time... too fast

'Time wastes too fast: every letter I trace tells me with what rapidity life follows my pen, the days and hours of it are flying over our heads like clouds of a windy day never to return more--everything presses on--...' Laurence Sterne

wow, so it's about time for a nice little update, yeah? two weeks have absolutely flown by. my dear friend (chingu in korean-- see, i'm learning!?) chelsea arrived. that was good. it was just before my last blog post. we have been tearing up seoul, to put it lightly. it's an exciting time. to sleep at night does not exist for us. the weekends are sweeter and more precious than they've ever been. and seoul is beautiful.

people are dressed to the nines here. the women wear heels and the men (if not in a suit) look like they thought a lot about what to wear before putting anything on. also, something funny: showing off shoulders and/or cleavage is very frowned upon, but you can wear a mini skirt with stilettos--no problem. i got my first taste of shopping in korea when i was in busan for the film festival last weekend. on breaks between films one day, i wandered around the shopping mall where the theater was located. it was a seven story gallery. plus a basement with the classiest food court i have ever seen.

floor one: expensive (i.e. chloe, miu miu, gucci, bottega veneta, you get the idea) and accessories/make-up.
floor two: still expensive (women's designer fur and gowns).
floor three: women's expensive shoes.
floor four men's expensive clothing.
floor five: men's expensive shoes.
floor six: sort of reasonably priced women's and men's clothes and shoes.
floor seven: kids, home, and movie theater.

obviously, i spent most of my time on floor SIX. except for the wandering around and pausing in longing more than one time outside the Chloe shop. i bought a jacket and a sweater on the sixth floor. good start for a cold winter. then i went to the mall across the street, found a zara, and found the sale rack in the zara.

as for the film fest, it was terrific. i arrived in busan friday night (technically saturday morning) at 1 AM. i ended up couchsurfing at the apartment of an english teacher from chicago. she was really nice, and she let me stay on til sunday even though she left on saturday morning for a camping trip. so i lucked out and had an apartment to myself. it was my first time spending time with myself, by myself, all alone in a new city. i have done plenty of traveling by myself, but it seems i was always going to meet someone at the end of my journey. this time, it was just the films at the other end. and they were perfectly great company. i saw seven films in two days and arrived back in pyeongtaek at about 3.30 AM monday morning.

i am so glad that i ended up staying for that last late film on sunday night. it was one of my favorites. it was called au revoir taipei. it was hilarious and silly and cute. it made me want to visit taipei. the other film that really stood out was an italian film, hai paura del buio (you are afraid of the dark). it is a hard one to explain because it was very sensory and intimate-- silence followed by loud music (mostly the beginnings of joy division songs), close ups of the protagonists' hair or profiles, industrial imagery in bucharest and the italian countryside. it was lovely.

unfortunately, i don't have much to say about the city of busan since i was mostly in the theater, shopping, or eating. i did walk around a bit but not nearly enough to get a good feel of the place. the one thing i did notice right away is that it only has three subway lines. pyeongtaek has none, and seoul has twelve. so it must be something in between, plus the sea. someday i'll actually get down to the beach there.

but now i am back in pyeongtaek and it is friday again, which means i will be back to seoul tonight.

hurrah.