Alcohol Power Plant
This is perhaps my favorite soju hole in Busan. It’s name is written in hanja (old Chinese-Korean writing) which translates to “Alcohol Power Plant”. First that is an epic name and secondly it has that amazing pile of soju caps right in the front door.
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Look at the Green Arrow and not the A marker…I don’t know what that is.
Thanks Steven for the gift from Thailand. You know me so well! haha...
So I have two little things to update about. First I started going to a Hapkido class tonight. A guy I met on the subway a few months ago named Ricky is my hapkido master. We originally just were chatting because we were the only foreigners in our car. After a little conversation we started talking about rugby and being a Kiwi he was keen to talk about this. Fast forward a few months I ran into him in the Philippines of all places with a few other guys from Busan. He told me about his Hapkido studio and said that I should join. I finally did and my first impressions lead me to think that I’ll really like it.
The second update is I finished reading another book today. I just finished reading the first book of the Mistborn Trilogy; The Final Empire. It’s a quick read with lots of stereotypical fantasy kinds of stuff going on, but I still loved reading it. I have a huge weakness for fantasy novels. I think it’s the way that an entire world is created and can just suck you into it. I love that whenever I have an idle moment I can just sit back and daydream about things in the book. It’s like brain candy for me…
Last thing to mention, I fucking love having a Kindle. It just makes it so much easier for me to read. It’s light, convient, and makes it easier for me to get new books. The last part is the most important thing since it’s so hard to find the books I want in Korea. Although, I feel at some point I’m going to want to buy hardcopies of all these books just so I can line my shelves and feel cool about myself. A little vain but ehh… whatever.
I just finished reading The Hunger Games and they were pretty damn good! I really enjoyed the storyline and the characters. The main characters were good but not what really grabbed me. It was a lot of the minor things in the book. For example, I loved some of the tech used during the hunger games like the mutations such as tracker jackers. Or characters that were minor but held major atmospheric presence, such as Greasy Sae or Finnick. They weren’t major characters but I could smell the reek of grease pots on Greasy Sae, the frat boy like sparkling of Finnick, or the almost brooding and simply dressed Cinnas. Although my favorite character was Haymitch. He was at times down right despicable because of his drunkenness and cold, calculating way of handling things. But I couldn’t help loving the guy. He seemed to be one of the few people in the book that had his act together. Well, maybe not having his act together but at least being able to comprehend the situations at hand, to read between the lines so to speak. Anyways, they are great books if you’re looking for something new to read.
I don’t know what’s going on but this is the coldest weather I’ve ever had to deal with. It’s supposed to be -7 C (19 F) tomorrow and I’m super exhausted from having to wake up again. I want to go back to the Philippines where it’s warm and the rum is cheap!
Btw, posts from the Philippines are coming later when I find more time to write them and get pictures from Andrew’s Camera. Most likely after I finish reading The Hunger Games…I just finished the 2nd book and I’m hooked at the moment.
So while I was in the Philippines I sent Yeye a photo of myself via KakaoTalk. So Yeye sent me a picture of the Onion plant she has been growing in our apartment.
Yeye's little onion plant
Why is she growing an onion out of a whiskey glass in our apartment? I dunno but I like it.
I forgot to post these pictures from about 3 weeks ago now. The same student who drew me before decided to start featuring me in her classroom assignments and also gave me a going away drawing at the end of winter camp.
A charicature of me on my students menu project
Also this is her giving me a going away drawing. She’s got some serious talent I hope she makes use of it in her future.
The artist herself. She drew a pic to give me as a farewell present.
YeYe and I just watched a movie called Tucker & Dale vs Evil and it was hilarious. One of those horror movies about appalachian rednecks. Except in this one the rednecks are more or less the victims. I firmly recommend watching this one.
Tucker & Dale vs Evil
So between my 2nd and 3rd Winter Camps at BGV, I got a day off. It’s surprising how full you can make a single day off when you haven’t had one in so long. I only had two plans for my day off, 1) to recover from the inevitable hangover from the night before and 2) to start putting together my beer brewing kit. I accomplished both of this things and had plenty of other surprises along the way too.
Probably the best part of the day was finally meeting back up with Kenny since he is now back from the US of A. After meeting him, we found a rocking kitchen supply shop in Haeundae that has some awesome deals; I was really tempted to buy a big cleaver that I had absolutely no need of, thankfully I was reasonable enough not too. I did pick up a strainer and a kimchi fermenter that I’m going to use as my carboy for my brew kit. After Kenny and I picked up these supplies we went out for some Chinese style dumplings chock full of spicy ginger pork…love that stuff.
Sadly this is where Kenny and I departed from each other. He had to go meet his lovely little lady and since I had no where to be I decided to walk back home. Fortune must have been smiling on me that day because it was a great walk home. First the weather was the best it had been in a long, long time. Which meant that there were tons of people all over Haeundae beach, including colorful locals like the kite man or Mr. Busan in his speedo. But probably the coolest part of my walk home was stumbling upon a Sci-Fi Toy Museum. It’s name is Movie in the Box and it was fantastic! The dude who runs the place hand makes a lot of the display items in his museum. The ones he doesn’t make are usually mint condition collectibles. He also has everything labelled in multiple languages, etc…. Really cool place that I totally recommend visiting. It’s nearer to the Westin Chosun side of Haeundae beach, located one street back above a GS25. After that, I stumbled across another museum. This was a museum of photography featuring pictures of Busan from half a century ago. Great stuff! I’d say this day was a success!
TL;DR: One day off, I begin constructing a brew kit, meet old friends, eat good food, and stumble upon two museums.
Can’t wait to get to the Philippines to just relax and recuperate after Winter Camps. So excited. Although I should make more plans than just flying to Cebu and figuring it out from there. I’m always terrible at this stuff.