Each major city in Korea has a slogan, and this is Daejeon’s. I hope it makes more sense in Korean, because in English, it just sounds silly. Even “Colorful Daegu” is better.
I went to Daejeon today for a movie and dinner with Janaki and Colleen. It was a really nice day, even if it seemed short with four hours of buses. The Golden Compass was good, which really pleased me because I adore the book and I was afraid the movie would destroy it. It definitely paled in comparison, at least in terms of complexity (movies all too often dumb things down, in my opinion), but it was pretty faithful to the plot and it certainly was exciting to see all the action played out on the big screen. I want to read the book again now…it really is a masterpiece, raising such interesting ethical and spiritual questions about authoritarianism and freedom of thought and act and other intricacies of what it means to be human that I can’t even clearly articulate within a very imaginative and fantastic plot. I haven’t seen a movie in so long, too—it was a great way to break the drought!
We dined at my favorite mushroom restaurant and it was stupendous, as always. I think they got a little sick of us, though…we were there at least two hours, eating and chatting and laughing. I find that hearing a foreign language often annoys people—we might talk at the same level, but we get dirty looks. I guess it’s because it just sounds like a bunch of noise to Koreans. I caught some eyes at the restaurant. Still, it was nice. It’s weird that I won’t see Janaki and Colleen for so long. They’re both going home this weekend and we probably won’t meet again until March. That is, unless I convince them to come to Taiwan. I’m hopeful.