Awaiting A Name

The Meaning of Life and Chocolate Pizza

Sunday I got up (relatively) early and made my way to Bukhansan National Park which is on the northern outskirts of Seoul. My friend Kat (another British ESL teacher) who lives near there showed me around. Whilst we sat watching the chipmunks and munching our bagels and cream cheese we both agreed it’s very handy being able to take a subway right up to the wilderness! You can’t hear the city at all when you’re in the forest and yet you can see the buildings stretching out below (oh how I wish it were so easy to get away from it all in London). The autumn colours had not really started coming out yet, so I am looking forward to that soon.

We went hiking for a few hours and then returned to Hwagyesa temple where we attended the Sunday Dharma which is given in English. This was an interesting experience as I had no idea what to expect, but I liked the informality of it. Everyone sat on mats on the floor in a semi-circle, and listened to two monks. They were both quite interesting people, one from Serbia and one from New York (who had left his family to become a monk, but still kept in touch with them). They talked about one of the old masters and in particular his life towards the end whilst he was ill. It was peppered with anecdotes and little bits of philosophy and reminded me very much of when you sit around with your mates in the pub chatting about the meaning of life – except it was much more relaxed, of course! I think the hike had a lot to do with it, as I was really quite tired from that and could have just sat out in the sun and snoozed.

After the talk there was a question and answer session. Most of what the monks said was ‘well that’s life’. It seems some people just didn’t get it, even though they were already practicing Buddhists; one woman was insistent that they could tell her how long she would need to meditate in order for it to have an effect on her life – she couldn’t comprehend that you can’t aim for an effect, it just happens. Or at least that’s what the monks were saying.

Since I’ve got nothing to compare this to, I don’t know how typical an experience it is. But it was nice to just sit in such a calming atmosphere. And the seating mats were super comfy – I might have to look into buying one for my apartment. Although I’d need the ‘white person’s cushion’ to go with it as us westerners aren’t used to sitting up straight for long periods of time so we need that extra support for our back!

Afterwards I went back to Kat’s apartment (of which I am incredibly jealous as it has floor to ceiling windows and a gorgeous view, not to mention being in a generally well-kept state, unlike mine which is probably in the oldest building in Seoul) and ate spicy chicken on a stick from a street stall. Then we went to Myeongdong for dinner with a friend of Kat’s. We found an Italian place that looked authentic and was playing entertaining music (including a jazz-ragtime instrumental version of ‘I Only Wanna Be With You’!). There was a good choice of appetizing pizza and pasta, but as soon as I saw the words ‘chocolate pizza‘ I knew what I had to go for.

Ok so my pizza doesn’t look that good in the picture, but it tasted amazing – dark chocolate chips on the base, covered in camembert and sprinkled with pistachios and cashews…..mmm real cheese, decent red wine and chocolate! I love Spannew!! They didn’t even object to our bizarre foreign custom of asking for our pizzas to be served at the same time rather than one after the other (!).