Lunchtime in Geojin

I decided to eat at home at lunch time instead of at school. The food is pretty good there but I’m just tired of eating Korean food. So, now I go home. When it was warm, I’d take my lunch and ride my scooter to this place I found. It’s a super cute park and there usually is no one around. It’s too cold now to go up there, but next year for sure.

The road up to the little park area.

Walking up after I parked my scooter.

As you turn the corner, you can see the ocean coming through.

Another hill.

 

It was soooooooo beautiful, to the right.

To the left.

I took a nap here.

A cute little washroom.

And down there is the picnic bench.

Fountain pens

This is my lovely fountain pen collection. I’ve collected them since I was little. I’ve always loved how they write and have never been able to throw any of them away, no matter how crappy some of them are. They all have a charm and a specific way they write. Some are really fine tipped, some are very tick, for some, the ink runs very smoothly, for others it kind of pours out and then I get it all over my fingers. I like that though. I associate it with hard work, same as getting dirt under your finger nails after doing some sort of manual work.
Well, here they are :).

My case with my collection of fountain pens and extra ink cartridges.

When I was little, I only wrote with pencil, and when I was old enough, my mom gave me this fountain pen. It was sort of a growing up present. It's gold tipped.
I looked it up online and the brand might be Hero. Not sure tho.

This pen I got from Romania when I was young just before I left when I was little. A friend of mine knew I liked writing with it and gave it to me as a going away present.

This one I bought in Romania a few years ago.

Beautiful fountain pen bought in Germany.

Super crappy leaky fountain pen bought amazingly from a dollar store in Canada. It writes really thinly so that's why I bought it.

A beautiful and fancy thick tipped fountain pen. This was bought in Toronto.

Fountain pen bought in Scotland.

This is not the best fountain pen because it keeps leaking. It writes pretty nice though.

This one has a really nice grip. I bought this at a stationary store in Toronto.

My new fountain pen from Korea, complete with ink bottle. Sooo beautiful :).

October Cultural Trip

This is a trip that was created for the foreign teachers in my district. It was a nice one day outing, filled with karaoke, walking, laughing and lots of picture taking.

Here are the pictures as always :)

This is the first place we went to. I’m not sure where this was, but it was some sort of temple.

 Surprise shots. It’s too early for smiles and poses.

So, here we are taking some group pictures.

I’m not happy yet. It’s still too early.     

This was a really pretty wall from a small temple I guess.

The area was beautiful. There was a large forest with very tall and twisty trees. Incredible.

 

Now I’m a bit happier.

And then we went off to see this really big cave. Not only was it long, but also big and had many stalactites and stalagmites.

Heather and Angela posing on the little monorail that took us up to the cave entrance. 

And this was the entrance. It looked very well kept and maintained.

We naturally had to take another group shot :)

I was much happier now :)

This whole place shook as though a train was going over it.

There was a nice resting area with lanterns that made the whole atmosphere very warm and comfortable.

And now we start walking down.

And it keeps going down… 

Jessica is frightened here :).

This is a two lane road, one for going down, one for coming back up.

We found the echo room and Jessica was ecstatic. She did a little dance.

And then we found these little things. They were scenes along the walls apparently of little cave creatures mining for gold and diamonds.

  

And then we got to these things. Absolutely amazing :)

 

Could not have a town in Korea without having squid drying out on the racks. Pretty isn't it?

There is an interesting story that goes along with this. So, they say (the Koreans), that if you throw a coin on one of them lotus leaves, and it lands on it, you will have a son. Everyone was throwing coins and missing, and I threw one coin and it landed right there. Cool isn't it?

A very beautiful statue overlooking the region.

It was getting dark and the lanterns were lit all around the temple and the road.

Before leaving, we went to the restroom for “untieing worries”. Interesting purpose!

Obsession

Well, I'm finally over it.

It's been a very intense time and the emotional rollercoaster has come to an end.

Wonderful, overwhelming, overpowering, obsessive, amazing, something I would totally do again, but not right now.

I need to recuperate.

Whoaa!!

Maybe this was something I had to experience, something I hadn't experienced when I was a teenager.

Whoaa!!

Potluck

Wow!! I had a really nice get-together with 10 people tonight. I cooked a lot, prepared a lot of nice looking and tasting dishes, and it was wonderful.

I went to bed at 8:30am (Saturday morning). I was reading the 4th book of the Twilight series. It has captivated me so much. Their love is so much like mine. My love is unquestioning and all giving, and this book, the love between the main characters... wow!! I just can't stop reading it.

I woke up 3 hours later at 11:30 am because I had to clean my apartment and prepare the food for the people who'd be coming over.

I moved the mattress into my living room, I made eggplant salad, egg salad, 2 platters of different salamis and cheeses, a big bowl of mixed salad (all kinds of lettuce), veggie dip with red peppers, yellow peppers, broccoli, carrots and ranch dressing and a roast chicken. I was going to make a green coconut curry but I just didn't have enough time.

People brought other delicious things... lasagna, Bangladeshi chicken curry, macaroni and cheese, brownies, daal, sooo many good things.

I've got leftovers to last me the rest of the week.

It's 11:05 pm now, and everyone has left. It's time to get back to my book.

I haven't been so into a book since I read "A general theory of love". It felt like that book was written just for me. I connected with it immediately, the way it presented things, so rational and logical, I could understand everything so clearly. I've tried to read a few books after that but I just could not. That book had such a profound impact on me that everything else I read made it seem just fake and not important. Then I came across this book... first Twilight, then New Moon, then Eclipse, and now, the last one, New Moon. I just haven't been able to stop reading these books.

I'm glad I've found something that has touched me so deeply, that I've been able to connect with so deeply. I wish the series would be longer... I've reached page 233 of 481, and I'm sure I'll finish it tonight... there's no point in reading it again because I already know the whole story, but maybe I'll read it again just to feel close to the ideas, the love that they share. It's a love so passionate, so ultimate that without it there would be no point to living.

You don't see this kind of love in popular media and culture anymore. Songs are meaningless, vain and superficial. Same goes for movies or other representations of reality. It's nice to see that such values are still held somewhere. That such a love can still be dreamed about, thought of as possible.

I think I understand more now.

How could you not want this? How could you not strive for this? How could anyone settle for anything less?