Locals

So, it's local election time in the ROK. On May 31st, Koreans will vote for their mayors, local governors, local councils, and something called "heads of local autonomous administrative bodies" (still not quite sure what that is).

What this means in practical terms is, small armies of those adorable Daewoo trucks...



...outfitted with large, blaring speakers and ginormous pictures of various candidates have been patrolling the streets, making their presence known at all hours (7 A-freaking M?! Seriously, I do not need to hear loud nationalistic warbling before I wake up). They've been everywhere.

But suddenly, today, things were silent. Suspicious. Then I read that the current governing party decided to tell everyone to stop campaigning for a little while.

Apparently, they're worried about being trounced in the election. They were already expecting to do badly, but then this happened last Saturday.

I don't know many Koreans who are avid followers of politics - probably they just don't like to discuss it with foreigners, possibly because most folks I know are under 40 and I've been told that they're an extremely apathetic demographic. When asked if she'd vote in this election, one of my co-workers just laughed. But that was before the dramatic slashing incident. I wonder if it'll be different now?

One thing that's been on everyone's minds here, however, is the lead up to the 2006 World Cup. Most of Korea's world cup team, I think, normally plays on the Seoul team, the Red Devils. There's even a catchy promotional song designed to get everyone properly pumped. One TV commercial features men doing their mandatory army service singing and dancing to it. And everyone's in red. Many people (including several of our students) have been spotted wearing these promotional jerseys:



Every restaurant, it seemed, carried last night's lead-up game with Senegal (which ended in a disappointing 1-1 tie). When Jim and I finally finished work and went out for some soup, the game was over, but the huge TV in the restaurant played Korea's goal over and over. And people were into watching it. Again and again.

Housewarm

We're sorry for not having invited you in sooner - it's taken us awhile to get settled. The decorating's still a little spartan, but hopefully that'll change over the next few months. Anyway, we're only five stories up, if you're feeling too impatient to wait for the annoying elevator. Just go to apartment 502. Door should be open...


Here's Jim to greet you! Peeking his head out of his personal conservatory...
(ok, so it's really just a sparse spare bedroom with a borrowed guitar in it.)

Anyway, past Jim's play room - straight ahead - is our living room. Let's walk to the back of the room, by the sliding balcony doors, and turn 180 degrees, shall we?



From here, you can see our entryway to the right, and to the left is our tiny galley kitchen. Let's go into the kitchen now and turn back around to face the living room again:



What's that? Where's our bedroom? Oh, well, do you remember seeing another room behind Jim's head? Back when we were first coming in? Yeah, that one. That's the bedroom. Straight ahead is the bed...



...and a little to the right is the dresser...



...and if we go over to the window and turn around toward the bedroom door, we can see my studio (such as it is!).



Oh, and before we go back into the living room, stick your head outside the bedroom window for a sec. There's the balcony! (You can also get to it from the sliding glass doors in the living room, of course.)



And it faces south. Nice!

Now, we haven't shown you the bathroom, or the weird little closet where our washing machine is (and no, we're still not over the fact that we have our own washing machine). Those rooms were either too dark or too oddly-placed to get decent snaps to show you this time. And the bathroom really isn't that interesting anyway - it's not one of those exciting "traditional" Korean bathrooms that's really just a giant shower stall with a toilet. Nope, it's the same kind of bathroom we had in Halifax - minus the clawfoot tub and plus a drain in the floor (which sure makes it easy to clean).

But do come back over for coffee sometime!

Why I Love Busan, by Becka

We haven't posted in several weeks. We're sorry. Pics of our trips to Ilsan Beach, Dragon's Rock, Busan, as well as pics of our apartment (well, you asked!) will be posted within the week. Promise. Until then, here's a rough sketch of Busan, the ROK's "second city".

For about $10 Canadian, both Jim and I can take an express bus that takes us from Ulsan to Busan in a little under an hour. These buses leave every five minutes from central Ulsan. Busan is home to giant outdoor markets, the Busan International Rock Festival, the Pusan International Film Festival, lovely beaches, and the Busan Museum of Modern Art.

The Busan MoMA is free on Saturdays - but otherwise, it's only 700 Won to get in anyway (a little less than $1 Canadian). Here is some of what we saw:


Baek Nam June (usually cited as "Nam June Paik" back home) is pretty much Korea's national art hero. Several of his sculptural media installations are on display now. This one was probably our favourite.



For the next few weeks, the Busan MoMA is also screening (white cube gallery style) several short single-channel video works by emerging artists from all over the world.

Between seeing this and getting the opportunity to finally see some decent coastline, I'm starting to feel much more settled.

I'm also very pleased to report that Jim says he is no longer perpetually tired. Can it be that we've finally caught up with the long teaching hours, the dirty, dusty air, and the late night socializing? Stay tuned!