MacKensie in Seoul: February 2007

dinner

Hongdae
Originally uploaded by MacKensie!.

This is what I look like trapped in a glass of wine.

Meat Pies Forever!

Could I be any busier? I hope not. It's all good though and yes... I'm getting enough sleep... I'm taking care of myself, and I'm staying healthy... I promise!!! It's all about time management, naps, and saunas.

Speaking of saunas (really, public baths) I found a cool one near my house. It has five different baths to choose from and a lady you can pay to scrub you to within an inch of your life. I have never been as clean as I was Monday morning after 30 minutes of focused exfoliation. Haha!

Chinese classes are going well, people still think it's weird that I'm a foreigner learning Chinese in Korea, but oh well, I guess I'm just weird then. We have a lot of fun in class discussing cultural differences between East and West. There was one very longwinded discussion where we were describing sayings from our own languages in Chinese (mine was "the grass is always greener on the other side") Holy confusion, Batman!!! I don't think we'll be trying that again anytime soon. Fun though.

I went to a wedding this week which was really fun. Katy is from New Zealand and Vlad is from Uzbekistan, they met here in Korea about five years ago. The wedding was on a boat on the Han River and the small afterparty was at a litle bar in Itaewon. Lots of fun! They're just a cool bunch of people. Since they were leaving the next day for three weeks in Uzbekistan with the family they gave us all of the leftover food from the wedding--- Uzbeki lambmeat pies, lamb fried rice, and bread... as well as the bottom tier of their wedding cake, the flower arrangements, and a few bottles of soju! I have enough meat pies to feed an army. Mmmmm.....

We have a three day weekend for Lunar New Year (Chinese New Year). It's celebrated differently here than what I saw in Singapore. It's sort of low key, people visit their relatives, have a big meal, and do a ceremony to venerate their ancestors. No big parades, fireworks, or anything like that. My understanding is that a lot of places are going to be closed all weekend and the city will be pretty quiet. That's cool, I'll just chill out with friends.

Well, no other news. I'm going to go home now and get ready for the Saturday night. We'll be going to a punk club called "Skunk Hell"....interesting.....
Haha. Updates later.

Stereo

Hongdae
Originally uploaded by MacKensie!.

Amber took this great pic of me and Chen Lie at Stereo last weekend. :-) Good times!

Vacation has come and gone...

Wow, vacation zipped by. It was only a five day weekend, but I needed it! I pretty much bummed around town sitting in cafes and sightseeing. It's been really mild recently so it was perfect for walking around all day. I posted some of my favorite pictures below and of course there are a lot more on my Flickr page. Among other things I checked out the Tibet Museum and Silk Road Museum (which had a tea house on the top floor), walked around some new neighborhoods and the old part of Seoul. It was a good break. I went back to work on the 1st of February and have managed to make myself more busy by adding daily Chinese lessons to my schedule. They're fun though!!! My weekends are pretty full as well since its the only time I see my friends. Oh well, it's all good!