Solstice and pizza

The weekend just whizzed by. After burning Friday's productivity to bits, I tried recovering on Saturday but ended up just napping and buying a fancy chocolate and chestnut cake for my uncle to take to Chinese dinner (yum, but too much food, as always) for his bday celebration. It was nice to see my niece and nephew after not seeing them for a long time (different ones from the ones I saw last week), but it just made me all tired.

But then, I finally figured out that the art opening that Bum told me about happened tonight b/c of the solstice! Duh. I'm slooow w/these things...I got the email and wondered, in a cranky inner voice, "why is this art opening on SUNDAY?" I was going to go, and then not, and then a new Chinese friend from my trip a few weeks ago called last night to invite me, and I'm really glad we went.

Here are the pictures.

Here is why I am glad I went:

1. I got to hold hands w/someone for the first time in A MILLION YEARS (I'm excluding small children, where you do it so they don't get killed while crossing the street). I used to do this w/my cousins in Korea over ten years ago but all I do now w/my girlfriends is link arms. It was so weird to hold hands tonight but also wonderful.

2. It was actually kind of fun to trek up to the hanok (traditional Korean house, the last one standing in that hood) - I had drawn this ridiculous map that only I can decipher, and managed to guide us all the way from the subway to the opening. It felt just like following breadcrumbs, too, since they had a few signs that were only visible b/c they were white (it was dark by then). Of course, I couldn't explain that to my friend, since I don't think China has a comparable story to Hansel and Gretel. Please let me know if it does.

3. The hanok was lovely, w/incredible objects and decor all over. Also kind of depressing afterwards, b/c I went home and watched a film that Bum had worked on about the destruction of all these traditional homes in Seoul, totally condoned by the government even though it's illegal.

4. The tea was amazing. So were the rice cakes that the monk brought for us. He did a ritual in front of this beautiful copy of the Diamond Sutra that some other monk had transcribed on 8 huge panels and told us about tea and life and such.

5. I saw good art!!! Some really freaking amazing prints by Ivanco Talevski, a Macedonian artist now based in Philly.

6. Who doesn't love candles and no electric lights during the longest night of the year?

7. We met a British journalist from the Financial Times, the only one of his kind in Korea, and ended up going out w/him to this cozy pizza place down the winding hill. The headgear killed me: the pizza guy had this old olive hat on and there was a toddler w/a bandana on and I swear it was all staged to make me want to rush in. I felt like I was in the Snoopy strips where he is a WWII flying ace. No joke. The pizza was divine, and he made it right there, to order.

The good news: I locked myself in today and finished the big app. My reward was a shower and then rushing to JL's place to pick up my xmas package from my sister, which was a total treat. It included Little Miss Chatterbox (both the book and a pendant). That's my cue to sign off and go to bed. Happy solstice!!