(no subject)
So, today was divided into a boring half and an awesome half.
During the boring half, I got up, went to church, in which the ENTIRE homily was about how we shouldn't chat with our neighbors when we come to church, and we should make sure we turn off our cell phones and don't take pictures during Mass. It was SO DUMB and uninspiring and I was really mad. I was like, yo, you have the temple tantrum for a Gospel and you can't do any better than that? I wrote a fourteen-page paper on the temple tantrum, so maybe I am particularly sensitive. But still. Grrr.
THEN I went to the Coffee Bean and studied Korean for two and a half hours. I drank macchiato (David likes macchiato, so I thought I'd try it) and ate pizza that I made last night. I can make pizza dough from scratch now! I didn't have any cheese though (my grocery store only sells brie and really ghetto American cheese), so I just made cheeseless pizza.
It tasted really good actually!
THEN, Paul called and my day started getting more interesting.
I went to meet him at Yongsan, which is the less expensive version of Technomart. But here's the drawback: Paul's computer, that he got there, keeps breaking because of Windows issues he can't fix. So he's had to go back three times to have them look at it. One of those times was today! Paul's AD (academy director) was supposed to come help, but it would've taken too long for him to arrive, so Paul and I just went by ourselves.
Paul's in a higher level of Korean than I am, so I got to watch him explain the problem to the computer dudes in Korean, which was really interesting. My personal goal for Korean is to be able to go up to random people and say, "Nice hat! Where'd you get it?" and understand the answer. (The understanding answers is the real issue...I have a vocabulary I can work with but all these other people can use whatever words they want, and they have no idea whether or not I can understand them.)
Well, they said it would take an hour and a half to fix, and we were both wicked hungry, so we went and got snail omurice for lunch. I have recently discovered my love for snails, and omurice is rice topped with an omelet. Good stuff, filling and interesting. The waitress asked if I was Paul's girlfriend...Koreans can be really forward about their questions. I have been ambushed twice this week by people who just come up to me and ask a series of questions on my origin and intentions in Korea.
The computer was done faster than expected, so we picked it up and then went off in search of other adventures. We'd originally planned to climb a mountain together, but it was late so we couldn't make it happen. Alas.
Instead, we went to the National Museum of Korea! (I forgot my camera, but Paul took some pictures.) Paul had told me that he'd spent five hours on one floor, but had not spent much time on the other floors. At this point I warned him about my two-hour museum limit. We saw the third floor, which was omg amazing. We started with the giant Buddha statues, including one that had a glowing bead in the middle of his forehead. We saw tiny tiny Buddha statues, and gold-covered decorations that were so intricate you would need at least a 20x microscope to fully appreciate them. You could just tell the artists totally poured their hearts into their work.
Then we saw Bangasayusang, or the Pensive Buddha, which is Korea's National Treasure #83. (There are 307, and they are numbered in order of when they were named national treasures, not in order of importance. That said, the lower numbers tend to be cooler.) Anyway. Bangasayusang is an absolutely mesmerizing piece of work. It is set in a different room, totally dark except for the light shining down on the statue. And when you look at it you feel like you are in a totally different world. I could have sat there for hours. I think some people did.
We looked at various engravings and some cool celadon ceramics and then switched to the other side of the floor, where there was an exhibit on Vietnamese art and culture, which was very different. The expressions on the people seemed a lot more varied than the Korean expressions. There were also some "sensual" pieces of Hindi art, which were indeed quite sensual but also very very beautiful.
Ok so then I was tired. We walked back to Yongsan to take our respective trains back home, but there was a cool light display at the I'Park courtyard, with dozens of trees wrapped in lights and gold leaves, two lit-up angels playing trumpets, and a picture-taking area compete with a two-story-high Eiffel Tower. Plus, we were both having such fun that we decided to hang out a bit longer. We got white hot chocolate and talked about clothes and our childhoods and things like that, and Paul took people's pictures, and we watched children being cute on a stage that could not have been used for anything cooler than that.
THEN I went home.
During the boring half, I got up, went to church, in which the ENTIRE homily was about how we shouldn't chat with our neighbors when we come to church, and we should make sure we turn off our cell phones and don't take pictures during Mass. It was SO DUMB and uninspiring and I was really mad. I was like, yo, you have the temple tantrum for a Gospel and you can't do any better than that? I wrote a fourteen-page paper on the temple tantrum, so maybe I am particularly sensitive. But still. Grrr.
THEN I went to the Coffee Bean and studied Korean for two and a half hours. I drank macchiato (David likes macchiato, so I thought I'd try it) and ate pizza that I made last night. I can make pizza dough from scratch now! I didn't have any cheese though (my grocery store only sells brie and really ghetto American cheese), so I just made cheeseless pizza.
It tasted really good actually!
THEN, Paul called and my day started getting more interesting.
I went to meet him at Yongsan, which is the less expensive version of Technomart. But here's the drawback: Paul's computer, that he got there, keeps breaking because of Windows issues he can't fix. So he's had to go back three times to have them look at it. One of those times was today! Paul's AD (academy director) was supposed to come help, but it would've taken too long for him to arrive, so Paul and I just went by ourselves.
Paul's in a higher level of Korean than I am, so I got to watch him explain the problem to the computer dudes in Korean, which was really interesting. My personal goal for Korean is to be able to go up to random people and say, "Nice hat! Where'd you get it?" and understand the answer. (The understanding answers is the real issue...I have a vocabulary I can work with but all these other people can use whatever words they want, and they have no idea whether or not I can understand them.)
Well, they said it would take an hour and a half to fix, and we were both wicked hungry, so we went and got snail omurice for lunch. I have recently discovered my love for snails, and omurice is rice topped with an omelet. Good stuff, filling and interesting. The waitress asked if I was Paul's girlfriend...Koreans can be really forward about their questions. I have been ambushed twice this week by people who just come up to me and ask a series of questions on my origin and intentions in Korea.
The computer was done faster than expected, so we picked it up and then went off in search of other adventures. We'd originally planned to climb a mountain together, but it was late so we couldn't make it happen. Alas.
Instead, we went to the National Museum of Korea! (I forgot my camera, but Paul took some pictures.) Paul had told me that he'd spent five hours on one floor, but had not spent much time on the other floors. At this point I warned him about my two-hour museum limit. We saw the third floor, which was omg amazing. We started with the giant Buddha statues, including one that had a glowing bead in the middle of his forehead. We saw tiny tiny Buddha statues, and gold-covered decorations that were so intricate you would need at least a 20x microscope to fully appreciate them. You could just tell the artists totally poured their hearts into their work.
Then we saw Bangasayusang, or the Pensive Buddha, which is Korea's National Treasure #83. (There are 307, and they are numbered in order of when they were named national treasures, not in order of importance. That said, the lower numbers tend to be cooler.) Anyway. Bangasayusang is an absolutely mesmerizing piece of work. It is set in a different room, totally dark except for the light shining down on the statue. And when you look at it you feel like you are in a totally different world. I could have sat there for hours. I think some people did.
We looked at various engravings and some cool celadon ceramics and then switched to the other side of the floor, where there was an exhibit on Vietnamese art and culture, which was very different. The expressions on the people seemed a lot more varied than the Korean expressions. There were also some "sensual" pieces of Hindi art, which were indeed quite sensual but also very very beautiful.
Ok so then I was tired. We walked back to Yongsan to take our respective trains back home, but there was a cool light display at the I'Park courtyard, with dozens of trees wrapped in lights and gold leaves, two lit-up angels playing trumpets, and a picture-taking area compete with a two-story-high Eiffel Tower. Plus, we were both having such fun that we decided to hang out a bit longer. We got white hot chocolate and talked about clothes and our childhoods and things like that, and Paul took people's pictures, and we watched children being cute on a stage that could not have been used for anything cooler than that.
THEN I went home.