Alli Say Relax

This weekend I spent at a slower pace, which was nice. I stayed home a bit more and also did some more relaxing things.

I booked a massage for late Saturday afternoon so I could hang out in Seoul before the massage. Have you ever been beaten up by a small Korean woman? If you want the experience I can recommend a place. Just kidding - it was good, but not as relaxing as I'm used to. She went to town on my neck. It's still a bit sore.

After the massage I met up with Jean, who lives in the area. We were going to go to go to a place called Some Sevit which is 3 man made islands in Seoul that have amazing LED light displays. That sounds weird, but it's an attraction But, we didn't go because he ended up having to be on night shift patrol. I'm learning so much about the military. There's places in Seoul where the soldiers can't go. So someone patrols the area and if they catch someone doing something, they report it to Jean who then reports it to someone else? Anyways he pointed out some places he can't go. (There's lots of transgender bars in the area which surprised me. He encouraged me to go in one sometime. Problem is, he's probably my only friend here who would go with me and he can't! FYI he can't go in there because there are prostitutes in there not because it's a transgender bar - just for clarification.) We ate delicious Indian food at a place called Ganges and then walked by the most amazing cookie place. It's a tiny shop called Ben's Cookies that maybe fits 4 people and the smell is amazing. The cookies are expensive, which means they are good. We bought 3 cookies which was almost $8. I cried typing that.

Some random plate statue in Itaewon where Jean lives and I like to eat. 

Before my massage I went to an English bookstore to buy a travel book on Bali. Turns out I should go in October instead of July, so I'm going to hold off. If I go in October I can pay half the price, and I'll actually have a few extra days so I might as well. This book store has new and also used books. Then I found a whole section of classics that are $2-$3 so I bought two. I owe this to Ace. He always read classics and encouraged me to do so. It's hard for me to keep interested so I decided to start small. I went to coffee shop and red The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe. While there, I sent a text to Paul to see if we could talk for two reasons. 1 - I want my Canada mittens back. 2 - I wanted to be friends again. He said he wanted to text me but thought I was mad at him and was just going to mail me my gloves.

On Sunday I met up with Paul at an area of Seoul called Insadong which is like a big artsy area that is pedestrian only. There are little tea shops scatter amongst pottery places, hand made clothing stores, and people selling paintings. I loved it! Paul owed me an ice cream which I gladly took him up on.

One of us likes vanilla and the other chocolate. 

Paintbrush statue 

I can't believe how happy I look. Don't read too much into that . . .

Outdoor craft market

Paul and I about what happened and decided we both made mistakes. He is a poor communicator and I got too excited about things too quickly which made things weird. We decided to be friends because it's not practical to date. I'm glad because I like to meet new people and I want to make as many friends as possible. There's lots of teachers leaving in the next few months because their contracts end, and who knows if their replacements will want to hang out?! Plus look at him. Who doesn't want to spend time with that handsome face?

We walked to a park nearby which I literally didn't know if we were allowed in because only old people were inside. I asked him - are we too young to be in here? 

This pagoda is protected by glass because it was made in 1465. 

I'm confused . .. who is this a statue of?

While at Insadong I had my first weird experience of a Korean wanting to take my picture. People told me this might happen but I haven't experienced it yet. He actually wanted a pic of me and Paul - maybe it's weird to see a white woman and a black man together? We kept turning away from him and he kept pushing us together. It was weird.

There was a weird museum called The Alive Museum which we didn't go into but it had this funny couch trick which I had to try. I'm sure this couch is filthy as it's outside and probably thousands of people have touched it, but I couldn't resist.

We saw this awesome ice cream stand which would do tricks to kids buying ice cream. Paul turned to me and said - we should have gotten our ice cream here. I said are you kidding me? I would have been so mad if he stole my cone back from me.

I had a good weekend and am looking forward to next. On Saturday I'm going to see cherry blossoms! I know I keep talking about the cherry blossoms but I haven't never seen them before and they have a very short blooming time so I don't want to miss it. 

Lots of love,

Alli