Birthdays, Tangents and Dong envy.

Finally, an update of this blog. There are three reasons why I haven't done so more frequently. One, I haven't taken many photos lately. Two, I haven't been doing a ton of interesting things. And 3, overall apathy towards doing things, writing and taking photos.

But I guess, on the other hand I've been busy. I had a 30th birthday. There was the 4th of July which required celebrating. The World Cup has kept me up to all hours of the night. Either to watch Korea or America play in the conveniently timed 3:30 AM Korean time kickoff. I also have this thing called a job, where I have to show up, be polite, smile and be an ambassador of the English language.

Here's the first of a couple tangents. watching the USA-Algeria game was just as exciting as being in the US. We all had the same reaction as I saw in some of the videos being passed around the Internet. A build up as they charged down the field in the 91st minute. Then a yell as the first shot was blocked, then a 2 second silent pause as the ball floated in the Goalie box, then pure mayhem and pandemonium as Donavon pounded it into the back of the net. Tangent Alert: This was followed by one of the US fans getting "Iced." Where you get on one knee and shotgun a Smirnoff Ice. I missed the boat on getting "Iced." But once in a while I see someone doing it in a picture on Facebook. (Cousin Matt, I'm talking to you.) I know it's all in good fun, but I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything by not doing it.

Tangent of a tangent Alert: What's wrong with drinking Smirnoff Ice in the first place fellas? It comes in a wide variety of flavors. It has a solid alcohol content, plus lots of sugar so it gives you a nice, quick buzz. And it tastes better than cheap beers like Coors or Miller Lite. I say drink up and enjoy the Smirnoff. There shouldn't be any silly marketing gimmicks involved. Any confident man can pull it off.

Returning to the above picture. I thought it summed up my 30th birthday quite nicely: A little blurry and out of focus. I had a nice gathering at one of the bars in one of my favorite "dong's." And had a few of my favorite shots: whiskey.


This blog is a little scattered today. But I figure all my scattered blog posts should have an attractive Korean girl or two. Last weekend we were cruising through one of the college areas in Busan. We came upon a crosswalk at a busy intersection. My buddy Jake said, "check that out." And pointed to the wall of 10 girls waiting to cross the street. We just stood there as they all passed in front of us. I felt like Brett Michaels on the first day of "Rock of Love." Minus the heart attack.

I thought I'd throw in a few more photos of my area, otherwise known as Goejeong-dong. This is the street that passes in front of my home, taken at night with a 4 second shutter speed. My home is located directly under the first white street light on the right hand side of the street. Yes, it's noisy. But I've gotten used to my bed shaking at night as the semi trucks rumble buy, and the constant honking during rush hours.


This is the view from my school of the scrap yard. The harbor is called Gamcheon Harbor and it's used for ship building and fish processing. As well as steel making. There are plenty of Russians around, as I've mentioned before. There are few scrapyards in my area. Sometimes I do a run where I pass 4 or 5 of them. I call it the scrap yard shuffle.



The weather has certainly changed in the past few weeks. Gone are the crisp, sunny evenings where I could see all the way to Haeundae Beach from the mountain above my "Dong." it's now the rainy season. (Though only on the weekends.) The rest of the time it's cloudy and humid. I think the humidity ranges from 75% to about 400%. Which is a real treat for running. I now try to run before 7 AM or after 7 PM.

These two photos above are a good example of the haziness. They were taken from the same vantage point and of nearly the same place; the downtown Busan harbor. The second one is in sepia. Yep, there's not a hole hell of a lot to look at.


Here's another photo of one of the neighborhoods...I mean "dong's" surrounding my home. When I think of a Korean home,I don't think of home like this. I think of massive apartment buildings which tower over Busan's never ending skyline. All looking the same, off white, small windows, numbers on the side, 203, 301, etc.

If I showed you this picture and gave you a multiple choice test. What would you choose:
A. India
B.Mexico
C. Ecuador
D. Korea
E. Italy

I guarantee you wouldn't choose South Korea. I would pick India. With bright colored homes, narrow streets barely wide enough for a car...or cow and blue water tanks on the roof, it brings be back to traveling around Rajastan.
In some ways I like living in a neighborhood like this. It's real, authentic and genuine. The streets ans sidewalks are narrow and crooked, and blocked by rubbish and motorcycles. Sometimes it would be convenient to live in a more westernized neighborhood where I can get a philly cheese steak and a Dr. Pepper just around the corner. But I like the rough edges of my "dong."


One big difference from living in the states is where the nice houses are. As you travel away from the city and into the hills, you don't find mansions and estates with security fences and Land Rovers. All those people live in the city, in an anonymous Lotte tower. Up in the hills are the working class, the farmer, the slums almost. One of my favorite places to run though is a little section of town above Gudeok-dong, where this photo was taken. This little shack of scrap metal is above a little plot of farmland. In the distance I can hear dogs barking, most likely being raised to be eaten. They do have great views though of the Nakdong River.

Finally, the 4th of July was on Sunday. It capped off another great weekend of free drinks at a casino, night clubbing, hiking, temples, World Cup and going to the beach. In America it's customary to cook some meet and drink some beer for this holiday. In Korea that's called going on to dinner. It always nice to end Sundays with Korean BBQ and hanging with some friends. Unfortunately for me, this tasty dinner was followed by a 1 hour bus ride across town, back to crooked sidewalks and rough edges of Goejeong-dong.