Golden Pond Guesthouse Seoul

... day we once again shelved our plans to do a hike and instead made our way to Seoul Plaza to see how a remarkably staunch meat eating populous would celebrate the day. I was expecting a handful of protesting foreigners, but instead a large stall was being run solely by Koreans. There was lots of free food on offer, including noodles, tofu kebabs, meat substitute and vegan sandwiches, as well as plenty of information about ...

... the crowd went completely mad, and after the first song we had to get out of there if we wanted to see anything. The locals got over their excitement quite quickly though, and things were a little more mellow, at least from the crowds perspective for the rest of the set. The Prodigy were, well, as I expected. Good to watch, banging out all the old favourites, but a bit tiring after an hour and a half.

After chilling out for a little we then moved around to the ...

... woman living in New Zealand whom I instantly connected with and who also was a motherly figure and mentor to me. Although we only met briefly, the connection and conversations we shared run deep.
While in Australia I met another woman that took me into her home and shared her time and space with me. We spoke of travels and she told me about the interesting life she led, including broken hearts and dreams. We spoke candidly about the journey and what matters ...

Due to weather (ie. monsoons) I was not able to take many pictures of the wonderful things we saw today.
In the morning we were lectured on the history of Korea.  It was very interesting!
We had lunch in the cafeteria at Yonsei U and then headed out on our city tour.
Everyone was given these huge ponchos to wear, because it was pour like I had never seen it rain before!
On our city tour, we had a tour guide, and our first stop was at Changdeokgung Palace.  I ...

... with strange ink on her arms and back. As we chatted I learned that she had more hidden art under her clothing. Being taught the fine art of culture and tact by the Greeks I resisted the urge to throw her over my shoulder and carry her away so that I might rip the clothes from her body to see these elusive paint drawings on her ...

... tonight!

In a side note, last Tuesday I went to the Korean National War Museum (which was really awesome). I took so many cool pictures (i'll do an entry about that later... i just really want a nap now!) but sadly I did not put the camera back in my camera bag and just set it in my purse. My purse is pretty deep but there was a lot of stuff in it that day, and I ended up getting my camera stolen on the crowded subway. I am not going to lie and say I am not sad ...

... restaurant / meget lakker mad for nogen. Herefter til Changdeokung Palaze, med mange flotte palaser mit i Seoul storby. Keld fortalte meget deltaljeret om Kongens historie pa palaset. En meget varm dag, helt usadvanligt for arstiden i Seoul, men bedre end regnvejret om morgenen.
Vi spiste pa en italiensk restaurant og Allan og Alexander fik dejlig bof. Vi gik atter tidligt i seng.

... units. First comes your job or company unit. Then comes your family unit. Then maybe other groups or associations that you may belong to. And everything is done to protect the unit from "outside invaders". So, Koreans can appear quite unfriendly unless you are a part of a given unit of association. This attitude carries over into so many aspects of Korean society. Another interesting thing about Koreans is their stubbornness. It's their way or the ...

... rambled on and on about how we are one big family, and how a Korean teacher called her at 5.30am one morning as she wanted to get into the office to start work early. Good for her! As long as we are doing everything that is asked of us in a timely and efficient manner, then where's the problem? It was basically a pointless diatribe on how great the Koreans are, but alas, she then suddenly switched tack and "thanked God" for being given such great ...

... on the continent of Asia. Mrs. Weber: Right. You're from different countries, but if I say, "You're from Asia," how do you feel? Kimura: Well, I don't think I feel angry, but I don't think I feel good either. Mrs. Weber: Exactly! It's the same for people who live on the American continent. Of course, they live on the same continent, but they live in different countries of America. So, it can be disrespectful if we call United ...