The Long and Winding--Hey! You can't sit there!

So I went to Gyeongbokgung palace, the place pictured in my last post. It was alright, but it was no Forbidden City. I mean, it didn't even have a Starbucks. It's hard to get interested in historical architecture after Beijing. It's like watching The View instead of reading The NYT.

A place I like more is Boramae Park. It's one of the largest parks in Seoul, and, conveniently, it's less than 10 minutes from my house. It has a rose garden, facilities for dozens of sports, a pond with a fountain system that sprays in patterns synchronized to classical music, a Buddhist temple, and even an old guy who talks to me. One of my favourite parts is the foot-massaging path. Basically, it's a long path that has a variety of sizes and shapes of stones embedded into it. Some are small and pointy; some are large and smooth; some are black and get hot in the sun, and so on. The effect of this is that walking on this path stimulates your feet in weird ways that you don't get by just walking around normally. It's like yoga for your feet. There is even a chart that explains how, apparently, different parts of your feet are connected to different parts of your body. It's quite surprisingly relaxing--and free!

Yesterday Matt and I were playing badminton on the secret courts on the hill. We had played a couple of games, and then this guy popped up and challenged us to a game of 2-on-1. He was about 50, a bit portly, wearing a black track suit, and he had on these weird leather shoes with buckles and 1-inch heels, not suitable for badminton. Now, Matt and I aren't Chinese or anything, but I like to think we're competent players, plus our footwear choice was impeccable. Nevertheless, he totally kicked our asses. He could have been wearing buckets for all it mattered (unlike me: all I ever do is run around). He just hit the birdie to the exact spot he wanted to and it whizzed about half an inch over the net every time. The teachers were schooled. Naturally, after a while one of the park janitors produced a racket and joined in the game, so then Matt and I played on opposite teams. Afterwards the guy wanted us to go drinking with him, but it was 2pm, so, uhh, that's just a bit crazy.

Badminton is a universal language, apparently. On other days we've played against high school guys and even a family: mom, dad, boy and girl. The teenage guys bought us Pocari Sweat (The Korean equivalent of Gatorade) for our efforts, and the family gave us giant rice cake snacks. Also, later they tracked me down while I was in a phonebooth and gave me a strawberry ice cream bar. (Maybe they thought I was poor, since I was playing with a racket that I bought from a box in front of 7-11 for $1.50, and I'm the only person in Korea without a cellphone.) It's nice when stuff like that happens. It restores my faith in the goodness of ice cream.