Weekend in Gyeongju

Last week was kind of a breeze for me. I only worked Tuesday-Friday because of my monthly vacation day, and on Saturday we went to Gyeongju for a staff retreat. The week itself was mostly uneventful, and as I think back on it I can only recall having done a good deal of reading, buying a 1000-piece jugsaw puzzle, and eating a big pizza lunch at Pizza Hut. I decided I wouldn't buy a TV because I didn't want to waste my time watching it (and there's really only two or three English channels anyhow), so I got (more) serious about reading. I usually read several books a month, but I think here I can double that and really read all the things I've always wanted (and I have a rather long list in the "want to read" category). The huge bookstore where I work just makes this proposition that much easier. This project may eventually lead to me writing my own stuff, but that's a distant prospect right now. As for the puzzle, I had visited a Bible study a week ago, and one of the main topics was the Tower of Babel. I strongly disagreed with the teacher leading the study, because he couldn't well-articulate the reason God stopped this project. The text itself is rather vague, and I believe it has led people to interpret this episode in a strongly negative way. In any case, I was thinking a good deal about this story and what happened in the days subsequent to the Bible study. During one of these periods I happened to wander down to the bookstore, and near the Starbuck's is a section devoted to jigsaw puzzles. At first I had a simple passing interest to see what artworks had been shattered into hundreds of pieces for eager enthusiasts to recreate, but when my eyes came across a Renaissance work of "The Tower of Babel" by Pieter Brueghel, I was compelled to make the purchase. Since then, I have spent a few hours a day working on this puzzle. I've never attempted such a large undertaking on my own, but I'm finding it to be an enjoyable challenge. I determined that puzzle-building is the adult version of building Legos, a childhood passion of mine. I have been taking pictures of my progress, and hopefully by week's end will be able to post them all. The pizza meal was also a good memory. My Korean friend Jason was given a 50% coupon from a deacon at his church, so we made plans to order as much pizza as we could to get our money's worth. We had the standard pepperoni, a sampler plate with ribs, chicken wings, and quesadillas, and finally a massive seafood pizza with a stuffed-cheese crust. It was my first time having seafood pizza, which was nothing more than Hawaiian-style with shrimp (but it did have an uncomfortable seafood smell). It was all good, and I left quite stuffed.
The weekend trip was also good. Our staff (four foreign teachers and fifteen-or-so Koreans) went to Gyeongju to have a "workshop." In reality, it was an all-expense paid getaway. We barbecued (Korean style, of course), played games, and socialized til 2 am in this awesome two-story house that reminded me of a place in "The Real World." I took my Xbox at the request of another teacher, and we played it a little. It was entertaining to watch the staff try to play Halo 3 against one another, having never had any experience with the controls or any kind of shooter. I also happened to have the movie "Atonement" on my 360, although I had downloaded it in July and it should have long expired. So we also watched that movie on the big screen of the house. As for the games, we played all kinds of crazy things. My team did well at the get-go, but lost steam after losing a tense arm-wrestling contest. And at 2 am, it's hard to regain steam. But we had a blast and came back Sunday afternoon. I took a nap, then went downtown for my favorite meal of pork cutlet and omurice, bought a Haruki Murakami collection of short stories, and went home for a rest.