Wandering, learning, sharing...

Mont Saint Michel

nathanhendrix — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 17:30:24 +0000

Mont Saint Michel

Tidal waters, and the causeway leading to Mont Saint Michel.

View from the ramparts, overlooking the bay.

Bleu, blanc, rouge.

Crosses.

Black Abbey

Hail Mary... (if thats Mary)

Do monks ever food fight?

Sinking Sand Sunrise.

1) Copy old ads. 2) Put them in postcard format. 3) Resell to tourists.

Abbey, pre tourist time.

Abbey, post tourist time.

Entrance gate, 11pm.

Mont Saint Michel by night.

Korea Ice Fishing

nathanhendrix — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 06:47:37 +0000

Forty-four. The number of minutes temperature in Seoul rose above freezing in January. Whether that number is completely accurate is irrelevant; Korea can be a cold place. And when it gets cold enough, ice fishing becomes a weekend outing alternative.

One of my friends is from Sinnam (신남) in Gangwondo, not too far from Inje. The man-made Soyangho Lake lies right behind my friend’s house.

Soyangho Lake. Frozen.

Ice-fishing enthusiasts.

Nothing says fishing like snow and ice.

You might wonder how thick the ice is, and what happens if it cracks and you fall through. I don’t really know the answer to the latter part, but the ice sheet appeared to be about 6 inches thick. And nobody fell through that day.

Cracks.

First step: get this guy to drill a hole in the ice for you.

Next, sit as such:

Then, stare at your bobber and wait. You might notice the odd-looking, helix-shaped fishing device and be surprised at its small size. The fish that people are after is the finger-sized 빙어, or pond smelt. Wikipedia tells me that it’s a freshwater species that inhabits the Arctic.

Denton was lucky enough to nab four of these small creatures. He then proceeded to pretend to eat it.

Pretending led to an idea, and this idea turned into a plan. A plan to eat a live pond smelt.

As you might imagine, as small as it may be, eating a live fish with no sauce isn’t particularly tasty. Most people eat the pond smelt fried and it’s much better as such.

2010 Beaudex Body Painting Competition

nathanhendrix — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 12:59:41 +0000

One of my friends entered a body painting competition, and invited me along. Most of my photos are of travel, so this was a nice change. Six hours shooting at the Kintex in Ilsan, and this is what I came up with.

All the photos were shot with either the Sigma fixed 50mm, or the Sigma 10-20mm. No zoom lenses, no flash.

Prep time:

And the final results:

And now for the show:

Here and there

nathanhendrix — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 01:24:07 +0000

My new job has severely impeded my photo-taking.

Until I post a new proper set of pictures, here are some I took here and there over the past few months.

Haven in Seoul

Women & Water

Einstein would have had a blast in Hongdae.

Soju: Poison or Tonic?

Chillin' (and suckin' on a Lifesaver?)

Game Over?

Puzzling.

Local Drug Ad.

Last Days at Korea University

nathanhendrix — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 03:31:10 +0000

My time at Korea University is already over. Learning Korean was extremely useful to me, and it was nice taking classes at such a big university. A few weeks ago they had a big concert, Ipselenti, that they hold annually. The students use the occasion to put their cheering on display.

Plastic bags, cheering devices

Honestly, I was shocked at the cheering, at the choreography, the unison…really cool! I can’t upload any of my videos on here, but if you want to see what it looks like live, click here.

Rally around the flag

Sea of red and black

Getting pumped for the World Cup

Devil. Tiger. Korea University.

Forget lighters, it's the cell phone age.

Several bands performed, including Crying Nut and f(x), but I was especially glad to see one of my favorite Korean bands, Leessang, show up.

A few people

Swords

Winding things up...

Chinese students I studied with. Oh, and Korea University’s mascot is a tiger.

Meow.

Sokcho

nathanhendrix — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 10:43:26 +0000

Headed to Sokcho a couple of months ago.

My friend’s family has a cow farm, so I took a few shots out in the barn.

Beef, It's What's For Dinner. Well, next year.

Strive

Is it just me, or is the one on the right staring me down?

In a pickle.

There goes the corn... Powerful nostrils.

Sokcho is at the base of Seoraksan, Korea’s third highest mountain.

Star

Big Bronze Buddha

Before coming to Korea, I hadn’t really heard of a hiking and drinking tradition. I guess it does make the way down a bit more exciting.

막걸리, to be consumed in bowls.

One of the appeals of Sokcho is its proximity to both the mountains and the beach.

Seven

And I guess I have a thing for shadows.

"I'll have two of those, please."

We had a barbecue at my friend’s house. The vegetables at the bottom left were especially good, but I have no idea what they’re called.

Sides

We drove up to the DMZ (demilitarized zone between North and South Korea) , and got to have a bleak view of the North.

Eyes

I might be the only one that finds this amusing:

Don't Swig and Swim

Best of Nepal

nathanhendrix — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:52:33 +0000

Bad weather and a busy schedule have kept me away from my camera for awhile. So I thought I’d post my favorite pictures taken in Nepal. Hard to believe that was over two years ago… If you were tired of Korean pictures, I hope you’ll enjoy these.

Sigur Ros – Staralfur :

First off, my favorite picture. A beautiful, hilarious little girl I met while riding a bike around the Chitwan National Park.

Happiness

We did a lot of riding on top of buses. Comfort and the good view overruled safety. Just be sure to watch out for trees, and be prepared to jump off.

Tata

The next few pictures were taken in areas around Dharan.

Necklace family

Before.

After.

Hard work

Before going to Nepal, I had no idea that the country had jungles, tigers and elephants. The Chitwan National Park is definitely worth going to.

Bike, school kids

Lonely bird

We decided to go on a walking tour of the park. Our guide had a stick, just in case we came across a rhino or tiger.

Large reptile

Decor

And our guide wasn’t messing around when he told us it’d be a good idea to wear boots…

Leech attack

This was my first experience with leeches, and hopefully the last. Pulling up your pants only to discover blood trickling down your legs and suckers feeding on you…hey, it happens.

Left-overs...

The next picture is not good at all…but the experience it represents is unforgettable. We were walking through tall grass (above our heads) when we heard a series of grunts. And sure enough, there was a rhino facing us. It took off running, and so did I…with my heart beating a little faster than usual. Instructions when a rhino is chasing you: run in zig-zags and drop stuff as you go. At least that’s what I was told.

Freeze!

A good way to wake up in the morning is climbing on elephants, and bathing with them.

Trunks

Elephant polo, anyone?

Next destination, Pokhara, a quiet city at the base of the Annapurna.

Beef: It's What's Not For Dinner

It happened to be Diwali when we were there, and unfortunately this is my only decent picture of the festival.

Light, celebrated

That’s the Annapurna range in the background with the “Fishtail” in the middle, nearly 7,000m high.

Chillin'

Wrinkles

Simon Says

Curiosity

Went on a three day trek at the base of the Annapurna, and stayed in a couple of villages. This man and his family hosted Ben and I for the night:

Tea Time

I imagine this laundry smells very, very good.

Proud father

P.S. Sorry for the slight blur in some of the pictures. I lowered the quality of the pictures for faster loading time, but I guess that was a mistake.

Hyehwa Benefit Concert

nathanhendrix — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:05:16 +0000

My friends Hyung Ook and Gwon Won organized a benefit concert in Daehangno, my new neighborhood. Proceeds went to providing books for rural schools in Nepal.

Pluck and saw

Harmony

Gwon Won

Bless You

"You raise me up..."

Those two girls sing in musicals. Great, powerful voices. But as a side note, it’s a bit intimidating going to a noraebang (karaoke room) with them.

Mime

This girl has a beautiful voice, and sang a song titled “You’re My Universe”. I liked it so much I went online to find it. Turns out she wrote it herself…I’ll try to get my hands on it and post it sometime.

Center of attention

Alex

I’m not the type of person that gets easily surprised or impressed (understatement?). But the following act really did blow me away. This little girl can play the saxophone. Very well. They introduced her in Korean, so I couldn’t catch everything…but from what I understood she has serious health problems, and is nearly blind. She can’t read music, so just listens and replicates.

Amazing. Truly.

Finale

Gwon Won’s daughters performed in the finale. Very cute, and talented.

A good team

It also happened to be her birthday:

생일축하해

Then we were off to the after-party.

혜화동사람들

Good times

One not-so-funny thing was when everybody started clapping and chanting my name to sing John Denver’s Country Roads. I’m more than cool singing that in the noraebang. Not so much in front of singers and so many people. Thanks Nick. Payback time.

Please don't stop the music...

Remember?

물담배 친구

nathanhendrix — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:09:23 +0000

Here are a few random shots of friends.

Choo Choo

If you’re interested in some good shisha/hookah bars in Seoul, just let me know.

Cigarette

Heads Tails Heads Tails...

That was Gwendal, spinning stuff at one of my favorite hangouts in Hyehwa. Directions are here.

At a cafe in Jongno I happened to stumble upon Little Red Riding Hood:

Shake & Spin

The next two pictures were taken when I went to Gangwondo last weekend. If you don’t know the card blowing game, you’re missing out.

Soju + Cards = Fun

참

Paella in Seoul

nathanhendrix — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 04:57:34 +0000

Here’s the story. My Korean friend found a lost Spaniard on a bus in Seoul. The Spaniard is a cook in Tokyo, and was on a quick visa run to Korea. My Korean friend put me in touch with the Spaniard, and in turn, I got in touch with my friend who runs a restaurant/bar. We decided we’d have a Spanish cuisine night at the Korean restaurant. Here are those pictures.

Getting things ready

Cooks in action

The menu: Spanish tortilla, mejillones (mussels) and paella. I was too busy eating to take shots of every dish, but it sure was a good meal…even more so since it had been a few years since I’d had paella.

Mejillones

The Spaniard, Cook Extraordinaire

Gwon Won, restaurant owner.

Working on the paella

Incidentally, the only Spanish person I know in Korea happens to be from the same little town in Andalusia as the cook.

Andalusia 친구

Paella in Korea, a first.

Here’s another story. This made me realize how much my Spanish sucks now. The End.