Weekend in Uijeongbu

It had been a while since I had been able to escape Pyeongtaek, so last weekend I decided to go up to Uijeongbu for a couple days to see Kim. I have had a lot of things I had to do on the weekends recently so I welcomed the chance to get away. I left Friday night straight from school after helping set up for a fundraiser dinner and arrived a little after 9:00pm. For some reason it always takes longer to get there than it does to get back.

I spent a very relaxing time there. We slept in late Saturday and made a big breakfast for us and her roommates, hung out at the school so Kim could get some things done, and then went out to eat with a group from her church.

After church on Sunday, a lady from church invited us to come to her art studio and see her work. She teaches art, but also does a lot herself, trying to invent new ways of making traditional Korean paintings. Now she is using a technique that crushes colored rocks into a coarse powder and painting with it. A lot of her designs were more abstract and modern, but it was still very interesting to see. We enjoyed talking with her over the lunch of dumpling soup she fixed for us.
After leaving her studio, Kim and I headed downtown. We went in several stores, including a stationary store. Korea has a lot of really cute random things. We stopped for tea and coffee at a small coffee shop where you could toast your own bread to go with your drink. I headed home in the evening, and I finally figured out how to get a seat for part of the way when the subway is crowded. I found out where the subway trains turn around (none of them go all the way down the line before heading back) so I stopped at that station and transfered so I could get on an empty train. It was very good to get away for a while!