Beopjusa & Liberation Day

This week has been a good one so far (not that I have really had any bad ones yet). This past three day weekend was great; I did lots of stuff during those days and got a substantial amount of much-needed sleep. There's nothing better than waking up and feeling well-rested for once...something I don't usually feel very often, being a borderline insomniac and all. Ah well...but yes, the weekend was good.

Let's see...I already reported on Friday and Saturday...

Sunday I was contemplating taking a trip somewhere out of town, just so I could get back to nature for a while and breathe fresh air within an abundance of green grass and trees. So come Sunday morning I hopped on a bus to the nearest inter-city terminal and boarded another bus that would take me to the province of Chungcheonbuk-do which is home to Songnisan Park, my ultimate destination (about 3 1/2 hours south of Seoul). I had wanted to hike around the entire park but only had time to go see the Buddhist temple located in the very center (Beopjusa). After I toured around the temple grounds I had dinner at a nearby restaurant, walked back to the bus terminal and headed home. The temple itself was magnificent; it is host to one of the largest Buddha statues in eastern Asia. As always, I took lots of pictures (of course).

Monday I just decided to hop on a bus and see where it would take me. I boarded a bus in the direction of downtown and got off when I spotted some traditional Korea buildings up on a hill along the road. It turns out that I had happened upon Namsangol Hanok Village which is a small park that features traditional Korean houses and crafts. I only walked around there for a little while since it was rather hot that day, after which I again started walking back downtown towards Jongno (the main downtown area). Once I started getting closer I realized that a lot of the streets were closed off and there was a ton of people gathering around City Hall. I had forgotten that that day was Korean National Liberation Day (kind of like our 4th of July), and they were holding lots of festivities downtown in honor of the day.

I walked past at least two make-shift stages where performers were either playing or getting ready to play, as well as people setting up fireworks for later that evening. By that time I was starving so I decided to try this little Japanese restaurant that I came across right near the Jogyesa BuddhistTemple that I visited a few weeks ago. Compared to the taste and prices of Japanese food back home, this little hole-in-the-wall restaurant was fantastic! The food was awesome and there was nothing on the menu that was over 8,000 won ($8)...gotta love Korea. After dinner and a bit of reading (I finished Harry Potter and am now reading 100 Years of Solitude) I once again walked back to Myeong-dong and hiked up the stairs to the top of Mt. Namsan (for about the billionth time). Not wanting to stick around for the crowds to disperse from the festivities I quickly high-tailed it back down the mountain and grabbed the next bus home.

And that was the end of my weekend... Next weekend I'm going to take a day trip to Olympic Park which is located in eastern Seoul. It's boasted to be one of the world's top five sculpture parks so it should be really cool. I also wanna visit Lotte World sometime soon, but I think I might save that for when Adam or Josh are here just cause it's more something you do with a group of people, not on your own.

Oh! Also, my friend Joe (military guy) should be arriving here in Seoul either today or tomorrow cause he's being stationed here for the next month or so...so I'm thinking another night of soju might be in order. I hope he doesn't just wanna hang out in Itaewon the whole time though. Boring... But anyway, he's supposed to call when he gets in town, or so Mags said. It'll be so weird seeing someone from St. Louis over here though, cause it seems like this place has become so detached from that of my life on St. Louis. I don't think it'll fit seeing someone from home here, but I guess I'll soon find out.

And as usual...

downtown Gangnam

the Korean countryside

in the heart of the Songnisan Mountains

ah...the green open spaces of Songnisan

the gate to Beopjusa Temple

almost looks like Montauk doesn't it?

piles of rocks near the temple (for good luck I think)

the inner gate to the temple

another one of those big guardian statues

a pagoda

the very tall statue of Buddha

the bell and drum

a monk performing some kind of ritual

one of the many statues of Buddha within the temple buildings

a carving of Buddha on a cliff wall

a strange thing to see for sale on the grounds of a Buddhist temple...

pretty...

the view of the mountains from the park

the Korean village I came across yesterday

a woman pounding rice for rice cakes

inside one of the houses

the exterior

a serene shot of the garden

the front of City Hall, plastered with Korean flags in honor of Liberation Day

one of the concerts downtown

the other concert in front of Namdaemun Gate

downtown this evening

Imagine that...the Venus de Milo here in Seoul, right next to a Family Mart convenience store.

sleep, or lack thereof

Right now it's pretty late and I'm just laying here in my room munching on some sushi I brought home from E-Mart this evening. It's pretty tasty I must say (and much better than the poor excuse for sushi that you might find at the grocery stores back home. Plus this was way cheaper too...I got a whole little box-full of tasty sushi for 4,000 won (about $4.00). Yummy...

Today I woke up waaaayyy later than I wanted to, at about 3:30pm actually, but only because I stayed out all night again last night. It kinda sucks though cause when I wanna hang out with people on the weekends I either have to stay out all night or crash at a friend's place. Of course this wouldn't be a problem if I was able to take the subway or bus home after midnight. But since the subway and buses stop running at that time I'm usually stuck until 6am when they all start up again. Last night was no exception.

To begin though, yesterday evening I met up with that Jason guy for dinner with him and some of his friends from Suji. We went to this little Mexican place in Samsung Plaza called "LaMerce" (or something like that I think). Suprisingly, the fajitas I ordered were fantastic, even rivaling some of the fajitas I've had back home. Overall I give Korean Mexican food a very enthusiastic two thumbs up!

Anyway, after that I left them all to meet up with Chelsea and her friends at WA Bar in Suji. It was a fun evening really. A bunch of us grabbed some tables outside and spent much of the time discussing politics and foreign policy (if you can believe that). I even ended up with a couple of pints of free Guinness (thanks again Mike)! The evening was only slightly marred when some British guys started vehemently discussing the reasons why America is such an awful country. Though I didn't believe that everything they said was based in truth (obviously) I could see where they were coming from and appreciated the debate. Still though, they managed to really piss off one of the other girls there (an American of course) and she stormed out without so much as a word of goodbye to the rest of us. By that time I was fairly tired of said discussion and just wanted to start heading home. At this point it was already about 4am so I figured I didn't really have that much time to go before the buses started running again. I said goodbye to the few remaining people there and hailed a cab to take me back to Ori Station where I was hoping to take the same bus back home that I had rode out there the night before. Unfortunately I couldn't find the stop for that same bus going in the other direction so I decided to wait it out and take the subway home at 6. In the meantime I went to one of those kimbap places and had a breakfast of bibimbap and kimchi, all the while reading the new Harry Potter book that my my friend Erin lent me. At about 6:05 I hopped on the subway and headed home.

But like I said, I slept until late today and only really got outside at about 5pm. I went to Yongsan this evening in search of bootleg DVD vendors cause I had wanted to buy some movies to watch (since I knew I'd be up all night again tonight and would have nothing to do). After Yongsan I went to Myeong-dong and once again climbed Mt. Namsan (it's such good exercise after all!). Following that I took the bus back to my neighborhood and walked around there for a while cause I still wasn't tired. Failing to make myself sleepy I resigned to come home and read more Harry Potter (not that I'm complaining). And so here I am...

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get up at a decent hour and get out to enjoy the day. This is another three day weekend cause there's a holiday on Monday (Liberation Day), so I'm hoping to do something fun. I was toying with the idea of taking a train down to Busan, but I probably won't considering I'm going out of town soon for that thing with the teachers from my school. So maybe I'll just roam around or meet up with some friends and go do something. Who knows?

And of course...some pictures of stuff!

our table at WA Bar last night

a new restaurant opening in my neighborhood today
(notice the scantily-clad girls designed to lure in unsuspecting customers...)

a shot I took from the bus of some cool-looking building (not sure what)

the exterior of Yongsan Station

inside Yongsan Station

the courtyard at Yongsan

the view from the very tip-top of Mt. Namsan (which was actually accesible tonight)

Looks like the pig is mooning you doesn't it? Makes me really wanna eat there...not.

this beautiful wedding dress I saw in a store window tonight, very old-fashioned

a red bean paste-filled steamed dumpling I had for dessert tonight (YUM!)

scary...almost all the churches here sport these neon crosses atop their spires...looks kinda eerie to me

and finally...the Costco near my school
(I'm going to get a membership there after I get paid again)