Quickie

The hike was great (have pictures to post) and my trip to Gwangju yesterday was adorably Korean and full of fail. My goals for the trip:
1. Retrieve hoodie from the Gwangju International Center (GIC)
2. Buy Korean class textbook
3. Get more movie passes for my student
4. Buy a cardigan

The first and fourth objective were completed....and the fourth after at least 15 iterations of this exchange: "Cardigan, big size? [gesturing to indicate it's meant to fit me]" "Upsayeo. (doesn't exist here) Sorry!" As a wise man (Lacey) once said, "Nothing in Korea is a to-don't," haha. Which brings me to how the third objective failed. That was allll language barrier. I've gotten these passes before. They thought I was trying to get a specific movie ticket when really I wanted a free movie pass that wouldn't expire for a few months. After about 5 'upsayeo's I gave up and went back and got them today. Number two failed because I just didn't think to write down the name or author of my textbook and when I got to the store, I actually thought "well, there can't be that many Korean language textbooks at a KOREAN BOOKSTORE. I'll just browse about and grab the one that looks familiar." >_<   Oh, silly Tamara. I grabbed that today, too.

So, the impetus for my writing. Because I don't live in a city, I'm worried about not making any really close friends. Which I shouldn't. My Korean classes start next week and I'll meet more people there. And I need to renew my efforts to attend more events...and artist collective meetings, haha. That being said, today was a rainy day (which seem to be rare here in Korea...except during the rainy season which was before I came, I think) and those can make one feel a bit dreary. I've been doing writing for the second chapter of my comic book (which I'm showing at the GAIA gallery in March! Yayhoo!), the content of which is pretty heavy and my emotions are a touch keyed up. I did what I needed to do after seeing the opening of that photo project (which I neglected to submit anything to) and found myself without much reason to stay in Gwangju at about 5:30, having only arrived at 3:30. I did watch some kids in an arcade, looked at a small gallery (which was AMAZING), and browsed a stationary store, but I really wanted company. And there it was. I was lonely.

But, I reminded myself that I had art to do! And that helped. And then I remembered I had a new show downloaded to watch. And that helped. And when I arrived in my neighborhood, I ate some traditional Korean food in the tiniest restaurant ever, run by a husband and wife. The service was amazing and the wife showed me how I was supposed to eat this oddly complicated soup. And they had the tiniest, cutest dog ever (which had slippers on... I detest animals in clothes, but this was just too funny) and it was just really nice. When I left dinner, that heavy sadness was gone and I felt warm and light.

And now to watch some Pushing Daisies and then maybe take a bath.