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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why I write (& other stories)
I’ve pilfered the title of this post from one of George Orwell’s essays. I’d once studied an anthology of his writings in class, and I’d been drawn by the precision of his use of language: what he himself called his ‘facility with words and a power of facing unpleasant facts.’ Though I scarcely agree with all his views expatiated in his various works, the straightforwardness of the intention behind “Why I Write” appealed to me both then and now. Orwell lists and elaborates on what he believes are the ‘four great motives for writing’, and while I can’t hope to emulate his characteristic lucidity (nor do I intend to), I…
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a trip to Lausanne
Today has been – unsurprisingly – largely unproductive. I’d intended to finish the remaining modules of my TEFL course and write an entry for the blog, but alas, it’s already 16:32, and my TEFL assignments have remained untouched. (This is partly due to a technical error that prevents me from working on them – I’m not quite willing to assume full responsibility for my lack of productivity.) At least I’ve finally pulled myself together enough to begin writing. I’m not quite sure why, but these days I often have trouble summoning the motivation to do things. Maybe it’s because of the weather – it’s not even 5pm, and yet the…
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where are you from?
The number of times I’ve written “Start my blog!’ in various to-do lists before actually doing so is probably unreasonably many. For a long time, I’ve dreamed of writing and sharing my ideas and reflections with others through the internet, and yet before now I haven’t had the courage to do so. But here I am, finally, and perhaps the words that I’m typing from one side of a screen will reach someone else on the other side of their screen, halfway across the world. I thought for my first entry I’d write a bit about myself and what I plan to do on this platform. My name is…
