12.14.97

‘Twas a nice weekend. It was cold and still a tad snowy. Sun was out mostly. We went places, did things. Ate out. Lessee…. Saturday I suggested we make a second attempt to visit the Ewha University Museum. The first time we went it was closed and it’s such a long ride that it’s not a trip you just wanna make on a whim. Anyway, I felt like having a good hot chocolate with steamed milk, instead of the nuked kind, and so I would’ve been happy to go just for that. Crowded trains on Saturdays. Everyone is getting off of work and preparing for the only night of the week that is not followed by a work morning. Hungry for lunch by the time we climbed up from underground, so we dipped into Jessica’s Pizzeria. Thank Tao for that place!! Best salads for your buck in Korea. Vanessa Mae was playing SO loud on the restaurant stereo - too loud. But it offered a weird kind of privacy among the tightly packed tables in the room. Sauntered over to the museum afterward. And… it was closed. Damn - two for two. Outside there was an old stone sculpture exhibit consisting primarily of "civil men" and "attending boys." We wondered if there were a lot of stones carved into these figures because they were important somehow. Maybe these were the only ones to survive the centuries? Maybe the owners of these antiques would only part with the men and boys? And, is there a connection between civil men and attending boys? The museum store was OPEN so we ducked in there and spent some money on postcards and bookmarks, the usual museum fare. Walking the streets adjacent to the university, we spied one of those picture machines that converts your image, with a funky background, into a bunch of little stickers. Couldn’t resist. Just down the street from there was Seattle Espresso - my favorite. We ordered for here and since my punch card was filled we not only got a free drink but a tacky little mug to take home. How cool. I like how the seating is arranged on the second floor so that a bar spans the window where you can sit and people watch. It was all so smoky though; there's no such thing as a non-smoking section. All those college kids puffin’ away like there’s no tomorrow. Dave remarked how weird it was that so many people were smoking. Cafés in the States often seem so smoke-free. Depends on which cafés you frequent, I spose. So we sat, I sipping my hot chocolate, Dave manipulating the foam on his tall cappuccino. The people in the area tend to dress really trendy and sometimes it’s funny watching those who attempt the trend and fail. One girl was trying so hard to have a part in her hair far to one side, carefully tacked down with a big barrette way on the other side. Only the hair was too strong and slid out from the barrette, falling to land on her nose. Flicking her head, she bounced the ornery piece back into place, but gravity was more powerful. So, she walked down the street with one thick swatch of hair draped diagonally across her face, resting on her nose, exposing the eye it was supposed to partially cover, and ending nearly at her jaw-line. I guess it was kind of like a trendy girl’s lick-n-stick. There are a lot of foreigners usually milling around the area too, mostly men. It’s no surprise they like hanging out at the women’s university. One guy, a really weird guy, stood in the street smiling lewdly at the young women passing by. They giggled mostly at his weirdness, which was not restricted to his facial expressions. He was sportin’ this really funky Paddington Bear-type hat that was, of course, turned up in the front. It was a sort of beige/brown that matched his worn out brown puffy nylon jacket (like you'd your grampa would wear). At his side he held a metal attaché case you might see CIA operatives lugging around. He wore seriously nerdy glasses. Only tape could’ve made them more nerdy. Eventually he spies the café and heads in under our feet, recognizing it as something like an oasis of American culture. As we were ready to leave, I turned to see him crest the top of the stairs, smile and salivate at a woman walking past before passing us and taking a place at the bar. Pervert. Before we turned to leave, I looked over at him sitting alone and then felt sorry because maybe he's lonely. Today threatened snow, so we left early. We wanted to eat lunch at our favorite veggie place, Pul Hyang Gi, and once we’d decided to do that we added on some other errands. We stopped at the Hyatt for bread then walked down from it’s high perch on the hill toward Itaewon. On the way, we passed a Swiss restaurant advertising cheese fondue. Ooo. Sounds good. Maybe next time - we had a date with healthy food today. Not a good day karma-wise on Itaewon-no. Most errands were left unfulfilled and the one great find was clouded by a revealed X-mas surprise. Lunch was great, as usual, especially the little rice cakes that look just like little tiny snowballs. So soft are they! To me they are just the kind of thing I always wished snow would be: Sucking on a luscious snowball as a kid, I felt disappointed that with all its beauty it only tasted like water.

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