"The worst thing you can do is say no," he said in the middle of our conversation about how and why some foreigners get bored and depressed in Korea, while others have the time of their lives. It was brilliant and has been the unspoken motto of my life here. For the most part, I don't care what the invitation is, unless I already have something else planned, I'll say yes. Not because of some weird covenant - I just watched "Yes Man" the other day haha - but because before I even landed in Korea I decided that this is a once in a lifetime experience and if I'm not going to get the most out of it, then there's no point in going at all. So I've been doing a lot of things that I may not have done at home.
Yesterday, for example, Ryan messaged me in the morning and asked me if I felt like lining up for 3 hours to get into a free concert (celebrating the one year anniversary of the unification of Changwon, Masan and Jinhae into a single city) where the biggest names in K-pop will play all the songs I make fun of, hate or simply never listen to. Quite frankly, it sounded like fun, so without hesitation I said "hell yes, see you there!"
It was a great time, we bumped into some other friends (although our little group of 6 people were the only whities we saw all night) and I met some awesome new people as well. We only stuck around for about half the concert, it was pouring relentlessly the whole night and it was in an open-air stadium, but got to see some big names and some gorgeous K-pop girls (in my opinion, the only reason to get into the genre as a guy)...
Here's something funny. So Changwon organizes this huge concert to celebrate the unification and makes it a free event. Very awesome of them, and mad props to them, it was a truly fun event even for us, I can't imagine how much of a treat it was for all the people who actually LIKE K-pop. However. It's the middle of monsoon season and these fools decided to keep it in an open stadium. Sooooo guess what happened? Everyone got soaked to the bone...including the singers. They actually didn't bother to rig up a roof of any sort for the stage, so all the performers were just drenched...not gonna lie, some of those girl looked even hotter like that, but that's not the point. :) The funniest part of the evening was when the first performer took the stage...she started strutting down the stairs and about halfway down slipped and just about went ass over teakettle. She managed to save it (looking about as graceful as a 300-pound man attempting to ice dance), but it was rather entertaining.
Oh...a word about K-pop. It's like a freaking religion here. Nobody listens to anything except K-pop. There are, at last count, 914 K-pop bands, mostly composed of guys who are 25 but look 12 and girls who are 12 but look 25. I mean these people make the Spice Girls and NSync look like tough, sophisticated musicians. Also...they are everywhere. Turn on the TV, they're doing guest appearances on shows and slangin' bodywash, go into the store and they're on cereal boxes, sit on the bus and they're pouring their hearts out to you over the speakers. Ask any Korean what music they listen to, and the answer is inevitably K-pop.
They even have K-pop for the older generation. There were a couple of older dudes crooning away. I swear one of them looked like a Korean Tony Bennett. What's even more sad is Ryan and I (neither of us fans of K-pop) were singing along with a bunch of the songs...K-pop is so omnipotent that you become a fan without even knowing it. Resistance is futile.
Other stuff...I've been taking trips as much as possible around the area during the week (since it's deskwarming week they've been letting me go a couple of hours early)...went down to Masan's Dream Bay. I swear it's like calling Edmonton "City of a Million Wonderful Pleasures"...Dream Bay is a grey sludge that
bears only passing resemblance to water. Before coming to Korea, I looked it up on Google Maps and was very excited about it: the waterfront stretches for miles along the edge of the city. I foolishly envisioned myself taking long walks along the bay at sunset, or spending lazy Sundays on a blanket, tanning my belly and reading a book and watching beautiful college girls play beach volleyball a few feet from me. Right.
Here's the reality: For one, you can't even get down to the water unless you're a dock worker. While this may seem detrimental to enjoying Dream Bay, it's actually a blessing. I am strongly suspicious that were you to set foot in its waters, that foot would have to be amputated before week's end. Every time I walk by Dream Bay, I am expecting some horrible swamp creature (the body of the Loch Ness Monster, but with the face of Rosie O'Donnell) to crawl onto shore and rain Godzilla-style fear and destruction upon the peaceful people of Masan. The entire bay is reserved for fishing and cargo vessels, whose crew, I presume, do oil changes in the big diesel engines by simply dumping the oil into the bay and refilling the crank-case with fresh dino juice while anchored in Masan.
On the bright side, there's a cool walkway along the bay (you can't actually see the bay, there's a fence preventing you from seeing the horrors beyond), but the walk is kind of nice...I went a few days ago and snapped a few shots...
Check this out...they demolished a building (right in the middle of an otherwise thriving block) and the only thing left was the foundation and the Korean-style squat toilet:
Self portrait in a traffic mirror:
Then the day after I went back to the Masan reservoir hoping that the monsoon rains have filled the gullies with water, but all I found was the regular little creek filled with a bit more water...still, I got some waterfall shots and this gave me an excuse of going back again later in the monsoon season (the reservoir has a huge hiking park attached to it, I could spend days there, it's beautiful...)
I swear I could take pictures of waterfalls for the rest of my life and be happy.
And my favourite flower shots of the day....dead...and alive
Okay, that's enough pictures for now...I'll post more later, or check out my flickr - http://www.flickr.com/tamasv - for more.
All right, a few more things before I head out...on Saturday my good friend Casey and Kara and going to tie the knot...all the best to you guys, I really wish I could have been there, it's going to be an awesome day!!
Anddd....HAPPY CANADA DAY HOSERS!!!! I'm bummed out about missing it at home, it's one of my favourite parts of the summer, but thankfully I have some wicked awesome friends here (Ross and Nicole), who have invited me to Daejon to celebrate Canuck day with them and a bunch of other crazy expats...soooo I'm outta here, have a great weekend everyone, keep your stick on the ice! (Thanks Red Green for that one!)
T
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