"Museum Without Walls"

In a continuation of my never ending weekend, I traveled up to Gyeongju on Tuesday. I had the day off for my schools B-day. On Monday I did the usual sham of going to school for 7 hours and wasting time. I mixed in a 30 minute nap this week.

Gyeongju is called the Museum Without Walls because of the historic sights scattered about the city and countryside. It's the former capital of the Silla people, who are like the native Koreans. There are temples, burial mounds, carvings of Buddhas and various other historic homes and temples.

I took my bike out for it's first real ride. Most of the sights are with in riding distance, though the roads through teh country side could use a little work, as there's no shoulder.
This is one of the most famous Buddha carvings in the world. It dates back to the 8th century. It reminded me of the Ajanta caves of central India which had Buddjust carving of about the same size and age. Photos aren't allowed for some reason. At most Buddhist statues they don't care, so I thought it was OK to take one.


Last Friday was Buddha's birthday. Happy 2478th birthday Buddha! These lanterns are strung up all over the city and at the temples. I think they look cool.
These are Burial mounds in the town of Gyeongju. It's hard to tell how tall they are, but they're about 30 feet. They're full dead people and their belongings. Thrilling, I know.
I went up to Gyeongju on a weekday to avoid the crowds. But no such luck. There were students, 6th graders from all over Korea on a 3 day field trips. I liked it though, they livened it up a little bit. Here I am posing with 3 kids from Seoul in front of East Asia's oldest astronomy observation tower.
I became extremely jealous of anyone who likes to excersize in this city. Check it out, there are three lanes. 1 for running/walking, 1 for roller blading, and 1 for bikes. I run through a Home Depot of exhaust and motorcycles and taxi's and Koreans who refuse to walk in a straight line while texting and watching TV on their phones.

The Rock Tigers

These are The Rock Tigers. They are a rockabilly band from Seoul. They put a ton of energy into their music and their performance. Just look at the smile on their lead singer, who goes by the name of Velvet Geena. You can tell they're happy to be making music and making people boogy. They only played for about an hour but it was phenomenal. I have been to a few shows in Busan, but I haven't seen the crowd respond to the music like they did for the Rock Tigers.

Hopefully they will get to tour the USA. They have been written up in the LA Times, as well as the New York times. You can listen to their music in the post above this one.

This show was the end to a fantastic day, and part of a very long, fun, extended weekend that started on Thursday night, and ended on Tuesday. Thanks to Buddhas birthday, the weekend, and my schools birthday, which is deemed a holiday in Korea.

Here's a very brief recap:

Took a few shots of Jameson's and listened to some tunes from the local band, Poco Lambro.

Cruised down to Haeundae beachy Friday AM for a volleyball tourney. We got spanked. Our record was 1-5. I blame the Jameson's and more talented players.

On Saturday there was beach Ultimate Frisbee tourney. Played in a light mist, that turned into a heavy downpour in the afternoon. Korean's are pretty good at ultimate, and they play waaaay harder than westerners. Was supposed to play Frisbee on Sunday but it got rained out. I would have liked to play, but 3 games of sand Frisbee will wipe even the strongest runner out. To warm up we went to a Jinjilbang, or the spa. It was fantastic and my first real experience of this unique Korean custom. This Jinjilbang was called Haeundae Leasure, and it was a treat. They had hot pools of various temps. As well as saunas of various temperatures. There were cold pools, cold showers, cold fountains. An area to devote yourself to a proper soaping and grooming, where you sit on a stool, with your shower head and soap and get yourself as clean as possible. I thought how great these places would be when i was backpacking. I could pop into a Jinjilbong and hangout for a few hours soaking, steaming, cleansing, shaving, relaxing, sleeping, swimming, all for less than 10 dollars.
The rest of Saturday it rained harder than I've seen it rain in Korea, I felt like an amateur because I had no umbrella. But we still made it out to grab some great meal, then headed out to see The Rock Tigers.

Leopard skin stand-up bass

Lead singer, Velvet Geena.

You don't see too many folks in Korea with Tattoos, and I've never seen a tattoo parlor.

Justin and I grabbed a photo with the lead singer after the show. We told here they needed to tour to Seattle.

Thank you Korea...

Thank you Korea for boosting my running confidence. I ran a 10k down at the beach, near my house. I ended up "winning." I say "winning" because technically I wasn't entered in the race. I tried to, but the website is in Korean, and they tend to close the entry about a month before, and I don't find out about things here until the last minute.

I did get treated like the runner in first place when I was running. Even though I had on a green shirt and everyone else was in a red shirt, and I had no number. I got a motorcycle escort to break through the slower runners in the 5k. But when we reached the finish line I chose to run off the course, instead of breaking the tape. The Korean policeman were hollering at me to run straight, but that would be a little too dishonorable, especially since it cost 30 dollars to sign up. Next time I'll get all signed up, collect the trophy, not have to stash my bag in the bushes, break the tape, sign the autographs. etc.

One thing that did bother me was the photographers. Along the course, there were newspaper guys, or guys with really nice gear. It was obvious that I was in first place, as I had a motorcycle escort. But never once did any of these guys take my photo, and they love taking photos of everything here. I had tricked everyone else into thinking I was in first place. Either these guys knew I wasn't officially in the race, or they just don't take photo's of foreigners winning a Korean race. Here a couple other scenes from the event.

This kid was chowing down on his pre-race corndog. Notice the matching visors.

At the finish line you can dump buckets of water on your head. It's a good way to cool off. I'd never seen this before. It wasn't that hot though, about 75 degrees.

Here I am celebrating my "victory" with a post race beer.

Friday was teacher's day in Korea. Supposedly you get gifts from the students, but I didn't get anything. Though I was allowed to leave school 2 hours early on a beautiful, sunny Friday. So I took my bike out for a spin, down to the fishing docks and local areas of industry around my home.

There are hundreds of rusty ships of various sizes down near the fish market. These baskets in the foreground are used to catch some sort of aquatic life, though I'm not sure what. They are all strung by hand down on the docks.

I think they pull the hooks out of the white rim of the tire, then let them float in the sea, waiting for fishies to swim buy and grab on. Then pull them back into the boat.

This is one of the guys that was string the baskets. Most of the people are older, and don't make much money I'm sure. I felt bad taking their photos. But I asked this guy if it was ok, and he didn't have a problem.

It seems like smelly, dirty, boring tedious work for not much pay. But alot of jobs in this industry are like that.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. That's what I'm trying to do with my photos. I don't have much natural beauty near my house. It's more like power plants, fishing ships, fisherman, shipbuilding and industry. So I'll do my best to share with you where I live.

Cranes

There is a steel yard, YK steel. They dominate the harbor near my school and I have a fantastic view of their compound from my classroom. When I went down there to take some photos, I was told that was against the rules. I also asked if i could take a tour of the factory but they said that wasn't offered. But from the gates I was able to take a photo of a hulking, rusty ship.

Busan-Seoul-Busan. All for a bicycle.

I actually did something else this past weekend than go get drunk at a baseball game, though I had the opportunity and was planning on it. I took a whirlwind trip up to the little village of Seoul to pick up my beloved bicycle. It took 16 hours and included the following forms of transportation.
Subway-KTX fast train to Seoul-Seoul subway, with three line changes-taxi(dude doesn't know what "dong" to take me too. A dong is a neighborhood.-Car.( I call the people I'm picking my bike up from and they come pick me up. -Bike. I assemle my bike and ride it to 6 miles back to the subway.-Subway-Bus. 5 hour ride back to Busan. This ride has much more comfortable than the fast, expensive train. And there's no problem putting the bike in the storage bay below deck.-Subway. A 1 hour ride back to my "dong." So in 8 easy steps you too can have a bicycle in a city where it seems like everyone is trying to run you over!


The folks I picked my bike up from, Ashley and Chad, bless their hearts, lived near a US army base in Seoul. Chad is actually in the Army, he fixes helicopters. When my taxi driver couldn't find their neighborhood he just took me to the base where Chad and Ashley met me. Since they're in the military they have access to all sorts of tasty treats, like root beer, paper towels, Mrs. Butterworth's syrup, and chewing tobacco. They also got hooked with a sweet apartment. 4 bedrooms, hardwood floors, oven. It's awesome. Once again thanks again to Ashley and Chad for letting my bike tag along on their shipment of boxes from the states. And good luck to them as they enter parenthood in the next couple weeks.



I thought I would pose for a photo with my bike. what a cute couple. I had the chance to put a few miles on it as I needed to get back to subway. It was a smooth ride, as long as you avoid the sidewalks, not exactly bike friendly in the Seoul suburbs. I also got to break in the middle finger when a kid tried to spit on me from their passing passenger window.

Back in Busan, I spotted a bike club for bikes with 2o inch wheels. They take their appearance very seriously here. As well as their posing. All these bikes were really cool. and small. My bike with it's 700cc/29 inch feels and looks massive. Like an F150 amongst a bunch of Prius'

Though this isn't one, I've seen a few fixed gears about town. My friend Janice picked one up to cruise around town on. And when I say cruise, I mean avoiding bikes and taxis and people and spit and pot holes. it's pretty hectic in the city. But you can put your bike on the subway, take it to the end of the line and hop on a rural bike path to explore.


This guy had a triangle bike. it didn't even have a chain, just a belt lie you'd see underneath the hood of a car. It also had a leather brooks saddle and disc brakes.

Only 43 weeks to go...not that I'm counting.

It was another glorious weekend here in Busan. for the past 3 weekends the weather has been perfect, blue skies, sunny and not too hot. I've spent a bunch of time at the beach, playing Frisbee and volleyball. I've been quite the weekend warrior. To make it even better, on monday the weather turns back to rain....except for today where it's sunny, but humid, real sticky out today. To celebrate the sun, the spring and life I went to the ball game with 20 of my closest foreign acquaintances. It was great fun. Wine, beer, soju, and beer mixed with soju were all drank in copious amounts. Ans as usual the Lotte Giants lived up to their stellar reputation as the Korean baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates, or should I say 2010 Seattle Mariners...ouch.

As you can see in the photo above, they lost 15-7, and gave up 20 hits. They've been playing for about a month now, and this is the 2nd time I've seen them allow these type of numbers. They got off to a real rocky start on Saturday. I had to deliver some tickets to some friends who showed up late. By the time we reached our seats in the top of the first, the score was 6-0. They started off the game walk-walk-infield hit-Grand Slam. But that would never dampen the spirit of the sellout crowd. There was full support all game though, with chants and songs through out the game.
Just in case part of the stadium broke or collapsed this fella could weld in back together. atleast that's what I'm assuming from his welding mask/sun visor.

I though I would share this photo with anyone who reads this thing. i just saw a cute girl and I took a photo. I thought it turned out really well. All the girls dress the same over here. It's like casual fancy. High heels, black tights with short shorts over them. Or tight skinny jeans. and the cell phone is an accessory. If it's a flip phone, it's carried in the hand, open, with the fake Louis Vuitton bag hung over the elbow.


I put this photo on here to represent what a silly job I have. I taught 6 40 minute classes last week. 5 of those classes were with Korean co-teacher who pretty much runs the show. I have my own classroom, which is the English library. I'm not bothered by other teachers, I can do what ever I want in the afternoon's after I'm done "teaching" like read, edit photos, work on my blog, day dream about quitting and doing something productive, make plans for the weekend, map out new runs on google maps that avoid the massive amounts of crappy roads and industrial sights around my area. Or check my email 50 times a day to see if my bike has arrived...Ugh.

The kids are awesome. I don't know this girls name, I call her red jacket, as she seems to wear a different red jacket everyday. It's really hard to remember Korean names. They have name tags my I can't even pronounce their names right half the time.

This is a photo of my schools' principle. (On the right.) They say it's a Korean tradition to feed the principle while at a restaurant...or something like that, wll atleast that's what's going on, as one of the new first year teachers is putting food in his mouth. Also a few weeks ago I was asked to go drink soju with the principle. They ask you these things like 3 hours before they want you to do something. I said I couldn't make it...sorry. I had dinner plans with friends. Then next week I was asked again, but now I was feeling really sick and didn't want a stiff Wednesday drinking session, so again i passed. I was informed at this dinner by an English speaking teacher I was rude not to join the principle in said drinking session. But since I'm not trying to make a career at this school, I'm not too worried about it.

School dinner. Korean BBQ. You cook it yourself. It's usually pork, but this time we had some really delicious (mashita in Korean, one of the 7 Korean words I know.) beef. All these little bowls are the side dishes. Kimche, onion, sweet potato, salad, radish, hot sauce. What I like here about the food, is the price, it's cheap because you cook it your self. And there's no waiting around. After you order, BOOM, the food is on the table, no messing around with small talk.


School hike over looking the industrial port near my house. Lots of fish processing and a masive steel yard. Lots of Russians too. These Russians either look like they've just woken up after 18 hours of sleep, of just worked 18 hours, or just drank 18 shots of vodka, or all of the above for 18 years living on a ship sailing back and forth from Korea to Russia.

There's always ashtrays next to the urinal in bathrooms. That's all.