Joel and I concluded our Kyoto trip on October 3. The day after my last blog post, we went to Nanzen-ji and Eikan-do temples, walked the Path of Philosophy (which, curiously, had about as many stray cats as it did tourists), and then finished the day at Ginkaku-ji (the Silver Pavilion), which was absolutely gorgeous and probably my favorite place that we visited. We spent our last day in Arashiyama (the western part of the city) and visited Tenryu-ji (Temple of the Sky Dragon), the Okouchi-sansou villa, and Gio-ji temple. We also walked through the bamboo grove and Sagano, which is a really pretty district with cobblestone streets and a lot of souvenir shops and tea shops. Eventually I will harass Joel to post all of the pictures on Facebook, so look for them there.
We came back from vacation and stumbled through Thursday and Friday at work. We will definitely have to take advantage of our weekends now, since we will not have any more long vacations until the calendar new year. As much as I have enjoyed traveling, I think it will be nice to settle down a little bit and try to save a little more money.
Meanwhile, Joel's parents are in town to visit us for about a week. They arrived last week on Friday night, so we have been showing them around town and taking them to our favorite restaurants. It has been a nice even mix of things: yesterday, we took them hiking on the trail behind our neighborhood (which I'm pretty sure is on a mountain called Jeseoksan, if I'm reading the signs right), and today Joel took them to the Kimchi Festival, which is happening in Gwangju right now. I was pretty bummed that I could go, too, but I had the world's worst headache. Literally. Anyway, tomorrow Joel is planning to take them to the 5.18 Memorial Park, and then we will go hiking on Mudeung mountain on Wednesday morning before they head out on Thursday.
The major event this week was my serendipitous receipt of a second-hand smartphone and subsequent addiction. Allow me to explain.
Joel and I have been attending a Catholic church just down the street from our apartment complex (on the way to the outdoor market) since we first arrived, but for whatever reason, the priests did not notice me until I went to Mass last Sunday. After the service, they visited with me briefly on my way out and introduced themselves as Fr. Bernard and Fr. Thomas. When I went back for daily Mass on Wednesday, however, the younger of the two priests (Fr. Thomas) flagged me down on my way out and gave me a booklet with the Order of the Mass in ten different languages.
Fr. Thomas: Jessica! I think you need this! *as he hands me the booklet*
me: Oh, thank you very much! This is wonderful.
Fr. T: Are you busy?
me: Not especially.
Fr. T: Do you like...espresso?
me: Yes.
Fr. T: Ah, please come.
So we go into his office, where he has an espresso machine, and he makes us each a cup as we sit down to chat. This guy is pretty interesting: not only does he speak some Japanese and have a hobby of drawing anime cartoons, he is also in a band (and he gave me two of their CDs).
Fr. T: Do you have MP3 player?
me: No, I don't. I had a little iPod, but I didn't bring it with me.
Fr. T: Ah, but maybe you can use phone for music.
me: Actually, I don't have a smartphone. My husband and I share a cell phone, but it is an old little 2G phone. We have never owned smartphones.
Now, it is important to understand that South Koreans are super-connected; you can see everyone from high school students to construction workers glued to their phones as you pass them on the sidewalk. My only explanation for what happened next is that this wonderful priest saw my lack of a smartphone as a very obvious poverty, and that he was determined to remedy it.
Fr. T: Actually, I have extra phone.
me: What?
Fr. T: Yes! *he pulls an older Galaxy phone out of his bottom desk drawer* Someone leave this phone here in church! I find this one and I call him and say, 'I found your phone! Please come and take it,' and he say, 'Okay, I will come,' but he did not come. It is six month ago. So...if you don't mind, you can have this one.
me: I can have it?!
Fr. T: Ah...borrow!
me: ...Really?
Fr. T: Yes!
me: ...Okay.
At first I wasn't quite sure what to do with it, but after some of my students showed me a few tricks, I got the hang of it pretty quickly. Unfortunately, that now means I am completely addicted to my new device. I have installed Laudate (which is the absolute greatest app ever for the practicing Catholic), two different messenger apps (one for everyone here in SK, and one for m friend in China), Facebook, Skype, Google Translate, and Google Reader. I have to resist the temptation to ask if everywhere we are going has Wifi. I am always checking the phone for new messages and new updates. And now I have a new challenge: I have to figure out how to enable USB storage on the thing so I can put music and pictures from the computer onto it.
Ah, first world problems.
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