline. it was good exercise for all!!

ah Ottawa… good times.

2006 Korea

korea trip – 03 – pyeongchang and herbnara

Post author By sikander
Post date August 5, 2006
3 Comments on korea trip – 03 – pyeongchang and herbnara

Lunato’s brother’s family invited me to accompany them on a short trip to Pyeongchang and Farm Herbnara. They have a 2005 Hyundai Santa-Fe and it can easily seat 6 people. Hello first excursion outside of Seoul.

It took almost three hours to reach PyeongChang and we were pretty tired by that time. We stopped for some food at a traditional Korean restaurant (yumm!) and then spent about an hour in the city. PyeongChange is located at exactly 700 meters above sea level, an ideal altitude for winter sports. The city’s nick name is “Happy 700” and because of its ideal location, the city is bidding for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Go Happy 700!!

Farm Herbnara is a famous herb farm located close to PyeongChang. A river runs through the farm area as well and lots of people were out and about; swimming, relaxing, hiking, cooking, etc. We spent a few hours at the farm relaxing in the excellent weather. It was quite peaceful. Sunyul and Kihun swam a lot and tried to get me to join them but I don’t know how to swim so I had to decline. I must learn!

PyeongChang is also the hometown of the famous Korean novelist Lee Hyo-Seok who used the city as a background for his masterpiece “When the Buckwheat flower blossom”. The Lee Hyo-Seok Memorial was on the way back to Anyang so we stopped there as well and took some pictures of the water mill house.

We had dinner at another restaurant and then took a smaller highway, instead of the main highway which was jam packed, all the way back to Anyang. It took almost 4 hours and it was pretty late at night by the time lunato’s brother dropped us at lunato’s parent’s house.

THe northern part of South Korea is quite beautiful. I would love to visit again. Oh and here is Sunyul playing with his baseball bat: MOV01904.MPG.

2006 Korea

korea trip – 02 – anyang, south korea

Post author By sikander
Post date August 4, 2006
3 Comments on korea trip – 02 – anyang, south korea

Having landed safely in Seoul on the 2nd of August I spent the next day attempting to stay awake as long as possible so as to shift my internal cycle to 13 hours ahead in time. It’s not easy and the summer heat wasn’t helping either. But after a day I was ok and back on track.

I spent a lot of time with Kihun and Sunyul, lunato’s nephews, during the mornings while lunato was at work. I took a picture of her running off to catch her bus to go to work in the morning. Talking to a foreigner continuously in English is a daunting challenge to anyone who is not fluent in the language. However, Kihun and Sunyul faced this challenge quite enthusiastically and I could tell their english was somewhat improving.. or maybe it was just the shyness and fear of speaking awkwardly that was dissipating day by day. In any case, I was really glad to have them around.

Here are some pictures of Anyang, Seoul’s suburb, and of Kihun and Sunyul as well.