Busan

I went to Busan a few weeks ago. It was pretty fun, but it rained most of the weekend, which put a damper on things. Here are some photos.



One of the first things we did when we got into Busan was grab some lunch. We found this area full of street food.





Obama socks.



I don't know if you can see it too well, but this man was holding hands with a statue.



Next, we went down to the ocean for a boat ride.

















While we were on the boat, the battery on my camera died. Fortunately, all my friends have cameras, so I've still got a few pictures I can post.

After the boat ride, we went to huge fish market. We picked out our live fish and watched the monger kill and clean them. Because we were foreigners (maybe), the venders kept offering us free fish to go along with the ones we bought, so we ended up with a small free shark. Immediately after hacking the shark to bits, the monger handed my friend, Stephen, and I its penises. Yeah, it had two. So, we had to eat those raw. They were a little slimy on the outside but really crunchy inside. I guess they're just made of cartilage like the rest of the shark. Anyway, fortunately, they didn't have much flavor (kind of like the rest of the shark).



After dinner, we were about to take the subway to meet some friends, when we saw really cheap "ajosshi shirts" for sale. Ajosshi basically means "married man," in Korean, I think, but it can be used to describe any man over about 40. Anyway, they all wear shirts like this.



So, we got matching shirts.



We went to the beach that night and drank. Then, on to various bars. Nothing too special. By around 4 o'clock, we were ready to get some sleep, but all the motels were full. Even the saunas (which have sleeping rooms) were full, so we just made little beds out of sand and plopped down on the beach. However, by then, it was pretty damn cold, and my friend Go Geon was shivering because he had no jacket. So, after a while, he disappeared. A few hours later, Stephen and I stumbled to a sauna nearby to see if the sleeping room had cleared out. Luckily, it had, although the guy at the front desk didn't seem too pleased about letting us in. I don't know if it was because we were white or if he just had a wild hair up his ass. Anyway, I slept for a few more hours, took a dip in the communal hot tubs, and showered.

Stephen had already left sometime before me and met up with Go Geon. So, around noon, we all got together again. It turned out, Go Geon had found a massage parlor to pass out in. Supposedly, a proper massage parlor, not the kind that offers special services, although he did say he just lied down and passed out immediately and doesn't really remember anything.

We decided we didn't want to sleep on the beach again, especially since it had started lightly raining, so we found a cheap motel with this classy poster on the wall.



By evening, the rain was really pouring down. I had planned on bringing an umbrella because I knew it was going to rain, but I stupidly forgot it. Luckily for me, I found an abandoned umbrella on the subway. It was actually kind of broken, but it worked well enough for me to keep mostly dry. Without that umbrella, the rest of my weekend would have been really miserable.

For dinner, we met up with some pals at TGIFriday's. It was my first time ever eating there. I got a hamburger that was actually pretty delicious. Sometimes, you need to feel like you're home.



Go Geon ate celery for the first time and was not impressed.



After dinner, we sang some songs at a noraebang (karaoke room).





We looked like a Diversity Club meeting - white, black, Asian, Muslim. We had it all.

Later, we went to a bar in a cave.



We went to a couple more bars, but honestly, it was kind of boring. Plus, we were tired from lack of sleep, so we went back to our motel pretty early. And the next morning, we went back to Daejeon.

In unrelated news, I finally found out about my vacation. I'll be off from July 28th to August 3rd, which gives me a week. I'm planning on going to Vietnam, but I have to get my traveler's visa ahead of time, and it takes about a week, so I need to get on that since I have less than a month and a half to prepare.

Also, I found out that I'm going to have six days off for Chuseok ("Korean Thanksgiving") in September, so I think I'll try to take a short trip somewhere then too. Maaaybe China, but I don't know. I heard the visa process is kind of a pain because it takes a month and costs about $100. Maybe I'll go to Taiwan.

Anyway, I've got a lot of planning ahead of me.