Hi everyone,
I know it's been a week since the last post. Last week was pretty uneventful, I'm battling a stuffy nose right now, which seems to happen every year when summer becomes fall. This past weekend the same gang from the Chuseok trip plus two more ventured out to Busan (formerly Pusan) in southeast South Korea to celebrate Jessie's birthday and attend the 14th annual Pusan International Film Festival. 5 of us caught a 9 pm bus on Friday from the Express Bus Terminal in Seoul and all proceeded to sleep the entire 4.5 hours to Busan. Once in Busan we hastily made our way to the closest jjingjibang, which was much smaller than the ones we stayed at over Chuseok. We woke up early the next day to check out the huge fish markets by the water and then made our way to the PIFF zone to pick up our reserved tickets for our movie on Saturday. After grabbing our tickets we went to a large market place where the men let the women enjoy their shopping while we grabbed some food from one of the many stands in the market. We headed towards Haeundae beach after the market, which was the other location for the film festival. There were some cool sand sculptures and we grabbed a nice spot on the beach in the sun and waited for the rest of our group to arrive. From the beach we made tracks to the theater to see "Five Minutes of Heaven," an Irish film produced by BBC Films, starring Liam Neeson. The film is set in the middle of the violence in Northern Ireland in the mid-1970s and focuses on a teenager who is part of a Protestant terrorist group who murders a Catholic in front of the man's younger brother. 30 years later, a TV program tries to bring the two together to meet and hopefully find "truth and reconciliation" in the process, but the victim's brother, haunted by 30 years of guilt, is out for revenge. The film was very good, but also very heavy.
After the movie we had a nice birthday dinner and further festivities, providing many memories and eventually we ended up at a another jjingjibang by the beach. Some of us woke up early Sunday morning to get try and get tickets for a mid-morning movie. Unfortunately they didn't have 5 tickets for one movie so we had to split up. Dave and I went to see Tetsuo: The Bullet Man, a Japanese film that I can't really describe with words. The plot centers around an American businessman living in Tokyo whose young son is murdered, which leads to a number of secrets being revealed to the man, including a large mystery surrounding his mother and his birth as well as his father's work. Definitely one of the stranger films I've ever seen. After the movie we decided it was time for us to head back home after a quick but very exhausting visit. Once again, the bus ride back consisted of some wonderful rest time for all.
In other news, it was very disappointing to see the Badgers outgain Ohio St. only to fall apart because of turnovers and special teams, but I'm not surprised. Also, Twins fans couldn't have asked for a better last month to the season but I don't think anyone expected them to make it past the $$$ Yankees. Hopefully the Wild and Leafs will start to pile up W's in the wins column. It's great to see the Vikings undefeated, even better if their record is 7-0 two weeks from now. Oh and how could I forget, I had my first official visit to a Korean hospital today, but nothing to worry about, I have had a skin infection on my right index finger for the last two weeks and went to get it checked out and got plenty of prescription pills and cream so hopefully it will go away by the end of the week. Anyways, that's all from here, hope everyone that's reading this is well.
I know it's been a week since the last post. Last week was pretty uneventful, I'm battling a stuffy nose right now, which seems to happen every year when summer becomes fall. This past weekend the same gang from the Chuseok trip plus two more ventured out to Busan (formerly Pusan) in southeast South Korea to celebrate Jessie's birthday and attend the 14th annual Pusan International Film Festival. 5 of us caught a 9 pm bus on Friday from the Express Bus Terminal in Seoul and all proceeded to sleep the entire 4.5 hours to Busan. Once in Busan we hastily made our way to the closest jjingjibang, which was much smaller than the ones we stayed at over Chuseok. We woke up early the next day to check out the huge fish markets by the water and then made our way to the PIFF zone to pick up our reserved tickets for our movie on Saturday. After grabbing our tickets we went to a large market place where the men let the women enjoy their shopping while we grabbed some food from one of the many stands in the market. We headed towards Haeundae beach after the market, which was the other location for the film festival. There were some cool sand sculptures and we grabbed a nice spot on the beach in the sun and waited for the rest of our group to arrive. From the beach we made tracks to the theater to see "Five Minutes of Heaven," an Irish film produced by BBC Films, starring Liam Neeson. The film is set in the middle of the violence in Northern Ireland in the mid-1970s and focuses on a teenager who is part of a Protestant terrorist group who murders a Catholic in front of the man's younger brother. 30 years later, a TV program tries to bring the two together to meet and hopefully find "truth and reconciliation" in the process, but the victim's brother, haunted by 30 years of guilt, is out for revenge. The film was very good, but also very heavy.
After the movie we had a nice birthday dinner and further festivities, providing many memories and eventually we ended up at a another jjingjibang by the beach. Some of us woke up early Sunday morning to get try and get tickets for a mid-morning movie. Unfortunately they didn't have 5 tickets for one movie so we had to split up. Dave and I went to see Tetsuo: The Bullet Man, a Japanese film that I can't really describe with words. The plot centers around an American businessman living in Tokyo whose young son is murdered, which leads to a number of secrets being revealed to the man, including a large mystery surrounding his mother and his birth as well as his father's work. Definitely one of the stranger films I've ever seen. After the movie we decided it was time for us to head back home after a quick but very exhausting visit. Once again, the bus ride back consisted of some wonderful rest time for all.
In other news, it was very disappointing to see the Badgers outgain Ohio St. only to fall apart because of turnovers and special teams, but I'm not surprised. Also, Twins fans couldn't have asked for a better last month to the season but I don't think anyone expected them to make it past the $$$ Yankees. Hopefully the Wild and Leafs will start to pile up W's in the wins column. It's great to see the Vikings undefeated, even better if their record is 7-0 two weeks from now. Oh and how could I forget, I had my first official visit to a Korean hospital today, but nothing to worry about, I have had a skin infection on my right index finger for the last two weeks and went to get it checked out and got plenty of prescription pills and cream so hopefully it will go away by the end of the week. Anyways, that's all from here, hope everyone that's reading this is well.
Wow Wolfie its incredible to thing that my pimpdag road trip companion is now exploring in South Korea! I hope you are enjoying it, has the language barrier been hard to deal with?
ReplyDeleteAnyways, its awesome that you are taking this opportunity, I'll keep checking out your blog to see what you are up to. I'm starting a job in Madison at a public accounting firm on the first week in November, so I'm jealous that you will be having a much more exciting year than I.
Good luck with everything, and stop cheering for Minnesota sports. Seriously, go Bucks!
-Gaynor
Glad to hear from you Gaynor! The language barrier has been difficult for some things but I'm beginning to learn. Good luck at your job, there are definitely some times when I miss Madison and hopefully I'll make it out there when I get back.
ReplyDelete