I'm not dead!

:o



Neither is Mia, if anyone was wondering.



It's been a really hectic time over here. Not only is it the crazily merry period between Christmas and that point where you realise that you need to let go that it's not holiday time anymore, we've been to-ing and fro-ing at a manic pace as I begin to realise that we don't have that much time left in Seoul. I know that I still have almost three weeks left in Korea, but when I subtract the time I'm spending here in Daegu, and then the week I'm spending in Pohang, and then subtract the skiing (!), then it leaves very little time to go shopping for all you lovely people reading this blog.



-_- It's probably nobody by now. (Shameless appeal for comments!)



So what have we been upto? PLENTY OF THINGS. After watching the performance of the Gut, which was at times mesmerising and at times sleep inducing, we left Gangwha for the cold cold coldness of Seoul. We stayed with, and are to continue staying with, a young couple that know my dad. They went to the same University as my dad, but about 20 years afterward. When they embarked on a two year long working holiday to Australia, picking fruit as they took time to see a country that wasn't Korea, they decided to find people who went to their university who had moved to Australia. Strange move I know, but not as strange in Korea. University links are very strong here.



So they met, had drinks, and realised that they were the only people in the meeting who had given up the Church, a strange coincidence considering that they went to a University specialising in Theology. So they became strange friends, considering the age gap, and now they've invited us to stay in a spare room that they have. Good times, considering that they're nice, young, funny and have given us a TV in our room so I can sit and watch freakin Star Wars in our off time.



Yoda = Awesome. Man I love that little green dude.



After watching The Golden Compass on the night we arrived (Maybe a 7/10? The books are classic, but the movie for me fell a little short), we went and visited Leeum the day after. The Museum is named that because the guy who funded it has the last name Lee, and he combined it with Museum. I shit you not. What a freak. I'm told his house sits behind these two awesomely majestic buildings.


It was the best designed gallery I've ever seen. Not only is everything looking shiny and flash, each piece lit perfectly for optimal viewing, but for a sum of 3 dollars or so you get a PDA with earphone that explains the piece you're looking at automatically. Huzzah for Samsung creating an Art Gallery! It's damned pimping. You get this bored sounding woman casually explaining how rare and awesome each piece of ancient korean Celadon is, while the explanation of the Modern art pieces ranged from helpful and informative to completely useless. Thanks for explaining that this piece is "beautiful" assholes. Did they teach you that in PDA Art Class?



Also, I saw a couple of paintings by Mark Rothko and I genuinely liked them alot. Jared, please explain why.



Really though, we saw far too much ancient korean pottery. Too much already! Even the old style paintings that I normally love was too much for me after a while. I must be a modern kid at heart. There was one painting of hills shrouded in mist that looked awesome, but became even more awesome when I was informed that he had painted it with his fingertips. Damien Hirst's "Dancing with Death" was better though.



The next day, we went to Jamsil gymnasium to cheer on my team, the Samsung Thunders! Ok, so I had no idea who was playing before we got there, it's true. But it didn't stop us from cheering on some guy named Leather as well as some other Korean basketball players who were genuinely "scoring deuces" and "making plays". It was superb. The cheerleaders were skanky but entertaining, the Mascots were genuinely hilarious and the dude in front of us who literally lead our cheerleading was energetic, anime-esque and I hate to admit it but pretty hot. He got us chanting DEFENCE when we didn't have the ball, chanting the teams name when we did, jeering at opposition free throws and consoling players who got whacked by the oppositions big black dude. We even won the game! The game itself was fun to watch, but the spectacle of the thing was much much more amusing.



The next day was finally New Years Eve! I completely forgot to make resolutions or anything of that sort. I think I need to listen to people more? Perhaps do better at Uni or something? I guess that's something I can ponder when I get back home, or even on my second holiday in Feb! Life is good. We had a really freakin great New Years Eve. We watched Oceans 13 (7/10) rocked a PC cafe for some internet goodness, and then out on to the main street of Seoul! They ring an old old old bell 33 times to bring in the New Year for reasons unknown to me, and then there are traditional Korean drums in the streets, fireworks being let off by people in the street that cost about a dollar, and huge amounts of Soju being drunk that contribute to the party atmosphere. It was probably very very cold. Luckily, I was very very drunk. We sat inside a tent on the street and shared a bottle of Soju, and then tried to get home with partial to high success. I mean, we did get there in the end, so that gets us some points right? I chatted with a fellow drunk dude who was getting home at the crossways, and I had to stop the cab at one point for some unexpected food recycling. Aint nobody can't don't say that I aint not caring for the environment. (I spewed! Thats like a seventuple negative! Take that Oxford!) (Dictionary folks!) Mia didn't partake in the environmental campaign because she is stone cold heartless. You could ask her yourself, but she's probably off somewhere murdering a couple of endangered bird species with one stone.

We spent a day at home, just resting from the night before, and then we headed to Daegu, Korea's fourth biggest city. It's an immediate change from the hyper-manic pace of Seoul but on the flipside it's kind of dull. There's still more shops downtown than in Sydney mind you, but that's because Korea is king of the massive and unnecessary. We went all the way out to an Area called Gyungju, which is home to the best temple in Korea known as Bulguksa. It was unbelievably beautiful, hard to believe it was built so long ago. Apparently it's much better in spring, but the starkness of winter has it's own charm I think. We walked around taking stupid photos, but I really hope to go back and have a more thorough look around. I have aunties who have turned out to be cousins who have promised to take me back. This time, I will wake up before 11. This, I anticipate, will help severely with the "sun setting". You'd think with all this technology, they would have invented a time machine or something.

Things that seem futuristic to Australians that Koreans already have.

1. Tons of TV channels on mobile phones to watch. Seriously, everybody seems to be watching TV on the subway.
2. Thin glasses that you wear that serve as a screen for a portable movie player. So damned cool.
3. Navigators on dashboards that can do anything from tell you what lanes can turn which way, where the speed cameras are, plot the fastest route to a destination on the fly and play DVDs.

We had this 8 dollar meal, and it was astoundingly good. Korea sets records for value for money meals. It had prawns and soft tofu made with rocks. Don't even deny. or try. to. deny.

We've done alot more than this. We went shopping, we failed at seeing things and I think there was an awesome Jazz club in there that I completely forgot to post about. That place was awesome though, I learnt that I liked fruity beers. Not gays. But beers with fruit flavours.

Also: For some reason I've decided I'm serious about moving to Melbourne. Why not right? I mean it seems to just be better. What's not to like? Is it weird to think that when we finish our Uni degrees we could seriously coordinate ourselves and get the best sharehouse ever? Is this sounding plausible to anybody but me? (and Mia?)

I started writing this post 2 days ago, and I've already done things in between. Luckily, they were kind of boring. Still, we're a bit more stable for a week so I'll probably have time to blog a lot more. I hope everybody's post-NYE hangover wasn't too bad.

Also Also: There's a CUTE ASS PUPPY WHERE WE'RE STAYING. It's like a white ball of cute.