I went to Seoul since then. Asian culture, in the past ten years or so anyway, has been largely a derivative of Korean culture. Korean fashion, tv shows, movies, and music largely get exported to to countries like Japan, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Russia, etc. You can see that sort of "high fashion and culture" in Busan to some extent, but I really got the impression in Seoul that it all starts there. Whereas Busan is very much a Korean city, I felt in Seoul as if I was in a city of the world as a whole; meeting many Asian, European, and North American people, and seeing a lot more variety of types of people in general.
It was honestly hard to think I could capture such an experience in a picture or two, but I tried anyway, although not as often as I might have. Honestly, I've never owned a useful camera before so I'm something of a novice in knowing when the right or apt times are to take a shot.
I went to Seoul the same weekend as a couple friends I've made here, but our schedules didn't quite work out to be able to go at the same time. So, I went and met my friend Drew there. Drew and I worked together a few years ago and had kept in touch since. After graduating, Drew told me he was having trouble finding a "real job" and I suggested Korea to him. Sure enough, he took my advice and ended up in Seoul. You can see him here playing one of the many crane games that line the streets of both his and my city. The boy in the picture watched for a while to see if he'd win anything.
Here's my attempt at getting a Woody Allen style crowd shot. One thing I noticed almost immediately about Seoul is that everything is bigger there compared to Busan. The buildings are many stories higher, the roads are many lanes wider, and the crowds of people walking are a many number greater.
Possibly the Seoul equivalent of my own walking trail.
I'm not sure if this fashion show was just beginning or ending when we passed by, but I saw the photographer about to take a picture and took one myself.
One of the most popular Korean past times is No-rae Bong (singing room). Usually they look like this, a room with a tv to preform karoke on, a couple wireless mics, and some tambourines. Here's Drew, with our friend Ji-Won, who was kind enough to show us around a bit.
We had the pleasure of seeing a couple award winning art projects from the school on display in a lawn of some sort. This one is a bed full of hands...
and this one was a robot who would constantly give high fives. I was especially impressed since Koreans don't seem to be much into high fives.
The next week, back in Busan, I went to my first Korean wedding. Admittedly, I haven't been to too many American weddings in my time, but I couldn't help feeling that the Korean take on the ordeal is much more akin to a broadway show than I am used to. The whole thing took place on a stage, and involved a lot of singing and dancing. Much to the dismay of myself and other picture takers, the whole thing was somewhat obstructed by the constant presence of two cameramen. Actually, this is sort of a part of Korean culture from what I can tell: there is an almost constant obsession with taking many pictures, both of yourself and others. From the information I've gathered, there is a sort of idea that your experience in life is short, but something such as a picture can last forever. Maybe I could take a lesson or two from that and start using my camera more often. Anyway, here are a couple more shots. The people sitting to the right and left on the stage are the parents of the bride and groom.
Here's a guy that owns a Swiss Folk Music bar near where I live. He's very kind and plays a dozen or so instruments from what I can tell. He says he learned living in Switzerland for a couple years.
Busan had a really big fireworks show at one of the beaches here. Just to give you an idea of the turnout, I took this picture about four hours before the show started. Once it got dark it became impossible to even walk on the beach at all. Here's some pictures of the show, depending on who I asked it apparently cost between 2 and 4 million dollars to put on.
I'm a member of a sort of friendship club for some locals and foreigners to get together. All the Koreans in the club are extremely nice and speak English well. Our most recent meeting brought us to Beomosa temple. I had been once before but had a camera this time.
Here's the pathway to the temple entrance. You can see that on a Sunday this is sort of a popular destination. Here are some more sights from within the temple walls:
Some shots of the temple... Behind the temple is a mountain you can hike up, and so we did and had a picnic towards the top. Here's a few pics that I took after. You can see me in a couple shots sporting some Korean clothes I've bought since living here. Even the officially liscensed Braves cap was made here.
