Korean Temple Stay

My housemates and I alloted a weekend for a temple stay experience. Our apartment at the seventeenth floor happens to be good friends with a Buddhist at the nineteenth floor, and he opened up the idea of a trip to Gangwha-do, where a meditation center is located. Mr. Lee, the Buddhist who is also a Taekwondo instructor, along with his two kids, drove us to the place as soon as we finished our Saturday lunch, and the weather joined us in our relaxed mood as we hope for an escape from the stress of the city.

It’s been quite a while since I breathed in fresh air in South Korea, and I should thank the wonderful atmosphere that the temple area provided as soon as we arrived an hour and a half later.

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Boryeong Mud Festival

It’s amazing how South Korea has suddenly become a melting pot of foreigners— of Americans and Westerners, at that. Korean’s huge appetite for learning the English language has definitely opened doors for these native speakers, and they’ve all swarmed and created their own communities in the country.

Festivals have always been a great way to group foreign people in South Korea, and one of the highly-awaited events during the summer month of July is the Boryeong Mud Festival held in Daechon Beach, in the province of Chungcheongnam-do. The place has been made famous by the mud that can be found in its beach, perceived to offer good skin benefits due to its mineral contents. But more importantly, the festival has been regarded as the grandest way to pool international people together— anyone who just want to enjoy and play it cool during the summer season.

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I Miss Good Ole Jollibee!

Cheers to my ever-jolly orange bumble bee! Amid the global slump, Jollibee as an enterprise has definitely proven that it can whether the economic storm. I guess when a business has more importantly become part of a culture, there is no way that it cannot stand even the most adverse of situations. Filipinos will never have second thoughts of shelling out their hard-earned money for a hearty, quality time with the family at their favorite fast food chain.

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A Taste of Egypt in Seoul

I went out today with newly-found friends whom I met from my most recent UNESCO stint, and the Seoul Friendship Fair that I went to a few weeks back. Fatima, the Egyptian lady whom Ate YY and I met at the city hall fair, invited us over at the National Museum of Korea for an exhibit on Egyptian Civilization.

It was an “all-girls” day-out, as I dragged another Filipino friend to join us, since we both had an affair to go to in the afternoon as well. So the group consisted of two Filipinos (Kat and I), a Chinese (Olivia), an Egyptian (Fatima), and three Koreans (Ate YY, Ms. Sophie, and a classmate of Fatima in the English academy— I forgot her name, so sorry!)

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My Typical Emotional Rollercoaster Ride

Sundays have primarily been a church appointment and a Korean language class for me— occasionally alternating on the time that I actually hear the mass (9am- Myeongdong Cathedral / 1.30pm- Hyehwa church / 7.30 pm- Sogang University’s chapel) and sometimes escaping my afternoon Hangeul language sessions when laziness simply strikes at me.

Some unusual air of enthusiasm seem to have breathed in me today though, to feel extra good about doing these same, old stuff. You know how it is when you’ve been doing things out of some habit or routine? Yeah, exactly just that. You kind of don’t take note of how significant they can actually turn out to be, especially if you have been doing them (1) out of sheer childhood practice and (2) just so you can chill out and meet people.

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Weekend Playtime With Kids

I love kids. I mean, I really enjoy being with children. I don’t exactly know what it is called, but there’s just this special fondness that I have of them and it makes me go high. It’s like I can be my most comfortable self to unconsciously pick my nose in front of them, and I won’t even be any kind of embarrassed in doing it. It must be the rawness of their minds, the innocence that people mistake as being less intelligent, when most of us know that they can even be way smarter than us sometimes— that draws me to them. Here I am stuck at getting older, technically acquiring more knowledge and experience, yet making things more complicated. I then talk to any kid licking on his ice cream, and I am again reminded of how life can just be anyone’s coned vanilla. Plain and smart-ass simple.

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Whatthebook

It must be the laxity that I am getting from work these past weeks (thankfully) that suddenly pushed my whore-ish tendencies over books, and it made me itch for new paperbacks to read. It actually started with this Facebook (FB) application that I found out from somebody else’s profile. It’s called WeRead. I kind of liked it, so I added it to my FB profile, listing there all the books that I remember having read. I know I have not listed all, though. I then said that it would be nice if I could add more to my list, and so the search for new books to buy started. I am missing the books that I left back home in the Philippines.

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Seoul International Friendship Day

I had the chance of checking out the Seoul International Friendship Day at the City Hall today, thanks to a needed, first-time meeting with my Korean Interpreter Volunteer (KIV) for a UNESCO-led cultural class that we both have to prepare for. Aside from this, I have been texted several times by a Chinese girl whom I met when I had my Cultural Exchange Volunteer orientation for the same organization, that I finally agreed to meet up with her on the same day that I have to meet with my KIV.

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A Night of Orchestra

Classical music has almost always come along with an orchestra, or vise versa. Now some people may find an orchestra tedious, given the complexities of such instruments played, and classical music as boring. I’ve never really been a classical music freak myself, though I am able to once in a while find special cravings for such sound, usually when I simply want to subconsciously put caressing pillows under such mind of mine that would clutter itself with all the strains of the real world. I honestly have such great respect for the genre and the people who can excellently play musical instruments that are typically used to play such relaxing and soothing music. Combine these people and their melody toys, and a certain musical sophistication arises.

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Plain Vanilla Vent (Cough-Free)

My length of stay here in South Korea is long enough to mold and bring forth a child into this world, had I actually been a pregnant mother who arrived here last August. Recalling the nine months that I have wrestled for my independence in this country, I can now understand why and how I am able to have this time to do some thinking... or reflections, if I should get any deeper.

I just got back from a one-week vacation, thanks to the three days of sick leaves that I took on the working days that came in between the May 1 and May 5 holidays of this year (following the South Korean working calendar). Well, I must say that I have always been a smart ass in requesting for leaves in the office on “sandwich-ed working days” so I can have the luxury of calling these short leaves as ample vacation time.

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