apt title

After I left the PC Bang yesterday, I decided that I wanted more of an adventure than photoshopping somewhere outside, so I debated between exploring downtown Naju (the smaller town where I live) and bopping around Gwangju. I decided to go to Gwangju, pick a spot to get off the bus, then hike around to see what I could see until I got tired. I hopped off the bus in a small neighborhood. A man was tending his garden, planted on the small, concrete island built for a bus stop. A small boy gave me a double-take and seemed adorably taken aback when I said hello in Korean. I also stopped by a ceramics gallery and tea shop. I tried to gesture to the woman that I just wanted to look around and I think she understood. The work was beautiful...large, wide bowls, with dark brown and green glazes and many of them had nudes painted with a calligraphy brush in the center. The most beautiful was one that was covered with a sheet of glass and tablecloth, used as a table to show necklaces. I peeked underneath. The lines of the womans turned torso and tummy flesh were extraordinary. After, I walked along the expressway for a bit and then cut across along the river toward city hall.

I walked into another small neighborhood where all the houses had neat metal gates. Across the river was a beautiful outdoor gym park. After about another mile of walking, I had enough freelance hiking and caught a taxi downtown.

Then I went shopping for slippers. I walked around the downtown area where the expats meet (“by the starbucks”). I need to take a better picture of that area (I still feel a bit funny snapping pictures like a tourist)--it's completely PACKED with lights and signs. Then went to the subway shopping strip. I finally found shoes that I liked and asked how much they were. I haven't managed to trip into the DMZ (I don't know HOW MANY people told me not to go to North Korea), but I did manage to trip into successful haggling. The woman showed me 27,000 won on a calculator and I told her it was too much. She said “oh, discount...” and showed me 25,000. I had put aside 2000 won in another pocket for my transportation back, leaving myself exactly 25,000 won in the main pocket of my wallet. I was so excited, I showed the woman that 25,000 was exactly what I had in my wallet and gave it to her. She gave me back 1000 won and said “bus.” That was so kind of her and I bowed and thanked her. What did she care how I got home? So, I blundered my way into a 3000 won discount. Not too shabby.

I did end up needing that extra 1000 won to get home. At about 9, I started to head home and asked some Korean boys for directions. We worked out a bus, subway, bus route and while I waited for the 98 bus to show up, another boy who had overhead us said to me “I know another way to Naju...faster.” I was to get on the subway right there, ride to stop 113, Songmu, and then transfer to my bus, the 160. I rode the subway (bumbling at the token machine...a young man showed me the right button to push) and when I got above ground, I wasn't sure in which direction to take the bus. Murphy's Law being what it is, I rode 30 minutes in the wrong direction. The last bus to Naju leaves at 10:05 and it was 9:55 when I got off. I walked down the opposite side of the street and asked two teenage girls where to get on the 160. They showed me and at 10:03, I caught the bus. THANK G-D! I fell asleep on the way home and was woken up by the driver honking at traffic two stops before mine. As Eun-ju has told me, I'm a lucky girl. I got in my dorm, gulped water, and passed out. I woke up this morning to an announcement in Korean...I think someone was speaking into my intercom, but I didn't understand what was being said and I wasn't dressed to answer the door. Made breakfast, mucked with my camera (see paragraph below), picked clothes to wear to my medical exam, started typing this entry.

While I'm grateful to have a digital camera at all, the quality of the pictures I take with mine is really starting to piss me off. There's a beautiful mug in my apartment that I've been trying to photograph for three days. Maybe it's a lesson in accepting a moment that isn't photographed is real, authentic, without the production of evidence (there's a TEDtalk lecture to this effect). When I was hiking about the outskirts of Gwangju, along the horizon were these beautiful mountains that were absolutely startling in their immensity. Whenever I snapped a photo and it showed up on the preview screen, my heart sunk. The image was flattened and these glorious, humbling mountains looked like cheap highway fodder. But I do admire photography and think that when done well, it, like any other medium, can express volumes. Lindsay, my recruiter, is an amazing photographer. I bet that she could show you my beautiful, humble mug or the immensity of those mountains (I will try again when I go hiking). But the equipment inadequacy is driving me nuts! I'm getting pretty indignant over it...I've had enough training to take a proper photograph of that damn mug and my camera just won't do it because it's absolute shite.

SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITE

On another note, I remember at Haley and Rob's wedding, that I felt so full of joy and absolutely comfortable in my skin that I didn't want to leave my experience to take pictures. I knew that pictures would be snapped wildly and find their way to Facebook, so I jumped in the moment and didn't leave until the party was over. 

I've been practicing sounding out hangul (the alphabet) whenever I think to do it and more than once it's gone like this: oh-lee-jee-nuhl. OhLeeJeeNuhl. Oh! Original. It cracks me up and it's still good practice. 
I love same-sex hand holding, beautiful boys I mistake for beautiful women, men with bags, and couples' underwear. I realize it doesn't mean the same thing in their culture as it does mine....but I am a product of mine and I find it quite adorable. Shared affection is always beautiful anyway.

Spacing between paragraphs and pictures = irksome.
That's it for now!

-Tamz