Sunday Stroll by the River

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I got up this morning around 9 o’clock and dilly-dallied around until about 10 o’clock when Dad called. Mom was still in Missouri on her rock trip and Dad had said that she was having a great time, other than some minor setbacks like rain and a flat-tire by one vehicle in the group. Maximus P is doing well. Apparently, he is getting fatter, which is no surprise to me. He’s always been a lovable big boy. My hands have finally healed from his claw marks. He doesn’t mean to, but when he plays, he ends up clawing his playmate to death. I thought about getting a falconer’s glove, but then decided against it since I was leaving anyway. Sorry, Mom and Dad, you can buy the chain-mail mitt if you so desire. Anyway, I talked to Dad for a good hour and then went on with my day by surfing the internet for a while longer and then taking a nap. Yes, a nap. I got up again around 1:45, and decided to take a walk, but first I had to eat something so I wouldn’t pass out on my trek. I haven’t been feeling the best lately. My lungs have felt heavy and I’ve been coughing up gunk and my sinuses are stuffing up. It’s really miserable in the morning and then it’s touch and go from there. I always have Kleenex on hand nowadays because I’m always blowing my nose.

Well I grabbed my water and filled my cinch bag with my wallet, keys, and camera and off I went. On my way there, there was a group of about four children playing in the flat bed of a truck. Yes, that is their fun around here. I don’t even know if the truck belonged to one of their relatives! Anyway, as I walked by, they started freaking out of course and were practicing their English on a native English speaker. It was probably the thrill of their day. They kept saying, or better yet, screaming, “Hi” and “How are you?” and other greetings of the sort. I just replied back and it totally made their day.

I finally got down to the river and decided to walk the other way today. I think today’s way is much nicer because at many points along the way, I think about four or five, there are boulder bridges across the water that you can walk on. It was really neat. They are about an average of four feet by three feet on top and two or three feet deep. They are spaced just enough to slow the water, but they allow the water to go through them. You can literally sit in the middle of the river and just meditate on one of these rocks. I stood on one for a while and forgot I was even in the middle of a city because the rush and gurgle of the water is so loud that it drowns out (no pun intended) the cars engines and honking. I was watching the fish and ducks and other wildlife for about ten minutes before returning to my walk, but I really needed that to recharge my mental batteries.

I walked for a total of about an hour and twenty minutes, which was a pretty decent walk. On my way back on the path, I also saw some of the biggest spiders I have seen in my life! They weren’t as big as the one in Unam-ni, but they were HUGE! I got some pretty great pictures of them, too.

When I got back, I threw in a load of laundry so I didn’t have my stinky walking clothes sitting in the apartment and I took a shower. I, after all, had to go to church at 7:30. I called Joni to wish her a happy birthday and she had just gotten in early this morning, so she needed her rest and wasn’t going to go to church tonight, which I don’t blame her at all. I wasn’t exactly sure where the church was since I hadn’t walked there before and I walked home in the dark while talking, so I really wasn’t paying any attention to any landmarks. Because of this, I decided to leave a good 45 minutes early. Well, come to find out, I have to walk a block and a half up and two blocks over and I’m there. I now had a good 40 minutes to wait. Boo. So I sat outside and enjoyed the fresh night air. Around 7:15 or so, I went inside and tried to ask the man at the desk when the store would open so I could buy a rosary. He only spoke Korean and was completely clueless. I grabbed a piece of paper and started drawing a rosary on it and he looked at it like it was a hieroglyphic. I mean, I’m not the best artist, but I’m pretty sure it looked like a rosary. With a lot of pointing to my watch, pointing to the rosary drawing, and pointing in the direction of the store, he finally understood and pointed to his bracelet, which apparently was a rosary as well. So he got his keys, locked the office and took me to the store himself. He was yabbering in Korean and I thought he was talking about Saint Anthony or something and he was actually telling me that his name was Anthony. He was very nice and he let me see the different rosaries under the glass and the wooden ones on the wall. I finally chose a silver and blue Austrian crystal one, which I think is beautiful. It was marked in the case as 12,500 won, but inside and on the bottom of the box, it was marked as 25,000 won! So I got it at half price at a little less than $12.50. What a deal! I needed a new rosary anyway because A) I didn’t bring one, B) My good one at home has beads falling off of it, and C) The only other one I have is glow-in-the-dark, so I think I needed to grow up a bit.

After purchasing it, I took it outside and sat on the bench some more and around 7:25, I made my way upstairs. There were only two other foreigners there tonight: Andy and Paul. They are pretty nice, and the foreigners always sit together and usually share English Mass materials, but this time, we didn’t have any, so we were all in the dark together. At the end of Mass, (you could tell it was the end because all regular Catholic Masses follow the same schedule and the priests have the same gestures and the congregation has the same responses), anyway, at the end of Mass, the priest wouldn’t stop talking about something and he was getting crowd responses in agreement and he was doing motions I would expect to see on a bad Japanese karate film, which made it even more funny to me. Finally, we were able to “go in peace to love and serve the Lord. Thanks be to God.” Cue recessional hymn. …Yeah, I’ve been to a few Masses in my time.

Paul and I went outside and waited for Andy and then we started to walk back home when we passed a Hanbok dress shop. I asked if they knew the price range of them because I had been curious, and Paul looks at himself and claims that he doesn’t wear dresses and opens the door for me to go ask the lady. Great. So now, I’m obliged to go in without a translator and talk to a lady who doesn’t speak English and I know little to no Korean. Great. I’m now flipping through my language book and point the phrase, “I’m just looking,” and try to ask how much won the hanboks were. She then goes into a tornado of action and sits me down and starts flipping through a book wanting me to pick one out. So I pick one and she shows me shoes and a bodice thing that smashes your boobs down (because Western boobs are much bigger than the average Korean set), and then is talking in a furry of Korean, of which none I understand. She then gets a piece of paper and writes down, “3t00,000,” which I gather to mean 300,000 won or more. So I thank her for her time and let her know how beautiful her work was and then left. Andy and Paul had come in while I was being shown the book and said they were leaving, which I didn’t mind, so I walked back to my apartment myself.

When I got home, I was still curious, so I searched the internet a little and came to the conclusion that hanboks range in price (usually) from $300 to $600 or more. So the price she gave me, I suppose was about right on. After that fiasco, I talked to Dad a bit on Skype and Mom would make her return while I was sleeping and I would talk to her in the morning, so I started to wind down and now I’m in bed relaxing. I think some Scooby-Doo on YouTube is in my near future.

Hikyeseyo!

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Comments

[Aunt Marshy]

nice day
Sounds like you needed a quiet day. AND your rest so you stay well. HUGS!!!