Up in Seoul ...

Up to Seoul today, to have some Korean papers officially translated for the Embassy people -- no problem. I always enjoy going up to Seoul, which is a very dynamic and interesting city. I swear it looks different every time I go up there, though. Some of the things I like about it: it's safe! It's clean! It's beautiful. Not sure I'd want to live there, but... I'm lying. I'd love to live in Seoul. It's got like a gazillion people, but it's a wonderful city.

I stopped at one of my favorite places: " What The Book" used (English) bookstore, and purchased a book of stories by Gene Wolfe (famous SF writer), "Year's best SF #7" (a favorite annual anthology), and a Dragonlance book of short stories (I don't read or collect DL books (there's a million of them!), but I like the short stories. I also found a copy of "Brisingr" for $12 bucks (boy that's a massive book!) and the latest "Realms of Fantasy" mag (featuring a story by Harlen Ellison, if you can believe that! Yay!).

Also stopped at Cho-gay-sa temple, a famous and popular temple right downtown Seoul. Did a little meditating (very little, as the monk came in to start chanting, something I wasn't in the mood for at the moment) and stopped by the new museum (I wasn't impressed: it only focused on Soguk-am Temple, which is fine, but some diversity would be nice).

Ate lunch at Quiznos (sp?) (vegetarian sub) and took the bus home (hour and a half away).

Off to get a haircut in a while. Haircuts here are pretty cheap ($7-$10). I usually have my hair cut very short. I've had long hair (see picture), and while it looks nice (in my opinion), it's annoying (blows in wind, heavy after a shower, etc). These days, as the shop right in front of my house closed down, I got to a 24 hour place down the street. And no, it's not a "special" barber shop (i.e. place of prostitution, usually having two revolving signs in front) . My wife likes it because they give her an arm massage and paint her nails while they cut my hair.

And that's the news for today...