"She is crazy and fun and interesting and busy, all at the same time!"

Carol of Warwick Press said that after looking at my website. I found it all too apt and hilarious. Today's big excursion was a trip to Bukaksan, a big mountain that used to anchor a huge fortress wall that surrounded Seoul, which was a walled city (go figure! No wonder I am so crazy about walls. I esp like the way they built them here w/the HUGE bricks that have tiny corners carved out to fit - they're all different shapes). This wall didn't work very well in warding off invaders, though. Only a little bit is left, the rest being eaten by war, the Japanese occupation, and contemporary life (like train lines). A photographer took me up and down and my half of the apple he cracked had a worm in it. My first worm in an apple, ever!

We saw a tree w/bullet holes when people tried to assassinate the prez about 30 years ago, and lots of people my parents' age - young people don't hike on the weekends b/c they're recovering from their insane jobs. I had that same feeling of death as I did last year when I started treadmilling and thought my heart was going to explode. So, as hot and sweaty as it was, it was at least a much-needed workout. I learned lots of hilarious things about current Korean culture while walking an historic site. And then was horrified as we walked thru the gate that single women visit so that they can get married soon.

We went to a really great dumpling place for lunch and then walked to the Whanki Museum, but didn't go in. Then we walked thru official grounds around the Blue House (the Korean version of the White House in D.C.) - security kept asking us where we were going. I saw the photog's studio site. It's still being built, below an existing structure in a tiny corner in a really quiet hood near a newly trendy gallery district.

Oh, here are the pics from last Thursday's gallery hopping.

I think that I am trying to live about five different people's lives at once, which leads to massive burnout:

1. artist
2. admin assistant
3. researcher
4. language student
5. hypochondriac

Also, I clearly WANT too many things, and am too attached to things, like the idea of being five different people at once, which leads to suffering. I think that in my lifelong pursuit of being non-materialistic, I have become excessively covetous of non-material things! The backfiring is intense.