Hello Sparkles and Flies

On the stairs in my apartment building, I often encounter condom wrappers that have failed to make it from their users apartment to the garbage. I wonder if one of my fellow tenants is just careless or bragging. I don't mind either way, the wrappers are often interesting. Today it was lavender and had a pretty flower in the logo.
Interested in checking out the Korean version of a flee market, Amber and I rode the subway out to the World Cup Stadium. home of the 2002 World Cup. I realized that I never actually been to a Canadian flee market and thus had no basis for comparison. It was very busy and over whelming and all the clothes were very tiny and all the books were in Korean expect for a few trashy romance novels. I did, however, buy a button that says "Buy Korea" and the charter has hearts for eyes and fire for hair.
There was also a man on stilts. I dislike men on stilts almost as much as I dislike clowns. Amber and I were waiting in the coffee line and not more than thirty seconds after I pointed out how much I hate men on stilts, the man on stilts came over to me and started taking in an a fake annoying high pitched voice. He was collecting donations for something. Fortunately, some kids distracted him and he didn't stick around too long, just long enough to cause me extreme discomfort and to poke fun at my nose ring. Amber gave him the change from our coffee after. I wanted to kick his stilts over.
After we finished at the flee market, we watched some B-Boys preform and then we hiked to the top of the mountainous hill beside the stadium to a festival of long grass that was happening. There were a lot of people and a lot of couple shirts and shoes and hats. Couple shirts I understand, they are cheap and cute. But couple shoes, especially if they are New Balance shoes, are kind of weird to me. That's a pretty big commitment, isn't it? One couple in particular that was matching head to toe couldn't have been more than fifteen years-old. Where do they get the money and is it OK to continue wearing the shoes after you break-up?
We wondered around in the grass for a while and took in the spectacular view Seoul and the World Cup park, potentially one of the most beautiful spots in Seoul, lush with trees and even some grass. I miss grass and I will have to continue missing for at least another six months or more, coming home just in time for winter.
I thought of this last weekend as I sat on the beach in Sokcho enjoying the warm sun and sound the ocean. I also thought about how soon I will be as far away from a coast as I could possibly be in Canada. I good reminder of how much I love the landscape of my prairies come unexpectedly today in the form of a random movie choice. After the hike up the mountainous hill, Amber and I decided to see a movie. There were only two English movies that were playing "Bella" and "One Week". I knew a bit about "Bella" and it was our first choice having never even heard of "One Week". However, the next showing of "Bella" was almost three hours away, so we impulsively bought tickets for "One Week". A purely Canadian film from start to finish. Tim Horton's, Canadian Tire, Joel Plasket cameo, Husky the Musky, Terry Fox, Arbroug and an all Canadian sound track (I guess). The main character goes on a motorcycle trip from Toronto to Vancouver. It was so weird to be sitting in a movie theater in Korea and watch an indie film that might not even make to Winnipeg theaters. I enjoyed watching the landscape of home, considerably more diverse than the Korean landscape, which is beautiful but similar throughout the country. There are a lot of references in the film that only a Canadian would understand. I guess all those things were just treats for Canadians though, Amber really enjoyed it and she is from North Carolina. I am not sure what the point of the movie was exactly, but I also enjoyed it beyond the reminders of the good things about home. Looking for information about this film and whether or not is currently playing in Winnipeg reminded me another good reason to go home, live music. I have been starving for good music, good live music, and good DJ's, DJ's who do more than just create playlists. DJ's that mix and remix. I am very excited about live music. Although, worried about bars closing so early. Here, we never get to FF until after one and we dance until five or six. It will be weird to have to leave at two, that seems so early to me now. I suppose that in general I will have to get used to a significantly different and poorer lifestyle. I am not trying to mentally prepare myself for this. I want to enjoy my last days in Korea as much as I possibly can.
The first weekend in October was the Korean version of thanksgiving, Chuseok (추석), except that Chuseok has more meaning that Canadian Thanksgiving (what are we really celebrating at Thanksgiving, what is the origin for us Canadians?) and is a very important holiday. It is so important that my boss gave me (and all the other teachers) a gigantic box of eight gigantic Asian pears, they almost the size of my head. I have been eating one day since chuseok and I am pretty sure that one pear easily exceeds the recommended fruit servings for one day. I cut it up in the morning and then eat some after every meal. Nothing says Happy Chuseok like Asian pears, except maybe Spam or shampoo. The month before Chuseok the grocery stores begin to stock the chuseok gift packs. Sometimes they are practical things like sets of toothbrushes and shampoo and soap, or sometimes they are fancy socks or Olive oil or spam or seaweed paper. The gift packs are nothing if not random. I am just glad I got the pears and not the spam. For Lunar New Year, I got a giant box of dried persimmons which I left out on my table while I went to Busan with my friends and upon my return I found them covered in mould. Nobody told me I needed to refrigerate them. It was such a waste.
The Friday before Chuseok was a holiday so Amber, Sally, Sarah, and I decided to take a trip. Originally we wanted to go to Busan. Our plan was to leave Thursday night right after work. However, we waited too long and all the train tickets were sold out, even standing room was taken. We had to amend our plan and settled for Sokcho (속초). It is also on the Ocean and is closer to Seoul. Sally and I bought the bus tickets the week before, we got that last four tickets on last bus out on Thursday night. As we all get out of work at 10:00 pm, it is a little bit rushed to get to the bus station near the Techno Mart. Sally and I actually get out a bit earlier and by 10:00 we were in cab on the expressway with lots of time to spare. We got to the bus station at 10:20. We were patiently waiting for Sarah and Amber, who we assumed were on their way to this bus station and would arrive shortly. At about 10:30, Sarah texted Sally, confirming the bus station. They were at the Express Bus terminal, south of the river and far far far from where we were. Trying not to panic, we told them where they actually needed to be and then beyond all hopes that they would arrive before our bus left at 11:05. Continual texts to update on their current location lead us to believe they would not arrive in time. Korea is punctual and we were trying to think of ways to stale the bus. The departure time was creeping closer and closer and I was losing hope. We decided that Sally and I should get on the bus and that they would come first thing in the morning, which worried me because Sarah had all the pension information. Sarah and Amber, at the mercy of the subway system, were two stops and one transfer away when our bus pulled up. Sally gave the ticket man her ticket and then I gave him mine, he noticed that I was holding two other tickets and said something to us that we couldn't understand. We tried to explain that our friends were late. He told us to wait and made us move over to the side while the bus filled up. This bus filled up and then pulled up, the bus behind it pulled up and then Sarah and Amber came running, shouting in joyous victory. We laughed and hugged and cheered and were generally very relieved. It must have been funny to witness. We put our luggage on the bus and all climbed on board, but not before the bus attendant rearranged our tickets so that we could sit together.
The other folks on the bus were generally of younger set and the hum of voices was becoming little loud when an Agassi at the front who was trying to sleep yelled at everybody to stop talking and go to sleep. To this sharp reprimand, we all listened and brought our conversations to a whisper or ceased talking altogether. This would never happen in Canada, somebody would inevitably tell the old man to fuck off. I am going to miss Korea. Today, I saw an old lady cross the street in spite of the red hand telling her not too and she didn't get a single honk.
We arrived in Sokcho at about 2:30 am and grabbed a cab to our ocean view room at our pension. literally, our window, a road, the ocean. We fell asleep to the sound of the waves crashing into the breakers. In the morning, Sarah got up early and made a run to the E-Mart, only a short walk away, and bought the ingredients for a delicious breakfast feast which included real cheese. After this we made our way over the beach only a three minute walk and hung out for the remainder of the afternoon. The weather wasn't really beach weather, the wind was a little chilly and although the sun was warm, it was still only about twenty degrees Celsius. The water, however, was lovely, a little chilly at first, but once we got used to it, it was perfect and so clear. We could see to bottom clearly. I watched fish swim around near my feet and had to avoid a jelly-fish once. Not being the beach season at all, the beach was sparsely populated and most of the folk were foreigners like, escaping the city for this rare long weekend.
We got a early supper, late lunch of a seafood stew and Mul Hye, a cold spicy raw fish soup with lots of lettuce. It sounds a little disgusting but is one of the tasty dishes that I have had here. We ate a lot of it.
Friday, we walked around a bit, watched TV, played some damn dutch Blitz and then, after I lost a game of Kings Cup, had a late night dance party on the beach, each of us with our own MP3 players. Unfortunately, the mirth was cut short when Sally's MP3 player found its way into the ocean. Oops.
We went back to the pension and eventually went to sleep.
Saturday night we foraged for wood and built a perfect fire on the beach. We played mature game of Truth or Dare that included Amber singing Insomnia to the guards at the Military Base and made smores.
Sunday was by far the laziest day. Amber and I got up early to watch the sunrise, which was breathtaking lovely. We then slept late, after we finally got up we sat around watching TV most of the day and eventually made it outside for a supper of raw fish and more mul hye. We left Monday morning, bright and early and we home before 1:00, enough time to relax and even nap a little before heading to work. It was the perfect weekend, just hanging out and relaxing. We had no agenda and no goals all weekend. It was a lovely break.

A side note to the birthday blog: On the actually day of my birthday. Sarah and Amber came up to Ssangmun and the four of us (including Sally) went the bar on the first floor or Sally's building. It recently changed owners and was renovated. Space became Rockin. Amber and I waited in the bar and ordered a drink while Sally and Sarah prepared the cake. They brought it in a blaze of sparkling glory and the bar tenders/ owners played a birthday song for me. After the cake calmed down, the cute bar tender with the white glasses and custom darts carried in side pouch, built a flaming shot for me and set the table on fire Xena: Warrior Princess Style. It was awesome and I had to drink the still flaming shot with a straw. It was terrifying and delicious. I like my alcohol to be dangerous. Then, the cute bartender used a straw to make flower cell phone charm for me. This is the reason the bar tenders know my name. They don't get a lot of business so we are especially memorable.