so a while has past.
i apologize.
i've been spending late-night weekeds
neglecting to carry around my camera.
and fearing the rainy season will destroy it if and when i take it out.
i regret to say that since i've been sick i have only been on one hike.
i'm late to every saturday language class (but i still go).
and i still haven't managed to purchase my new bike yet.
sometimes i feel like everything small i've wanted to do has slipped away from me for either
a) lack of money (since i sent so much of it home last month)
b) the sheer heat and raining moisture that has been bestowed upon seoul in the last 2.5 weeks
and c) going out... ugh, such a lame excuse
however, many a time i just never brought my camera. i spent a lovely sunday afternoon in olympic park with my friends robert and susannah (cuppy). we enjoyed one of the last dry warm days of spring... we rented a pedal car (hopefully someday i will have pictures of these) drank wine and enjoyed the warm grass in the shade of lovely trees.
i've been making different cheeses here in my apartment. seoul has a wonderful variety of milks, that are bringing me all sorts of wonderful products. cream cheese, mozzarella, fresh dry cheese and even one that turned out almost butter-like.
i started a mini garden in my apartment. my northern window-sill has basil and chives growing. my basil has just begun to peak above the dirt, i'm concerned about the chives. but if they don't come out soon i've been germinating some type of red/kidney/pinto bean that i acquired from the market to replace them. some of the beans were freshly sprouted already before i went to soak them. hopefully i will have some bean plants growing as well in the next few weeks. i'm keeping my eyes peeled in the dumpsters on my way to and from work for anything that could possibly hold my bean plants... keeping it cheap here.
and now often my week nights are spent just walking in the street looking in plant shops (im in the market for some more) or cooking in my apartment. i don't eat out much... the lunch at school is plenty for me and not to mention free... and i'm usually not hungry when i get home, but i enjoy walking outside... there are a few neighborhood parks with play grounds, swings and lots of trees that i've found to be really relaxing after work and not as far to walk as olympic park. sometimes i feel as if i'm rushing home at night from there if i go that far.
and mon, wed, and fri i've taken up jogging along the han. it's pleasant and even thought it's extremely hot outside during the day, when the sun gets low on the river a very nice breeze picks up and it makes jogging there really tolerable.
a weekend or so back i wandered around insadong, an artsy area of town. and even through the forcast predicted rain, i brought my camera. i still wasn't feeling up for an ambitious hike that day so this suited me...
early in my morning i stumbled upon a lot of old men
playing othello in a park
this side street i wandered down
found me these dreamy ivy covered walls
and very nice restaurants for relaxing in their shade
my later afternoon was spent in an open air mall/market of local craftsmen/women. delicate handy work, handmade clothing, organic clothes and food and even a few local university galleries were mish-mashed together in a five story open-air building. the walls of the market were covered in hand drawn graffiti, sketches, and tacked on knick-knacks.
the market/mall had about four or five levels, and you walked up it in a gently sloping spiral and it had corridor style stair wells going down the outside of it hosting smaller shops, coffee/muffin shops and snack stalls.
while the center and atrium of the market was completely open air.. some of the restaurants boasted (like the one below) various ways they grown some of their own produce
and at the very bottom, reaching into the basement levels of the mall, were a few tantalizing korean restaurants and the gallery/small studio space of a local design school.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
so i apologize for my lack of postings.
maybe this will satisfy
till the next one goes up, which i know will be sooner than how long this took.
i will try harder
i will take my camera around more often
and...
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