China Pictures!
If you open the pisca album you can choose which ones to look at. There are about 525 pictures.. haha
China pt1
Album link
http://picasaweb.google.com/AndrewIWade/Chiiina
China pt2
Album Link
http://picasaweb.google.com/AndrewIWade/ChinaPt2
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Monday, August 27, 2007
So I make it into Seoul the city where the university i am attending is a couple of days ago.
I check into the hostel and go out to look for a place to eat dinner.
I walk for about 15 minuets and find that pretty much everything is closed. So after the 15 min, I start to hear music. I walk towards where that was and BAM! I find myself in the middle of an outdoor rock show.
There was a huge stage set up outside this shopping center and there were bands playing!!
A bunch of Koreans were out in front dancing and having a good time. Everyone was soaking wet since there was a hose that everyone used to fill up their waterbottles and just throw at everyone in front of the stage.
My post to bill sums it up
I just got back from an outdoor punk show.. it was sooo awesome. 4 bands, one rock, one ska, one heavy metal, and one really good punk rock band,]
since it was outside, someone got hoses and everyone kept filling up waterbottles andbuckets and drenching everyone. me and two off duty GI:s that i met showed them how an american rock show does it. we got a huge mosh pit going, then circle pits, had some hardcore dancing, and topped it off with some stage dives.
i skanked with sooo many hot chicks it was unbelievable.
haha i took my shirt off after half of the show and since korea is like it is, i had a couple of people come up to me and be like, you naked! and i:m like yeeeeah! then i threw my shirt up and would go start a mosh.
it was tight.
but i ate grinded pig earlier for lunch and that was a bad idea.
the grinded pig was pretty bad too. i:ll never eat that again.
The day after all this rock show madness, I went to a palace in seoul then met a guy when I was taking the subway back home. It just so happened that he is a real estate developer in seoul and we talked for about an hour about real estate and the politics and economics of seoul and korea.
I met him again today and he bought me lunch at this really nice place by my hostel. He used to work at a global company called SK Telecom until he quit and started his real estate company and during his employment at SK, he would often go to Guatemala to meet clients. He has been studying english for many years and graduated at Seoul National University (the top university in Korea) with a Masters in Textile engineering.
I just think it:s really cool that I`ve been able to meet two koreans so far who enjoy talking to me so much that they buy me lunch so that they can talk to me longer.
Haha, I told him some of my windsurfing stories about being in Cape Sand Blas and windsurfing with the stingrays and when I was in Busan and I saw the 4 foot wide jellyfish monster.
Today I went to the electronics market in Yongsan. What did I find there? The worlds largest collection of
#1 PC parts and componets and laptops and custom made video cards (made to your order!) and everything you could think of that relates to a computer including millions of styles of mice
#2 Pirated Dvds. I could not believe how many pirated DVDs there were everywhere in this area. You can pick up 6 for $10.00. It was just crazy. I also found tons of Ps2 games but I couldn:t tell if they were legit or not, but they probably were since I didnt: see to much console modding advertisted (although i could probably find it if I looked)
#3 Display laptops playing obviously pirated/downloaded movies. Every place that had a laptop was playing a movie on it and sure enough, it was obvious that the movies were illegally downloaded haha.
I noticed these two particually;
Rush.Hour.3.PROPER.TELESYNC.XviD-DELAY
and Next.DVDRip.XviD-DoNE
In perfect view above the movie are these filenames...I thought it was pretty amusing.
But after reading some info with a google search *korea piracy* I realized I should have expected it.
Tommrow I get to check into the university. That means no more pillows filled with woodchips (It:s like i`m treated like hobie!)
ps the ` is located in a really wierd place on the keyboard so it comes out as ; a lot
I check into the hostel and go out to look for a place to eat dinner.
I walk for about 15 minuets and find that pretty much everything is closed. So after the 15 min, I start to hear music. I walk towards where that was and BAM! I find myself in the middle of an outdoor rock show.
There was a huge stage set up outside this shopping center and there were bands playing!!
A bunch of Koreans were out in front dancing and having a good time. Everyone was soaking wet since there was a hose that everyone used to fill up their waterbottles and just throw at everyone in front of the stage.
My post to bill sums it up
I just got back from an outdoor punk show.. it was sooo awesome. 4 bands, one rock, one ska, one heavy metal, and one really good punk rock band,]
since it was outside, someone got hoses and everyone kept filling up waterbottles andbuckets and drenching everyone. me and two off duty GI:s that i met showed them how an american rock show does it. we got a huge mosh pit going, then circle pits, had some hardcore dancing, and topped it off with some stage dives.
i skanked with sooo many hot chicks it was unbelievable.
haha i took my shirt off after half of the show and since korea is like it is, i had a couple of people come up to me and be like, you naked! and i:m like yeeeeah! then i threw my shirt up and would go start a mosh.
it was tight.
but i ate grinded pig earlier for lunch and that was a bad idea.
the grinded pig was pretty bad too. i:ll never eat that again.
The day after all this rock show madness, I went to a palace in seoul then met a guy when I was taking the subway back home. It just so happened that he is a real estate developer in seoul and we talked for about an hour about real estate and the politics and economics of seoul and korea.
I met him again today and he bought me lunch at this really nice place by my hostel. He used to work at a global company called SK Telecom until he quit and started his real estate company and during his employment at SK, he would often go to Guatemala to meet clients. He has been studying english for many years and graduated at Seoul National University (the top university in Korea) with a Masters in Textile engineering.
I just think it:s really cool that I`ve been able to meet two koreans so far who enjoy talking to me so much that they buy me lunch so that they can talk to me longer.
Haha, I told him some of my windsurfing stories about being in Cape Sand Blas and windsurfing with the stingrays and when I was in Busan and I saw the 4 foot wide jellyfish monster.
Today I went to the electronics market in Yongsan. What did I find there? The worlds largest collection of
#1 PC parts and componets and laptops and custom made video cards (made to your order!) and everything you could think of that relates to a computer including millions of styles of mice
#2 Pirated Dvds. I could not believe how many pirated DVDs there were everywhere in this area. You can pick up 6 for $10.00. It was just crazy. I also found tons of Ps2 games but I couldn:t tell if they were legit or not, but they probably were since I didnt: see to much console modding advertisted (although i could probably find it if I looked)
#3 Display laptops playing obviously pirated/downloaded movies. Every place that had a laptop was playing a movie on it and sure enough, it was obvious that the movies were illegally downloaded haha.
I noticed these two particually;
Rush.Hour.3.PROPER.TELESYNC.XviD-DELAY
and Next.DVDRip.XviD-DoNE
In perfect view above the movie are these filenames...I thought it was pretty amusing.
But after reading some info with a google search *korea piracy* I realized I should have expected it.
Tommrow I get to check into the university. That means no more pillows filled with woodchips (It:s like i`m treated like hobie!)
ps the ` is located in a really wierd place on the keyboard so it comes out as ; a lot
Monday, August 20, 2007
So after I got off the bullet train I was in Kyoto. The whole station was soooo big. It was like a full scale shopping mall mixed with 4 train stations and a subway stop. I accidentally got off at the wrong floor and ended up lost in the middle of the station.
But this isn't like being lost in a train station that you would imagine, it was a full scale open mall. So I was lost in a sea of stores and clothes and mix and match english words and phrases.
After about 15 minuets of wondering about I actually find an exit. It may not sound like a long time, but I have my pack on and it is really really heavy. It felt like I was just going on and on for hours in a sea of high fashion clothes.
So once I get out I make my 50 minuet walking trip to the hostel (train station - subway - walk).
I get out at the wrong exit and have to walk through downtown super crowded Kyoto high fashion district.
Once I get to the hostel, I meet up with some people that were from Seattle and we go out with a english -> japanese pickup lines book.
Haha that was fun, going around the city at night with a whole bunch of pick up lines (clean and dirty). hahaha.
The next day we go out on bikes and see some temples and joke around.
The next night I hang out with these two guys from the hostel that were Canadian and from England.
We talked for a long time about the differences we have growing up like school cliqs clicks not sure how to spell it.
The guy from england was telling us all these stories about how the gypsies would beat everyone up at high school verses the jocks, and he had all these different British terms for these groups of people and it was awesome to hear.
So we kept talking for about 6 hours about this and that. It was really cool to be around these guys and compare how we were taught world history in school and stuff like that.
The day after that I found the scariest place in Kyoto on bike.
It was an 8 feet high storm drain that was about 12 feet wide.
I took my bike, and went through it. I probably went about 1/4 of a mile through it until I just couldn't go any farther. It was so freaking scary. It was pitch black and there were pipes running across the width of the place at times so I would have to duck my head while riding.
I tried to take some pictures and video, but they don't do justice to how scary it was. But I'll tell you this, it was freaking awesome. At some points in the storm drain there were adjacent pipes that you could look down into and see light, but the thing was you would see light so far away that it is barely a glimmer.
It was awesome. And scary.
Farther down (that day I rode the bike I rented for 6 hours straight right out of the city and into the rural mountains) I found a small dam and had a break at the creek. I sat down took some photos and enjoyed the pleasant weather that the sunset had brought.
The rural areas past the city were by far the best part of the city. I'm beginning to notice a pattern that the areas I like are rural in Korea and not the city areas. That goes for back home too, but I'm not surprised granted where I was able to grow up.
After I left Japan, I tried to go to Yeosu, but had to leave immediately after I got there since there was no tourist information center.
Without that I can't find out the bus schedule of get a map. So I had to leave and go to Mokpo.
I spent 3 days in Mokpo and the first was spent being sick and it was absolutly horrible, all I wanted to do was go back to Seoul and go to the dorm.
By the third day I felt good, climbed a mountain, filmed some video and headed off to where I am now, Jeonju.
Being sick just made me want to give up traveling and quit. I guess that just means that I need to try my hardest not to get sick so I won't feel that way.
But this isn't like being lost in a train station that you would imagine, it was a full scale open mall. So I was lost in a sea of stores and clothes and mix and match english words and phrases.
After about 15 minuets of wondering about I actually find an exit. It may not sound like a long time, but I have my pack on and it is really really heavy. It felt like I was just going on and on for hours in a sea of high fashion clothes.
So once I get out I make my 50 minuet walking trip to the hostel (train station - subway - walk).
I get out at the wrong exit and have to walk through downtown super crowded Kyoto high fashion district.
Once I get to the hostel, I meet up with some people that were from Seattle and we go out with a english -> japanese pickup lines book.
Haha that was fun, going around the city at night with a whole bunch of pick up lines (clean and dirty). hahaha.
The next day we go out on bikes and see some temples and joke around.
The next night I hang out with these two guys from the hostel that were Canadian and from England.
We talked for a long time about the differences we have growing up like school cliqs clicks not sure how to spell it.
The guy from england was telling us all these stories about how the gypsies would beat everyone up at high school verses the jocks, and he had all these different British terms for these groups of people and it was awesome to hear.
So we kept talking for about 6 hours about this and that. It was really cool to be around these guys and compare how we were taught world history in school and stuff like that.
The day after that I found the scariest place in Kyoto on bike.
It was an 8 feet high storm drain that was about 12 feet wide.
I took my bike, and went through it. I probably went about 1/4 of a mile through it until I just couldn't go any farther. It was so freaking scary. It was pitch black and there were pipes running across the width of the place at times so I would have to duck my head while riding.
I tried to take some pictures and video, but they don't do justice to how scary it was. But I'll tell you this, it was freaking awesome. At some points in the storm drain there were adjacent pipes that you could look down into and see light, but the thing was you would see light so far away that it is barely a glimmer.
It was awesome. And scary.
Farther down (that day I rode the bike I rented for 6 hours straight right out of the city and into the rural mountains) I found a small dam and had a break at the creek. I sat down took some photos and enjoyed the pleasant weather that the sunset had brought.
The rural areas past the city were by far the best part of the city. I'm beginning to notice a pattern that the areas I like are rural in Korea and not the city areas. That goes for back home too, but I'm not surprised granted where I was able to grow up.
After I left Japan, I tried to go to Yeosu, but had to leave immediately after I got there since there was no tourist information center.
Without that I can't find out the bus schedule of get a map. So I had to leave and go to Mokpo.
I spent 3 days in Mokpo and the first was spent being sick and it was absolutly horrible, all I wanted to do was go back to Seoul and go to the dorm.
By the third day I felt good, climbed a mountain, filmed some video and headed off to where I am now, Jeonju.
Being sick just made me want to give up traveling and quit. I guess that just means that I need to try my hardest not to get sick so I won't feel that way.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Japan was really cool.
I left from Busan on a hydrofoil boat that moved almost as fast (maybe 3/4 the speed) of the bullet train.
After the three hour trip, I arrived in Fukuoka and walked around. Actually I was running as fast as I could to get to my hostel before 9:00pm when reception closes. I had a hard time figuring out where I was since the streets in Japan are hardly if ever marked. I have no idea how the people there get around when they go to a place they arn't familiar with.
The hostel was pretty nice and I scored a single bed, which I would later give up for 12, then 24 mixed bunked dorms later on my trip. The third hostel I stayed in was terrible too. It was so bad I was surprised when I actually had hot water when I took a shower in the morning (and we were limited to one shower pass per stay, so I had to choose wisely).
I found tons of cool arcades in Fukuoka though. They were AWESOME! They had everything and Konami was a major player so there were lots of trademark games like Devil May Cry Arcade shoots and the like. That place was so awesome. And it was on the top floor of a mega tech mart, so the whole place was full on all this new tech (cams tvs movies dj equipment, etc.) It was awesome.
To get to Kyoto I had to dish out some huge cash to get there by train (bullet train). So I get into Kyoto and I'm off to find the hostel I booked. It's soooo hot during the day that I'm starting to get dizzy and just had to quit walking after a while. Of course, not being able to read the street signs just made everything harder.
I'll have to continue later, I'm really thirsty.
I left from Busan on a hydrofoil boat that moved almost as fast (maybe 3/4 the speed) of the bullet train.
After the three hour trip, I arrived in Fukuoka and walked around. Actually I was running as fast as I could to get to my hostel before 9:00pm when reception closes. I had a hard time figuring out where I was since the streets in Japan are hardly if ever marked. I have no idea how the people there get around when they go to a place they arn't familiar with.
The hostel was pretty nice and I scored a single bed, which I would later give up for 12, then 24 mixed bunked dorms later on my trip. The third hostel I stayed in was terrible too. It was so bad I was surprised when I actually had hot water when I took a shower in the morning (and we were limited to one shower pass per stay, so I had to choose wisely).
I found tons of cool arcades in Fukuoka though. They were AWESOME! They had everything and Konami was a major player so there were lots of trademark games like Devil May Cry Arcade shoots and the like. That place was so awesome. And it was on the top floor of a mega tech mart, so the whole place was full on all this new tech (cams tvs movies dj equipment, etc.) It was awesome.
To get to Kyoto I had to dish out some huge cash to get there by train (bullet train). So I get into Kyoto and I'm off to find the hostel I booked. It's soooo hot during the day that I'm starting to get dizzy and just had to quit walking after a while. Of course, not being able to read the street signs just made everything harder.
I'll have to continue later, I'm really thirsty.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Friday, August 10, 2007
Yesterday I got up early and reserved my hotel for another night (usually the front desk guy sleeps until noon and I caught a break and saw him around 10:40 am). Since I was able to get out early, I headed for Gangwalli Beach.
This is the windsurfing beach. So I get there around noon and eat a little bit of lunch (a milk, meat on a stick, and water). Then I go to the windsurfing shop and pay 50,000won to be able to rent gear for the day.
So I get taken down to the edge of the beach (it is within two pier like things with hotels crammed on them) to where they keep the gear. I chose a 126 liter board and all they have are 6.0's. It's blowing maybe 12, but the wind doesn't keep it's direction at all.
So I take the 6 (even though I tried to get the 7.4, but he kept telling me no; must've belonged to one of the locals).
I get out there and the wind is so funky it's unreal. Since it is blowing side shore and there are highrises where the wind is coming from, the wind just changes direction from west to south to west, etc. So I never can keep a direction.
After a lot of falling on the 126 liter board, I get back in to the launch site and trade out boards for a big bic board. I think it was like a 300 liter board, it was as heavy as the obrien I used to use.
So taking that one out, I had a much better time. I just kept the sail by me, launched more downwind (so the wind wasn't as squirrely with the hotels) and I headed out towards the bridge (the one in my pictures).
Once I get past the pier, the wind was pretty steady and blowing 15mph. I had a couple of good runs and was having a great time. I actually got them to go fetch me a harness so I could hook in and that made the day even better~
On my way out, I'm looking down at the water as it's passing me by and I see this huge orange ball. I surf right past it and realize what it is. It was a HUGE jellyfish. It was about as big as my torso. It was HUGE! I was so glad I didn't fall in and get eaten by it. It made me remember the stories of the Japanese fisherman being to scared to go out fishing since the squids would eat them alive.
So I finally make it to the bridge (about a 1/2 mile out) and it's gusting up to 20 mph. I start to make a tack to head back in and that's when it happened.
I ended up twisting my knee all the way out there. So I drop my sail, sit on my board and asses the damage. I just hurt like when you twist your ankle, but it was my knee.
Aggravated and in pain, I know I have to make it back in. I struggled to my feet, bit my lip and grabbed the uphaul line. I pulled the sail up, while carefully making sure not to put too much weight on my knee and started my long journey back to the launch site. (There were plenty of boats and jetskis around so I wasn't worried about not making it back). I sail all the way back in and make it back to shore (I had to go into the illegal side where everyone swims and the jetski cop was pissed, but I don't care).
Once I made it back onshore, I just sat and rested for about 10 minuets. That was it for the day. I put my gear back up and headed back to the motel.
Then I set my legs up on my bed, took some advil and watched for any swelling. As of today not much swelling, and I'm just limping around since I can't make my leg straight without a lot of pain.
Looks like I'll be hobbling around Japan for the next 5 days.
I think I'll be okay though, my range of motion is good except for fully extended, and I'll rent a bike in Kyoto.
Looks like for the next week I'll be surviving Japan.
This is the windsurfing beach. So I get there around noon and eat a little bit of lunch (a milk, meat on a stick, and water). Then I go to the windsurfing shop and pay 50,000won to be able to rent gear for the day.
So I get taken down to the edge of the beach (it is within two pier like things with hotels crammed on them) to where they keep the gear. I chose a 126 liter board and all they have are 6.0's. It's blowing maybe 12, but the wind doesn't keep it's direction at all.
So I take the 6 (even though I tried to get the 7.4, but he kept telling me no; must've belonged to one of the locals).
I get out there and the wind is so funky it's unreal. Since it is blowing side shore and there are highrises where the wind is coming from, the wind just changes direction from west to south to west, etc. So I never can keep a direction.
After a lot of falling on the 126 liter board, I get back in to the launch site and trade out boards for a big bic board. I think it was like a 300 liter board, it was as heavy as the obrien I used to use.
So taking that one out, I had a much better time. I just kept the sail by me, launched more downwind (so the wind wasn't as squirrely with the hotels) and I headed out towards the bridge (the one in my pictures).
Once I get past the pier, the wind was pretty steady and blowing 15mph. I had a couple of good runs and was having a great time. I actually got them to go fetch me a harness so I could hook in and that made the day even better~
On my way out, I'm looking down at the water as it's passing me by and I see this huge orange ball. I surf right past it and realize what it is. It was a HUGE jellyfish. It was about as big as my torso. It was HUGE! I was so glad I didn't fall in and get eaten by it. It made me remember the stories of the Japanese fisherman being to scared to go out fishing since the squids would eat them alive.
So I finally make it to the bridge (about a 1/2 mile out) and it's gusting up to 20 mph. I start to make a tack to head back in and that's when it happened.
I ended up twisting my knee all the way out there. So I drop my sail, sit on my board and asses the damage. I just hurt like when you twist your ankle, but it was my knee.
Aggravated and in pain, I know I have to make it back in. I struggled to my feet, bit my lip and grabbed the uphaul line. I pulled the sail up, while carefully making sure not to put too much weight on my knee and started my long journey back to the launch site. (There were plenty of boats and jetskis around so I wasn't worried about not making it back). I sail all the way back in and make it back to shore (I had to go into the illegal side where everyone swims and the jetski cop was pissed, but I don't care).
Once I made it back onshore, I just sat and rested for about 10 minuets. That was it for the day. I put my gear back up and headed back to the motel.
Then I set my legs up on my bed, took some advil and watched for any swelling. As of today not much swelling, and I'm just limping around since I can't make my leg straight without a lot of pain.
Looks like I'll be hobbling around Japan for the next 5 days.
I think I'll be okay though, my range of motion is good except for fully extended, and I'll rent a bike in Kyoto.
Looks like for the next week I'll be surviving Japan.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
My camera lens is getting pretty dirty now. I haven't been able to find a decent cloth to wipe off the lens. Luckily, it is just the wide angle lens attachment and the camera's own lens hasn't been touched at all.
Yesterday I went to the lighthouse island in south Busan. this is the island that is on the sea of japan (which koreans hate calling it and want to change the official name to the east sea....haha good luck) and it has huge cliffs.
So I climbed down the cliffs and checked out the little beach that was down there (on the non sheer cliff death side). It was one of those rock beaches where all the rocks were about the size of baseballs and you hear the tide wash them back and forth when the waves come in. It reminded me of a beach that we went to in Maui. I also treked along the beach for a while and climbed one of the huge rock formations that went out into the sea. At the very top of it was an old South Korean military lookout. They probably used it to patrol this part of the coast since it would be a direct route for the japanese to come and invade. They still had the machine gun mounts plastered into the rock and cemented rocks together to form a bench rock seat big enough to sit about 3 soldiers.
That day it was overcast so most of the sea was covered in a mist. That made it really cool. Half of the time the little islands and rock formations were half visible making it seem unworldly. It really sucks that my video camera's ability to take snapshot pictures really sucks. What I could see and what my camera's lens could see were sooooo far off from each other it wasn't even funny.
I tried to take a picture of all the ships that were docked in the sea with this really cool island in the middle of them (all enshrouded in mist) and all my camera was able to shoot was just a grey smog... and that's it. haha. o well.
this was one of those days I wished I had a digital camera that I could actually adjust the focus and light levels. My cam is horrible at shooting in overcast.
54
4f
50 (this is part of the beach festival show)
52
53
Yesterday I went to the lighthouse island in south Busan. this is the island that is on the sea of japan (which koreans hate calling it and want to change the official name to the east sea....haha good luck) and it has huge cliffs.
So I climbed down the cliffs and checked out the little beach that was down there (on the non sheer cliff death side). It was one of those rock beaches where all the rocks were about the size of baseballs and you hear the tide wash them back and forth when the waves come in. It reminded me of a beach that we went to in Maui. I also treked along the beach for a while and climbed one of the huge rock formations that went out into the sea. At the very top of it was an old South Korean military lookout. They probably used it to patrol this part of the coast since it would be a direct route for the japanese to come and invade. They still had the machine gun mounts plastered into the rock and cemented rocks together to form a bench rock seat big enough to sit about 3 soldiers.
That day it was overcast so most of the sea was covered in a mist. That made it really cool. Half of the time the little islands and rock formations were half visible making it seem unworldly. It really sucks that my video camera's ability to take snapshot pictures really sucks. What I could see and what my camera's lens could see were sooooo far off from each other it wasn't even funny.
I tried to take a picture of all the ships that were docked in the sea with this really cool island in the middle of them (all enshrouded in mist) and all my camera was able to shoot was just a grey smog... and that's it. haha. o well.
this was one of those days I wished I had a digital camera that I could actually adjust the focus and light levels. My cam is horrible at shooting in overcast.
54
4f
50 (this is part of the beach festival show)
52
53
Monday, August 6, 2007
So I've been in Pusan for a couple of days and it's raining.. a lot. It's like non stop here. I think it may be some off shoots of the storm that went by Japan.
Speaking of Japan, I just bought my tickets to Fukuoka, Japan today. I'll be leaving Pusan (Busan and a bunch of other cities switch their spelling alllll the time) on August 10th to hit the ferry to Japan and coming back on August 15th.
Today and yesterday I've been hard set on trying to find a place that rents windsurfing gear. I've been all over the coast and beaches. What really blew my mind was that yesterday I found out that one particular beach (which was only 3 miles from the beach I was at) was doing a whole free windsurfing clinic. They had all their gear out on the water and everyone could try it for free.
It was part of the Busan Summer Festival deal. When I found out about that, I was sooo pissed. I was so close to it, but it was blocked by that stupid bridge and marina so I couldn't see the windsurfers out on the water.
But today, after 2 days of searching, I found a windsurfing shop and asked them about their rates. They rent for 40,000 won (~44 usd) for a whole day.
Oh did I tell you, the first day I got here it was blowing a constant 25mph?? I really wish I would have known where this shop was that day, you know? Since it was only blowing 6 mph SSW today, and I found the shop at 3 pm, I figured I'd just hang out for the day.
So I rented a tube (that's what everyone does over here at the beach) and went out into the water. Brittany asked how cold it was and yeah, it's really cold. About as cold as when I went to Panama City Beach FL in mid March. I still didn't want to get all the way in, I'd save that for when I went out windsurfing.
Oh, something interesting. All the beaches everywhere so far are buoyed off about 50 feet from the shore. They always have boats and lifeguards waiting and watching to yell at you when you get too close to the buoy. I'm not sure if it's because they don't want people being sucked out to a rip tide (which was weak at most at every beach i've been to so far) or what.
They just don't want you going far off from the shore.
Well in Busan, I'm staying on Shanghai street (it's the awesome red pillar thing in my picture). It is also right beside Texas street (this is where the american soldiers hung out during one of the Korean Japanese wars). This area is heavy heavy duty russian. Tons and tons of russians and tons and tons of russian call girls. Like every fourth building is a bar full of call girls.
I did meet an american guy here named dennis. He was pretty cool, we hung out for the day and he showed me a place where they have korean barbecue. And mannn is korean barbecue gooooood. It's a whole bunch of meat that you get to grill right in front of you, then you add kimchi to the grill and mushrooms and vegetables, and everything else they put on your table.
Then you take one of the leaves they give you (a plate with like 10 leaves) and put all the meat and vegetables into the leaf, roll it up like a burrito and take a bite! That stuff is soooooo good. Best food I've eaten in Korea so far.
Dennis also knew Russian and told me all his stories. One of which was when he worked for the US Embassy in Russia. One day he was approached by the KGB(Russian mafia/police but they have a new name now) and they wanted him to spy on the US Embassy, he said no, and they threatened to never let him get a VISA in Russia again. So lo and behold, his VISA expired and he is now forever blacklisted to get a VISA into Russia.
He also told me a pretty good joke.
Russians think that everyone around them are spies
Americans think that everyone around them are criminals.
That day I also went over and got my information for my Japan tickets.
All my clothes are dirty so it's time to throw them in the sink and pour washing machine soup all over the place.
That bathroom is going to be a mess.
But I am soooo glad I have an air conditioner!!! wooooooooooooooooooooooo!! It's a LOT better than the hostel where I slept on the floor with no pillow and only sometimes had water pressure and consistent water temperature.
I really stoked that I can go windsurfing in Busan. I also am getting a friend to tell me where in Jeju-do I can windsurf at since they said that there are rental places there too!
I think that if I get to sleep around 9pm tonite or around that time, I'm going to try to wake up before sunrise. There is a fish market here in Busan that's really famous for it's sunrise shipments.
You see, all the fishing boats come back into harbor around the time of sunrise. When they come in, they plop all their fish onto the docks and the bidding wars begin. People from all around the city come to the port and bid on the fresh fish. Not just ordinary people, but also really rich companies like the ones that run the 5* hotels.
Supposedly it's really a sight to see when all that fish comes in and people pour around trying to bid on the best price.
Oh haha, in front of the train station in this city is a stock ticker. I noticed it displayed Dow, Nasdaq overall +- gains losses for the day, as well as individual stocks (but they didn't stand out as much as NASDAQ and DOW in big english alphabet letters.
Today for dinner I ate from the street vendors. I had a hot dog for my first meal of the night. I went up to her cart and she had a big boiler/fryer in the middle of the cart. She would take what looked like big jalapenos and coat them in this wet flour sauce, then drop them in the fryer. She'd let them fry for a little bit, take them out and put them up to be sold. I was thinking to myself that as hot as the last jalapeno I had was (it was a baby one that I could barely take one bite out of before I drank the entire container of water they had at my table), there could be nooooo way I'd survive something like that.
Also I got a breast and a thigh for ~2 usd that the guy grilled right in front of me. What he would do is have the chicken cooked about 85%. Once someone comes up and wants some, he'd take it and grill it until it was done right in front of you. He added these awesome spices to it and it was awesome! My hands still smell like chicken haha.
And there is this pizza place here,, ooooo man it's goooood!~ Just as good as any pizza place here on in new york. it was AWESOME!
Oh, in the videos below you'll see a stage with some people preforming. Today on the beach I was at, Ganwalli Beach, they had a bunch of stuff set up for the Busan Summer Festival.
On the stage, they'd have a bunch of different people. This one band went up there and they were really good. They were a punk band that sounded a lot like HomeGrown and had a lead singer that sang in a fun ska style like Goldfinger.
They had a tight set. Each act was able to play/do two songs. The next act (I didn't tape the punk band since they went off set before I could unlock my bag to get my camera) was cool since they had some cheography, but the last act was the best.
It was this korean girl that looked russian (wearing red and black) and she had 3 backup dancers (maybe 4 in the beginning, you'll see). They kicked ass!! Everyone must have been there to see them, since the crowed moved up to the 2nd and 3rd rows once she came on.
But still, since it's korea, no on was making a pit or dancing, they would all just sit and claps along to the music.
It was really fun. I probably would have had trouble with the cops if I got there sooner. I really wanted to jump on stage and mosh during the punk band's set. Only until everything was over did I see all the police they had around the area....phew. haha.
51 (stage music)
4b
4c
4d (24 x 7 starcraft tv, only for the nerdiest of nerds)
4e
Speaking of Japan, I just bought my tickets to Fukuoka, Japan today. I'll be leaving Pusan (Busan and a bunch of other cities switch their spelling alllll the time) on August 10th to hit the ferry to Japan and coming back on August 15th.
Today and yesterday I've been hard set on trying to find a place that rents windsurfing gear. I've been all over the coast and beaches. What really blew my mind was that yesterday I found out that one particular beach (which was only 3 miles from the beach I was at) was doing a whole free windsurfing clinic. They had all their gear out on the water and everyone could try it for free.
It was part of the Busan Summer Festival deal. When I found out about that, I was sooo pissed. I was so close to it, but it was blocked by that stupid bridge and marina so I couldn't see the windsurfers out on the water.
But today, after 2 days of searching, I found a windsurfing shop and asked them about their rates. They rent for 40,000 won (~44 usd) for a whole day.
Oh did I tell you, the first day I got here it was blowing a constant 25mph?? I really wish I would have known where this shop was that day, you know? Since it was only blowing 6 mph SSW today, and I found the shop at 3 pm, I figured I'd just hang out for the day.
So I rented a tube (that's what everyone does over here at the beach) and went out into the water. Brittany asked how cold it was and yeah, it's really cold. About as cold as when I went to Panama City Beach FL in mid March. I still didn't want to get all the way in, I'd save that for when I went out windsurfing.
Oh, something interesting. All the beaches everywhere so far are buoyed off about 50 feet from the shore. They always have boats and lifeguards waiting and watching to yell at you when you get too close to the buoy. I'm not sure if it's because they don't want people being sucked out to a rip tide (which was weak at most at every beach i've been to so far) or what.
They just don't want you going far off from the shore.
Well in Busan, I'm staying on Shanghai street (it's the awesome red pillar thing in my picture). It is also right beside Texas street (this is where the american soldiers hung out during one of the Korean Japanese wars). This area is heavy heavy duty russian. Tons and tons of russians and tons and tons of russian call girls. Like every fourth building is a bar full of call girls.
I did meet an american guy here named dennis. He was pretty cool, we hung out for the day and he showed me a place where they have korean barbecue. And mannn is korean barbecue gooooood. It's a whole bunch of meat that you get to grill right in front of you, then you add kimchi to the grill and mushrooms and vegetables, and everything else they put on your table.
Then you take one of the leaves they give you (a plate with like 10 leaves) and put all the meat and vegetables into the leaf, roll it up like a burrito and take a bite! That stuff is soooooo good. Best food I've eaten in Korea so far.
Dennis also knew Russian and told me all his stories. One of which was when he worked for the US Embassy in Russia. One day he was approached by the KGB(Russian mafia/police but they have a new name now) and they wanted him to spy on the US Embassy, he said no, and they threatened to never let him get a VISA in Russia again. So lo and behold, his VISA expired and he is now forever blacklisted to get a VISA into Russia.
He also told me a pretty good joke.
Russians think that everyone around them are spies
Americans think that everyone around them are criminals.
That day I also went over and got my information for my Japan tickets.
All my clothes are dirty so it's time to throw them in the sink and pour washing machine soup all over the place.
That bathroom is going to be a mess.
But I am soooo glad I have an air conditioner!!! wooooooooooooooooooooooo!! It's a LOT better than the hostel where I slept on the floor with no pillow and only sometimes had water pressure and consistent water temperature.
I really stoked that I can go windsurfing in Busan. I also am getting a friend to tell me where in Jeju-do I can windsurf at since they said that there are rental places there too!
I think that if I get to sleep around 9pm tonite or around that time, I'm going to try to wake up before sunrise. There is a fish market here in Busan that's really famous for it's sunrise shipments.
You see, all the fishing boats come back into harbor around the time of sunrise. When they come in, they plop all their fish onto the docks and the bidding wars begin. People from all around the city come to the port and bid on the fresh fish. Not just ordinary people, but also really rich companies like the ones that run the 5* hotels.
Supposedly it's really a sight to see when all that fish comes in and people pour around trying to bid on the best price.
Oh haha, in front of the train station in this city is a stock ticker. I noticed it displayed Dow, Nasdaq overall +- gains losses for the day, as well as individual stocks (but they didn't stand out as much as NASDAQ and DOW in big english alphabet letters.
Today for dinner I ate from the street vendors. I had a hot dog for my first meal of the night. I went up to her cart and she had a big boiler/fryer in the middle of the cart. She would take what looked like big jalapenos and coat them in this wet flour sauce, then drop them in the fryer. She'd let them fry for a little bit, take them out and put them up to be sold. I was thinking to myself that as hot as the last jalapeno I had was (it was a baby one that I could barely take one bite out of before I drank the entire container of water they had at my table), there could be nooooo way I'd survive something like that.
Also I got a breast and a thigh for ~2 usd that the guy grilled right in front of me. What he would do is have the chicken cooked about 85%. Once someone comes up and wants some, he'd take it and grill it until it was done right in front of you. He added these awesome spices to it and it was awesome! My hands still smell like chicken haha.
And there is this pizza place here,, ooooo man it's goooood!~ Just as good as any pizza place here on in new york. it was AWESOME!
Oh, in the videos below you'll see a stage with some people preforming. Today on the beach I was at, Ganwalli Beach, they had a bunch of stuff set up for the Busan Summer Festival.
On the stage, they'd have a bunch of different people. This one band went up there and they were really good. They were a punk band that sounded a lot like HomeGrown and had a lead singer that sang in a fun ska style like Goldfinger.
They had a tight set. Each act was able to play/do two songs. The next act (I didn't tape the punk band since they went off set before I could unlock my bag to get my camera) was cool since they had some cheography, but the last act was the best.
It was this korean girl that looked russian (wearing red and black) and she had 3 backup dancers (maybe 4 in the beginning, you'll see). They kicked ass!! Everyone must have been there to see them, since the crowed moved up to the 2nd and 3rd rows once she came on.
But still, since it's korea, no on was making a pit or dancing, they would all just sit and claps along to the music.
It was really fun. I probably would have had trouble with the cops if I got there sooner. I really wanted to jump on stage and mosh during the punk band's set. Only until everything was over did I see all the police they had around the area....phew. haha.
51 (stage music)
4b
4c
4d (24 x 7 starcraft tv, only for the nerdiest of nerds)
4e
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Friday, August 3, 2007
I had to dump all my images at once so this may have some layover from the last time. You should be able to skip any ones you've already seen.
Today wasn't all that exciting. I went to the lake in the north east and walked around there. I was going to rent an ATV or mini bike (battery powered; there were also true gas powered ones, but I didn't even bother checking their prices) but they cost $50 an hour. That's pretty steep, but not suprising since the Hilton is next door. Haha the food over there was incredibly expensive too, like $8 for a domestic beer.
Right now I'm checking for hostel prices in Busan (a city in the south east [2nd biggest in south korea]), but I think I'll go on the advice my friend told me from Italy and book at a hotel that's by the bus station for 30k won.
Videos
49
45
46
47
48
So after looking up some more inforamtion about Japan, I think I'm going to find the a place in Busan that sells tickets and visit Tokyo and Kyoto.
Peace!
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Today I'm in Gyeongju and it's awesome.
I'm staying at a hostel for about 18 bucks a night. No a/c but it's nice. It has a small tv and can pick up OCN which means I get to watch american movies/tv shows in the morning.
Today I climbed Mt. Namsan for about 5 hours. I can't belive how much land I hiked through, it was intense!
I also went to Pohang and it was the worst city ever. That place sucks more than anything. If a tornado came and destroyed it, I wouldn't care.
Yeah Pohang sucks, cross that one off my list. It's the dirtiest most sleezy city I've been to. It's like pure garabage on every corner piling up.
But I have some videos that I'm working on upload. I'll post them in a sec.
Dude, for dinner, I actually got some meat. Thanks to patricia who told me to ask for galbi, I got a huge bowl full of soup with roast beef still on the bone cooking in the soup. It was awesome! I savored every bite.
1 Hour 43 Minuets later, video time (650 MB+ worth uploaded)
note: Missing 45 and up!
Gyeongju
40
41
42
43
44
(4a is actually supposed to be after like 47, but my time ran out to upload more so..haha yeah)
4a
Found the temple (last
I'm staying at a hostel for about 18 bucks a night. No a/c but it's nice. It has a small tv and can pick up OCN which means I get to watch american movies/tv shows in the morning.
Today I climbed Mt. Namsan for about 5 hours. I can't belive how much land I hiked through, it was intense!
I also went to Pohang and it was the worst city ever. That place sucks more than anything. If a tornado came and destroyed it, I wouldn't care.
Yeah Pohang sucks, cross that one off my list. It's the dirtiest most sleezy city I've been to. It's like pure garabage on every corner piling up.
But I have some videos that I'm working on upload. I'll post them in a sec.
Dude, for dinner, I actually got some meat. Thanks to patricia who told me to ask for galbi, I got a huge bowl full of soup with roast beef still on the bone cooking in the soup. It was awesome! I savored every bite.
1 Hour 43 Minuets later, video time (650 MB+ worth uploaded)
note: Missing 45 and up!
Gyeongju
40
41
42
43
44
(4a is actually supposed to be after like 47, but my time ran out to upload more so..haha yeah)
4a
Found the temple (last
Monday, July 30, 2007
Today I'mㅁ about to head out of the city to Andong
http://havenworks.com/images/maps/world/korea/SOUTH-KOREA-MAP-S--KOREAN-HavenWorks-com.GIF
It's a little north west of Pohang. Yesterday I went to Sorak Mountain in the northern city of Sokcho and rode the cable car to the top of the mountain.
Here are some pictures
I actually met up with 3 other people from the states who were traveling around. One guy was from Missouri, and the two girls were from Texas and Georgia. So we hung out and traveled around the mountain together. They were actually there for a 4 day weekend they had off from teaching to go scuba diving.
So we rode the cable car to the top of the mountain and it was huuuuuuuuge. Too bad it wasn't wobbly like the cable cars that go up to stone mountain, I could have had a lot of fun shaking it around with all those people in there haha.
So that day it was overcast and raining, but absolutely beautiful. Because of all the overcast, the cable car actually disappeared into the clouds on top of the mountain. It was awesome! It kind of felt like Jurassic Park.
I was just waiting for a Teradactyl to swoop up to the cable car and rip the thing clear off the line into the jungle below.
Oh yeah, since I was hanging out with the people I met today for so long, I almost got into a bind. By the time we came back from the temple and listening to the ceremonies, it was around seven thirty. This is bad for me since I have to take a local city bus to the bus station (and hope I can find it again...haha) then take yet another bus back to Gangueng where my motel was.
So long story short, after a lot of running in the dark I exchanged email addresses with the people I met (they teach in seoul about 2 subway stops from mine), bid them farewell, and hopped on the LAST bus out of Sokcho to Gangueng.
I cut it soo close. Oh and the motel lady had my key since I let them clean the room, so I was keeping my fingers crossed that she didn't go to sleep on me....
So I come rolling in about ten at night or 22:00 as they like to call it. And wake the lady up behind the counter at the motel (she lives behind the counter) and she gives me my key. Thank goodness.
So I take my milk, sandwich, and chips that I bought at the local Family Market (like a gas station convenience store, but everywhere, open 24 hrs) and crashed.
This morning I can't find my extra camcorder battery so I'm expecting to try out the voltage transformer and hoping I don't blow the thing to smithereens.
Now I have to do some research to find a hotel I can stay at in Andong. Oh, I'm also uploading my videos so they should be above this one.
http://havenworks.com/images/maps/world/korea/SOUTH-KOREA-MAP-S--KOREAN-HavenWorks-com.GIF
It's a little north west of Pohang. Yesterday I went to Sorak Mountain in the northern city of Sokcho and rode the cable car to the top of the mountain.
Here are some pictures
I actually met up with 3 other people from the states who were traveling around. One guy was from Missouri, and the two girls were from Texas and Georgia. So we hung out and traveled around the mountain together. They were actually there for a 4 day weekend they had off from teaching to go scuba diving.
So we rode the cable car to the top of the mountain and it was huuuuuuuuge. Too bad it wasn't wobbly like the cable cars that go up to stone mountain, I could have had a lot of fun shaking it around with all those people in there haha.
So that day it was overcast and raining, but absolutely beautiful. Because of all the overcast, the cable car actually disappeared into the clouds on top of the mountain. It was awesome! It kind of felt like Jurassic Park.
I was just waiting for a Teradactyl to swoop up to the cable car and rip the thing clear off the line into the jungle below.
Oh yeah, since I was hanging out with the people I met today for so long, I almost got into a bind. By the time we came back from the temple and listening to the ceremonies, it was around seven thirty. This is bad for me since I have to take a local city bus to the bus station (and hope I can find it again...haha) then take yet another bus back to Gangueng where my motel was.
So long story short, after a lot of running in the dark I exchanged email addresses with the people I met (they teach in seoul about 2 subway stops from mine), bid them farewell, and hopped on the LAST bus out of Sokcho to Gangueng.
I cut it soo close. Oh and the motel lady had my key since I let them clean the room, so I was keeping my fingers crossed that she didn't go to sleep on me....
So I come rolling in about ten at night or 22:00 as they like to call it. And wake the lady up behind the counter at the motel (she lives behind the counter) and she gives me my key. Thank goodness.
So I take my milk, sandwich, and chips that I bought at the local Family Market (like a gas station convenience store, but everywhere, open 24 hrs) and crashed.
This morning I can't find my extra camcorder battery so I'm expecting to try out the voltage transformer and hoping I don't blow the thing to smithereens.
Now I have to do some research to find a hotel I can stay at in Andong. Oh, I'm also uploading my videos so they should be above this one.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
7/28 Today I'm posting from Gangneung. http://www.carolinaadoption.org/images/South%20Korea%20Map.png
It is the city inㅅthe north east. My keyboard randomly switches to korean every once and a while so ignore the ㅇㄴ람앎ㅇ junk if you see it. These keyboards are the standard querty keyboard but with mini scrips that are korean syllables that activate by themselves when you type.
So anyway, it's been a while since my update. I've been keeping a video blog also but I forgot my cords today (they're back at the motel; I packed light for the hiking today) so I can;t upload them today. I'll probably come back tommrow and post them since I've negotiated a price (my spelling is goign ㅅ 새 to be bad since they don't have a spell check on this internet browser and I'm trying to type all this before my time expires and they make me leave.
Oh, by the way, all these computers are top of the line and loaded with games.
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/5711/tmpgt9.png
Ok, so from Seoul to this city was really really tough. I had to take the subway for the second time. The subway is really complicated (google seoul subway map); you'll see that it has many many many lines and transfer points. The real kick is that if you are on let's say line 1 going north, and you realize that you should have been going south (think marta) and you want to get to the other side of the rail to go the opposite way. Well at Marta, you walk under or above the station and just go to the other side and hop on the train. Here, you're screwed. This happened to me twice so far. I had to go back and buy a new tix since I had to go the other way.
After the long subway ride (the entire city is conviently in both korean and english for a majority of the places 65% or greater, street signs 100%, stores = hip english words are posted so you get a sense of what it is) I arrived at Express Bus Terminal.
So I got out of the station and climbed out to the blue skies above. I look left, I look right, no express buses..... I just thought, just great no buses.
Side note, I've had tons of people throughout my trip help me when I look lost, and I must look lost at the right times since people who speak fluent english come to my resuce (lots of australian accents)
So the Express Bus Terminal; I end up walking around for 1 hour and find a Hyatt (the hyatts here are super super nice, like 5* maui class) and I ask someone at the counter where the express buses are. She says ooooohhh, express bus, 8,000 won. You buy ticket here.
I start thinking....too good to be true, I need to find an honest to goodness scrungy place that sells bus tickets, this must be the wrong place, it don't trust places that look real clean and polished for common people to travel from.
So I leave and find a mini mall, 30 minuets later and two banana stands later (I eat a lot of bananas since the freeze dried squid doesn't exactly suite my tastes) I find the place where they vend tickets.
I find someone get 1 wrong ticket, explain it was wrong, then get my ticket to the city Gangneung.
So now I get here, find a tourist information center, get a map, bus schedule and find a place to stay inside the city (30 minuets away from the beach) at a price of 30000 won a night like ~28 USD. Real nice deal compared to twice that to be by the beach.
So for food I eat sandwiches from the convience store and milk and oj and bananas and for lunch I get local food.
Let's see, VISA, it's everywhere you want to be. That's sooo true. I use that VISA card everywhere I go. I also have a good amount of local currency ~600usd that I keep with me, but I try to keep it credit wherever I go so if I hit a small city and have to pay with cash, hotel prices add up really fast. I did the math and calculated how many days it would take me to be flat broke using only cash and with hotels how they are, it wouldn't be long.
But that's not a problem since I have my VISA and my handmade balance sheet so I can keep track of costs (credit vs. cash). I'd hate to think what I'd do if I wasn't a business major and didn't have any accounting/finance knowldege... At least I can safely predict my cash outflows in comparison to my reserves.... but enough with that!!! ㅏㅇㄹㄴ마ㅣㄹㅇ나ㅣㅇㄴㅁ럼ㅇㄴㄹ;ㅏㅓㅁ호;ㅣㅏㄴㅇㅅ하;ㅣㅁ허ㅣㅏㄴ엉마ㅣ
Ok that's enough hangul too haha....
BAM
Beach time, so I figure out how to use the buses and take 202 over to the beach (thanks to tourist info center they told me what i needed to know)
The beach is really cool and it's is kind of like panama city beach without the highrises on the beach.
It's more of a drive to the beach park on the road and go! But there were tons and tons of people. The fun thing was that they have raft rentals (like whitewater park rafts) so the ocean is covered in yellow doughnuts. It's pretty funny.
I walked down the beach and found a bunjee jump tower that is right on the water and watched some people jump. It was pretty neat.
The water was cool, about as cold as bills pool in early summer and the sand is granular (yeah i know it's a pretty scientific term, but that's there for my friend whose a geology major and still pees his pants.. haha)
I had some pork on a stick from a street vendor, then ran around the beach (lots of spongebob stuff there including a mini kids place with inflatable slides, etc. that kids play in).
The music there was a mix between techno (with english singers) and alternative american rock (green day, no doubt, then some beach boys and bob marley)
So later that day I was walking down the strip at the beach and met a korean guy that knew english. we talked and he invited me to have a beer with him.
So we went to a little place on the beach and he orded three beers and....you guessed it....fresh squid.
So I hit his glass with a big cheers! Drank the entire glass, then hoping that I'd be ... well I have no idea, but I took another drink before trying the squid.
1
2
3
And I hit my chopsticks together grabbed some tentacle and BAM
In my mouth it went!!
It was the toughest most chewy thing I ever have had. I must have spent like 3 minuets chewing and drinking more beer to make it go down. haha.
It wasn't too bad though ..... (if you cover it in wasabi hehe)
So we talked and he invited me to go drink soju with him later that night (he really enjoyed being able to practice his english with me)
So he gave me his card with his # on it and we parted ways.
Later that night I tried to call him but his phone keep ringing (like when you have call waiting and you don't ever answer the other line)
So I gave up on it after a few calls and got a sandwich and called it a night.
So today I decided to go more north of the beach I was at. I saw on my map that the pier was a windsurfing spot since it has pictures of a few sailboats and windsurfers going around the lighthouse.
So I took the bus to the beach I was at yesterday and started walking. OOOO man it was a long walk, my dogs were barking like carnivores.
Oh I got lunch at that beach too, but as you'll see in the video, it was absolutly horrible. It was like chewy bread dough smothered in hot and spicy sauce. But the pineapple soda was excellent!! yeah!!!
So I hiked for 2 1/2 hours up to the pier. I got there and was let down when I didn't say any windsurfers in the water (and it was actually blowing 10=15~!!!)
So feeling a little let down, I kept walking to the pier and watched the boats bring in their catches. I was starting to get hungry so I found a little place to eat at.
I walked in and said "yo!" haha. Then I found she knew the word menu and she gave me the menu. This place was expensive! But I found a meal for 10000 won. I' was ssooooo starving that I was just like, yeah! I want this one pleeeeeeeeeeease!~
So she sat me down and the brought out my food. There were 5 or 6 plates of food (I have the pic, but you'll have to wait until tommrow for me to upload it) and a big fish.
It was definatly a fine meal. I even got free refills on any plate I wanted (though I just thought she wanted to move them out of the way and not give me brand new ones with food on them.)
It was the biggest meal ever...haha o yeah, in the pic you'll see some green stuff in a soup like bowl. That defiatly tasted like kelp... yeah...so I kept thinking I was a sea cow when I ate it. Haha.. I didn't even chew it since I didn't like the tast at all. haha... So the second I put it in my mouth I'd just down it. Kind of like how I still do with asperagus.
My clothes are turning out to be a good selection. I washed most of them in the sink with some detergent I bought (it'll probably suprise the cleaning lady that I gave me key to today....hehe) so I have a fresh aresenal.
Oh yeah. I saw a tank that was disguised so it couldn't be seen from the sky. That was pretty cool. I also saw a lot of soldiers (South Korean) on the beach in their barraks which were walled and barb wired in on the beach. A few of them were carrying machine guns.
I also met 3 of them on the walking/biking (I was stupid and didn't rent a bike to travel north....I'm still kicking myself in the butt for that one) trail I was on and they were being forced by their superior to carry large amounts of wood on their back back to the barracks. They were pretty cheerful though and said Hi! How are you! to me when I passed by.
Email questions::
Did you get a new sim card for your cell phone?
havn't looked into that yet, I'll wait unil I'm back in school. but I may be able to figure out the payphones here since they dial international.
Were you able to exchange your money okay?
yep!
It just figures that your PC would default to Korean language.
Yeah it's pretty rough when I hit the wrong button and it goes all ㅁ알낭ㄻ남;히ㅏㅗㅁ새ㅑㄷ쟈ㅓㄻㅇ ㅇㅁ란ㄹㅇㅁ나
Well, now you're in S. Korea! I hope you're having fun. Did any of your friends go with you or are you on your own? I'm traveling on my own.
Your Mom said you would be backpacking at the beginning - where all are you going? I'm going to the east coast then traveling south down the coast then westward towards the west coast and back up the the north west to Seoul (the capital city where the college is)
And what are you studying?
I'm studying negotiation (they spell it negociation for some reason) international business and two other classes (my time limit at this pc is about up; 7 minuets)
It is the city inㅅthe north east. My keyboard randomly switches to korean every once and a while so ignore the ㅇㄴ람앎ㅇ junk if you see it. These keyboards are the standard querty keyboard but with mini scrips that are korean syllables that activate by themselves when you type.
So anyway, it's been a while since my update. I've been keeping a video blog also but I forgot my cords today (they're back at the motel; I packed light for the hiking today) so I can;t upload them today. I'll probably come back tommrow and post them since I've negotiated a price (my spelling is goign ㅅ 새 to be bad since they don't have a spell check on this internet browser and I'm trying to type all this before my time expires and they make me leave.
Oh, by the way, all these computers are top of the line and loaded with games.
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/5711/tmpgt9.png
Ok, so from Seoul to this city was really really tough. I had to take the subway for the second time. The subway is really complicated (google seoul subway map); you'll see that it has many many many lines and transfer points. The real kick is that if you are on let's say line 1 going north, and you realize that you should have been going south (think marta) and you want to get to the other side of the rail to go the opposite way. Well at Marta, you walk under or above the station and just go to the other side and hop on the train. Here, you're screwed. This happened to me twice so far. I had to go back and buy a new tix since I had to go the other way.
After the long subway ride (the entire city is conviently in both korean and english for a majority of the places 65% or greater, street signs 100%, stores = hip english words are posted so you get a sense of what it is) I arrived at Express Bus Terminal.
So I got out of the station and climbed out to the blue skies above. I look left, I look right, no express buses..... I just thought, just great no buses.
Side note, I've had tons of people throughout my trip help me when I look lost, and I must look lost at the right times since people who speak fluent english come to my resuce (lots of australian accents)
So the Express Bus Terminal; I end up walking around for 1 hour and find a Hyatt (the hyatts here are super super nice, like 5* maui class) and I ask someone at the counter where the express buses are. She says ooooohhh, express bus, 8,000 won. You buy ticket here.
I start thinking....too good to be true, I need to find an honest to goodness scrungy place that sells bus tickets, this must be the wrong place, it don't trust places that look real clean and polished for common people to travel from.
So I leave and find a mini mall, 30 minuets later and two banana stands later (I eat a lot of bananas since the freeze dried squid doesn't exactly suite my tastes) I find the place where they vend tickets.
I find someone get 1 wrong ticket, explain it was wrong, then get my ticket to the city Gangneung.
So now I get here, find a tourist information center, get a map, bus schedule and find a place to stay inside the city (30 minuets away from the beach) at a price of 30000 won a night like ~28 USD. Real nice deal compared to twice that to be by the beach.
So for food I eat sandwiches from the convience store and milk and oj and bananas and for lunch I get local food.
Let's see, VISA, it's everywhere you want to be. That's sooo true. I use that VISA card everywhere I go. I also have a good amount of local currency ~600usd that I keep with me, but I try to keep it credit wherever I go so if I hit a small city and have to pay with cash, hotel prices add up really fast. I did the math and calculated how many days it would take me to be flat broke using only cash and with hotels how they are, it wouldn't be long.
But that's not a problem since I have my VISA and my handmade balance sheet so I can keep track of costs (credit vs. cash). I'd hate to think what I'd do if I wasn't a business major and didn't have any accounting/finance knowldege... At least I can safely predict my cash outflows in comparison to my reserves.... but enough with that!!! ㅏㅇㄹㄴ마ㅣㄹㅇ나ㅣㅇㄴㅁ럼ㅇㄴㄹ;ㅏㅓㅁ호;ㅣㅏㄴㅇㅅ하;ㅣㅁ허ㅣㅏㄴ엉마ㅣ
Ok that's enough hangul too haha....
BAM
Beach time, so I figure out how to use the buses and take 202 over to the beach (thanks to tourist info center they told me what i needed to know)
The beach is really cool and it's is kind of like panama city beach without the highrises on the beach.
It's more of a drive to the beach park on the road and go! But there were tons and tons of people. The fun thing was that they have raft rentals (like whitewater park rafts) so the ocean is covered in yellow doughnuts. It's pretty funny.
I walked down the beach and found a bunjee jump tower that is right on the water and watched some people jump. It was pretty neat.
The water was cool, about as cold as bills pool in early summer and the sand is granular (yeah i know it's a pretty scientific term, but that's there for my friend whose a geology major and still pees his pants.. haha)
I had some pork on a stick from a street vendor, then ran around the beach (lots of spongebob stuff there including a mini kids place with inflatable slides, etc. that kids play in).
The music there was a mix between techno (with english singers) and alternative american rock (green day, no doubt, then some beach boys and bob marley)
So later that day I was walking down the strip at the beach and met a korean guy that knew english. we talked and he invited me to have a beer with him.
So we went to a little place on the beach and he orded three beers and....you guessed it....fresh squid.
So I hit his glass with a big cheers! Drank the entire glass, then hoping that I'd be ... well I have no idea, but I took another drink before trying the squid.
1
2
3
And I hit my chopsticks together grabbed some tentacle and BAM
In my mouth it went!!
It was the toughest most chewy thing I ever have had. I must have spent like 3 minuets chewing and drinking more beer to make it go down. haha.
It wasn't too bad though ..... (if you cover it in wasabi hehe)
So we talked and he invited me to go drink soju with him later that night (he really enjoyed being able to practice his english with me)
So he gave me his card with his # on it and we parted ways.
Later that night I tried to call him but his phone keep ringing (like when you have call waiting and you don't ever answer the other line)
So I gave up on it after a few calls and got a sandwich and called it a night.
So today I decided to go more north of the beach I was at. I saw on my map that the pier was a windsurfing spot since it has pictures of a few sailboats and windsurfers going around the lighthouse.
So I took the bus to the beach I was at yesterday and started walking. OOOO man it was a long walk, my dogs were barking like carnivores.
Oh I got lunch at that beach too, but as you'll see in the video, it was absolutly horrible. It was like chewy bread dough smothered in hot and spicy sauce. But the pineapple soda was excellent!! yeah!!!
So I hiked for 2 1/2 hours up to the pier. I got there and was let down when I didn't say any windsurfers in the water (and it was actually blowing 10=15~!!!)
So feeling a little let down, I kept walking to the pier and watched the boats bring in their catches. I was starting to get hungry so I found a little place to eat at.
I walked in and said "yo!" haha. Then I found she knew the word menu and she gave me the menu. This place was expensive! But I found a meal for 10000 won. I' was ssooooo starving that I was just like, yeah! I want this one pleeeeeeeeeeease!~
So she sat me down and the brought out my food. There were 5 or 6 plates of food (I have the pic, but you'll have to wait until tommrow for me to upload it) and a big fish.
It was definatly a fine meal. I even got free refills on any plate I wanted (though I just thought she wanted to move them out of the way and not give me brand new ones with food on them.)
It was the biggest meal ever...haha o yeah, in the pic you'll see some green stuff in a soup like bowl. That defiatly tasted like kelp... yeah...so I kept thinking I was a sea cow when I ate it. Haha.. I didn't even chew it since I didn't like the tast at all. haha... So the second I put it in my mouth I'd just down it. Kind of like how I still do with asperagus.
My clothes are turning out to be a good selection. I washed most of them in the sink with some detergent I bought (it'll probably suprise the cleaning lady that I gave me key to today....hehe) so I have a fresh aresenal.
Oh yeah. I saw a tank that was disguised so it couldn't be seen from the sky. That was pretty cool. I also saw a lot of soldiers (South Korean) on the beach in their barraks which were walled and barb wired in on the beach. A few of them were carrying machine guns.
I also met 3 of them on the walking/biking (I was stupid and didn't rent a bike to travel north....I'm still kicking myself in the butt for that one) trail I was on and they were being forced by their superior to carry large amounts of wood on their back back to the barracks. They were pretty cheerful though and said Hi! How are you! to me when I passed by.
Email questions::
Did you get a new sim card for your cell phone?
havn't looked into that yet, I'll wait unil I'm back in school. but I may be able to figure out the payphones here since they dial international.
Were you able to exchange your money okay?
yep!
It just figures that your PC would default to Korean language.
Yeah it's pretty rough when I hit the wrong button and it goes all ㅁ알낭ㄻ남;히ㅏㅗㅁ새ㅑㄷ쟈ㅓㄻㅇ ㅇㅁ란ㄹㅇㅁ나
Well, now you're in S. Korea! I hope you're having fun. Did any of your friends go with you or are you on your own? I'm traveling on my own.
Your Mom said you would be backpacking at the beginning - where all are you going? I'm going to the east coast then traveling south down the coast then westward towards the west coast and back up the the north west to Seoul (the capital city where the college is)
And what are you studying?
I'm studying negotiation (they spell it negociation for some reason) international business and two other classes (my time limit at this pc is about up; 7 minuets)
Thursday, July 26, 2007
One night in Ewha in Seoul
Ok my keyboard got stuck in Korean mode. I finally closed everything in windows I could to get rid of the Korean typing helper...
So it's 7 am and I'm waiting on some places to open so I can get some breakfast. Right outside from the university is a Burger King and Dunkin Doughnuts.
I'm trying to upload a few videos that I took so I'll keep at it.
Man the subway system is crazy in Seoul. I had no idea how big the city was. It's incredibly huge. I thought that since Korea was a small country, it's cities would be like Atlanta where they are managable by skateboard in 3 hours (going everywhere that's interesting).
I was dead wrong, this place is sooo huge. Plus it is has hills like no other. This might be because I had to tredge my suitcases and bookbag up and down those hills, but none the less, it definatly has some steep hills.
I really wish some breakfast place would open so I can go eat, but I think I have to wait until 8 am.
In other news, I just washed some clothes, but since I didn't have any detergent, I just used some fabric softener that I saw next to the washing machine.... At least they'll smell good right? haha.
On the way over to Ewha I had an old korean woman talk to me on the street, I think what she was trying to ask was if I was a hobo living out of my suitcases, so I just said yeah and after a little bit, she gave me a bitter look and left. It was pretty funny.
Later this morning around 9 am, I'm going to buy a bus ticket to the west coast. I think I'll be okay in getting my point across, but at the other bus stations in the country, it will be a lot harder to explain to them where I want to go. Luckily, I have a card with Ewha's number on it so they can call the international house and have them interperate for me.
Oh yeah, the first time I bought something (a muffin and milk for yesterday's breakfast) I got laughed at by the store clerk since I handed him the wrong bill (I paid two 10000 won bills instead of two 1000 won bills). Ooops haha. After that, I went back to the best western, took my money out and made sure that I knew the difference between the bills better. That clerk sure thought I was a dumb foreigner.
Looks like the videos won't be able to make it to the internet today. Google video isn't working (and it auto translates the entire google site to korean...). I'm not sure what kind of PC access I'll get until I make it to Busan in two weeks or so.
Time to check the lundary!
So it's 7 am and I'm waiting on some places to open so I can get some breakfast. Right outside from the university is a Burger King and Dunkin Doughnuts.
I'm trying to upload a few videos that I took so I'll keep at it.
Man the subway system is crazy in Seoul. I had no idea how big the city was. It's incredibly huge. I thought that since Korea was a small country, it's cities would be like Atlanta where they are managable by skateboard in 3 hours (going everywhere that's interesting).
I was dead wrong, this place is sooo huge. Plus it is has hills like no other. This might be because I had to tredge my suitcases and bookbag up and down those hills, but none the less, it definatly has some steep hills.
I really wish some breakfast place would open so I can go eat, but I think I have to wait until 8 am.
In other news, I just washed some clothes, but since I didn't have any detergent, I just used some fabric softener that I saw next to the washing machine.... At least they'll smell good right? haha.
On the way over to Ewha I had an old korean woman talk to me on the street, I think what she was trying to ask was if I was a hobo living out of my suitcases, so I just said yeah and after a little bit, she gave me a bitter look and left. It was pretty funny.
Later this morning around 9 am, I'm going to buy a bus ticket to the west coast. I think I'll be okay in getting my point across, but at the other bus stations in the country, it will be a lot harder to explain to them where I want to go. Luckily, I have a card with Ewha's number on it so they can call the international house and have them interperate for me.
Oh yeah, the first time I bought something (a muffin and milk for yesterday's breakfast) I got laughed at by the store clerk since I handed him the wrong bill (I paid two 10000 won bills instead of two 1000 won bills). Ooops haha. After that, I went back to the best western, took my money out and made sure that I knew the difference between the bills better. That clerk sure thought I was a dumb foreigner.
Looks like the videos won't be able to make it to the internet today. Google video isn't working (and it auto translates the entire google site to korean...). I'm not sure what kind of PC access I'll get until I make it to Busan in two weeks or so.
Time to check the lundary!
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
I just got to Seoul, actually I got to a city a little west of it and checked into a best western. The flight was about 14 hours long (the detroit to tokyo flight) and it was definatly rough. I was up for around 24 hours and when I finally got out of the seoul airport, I found out the place I was going to stay was full. So I finally caved in a rode a bus to the best western which gouged me with their steep prices.
When I got to the room in the BW, I couldn't figure it out. It was pitch black in the room and the only light that would work was in the hallway. Unluckily, it was a motion sensor light so it would stay on for about 15 seconds which was just long enough to get me lost in the room looking for other light switches. Mix that with being so incredibly tired and I was having a hard time. I spent about 7 minuets going back and forth unil I finally figured it out.
I had to put my door keycard into a slot that was beside the door in the room. This allowed all the lights/tvs/ect to be powered when I was in the room....man
So I found this big touch pad that controls the entire room (lights/tvs/etc) and without it, I'd be sunk. Next, I got ready to take a shower....to bad the toilet has about a foot clearance from the wall which would only let a 4 year old pass by. Oh, yeah and also the toilet paper dispense cut off another 4 inches from you clearance to get to the shower.
After a shower I passed out on the bed...then I sleep walked. Great! Nothing like sleepwalking in the middle of the night when you're incredibly tired. Once I realized I was sleep walking, I took the blanked back from the front door (yeah i know... i do strange things when I sleep walk) and went to sleep.
This morning, I packed my bookbag and arranged all my other junk into my suitcases. Then went off to find breakfast. After a ton of walking, I decided on a little grocery store since I saw a guy drinking a little milk that would you have when you're in grade school. So I got that and a muffin, ate it and got ready to go.
Now I'm going to try to see if I can fit all my junk into the 602 bus that heads for Ewha so I can drop off my luggage.
Until then!
Drew
(this entire website that I'm entering this post in is in korean....jeeze thanks a lot google.
When I got to the room in the BW, I couldn't figure it out. It was pitch black in the room and the only light that would work was in the hallway. Unluckily, it was a motion sensor light so it would stay on for about 15 seconds which was just long enough to get me lost in the room looking for other light switches. Mix that with being so incredibly tired and I was having a hard time. I spent about 7 minuets going back and forth unil I finally figured it out.
I had to put my door keycard into a slot that was beside the door in the room. This allowed all the lights/tvs/ect to be powered when I was in the room....man
So I found this big touch pad that controls the entire room (lights/tvs/etc) and without it, I'd be sunk. Next, I got ready to take a shower....to bad the toilet has about a foot clearance from the wall which would only let a 4 year old pass by. Oh, yeah and also the toilet paper dispense cut off another 4 inches from you clearance to get to the shower.
After a shower I passed out on the bed...then I sleep walked. Great! Nothing like sleepwalking in the middle of the night when you're incredibly tired. Once I realized I was sleep walking, I took the blanked back from the front door (yeah i know... i do strange things when I sleep walk) and went to sleep.
This morning, I packed my bookbag and arranged all my other junk into my suitcases. Then went off to find breakfast. After a ton of walking, I decided on a little grocery store since I saw a guy drinking a little milk that would you have when you're in grade school. So I got that and a muffin, ate it and got ready to go.
Now I'm going to try to see if I can fit all my junk into the 602 bus that heads for Ewha so I can drop off my luggage.
Until then!
Drew
(this entire website that I'm entering this post in is in korean....jeeze thanks a lot google.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Friday, July 6, 2007
Thursday, July 5, 2007
It's about 18 days before I leave to Korea. It's going to be a really interesting trip.
I've been preparing ever since February when I first made my application. At that time I didn't even know if it would go through. I thought the competition would be intense.
Somehow I made it through and here I am making all the last minuet arrangements to make sure that all my college courses go through like they should.
It's about 18 days before I leave to Korea. It's going to be a really interesting trip.
I've been preparing ever since February when I first made my application. At that time I didn't even know if it would go through. I thought the competition would be intense.
Somehow I made it through and here I am making all the last minuet arrangements to make sure that all my college courses go through like they should.
This blog will be my main place to post what's going on (since I can upload pictures straight into it!! yeah!! Hopefully it makes a Pisca album...I'm not exactly sure yet).
I've been preparing ever since February when I first made my application. At that time I didn't even know if it would go through. I thought the competition would be intense.
Somehow I made it through and here I am making all the last minuet arrangements to make sure that all my college courses go through like they should.
It's about 18 days before I leave to Korea. It's going to be a really interesting trip.
I've been preparing ever since February when I first made my application. At that time I didn't even know if it would go through. I thought the competition would be intense.
Somehow I made it through and here I am making all the last minuet arrangements to make sure that all my college courses go through like they should.
This blog will be my main place to post what's going on (since I can upload pictures straight into it!! yeah!! Hopefully it makes a Pisca album...I'm not exactly sure yet).
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