Tall Tales From A Short Canadian

Jambo,

If you’ve gone through my blog archives, or have been reading my blogs all along, you’ve seen my previous embarrassing photos of Beomeosa Temple. My excuses: 1) it was winter, and there was no foliage, 2) my old camera sucked, and 3) I just wasn’t as good at taking pictures! Well, now I feel that I can scrap the old film photographs and feel okay about it. How the hell did the pre-digital man live? How did he cope? How did he take good photos, get free music, keep in touch with friends from around the world, watch live NHL games in Asia (that’s right; we watched the Habs/leafs match-up Sunday morning), investigate weird, obscure cults or keep track of the New World Order and climate change?

Nicole and I couldn’t have visited the temple site on a better, crisper fall day. The sky is so blue here in autumn, just outside of the city. The weather has been perfect this month. I think it’s been plus 20 or higher every day, and Sunday was no exception. The leaves in Korea aren’t expected to be as vibrant as in past years, due to the unusually warm weather, and they are changing later. There were enough splashes of color on the mountains to please, however. 

Here are my new and improved photos of one of Busan’s most visited tourist sites: Beomeosa.

If you recall, in my last Beomeosa weblog, I refused to point my camera at the Buddha. This time, a desire to share the temple interiors with others silenced both superstition and cultural tact. Besides, the Koreans were all doing it!

Sadly, all of the Korean tigers are gone.

They were all chanting to the beat of the drumming monk. I take back what I said on an earlier post about Chinese worshippers being more reverent than Korean ones. I just hadn’t seen actual Korean Buddhists in action much before. An English speaking gentleman told us that the quantity of worshippers visiting the temples goes way up right before students take highschool admittance exams, as good grades mean good schools, and matter so much to the futures of these kids. Their parents come in droves to pray for them.

Above: This is where the monks actually live.

I have to stick one of myself in here and there, just so you all remember the face behind the blog.

We went directly from this (above) to this (below)! What contrast! Thank God most of the Busanites still prefer shopping to visiting temples and hiking, or our day wouldn’t have been as mellow and refreshing as it was.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these. Stay tuned for more colorful images of Korea, as we plan to revisit Bulguksa soon to catch the fall fireworks there at their climax.

G’bye,

suteebun

G’day, boys and girls.

A happy halloween to y’all. Our halloween party at Kijju Kullubb (that’s Kid’s Club) was a riot… too much fun for me, frankly. I carved seven pumpkins, handed out candies to all of the sugared-up lads and lassies, and drove terror into hearts of the young ones. It was fun, to be honest, for about three hours. By the end of nine hours, I was aching for my own halloween treat: about nine bottles of Soju! I did manage to get a few funny pics from the day. Check ‘em.

Three of my Kindy brats were Batman. I was a transexual neoviking…(?)

Sure Tim was playing it up for the cameras, but this photo of our head teacher drowning in costumed kidlets with blood-sugar levels rocketing through the roof summarizes the day aptly. Well, so does the following one…

Ha! Happy Halloween!

Our head teacher again, here carving his second or third  pumpkin. We had to use big meat cleavers, as the sole steak knife was lost (or stolen!) early in the day.

Steve. Another Canadian with student loan issues.

Robert teacher. He’s been here for eleven years. Loves it.

From left to right: Yun, Harry, and Belle. Good kids.

Jamie is Buzz Lightyear. Harry gets around the class. He’s the happiest kid I’ve ever met.

Daniel, with Harry (again) in the background. Daniel is the ideal student.

Vinny is an individual and a rebel. Cool kid, although he draws my mighty wrath occasionally. And below, my girls: Belle and Suah.

Cute, eh? Later.

suteebun

Fo Shizzle,

What follows here is a brief photographic tour of PNU, Busan’s biggest and trendiest University district. Who knew that there were artists and hipsters living among the business suits, cargo ships, and octopus vendors?! *Note: feeling inexplicably patriotic, I reverted to Canadian spelling throughout.*

Please proceed…

Above: PNU shopping district, in all its glory.

A hip dad and daughter.

Just off of the main track, we were allured by all of the colours…

Ah, the mighty PNU river(?). The kids pictured below had been running around tossing garbage into it before I captured them here taking a breather.

As you can see, this waterway was already loaded with debris. It was kind of congruous with the surrounding art in a weird, colourful, industrialized way…

…But it really stunk.

The photo above doesn’t really do justice to the art piece it represents. You could go into this little black movie theatre, and just watch the river scene unfold before you. There was also sad, ambient music playing. Great idea! We sat there for quite awhile watching the “movie”. I wish I had thought of it first!

No dogs, please! Dong - ok. Double steaming dong - ok. But no dogs! I reckon a little dog shit would have blended with the local aromas quite favourably.

Everybody’s favourite leaf, second only to the maple for some, is seen everywhere in Korea: on clothes, on signs, on stickers. The funny thing is, I don’t believe they really know what they are advocating. They’ve never partaken! They’ve never imbibed the vibe. They’ve never even smelled it, most of them! And as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, a think a big ole collective blast of some BC bud would do this country some good, overall.

I’m not sure why this restaurant proprietor is smiling. He can’t be making much of a profit. (buddum-bum-pshhh)

Nicole, at our favourite Turkish eatery, looking very Dutch and elegant.

The author, looking broodingly German… or trying to. 

And the subway home.

Hope you enjoyed it. Please leave comments. Here’s a special tip of the hat to my man Carlito Sanchez from the hills, this blog’s number one contributor and supporter. He comes out of his badger hole regularly to check for updates and comment comically. Hope you keep digging it, C (full of bad puns, I am)! We miss you all back home. If we stay for another year, please consider a visit to Asia. We would love to have guests.

LUBBu,

suteebun

namaste,

Yesterday, we stirred up the monotony with a visit to Bexco and it’s Star Wars exhibit… Geek Paradise! It was pretty cool. I particularly liked the costume designs, and would really like to get my hands on some Jedi threads. The conceptual drawings were very good, too. The exhibit included a few life size crafts (mostly the small little speeder ships), life size costumes, and an array of sound effects blasting out of speakers. It was, ultimately, 12 bucks and an hour well spent. We managed to bumble into a few other spectator events, too. Here are a few touristy pics from this saturday, and the saturday before.

Elderly Koreans watching some kind of traditionalish performance outside of Bexco. They don’t like the sun here.

Nicole having a go at Darth Vader. Her lightsabermanship was pretty weak, I thought. She remained in the above position for the entire duel!

It really was like visiting old friends! Hi guys! Star Wars changed my life, shaped me, made me who I am!

I always had a soft spot for the jawas. Some kids had teddy bears. Some had cabbage patch kids. I had a jawa.

Above, Jedis Tabitha and Nico… Doesn’t that just make you feel that the galaxy is a safe place after all?

No, it’s not a Star Wars costume!

Yeah, don’t let that cuteness fool you. He’s a monster in training. Read previous post for my perspective on Korean parenting.

You’re never safe from the all-seeing eye.

An ajuma looks puzzled and bedazzled by the exotic hunkiness before her…

I managed to grab a few photos of the dancers below at the subway station while Nicole suffered from food poisoning in the bathroom nearby. Oh, the price of living large and eating out all of the time!

And I’ll shut ‘er down with a sunset pic taken from our old apartment.

OUT,

suteebun