Aliens, Knights, Music Lovers, Love Motels, and Mormons

Right, Pusan. Ok.

Friday was not a good day. It started with some unexpected information that I won't get into here, but it did set the tone for the rest of the day. I got through my classes until noon, at which point a guy by the name of In Soh, who I had met only once before, came to meet me and accompany me to Pusan. In Soh is a good guy, about 20 years old, but not much fun to hang around with. He readily admitted to me that he wants to do things with me mostly to improve his English. That's fine, I guess, especially since he decided to pay for everything that day and was getting me a place to sleep that night. So, I spent a full day with him.

We got to Pusan and picked up my new ID card. I am now officially an alien according to Koreans. Let the probing begin. Anyway, after this In Soh had decided that a movie would be a good idea. That sounded alright. Unfortunately, the location was at a giant mall. I hate the mall, and this one was basically what you would get if you took Metrotown and stood it on end (tall, instead of long). I consoled myself with the thought that we were just there to see a movie, then we'd go somewhere else. How wrong I was. We went to get our movie tickets, only to discover that the only movie we could settle on to see, King Arthur (which I will discuss further), didn't start for another three hours. Meanwhile, In Soh's 13 year old cousin had joined us. We wandered around the mall for an hour or so, not really looking at anything, just wandering, then they decided they wanted to play video games. I did not. So, I found a seat in a corner and wrote/read stuff for an hour and a half. I realize that malls and consumerism are as much a part of Korean culture as ancient temples and soju, but I can experience it at home if I ever choose to. I didn't come across the ocean to go to the damned mall. I was starting to feel somewhat bitter when they found me and we prepared for the movie. By this I mean we purchased snacks (popcorn and soda, despite the availability of dried, roasted squid) and stood around for a while. We finally went in to the theatre itself about 10 minutes before the movie was to start.

King Arthur is a terrible movie. Extremely cheesy with bad acting and only a few moments of unintentional humour. It was really a brutally bad movie. The special effects were obvious, the story line attempted to incorporate new archaeological "facts" and failed, and it was too damned long.

Ok, I'm done that rant now.

We finally left the mall after the movie. I was exhausted and really hungry. Luckily, we were headed to In Soh's cousins house, where we would be staying. The family was extremely nice and made me feel very comfortable. They kept feeding me. First, a tasty meat dish with rice, which had me stuffed. Then, after popping in Raiders of the Lost Ark, a pizza arrived, specially ordered for the alien. I appreciated it, but was far too full. I managed to eat one piece, though, and smile graciously throughout. After the movie, the time came to pass out. Sleep came slowly though, and it was a short sleep as the entire household woke up and started moving loudly around at 6:00am.

Breakfast on Saturday was again provided by In Soh's Aunt. It was some sort of fried doughy substance sprinkled with cinnamon and dipped in honey. It was... chewy. After breakfast, In Soh's uncle dropped us off at Haeundae Beach, Korea's most popular beach. It was cloudy and threatening to rain, so it wasn't very populated that day. In Soh and I wandered back and forth along the beach for about two hours. We didn't say much, we didn't do much. It wasn't very exciting or very interesting. Then we decided to have lunch. I had my favourite, naeng-myun, which I seasoned well with tasty spicy things, much to In Soh's amazement and occasional protest. It was yummy. After lunch, In Soh went to the train station to go back to Milyang and I wandered about Pusan for a while.

I ended up back up by the university, where I spent most of my time on my last trip. I randomly looked around the area until I got hungry then found a place to eat. I looked at the menu, asked about a few things, and decided on a rice dish they recommended. It was simply bizarre. Not what I expected in the least. What it was was a pile of rice with a thick, dark brown sauce with chunks in it poured over top. It had a chocolatey taste and the chunks were potato and bits of pork. I was really hungry, so I ate it, but I won't be getting it again.

After that it was off to the bar. I hung around Soul Trane, one of the bars I went to last time, for a good while. Jonathan, one of the people I met last time, arrived and we talked for a bit then played some pool against a couple of ultra-competitive US army jerks. Jonathan and I, not very good at pool, managed to get them down to where we were battling for the 8 ball. They won, and were complete asses about it. More of them kept coming in, so we figured that it was time to change venues. We ended up at Crossroads, which I briefly visited before. I stayed much longer this time. I met a group of bitter English teachers who's only wish was to get home. They actually had countdowns to departure programmed into their cell phones so they could check how many months/days/hours/seconds until they got to go. I actually ended up sitting with them for some time. They weren't too bad, and they had their reasons for wanting to leave, I just thought it was a little excessive.

During my time with the bitter people, Jonathan had gone back to Soul Trane to meet some other people. As well, some bands played. They were fairly mediocre folksy stuff. Jonathan came back with his girlfriend and her best friend, Remi. Remi and got along really well and got into a really good music conversation. She got the bar to play some good, original Korean music, something I have been lamenting the lack of for some time.

It eventually came to light that I would not be able to sleep at Jonathan's place that night, as we had arranged earlier, due to the fact that it's a studio apartment and his girlfriend was coming over that night. Instead, he lent me some cash and set me up at a motel. This motel was completely unlike the one I stayed at last time. It was quite plainly a love motel. Right outside the elevator was a machine called the "Love Box" dispensing a variety of products. Inside the room there was red track lighting, a heart shaped headboard, strategically placed condoms, and the first channel the TV went to was porn. It was all rather humorous. I was pretty drunk, so I turned the TV back off and went to sleep.

The next morning, Sunday, I woke up, watched South Korea beat Mexico in Olympic soccer, then proceeded to get lost. I made the mistake of trusting my Lonely Planet map from three years ago and wandered far, far away from the subway. Thankfully, my general sense of direction helped me out and three hours later I found the subway again. I made my way to the fish market area and got myself some tasty sashimi done Korean style (meaning it was doused in hot stuff and mixed with rice and greens in a large bowl). I was satisfied with my food and my somewhat strange trip to Pusan. It was time to go back to Milyang.

Well, since then, not much has happened, other than my MP3 player breaking, which is actually pretty terrible. I need my music, but it will get fixed. It's Wednesday night now and I've spent the last three and a half days in a strange state of emotional flux. I'm up one hour or two and down the next. It's been weird. Actually, I've been like this more or less for the last two or three weeks, but its been more so this week. I think its a bit of homesickness, a sense of isolation, and knowing that a bigger, more entertaining city is out there with people I identify with, but I'm here and alone in this small city. I'm pretty sure I'll come to terms with things soon enough, plus I'll be doing more traveling soon, I hope. It'll all be good.

Oh yeah, I ran into Mormons today. They were hanging around outside the grocery store like kids at a 7-11. I was approached by one, and he asked me all the Heavenly Father questions. I expressed my lack of interest and he stopped bothering me. I really dislike the very idea of missionary work. Believe whatever you want, but don't try to tell people its the only way and that their way is wrong. It bugs me to no end. Such ignorant arrogance. I found it kind of interesting to run into them though, considering my last posting compared teaching English to missionary work.

That's all for now.

Guy