A weekend of rain

Finally the weekend arrived and I had it pretty open to spend most of the time with my aunt. And wouldn't you know it, it rained almost the whole weekend! Apparently something related to a monsoon in Taiwan, but all I know is that walking around Seoul was not quite the same (pouring rain and very, very muggy!) But we made the most of it, going around Namdemun market (she bought pottery), brunch in Itaewon with friends (and later shopping for some Korean furniture which she bought), wandering around Samcheon-dong and Insadong (and of course running into random friends all along the way). A great weekend, even if not fully intentional. The one funny story to relate? Apparently a friend was up in Namsan tower (which overlooks most of Seoul) with a friend of her's, and the weather changed, and it was just amazingly gorgeous. Without a camera, her friend ran to buy a disposable, and brought it back just in time to see the weather change again...sigh.

European business trip

So next week I am off to London and Germany, which would be awesome, the bummer is that happens to be during the time my aunt is visiting =( She is here for about 15 days, and a portion of that I will be away. But I have a feeling she will be able to keep herself entertained, since she is used to traveling on her own. At the very least I can show her around on the weekends, and comfortable accommodations. It helps that she has made friends almost every place she has gone, and my friends and co-workers have provided numbers for her to call in case she gets into trouble. It really is one of the amazingly nice sides of Korea, which makes me very happy!

What is wrong with my left side?

Now this was annoying. At the mud festival one of the interns was tossed into me, and that definitely hurt my neck a lot (more on the left side). Since then both a canker and a stye on the left side (if you don't know what these are, be glad!) Can I replace this side? Now if the left side of your brain stands for the logical side, what is that implying? That the logic is broken in Korea?

Herewith

I got an email the other day including that word (it was about a reservation). You know the kicker? It wasn't even a korean that wrote that! It wasn't a native speaker though either, or if so, it was someone from Shakespeare's time ;)

Cameras everywhere

If you could capture every moment, would you? are we capturing too much of life now? what about personal space? what about copyright? if you take a photo, does that mean you own it? what if your family member or friend (or random person in a tiny bit in the background doesn't want to give the rights away? the whole thing about who owns what is interesting when it comes to photography. just random musings from someone who has gotten really into photography recently, from photobooks on blurb.com to publishing some photos in Everywhere Magazine.

Mud festival

Words can only do so much to describe this experience. They cart in mud and the whole day is spent finding ways to get it on and off. I think there may be health benefits, but for the most part we were just dirty. Very dirty. And I felt like I was back in high school. A 3 hour bus ride to go to this town (on the seashore), and we started out slow. Lunch. One of the co-workers unfortunately decided this was a good time to start with soju and beer (11 am mind you). It went downhill rapidly. We went from there to the mud pit, and then down the mudslide. And all of the while, we had several groups of co-workers, some trying to meet girls, and one who was just trying to give everyone a hug (especially those not covered in mud). I have never seen people run so fast. Meanwhile the soju kept flowing, and we had a few moments that were not highlights. But all of the interns that we took on this trip said it was one of the most fun experiences they had so far (definitely more entertaining than the temple stay with buddhist monks apparently). And I think they also made it on to Korean TV!

Team workshop, aka wine tasting

When you are asked what your Friday afternoon schedule is here, you typically worry. Why? I don't want a meeting at 5 or 6 pm...Turns out we had a team off-site for wine tasting. And they poured 6 healthy samples of wine (my body may not have liked that so much the next day, but it was great at the time). I can't say I learned that much (mainly for the reasons that the wine course was in Korean), but the company was great, and we had about 5-6 hours of relaxing and talking.