Mrs. Lee and me

One of the 50 or so sculptures made by a Korean artist.



Mrs. Lee and I beside one of the sculptures.



Me infront the MBC office. It might be the closest I'll get to a television station in awhile.



I really liked this one.



This sculpture had a lot of detail.



Mrs. Lee and I.




If you look closely, this one is a camera man and a reporter. I thought it was neat.




This one was called businessman. If you look you can see a cell phone and briefcase.




Last weekend, Mrs. Lee, the mother of one of my students and a generous friend, took me out around Chuncheon. First she showed me the only skating rink in the area. Her son used to speed skate. It was such a contrast from outside to inside. It was about 25 degrees celsius outside and as soon as you walked into the rink, it felt as chilly as the Canora Skating rink in the middle of December. I can’t imagine how much it must cost to keep that place cold in the summer. Apparently when it gets really hot, they have to shut it down because it obviously must cost a little too much. There were plenty of kids practicing their skills that afternoon. It was nice to see ice and skates. I would have been even more excited if there was actually a hockey game going on, but I’m not sure how often that happens here, but my guess is not too often.

After the rink, she took me to the MBC television station. They have a Korean sculpture exhibition going on now. There were about 50 or so sculptures on the grounds surrounding the building. It was quite nice actually. I’ve never really been much of an art person, but I quite enjoyed many of the pieces. Mrs. Lee did some translating for me as most of the titles were in Korean, although there were a few in English. Some were in Chinese, so she didn’t even know what they were called.

We followed Korean custom and took plenty of pictures. As a side note, Koreans love taking pictures of themselves. I can’t overemphasize this. Koreans will take pictures of themselves anywhere, everywhere, and every day if they have a chance. That’s why camera phones are so popular here. It’s quite common to see two or three Koreans sitting at a table taking numerous pictures of themselves. Not of their friends and them, but of themselves. They can be in a subway, and they will take pictures of themselves. It’s quite funny and peculiar. They are picture crazy. I haven’t noticed this behaviour to the same extent in any other Asian country, just Korea so far, which really doesn’t surprise me in some ways.

So Mrs. Lee and I took quite a few pictures of ourselves and we would have taken more had my memory card not been full. After that she took me out for dinner at this lovely little restaurant near the river. The fish is scrumptious there and it’s a great little place to sit and chat. I love talking with her because she is so energetic and amusing. She lived in the U.S. for seven years or so and her parents, brother and son still live there, so her English is quite good. It was a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon. We're planning our excursion for October. She’s going to take me to a psychic.... which should be really interesting.