the day the world went away

deery-lou.
life is getting back to normal here in korea. its always hard coming back after having such a great time away. i managed to skip taekwondo all week. my master isn't too happy about that. i will be going back on monday though. making headlines once again is north korea and their nuclear testing. which has made me realize that i should get out of my bubble and pay attention to whats happening around me. not really all that concerned about it but feel i should be more informed just incase i got to bolt. i've also hit that point where i think i'm finally over this place. don't get me wrong, i still love korea and all it has to offer but the frustration with the simple things in life is starting to bug me. then there's the nonstop staring. this week it really seemed to set me off. on my way to meet bc i almost felt like i should turn around and go hide in my apartment. however, the day turned out to be quite awesome and i'm glad i didn't. it's always a "jolly holiday" with bc. she makes the world go round. our mission for the day: to knocked off one more item off the list. today it was the yangjae flower market. it seemed like the perfect thing to do on such a wonderful autumn day. near the subway station bc discovered an outside thriftstore of sorts. this is the place where all the bad clothes and crap the koreans don't want end up to be sold to those who are need of crap and junk. bc managed to buy a pair of shoes. i walked away with nothing but thoughly enjoyed my jaunt through the endless maze. i did manage to find a sonogram which is now in my posssession. so it wasn't a complete loss.

outdoor thriftstore

another happy customer

crap for sale

there's nothing like pushing your way through a crowd of people and hearing "chon won! chon won!" to make one hungry. so after wandering around aimlessly in search of a restaurant with some english, we gave up and went into a beef restaurant. the server came over to us and said "bulgogi". easy enough. while dining bc realized that the cut flower auction at the flower market stopped at 3pm. we missed it but decided to check it out anyway. the potted plant was opened until 7pm. it was nice playing catching up with bc. i got to bore her with my tales of singapore. i was surprised she didn't yelll out "enough already". i felt like i was going on and on. when we got to the flower market it was basically empty sans a few students sitting in some tables with what looked like calculators on them. in the back were a bunch of people making flower arrangements. it appeared we stumbled upon some sort of competition. there were zombie-like judges in the back that gave it away.

flower competition

tables with calculators

napping

we then strolled around some of the greenhouses which had the infamous potted plants. bc noticed an emart so we headed off to check it out. as we were leaving emart i heard someone say "help". i turned to look and some woman was pointing to her box of groceries and ask me if i'd lift them into her cart. i did. emart was connected to a shopping mall. with nothing else to do we decided to check it out. SNORE!! it was a ghost town. one family was enjoying staring at us though. on the way back to the station we came upon citizens' forest. its a giant park that has some war memorial stuff in it. we took a gander. we also saw some amateur photographers practicing their photo skills on some girl dressed in a stripy black and white top leaning against a tree. oh, the things people do. before heading home we stopped off at express bus terminal so that i could go to the art store. there's also a bunch of underground shops in the terminal. while bc was buying a shirt i started to dance in the store as a joke. the woman who worked there busted me and was laughing. they turned up the music and she motioned for me to dance again. of course i obligued. might as well give them a reason to stare. she loved my little jig. i stopped in at this new yogurt/coffee place on my way home. i was intrigued by this pumpkin slide thing they had and needed to try it. it was like a pumpkin milkshake. quite yummy if i do say so myself.

on sunday i headed to the national cemetery to meet up with chen and some others for a picnic. this was the same place we went last year. the day was spent chillin out, talking, and eating. what could be better than that. chen made some falafel and bread. it was all quite good. the best was when she busted out the feta cheese her mom brought from australia. hi feta. feta has never tasted sooo good. kudos to chen's mom for the feta. while strolling about the cemetery i notice an older woman by some graves. she had a giant bag with her and every couple of minutes she was looking at me quite suspiciously. i think she was stealing flowers. from the dead no less. how tacky is that. back at our picnic spot some security came by and starting yelling at us for laying down. i guess its ok to have a picnic and sit at the cemetery but laying down is a big no. not sure what that was all about. we had so much watermelon that annie was handing out to random people. one group gave us a persimmon and boiled peanuts in exchange for the melon. now its time to spend the rest of my evening joining season four of oth. oh, i'm so glad the fall season has started.

randomness:
earlier saturday i saw this boy riding this bike. my question: isn't he a bit old to have training wheels?

just odd

be well…

p.s. i just realized that the outdoor thriftstore we stumbled upon was the seocho flea market which just so happens to be on the list. two in one day. not bad.