Saint Patrick's Day in Seoul

I’m of course far from being any breed of Irish (come on), but just the same, my housemate and I spent this afternoon going nosey over at Marronier Park in Hyehwa-dong to witness Saint Patrick’s Day celebration here in Seoul. I read about it in the papers during the week, and the news was just in time for my usual brew on weekend activities to try out. Woohoo!



It surprised me to know that there actually are quite a handful of these European bloods in Asia, for Seoul to even hold a celebration here. Then I remembered how the Americans are so stoked to “going green” along with the Irish people— with how it has equally been popular in the U.S., I mean. And talk about the flock of Americans that have been going to South Korea for teaching jobs— the country then, has all the guts to splurge on this one. Now looking around at all the tall, Western folks that gathered in that small park that I have more or less been so used to seeing (I pass by the said park every Sunday for my Korean Language class), I realized how I’m simply such a loser in distinguishing an Irish from an American. They all are the same tall, white, usually-blonde, and commonly chisel-nosed species of the opposite hemisphere for me!

Saint Patrick’s Day is, more than anything else, a religious occasion, commemorating Ireland’s patron saint, who brought Christianity to the country. Unlike the serious mood that such matter would normally imply, it's pretty amazing to see and actually feel the festive and jolly spirit of the event.

There were balloons, London Bridges, caterpillars, mascots— and everything was just in green! Now I learned that the color green has always been associated with Saint Patrick’s Day because Saint Patrick used the famous “shamrock” green leaf in explaining the Holy Trinity to the Irish people. And well, well, well. I did my share in everybody’s "go-green" theme.

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Nami Island Trip

Being the ultimate Winter Sonata freak that I am, I checked out this famous island in South Korea— Nami Sum (Nami Island), located in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province so I can catch the last day of the said island’s “Foreigner’s Free Festival”. The said event celebrated Nami Island’s third anniversary of independence. It declared its independence in March 2006 and renamed itself as Naminara Republic. Now, what’s cute about this half-moon shaped island is it has invented its own passport, currency, and stamps since then, as it now promotes itself to other countries. Talk about living up to its “independence”, eh?


It was quite a trip to get to the place, since it took an hour-worth of train ride from Cheongryang-ni to Gangpyeong station, after which we went for a short taxi ride that brought us to the port where a ferry awaits anyone who would want to finally cross the waters to reach the island.

Nami Island of course, is that picturesque place where Bae Yong Joon and Choi Ji Woo shot those lovely scenes for the Winter Sonata series, most famous spot of which showed those long stretches of tall trees where they went biking in the space created between the soldier-like stances of the said tall trunks.

The island surely deserves a good walk from first-timer visitors like us, and since it’s a Festival-Day Sunday when we went, there sure were a lot of people who walked around with us. Some took the free tour bus service of the island, while some rented bikes. And after the good amount of exercise gotten from those, the food stalls scattered in the whole place surely proved ready to serve everyone. But we caught on free beer somewhere in the area, and lined up for it as well. You never miss opportunities like that. Haha.

A special highlight in the trip that we caught on was this amateur singing contest sponsored by the island officials for the festival. It was a Filipina in pink jacket who won, and it was a freakin’ prize that she got from the contest: A round-trip ticket to any country that she chooses to go to. When my friends and I had a little chat with her though, she said she would have liked it better in cash, haha. Why not?

The place all in all has a very relaxing feel, with the trees and all, and I must admit it really is a place for couples and the budding ones… *teehee*. But can I just say just the same, that a very big factor that contributed to this “romantic” feel of the island is how Hallyu freaks really went gaga over Winter Sonata.

Come on, that sole fact dragged me to the place in the first place. The Hallyu influence is really something, I tell you. ;-D

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On My First Bookstore Trip

It’s a bookstore to me when it could have been a salon for the more normal women. And it’s a book on the racks when it could have been a haircut--- you know this cliché on the usual state of women when they actually decide to go to a salon alone to even have their hair razored for hell’s sake? Ha-ha. There. I just wouldn’t want to outrightly admit— I am at it again. D-------d. I’m just surprised to find out that I tend to be geeky when I am on a big D. Boo-hoo.

I checked out Kyobo Bookstore in Gwangwhamun for the first time, which is a famous bookstore here in Seoul, and bought myself new books in a lousy attempt to better myself with work. It would be a double slap on the face if I have both work and my personal life on the rocks. I have to make either doing great to provide a great excuse for the other’s silly state. Yes, it’s the love-career trade-off. Ha-ha. I then recalled why I suddenly craved for book buys today.


My major work obligation for the day ended this morning, and so it allowed me the luxury of time in the afternoon to broadcast myself online— therefore exposing me to such casualness that I have secretly been complaining from someone. Of how someone, in his most ambiguous sense, could occasionally keep in touch and throw at me personal stories of his so-called life, and therefore exercise this person’s well-known numbness and being inconsiderate of other people’s feelings (particularly, mine). God knows how I’ve been cursing myself of the fact that either way— talking to him or not, I GET HURT.

Damn, all he did was to be his normal self in chit-chatting with me, and it sent my eye linings wet again, as I held back the senseless drops. It’s crazy. Freakin’ crazy that I get unreasonably affected. So what if he exerted effort in rekindling with a previous love?

It all boils to down to a very crucial need in my life right now. CLOSURE. A straightforward talk with someone who is dragging me to an unhealthy way of thinking about the kind of relationship that we currently have. He has to know that I cannot take him casually as he now does to me, unless we stab each other with words to end whatever it is that we have (or maybe, at this time, just whatever it is that I solely have against him, since it looks like he has nothing left for me, for him to take me casually). Okay, so I may give malice to every single word that he shares, but that is because I have all the reasons to. And you may accuse me of being too hopeful, but I again have all the reasons to. He was the one who started it, asking for it from me in the first place-- yet I toyed with the idea for quite a while, that it didn’t provide him the quick answer to what he wanted from me at that time when he was flaring with such emotion in it. And so the flare died as fast as it went into him, and in its utmost irony, it was only when my emotions answered back— finally looking for him when he has long gone fishing, away from the waters where he initially caught on me. Crazy.

I went underground in doing all means to get him back, or at the very least confirm the backfire of his initial attack on me and my feelings, and well… men have always found it so easy to juggle with even three balls on air with their two hands, if you get what I mean. And so I actually had him back, out of the mere fact that I called for him. It did not appear okay with me, of course-- getting juggled with the other balls, and so I didn’t push myself any further since I thought of how it’s not going to work anyway, given the other aspects of my life that I had to decide upon at that time-- biggest of which is distancing myself to pursue a career. I thought of the bigger and better picture, and realized at that time, how he’d be too weak for it.

And so I pursued, but left a big trace that made him scramble back a great deal, for I know I rattled him too much as I have already been rattling. We know we have to talk about something; it’s basically just a question on who’s going to be more stubborn in suppressing it. The greatest joke of it all is we finally mustered to talk again, but greatly avoiding WHAT really has to be dealt with.

(...to be continued)

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