When it rains it pours...

This was the funniest thing I've seen in a long time.

Quite relevant right now...

Under the bridge...

Yesterday, Matt and I went to the Han river and rented bicycles. It cost six bucks to get a bike for two hours which ain't bad I s'pose.

It was a nice relaxing ride because my bike didn't have a bell so Matt was in the lead. A bell is essential because their are so many people on the path and running over people isn't cool, although would probably be a decent way to meet girls.

Because Matt was in front of me, let's just say we rode at a leisurely pace. But in usual Spence fashion, he seemed to speed up at the oddest times, such as riding up a hill.

Our first stop was under one of the bridges that crosses the Han. There was lots of action down there as you can see by this picture.
First, we have an old lady taking a rest on the asphalt. She looked rather comfortable for a person sleeping on pavement.

On the bridge footers we have another lazy Korean passed out and a group of old Koreans playing some game. I'm assuming the game involves some sort of gambling because it just makes this picture better if money is at stake.

Here's another shot of the goings ons.
Not much else happened that's worth mentioning, but I did get a couple good pictures.
Here's a view of one of the bridges. The next picture is even better, if not almost exactly the same.

When I start my long-overdo 70's inspired psychedelic rock band this is definitely gonna be my first album cover. I'm thinking that the album will be called "Infinity" or "The Never Ending Channel" something thought provoking and vague like that.
I'd name my band "The Purple Lights" as a tribute to my Uncle Dave's band back in the day.

This picture of the subway would also be included somewhere in the album's art work.
Pretty trippy wha'?

After we returned our bikes, we went walking around trying to find out if there was a baseball game. Stopped at a PC Room but couldn't find the info so gave up on the baseball and looked for something to eat.

Matt bought a few $5 shirts in the process in this little market alley

This is a pretty typical alley with all types of little shops and people on the street selling stuff. It's in places like this that I feel like I'm in Asia and Korea instead of some sprawling metropolis.
The odd part is that PC Rooms are all over Seoul. So you're in this old-school alley and there's still an internet cafe smack dab in the middle of the place. See the "PC Interface" sign.

Things like this quickly remind you that you are indeed in one of the world's biggest cities and that you are in developed Asia where technology is a little ahead, or maybe just more accessible than in the West.

As I turned my head I saw this scene.
Three cute little girls hanging out in the alleys and sidestreets they call home. This is likely where they meet their friends and play. I often wonder what it would be like to grow up in a big city, and a scene like this probably one of the least appealing scenarios.

No backyard or grass to play. No park anywhere close by. Just chillin' out in an alley while high school kids also hang out and drink chocolate milk.

Once we left this place we tried to find something to eat. We weren't in the mood for Korean food so wandered around and ended up in the Konguk University area.

We found a Dominoe's Pizza and Pizza Hut but neither had any tables to sit at so we ordered from Dominoe's and wandered until we found some tables outside a convenience store. This is super common in Korea so we went inside, got a couple cans of Coke, and sat outside and ate.

After eating, we went to visit a bar we haven't been to in a long time. The bartender speaks okay English and is a super funny guy. He gave a good lesson on China and told us to avoid Shanghai but to instead visit some other city that I can't remember the name of. He also said Chinese women have big breasts.

He's a super funny guy and even when I don't quite understand what he's getting at, I know it's most likely something perverted.

After a beer here we were both too tired to much else so we just chilled out and watched a movie. Great day and very uneventful night. I really needed a break anyway.

Today, I'm meeting this girl I've seen a couple times and she's bringing along a friend. It's common for a girl to take her friend to meet her potential boyfriend, especially if the guy is a foreigner.

To battle back, I told her I was also gonna take a friend with me. Hopefully this friend is cute and single and likes Matt, and hopefully she also approves of me.

Although I think her approval is a given because I'm such an awesome guy, and I already have that girl believing and telling me of my awesomeness.

I also have some stories to tell about about our first couple of meeting.

Maybe more details on that later, but to quickly summarize, it involves too much drinking, calling in sick to work, and convincing a doctor I'm sick, all with my little female Korean helper guiding me through it all.

Could be trouble...

Who's laughing now...

Tomorrow is Memorial Day here in Korea. Obviously, it is not a memorial for WWI or WWII but for the Korean War.

I just finished reading an hour’s worth of websites about the war so I’m gonna purge some info here before I forget it.

The war is sometimes called “The Forgotten War” because it was jammed in between WWI and the Vietnam War, and in China they called it the “War to Resist America and Aid Korea.”

The crazy thing about the Korean War is that the North actually took over 90% of the country but couldn’t get Pusan. If they obtained control of Pusan, they likely would have “won” but the Americans and other Allies were able to hold the city.

President Truman thought this was going to be the beginning of WWIII when North Korea attacked. You had the Soviets supporting the North and Truman knew America would quickly also be involved. They had doubts about the intentions of China, who would later be involved but only when they felt threatened that the Allies would continue onward and invade China once they took all of Korea.

Air raids and bombings by the Americans were quite brutal, but totally necessary. They destroyed just about every strategic bridge, railway, and port that could be used to the advantage of the North. Many cities were also leveled as well, along with their populations.

Both sides launched many major offensives and both sides pushed ahead and fell back.

Click this picture to see how close the North came to taking the whole peninsula.

These are the stats that tell the real story, from Wikipedia.

More than 80 percent of the industrial and public facilities and transportation infrastructure, three-quarters of all government buildings, and half of all housing was destroyed.

According to U.S. estimates, about one million South Koreans were killed or went missing in the conflict, 85 percent of them civilians. According to figures published in the Soviet Union, around 1.13 million people, or 11.1 percent of the total population, were killed in North Korea (with the total casualties of some 2,5 million).

Korean history is filled with hardships. This country has been through a lot of shit over the years. Being sandwiched in between China and Japan had led to countless occupations by both countries, and cities and towns have been destroyed by both nations.

When you’re in this country you realize that there aren’t old buildings and wonderful architecture because they were destroyed during the Korean War, or the Japanese occupation. The cities are really quite bland because not much is older than 40 or 50 years old, and the majority of the buildings weren’t built nearly that long ago.

Just imagine St. Johns if you destroyed everything that was around in 1950 and started from scratch. It wouldn’t nearly compare to it’s current version.

Woody...

On our way back from North Korea we had many rest stops. Rest stops must be a part of the culture here or something. It seemed like we were stopping every hour and it was kind of annoying because every time we stopped I would wake up.

Yes, those things are what they look to be . Giant wooden cock sculptures. (I gotta say for copyright purposes that I never took this photo, one of my friends did)

To me, this just seems absolutely ridiculous. In the middle of this restaurant/convenience store is a family of humongo members.

Apparently it has something to do with fishing culture and this isn't all that uncommon in places by the sea.

I think Newfoundland should pick up on this cultural phenomenon, if not only for a few good laughs.

First nations goes digital... Another rant...

I was checking out the CBC website today as I always do and I come across this headline...

"Manitoba chiefs want cellphone revenue"

I clicked and continued reading and what my eyes conveyed to my brain was one of the most outlandish claims I've ever heard.

This Chief wants to actually to get "compensated" for every cell phone signal that passes through their First Nations land. This is what he said:

"[The request is] based on the understanding that we do have some fundamental rights as indigenous people to land, water and airspace," said Chief Ovide Mercredi of the Grand Rapids First Nation.

"When it comes to using airspace, it's like using our water and simply because there's no precedent doesn't mean that it's not the right thing to do," he said.

Okay, so this precedent isn't actually set but just imagine if it is. Next, we will be asking radio stations for cash because they are using "our" airways. The same goes for satellite TV. Then, we may decide to ask Air Canada for some bucks because planes that fly overhead are using radios and GPS to navigate "in our airspace."

Indians get a lot of slack in Canada from non-indians. I know "Indian" isn't the proper term but when they are scheming like this they deserve to be called Indians. Actually, indians without the large 'I' is better.

See I respect this type of First Nations dude...

You know, the Lakota dude who sells the pills for back pain and arthritis. That's a legitimate gig right there.

Fuck this "Gimme money because I'm an indian" bullshit. We give you enough already...

Twaegi galbi...

Twaegi galbi is pork galbi. Galbi is just barbequed meat I think. Just imagine how much galbi, or bacon for that matter, you could get from this ridiculously sized wild pig.
Over ten feet from snout to hoof...

Mmmmmmmm...

Time for rant...

I stumbled across this just now.

It's a bunch of pictures of "Al-Qaeda Style" torture techniques.

I fully support Americans torturing terrorists but I don't support terrorists torturing people back.

Here's my favorite method the terrorists use.Now I must state I'm not a racist, but the middle eastern people, I dunno. I used to think the war was against terrorism or something like that but it's not. It's now turned into a battle of extremism versus moderation. And if you look at who these extremists are, well, they all turn out to be Muslims

This is especially true for the whole Lebanon and Hamas thing. Both parties, the extremists and moderates, want to rule. What we have to do is help strengthen the moderates and impose a solution to both parties.

Some dude I was listening to the other day had this to say. Everywhere else the US has said "Okay, you people are fighting and you gonna reach peace." He said a few examples where this has worked such as Kosovo.

And say what you want about America and the fact that Iraq's in a bad war. Yeah that's rather obvious. But it's also rather obvious that the people they are fighting have a big ol' chip on their shoulder and hopefully they don't convince the "sensible" Muslims to also take on this chip. What's maybe a little less obvious to many is that Lebanon is not Iraq and it has a /relatively/ stable (well, when compared to Iraq) government.

In other news the US and Iran are gonna sit down and have a chat. It's been like 27 years since they sat around and chewed the fat. Iran could be a big part in the solution to all of this but I doubt they will be much help. Iran is the most successful "democracy" in the region besides Israel.

That's not really saying a whole lot but it says something I suppose.

Anyways, politics is kinda boring so I'm gonna go read one of the books I bought today. I've already started the 'international best seller' "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho. I think it's gonna give me hope and help me follow my heart and face my fears and a bunch of other cliched things related to positivity. I just hope it doesn't turn me into a big pussy.

I also purchased "L!fe, the Un!verse and Everyth!ng" by Douglas Adams, the dude who wrote "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy." I haven't read anything by him before but I'm hoping it's gonna be similar to Vonnegut.

And finally, I bought "Slaughterhouse-five" by Vonnegut. It's the only book I've read twice, and I'm gonna read it a third time. I'm bored at work and they didn't have anything else that appealed me at the store.

I was gonna but a book about the Middle East but I figured it would probably make me too angry and then my "Korea" blog would end up being a lot more of this.

I read this somewhere, maybe a friend wrote it, I don't remember. "Muslims have such nice food, why can't they just relax.

Great statement, and I agree. Chill out b'ys...

And I gotta get myself a vice.