a day in hongseong

- spent sunday in hongseong - about 2hrs south of seoul... went for a 10k marathon... correction i went to WATCH a 10k marathon... ended up being a most serendipitous of days - after the races (which included a dog and small children and grandparents - if i actually cared about exercising then i would have felt much shame at the reality that i probably would have collapsed within the first half of a 1 k. ) - we then ended up catching a cab to find a folk village that we never actually found... instead we ended up with a cab driver who ended being our tour guide and personal driver for the day taking us to a gorgeous architecture museum with 5:1 scale models of famous temples in korea and japan (pretty much astounding woodwork and artistry - to the point that i even found the cracks in the door tinting to be beautiful) ... and then to a temple... which was grand as id hoped to see a temple whilst here and now that i have seen one that part of my tourist list is checked off and the only other tourist thing i care to see is the war museum in seoul... (but that will serve more as research for my writing as the adoption of korean children was a direct result of the korean war - specifically all the "wonderful" american servicemen who came here fathered children and left them behind with their korean mothers ) - anyways... the temple ... the architecture was breathtaking... ive much appreciation for intricate detailing and for design that considers its environment... enhancing as opposed to creating some monolithic eyesore (i.e. the mall of america would be a better place if its rooftop actually took into the consideration the sky above it... sorry another tangent)

anyways... twas a really nice day... was up at 5.30am... catching a train to head to hongseong ... got back around 7pm and ended up being out till about 6.30 the next morning with new friends...

i cannot complain about life here... the worst thing i can say about everything right now is that my burts bees lotion was confiscated in the mpls airport cuz i for some reason wasnt thinking and forgot to put it into my luggage... so now i am burt's bees lotion-less... seeing as thats the worst thing about being here... well id have to say that life is pretty fabulous right now

a bit about hongseong for the geographically culturally inclined via wikpedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hongseong

the marathon - last images are of su-yoon's friend jueh who ran the 10k and came in 4th - thus crushing the egos of many men



























random images from the marathon - something so wonderfully silent about a roll of tp flitting about in the breeze




the coffeeshop in the midst of nowhere... transporting me back to kavines in lithuania... i need a sociologist/anthropologist to explain this to me




architecture museum - textures and images of models and replicas...
















Sudeoksa Temple

http://eng.buddhapia.com/_Service/_ContentView/ETC_CONTENT_2.ASP?pk=0001449559&sub_pk=&clss_cd=0002203526&top_menu_cd=0000000750&menu_cd=&menu_code=0000008789