"Shop With a Reusable Bag, Bitch!"

"In truth, to have her with me once more was like a taste of heaven to a damned soul, the sweeter for the inevitable doom that was to follow; and I rejoiced in being able to waste two whole days with her."

Experimenting.

The neurons in our eyes are silent in light, and fire in darkness.

Because you can't deny that she looks like she wants you to tease her, while at the same time she looks most chaste. Can you reconcile a face that gives two conflicting impressions, while at the same time there is no expression, no hint of a smile, to be seen?
A Mona Lisa on four legs. Every minx of a woman in feline form. And maybe through some trick of evolution, there is a bit of cat in every female biped.

Part 9

The final installment.

First hand at a panorama of the "heart" of the Tongdosa temple back in parts 1-4.

A famous Dongaksu (fried breaded pork cutlet) place we went to. Honestly, not so great. I am not a big fan of sauce and it was slathered all over my plate. Amazing portions though.

Despite being a great "meatetarian", I could not finish this.

Trip around National Congress buildings. With NO explanation whatsoever about what we were looking at, and unbelievable glare cutting into my eyes (even though it doesn't look sunny) so I didn't care to ask, it was pretty damn boring.
That was the worst sentence I've written anywhere here. I'm ashamed to call myself an English tutor.

One of the supporting pillars of the KBS building. I don't know if it was because we went on a Sunday, but it's a pretty unused and almost derelict building. I did have a little stroke of inspiration for an article later about how famous people are not really famous. All these Korean superstars are limited to this little peninsula. I'll bet even George Clooney is only known by half the country, and even that half only has a vague idea of who is he (and this guy is a superstar). It's kind of...humbling I guess, to know that fame is so limited.

But holograms are always cool.

The National Palace Museum of Korea in 경복겅 (Gyoengbokgung) Palace. It is massive.

Changing of the guard. One of the guys actually swatted a kid's hand down when she made a pose. I guess he was feeling irritable that morning.

Part of Jogyesa Order Headquarters.

Cute baby Buddha after he's been born. I don't recall what the hand symbols mean, but the nine dragons on the bottom are from the story of how he was born (the dragons bathed him in foam/water).

Ceiling decoration. I put the camera on the floor for this shot.

Old post-office exhibit.

Postman's hat.

We made "lotus" lanterns.

And as I was laden with luggage, all alone, waiting for my flight, I wandered into a souvenir shop at the airport. I'd believe Koreans drink enough to actually use these charms.

The end!

I was skeptical of the trip at first, but I think it was one of the most meditative experiences I've ever had. That was not because of the Buddhist overtones, but because I got to get away from everything and everyone I knew and could think about whatever I saw for once. I'm not sure when the next opportunity for that will come. When I came back, aside from the intense jetlag, I felt mentally refreshed. I got down a lot of observations about life and people in my journal. I learned a bit more about what kind of person I am and what kind of people I like. And I like to think that I learned a little bit more on how to be more confident of myself.

All in all, good things. Here's to another trip!

Part 8

52 pictures is too many for one post, so it's going to be split in two.

Last photo from Insadong.

Okay, this is the real last one. Strange seeing mountains in the distance.

Nice steps up to National Museum

Some great artifacts.

Cheonggyecheon (청계천) Creek. This river is like an avenue, it just stretches on and on and on. It was actually a very good landmark for me as I wandered around early in the morning. According to wikipedia, there was a lot of public opposition. I really can't see why. The river was here before and my parents told me it was a hobo-dump before. It's good for tourism and gentrification, who would want that?

What's surprising is how wild it is despite all the concrete. There are some sections of the creek that are so surrounded by tall bush that you can't see over it and some cranes find shelter there. It's a nice place to stretch out and relax, but not much else to do.

I finally figured out how to deal with this weather. I need to use either a polarizing filter or a neutral gradient density filter and longer exposures. Finally, I understand what that thing is for!

A bit saturated in photoshop to give more color.

River at night. A lot more exciting than in the daytime.

Along the creek-avenue, a momument to King Sejong the Great, who invented the modern Korean alphabet.

A drive through the most beautiful upscale neighbrohood in Korea I saw so far, and we came here. It's a tea shop once again. I think it was actually a headquarters for the late Myung Won, responsible for reviving Korea tea culture. I'm a bit confused as to if her real name is that or if that's some sort of a title since I'm pretty sure 김미히 is her real name. The man leading us through the demonstration was from New Jersey, good joke.

Putting on the traditional dress. I thought the guy's costumes were so handsome.

I have the most incomprehensible notes in my journal about the tea ceremony, let me try to dechiper them:
"I had the best green tea while I was in Korea. I had no idea we even had a tea culture, let alone a really strong one that people seem to take seriously...
...green tea needs water at around 80 degrees, so you usually have to let the water cool down a little...

My one-handed painting

"Always using 2 hands and closed fingers, you take water and put it in the cups to wash them out, then the water is dumped into the waste bowl.

Oh, also, you put the stands down near your right knee, and the lids of the pots on those. To pour, you hold the lid of the pot down with your thumb.

Then you really start, pouring about a third into the cooling
pot, then the teapot, then a third into your guest's cup, yours, yours again. and your guest.
Place this onto the nearby serving table, then take 3 sips, contemplating the taste.
After, I don't quite remember, but you share the tea again..."

The end, we got some 술떡 (beer rice cakes? or maybe just alcohol rice cakes). They smelled a storm, but didn't taste like anything dangerous.

I antiqued a picture of these two.

This picture courtesy of 금빛언니, who also served as a tourguide for us. Her name was really striking, it means "gold light". This is us in a bowing contest, haha.
I swear, it took me 5 minutes to ask my mom how to spell "Gold" in Korean because she kept misunderstanding and writing down the phonetic Korean spelling for gold in English, (Gol-Duh). Finally, I had to yell at her, "No, REAL KOREAN GOLD!" and somehow that made a lot more sense. Good laughs afterward.