Palaces, confusion and a Dog...

Hmm, so what have done this week? Yeh, flip. last weekend i went to gyeongbok palace (경복궁) which was brilliant - but i was so tired that day, waking early on a saturday - and it was ridiculously freezing (-8). Really cool wooden structures and i was surprised to find out that there isn't a single nail in the structures. pretty flippin cool.


I thought these Totem poles were great haha

Also we had some more snow which was cool.


Now, there is a big hill that i have to detour around each day to get to school, so this week i endeavored to find a shorter route from my apartment to school - preferably a straight line over the hill... attempt number one was to go round the other side of the hill which really got me confused from thinking i new which direction my place was but in actual fact i managed to end up 2 subway stations away from my district after 2hrs of walking. Attempt number two was to go from school straight over the hill to my place - however after having a delightful walk in the snow up this hill for about 1 and half hours i managed to go all the way up, round and back down where i came from - highly disappointing and really confusing i still don't understand. So my third attempt was come from the other way; my house to school. So i navigated through the most irregular and peculiar back streets where the houses are almost slum like in layout and smell too, so after hitting many dead ends and even ending up on someone's roof at one point! i concluded that there is no way to go directly up and over the hill... and i was late for school.

I have now finished all my exams which is great but i also realised that my final exams are only 3 weeks away so thats not encouraging. I haven't had all my results back yet but i do know that i passed - unfortunately no colours remotely airborne because i got about 75-80% and actually 70% is a fail haha oops, but i was average in the class. i hope my speaking mark raises my percent a little though - we will have to see. Anyway i was never one to care to much about academic grades. i enjoy speaking Korean and i feel i have come a long way so im pretty pleased. Though i should probably care a little more because if i dont pass my finals then i cant advance to the next level, thus rendering my student visa useless and i will have to do loads of annoying visa applying or vacate the country and re-enter or something ridiculous and strange, but that would also be a mini adventure.
I'd like a few more adventures, at the moment im sort of running back and forth between church school and my home, im often quite tired when i find i have a free afternoon so i end up reading a book or trying to tackle the to-do lists, what i need is a couple of days free then i can get out on my feet and just go somewhere for the sake of going somewhere. well at least thats what i'd like to do.
I've been feeling a little strange since i have been here. i find i slip in and out of wanting to change and then being afraid of change, or fear that that the change is not one for the better, and then when i think about it im not always sure what i want or what im looking for, which leaves me feeling quite empty and it becomes difficult to put on a smile when your not exactly feeling yourself - or knowing what yourself is or is supposed to be. if that makes any sense.
another thing is i am curiously examining and challenging everything (which is good) but then i find that i cannot accept anything because i just challenge it, i've always had an extremist problem often failing to discover the middle ground.
just thought i would share a few of my thoughts rather than just write about my weekly happenings.

Anyway, in the latter part of the week i met up with some friends to do some chocolate making! actually i was pretty terrible at it, never was one for neatness. But it was good fun, and i think they want to sell them on valentines day.


Also at church i now help lead a little cell/discussion group thing which is cool. but then i found i really have so much i want to say ( largely due to the fact that i worry about the things their pastor teaches them) but it's difficult to explain even the simplest of things because their english isn't great, and obviously were talking about deep things, so i have to hold my tongue and keep the discussions simple, but its given me more incentive to learn Korean - i doubt i will learn enough to convey the thoughts i'd like - but at least it's a better motive than wanting to learn so i can generally communicate. So thats been good. But they've asked me to try and teach a short class about English christian vocabulary its only 15 minutes a time, but i'm a little stumped to prepare sometimes - like there is there a 'conventional' way to begin and end a prayer, yes i guess but then i dont want to lock it in a method like that anyway, and the other stuff is really just about the ridiculous old fashioned words in our english songs and traditional bible translations which are pretty cool even if they're not really used anymore, but yeh my point is that its just a bit weird teaching those kind of things.

Me and Ko were both invited to a concert for free this weekend. The bands name is Avalon - theyre and american christian band, they sounded a bit Disney but i actually enjoyed the gig, and the venue was the biggest church in Korea, it was pretty flippin big.

After the gig we thought we'd grab a bite to eat: so what better to munch on than Dog
Actually i have had Dog in Korea before but this time was even better - its really quite nice, still dont much like seafood - but dog is great.



yesterday me and Ko went to E-mart which was great because i could finally find some cooking ingredients- well sort of, a lot of compromises and makeshift items ended up in my basket but the meal turned out alright (stir-fry). But yeh, so before we could get into the shop we had to remove our bags and lock them away (shoplifting precaution), so after finishing our long shop we both completely forgot about our bags and just headed home i took the subway and Ko took the bus, after about 2 stations i woke up to the fact that i was missing many precious and important items located in my bag - phone, ipod, keys to my apartment, etc. haha, so i headed back with all my heavy shopping and tired legs back to E-mart to retrieve my bag feeling rather foolish. And the brilliant thing was that me and Ko both arrived back at the store at the exact same moment, so after a quick glance at each other we both bust out laughing in the middle of the store. we laughed for a good few minutes before eagerly retrieving our bags. brilliant.
Bags lost