Parks: Good. Dentists: Bad

So I went to the dentist today. I have 4 cavaties, which oddly enough are not the same cavaties the last dentist found. Not sure what to make of that but I'll just leave it alone. Unfortunetely the cleaning and cavaties aren't covered by insurance. I have no idea why the cleaning isn't but the cavaties is because I want white fillings. Bummer. But its still cheaper than back home. I did the cleaning today and the cavaties are next week. They aren't that bad though. One is "small" and the other 2 are "medium". Luckily the clinic is literally around the corner from my school on the same floor and the nurse and doctor speak decent English.

Now on with the fun stuff,

Last night I met up with Hee Jin and 3 of her friends in Hyewa. I can't remember their names for the life of me. They were among some of the most difficult to pronounce Korean names I've encountered yet..\ We attempted the Western naming thing again, as I did with the last friend of Hee Jin's I met, "Summer" (Sun-mi). I named 2 with ease and the other guy, I couldn't quite figure out a name suitable. We ended the night vaguely calling him Kutcher after him saying he should be named Ashton Kutcher (he was quite a joker). Ashton didn't fit. lol. The other 2 are Jordan and Amelia. Amelia didn't speak any English but the boys did. All these photos are shot on Amelia's camera which is a Canon nicer than mine and got my gears a turning in the old head about all the camera stuff I want to buy but shouldn't.... We went to the park after having some coffee (well, I had a green tea frap) and climbed up this steep hill and about a billion stairs to this park with a beautiful view. We each drank a Cass (the Bud Light of Korea) and had dried squid as a snack. I wasn't a fan (too sweet) but I found it wonderful all the same that squid would be a beer snack. Ahhh Korea...




Out side the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf with "Jordan"






with.... Kutcher?





Hee Jin, Kutcher, Amelia and Jordan


Of course I got ahold of the camera and had them do my typical ghostly shots.










Grabbed the camera again and changed the settings to get more of the view in!




And no night of playing with a camera can be complete without jumping photos...







Heading back down.

What can Monica do in a week in Seoul?

Happy Birthday Jennifer! We need to find a time to skype chat soon!









What can be done in a week in Seoul?

Well a hell of a lot aparently with overtime for phone teaching, going away parites, welcome parties, birthday parties, weddings, and you know... general life. Things just keep on moving...


Here is a rundown of my week:



Monday
-Ate dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant with Marika and saw "The Ugly Truth". The food was good but damn do I miss Little Saigon!

Tuesday
-Went to Julie's going away party at Metro bar.

-My memory won't tell me what happened before the party... Not because I drank (I didn't) but because I had just worked 20 hours in 2 days...

Wednesday
-Was mostly vegging. Possibly ate mandu and kimbap solo for dinner?

-Went for a walk with Jin.

Thursday
-Rode my bike to school and back. Realized the way there makes me want to do it every day, and the way back home makes me want to run people over and throw my bike over the side of a mountain. Can anyone walk in a straight line around here? Or decide which side of the sidewalk each direction should go?

-Studied Korean more than most days (at least an hour or so at school after my work day ended)

-I think this was the night we went to Cheers and welcomed the new girl, Erica, but I might be confusing days...

Friday
-Jin's show/Frank's birthday at 1971 Guitar bar.

-Food afterwards at some random place down a side street

-Used the smallest "bathroom" ever, guided by our waitress who grabbed my hand and ran me there (around the corner from the place)after realizing my perfectly excecuted (yeah right) "Where is the bathroom?" in Korean was followed by blank stares as you see, I have not yet learned to understand the answer...

-Crashed at Jin and Frank's to save on taxi fare

Saturday
-Woke up early to go home not knowing what time the wedding started

-Went to a traditional Korean wedding of my coworker Matt and his wife. Ate way too much at the buffet after and talked to Layne's friend Tim about how he likes living in a small town near the sea and working way less than me. Toyed with the idea of taking his job for my second year! haha...

-Went on a ridiculously long shopping escapade with Lexi where on the way, we happened upon some sort of pet shop row and got super depressed. And saw a cat that did the exact face of Puss in Boots from Shrek. Only it was real and its face was like 2 inches big. And you know things are cuter when smaller. I spent too much money but on the other hand I brought almost no winter clothes so they weren't frivolous purchases.

-Came home long enough to change and record some videos... but all the covers I did sucked cus my voice wasn't warmed up. Jumped the gun and got too excited cus I hadn't played guitar or sang all week!

-Went to Itaewon for drinks and dinner. A woman on the subway told Layne to stop talking so loud and we were all kind of dumbfounded cus she wasn't talking particularly loud! It was kinda funny if it wasn't so rude. We dodged Itaewon pretty quick, too many military folks and girls dressing like they want people to think they are Russian hookers. I felt like I never left Orlando for a minute there. Ugh. Foreigners.

-Hopped over to Hongdae by taxi and fought with the ridiculously large crowds at sensations and Gogos. Encoutnered crazy foriengers dancing with a manequin head. Why?

-HeeJin crashes with me to save on taxi fair

Sunday
-Had Korean "breakfast" or really lunch, with HeeJin. Picked a different restaurant after we tried a sample soup at another restaurant and totally walked out after they brought out all the service sides and water because I didn't like the soup! That would not be tollerated back home. Glorious.

-Met a photographer/hair dresser who took some polaroids of me and gave me a free haircut in the fanciest salon I've ever encountered. He was very cool and there was a whole studio above the salon, and roof access! There was a beautiful assistant, clad with a walkie talkie ear peace by his side at all times whislt cutting my hair. The two jointly combed tangles out of my hair and blow dried it! I felt like a princess. Salons here are quiet. For whatever reason he only tried to make chit chat while I couldn't hear cus I had 2 blowdryers in my ears! I think Dad would prefer that huh? No loud gossip going on. We are going to do portfolio work together!

-Wandered to an unknown mountainous park near the salon alone (and wearing sandals with a slight heal) and had a quiet lunch and watched the Ajumas and Ajashis climbing up and down the hills in their full climbing getups and sneakers. (Older women and men for those unfamiliar with the terms). I must have looked insane sitting on the rocky clay, fresh haircut, skinny jeans, newly bought towel underneath me eating this thing called "Cheese and Cheese" that most definitely DIDN'T have cheese in it, and reading "The World Awaits: How to Travel Far and Well" (which inspired the solo park journey in the first place) as I swated the most giant mosquitos off me ever.

-Home now writing this blog and telling myself "I will go to sleep early and remember to return that late video in the morning!" (Oh and I finally got to watch the season premiere of House)


And over the whole week total I somehow also:

-Worked over 47 hours
-Watched the Little Mermaid in Korean... possibly twice?
-Showered (crazy right?)
-Ate meals (even weirder!)
-Studied Korean


And I'm certain I could have squeezed in more today if I hadn't done the Korean narcoleptic thing and totally passed out at 6 pm on the subway ride home from the park. Hence laying down and watching TV all tonight and listening to my body when it said "CHILL OUT!"


Some photos from Saturday in Hongdae thanks to Lexi:

Upstairs part of Gogos before it got crowded. HeeJin and her friend from school, Lexi, and I.


I know. You thought you'd never see the day I'd be in some sort of sweater dress mutant baby. But here I am.







Only 4 days of work until Lexi and I do our trip for Chusok! (korean thanksgiving). Lame we only get 3 days off but they are gunna rock! I know the Monday after is gunna whip around and hit me in the dead before I know it and it will be off to planning my winter break trip. Hence this blog at this moment because... Well it won't be long before another monster of a blog of this upcoming island trip!


And here's a video for the heck of it. Trying to be less paranoid about sucking and just record and practice and play in front of people more anyway. There are multimilionaire musical super stars that suck sometimes (or even all the time) so I guess its ok for me too sometimes.

Filler

So I was really determined to have that Temple Stay blog up but I've seriously been editing photos and making the videos for a couple hours and lost stamina. The massive blog has defeated me and I must finish another night. So here are some random videos I made tonight having nothing at all to do with temples or Korea.


Cover of the song "Reason to Love You" by Meiko








My attempt at reading a Korean book. How embarrassing... If you are Korean and somehow are on my blog. Just don't watch. It will hurt your ears. :)










And why not one more song. Ignore the fact that I'm 24 and already have a pretty developed furrowed brow... by the time I'm 50 there will be technology to just get a new face so I'm not really that worried about it. ;)




Let me take you back to 1995:

Merril Bainbridge- Mouth







And can I actually hear from you people for once? Stop being trolls and talk to me! Chances are, if you are reading this, and you miss me, or at least were curious enough about my life to read this, then I'm feeling much this same...


I'm soooo roooommmmnly... so rooowwwnllly...

;)

Temple Stay/DMZ - Video and Photo Extravaganza!!!!!!!

Temple Stay: August 29-30th Bubheungsa Temple

Excuse my rambling:

(I made it really low quality because... its long and you don't really need to see me all that well...)









Also you can see a video of us doing the bows courtesy of adventure Korea! Also a lot of the photos you see that are the group doing meditation I got from them too. :) Some from Lexi as well.

VIDEO HERE

It pays to be the nerds in the front. Remember. These are the types of bows we did 108 of on the first night. And throughout the whole stay.



Enjoy:






Day 1:


Here are some sights from the river trekking.












Could have stayed here all day, or all week for that matter.










This is the practice temple made for temple stay where we did most of the activities. I didn't get many photos of the other temples we bowed and meditated at because they were far up the hill and we were mostly there in the dark.


Talking to us before the walking meditation.


Leave the shoes behind...



Meditate and walk. Enjoy nature.



This was the best part! Yell out the remaining stress!



Wash your feet!



Lunch time. You have to eat everything you get.

My eyes were bigger than my stomach but I made it!


Drum ceremony:


So I think forgot to put this part in the video. We each got to go up and hit the giant bell and make a wish. It makes such a loud sound you can feel the vibrations. I was so concerned about hitting it right I forgot to make my wish! But I guess I was thinking about it before my turn so it still counts right??




The sun was setting and there wasn't enough light! I knew I should have put on the flash. But is kinda nice, like a dream.


Mid bow:



The paper we were supposed to do the chants off of. None of us could keep up... esp since you are doing bows at the same time!



Last photo I took the first night before leaving my camera to go up to the beautiful temple and do the 108 bows. Recognize it? That's right, Sister Act (2?). They showed this video and another one of animals that shed their skin to teach us about.... well the Sister Act clip was to show how joy spreads. The skin shedding was about how you have to shed the old to have the new. Like how you have to empty a cup of water before you can pour a fresh cup.

After this off to the Jeokmyulbogung Temple to do our 108 bows and then sleep in another little place near it, at the top of a very steep hill. Sooo tired after all that! The temple has the ashes of Buddha in it I think? Though I'm not sure which Buddha. Some things def got lost in translation. Pretty sad I didn't get any shots of it. Lexi had some on facebook but it looks like they are gone? Might have to track them down later.


DAY 2:


Before the 5 am meditation. I'm so tired! In the Yaksajeon temple.
Back down to the practice temple again before breakfast. Katrina can sleep anywhere I think!



Traditional breakfast time! We are all so exhausted.



Here is the pickled radish and water I had to drink. You can't really see but there are food particles and stuff in there. It was not tasty. And then after the bowls are cleaned they stack into each other.

Making the lotus lanterns!


These rock stacks were all over the temple grounds it was so cool.

Trail up to one of the temples.






I can't seem to do a trip without these jumping photos. :)


We didn't do anything in this temple but it was closer than the other and it was cool looking so we stopped for photos.


One of the nice temples. This is where we did the 5 am meditation. Still not as pretty as the one we did the 108 bows in. Oh well.

Yaksajeon:



Inside the temple. You can see the Golden statues and above us are lotus lanterns with tags... not sure what for? And then on the sides you can see hundreds of dream pouches hanging. We hung ours up later on the opposite side.



The monk Sunim, doing the box knot for me.


This is the photo Sunim took:
After this we did a ceremony where we hung up the dream pouches.



The whole group!

With Sunim. How can you be sad looking at him? He's so peaceful.










DMZ:








This train used to run between North and South Korea. Can't remember all the history but note the bullet holes.





Mini museum on the way to the tunnel.


With Sabrina. She is my friend Emily's good friend from Philly and we finally met!


We weren't allowed to take photos inside the actual tunnel but you know... it looked exactly like this. With sneaky little North Koreans running around digging up stuff. Ok maybe not...

This guy was hamming it up for the foreigners. Maybe he was drunk?



This is the line we couldn't cross with our cameras. Such a bummer!


Say hello to North Korea! That's their flag in the middle of their propaganda village.

I dunno what you can see here. But from the binoculars we could see North Korea and their flag on one side, and South Korea and their flag on the other. They are 4 km apart. That is the demilitarized zone. :)



Yep. North Korea is behind us.


Then off to the train station. This is the ever optimistic map of how far the train can connect if North and South are reunited.


Mom, dad. Meet my new boyfriend. He's not the best to look at but he listens to all my problems.


Lexi is walking to North Korea. Byyyyeee Lexi!


The signpost. The train really does go to North Korea! I didn't know there was any movement between the 2 at all. Shows how much I know.






Fin. Finally! You guys thought I'd never do it but I did it!!