Today, I went for a run in the wetlands area that is pretty close to my apartment. It was awesome! The land just opened up and I could see all the mountains that surround Daegu. The wetlands birds (cranes, I think) were flying around. It's a beautiful sunny day with a nice cool breeze. Safe to say I had a great morning so far, which is good because I was feeling down about losing my wallet this weekend.
On Sunday morning, as Emma and I were getting dropped off on her side of town, I must have dropped my wallet. We looked everywhere for it. Luckily (I guess), Emma was becoming a veteran at sorting things out after losing a wallet (she had lost her wallet twice within the last month). We had made plans to go to Gyeongju to ride tandem bikes, but instead we needed to head to my side of town and pick up my passport and my bank book from my apartment. We spent all day walking around my side of town and actually had a great day doing this. After reporting my missing wallet and ARC (Alien Registration Card) to the police, we walked up to Hwasong Waterside Park. The park is on one of my running routes that I do every week, but I have not spent anytime walking around in it. We grabbed some drinks at the entrance of the park, sat on benches and watched the synchronized fountains over the lake. It was relaxing. I have started to enjoy the area that I live in the more that I explore it. Living right on the edge of the city is a nice contrast. It's easy to get out and see some open sky.
Last night my dad and I were talking about the importance of solitude. He was referring to an interview on NPR with this lady who has studied social networks and technology for the last 15 years. She was saying that social networks have destroyed our ability to experience solitude. Every minute of everyday we are surrounded by e-mail, text messages and facebook. This is obviously becoming more true everyday with the new developments of 3G networks and smartphones. While studying this stuff, the lady started to understand the importance of oneness and solitude.
She recommended turning off your computer and smart phones (if at all possible) for the majority of the day. Then at night, you should spend a chunk of time doing what you need to do on the internet and with text messages. Now, obviously, many people's careers depend on the internet and text messaging. This is only a suggestion to try to do what you can. When you do have everything off, you tend to spend more time in the present with yourself or the people that are immediately around you. This will allow you to connect with what is 'right here, right now'. I think this is a great idea and I will try to do this myself. Maybe I finally get some reading done (I am still working through 'The Master and Margarita' [I was cruising through books before this one]).
We get Monday off next week! We will probably end up staying in town because intercity travel is supposed to be a nightmare.
