What a busy week it’s been. I’ve got so many things I’ve been wanting to post about, but have kept putting it off to get other things done. Parliamentary elections were held on Wednesday and, as with the presidential election, it was a national holiday. My wife worked, but all of my classes were canceled. Still, I was quite busy all day banging on my keyboard for a programming project. I’ve got more to do yet, but I forced myself to set aside the time to do some blogging.
So the first post I’ve been wanting to get out is about last Sunday. The wife and I left early in the morning for Dobong mountain. The bus ride was just under an hour. We set out from near Dobong station and hiked up to a peak called Woo-i Am in about an hour-and-a-half. I’ve been there at least three times in the past, most recently last June with my sister-in-law’s husband. My wife and I also hiked there shortly after we were married 9 years ago. This time, we took a route I’d never followed before. It was relatively easy, but there were a couple of points were we had to scale some rocks. I’m a hiker, not a rock climber, but these were, thankfully, short and rugged faces.
We came down by another route, which turned out to be the same one we followed down 9 years ago. On that hike, we had gone up too late and the sun was setting rapidly on the way down. We got lost at one point, until an old man wearing a traditional outfit, all white, carrying a backpack and a flashlight, came out of nowhere and led us down. All the while, he pointed the flashlight behind him so that we could see. And man, was he fast. Near the end, he sped up and got to the bottom before us. He was gone by the time we arrived.
On Sunday, once we realized we were on the same path, we started talking about the old fella. My wife said that she still suspects he might have been a ghost — people were often buried in white in the past. We see eye-to-eye on a great many things, but she has a superstitious streak that I can’t reason out of her. It does make for a fun story in my English classes.
After the hike we hurried home and barely had time to shower and grab a cab. We had reserved seats for a 12:20 movie. We made it to the theater with 10 minutes to spare. While she picked up the tickets, I grabbed a couple of hot dogs and a cream cheese-filled pretzel. We had reservations for a second movie later on and I wasn’t sure if we would have time to eat before then. We were both incredibly hungry.
The first movie was The Other Boleyn Girl. Once again, I had seen no previews and had neither heard nor read anything about it or the novel. I’m embarrassed to say, though, being the history buff I am, that I didn’t recognize the name in the title. It came to me in one of those Homer Simpson moments a few minutes into the film. I can say with confidence that this is an enjoyable movie. It was good enough to grab me and hold me until the end. Not many movies do that these days. It’s based on real history, which I love, though there are some liberties taken (as to be expected from any historical drama). The acting was good at best, decent at worst. I do feel that Natalie Portman’s performance as Anne Boleyn was phenomenal. It’s not something I would have expected of her.
When the movie ended, we made a quick trip to a nearby Popeye’s to stuff my wife’s purse with chicken, biscuits and fries, then rushed back for movie #2. I wish we hadn’t.
The second movie was Awake. Because I don’t particularly like Hayden Christensen and don’t care much about Terrence Howard, I normally would have waited for the DVD. But I’ll see anything with Jessica Alba in it. She’s one of the few actresses who draw me in on sex appeal alone. I had seen previews of this one, but I still wasn’t clear about the story. It started off decent enough, but stalled in the middle and fell apart toward the end. Terrence Howard was wholly unbelievable, Fisher Stevens was painstakingly annoying, parts of the story were absurd, and the direction was abysmal. As for the positives, Christensen’s performance wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be, and Jessica Alba was nice to look at. Thankfully, it’s a very short movie. If this movie is still playing where you are, just don’t bother. Unless you’re a rabid Alba fan.
Technorati Tags: Korea, mountains, movies, hiking, Awake, Anne Boleyn, Natalie Portman, Jessica Alba, The Other Boleyn Girl
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