Remember a few weeks ago I mentioned that someone I knew was thinking about doing something that I thought was a very big mistake? Well, happily, that person decided against that course of action. To say that tears rolled down my face as I thanked god would not be an exaggeration. With the caveat that I've been kind of tired lately (and therefore not quite as stable emotionally), I actually did shed a few tears as I waited for my train, and I actually did think, "Oh God, if you exist and if you had anything to do with helping this person avoid making a mistake -- THANK YOU."

I was supposed to go to taekwondo today but I missed the all important 7:08 pm connection, and so I skipped the lesson today (by the time I would have arrived, the class would have been half over). I was also supposed to meet up with Vivian, Marc and Yugi for a drink, but Vivian's computer got stolen so the gathering was called off. (Stolen from her room while she brushed her teeth! Clearly the work of one of her housemates, poor girl. She's thinking about moving in with her fiance now.)

With time lying heavy on my hands, I decided to go to Jamsil station, which is where Lotte World is located. Lotte World is, well, one of those Asian phenomenons. At this one location, there is a Lotte Hotel, Lotte Department Store, and Lotte amusement park, which includes a swimming pool, bowling alley and ice rink. Basically, you could live there and never use a non-Lotte product. That's a lotta Lotte. BWAH HAH HAH! Er, sorry.

There's also a large underground mall (it all comes down to space -- not enough in Seoul, so everyone digs down), which I walked around a few times, dithering about seeing a movie or not. Pirates of the Caribbean just came out here and now that I think of it, it would have been appropriate to see a Disney theme ride-inspired movie in one of the Disney World-like locations of Korea.

I didn't end up seeing the movie (alas, I'll have to wait to see an eye-lined Johnny Depp another day), but I did spend some quality time watching the ice rink. There were two junior high or high school girls (instantly recognizable by their uniforms) on the ice, but other than that, everyone else seemed to be taking lessons. Little girls and a few adult women were ice dancing in the middle of the rink, but vastly more girls, boys and men were speed skating.

They were serious about it too -- even the beginners were dressed in the skintight, Star Trek: The Next Generation uniform-type bodysuits and helmets. Some of the kids could not have been more than 8 or so, hunched over, their spindly kid legs, ending in long-bladed skates, crossing over each other in that measured, balletic style. I saw a minor wipeout that took out three other kids, and it looked like the original stumbler got a talking to from a coach, but the other kids, after sliding a dozen feet on their asses, got up and resumed skating.

There seemed to be several teams -- one was stylished decked out in silver bodysuits with pink accents; another in cobalt blue with black markings. I don't know if they were in training or what, but watching them skate was a very unexpected way to spend an evening.

Tomorrow I've got a full day: work in the morning, meeting my language exchange partner, meeting Sister Chunha at 3 pm to see a museum, then going to hear jazz in Daehangno with the Korean Dane I met two weeks ago. (I just love saying Korean Dane. But I love saying Korean Danish even more. C'mon, you know you think it's funny too.) I'm looking forward to all, but I am a little ambivalent about seeing Sister Chunha, because she is resignedly pessimistic about being in Korea. She being a nun and all, we don't have that many topics to talk about, and it's tiring to be with someone who's not happy about their situation but resigned to it being an ordeal.

To be fair, her situation does kind of suck -- she's from China, and originally wanted to go to the U.S., but because of visa difficulties, she ended up here, in order to study theology. After a 15 months of studying Korean, her superior told her that she had to start theology school, even though her Korean skills aren't nearly up to the level she needs to understand the lectures.

That's incredibly frustrating. I mean, what's the point? It's like the Canadian army guy I talked with last term -- his Korean was no better than mine, but his superiors were sending him to a Korean military graduate school anyway. He was just a political tool, as he himself told me; other guys who'd been sent said that on a good day, they understood 30 percent of the lectures and on a bad day, they understood nothing. It's just that the Korean army and the Canadian army have an exchange program, so the Canadians have to go through the motions. The guy I talked to had been studying Russian before he got pulled out to study Korean. How wasteful is that? Similarly, Sister Chunha's convent in China has a relationship with a convent here, and her studying Korean and learning theology here is a way to maintain good relations between these convents. I mean, I've heard that that Korea's theology schools are well-regarded (in at least the Catholic world), but what's the point of having someone go to school and not understand half of the lessons?

Okay, I think I just talked myself into feeling more sympathetic for her.