The Summer Activities

Now that I have a moment to write, I'll catch you up on the summer activities which kept me busy.

Haeundae Beach - Peak season, from the sanity of an A/C coffee shop!

In June, I was teaching my school's summer camp and spending most afternoons at the beaches in my area. 20 minutes south from my house by bus is Haeundae Beach, the most well-known and most visited beach in the country. I only went a couple times - it gets a bit overwhelming. The peak vacation period is July & Aug, so during June it was still bearable.

Im-rang Beach in the country north of Busan

There's also Song-jeong Beach only 15 bus minutes, Il-gwang is close enough for a bike ride, and then Im-rang just a 10 minute bus north of me. These are all much quieter, family oriented lovely little beaches. Trade the Starbucks for a ma & pop kimbap shop and bring your own mat to lay on!


Then July brought another summer camp for the county area I live in. This one brings in teachers from the Toronto area to lead the classrooms in Western-style ESL learning, as opposed to their usual EFL learning in their native country. Over 3 weeks of 3.5-hour morning classes, the students formed a close bond with us and we saw great improvement in their English usage skills. Throughout the course, they learned about Canadian culture and history, read, wrote, played new games, and even learned songs which were performed at the closing. On the last day all our kids threw a party for my co-teacher Jason and I, complete with cake, silly string, shrimp crackers, and a bunch of lovely gifts & notes.

August brought a lot of music, the Busan Rock Festival, Smashing Pumpkins, one of my fav Busan bands Poko Lambro, and salsa dancing on the beach. The Rock Fest was held at Dadaepo Beach and was my first visit to that southern area of Busan. I got to enjoy some great lesser-known Korean rock bands in an exciting, high energy atmosphere, with one of my best friends in Korea. Then my buddies from Daegu and I headed to Seoul to see the Smashing Pumpkins, who I've been listening to for over a decade. The band's members have changed over the years (with only Billy Corgan remaining out of the original members), but they still rocked the house down.

New Photos

... are up! More posts to come.

Flickr photostream

Change of Attitude

What a busy summer. I've really only had time to do things, see people, and sometimes photograph them. But absolutely not enough time to organize, edit, and upload those pictures, or to write about it. Sorry.

Well, now it's September and though I anticipated a slight reprieve, none has come yet. I'm bringing you this brief update to let you know I'm changing my tactics for this blog. I will no longer wait to have a free hour to write a long post about my life, since those free hours just don't come along anymore. Rather, I will be posting short snipits and when possible photos to tell the story of my life. Hopefully before the week is up, I'll bring you some pictures that are on backlog from July and Aug. Also, I'll renew my subscription on Flickr so I can upload the hundreds I have taken during that time. That may wait for the weekend though~ I've got a lot on my plate right now!

New semester at school
Volunteering to teach Uni kids 2 hrs a week
Studying Korean
Studying English/GRE
Planning final summer fun
Taking care of the house that's been neglected during previous summer fun
Maintaining relationships with family, friends, loved ones
Eating
Sleeping
Finally, ***ing. (undisclosed as of yet^^)

Me with my Korean girls at the hometown bar, Haeundae Busan

Busan Lotte Giants b-ball game

Me and Stephanie with our game attire on!

Salsa dancing on Haeundae Beach, Busan

Before the Busan Rock Festival at Dadaepo Beach

Beavermidji

If you're from northern Minnesota, live in Bemidji, ever lived in Bemidji, know anyone living there, etc you may have already heard about this. If not, well, here you are.

Yes, that's right folks. Those are beavers. Beaver sculptures to be exact. And here's a close-up.


This final beaver sculpture is part of the city's annual Bemidji Sculpture Walk and was the subject of a recent controversy centered around it's portrayal of the female form. The sculpture's artist, Deborah Davis, said she didn't intend her work to be sexual or offensive in any way. Unfortunately, Bemidji city manager John Chattin decided last Thursday to remove the statue after receiving about 20 complaints. 20? Out of over 15,000 people residing in the area?! That's what a lot of my friends and I said over the past few days on social networking site groups dedicated to reinstating the sculpture, Gaea, to her place among her beaver friends.

In the past, the city has displayed art portraying male genitalia without incident, and the decision to remove this statue was made by one man who refused to explain how he came to the decision or what kind of pressures brought him to it. I guess those 20 complainers had a lot of pull with him. All the same, we in favor of freedom of expression were heard; this Tuesday she was replaced! Welcome back, Gaea.


Also, leave it to the City Pages to post this tongue-in-cheek article announcing Gaea's return.

Hello again old friends. Family. Folks. Fellows.

I've been away for a long time and I truly apologize for my absence. If you've ever had a blog, you know there are just some times that nothing exciting happens for a bit, you figure you'll wait to write until your next _____, then maybe some bad stuff happens that you don't want to write about just yet or you're sick or busy or all of the above. As more time passes you feel that once you do write that next entry it had better d*** well explain your absence, and make up for the words missing and time lost.

Well, I can't promise that. I will tell you that I have been sick, busy, and some bad things have happened. As of yet, I'm not interested in delving into those details as it's summer and we should all be in our best spirits (maybe I can maintain mine as well if I don't dwell). I will also say that I've chosen to write at this very moment because I feel regret about neglecting my responsibility to write to you, because I've resigned myself to being sick for a while longer (as prescribed by my doctor), and because whatever bad things that I have the power to resolve have resolved. The remaining negativity is outside of my jurisdiction to control and I've decided to accept that, however hard it may be.

OK, on to happier topics. I will have 2 weeks vacation in August and still have no concrete plans. I'm hoping to find a friend to sightsee more of Korea with, and possibly spend a few days in Japan. I can only go so long without true Japanese ramen noodles, fresh sushi, and draft Sapporo before I start to wither a bit. The ferry from Busan, coupled with a 7-day unlimited bullet train ticket is marginally cheaper than a flight to Tokyo, and almost as fast. Of course, I'm talking about the 3-hour high-speed hydrafoil trip to the southwestern port city of Fukuoka, a vastly different city than Tokyo. Fukuoka is cute, safe, and moderately more affordable but in fact, I've been there twice and never Tokyo, so who knows? I just may need to get my flying fix after all.

In other news, it's July. Did you get the memo? I just canNOT believe where the time is going. I mean, I feel like I've only just moved to Busan when in fact I've been in this city for just over 10 months!! I now live in a small country area north of Haeundae Beach (part of Busan) and at the end of August, I'll be moving into a new apartment closer to the beach and inside the city. I will need to take the bus everyday to get to my school but it's worth it to me to be closer to where my friends live.

Before that time, I have some busy weeks coming up. This weekend, as you know, was Fourth of July. This holiday has been a source of some sadness for me during my time in Korea. There are rarely, if any, fireworks. No fry bread for "indian" tacos, no lakes with docks and pontoon rides, no traveling carnivals with rides to make the change fall out of my pockets and the bottom out of my stomach. It's usually the mid-point of the rainy season, overcast, and just a typical weekend. This year was no exception.

It's Monday afternoon now and I'm leaving work, on my way to more bad news unfortunately. But I'll be sure to write more soon.
Promise.X
View one of my pretty photos "On Black"