Veggie Vember

Although it's hard to believe, I've been on a vegetarian diet for the past 20 days or so. The backstory to it is that on a caffeine-fueled brainstorm session Mike and I came up with a goal each month to try and make us live a bit healthier/better. Right now we're in 'Veggie Vember', next is 'Decembercise' and January is devoted to productivity. The name is some Stalin reference that Mike thought up and I still can't manage to remember. Mike had the notion of turning it into a billion-dollar self-help book and seminar enterprise. "Changing Your Life One Month at a Time". He was more than a little crushed when he discovered that it had already been done. So vegetarianism has been the focus of this month. It actually hasn't been as tough as I thought it would be. Especially since Mike has been the one cooking all of the meals. Everybody has something to say when they hear you're going vegetarian. You've either massively offended them at the notion of giving up meat or you've accepted their lord and saviour and they will fanatically tout the wonders of vegetarianism to keep you a convert.

Halloween was an interesting experience. After winning a costume contest at a local bar and using the winnings (bar tab) to start the night off with a line-up of shots, things progressed in a natural order. We went down to Kyungsung for the night, which ended up being the largest grouping of white people since Mudfest back in July.

 Was a good night, however Sunday was an all-day hurt.


Almost done my second painting here. This one is a little more Asian and turning out really well. I'll try and get it posted on here or facebook by the end of the week.
Anyways, thats all for now!

1am nonsense

Well it has been a long time since I have posted on here. It's around 1 o' clock in the morning, and since there is no one on Skype or facebook to talk to at the moment its comforting to try to connect to everybody back home even if it is one way.

I'm almost halfway through my Korean expedition and it has been a doozy so far. It's been a battering, confounding test of whoever I used to think I was. Which hasn't made me a better person or even a stronger one - but it has made me come to terms with all of the things that actually make up who I am and I'm pretty grateful for that. It's hard to realize that this picture that you've painted of yourself isn't necessarily true to life, even if everybody around you can see it.

I think that I'm finally finding a balance here and yes, it took me 5 months but better late than never. I can look at my life pre-Korea and see all the things that I didn't appreciate then that I do now, and all of the things that I miss about Canada and accept them while appreciating the experience that I've been given, the lessons that I've gotten out of it and the things that it is going to allow me to do in the future.

Been going pretty steadily at my art for the past two months. The painting that I've been working on has been one hell of a bitch but it is starting to pay off. Really looking forward to coming back to the art world in Canada with a vengeance. Once I'm finished this baby off I will post some pictures so you guys can see the finished project.

Constant Rain

Guess who's got internet???? I got internet!!!

It's been raining for a good couple days now and is apparently supposed to rain for the rest of the week which is just lovely. But I did manage to get out to Beomosa temple on Saturday with Mike. It was surprisingly beautiful. Very traditional asian - except for all the carts and trinkets being sold outside the front entrance.

The temple is located in the mountains in the north part of Busan. When you enter the temple you go through this room and it's very dark - on both sides are huge painted wooden statues portraying four gods. You wouldn't think that in this day and age something like that could be awe-inspiring, but it was. It made you want to whisper standing in front of them. Going through that room you came into the main temple complex. Bamboo shoots up all over the place and their are buddhist symbols on all of the structures. If you keep walking through you can find a path that goes up the mountain at the back of the complex. Mike and I both thought it was pretty hard going, so we were pretty stoked when we got to the top and there was an archway leading to the peak. We got through and on the other side was......

a huge amount of people.... a Biker, and a freakin' CAR. Talk about anti-climactic. However we did see a suspension bridge on one of the higher peaks close to ours, so that is our eventual goal. We figure that cars can't get up to suspension bridges on rocky crags.

I'll post a ton of pictures from it on facebook fairly soon!

Resuming of Blog Shinanigans

I'm back!

I know, I suck at this.....like really badly - but the internet isn't the most reliable at my place and laziness often conquers.
I will be getting the internet this week! Mike is calling about it today (if he remembers) so by Tuesday everything should be set up and I can actually Skype with all of you folks who I haven't been able to get a hold of.

Just got back from my first "camping" trip in Korea. I don't know if I would go as far as to call it camping. We set up the tent on a wooden platform along with a group of other wooden platforms and no one was up for any hiking or swimming or camping type activities, so although the company was nice, it was a bit of a dud.

Absolutely beautiful area though. A place called Jirisan in the southwest part of Korea. Looked like something out of a National Geographic photo. Completely surreal. Did get a chance to swim in a mountain stream underneath a waterfall. It was all very Leonardo DiCaprio "Beach". I also did get out for a bit of a hike by myself. Will post the pictures soon. I can only manage to get about a half hour out into the woods alone though, after that my imagination starts conjuring up images and scenarios from every horror movie I've ever seen. Even a dog would help things.

Of course when I got back my Ipod promptly died. Wonderful technology. Breaks down at the most financially inconvenient moment.... and I loves me my music.

Anyways, going to end this as I am at work and have yet to figure out what I'm going to do for my next class. Maybe I will have my kids teach it for me.

North vs. South

Kim Jong Il putting his army in "combat alert"? Lets tone down the crazy a little. Guess I'll have to seek refuge in Bali.......

Vive le South Korea

Well it seems as though the North Korean commies were responsible for the sinking of the South Korean ship - not that anyone is surprised. Not that the South Koreans can really do much about it. Nuclear war not so fun, and the North is just crazy enough to do something like that.

As much as I don't want anything to happen, or tensions to get any higher, it's kinda cool being here when this is going on. It'll be a pretty cool story to tell my kids later on in life when I'm old and boring. To think that I scoffed when they had a military practice drill a week or so ago when traffic all over Busan was stopped.

It was a fun weekend. Went to see the water temple on the north coast in Busan on Friday. It was pimped out with lanterns and packed wall to wall with Koreans and the odd white person here and there. The best part was sitting on the rocks along the water enjoying the sun. Afterwards we trudged (and yes, it was a bit of a trudge since the sun was scalding) down to the beach and the ex-pat bar for a much needed round - met up with a group of foreigners and played frisbee on the beach for the latter part of the afternoon and evening. To make the night even better there was a bonfire on the beach well into the night and I think half of the foreigners in Busan showed up.

This is me in front of the water temple, with my cheap but awesome sunglasses bought at one of the markets. They'll do until I have a chance to get my hands on the coveted Ray Bans.

Korea fact: people here LOVE 'Couples tees' which is pretty self-explanatory. A couple will wear the exact same shirt out in public together. Something that on a basic level I roll my eyes at, but it proves to be an endless source of amusement. Mike and I started a couple tee contest a while ago. It ends on June 15th and whoever has the most pictures of couple tees gets to go on a $150 shopping spree at the others expense. So far Mike has been destroying me. I think his total is 42 while mine is hovering around a sad 15. It'll be a cold day in hell if he actually won though as I have my eye on a pair of shoes - and I likes my shoes.

Off to the art museum to gain some inspiration - when the North Koreans start sending over their nuclear missiles I want to have finished the mural in the bomb shelter.

Holiday in Korea

So I haven't been as consistent as I had hoped to be throughout Mya. Apparently when you actually have a full time job, life goes by pretty quickly. Lots of things have been going on, we went on a Pirate Cruise for a friends birthday a while ago, and visited Dadaepo beach (not REALLY sure of the spelling of any of the Korean place names). Dadaepo is the southernmost beach in Busan and feels a bit more spacious than the more touristy spots. We saw some military lookouts along a hike that were used to watch for Japanese ships coming in, which were pretty amazing.
This weekend is Buddhas Birthday, which means a long weekend - and I think plans are to go with some friends to a cottage up the coast. I think it will provide much needed  respite from the city. Looking forward to it.

Also interesting - I'm not sure how many of you are keeping up on your Korean news, but a couple of weeks ago a South Korean "navel vessel" went down just off the coast.The powers that be are suspicious that it may be some North Korean riffraff that are responsible. Apparently the admiral of the ship survived and is currently being held by the Korean government. The latest news is that they found pieces of a torpedo propeller that they think are responsible for the South Korean ship sinking. Right now it seems as though the North Koreans shot down the ship, which killed 46 sailors. From preliminary findings it seems that traces of the explosives look to be the same that are used by Eastern Bloc countries. The full "official" reports are supposed to come out Thursday.
I was talking to someone a week ago, who was filling me on the fact that apparently they have found a North Korean secret submarine base... however I don't know any details about that. 

So that is what is going on over here right now. That and the fact that my computer screen has been acting up on me and I still haven't gotten around to fixing it. But somehow broken computers just aren't as exciting.

May Days

I'm trying to get better at posting on a regular basis, so I'm thinking the month of May is the time to do it.
Things have settled into a regular schedule, the apartments (almost) set up and I bought a plant! Named it Baudelaire. - Ainsley would be proud.

Thought I'd try and get some pictures up from the beach from the last couple of weekends.

 Well, I got one up at least.  This is one that Mike took, my picture files are a little too big to upload on my slow-ass internet.
It was at one of the northern beaches, my friend Mariel and I were playing with her dog. Its a little bit of a rat dog, but I really miss dogs so I can settle. No one has pet dogs here, probably because they'd just eat them. I think I may have seen a dozen pet dogs on the street since I got here a month ago. None of them compare to my pups.
Today was a the first free day that I felt I could just relax; that I didn't have to go out and sight see or be doing things from dawn to dusk. The weather has been beautiful. A nice 18 - 20 degrees. I laid out on the roof of the apartment for most of the afternoon and just soaked in the sun and like every part of the city it was a pretty awesome view.
Being up on the roof where you think you'd be a tiny bit removed from the millions of bodies of the city, you're still surrounded by the noise of people. It's something that I can't get used to. Being a decently private person I would always just take a short drive or walk and within a half hour I could be in the middle of the woods with nothing but trees and light. You can't do that here. Even mountain trails are teeming with weekenders. There seems to be nowhere to easily escape to. I think that is going to be my next goal. Find a sanctuary somewhere that I can slip off to when the noise gets to be too much.

Oh and before I forget - I actually had a dinner of raw fish. No joke. That's right, I - ate - raw - fish. Hah! It's not like it was ontop of rice, or wrapped in seaweed that would mask the taste either, just slabs of flesh. My school took us out to dinner at a raw fish so I really didn't have a choice. It wasn't as bad as I thought but its not something I would want to eat on a regular basis. One of the dishes they brought out was cut up fish, except all the bones were left in so it was a tad crunchy. Lets say the equivalent of a potato chip at some points in time. Never the less, I still feel pretty proud of myself that I at least had one raw fish dinner...

even if I never touch the stuff again.

On the Street With No Name

It has been an interesting past couple of weeks. Unfortunately the internet has been a bit sketchy so I haven't been able to Skype/email/let people know that I'm alive - I am by the way. We discovered bedbugs at my place last week so have moved all of our stuff over to Mikes... and lasted a few days with a single bed before deciding to splurge on a bigger one. By splurge I mean $340 for a bed and a mattress. Not bad, not bad at all.
The past two weekends have been wonderful though. The weather has actually co-operated for us. Last-last weekend after a night on the town we relaxed on the beach with some friends at an ex-pat burger joint Saturday afternoon. The water wasn't bad by Canadian standards though the Koreans/Mike seemed to think it was too cold. The ocean was calling me, but I had forgotten my bathing suit so I think this weekend I need to return for the first official swim of the year. Not a moment too soon either, as I have heard through the grapevine that mum and dad are heading up to Sauble this Sat. and I will have won the 'first swim of the year' contest over my dad only by the time difference. Hah! Mel - 1, Dad... I stopped counting a while ago. 
We also went for a jaunt down to the Busan Aquarium, which looked like an indoor version of their fish markets. Which I am getting used to. Took some pictures and it kind of inspired a art idea. We'll see if it actually comes into fruition.
This week I also realized how much I rely on my girlfriends for support. It's not like I can just call someone up and go out to Red Brick when I've had a bad day, or I'm feeling a little insecure; because of this my neurosis have gone unchecked for a while now and are slowly getting the better of me
This past weekend chilled me out a bit though. We went down to Gwangli beach and I sat and sketched for a couple hours, then spent Sunday checking out the area around the new apartment. One of the best parts of the day. Dominos Pizza! Tastes like home.

Through the Cherry Blossoms

So I had an interesting experience on Sunday. Mike and I visited the Jalgachi fish market in Nopo-dong, in the port of Busan. It was a pretty amazing spectacle. The main attraction is a huge five story building - sort of a warehouse setup. The entire bottom floor is rows upon rows of vendors with shallow tanks selling everything (still alive, by the way) from octopus to sharks to crabs to those really big thin fish whose name I do not know.

I kept getting visions of the crabs and octopi escaping and chasing people down across the warehouse. We ended up getting some fresh prawns and cooking them up for dinner that night.... let me rephrase.... Mike cooked up the prawns and I stayed the hell away from the kitchen.
Another great find of the day was tea! A very important daily ritual, and one which I have been without for the last two weeks. At $4 a cup at coffee places, its not something you can pick up as easily in Canada without feeling guilty.
I did try and find an art store - but no dice as I either got shoddy directions or the place that I was looking for closed down. A massive dissapointment as my art supply addiction is starting to creep up on me. HOWEVER... nice blank paper books, the kind that would put you out $15-$20 in Canada, a mere $4-$6 here! 
One of the more surreal moments in the past two weeks happened yesterday morning while I was going for a run. I was running along the river, lined on both sides by blossoming cherry trees and rhododendrons, and looking up at the mountains that surround the area and realized exactly where on the map I was. It was one of the more beautiful runs that I've gone on. Oh and P.S. no one runs here, ever. I got a lot of Korean 'What the hell?' looks. Which makes me feel like I'm super athletic, compared to home where you see a runner out every couple minutes.


But even as spectacular as it was running through the falling cherry blossom blooms, it doesn't beat a run along The Old Shore Road Trail in MacGregor Park.
 

The Morning After

It seems appropriate that the first post would take place the morning after a night of Soju. If you're not familiar with it, Soju is a potato based liquor and is the Korean equivalent of the atom bomb. Needless to say it was a messy morning.
Mike and I went out with some wonderful new friends and spent the night playing pool and darts at a foreigners bar called the Rock and Roll bar. As I'm sure you all know, my pool game isn't exactly up to snuff so it was a very humbling experience as the rest of the group could hold their own quite well.
It was wonderful to be at a place where everyone spoke english, as Dongnae (the area that I'm living in) is quite a bit older and everyone speaks Korean. It gives an immediate sense of comraderie.

I'm finally starting to feel a little more settled in over here. I've moved into my apartment, and am excited about buying some decorating things to make the place feel a little more comfortable. Mike found a small bakery/coffee shop a two second walk down the street from me so I'm pretty excited about that. I'm slowly getting used to Korean food, but nothing will ever replace my love of starch and therefore the finding of a bakery was a pretty massive highlight.
Long live the bagel!