I received an email from Russell yesterday, which included some new pictures he took.  I don't regularly keep in contact with Russell, but I love viewing his photos.  It inspires me to be more stylistic when snapping shots.

	All pictures credited to Russell Hunter

As for me, I took my camera and walked to school today, taking pictures of all the red peppers drying in the sun.  It's not the most sanitary of ways to dry peppers, so I wonder what they do with it after it dries.  Do they wipe off the car exhaust dirt first, before they use it for cooking?  It's one of those unsolved mysteries that I'll probably never know, but can live with... like the question of why Janet Jackson is with Jermaine Dupris?

I got an email from Kate last night.  She's fine, and has arrived in Vienna, where she'll be for the next 6 months.

But here I am! I feel like I am walking through movie sets. There are castles everywhere and even the sidewalks and cobblestone streets seem like something out of a Hepburn movie. Yesterday I looked at a flat in the building where Beethoven died. Everything is grandiose and sparkling.  The streets are filled with beautiful men with their arms around beautiful women who are wearing perfect beautiful fashion magazine clothes that they've bought in beautiful stores.  People are sitting underneath pristine statutes or in sidewalk cafes sipping wine or expresso and smoking cigarettes in a way that looks almost sexy.

Yesterday I saw a four year old in gucci sunglasses...and not the 200 baht ones like I got on
Khao San Road I can pretty well bet.

This past weekend, I was in Chuncheon - famous for dakalbi and makguksu.  My trip started out early - 6am to be exact.  I was supposed to meet Kiran and Christa at the bus terminal, but they arrived a little late and we missed the bus by 5 minutes.  The next one was an hour away, so we sat and talked to Stephen, who was there to take an early bus to Donghae to see the caves.  We were to meet Glyn and his girlfriend Rafael in Chuncheon.

View of Kangneung's river at 5:45 am.

Our guidebooks said that the bus ride to Chuncheon would be 3 1/2 hours, maybe even 4 hours.  Therefore it was a shock to us that we made one rest stop and were told by the bus driver that we had arrived, after only travelling for 2 hours, 40 minutes.  We got off the bus, but were a little skeptical because the ride was so short.

We looked at a map and went on our way to find the Information building.  We got a little lost and found an information booth, but it was pretty far from where we had intended to go.  While trying to find out what to do in Chuncheon, we ran into some Frenchmen, who said they were travelling around Korea for a month.  It's rare you find foreigners that come to Korea for the sake of only visitng Korea.  With a little more probing, we found out they were actually here for a brother's wedding, and took the opportunity to also travel.

As we walked towards downtown, a military helicopter passed overheard, and Kiran practically dove for the ground.  If Christa and I weren't there to reassure him that it was only there because of the local U.S. military base (Camp Page), he probably would have curled up into a fetal position and called out for his mommy.  :-)

After finding a yeogwan, we put our stuff away, had lunch, and met up with Glyn and Rafael downtown.  We decided to make a trip to the little lake island of Jungdo.  After taking the 5 minute ferry ride over, Kiran, Christa, and I rented bikes for 3000 won/hour.  Glyn and Rafael decided to have lunch and walk around for the next hour while the three of us rode around.  I hadn't been on a bike in so long.  I'm not an avid bike rider, only for the fact that I hadn't owned one after the 5th grade.  When choosing a bike to rent, my only criteria were that it be pretty and have a basket.  I love baskets!

	They aren't this bad... I made them hold hand.  It was a re-enactment of something I've actually seen.

It was really fun riding around the little island.  We leisurely rode around, while Kiran and Christa honked at everyone within a 50 foot radius, while I rang my dainty little bell.  Along the way, we stopped to look at a Korean war monument, and some caged rabbits.  Kiran fed the rabbits a red pepper, and was utterly delighted to find out that they didn't die, and actually like it.

The first line of the Korean War monument said: From ancient times, Japan, the country across the sea, has invaded our country repeatedly whenever they had the chance.

The day was still young, so we decided to go to Gangchon-ri, an area that the man from Information booth, said had "too many young people."  If that statement alone doesn't make you want to go there, there is Gugok Waterfall nearby.  Rafael wasn't feeling too good, so she and Glyn decided not to come with us. 

We took a taxi to the base of the waterfall, and walked 15 minutes to the actual falls itself.  Along the way, there was an area with tons of rocks stacked on top of each other.  It was the biggest collection I've seen in Korea.  I'm sure there's a Korean name for this, but I don't know what it is.

The waterfall itself was really nice, even if it wasn't too big.  There were a lot of people there, as well as photographers who would capture your picture for 5000 won.  We took pointers from a photographer taking a woman's, and made our own poses. 

This is where I do my best thinking - under a waterall.

Is it me, or could this picture be in a gay calendar?

"Bring It On!" - practicing our cheerleading pyramid so we can be on ESPN 2.

After pictures at the waterfall, the three of us started walking down the mountain that would take us back to the area where there are "too many young people".  There are a lot of bars and restaurants in the area because they get a lot of university students who participate in MTs (membership training).  The training is just a weekend retreat for university students to bond and get really drunk together.

There's quite a few people in the late afternoon, but more were starting to come as the sun started to set.

Each person is holding a case of beer, that will be consumed that night.

The three of us go and get a drink and wait for the local bus to take us back downtown, where we're supposed to meet up with Glyn.   Before dinner, we decide to have a drink at Family Mart.  We walk around most of the dakalbi street/Myeong-dong/downtown area and can't find a single convenience store.  After about 20 minutes of searching, we finally found one in a relatively obscure area.  They didn't have any alcoholic beverages that I wanted, so instead, I bought a bottle of "Confidence."  Glyn then met us for dakalbi, minus Rafael, because she was sick.

I don't think Chuncheon dakalbi tastes "that much" better than other places I tried, but the spices were good and the duk was fresh and soft.  The dakalbi restaurant near Kwangdong University in Kangneung, is just as good, plus they have the seaweed soup I like, and free ice cream.  We stuffed ourselves, then made plans to go to the Kangwon University area for drinks.  Glyn had to go back to Rafael, who was at their hotel.  So the three of us went looking for a bar I heard about on Dave's ESL - Hard Rock.  The cartoon map we had didn't make the University area look too far from where we were, so we were going to walk it.  As we started our trek, we asked a Korean man on the street if we were going the right way.  He told us that the University was really far away, and that he'd give us a ride.  Far?  I think a Korean' s perspective of far is different from a Westerner's, but we decided to accept his offer.  It turns out, the University was  prety far away, and would have taken us a good 45 minutes to get there.  As he drops us off, we gratefully thank him, and make our way to Hard Rock.  The story's quite long already, but this is where it gets interesting. 

Buy The Way

We found out that the bar is only around the corner from where we were, so I suggested sitting down at the convenience store, "Buy The Way" and have some drinks first.  We all bought an alcoholic drink of some kind - drinking and relaxing as we people watched.  15 minutes into it, a guy at the next table gets up quickly to run over to his friend across the street.  I noticed that he drops his camera case and I scurry across the street to give it back to him.  He looks really grateful as I hand it back to him.  Later, he buys us 3 cans of Welches for the good deed.

We continue to drink and see a lot of commotion right in front of our table.  Some university guy is trying to run away as a lot of people are running after him, trying to cover him with flour (aka: antiquing).  We figure it's just his birthday and his friends are trying to have some fun with him.  We see him trying to run away, as he's now covered in flour and water.  The whole scene wasn't too much of a concern, until we see 5 or 6 guys surrounding him and kicking and stomping on him while he's on the ground trying to shield himself.  He makes his way up and starts running again as more people chase him and throw raw eggs at him!  At this point, I start to get concerned because I'm thinking, "Why would your friends do that to you?  Physically hurt you?  Maybe they're not his frineds"  Then I start thinking that maybe it's not his birthday, and a group of guys are just trying to beat him up.  The group passes by our table again, and Christa and I get up this time, following the crowd to see what's going on - with cameras in hand.  I only got one photo of the guy on the ground being kicked, because after seeing it up close, it felt wrong to take pictures of someone being hurt.  I started getting angry at the guys kicking this poor guy, but stayed back, because I didn't know what was going on and didn't want to get hurt myself.  Christa had also snapped some photos, and I remember somebody from the crowd, saying something about "waygooks" taking pictures.  I think that's the reason why they stopped. 

The scene of the flouring

Early on, spirits are still high

Once they did stop, we went back to our table to tell Kiran what we saw.  We hadn't sat down long before 3 of the guys from the crowd came over to our table and told me that he wanted me to delete my pictures.  I was surprised and didn't know what was going on, so I instinctly grabbed my bag from the table and put it in my lap.  They tried to tell us that it was their friend's birthday, and it was Korean culture, and that they were having fun.  (I understand the Korean birthday culture, but in 3 years, I had never seen anyone pelted with eggs and kicked by their "friends" as they were cowering to block the blows.) 

Being kicked...

and pelted with eggs.

"I understand it's your friend's birthday, but why do you have to hurt him?" 
-----> You don't understand.  You must erase pictures.
"No."
-----> Don't upload on internet
"Why?"
-----> Japan image up. (making a thumbs up gesture).  And Korea image down.  (thumbs down gesture)
 Now we get to the reason why this is such a big deal.
"Why does it matter?  It's the truth.  You can go to the U.S. and take pictures of anything bad and put it on the internet.  If it's true, it's ok."
--- No, no!  Korea image down!

We continue to argue some more, and it's obvious they're not going to let up, so I lie to them.  I go from adamantly refusing to delete my picture, to saying "Ok, I won't post them on the internet."  It seems to make them feel that they've done good for their country.  One of the guys even made me pinky swear, and make a copy of it (by sliding our hand across each others).  After some mandatory comments about how bad Bush is, and how bad the war in Iraq is, they finally leave our table. 

How naive can people be???  When did the protocol start, that said a pinky swear, really means you're going to do what you promised.  When world leaders start making deals with pinky swears, that's when I'll start taking it seriously.  Even when I was witnessing the event, I didn't have an agenda to deflame Korea or its people.  Plus, they didn't understand the scale I'm working on.  CNN wouldn't hire me to take lunch orders, let alone do an expose on Korean birthdayy rituals!  In many ways, I think Korea is great, but I didn't like the way this particular group of students were treating their friend.  Still, that doesn't mean I don't have a right to report what I see.  Later, the birthday boy came back with his friends to show us there were no hard feelings, and that he was ok.

"Peace"  I'm ok.

I thought it was funny that the "birthday entourage" carried fake guns around that night.

I'm glad he was ok, and the group finally left our area.  We were still left with the 3 cans of Welches, so we buy some soju to mix with it.  We have a lot of fun drinking and making new friends in front of our table.  We even played a game in which Christa lost twice and had to accost strangers and dance in front of them.  There were a lot of people about, including soldiers.  We had a good time hanging out there, and longed for a good university scene in Kangneung.  Finally we decided we were starting to get too drunk, and need to go to the bar we had talked about earlier.

Who's the next dance victim?

Guys at the next table reading love notes.  The guy in the hat is reading a note shaped like a heart.

We arrive at Hard Rock and Kiran accidently orders beers for all of us.  Christa was too drunk to drink anymore, and I can't stand beer.  We left after 10 mintues and headed to Johnny's Bar (if I can recall).  Christa and I order coctails this time, and just rested in the seats.  My eagle eye spotted the Frenchmen we ran into earlier that day, so we ask them to join us.  Kiran was enjoying speaking French, as Christa and I started to get really drunk and tired.  It was the most drunk I had been this year, without throwing up.  We call it a night. 

Hard Rock

Johnny's Bar

The next day, we slept in, had lunch, watched Hell Boy, and took the bus back home.  Overall, a nice trip - quite memorable.

With Laos being such a small country, it's not often there are stories about it in large news sites like MSNBC.  Therefore, it was interesting to read this article about Luang Prabang, declared by UNESCO as “the best preserved city of Southeast Asia”.  The city is dealing with the eternal problem of whether to preserve the old ways, or embrace change.  [MSNBC]

Linda Ehrichs / AP

• "Communism kept Laos in a timewarp for three decades. It also helped preserve the country's culture, its buildings, cuisine and rare freshwater dolphins."  [Teipei Times]
  
• Rugby is now a national sport in Laos.  [TVNZ]
  
• Like Thailand, penalties for drug crimes are stiff.  This guy got a death sentence.  [abc.net.au]
  
• This article about Hmong people immigrating to the U.S. is similar to what I went through 25 years ago.  "Only 50 per cent of the camp's population can read or write Hmong, let alone English. They have lived in a mild tropical climate all their lives but many will be heading to St Paul, Minnesota, where winter temperatures can plunge to 20 degrees below zero."  I remember I got hives the during the first winter I spent in Oregon.  I still remember it being the coldest I had ever been in my life.  "'They ask if it is true that wives can leave their husbands and that no one in America respects their parents."  "Nor do all the 15,000 refugees in the camp want to go to America - although they have little choice."  I think it's a misconception that all refugees embrace moving to the U.S.  I know my grandmother didn't want to move to the States.  Ideally, she'd still like to go back, but can't.  But I do know that when she passes away, she'll go back home and be buried with my grandfather in Laos.  "Eight-year-old Konghong has never travelled farther than the school a mile or so outside the barbed-wire boundaries of the camp. 'I want to go to America. I want to study. It is a good life there and Americans are good people,' he said."  [Observer]

When I got home tonight, I was up in the air about going downtown to Absolut's official opening.  I wasn't tired, but I have to be at the bus station at 6am tomorrow to catch a bus to Chuncheon.  Dukcalbi, here I come!!! 

Instead, I decided to watch a movie Ras had given me a copy of - Super Size Me.  I'm sure most people have heard about it.  It's a documentary about a guy that eats nothing but McDonald's for 30 straight days - 3 meals a day.  He couldn't eat anything outside of McDonald's.  Bottled water also had to be bought there.  He gained 10 pounds in the first week, and 24.5 pounds by the end of the month.  After the experiment, it took him 5 months to lose twenty pounds.

• "Patient is going on 1 month McDonald's binge." Doctor writes this in his notes.
• A 7-11 Double Gulp is half a gallon, with 48 teaspoons of sugar!
• "Oh shit!  Look at that.  Look how big that french fry is!  That thing is like 4 feet tall."
• "Now is the part of the meal where you start getting the McStomachache."

While browsing on a Blogdrive this past week, I came upon a blog template that I really like.  I scrolled down to the bottom and found out it was done by "Christine".  To make a long story short, I contacted her and she custom made a template for me!  It's really nice, simple, and Moveable Type-ish.  So, I want to say THANK YOU to Christine (!!!), and contact her if you are in need of a Blogdrive template.

* * *

Here are pictures from this past weekend:

Absolut's Opening Night and Melvin's Birthday Party

It was Melvin's birthday on Saturday at The Warehouse.

Happy Birthday to yoooooou!	Melvin does a lap around the bar
Sparklers!  Gotta love them.	Melvin and Krista
A Kangneung dance team member shows us his moves.  Except for the gay man-purse attatched to his belt, it was pretty impressive.	Dominique and his "special someone".

I'm always thinking... "I wish more people I knew had a website or blog."  It's not as much fun reading about people you don't know.  Just this weekend, I found out Rory's got a blog!  Rory's got a blog!  [He's another Kangneunger (?) Kangneungite(?)  Kangneungian (?)]  Check back often to see his adventures - it should be fun.

What Not To Do in Asia...

Last night was opening night for Mr. Lee and Kevin's new bar.  Bumpin' is officially no more, and this is the new place to hang out.  This has been in the works for the last 3 or 4 months, and I think construction started about 2 months ago.  It's located where Kalifornia used to be, on the same street from Nike and one block away from The Warehouse.  LOTS of money went into this place, and you can tell if you're at all familiar with costs of opening a bar/restaurant.  There's a huge sound system and small stage, with plenty of room to walk around.  It's slightly reminiscent of Bumpin', in that it's a long space.  And if you can't seem to control the flailing your arms like I do, when you dance, there's no way of hitting the ceiling with your hands.  Ther's also access to the roof, but I didn't make my way up there last night.  Oh yeah... the new bar's name:  Absolut

5 people behind the long bar: Mr. Lee, Kevin, another man, and 2 barmaids	A group picture.  Early celebration of Melvin's birthday tomorrow
An array of alcoholic beverages.  The drinks are made stiff here!  The rum and coke really packed a punch.	View from one end of the bar.  As you can tell, the chairs are great for sleeping.
A foosball table in the back.  Memories of Sting come to mind - and the dominating female foosball team, consisting of moi and Renee.  Team "Oh, yeah!"	A small stage where the piano currently is, with pictures of foreigners that nobody knows.