Hiya,
So was very tired and went to bed earlish after writing my blog. I got up and had a shower about 6ish and my breakfast at 7.15ish. Now inbetween the time I went into the bathroom and brushe dmy teeth, father had his brecfast, got dressed and put on his shoes and was calling me to hurry up. I'm not really sure how he manages to do it but one day I'll catch him out.
We got to class really early so I got us good seats. Luckily we could finish at 10.40 as it was Dongguk graduation for some of the monks and teachers. Because the weather was good and we were all feeling refreshed we decieded that today would be good to do the Inwangsan Shamanist Hillside Walk. Now, I really do hate Korea Sparkling because not only did it lie to me about Noodle X being open, but it also lied to me about it being a 'hillside'walk. First we had to get out of the tube station and walk up this really hard slope, then up this hill to the top where we met some Americans and chatted then up some steps, and that was just the beginning. We got lost and started chatting to a monk who let us go in the temple alone to film and take pictures as much as we wanted. We searched high and low for the Shamanistic icons but only found Buddhist ones until the last 5 minutes where we spotted the drawings in the corner. We then moved on up the mountain, yes mountain, to these rocks which apparently look like a monk praying. I couldn't see it but apparently it brings fertillity. I figured I'd get blessed ready for the future and I done my prayers. I done extra as it's more work to ask for a girl than a boy, it sucked and my legs hurt after a while. We filmed a little and realised that there was a monk sitting on top of the mountain. Stupidly we figured we could get to him, how wrong we were.
We passed the Shamanistic temple, which was closed to our dismay, and carried on up the rocks. We met the American couple and figured that if they were climbing the mountain, than we definately could. Helena was a tad nervous of heights so I went first, she as behind and the Caroline at the rear. It was at this point that we realised flip flops were not the best idea in the world. I tried to find logs and gap in the stones to climb up and we stopped at the highest point to drink the cleansing mountain water. I'm pretty sure we almost deprived the rest of Seoul water for that time as it was really nice and cold. We carried on through the mountain and then started our descent. This was easier said than done and the sweat was running down me. I was at the back this time due to not being confident with going downhill. Helena became one with the forest and walked barefoot most the way and helped me to not slide down the hills.
We finished our walk and realised we smelt really quite bad and had to go meet a film direstcor. We wandered around a little and bought some t-shirts and spray and wetwipes to clean up. I thinkw e done agood job. We then went to meet Mahinda ina new area to get a taxi to the directors house. It was a strange place we went to, near an army base so many white girls and boys. It was unnverving and I really didn't like it there. It was too.. western and I think I'm now prefering the company of Asian people. There were all Americanised stores and one even called, ENGLAND! It was really disturbing. We bought a cake for Lee Myung-se, the director and went to his office in a taxi. He was a very nice guy and smoked like a trouper. He made us a lot of black coffee and was great to interview, I felt very lucky to interview him and he made me realise that I should be doing film, that life is too short. I could relate to him very much and we got talking about Anime and Manga series. I told the girls that he was my temple, my church. I am in much awe of the man. I gave him my email and youtube address, I hope maybe he will contact me.
After the interview his producer and assistants joined us and we went to Myeongdong for dinner. We walked up a dingey alleyway and I was surprised at how cool the resturant was. I had three bowls of rice wine which is really nice and he was kind and ordered omlette, cucumber, fruit salad and tofu for me and Caroline. Everyone had a good laugh and we made jokes about Mahinda, calling him the monk paparazzi because he takes about a million or so photographs.
Anyway, logging off for now,
Angharad

Labels: bath spa university, buddhist, donguk university, free market, Lee Myung-Se, madu, mahinda, monk, mountain dew, seoul, shamanistic walk

Hiya,
So was very tired and went to bed earlish after writing my blog. I got up and had a shower about 6ish and my breakfast at 7.15ish. Now inbetween the time I went into the bathroom and brushe dmy teeth, father had his brecfast, got dressed and put on his shoes and was calling me to hurry up. I'm not really sure how he manages to do it but one day I'll catch him out.
We got to class really early so I got us good seats. Luckily we could finish at 10.40 as it was Dongguk graduation for some of the monks and teachers. Because the weather was good and we were all feeling refreshed we decieded that today would be good to do the Inwangsan Shamanist Hillside Walk. Now, I really do hate Korea Sparkling because not only did it lie to me about Noodle X being open, but it also lied to me about it being a 'hillside'walk. First we had to get out of the tube station and walk up this really hard slope, then up this hill to the top where we met some Americans and chatted then up some steps, and that was just the beginning. We got lost and started chatting to a monk who let us go in the temple alone to film and take pictures as much as we wanted. We searched high and low for the Shamanistic icons but only found Buddhist ones until the last 5 minutes where we spotted the drawings in the corner. We then moved on up the mountain, yes mountain, to these rocks which apparently look like a monk praying. I couldn't see it but apparently it brings fertillity. I figured I'd get blessed ready for the future and I done my prayers. I done extra as it's more work to ask for a girl than a boy, it sucked and my legs hurt after a while. We filmed a little and realised that there was a monk sitting on top of the mountain. Stupidly we figured we could get to him, how wrong we were.
We passed the Shamanistic temple, which was closed to our dismay, and carried on up the rocks. We met the American couple and figured that if they were climbing the mountain, than we definately could. Helena was a tad nervous of heights so I went first, she as behind and the Caroline at the rear. It was at this point that we realised flip flops were not the best idea in the world. I tried to find logs and gap in the stones to climb up and we stopped at the highest point to drink the cleansing mountain water. I'm pretty sure we almost deprived the rest of Seoul water for that time as it was really nice and cold. We carried on through the mountain and then started our descent. This was easier said than done and the sweat was running down me. I was at the back this time due to not being confident with going downhill. Helena became one with the forest and walked barefoot most the way and helped me to not slide down the hills.
We finished our walk and realised we smelt really quite bad and had to go meet a film direstcor. We wandered around a little and bought some t-shirts and spray and wetwipes to clean up. I thinkw e done agood job. We then went to meet Mahinda ina new area to get a taxi to the directors house. It was a strange place we went to, near an army base so many white girls and boys. It was unnverving and I really didn't like it there. It was too.. western and I think I'm now prefering the company of Asian people. There were all Americanised stores and one even called, ENGLAND! It was really disturbing. We bought a cake for Lee Myung-se, the director and went to his office in a taxi. He was a very nice guy and smoked like a trouper. He made us a lot of black coffee and was great to interview, I felt very lucky to interview him and he made me realise that I should be doing film, that life is too short. I could relate to him very much and we got talking about Anime and Manga series. I told the girls that he was my temple, my church. I am in much awe of the man. I gave him my email and youtube address, I hope maybe he will contact me.
After the interview his producer and assistants joined us and we went to Myeongdong for dinner. We walked up a dingey alleyway and I was surprised at how cool the resturant was. I had three bowls of rice wine which is really nice and he was kind and ordered omlette, cucumber, fruit salad and tofu for me and Caroline. Everyone had a good laugh and we made jokes about Mahinda, calling him the monk paparazzi because he takes about a million or so photographs.
Anyway, logging off for now,
Angharad

Labels: bath spa university, buddhist, donguk university, free market, Lee Myung-Se, madu, mahinda, monk, mountain dew, seoul, shamanistic walk