31 August 2008

Busan

At Nopodong station in the suburbs of Busan, the cops were just standing at the top of the stairs and (randomly?) asking men for their IDs and writing information in little notebooks. There's a wanted poster for some guy posted all over the country in transportation centers... wonder if they're looking for him this way.
So I took this little trip to Busan. The trains between here and Busan didn't have a good schedule, so I opted for the express bus service. It only took 50 minutes to get to Nopodong subway station in Busan! Didn't realize the outskirts of Busan were so close! Might go down there more often now. Rob had to finish administering a test, then we got together for dinner at Outback, but not the Outback where we were. Apparently the local expat community has declared it a "bad" Outback. I get all confused when I go to Busan, so don't know where we ended up exactly, though the food was good... pricey, but good. I tried a bottle of Victoria Bitter which is a really nice-tasting beer. It won't replace my devotion to wheat beers, and it is no threat to Hoegaarden for my affections, but it is nice all the same.
I stayed overnight at Rob's place with his wife and son, then after a delicious breakfast at McDonalds down the street, we went to Hanaro Department Store, which is run by Nonghyup, a farmer's cooperative company. I needed a watch to wear while on my motorcycle, and after hemming and hawing over some $380 watches that could do everything but sing Dixie, I settled on a Von Dutch for $58. It has a large face, and when I'm driving, that's what I need. I'll post a photo of the new watch on my livevideo site.

27 August 2008

Week Off

The picture here is some Korean school girls walking home after school, but as with most Korean females, they are deathly afraid of getting tan skin, so they walk around like that in the sun. Tan skin is apparently quite unattractive in this culture.
I went to Ansan last weekend to say Happy Birthday to Simon. His b-day was really yesterday, but the weekend was more convenient to go. Vaughan, Julie, Joel, Alice, Simon, and I went and had a very mediocre meal at TGI Fridays. They have gone downhill fast the last few years. Several menu items they didn't even have available. After the movie, some of us went to see "Superhero" at the cinema upstairs from TGIs. It had its funny moments, but not $7 worth of funny moments. If you can see if for free, then you'll get your money's worth.
Got my oil changed and the usual chain, transmission, and tire pressure check as well. All for $6. Monday there was a university faculty dinner at the Concorde Hotel out by the lake. Beautiful location, and the food was pretty good, too. Didn't understand a word of the speeches, but I'm sure the folks who gave them said meaningful and interesting things all the same. Oh, ran over to Daegu today to the electronics market. Simon said my Sony video cam would probably work great on the Mac with a firewire connection. I got all the way over there and went to the counter where I bought the camera, and the guy told me that the Sony video cam doesn't have firewire capabilities. Grr. I was going to comfort myself by getting some decent speakers for the Mac, and I found some great speakers for $90. I told the guy if he cut the price a little, I'd buy them. He went to ask the boss, and the boss took one look at me and said, No deal. Even if he had cut it to $85, I'd have bought it, but they HATE giving deals to foreigners in this country. They seem to think that we have endless streams of money just because we're Caucasian. At least I know what speakers I want. They were too good for the Mac, so I'd put them on the PC and hand-me-down the current Logitech speakers to the Mac.
This is my last week off before school starts. Kind of anxious to get going again. Summer makes me too lazy.

18 August 2008

The Keypad to the Kingdom

After Korean class today, I took a quick spin by the eyeglass shop. My metal frame glasses bothered me, so I wanted some plastic frames. Anyway, my prescription hasn't changed in five years, remarkably enough. I have noticed, though, that I must remove my glasses to read a book nowadays. This picture is the eye shop guy making my glasses. When I asked him how long it'd take, he said ten minutes! Never heard of 10-minute lenses, but there they were, and they work beautifully. When my camera battery is done recharging, I'll put a picture of me in my new glasses in my livevideo picture folder.
Also had to take my Motorola cell phone to the shop again. He told me to come back at 5 o'clock, and sure enough, it was done, but the keypad looks like I've used it for years! Really ugly and messed up, but the numbers all work, at least. Started raining while I was on my bike to the shop. Koreans seem to drive even worse than usual when the weather's bad.

17 August 2008

Scooty Puff Junior Phone

This is my stupid cell phone. I got this text message Friday that said "I'm back! How about some brewskis and hamburgers?" On my phone, you have to slide the front piece up to read the message, but I didn't have a good hand on it, so it opened part way then snapped back shut. I had just glimpsed the message, and when I opened it again, I couldn't find the message! This phone is bizarre. Anyway, I thought Joel was back from the States early. Eventually, I did find the lost text message and it wasn't from Joel. It was a wrong number. Oh, the buttons 7, 8, and 9 on my phone don't work at all. How inconvenient is that? I have an evolving dislike of Motorola now. Two major problems with my cell phone in less than a month. And I'm not a big cell phone user. I hardly ever call anybody, and nobody's called me in at least two weeks (OK, that was kind of pathetic, but I just wanted to point out that it isn't from overuse that this phone is falling apart!)
Today was a lazy Sunday. The temps are cool, but the day was overcast and blah... played a PC game most of the time! I did take some notes for my story I'm writing, and I did send an email to my advisor at NAU about what courses I should take this fall.



15 August 2008

Goats and Cream

I've been going out to HomePlus now almost every day lately to check on the cream issue. A while back, I noticed that HomePlus, a large supermarket chain associated with the British Tesco corporation, didn't have any cream anymore. Ever since I came here in March, they've sold cream... until now. I'm talking about regular, normal cream you might put in your tea or coffee. So I asked the dairy manager lady about it, and she said they didn't have cream (which I already knew) and she didn't know when they'd get any. Manager of the dairy department? Yes. Over the course of the last two weeks, I've been out to the store a lot and talked to a lot of HomePlus folks about there being no cream. Then I noticed they started selling goat's milk. WTF? I have lived in Korea over 11 years. They do not have a history of drinking goat's milk. In fact, this is the first time I have seen it in Korea. But the cream? Probably won't be stocked ever again, because they stocked too much for the small (but regular) demand for it. They could've just reduced the amount they stocked instead of canceling the product altogether. Bastardos. I'm sure that goat's milk is going to just fly off the shelves, eh? Right.
It rained last night and then again this afternoon. Tonight I went and dug up some grass for the cats and put it in a small planter here in the living room. I think Pepper is sick.
Thinking about going to Seoul this weekend. My phone keypad is broken. The buttons for 7,8,9 don't function, so I can't call anybody up that a way, and I can't send text messages either. This is the second major problem with my Motorola since I bought it a couple months ago. Won't be getting a Motorola again, that's a fact. Wish I hadn't given up my old cell phone. It was big and clumsy, but it worked a lot better than this one.

12 August 2008

Rob C and I hung out Saturday. Went to WA bar. You can see how much fun I had setting the bottle opener on end. Rob had to flirt with girls, of course, while I just watched people come and go.
Today it rained and has been oppressively humid all day. Tonight, some of the Germans will be going with us to the movies to see Dark Knight. Starts at 6:30 on the nose. Here in Korea, there are no previews before the movie. However, up in Ansan, they did advertisements for local businesses before the movie.
Yesterday I drank a cup of coffee, and today my body is punishing me no end. My gut hurts something horrible. The doctor warned me not to drink coffee, but I just couldn't resist one small cup. Guess I am for ever forbidden to drink it. What a pity.
Time to run see Batman
.