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 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.
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.
It’s a little late on the posting but whatever, it’s my blog 
. Anyways a few weeks ago Yeye and I went on a date. We don’t do enough dates because we are always so busy, I’m trying to change that. We went out and saw a movie. We saw the new Sherlock Holmes film. It was pretty good and definitely a big improvement over the first movie. We also went and got some Ramen at my favorite Ramen joint in Busan, Hotaru. I fucking love that place.
OMFG! I love you Ramen
Excited for Ramen
Sake that YeYe wouldn't help me with
The date was great but Yeye was still feeling the effects of our last drinking outing. So she made me drink all the Sake to myself. I didn’t mind but I really didn’t want to get that drunk.
So stoked right now that my Winter Camps at BGV are finally complete. I have weekends again. I don’t have to be at work for the next 2 weeks! I FINALLY get to sleep in! AWWW-YEAAHH!
Now it’s time to go out and celebrate.
Finally, this damned winter camp is almost finished. To many days of work in a row! About 3 days off in 30 days makes one very, very tired. So I’m planning on going down to the Philippines with my co-worker Andrew and just relaxing. Her is the game plan so far. Fly to Cebu, find a beach that is happening, cheap, and near by and fucking relax. Possible activities: lounging on beach, swimming, getting sun burnt, drinking copiously, massages, kayaking, etc…. It’s going to be grand.