Daily life; procrastinating and enjoying my free time

OK, so since I arrived back from Thailand I have been attempting to spend my time in slightly different ways. I have been broadening my horizons and visiting some great places, as well as filling in some of the gaps in my experience here.

The weekend after arriving we spent a weekend messing about, through a combination of night times in the Park, Jim Chil Bangs and Baseball. The weekend was awesome and really chilled, though the going out on Sundays leaves Mondays very tiring indeed.

The weeks seem to follow the usual form, I mix my time doing marginal amounts of language study, writing and seeing friends, I have a good time with this, I have met many open minded, free thinking intelligent people here and that suits me down to the ground, not only do people intrigue me with their own stories and ideas but they are also great platforms for bouncing my own ideas off of, this might be a selfish motivation for social interaction, but it suits me fine. I find writing to be a strange kind of hobby, and I certainly understand the idea of writers block, it seems when I have ideas I can in no way write them down fast enough, and at other times I literally can't write my name. Korea is a truly energetic place, I find I can do many things without having to give myself the kick up the arse for enthusiasm which I do in other places, though my thoughts and behaviour are all over the place, so I think this is a time for pure experience, and on reflection I will be able to better articulate what and how I feel.

On Saturday I spent my morning at one of the Palace here, Gyeongbokung, it was beautiful and for the first time in a couple of months the humidity took a short break, making the tour a little less sweaty. I managed to take some cool pictures, and more importantly sit back and take a rest for reflection. The main issue with having a good social life and a job teaching language is that you get very little time to be silent and to spend time with your own thoughts. The palace is a great complex of small palace buildings which were home to the Joeson Kings of Korea, despite their relative grandeur to the rest of Korea, if considering these buildings by European standards, for a Royal complex this place is relatively humble, yet beautifully serene. I would say that they are a must see place when visiting the region, simply to relax and enjoy, before hitting the madness of modern Korean culture.

After the palace I went to the horse races, not really my thing, but it was amusing to see how gambling has these ridiculous Ora of seriousness all over the world.

Saturday night was again spent in the Park in Hongdae. It was chilled out and I spent most of my time with new people, namely a French guy named Olivier and a Korean Girl named Jo. It was good to spend time with randoms, and the place certainly had a chilled out bohemian vibe, the range of music and nationalities of people helps. With a mixture of random events, odd conversations and interesting people it was a successful night. It was also great to hear the adventures and thoughts of many new people. The night ended with a bit of time spent by the Han river which produces excellent views in the lights of dawn. I'm really not looking forward to the freezing temperatures of Winter.

And so it is back to work again after another weekend of adventures and debauchery. Keep it foolish...