courtesy of The Chosun Ilbo:

Today's Photo: December 29, 2010

The statue of King Sejong in Seoul's Gwanghwamun Plaza is covered with snow on Tuesday.

and that colonial distance can be saturated with separation due to homesickness of a different nature

Here is a screenshot of what you should see if you follow this link, which is to say my home is in that apartment building, on the 4th floor, the 4th window from the left.

You can follow the arrows to look around my neighborhood if you want. (also @bird_esque I can direct you to the windows of the cat cafe if you want.) I think it's nifty.

Street view about 5 minutes from my school, my students racing each other to the bus stop sometime this summer.

the terrifying escalators at Namtaeryung Subway Station

LOOK AT THE PINK PANTS.

LOOK AT THEM.

I'm thinking about working on memorizing this song for my next trip to the noraebang to impress all my co-workers. It's possible that learning Korean has become partially an ego thing for me.

Merry Christmas Super Junior-style:

Bow. Rest. Bow

again.

Here are some pictures that happened a long time ago, at a temple where I stayed in the center of South Korea during Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) instead of going to Jeju Island.

If you want, you can imagine listening to this while making a full bow (stand, kneel, touch forehead and palms to ground, flip hands and raise above your head [to symbolize making yourself humble and receiving the gift of something], kneel, stand without using your hands) 108 times.

4:30 am, post-108 bows morning walk. My upper legs wouldn't stop shuddering.

mountain temple hike

I look less than happy, don't I? This whole time was hard for me, I couldn't understand the directions, the head monk kept putting me on the spotlight, and no matter how many times I told them my name was Pamela, they kept calling me Stacey, which for some reason made me really mad.

receive the tea with 2 hands

drink the tea with 2 hands

carry the food

bow before the food

receive the food

bow before the food again

eat the food

wash the dishes

bow

bow

bow harder

meditate

can't read my meditation face

MEDITATION FACE (also: look at his thumb. I think we were the only 2 people at the temple wearing nail polish. AWK.)

walk around the temple

gaze at the pretty paintings as if they can save you

take off your shoes (neatly)

bow

make sure your forehead touches the ground. Don't let the gravel grazing your feet distract you.

gosh, my body looks weird.

wipe gravel from forehead

clean your feet

walk to another mini-temple, up the mountain.

take a picture, yell "Fighting!"

that smile is so forced. I really liked the 2 assistant monks who led us, but this guy is the head monk and I really think he has a power complex.

arranging my shoes before I enter the temple

awkward rainbow nail polish

no, but really. doesn't my body look weird?

DYING

little girl bowing

little boy bowing

meditation

I'm happy I went // I was happy to leave. Sometimes I do 108 bows with a metronome alone in my room, not because I'm converting to Buddhism, but because I like the process of it and it's good for my health.

sometimes i hate teachers' discussion class a lot.

Today, my co-teacher Shin-Jung said she thought the HIV was first transmitted to humans because African people have sex with monkeys. The evidence she cited was that somewhere in the bible it says people had sex with animals.

Gossip-girl Im Kyung-Hwa was still under the impression that HIV could be transferred via accidental spittle splashes while people infected with HIV have conversations with "normal people."

Park Mi-Ran said something along the lines of, "It's not just homosexual people. Lots of innocent people are being affected by AIDS now."

for jane: