Tall Tales From A Short Canadian

Hi everyone,

Just a quick note regarding viewing my older photos… My suggestion is this: avoid the photo albums! Blog.com is a fantastic resource, but the album layout is poorly planned and difficult to navigate, and you’ll find yourself stranded and unable to get back to the safety and hospitality of “Tall Tales…”. 

Instead, visit the archives. The photos load fast, they appear at the optimum size, and come with commentary (which you can easily skip over if you feel inclined to).

suteebun

Bonjour,

Yesterday, Nicole stayed at home to write her exam, so I went into Busan to take some more photographs. I figured I had better get some of the main Busan postcard pictures while I am here. Unfortunately, the light was terribly flat and unflattering, and the Busan Tower, seen thrice below, lacks a bit of its usual majesty. This kind of lighting, created by a blend of fog, smog, and other toxic vapours, does capture something of the reality of living in Korea. Smells of dong (again, that’s Korean for poop) and garbage still linger in my big, German olfactory device. Below, a river of shit flows through Busan… and I’m being quite literal.

Apparently, not only couples don the ubiquitous matching pink shirts! Entire familes do it, too.

Chinese Checkers? Men playing this game are very commonly seen in parks throughout Korea . Korea has entire television channels dedicated to this game.

Many people in Korea, especially the men, have naps wherever and whenever they can. They are almost all overworked, and often hung-over as obligatory social events usually come with their jobs.

Busan harbour, seen above, is something like the seventh biggest container port in the world. If you drive a Kia, a Hyundai, or a Daewoo, it probably left this harbour.

The picture above is my favorite of the batch. The central lady had so much flair, and was really going at it with the belligerent old men. Koreans can be so kind and helpful, and sometimes even demure in the presence of foreigners, but when they have it out with one another, they make spectacles of themselves. These elders argued fiercely at length, and were still engaged in battle when I left the park. I have seen and heard so many street squabbles since being here. One of Korea’s national soccer slogans is “Fighting Korea”, which also fits their social and domestic ways of sorting out disagreements.

The above is a pretty standard tourist photograph. I’ve seen it many times online, but had to take my own. Walking from Yongdongsan Park to the subway station through a narrow alleyway brought me past a little Buddhist sanctuary, nestled in the midst of all the clamour and chaos of the surrounding markets.  

That’s all. Canadians, I urge you: don’t take Canada’s natural beauty for granted! We’re a lucky lot. There can be no price-tag for things like elbow room and breathable air.

Love,

Suteebun

Hola,

I wasn’t really too certain about the prevalence of cosmetic surgery here in Korea, despite the rumours of fellow expats, until recently. We watched a documentary on TV (in English! Yyyes!) that discussed the current plastic surgery boom in China. It really shed some light for me on the whole, weird phenomenon. I really didn’t think it was practiced much in Korea. After all, in general, the women here are very beautiful, and I couldn’t understand why any of them would want to look more like… us (don’t get me wrong… I prefer European girls, particularly Dutch ones). Well, western noses are coveted features, as are big (European) eyes and small chins… and all of these are for sale, and are amply marketed. I wanted to take a picture or two of the plastic surgery ads in the underground mall of downtown shopping mecca, Seomyeon. After the following shots, I stopped, but there were many, many more. How prevalent is it? I’d say 60-70% of all ads I saw in Seomyeon were for plastic surgery! Unbelievable.

Koreans are so fanatically patriotic and obsessed with identity, but it almost feels like they don’t have a solid identity and are shopping for one elsewhere. The new generation shuns all things traditional. Maybe being Asian underdogs for so long has left them a little beat-up and self-conscious of their old garb? For whatever reasons, they’ve pretty much adopted Western beauty and fashion as the ideal. Nike, Adidas, North Face, and Levi’s are the norm here, more so than in Canada. I think I’ll freak them out and start dressing like a traditional Korean!

Well, like the Dead Milkmen say: “We’re all living in a fucked up world!”

Keep it real,

suteebun