The third and final part of my temple stay adventure – if you have kept up with my accounts thus far, you have my undying love <3 I hope you enjoy this last, slightly longer instalment! (If you haven’t read the first two, you can find them here and here.) Day 3 Again my night was fraught slightly by vivid dreams and waking moments, though of course I can’t remember them now. Sleep was a black worn fabric, threadbare in some places, ending with a finality with the sharp trilling of my alarm and a pale blue light finding its way into the dark room. I washed my face, feeling before…
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baeknyunsa temple, pt 2
This is the second instalment of a three-part account of the temple stay I did at Baeknyunsa the week before last. For the first instalment, click here. Day 2 [Sometime in the late evening] I was outside staring at the stars just now and my eyes started playing tricks on me. I was thinking about the Milky Way and the time I saw seven shooting stars in one night when I started to fancy seeing the auras of trees and streaks of light behind stars and clouds made of faintly glittering dust between them. So I blinked and got up from my position squatting in the courtyard and walked to…
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baeknyunsa temple, pt 1
On the morning of Sunday 6 June, I took a train from Seoul Station to Ulsan, located in the south of the country, where I stayed at Baeknyunsa temple (백련사) for two nights. In the midst of monks and mountains I found unexplored territories of headspace and time to think and write and draw. Below is the first part of an account of my stay, pieced together from journal entries and observations I made at the time. Day 1 10:10 am – What wonderful places train stations are! A sense of new beginnings, of adventure, of possibility is suffused in the very air, taking form perversely in the mundane benches…
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on my own
I’m writing this from a hidden, second-story coffee shop that I chanced to come across as I was walking through Yeonnam-dong. The weather today is so deliciously warm and spring-like; and the windows and doors have been thrown completely open to welcome in trailing bits of wind. Sun and shadow have stamped themselves on the concrete staircase hugging the building outside. Beyond lies a framed portrait of the hidden back roads of Seoul. When I first peeked in, the place seemed deserted, unoccupied wooden tables and chairs the only inhabitants. But it’s incredibly peaceful. I like this cafe; it’s one of the scarce few I’ve been to that doesn’t play…
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ways to pass the time: films, reading & listening recommendations
I’ve probably been through a month of quarantine in total now, and though I’m about to come out of my mandated period of self-isolation many of you wonderful readers will still have to endure indefinite weeks of social solitude. Because of this, I thought I’d share some of the things I’ve been watching and reading and listening to in the past few weeks to keep myself entertained, along with some of those which are just general favourites. Besides, though I’ll soon be no longer under the yoke of self-isolation, the likelihood is that I’ll still be spending more time than usual indoors, so I’ll probably keep updating this space: I…
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the sound of spring in a silent city – pt. II
Part II – Paju, South Korea The end to my self-isolation here in Korea is within sight. Having arrived nearly two weeks ago, I’m over halfway through the government-mandated period of self-quarantine for arrivals from Europe. For this past week and a half I’ve been living in Paju, a city on the wider outskirts of Seoul, with my grandparents and uncle. The weather here has truly turned beautiful. In front of the complex of apartments in which my grandparents live there is a park, where snowy pockets of cherry blossoms are appearing around the lake and budding colour returns to branches that had been bare and lifeless. The sky is…
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the sound of spring in a silent city – pt. I
Part I – Paris, France I wrote this post just over two weeks ago, while I was still at home in Paris. As by now you may have guessed, there is a delay between my brain and the blog: I am only just publishing this, and it is the first part of my thoughts and experiences regarding life in the time of the virus. The second part will follow shortly and will cover my return to Korea and my experience being taken to a facility to be tested for Covid-19. Tuesday 17th March I had the idea for this post in the shower, while listening to some of my favourite…
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the *best* brownies (in the world)
Hello! I’m back, much sooner than I’m sure any of us anticipated, and with equally unanticipated content. For this time I won’t be sharing scraps of anecdotes or experiences, but instead a recipe. (If I do happen to impart any of the former it will be unintentional, the mere byproduct of an occupational hazard.) And not just any recipe – but the recipe for the *best* brownies ever. Which also happen to be vegan. Since I’ve come back home I’ve been having massive chocolate cravings, and one afternoon, tired of reaching for the almond-studded chocolate bar lying in my fridge, I decided to be proactive. That meant making brownies, of…
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a hiatus
The title refers not only to the considerable space of time between this post and its predecessor, but also to the pause to my time in Korea. Yes, you read that correctly. Despite my intentions not to return to Europe before the end of August, this post is currently being written from home – that is to say, from Paris. In an unforeseen turn of events, I am to be stationed here for a provisional two weeks, due to the escalating coronavirus situation in Korea and the appeals of my mother to return home in the meantime. It goes without saying that I was initially much dismayed at the thought…
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a new (lunar) year
A month into 2020, two months into my time in Korea, and barely a day into the year of the White Metal Rat – the appearance of a new post. The title reads (lunar) as I was recently made aware of the fact that the term “Chinese New Year” fails to take into account other countries that celebrate the holiday. Whether there are people who find this slighting or not I’m not particularly aware, but I thought I’d try out this alternate title since it simply and effectively elucidates the reason for the new year in the first place. And anyways, I love the moon. I’m writing this after a…
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goodbye, 2019
