here comes the sun

While Gwangan beach is clogged with umbrellas and floaty toys, the rocky Eastern end just has shellfish. There are bikinis in the distance, but the people gathering mussels wear hats, gloves and bandanas.

the boy in the bright blue jeans

There are a lot of advertisements in Korean bath and body stores for men's products. My Korean boyfriend has less chest hair than I do.


(I think he's advertising face cream?)

Back to the top

On the East end of Gwangalli beach (where Autumn lives) there are two big buildings that, together, kind of look like an owl's face. Like many tall buildings in Busan, they are mostly empty. Autumn and I went up to the fifteenth floor, just because we could.

Hail Caesar

Centum City is the world's largest department store, according to Korea. I'm not sure I believe that, as a department store with a Cartier department and a Tiffany department (and a Gap department and a Bookstore department) very closely resembles what we call in the West a "shopping mall."

But I would believe that Centum City has the most elaborate subway station. It looks like Caesar's Palace!

hotel, motel

Nancy Drew's got to have a mystery out there called "The Secret of the Navi Hotel."

I first visited it with Peter on Valentine's Day when we took a walk along the beach and he needed to use a washroom.

The open doors on the ground floor showed a shiny gold sign that says “Navi Hotel.” The front desk was on the fourth floor, so we took the elevator up and entered the dark, bare front desk area. Behind the desk there was sheet-covered polyhedron of chairs. This was not a bustling hotel. Pete wandered down the hall and managed to turn on the light for the bathroom. I wandered into the dining room, which overlooked the sea. A screen split the room in half, and the far side was piled high with unused furniture.

On the civilized side of the screen, there was a table with coffee service, and the stirring-spoon was in a dish of water with a quarter of an inch of evaporation. Someone had made tea and then tossed the teabag into the bin. The samovar was still plugged in. This place had recently been occupied.

The most unnerving sign of a quick departure was a turntable that sat spinning silently on a table by the entry. How many days ago had the record finished?

(This is where we danced to Roy Orbison. Come on, it was Valentine's Day!)

Anyway, I went back with Autumn last Saturday night. This time, we saw that the lights were on on the 4th floor, but the elevator was completely dead (there were actually spider webs.)

We climbed the stairs to the 4th floor and ended up in the outdoor patio area. This is the view of Haeundae beach.

Inside the dining room, there was a man sitting at a table. He didn't seem to notice us. When we left, we walked through the 3rd floor which is where the hotel rooms are. The elevator was stopped, gaping, on this level. All the doors were dark except for one that was open with a woman inside watching television. She looked up at Autumn and I and we hurried down the hall like really, really bad secret agents.

workin'

Every weekend, I take a bus from my little suburb to Sasang station in Busan. For the last couple of weeks, the Busan bus station has been under construction.

Jumpin' Jack Flash

Much of the non-beach coast in Busan is littered with these giant concrete jacks, an attempt to subdue the waves that try to come over the walkways.

There are also public outdoor fitness stations which frequently have giant white hula hoops. This one looks so sad.

Rollercoaster (of love)

This summer, Autumn and I have spent a lot of time on roller coasters. ME World is the amusement park at the end of the beach where she lives, and we definitely appreciate being able to say, "Breakfast was nice. Want to go ride roller coasters?" on a Saturday morning.

This is Me World:


The roller coaster thrills with sharp, jerky turns. Near the end of it, there is a big bird's nest right under the track.

(See the rusty ladder to the right of the yellow car? I dare you to climb it.)

Autumn and I rode the Merry-Go-Round picturesquely.



(Of course we dress like this on Saturday mornings!)

This is the drop tower


And this is the view from the top of the drop tower.


Autumn and I both appreciate how lucky it is that she lives on this beach! It's bittersweet that I will spend just one more weekend here before heading to Thailand again for my summer vacation.

walk the dinosaur

I had heard that there were dinosaur footprints in Busan, but had never actually visited them. In June, for Peter's last weekend in Busan, we went to Igidae Park to find them.


And I'm pretty sure they're in this picture. It's about the same as the picture in the brochure, but I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking at. Interpret away.

Igidae Park has a lot going for it, though. There's fishing!


You can see the *other* side of the Gwangalli bridge


And those potentially-dinosaur-footprint-puddles are full of tadpoles and little frogs!


There's a path that goes along the water and past this structure


Which is full of...


I've been told that stacking rocks is good luck. I think this looks like the set of the "chatty duelists" scene in the Princess Bride.


There's a cave.


And Pete was brave and athletic.

sleeping on the sidewalk

I had the brilliant idea of playing with sidewalk chalk down by the beach, but it doesn't seem to exist in Korea. I checked a couple of craft stores and asked my students if they'd ever heard of it, and they hadn't. I didn't give up.

Plaster is a cheap, easy way to make your own, so with the help of the art department at Neungdong Middle School, I ordered a bag.

It was 55 pounds. This seemed like a reasonable amount at the time, until it was delivered next to my desk and another English teacher had to enlist the help of a "very handsome PE teacher" to get it home for me. I have a feeling she was looking for a reason to talk to the very handsome PE teacher.


When I got it home, I mixed the plaster with poster paint and used dixie cups as molds.


Here is the finished chalk in a few colors.


Pete and I took the chalk out on a cold, sunny day at the beach.


We drew quite a crowd, and one fella asked me to draw him while he posed on the beach. It would look better if he was fighting something, so Pete drew a dinosaur.


Lots of kids came up and played with us too. I think this will be more fun when the weather warms up.

this is a life of illusion

In Thailand, it was fun to watch Korean tourists take pictures of one another on the beach with fancy DSLR cameras. Taking pictures of one another is a huge thing in Korea too (maybe I am in the right country) but here it's cold.

Bexco, a convention center in Busan, accommodates with an interactive art exhibition (inside, where it's warm!) I went with Pete in early January.


I've never felt short in Asia before...






It's very convenient to have a Pete around when a dinosaur bursts through the wall.


(You know he is very seriously singing "Wise men say only fools rush in...")

it's a gas gas gas

If you are on the subway system during an emergency, please wait patiently for someone to come with a key so that you can get one of the dozen masks available at some, but not all subway stations.



Also happy Christmas Eve!

Great balls of fire

Oh, it's been awhile. Sorry about that.

Back in November, there was a charity dodgeball tournament in Busan.

Normally I avoid things like competition, teamwork and sports but this is to send an orphan to college--so I signed up for a competitive...team...sport!



Our rockin' team played five games--and only lost four of them!

Look: teamwork!


My fabulous team.


(These pictures were taken by Ahnna. Thanks, Ahnna!)

around like a merry-go-round

After testing the free fitness equipment, Autumn took me to a jimjilbang. A jimjilbang is a public bath. They're very popular in Korea. There were gender-segregated naked areas with pools of various temperatures, some with herbs in them. There were saunas, wet and dry, up to 80 Celsius. And in the jammy-wearing everybody area there were saunas with beautiful colored stones in the walls, a sleep area, and a karaoke room. Yes.

After getting all cleaned up, we came back to Gwangalli beach and walked up to the North end, where there is an amusement park. First, we rode the mechanical bull and each won a funny heart-shaped pillow.


Then we rode the Viking Ship!


And the ferris wheel, which is 103m high and takes fifteen minutes to go all the way around. Here's Autumn's look of terror at the top:


Then there was a shiny Merry-Go-Round ride.


Afterward, we went to restaurant and had awesome Gorgonzola and walnut pizza, with pink pickles and espresso salad and wine. We each took a bite of the pizza when it arrived and just looked at each other with expressions of “I am so lucky to be tasting this amazing food right now.” And we are.

let's get physical

A great thing about my apartment is that I can walk two blocks and then catch a 30-minute, 1800-won ($1.50?) bus to Busan. I did this on Friday night, and met up with Autumn (who is another 30 minutes on a subway, but still.) It had been, like, over a month since we'd seen each other.

A great thing about Autumn's apartment is that it's a short walk from this:


Autumn showed me around her corner of Busan. There were chrome grapes.


And down at the south end of Gwangalli beach, there is a fitness area with the usual fitness area things.




And last of all and best of all, there was a selection of the giantest, awesomest hula hoops ever. They HURT.