October 21st, 2023

Day 3

Today is the day I reserved for Soo A. Soo A is a friend of mine from primary school in 2012. We took the second semester of 6th grade together in Dalian Maple Leaf Foreign Nationals School before I bolted and went to Dalian American International School. We haven’t seen each other since, so I did not know what to expect. Luckily she didn’t change at all. She used to dwarf me, as I had to look up to see her face. Now that I am taller than her, it feels weird, to be honest.

She couldn’t make mornings, so Uncle John’s business associate from yesterday recommended that I go to Bongeunsa Temple that’s close to the Coex where Soo A and I were going to meet. When I arrived at Bongeunsa Temple, looked right, and I saw the Coex. It is right across the street.

This is a Buddhist temple with actual monks doing their daily tasks. It is open to the public, and I just so happened to visit during their anniversary where they have promotions — free handcraft stations on the right of the temple. When I approached the foreigners information booth, the lady in pink was very nice and enthusiastic and explained everything to me, and said that all rooms can be entered, and the pictures are okay to take outside. She gave me both an English brochure that has a map of the premises along with specific details for each building, and a Korean brochure that celebrates the anniversary of the Temple and with the promotions.

I have to be completely honest. Since I am from China, at this point, I’ve been to my fair share of buddhist temples, and this was not that special to me. Everything is green though, just like Gyeongbokgung Palace and Cheongwadae. At the main building where 3 golden buddha statues are on display, I took my shoes off and entered. Everyone inside was praying while kneeling on cushions. I took a cushion, and tried to kneel like the Koreans. My years of being a Chinese person forbid me to do so. It’s not like we have a thing against kneeling. We kneel to pray to the Buddha too, just not by kneeling hard enough to be able to sit on our own legs. Holy crap was it painful to do so. Koreans have all their lives to train to sit on their calves, I had 1 minute. I gave it a minute before I gave up and put the cushion back. It is not that much special at this point, and I wasn’t too impressed. A white guy standing next to me started taking pictures with his phone. I asked him if we are allowed to do so, he shrugged while smiling, and I decided to take some pictures too. If we weren’t allowed to take pictures, I am so very sorry.

I also saw this type of doorknob yesterday when I visited Cheongwadae. This is not something we have in China, as it doubles as a door lock. This is on every door and window in traditional Korean building though, which is pretty cool.

I did say I was not impressed with Bongeunsa Temple at that point, until I saw the giant Buddha statue.

I mean, technically there are statues that are both bigger than this and older than this one, as this was built in 1990 and had a political layer that prays for the reunification of the North and the South. As soon as I saw that detail from the English brochure, I wasn’t too impressed. Religion should always be separated from politics, as politics corrupts religion. With that layered meaning, this buddha statue is no longer pure. It is now the product of political ambition, not the product of people’s pure hearted belief in Nirvana.

However, despite my disdain towards its political implications, as I approached the statue, I felt the relaxation and inner peace that I haven’t felt in years. I think it was because of the music that was being played, but I just, felt something inside me that makes me want to stop, look up, and stay there.

A month ago I was approached by 2 mormon missionaries that took me to church and taught me how to pray. I am in no way religious, and is quite atheist in fact. They constantly ask me to pause for a second and keep note of what I feel after praying each time, and each time it felt like it was nothing. I mean, I was talking to air. Despite my best effort, I just can’t believe that there is a God. With all the tragedies in the world, an all-loving God that loves us so much should not put us through his supposed trials, but I digress. The point of this tangent is that I don’t feel moved by praying nor by visiting the church on Sunday. I love the fact that I get to wear suits, but nothing more. However, I felt all the emotions I needed when I saw this giant Buddha statue. The music that was playing along with the peacefulness of the smile of the buddha makes me relaxed wholeheartedly. Can’t help but think that maybe Christianity is white people’s thing, it was never Asians’s.

Anyways, below are some pictures I took that surrounds the Buddha.

After I looked around the buddha for a while, I heard drumming, so I went down the path and saw monks practicing drumming. I knew it wasn’t the main event because there weren’t many people looking. I sat a while, took a video and posted it onto instagram, and walked around again and took some pictures, before coming back for the real event. As a percussionist in both a real Chinese Music Ensemble and in my own one man band, I can say that some younger monks really can’t drum. They constantly miss beats or drummed it on the wrong spot. Amateurs. But the older monks though, they really can drum, and they’re good at it. Visually appealing too, with all the arm waving and stuff.

I got bored of all the drumming, so I went to the hand craft station, hoping that the drumming has diverted all the people away so I wouldn’t wait.

As I expected, there weren’t much people at the hand craft station that is in celebration of the temple’s anniversary. Again, I don’t read Korean, so I have no idea how many years the temple is, but based on how dirty the roof is, I’d say it is very old. No disrespect though, a temple is supposed to have dirty roofs. Clean roofs found on Gyeongbokgung and Cheongwadae are very unrealistic. It is definitely someone’s job to clean the roofs over there.

The hand crafts are completely free, and you can make everything you want, in how many quantity you want. They just ask you to donate, and I donated 1,000 won. It seems much, but do the currency exchange yourself and you’ll see.

I wanted to do the necklace thing, but the people in charge of that station is actually gone for lunch. I then saw the lantern. It is a wooden lantern, and as someone who constantly shops online for DIY stuff like this, it is pretty standard. It is basically assembling wood together, seemed pretty easy, so I sat down for that one.

The person working that station was pretty nice, and gave me everything I needed to make this. She insisted on showing the Korean logo on the outside, and I didn’t fight her on that. Cuz why would I, I don’t read Korean anyways. In the original packaging, they come with white paper that doesn’t seem to filter light through, and that’s why the station offers see through papers that are really thin and are either in solid color or in gradient. I, being someone who is very extra, went for the gradient. I am very happy with my choice though. After you’re done assembly and gluing, you can place gold foil stickers on for decoration, and the station offers gold paint to paint in the middle.

While I was sitting on my butt doing this, two girls from Philippines came. One is a lawyer and one is a doctor. The doctor is extremely fast with hand works, and I guess it is very necessary for her line of work to be fast with her hands. The lawyer said that I don’t look American, which must be the biggest complement for my wardrobe and my hairstyle that day. I finished mine, said goodbye to these two ladies, and moved on to the necklace station as the staff told me that it is ready.

I told Soo A to meet me here at the temple, and I sat down to make the necklace. It is pretty easy too, as the front of the necklace is already strung for you. All you need to do is tie three knots on each side of the strings, with exactly 8 cm apart. You get to do it with a straw though, which is super cool. At the end, the staff will tie the end for you, but you still have to be the one that pulls the strings (pun intended). It was pretty cool though. I liked the necklace enough that I wore it for the rest of my stay in Korea. Soo A came right after I took this picture.

Me and Soo A haven’t seen each other for over 11 years, but since we have each other on instagram, we already know who we are looking for. Boy she used to be taller than me by not just a little bit, by a lot, so it just feels unnatural now that I am taller than her. I took a couple more pictures of Bongeunsa Temple before we left for the Coex.

Soo A works for Sephora Korea, and recently has been promoted to be the Customer Services Manager. Sephora has a store inside the Coex, but even then Soo A still gets lost in the Coex. It took us a while to get to the restaurant that we’ve been looking for. To her credit, the Coex is huge, and has multiple floors, and we had to find maps along the way to stay on course.

Restaurant name: 사리원 (Sariwon)

Address: well, it’s inside the Coex

Believe it or not, this is my first time having Bulgogi. I have never had it before. When Soo A suggested that we go get Bulgogi, I was expecting Korean BBQ, not something water based. However, I was still pleasantly surprised by the taste of Bulgogi. We reminisced about our shared past during the meal, and ranted about how everything changed. Like Kihyun, she did not like it when I was the one that paid for lunch.

After lunch, we decided to stay in Coex and see what’s fun to do for me. We first went to the Kakao Friends store. I had a vague idea of what the Kakao friends are; they used to be popular in China. After I got into the store, I was shocked and appalled by how expensive everything is. I remember telling Soo A that I can get 100 Chinese stuffed bears for the price of one that’s in the store. For the life of me I cannot remember exactly the price of one tiny stuffed animal, but I can assure you that I really do mean it when I can get a 100 of them for the price of one.

Kakao Friends store was a bust, so Soo A took me to the Starfield Library. I generally do not care for libraries, as I seldomly read; but holy cow, I was shocked and awed by the awesomeness of this library.

I mean for the love of God look at it. Whoever designed it is a genius. However, as I am the king of sarcastic thoughts, my immediate reaction was to ask Soo A how do people get the book on the top shelf. She had no good answer. She did suggest though that I go on the elevator and pretend that I don’t see the camera and she will snap a picture of me doing that. I shot her down immediately. Again, I really don’t want to be seen as a tourist, plus, I never take pictures alone, it just feels sad. You’ll only see me in photos that are either for the music cover, or I am in photos with someone else.

The novelty of the Starfield Library wears thin pretty quick though, and we left to walk around the Coex a little bit more. Soo A showed me the Sephora store inside the Coex and how she designed all the graphics for the promotions since no one in Korea buys from Sephora. I did not expect that at all, because Sephora is usually packed inside the U.S., and I hate myself for having that knowledge.

We decided to get in a random cafe and order desserts. We ordered a cake called “Pure Milk”, which was a cake with 50% whipped cream. I also ordered a Triple-berry Soda. Like the Strawberry Sundae that I had the day before, you had to really go in there and stir everything to make it slightly drinkable.

Soo A told me that she gave herself a name. In Ancient China, people with great knowledge often give themselves names, called “Hao”. We have names given to us by our parents, and only those with great grasp of the Chinese language give themselves a name. Soo A, gave herself the name of “葵皎”, either “kuí jiǎo” in Mandarin, or “Gui Gyo” in Korean. The name, while being translated directly, means Sunflower and Whiteness. Her definition for her name is that she wants to have a purposeful life, much like the sunflower, who always faces the sun. She also wants to be pure, hence the character for whiteness that is associated with the moon. Now she has both the sun and the moon in her name.

We talked for a few hours, and by the end, I had to get to Uncle John’s because I promised to see him at night. But before that, I had to see the light show that was promised on the English brochure of the giant Buddha statue in Bongeunsa Temple.

We got to the statue, and either the brochure lied to me or I was too late, but I did not get to see the supposed light show, just a well-lite Buddha statue. Even though I was very much disappointed, seeing that statue again did make me less disappointed. Me and Soo A was going to take a recently popular style of instant pictures where we pose for 4 different pics, but there was a line and we didn’t want to wait. So we just took a couple of selfies at Bongeunsa Temple. She told me to only post the first few ones, so per her wish, you won’t see anything more here lol.

After we took our selfies, Soo A, being a South Korean native, can take the public transportation home with ease. She won’t get on the wrong way of the subway. I on the other hand, am a complete idiot in regards to the perfectly normal state that is the Korean subway system. I called a cab for myself, but instead of the pick up point being the entrance of the Bongeunsa Temple, I think either one of us accidentally swiped on the phone, and the pick up point was set to the Coex. I did not realize that until I saw the taxi was about to take a left turn into Coex, and me and Soo A started chasing after the cab. Literally, we were running after a taxi that did not see us chasing after it.

After we successfully got to the cab, Soo A let the cab driver know exactly where I am going, and we hugged goodbye.

After the cab arrived at the Grant Hyatt Hotel Seoul, Uncle John was waiting for me by the hotel’s bar. Seeing me pretty sleepy, Uncle John asked the bartender if I could get some coffee, and got a solid no. He was going to order some alcohol for me, but I told him that alcohol makes me even more sleepy, even though it does nothing to me mentally. He ordered us Perrier soda drink with lemons cut up into them.

Uncle John knows my situation, and he knows our family well, so he was very eager to help me solve my life problems. In regards to relationships, our family has always been the “never be the reacher” kind of family. Oh, you would understand what I said if you watched HIMYM. But, it basically means that I am expected to not be the guy who chase after girls that shows no interest in me like a dog. Uncle John though, had the exact opposite idea. He told me a couple of stories of how a guy can wear a girl down by being the nicest guy there is and eventually winning her over. Good stuff.

After a while, even though I am very much conscious, my eyelids keep dropping down. Uncle John took me to his room and gave me some multi-vitamin. We talked for a while again, but my eyelids started to shut down again, so I had to get on a cab ride home. For someone like Uncle John’s stature to walk me down from his room and getting a cab for me was not what I expected.

I got on a cab, got back to my hotel, got in the shower, got in bed, and slept like a freakin baby.