still 'round the corner we may meet

And so ends one of the longest weeks of my life, which is an odd thing to say, because it was, technically, the shortest week of my life,the International Date Line having swallowed Tuesday. Weird.

Operation: Eat Something remains a challenge. I have found a few Italian joints that have enough English on the menu for me to tell what I can and cannot eat. Granted, I just ordered pizza margherita and got a cheese pizza sprinkled with dried basil (that would be funnier if I had a good Ray Liotta impression), but I knew there wasn't any meat on it. Friday night, I had a glimmer of hope.



This is the Ewha Campus Complex (student union building; also, conveniently, where the command module docks "District 9" style). Somewhere in that mass of glass and glass doors is a restaurant where, on Friday night at least, a friendly man in a shirt and tie was waiting by the counter to help me order my bibimbab without whatever meat usually goes in bibimbab. At first, I thought that was his job, but he wasn't there when I went back for Saturday lunch, so I'm guessing he was just another data point in the "Koreans are in general really friendly and helpful" column. Oh, well. The bibimbab was mediocre anyway.

Operation: Don't Get Homesick is also proving to be something of a challenge. I met one of the professors the other day. Apparently, the floor we're supposed to be on is still under construction so "no one's here" meaning no one's here to tell me what to do meaning I spend most of my days reading the arXiv trying to figure out how to extend a thesis whose conclusion was "yup, everything we thought we know we still seem to know." Fortunately, there's Skype and lots of wonderful people on Skype whom I love very much telling me to go out and explore. So here goes.

On Saturday, I stepped off of campus and just started walking. This is what Seoul looks like as you're doing that.



It eventually starts to look like a normal city, but not before first looking like something out of an Indiana Jones movie



This is a... I don't know what the word for it would be, that abuts a nice little wooded park featuring a dirt soccer field and rebar-enforced concrete benches painted to look like they're made of wood. Less than a mile beyond this is an art museum and a maze of narrow streets that didn't really warrant a photo. On my way back to campus, I ran into a concert taking place outside of a large shopping complex. The opening band (a nice little pop rock ensemble) was pretty good. The next band sounded like a Korean boy band with guitars, so I left.

On Sunday, I hopped on a subway (a task made at all possible by yet another randomly helpful Korean who stopped me on my third trip between the ticket machine and the map and offered to help me buy the right ticket) and made my way to Olympic park, formerly the site of the '88 Olympics.

As you approach the park, the street is lined with statues commemorating Olympian activities and the Olympians who do them. Here are some of my favorites.



(Rhythmic?) gymnasts.



Archers, complete with Robin Hood hats (oo-di-lally!)



Runners amputated at the waste (because everything else is just a place to put Gatorade)



Equestrians (complete with anatomically correct stallions)



And my all-time favorite: Captain Badminton rides his shuttlecock to infinity and beyond!

You enter the park under the peace arch



which is decorated underneath with dragons and phoenixes (phoenii?)




and flanked by rows of what I can only describe as "googly heads"




The arch stands over a broad flagstone courtyard buzzing with bikes and rollerblades (and a father and son playing baseball). Beyond this courtyard is a little amphitheater where a middle school jazz band was doing a sound check (I say they were middle schoolers because there were way too many saxophones; I say they were doing a sound check because the director kept cutting them off before the solo section) and a not so little sculpture garden.



These statues were less athletically themed, but still Olympian in that the artists were from all over the world and the Olympics, really, is about everything that is awesome. Again, highlights with snide captions.



An army of ugnauts made out of what I think must be...







...old manhole covers.



Gredo (from Star Wars) as a Seraph.



A visitor from Pan's Labyrinth.



The chevalier of Candyland.

I didn't get to see all of the park before the setting sun and my throbbing heel (don't ask, I don't understand it, either; it just hurts) forced me back. It looks like it might be a fun place to run (once I deal with that heel thing). For now, I'm just happy that it lifted my homesick spirits a little.

1 week down.
103 to go.
Almost 1%.
I can do this.