An Ocean Away

Sorry, again I've neglected this blog!

Anyways, so just to recap about last weekend, I went to the Fo Guang Shan temple bright and early on Saturday. ^^ Yayz!!! ^^ *lol* I got there an hour early and helped around. ^^ There is really nothing much to talk about the Seoul Fo Guang Shan temple except that:

1) They have fa hui at 11am on Saturdays.

2) Majority of the time, there are only 7 devotees who come to the dharma service.

3) There are 3 shi fus running the temple.

4) The main chef in the kitchen is a Korean lady.

5) BLIA YAD Seoul is non-existant.

That day, I basically stayed at the temple from morning until around 7pm in the evening helping around, etc. I learned that in Korea, Koreans like to make rice offerings. Interesting, eh? ^^ Anyways, nothing much going on at the temple. ^^ *lol*

During my subway ride home, I got a text from Samantha about meeting up in NoWon for dinner. ^^ So I went up there to meet up with her and some other SMOE people. ^^ NoWon turns out to be VERY big! Omg! The subway feels like its neverending! So many flights of stairs! But I finally made it and Sam took meet to where everybody was eating. ^^ Because I already had supper at the temple, I didn't eat anything. ^^ While we were eating, this random Korean guy with a guitar came over to our table and start playing. Dialogue between John and Random Guitar Guy:

Random Guitar Guy: I can play any English song to you.
John: How much do you charge?
Random Guitar Guy; *silence*
John: Alright, Can you play some Coldplay? Let's hear some Coldplay.
Random Guitar Guy: *silence* I'm sorry, I only know one English song "Land of the Rising Sun" and the rest are Korean song.
John: Oh.........ok, let's hear that then.
Random Guitar Guy: *Begins song and started bellowing at the top of his lungs*

I swear, it was very amusing. *lol* I just loved it!! Here in Seoul, there are so many different characters walking the streets that it just adds color to everything. ^^ AHHHHH I love it here!! ^^ So Saturday night was indeed a great night! ^^







So that was Saturday. ^^ On Sunday, I met up with Jessica at COEX mall. ^^ It was my first time going to COEX mall so it was awesome seeing everything for the first time. ^^ They were having a free concert outside but when I got there, they've already wrapped up. I don't even know what group was up there. *lol* Oh wells. So I met up with Jessica at COEX and we went for lunch first. ^^ We couldn't decide on a restaurant so we went to the food court and I had cheese kimbap and Jessica had some kind of rice. *lol* Then we went to Uniglo and I bought a sweater and top and two pairs of jean leggings. ^^ I also bought another top at this little boutique in the mall. ^^ Yeah, I love shopping. ^^ I also saw the boys from 웃찾사 초코보이 performing by the music store in the mall. ^^ They are indeed so funny. ^^ A lot of people were gathered around to watch them. ^^ I took a video of them. ^^ Check it out! ^^



After COEX, I took the train to 길동 because one of the girls I met at the temple was having a hot pot get-together. ^^ i've never been to 길동 before so I was surprised to see how different it is from the rest of Seoul. 길동 is a much older neighborhood with very few apartment buildings.
I had an awesome time at Sandy's house though. ^^ They are really cool people, but I had to practise speaking mandarin to them. I suck so bad at mandarin. *sigh* We had a lot of lamb and veggie for the hot pot and after hot pot, Sandy and the others demonstrated tea ceremony. ^^ It was so cool and the tea tasted so rich and good!!! ^^ I wish I can learn. ^^ So we ended up talking and drinking tea and we completely lost track of time. I ended up missing my line 6 train by an hour, so I had to take a taxi home from line 7. *sigh* But at least the taxi driver was very nice. ^^



I just realized that I've already been in Korea for a month!!!!! ^^ Wow! How time flies!!!!!