Korea's and My Third Mensiversary

I know you know that I know that you know that I know that you know that I'm making up the word "mensiversary." It really should be a word, because there just isn't a word for "three month anniversary." You can't use "anniversary" in good faith because that implies a year. Being annual and all. Anyway...

Korea, you have spoiled me rotten for three months. It has been a wild ride so far, and it's hard to believe that my contract is about 1/4 of the way over. Where has the time gone? Morris Day, you better get a lasso around your boys, or at least one of those invisible fences, because this is unacceptable.

As a tribute to you, I wanted to post my top ten favorite pictures I've taken of you. What this made me realize was that a) I am a terrible photographer, and b) that I have had some good times and seen a lot of stuff. So, even though I'm carting around with a dirty lensed point and shoot that I barely know how to use properly, I wanted to post my favs thus far. They are either for aesthetic reasons or sentimental reasons. You've probably seen all of these already in other posts because I just can't keep a secret and I automatically post all my best crap. No cards up this kid's sleeve. By the way, they are neither in chronological order nor in order of favorite-ness. They are in whatever order I want them to be, so I took each photograph's file number, divided it by 7, and then placed it in order according to its last decimal point.

#1:
Gyeongbukgong, Seoul (second time). This is the most standard "photo" photo. I just think it's a good lookin' throne room.

#Dos Equis:
Jeil Church, Yangnyeongsi Market, Daegu. This is one of the three churches that I walk by on my way to or from downtown (they are all pretty stunning). At night, after abusing alcohol, it is the most peaceful, serene walk home wherein I can gather my thoughts and just feel good about life. I also love the walk home because I get to smell the traditional medicine street. A symphony of smell. Every time.

#Threeve:
Tripitaka Koreana, Haeinsa. Look, I told you you'd seen these before, but how can I not include the money shot?

#Qatar:Bulguksa, Gyeongju. I'm not sure what it is about this pic. Maybe the typical "temple" look. Maybe the timeline represented: young love followed by a young family weilding a toddler. Maybe it's that the yellow is highlighted at just the right color to look golden. You be the judge.

#5:
Duryu Park, Daegu. This picture just has so much going on in it. Maybe not at first glance, but I could study this picture for a few minutes and not get bored. But, maybe not for more than three or four minutes. Does that say that I'm easily entertained? Most likely.

#Sisty sis:
Some bar, Seoul (first time). This picture encompasses what a Korean weekend is. There's too much alcohol on the table, a perplexed look on your face, and it all ends up a complete blurry mess in the end. That's why I love this pic.

#Sieben:Taejeongdae, Busan. I like how the only hint of color is in the sky, and only in the middle of the picture. And I think it's framed fairly ok. Trust me, it was an accident it turned out this well. I was going for something much worse.

#Octopus:Sports Day!, Namsan Elementary School, Daegu. I think this picture kind of encompasses Sports Day. You see the dirt, the kids, the competition in their eyes, and you get an idea of how many people were present that day. I must admit, most of the reasons I included this picture are sentimental reasons. But it's my blog, so there.

Number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine...:
Daegu from Woobang Tower. How can I not include a picture of the 'Gu? This is ma home, bra! Brings a little tear to my eye just looking at it. Obviously more sentimental than aesthetic. Daegu is not that pretty of a town.

#Tin:Haeinsa. This is a fitting last picture. Two people (my neighbor and her friend) walking away down a peaceful Korean temple entrance road.

Now, I know you're surprised that not one of those ten pictures includes my mug. I'm surprised, too. You'd think that at least one of those ten would see an appearance by Blad Wentworth Cruise Wirris, but it just wasn't in the cards. I enjoy buildings, history, scenery, and sentimentality more than looking in the mirror. That would make me probably the most un-Korean person I know. Honorable mentions go to Palgongsan, Daejeon baseball, and the Korean Folk Village. Well, maybe not.

Haulin' Ass

Saturday was all about haulin' ass. My plan was to hit Haeinsa, one of the three "Jewel Temples" of Korea. So, my neighbor and her friend and I hit up the Seobu bus terminal for a good time. A good time we had, too. I tell you what, that bus trip should be added as a ride at Woobang Land.Just so you know what the interior of a Korean charter bus looks like. They love having curtains all over them things. One bus I was in looked like it belonged to a Bollywood pop star or something. Ridiculous. Anyway, that bus driver did not know what a brake pedal was. He hauled some serious ass the whole way down the highway, through the tunnels, and up windy mountain roads. Unforgettable.

The temple itself is really quite spectacular. We had the good fortune of coming on a perfect day weather wise as well as being less than a week from Buddha's birthday when all the lanterns are up, giving the whole place a much more colorful look and feel.History lesson: I will not sound like a textbook. Haeinsa is a still functioning Buddhist temple that was built as a symbol of dharma in 802 A.D. Sitting on the cusp of Gayasan National Park, the whole complex is pretty visually arresting. Dramatic mountains rise up from behind the temples, and it actually gave me a sense of inner peace. Beyond just aesthetics, Haeinsa is home to the oldest wooden sculpture in Korea (naturally, of Buddha).

The real icing on the cake is that Haeinsa is also the home of the Tripitaka Koreana, a collection of 80,000 wooden blocks of Buddhist doctrine. This may not sound that impressive, but think about how long it would take 30 men to carve 80,000 wooden blocks with over 50 million Chinese characters. That's on top of the process it took to get these wooden blocks. Finding the right size tree, chopping it down, soaking the wood for three years in seawater, cutting the wood into shape (and that's if the wood didn't have any warps or imperfections. If so, you just wasted three years on that log), boiling the wood slabs, then letting them sit sheltered from the sun and rain for another three years, and then carving tiny Chinese characters into them. Not only that, but this was done during a time of war, and there is not one mistake on any of the slabs. The most impressive part is that after almost 800 years, they have not deteriorated. They can still make perfect ink prints from the carvings, and it's all thanks to the way they are housed in the temple. The Tripitaka Koreana and Haeinsa Temple were almost destroyed during the Korean war, but the bomber disobeyed orders because he knew that there was priceless historical treasure below. What a tragedy that would have been.

Anyway, you're not allowed into the buildings where they house the Tripitaka and you're not allowed to take pictures of them, but you knew I would pull through for you, my readers. Right? I maybe sometimes pull through for you. Anyway, this is an authentic pic from my camera, I promise. It really wasn't that hard. You can see into the buildings through the bars and if you wait until nobody is around (or just play the clueless foreigner card) it's pretty easy to stick your camera in there and oops! My camera went off. Anyway, money shot.

So, Haeinsa was really nice. I liked this pic of the temple entrance.Apparently, Haeinsa is also renowned for having some good bibimbap and makkeoli. So, naturally, I had to try both. Bibimbap is usually a vegetarian dish anyway, but it differs in Haeinsa because they have to make it vegan for the monks' diet. It was pretty good. The makkeoli tasted like makkeoli. Maybe I don't have a taste for good makkeoli or something.

So, after hauling ass back home, I took it easy for a couple of hours in the apartment. At about 9:30 or so, I was surprised to hear the sound of rhythmic clanging and drums. I stepped out and I made out the familiar sounds of traditional Korean music. I followed it and soon stumbled upon a parade that I had no prior knowledge of. I'm assuming it was for Buddha's birthday. Now here's how this parade differed from any parade I've ever seen before (besides the obvious fact that there were only Koreans in it). Instead of closing off the street, they just closed off two lanes and had the parade on the side of the street. This made me realize two things:

1. Korea is so busy and crowded that they can't close streets to traffic. It felt like a perfect example of how old traditions are being overshadowed by global economic growth and prosperity. Korea is literally growing too fast to keep up with itself.
   
2. By letting traffic continue, the parade would have to stop at every red light, like traffic, and then haul ass to catch up to the back of the next section. I can't tell you how humorous it is to see a parade float holding Little Miss Daegu 2010 hauling ass down the street, blaring some extremely loud (and bad) Korean lounge music as cars honked and traffic continued mere feet away.
   

Anyway, that was more long winded than I anticipated. They had the standard boy scouts and marching bands (seen above) and PTA members or whatever. I think the best part was when a float came by with some other pageant winner waving, but the float has a giant paper mache elephant on it and every two seconds it plays elephant sound effects really loudly. She was probably deaf by the end of the night.

The rest of the night was a standard Saturday. We went to this bar/club/thing that was really unintentionally entertaining. It's a really bad sign when they have to post this on the wall:I mean, especially in Korea where they kind of just silently expect you to respect their establishment and respect is always given thusly. A sign like this means one thing: American military comes here. Imagine if you will a tall bulldyke making out with a very short but mean spirited bald guy, a very obese Korean girl being sandwiched on the dancefloor by two skinny army kids, and then a couple of random Korean dudes dancing awkwardly alone, yet surrounded by thugged out black guys. We literally just sat at a table and watched this scene silently for about 20 minutes before someone finally mentioned maybe leaving. I would complete the theme by saying we hauled ass out of there, but we had been drinking, so no hauling was to be done.

This post is getting really long, so I'll just finish by saying that today was spent leisurely walking around to places I've been to before (Seomun Market, Dalseong Park), doing things that I do every weekend (shooting heroin and soliciting hookers...erm, I mean petting puppies and eating ice cream).

The Lion's Den

So, my fellow English teachers will understand me when I say the Koreans have something resembling a communication problem. I'm not bashing their English, no. I mean they tend not to tell us things. Or, if they do, they are vague about any pertinent details so we're left wondering for a while.

I was told a few days earlier that on Wednesday we were to go watch our teachers' volleyball team play. I thought, cool, it'll be just like the last time when we all went out to the playground and hit a ball around. No, sir or ma'am. This was epic. This was a tournament being held in Duryu Park for a ton of schools. This was a serious event.

So I came fairly ill prepared (at least I remembered my bitchin' shades) as usual and proceed to get sunburned...again. Hey, at least I'm working on a spicy red base tan, right? Anyway, my school lost their first two games, thus they were eliminated from the tourney pretty early on. We found some shade in the stands and watched the remainder of the games enjoying the quiet solace of a beer. I think the best part of the whole thing was when this giant dust tornado came sweeping through the field of play and literally blew things away. I'm talking shade tents into the bleachers strong. One of the coolest things I've seen in a while.

I tell you what. My teachers may have lost, but they definitely party helluva harder than my Western friends. That night, I did something I've never done before. I mixed 5 different types of alcohol. Beer, soju, cognac, wine, and makkeoli. The quintuple threat. That was a party. First, we went to this restaurant where I ate very little due to the spiciness (first course. RED HOT RED HOT RED HOT) or the gross factor (second course). I'm not a huge fan of unidentifiable slimey fish things that resemble snot in both consistency and taste. So, having a somewhat light dinner, the alcohol put an extra spin on things (pun intended). It didn't help that later we went to a makkeoli joint and the principal made me chug numerous bowls with him. Later still, all the women teachers were told to leave (what a culture, right?) and the men (I was told) converted to using extremely salty language. Guys night! I was taught two of the worst words in the Korean language, but I, of course, forgot them. Now how am I going to pick up chicks?

The general topic of the night was not how handsome I was, surprisingly. Instead, it was how much everyone loves me and how they can tell I care about the childrenses. They really know how to flatter a guy in this country. I tell you what. I think they're trying to get me to stay here forever. Admittedly, when the number 3 in charge at my school (what do you call that? Speaker of the House?) held my hand under the table as he talked to me I started to miss home a little bit.

Speaking of, I got beef with you, America. Riddle me this: how come in Korea, when you're too drunk to drive your own car home, you can call a company who will send a guy out to drive your car home with you in it for around $10, but in America you have to take an expensive taxi or drive drunk? And if it's because some jerk would file a lawsuit because the driver didn't drive his car perfectly, then I'm going to punch Uncle Sam in the face. Who's the backwards country, now?

So, today was fire drill day all around Korea. Instead of being just a lame fire drill where all the kids line up outside just to go back inside five minutes later, they get the fire department to bring in a truck and give a demonstration of the cool toys they get to play with.
This included a quick seminar on how to use a fire extinguisher (they actually lit a fire on the dirt playground and one lucky student got to put it out). All in all a better experience than the fire drills we used to have in school. I actually chuckled in awe at one point. Them cannons shoot far, bra!

What Dreams May Come

The last 24 hours have been a long set of extremely anxious minutes and seconds. I am feeling restlessly artistic, longingly expressive, ecstatic with life, and pensively depressed all at the same time. I don't know if I've ever felt this way before. I think I think too much about a lot of things.

I had the strangest dream. I often have the strangest dream (no, not the same one. Different ones, silly). It began with me being outside in the early evening, when dusk is setting in and you can make out the moon in the sky. I was in some dirt yard, not unlike that of my school, but the city I occupied was a Gothic dream. I don't know why all the cities I have dreams about are so Gothic. I think subconsciously I believe Gothic architecture to be among the most darkly haunting and beautiful architecture out there. Anyway, I looked up at the moon, and slowly it started moving. Swaying back and forth. Eventually it fanned out like a pendulum and gained momentum, swinging across the evening sky quickly. This movement was too much for the poor moon, and massive piles of dust and surface eventually began falling off of it until the shrinking moon disappeared.

The dust that was formerly the moon had nowhere to go but to enter Earth's orbit and eventually atmosphere, catching aflame in its first breath of air. It was too much dust, though, and it continued to fall at various places around the Earth. My current Gothic metropolis was, of course, one of the places a massive dirt pile landed. The dirt's hard landing created a rumble and destroyed many buildings and lives.

With the moon now gone, the Earth's rotation was subsequently thrown off and things began getting weird. A strong wind picked up (maybe because we were going through space faster? I don't know, it was a dream. You can't control the lack of physics or whatever) and started sending houses (full, intact houses, mind you) floating into the air. There were many just floating down the streets like a lazy river ride at an amusement park. My first thought, as I recovered from the stun of the dust landing, was to find my family and then to watch the news, if there was any, about what was happening. When my mother floated by in her house (some Victorian style thing), we chatted for a minute as though that were a normal thing to do, I established that everyone was ok, and then continued on, looking for a place to see the news. I began walking in the wind a little too nonchalantly for the present situation.

I eventually reached the staggeringly beautiful ruins of a church. I stopped to stare at it and take a picture for just long enough to have my environment change to something resembling Southeast D.C. at night. Naturally, some hoodlums began harassing me. I quickly walked away, trying to not aggravate the situation and eventually noticed that the leader of the posse had stolen my camera. For some reason, I was more upset at this than at the world ending. When I began talking to some gas station attendant looking guy about how I needed to buy a new camera, my alarm went off and awoke me for Monday morning.

The work day came and went, and although I thought I would dread it, I actually ended up enjoying it, and notably enjoying the afternoon. It was one of those therapeutic afternoons where we planned a couple of games and made materials.

I got home and played guitar for nearly two hours. I realized it is time to begin the next art project. I am going to go buy a canvas right now. I'll be back in an hour. No boys while I'm gone. You're on your own for dinner. Ok, kisses. Bye.

Palgongsan...OWNED

Like I said before, I took it rather easy this weekend. As such, I woke up fairly refreshed and ready for a full day on Sunday. The decision was to meet some folks and go to Palgongsan, the tallest mountain in the area. I had been wanting to hike Palgongsan since the weather started getting nice. This weekend was spectacular (weather-wise) so it seemed a good a week as any to hike around a mountain.
I'm not gonna lie. We took the cable car up to the top. It was so easy, and the name was too alluring:
I believe the 700 is a reference to how many times you will be happy if you ride the Happy 700 happy car. I feel ripped off because I only counted being happy 694 times. But, as a consolation prize we hiked down. Hey, at least we did that! We could have just as easily gone back down the cable car. Oh, there were protests. There were. Some wanted to take the easy way out. But not this kid. I wanted to hike all over that mountain. This was no easy feat. Treacherous and rocky. Sweaty and hot. The top half of the mountain was rife with all sorts of cool rock formations to climb all over and almost fall to your death on.Yes, this is the actual trail. One part even had a rope that you had to grab onto to progress on the trail. At points, I felt like I was part of a parkour troupe going down that mountain. Everyone would take the route that most suited them, trail be damned. It was often safer to take a progression of rocks instead of the slippery pepples all over the trail. And, as with any mountain hiking area in Korea, there are so many options for the intrepid Korean hiker. You can take a hike, like a pathetic loser, or you can take a hike and get your gym on with the outdoor gym equipment, picnic on a rock face, go golfing:Drink your ass off on soju at the local stores, have your kids play on the swings, climb a fake rock wall, or pick your choice of any of the roosters or chickens at the local chicken...place dump factory thing...My goal was to visit one of the two temples on the mount, but being a treacherous, tree filled, rocky mountain face made it difficult to get our bearings and find how to get to said temples. I will be here for 9 more months (wow, how the time flies) so I have plenty of time to find those damn temples. I couldn't help but think of how Alissa would have a field day with all the nature photography opportunities on the top half of that mountain. Birds and bees (not the sex talk) and all sorts of little critters running around in the Spring heat. I'm including the Korean hikers all decked out in hiking gear, carrying their backpacks and walking sticks in that "critter" statement. Ajummas hiking faster than 20 year olds, children who are probably too small to be hiking up a mountain with no safety barriers. Dogs, cats, mimes. Ok, I'm lying about the cats and the mimes, but wouldn't that be sweet to see a cat carrying mime climbing a mountain like there's no tomorrow?

Anyway, Palgongsan is a village of family activity and wholesome fun. I still need to get up to the top of Apsan (the #2 mountain in Daegu. Remember how I went and started to climb it with Mr. Lee and then the rain came in like the Dickens?). I hear it has better views than Palgongsan. At least of Daegu city. I ate a ton of Korean food today and now I'm at home drinking a bit of Korean alcohol. It just falls in line with me being called a "Korean man" last night. Apparently I'm not like other Americans. I'm hoping it was meant as a compliment.

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

My leisurely weekend schedule allows me to update on a Saturday. Really odd, I know. I'm usually out tearing up Korea with my maniacal swagger. I felt the gears slowing down a bit recently, so I decided to take a weekend to stay in town, hang out with #1 (that's me, by the way, not some secret lover I haven't told you guys about), and catch up on the sleep. Thus, I am hanging out in my apartment in my underwear at noon on a Saturday with some orange juice and a fried egg sandwich. What a mental image, right?

Before I get into the meat and potatoes, I just wanted to let you know that my co-teacher was teaching the children with me the other day and she tried to teach them "piece of cake." That's cool with me, but when she says it, it sounds like "piss up cake." Is that some British slang or is she commanding them to piss up a cake?

I realized that I have not updated since Tuesday. Unacceptable. The next time that happens, please just punch me out. Through the computer or Skype or whatever. Let's see. Wednesday I went on some kind of thing that may or may not be construed as a date. I mean, I wasn't thinking it was because she mentioned a boyfriend and called me a strange man, but then she had that longing look in her eyes at the end and it was real awkward. Anyway, we saw Iron Man 2, or as the Koreans call it (in Steve phonetics), "Ah-ee-un-man(uh)." It was decent. The way they resolved some of the problems in the plot was a little silly, but it is a comic book movie.

So, I was just going to post some pics of strange Korean things. Mostly to do with Engrish. Here you go (with my unnecessary but necessary commentary):I'll start with something I already mentioned. This is the peep hole into the sky toilet. Have a look see, just don't get wet!Couldn't they have just picked an ear or a nose for their sign? Or maybe that just ties into the whole Korean thing about breasts giving life and it's really a spiritual message.Jesus, what a positive message. I tell you, the Korean advertising schemes are really unique. But, they're catchy. I'll always know GoGo now. Sometimes I wonder if these are intentionally stupid. Of course the Traditional Medicine Festival would have a Nintendo Wii stand. It's for the health, after all. They love that statement. Everything is for the health here. They have a beer that says it's "for the health of young generation" because it has fiber in it or some crap like that (pun intended). And on that note:When do people sit down and say to other people, "Yeah, this sentence makes the point I'm trying to make about selling clothes," and then the other people nod and agree? Oh that's right, they just use Google translate for their important business matters. That's all I've got right now. I'm Audi 5000.

May I Present...CHILDREN!!!

As I am contractually obligated to be at my school today when there is no school in progress, I have nothing to do but update my blog for you. It's not so bad, I suppose. I consider myself very lucky thus far in my dealings with Korea, so having to come to school when contractually obligated is not a big loss. The biggest gripe I can see with it really is that I'd rather be sleeping right now or outside. It is a beautiful day today, as it was yesterday...on Sports Day!

Sports Day is like Field Day in the U.S., wherein all the children of the school get together and compete in a series of games (running, tug of war, relay races, etc) but with a Korean twist to it: there is an opening and closing ceremony involving rockets and each class does at least one dance, always involving props and some cheesy song. All the parents take off of work and spend the day watching their children compete. As one of the official photographers, I was able to get right up into the action and sneak a few pics with my personal point and shoot. I will let the pictures do most of the talking:

Opening ceremony involving the principal pushing the "Rockets GO!!" button. When they first brought it out, I thought they were going to do a fireworks show or blow some TNT, the way they were preparing it. The kids doing a dance involving the South Korean flag as their prop. Relay race. Notice the rocket hanging from the flag line in the pic below:After lunch, there was the "X and O" game. One teacher asks the students questions, O means it's true, X means it's false, or yes or no or whatever. I don't speak Korean, so cut me a break. One of the questions, as I can tell from lack of translation, was whether or not the American could kick his shoe farther than the P.E. teacher. I beat him, but just barely. And only because my shoe was bouncier.

The sixth graders had to compete pushing this oddly shaped ball around in a circle many times. Sidenote: the kid who is wearing the gray striped shirt in the middle there is the Undertaker. Always with the wrestling moves, that kid. Umbrella dance! 3rd and 4th grade.

Hurdles! When one kid would knock a hurdle over, all the kids behind him or her would just run through the fallen part and skip the hurdles completely. Cheaters!The day would not be complete without kids falling on what look like the most comfortable Sealy posturpedic mattresses mid race.

All in all, the day was a blast. I got a little sunburned, but that's to be expected when it's 85 degrees outside and sunny. I was given free food and drink at my request (and often before I even thought to request), everyone was in high spirits, comraderie was at a maximum, and I didn't have to do any real work. If my co-teacher ever gives me the pics, I will post one of me in the ajumma visor I wore all day. That way you get an idea of what I would look like if I aged 50 years and became a woman. The visors here are all high tech, with sweatbands and visors that swivel as though they were welders' masks.

Obviously 5 Believers

Like the way a pantless retard on a leash does, Daegu attracted a lot of attention this weekend for the big Korea vs. Japan rugby match. It's part of the Asia 5 Nations playoffs, doubling as the Rugby World Cup playoffs. Well, let me fill you in on a little secret. Rugby as a sport is not even a blip on the radar for Koreans. Like America, their time is better spent being obsessed with a good sport. I'm just kidding. Rugby is a lot of fun to watch.So, the venue was what looked like a newly built community college rugby field way out on the edge of Daegu. When we entered, rolling pretty deep, we were only slightly surprised to find the audience in attendance mostly consisting of foul mouthed foreigners. I was almost embarrassed, as I had brought my Korean neighbor along. We were not representing the West in a very positive light with all the drinking and swearing going on around us. We are a rowdy bunch, after all. Honestly, I think that's the most foreigners I've seen all at once in Korea. There was a lot of plaid.

The fact that Korea lost pretty substantially to Japan is pretty inconsequential, really. The real fun came afterward. Almost as soon as the players got off the field, all the waegooken got on it. Everyone was good and blitzed by that point, so a couple of impromptu rugby games got going, there was a lot of loafing, and a generally good feeling. Check out this little boy playing rugby with the adults (some of the sweatier ones holding adult beverages and clocking in at more than 300 lbs). He would pick up the ball and just run in circles and the adults would chase after him and gently tackle him or let him score, etc. It definitely redeemed us Westerners, at least in my eyes. It was good, wholesome fun on the most beautiful day I've experienced in Korea yet. The only thing it was missing was a couple of hippies playing guitar and a grill. This little girl is such a lush. The weather was perfect, and it felt so good to just dig my feet into the grass. You don't know how rare grass is in Korea (obviously as you've never been), and to have a whole field full of perfectly cut, lush green grass was so refreshing. We stayed for a few hours after the rugby match ended, in fact, and were the last ones to leave.The party continued afterwards downtown, as it usually does. There was much merriment and lots of excitement, as there usually is on a Saturday night. It felt really nice to show some visiting friends a good time in a brand new city to them. They expressed how much they liked Daegu, and it made me feel a bit of pride in where I live. I know my feelings on Daegu change with the weather, but ultimately I think I made the right choice on the place to live. Dirty South, represent!.

On Sunday, after waking surprisingly refreshed for sleeping on the floor in my own apartment, John (pictured at the top) and I went to Seomun Market for some hota (remember the pancake thingy I told you about?...Remember?...Gawsh). We walked around a bit and decided to take the party downtown for some pho. On our way, we ran into the Traditional Medicine Festival going on right down the street from where I live. There we tried some makkeoli samples, some tea that tasted like A1 sauce, and a gensing and honey smoothie type thing. It was chewy with gensing root. I considered getting some deer antler blood (it's supposed to give you uncomfortable amounts of energy. Like speed or something) but ultimately decided against it.

The day was warm and pleasant to the point of threatening to be hot, so we knew it would be a shame to waste. We rode the metro to Duryu and grabbed a couple of beers for our hike up to the tower. I finally went up Daegu Tower. This is MY TOWN, nerkas. From the top of it. The best part about the observation deck wasn't that the elevator sign said "Elevator Take" or that the toilet was the "Sky Toilet" or that there was a labeled peep hole into said "Sky Toilet" or that all the windows were dirtier than your mom, it was watching the Sky Jump. No, I didn't free fall 70 stories down to the platform below, but some teenage girl did and we watched the whole thing.

Forgive the quality of the pictures, but the glass was dirty and that girl was falling at whatever rate a 90 pound girl falls. I was just trying to make a point, geez. Lighten up. So who thinks I should try the Sky Jump?

On our way back from the park, we ran into some other Daegu party party teachers who were going into the park to sit around and play the guitars that we missed the previous day at the rugby match. Since this was the case, we opted to join them until John had to leave to take his train back to Incheon. All in all, it was a weekend of sitting in grass, basking in sun, and enjoying life. Seriously, this weekend was so relaxing and nice. I felt like a kid again.