28 March 2010

a weekend

last weekend i didn't do anything...i left my flat exactly twice, both times to go get ice cream from a shop in my own building...a whole lot of nothing...i still don't know exactly why, but last weekend i just couldn't be bothered to do anything..it happens every now and again..
this weekend was different..i wasn't super busy, but i wasn't so immobile either..i went to contact rugby practice saturday morning..there were only 10 of us there (including the coach, and a korean girl who showed up about an hour late) because of hong kong 7s (the longest running rugby tournament in asia, i think) and cold weather..i'm sure there were other reasons as well..anywho..since there were only 10 of us, we weren't able to do as much as the coach had hoped..it's really hard to work on scrums when you don't have enough people..we ended up playing touch for a little while, on a very much shortened (both length and width) pitch, to force us to work on passing..sometime in the middle of touch, we noticed a whole lot of people taking pictures of us..we continued playing for a bit, then decided to take pictures of them taking pictures of us..as we learned later, it was a photography club that had come to take pictures of us..i wonder what kind of photos they ended up with..
the rest of saturday i didn't do much..i could've, but there wasnt any reason to do so..making it to rugby practice meant this weekend was already better than last weekend..hee hee...
sunday morning i went to church..there is an advantage to having a really early service, and that is that it's over earlier..the weather today was absolutely beautiful..sunny, with blue skies..a perfect day..

after the service, i took the subway to the tombs at uireung..they are the tombs of king gyeongjong and his second queen, queen seonui..he was the 20th king of the joseon dynasty..the long and short of it is that they both died, childless..he was only on the throne for 4 years, and she was only 25 when she died!! these tombs are different in that instead of being next to each other, one is behind the other..apparently this is the feng shui way of arranging tombs.. either way, the mountain was still behind everything..it was disappointing for me to realize that i couldn't really get up and see the tombs..there were ropes around the bottom of the hill, clearly saying "don't go here"...i wanted to get up and see how everything was arranged, but that wasn't an option...it didn't stop me from thinking about ducking under the ropes, as there weren't too many people there, and at one point no one could've seen me if i had ducked under the ropes and climbed up the little hill..but i didn't..i saw a tree which i thought would give me a better view, so i tried climbing it..but climbing a tree in high heels wasn't my forte..i ended up kicking off one of my shoes and making it up the tree.. sadly, i didn't end up with the view i wanted, so i had to go back down without breaking anything..i made it, but just barely..since i didn't get to really see the tombs, the best part of the outing was when two kids came up to me and gave me little snacks..i should've gotten a picture with them, but i wasn't thinking..
as i was leaving the tombs, i realized how badly my feet hurt..OUCH..i guess i can wear high heels for a little while, but not an entire day...ooops...by the time i got back on the subway i was taking really small steps, and trying to figure out the fastest way back to my flat, so i could get there and change shoes..i FINALLY got home, and it was heaven to take off the heels..i still think it's stupid to see korean women hiking in high heels, but now i have a different view of their level of coordination in that they're able to do it in the first place!! plus, when i took off the shoes, i realized i had scraped up my legs and feet a bit while climbing the tree at the tombs...oops...hee hee...i'm sure my legs will feel good as ever tomorrow..ending up with bumps and bruises seems to be the norm for my weekends:)
the rest of the day involved grocery shopping, and a trip to my favourite coffee shop, coffee bean..they have the best chai lattes on the planet, and a chocolate mousse cake to die for..a perfect ending to a weekend:)

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