Chapter Forty: Bizarre Korea

In this installment, I bring you some of the strangest things I saw in Korea--which is saying a lot since I think I posted some pretty bizarre things in all of my other posts. Here is the chicken on a leash who lived in my neighborhood.

She's a very disapproving chicken.

In my subway stop we had a book vending machine. How cool is that? It's hard to get good pictures in the subway, but you can vaguely see all it's book-vending glory.

I'm pretty sure there was one in there by Hillary Clinton. <3
I don't remember if I posted this before or not but this sign warns about the drunken and the pregnant women who are not allowed to take on.

Korea <3's Spam. A lot. I've seen gift packs of spam before, all wrapped up with Spam ribbons.

Cartoon white woman grabbing her own breasts in the Seoul subway.

This is my favorite thing ever! Bathroom stalls with little-baby-toilets!

If you try to swim in the Sincheon, you will be sucked down a whirlpool like something out of a really excellent 80's video game.

And this car with Maryland license plates sits on the road near my apartment. It's outside of a wedding studio, so I assume it is for taking wedding pictures in though I've never seen them doing so. But how did it get there?

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Fall On the Sincheon

This weekend I spent a lot of time wandering around by the Sincheon River. It seemed like the rest of Daegu did as well. There were families playing, people biking, couples sharing headphones, old men lying in the grass, children playing basketball. Everyone was in full fall reverie.
This is the direction of Apsan, which you can see in the distance. I generally walk the other way.

Under the big bridge near my apartment.

Still nearby. That sign up ahead says something about otters. I was on otter patrol all weekend; I have yet to see one.

The birds love man-made waterfalls.

Just stuff growing in the water.

View from under a weeping willow.

Foliage on the trees lining the road. I also love the lamp post.

I love the colors this bush is changing, as well as it's beautiful red berries. It looks like the transformation of fall into winter.

Neverthless, there are flowers everywhere! I cannot believe how many flowers there are! It's mid-November and they continue to bloom.

The river had a lot of man-made features, like fountains that change and make pretty shapes.

Fountain on the left with Apsan in the background.

I call this section "the birds of Daegu."

The huge flock of pigeons was not deterred by bikers or pedestrians. They remind me of New York pigeons and made me a little homesick.

More fountains.

I love when ivy changes colors, so beautiful!

This train bridge had some really beautiful designs on it.

Yellow flowers in November are one thing, but look at the purple! I still can't believe it. I've got many more pictures of the neighborhood that I should post later.

Chapter Twenty-Six: Jung Gu at Dusk

Bits taken from an e-mail written on the roof last night:
I'm writing this on text edit because there is no internet on my roof. I was feeling particularly inspired. I forget how much I love it up here until I decide to hike up. I have to climb to the top floor (which is the fourth but claims to be the fifth because four is an unlucky number) and then climb a ladder up to the very top. The ladder makes me feel like I'm climbing out of a swimming pool; it's that kind of ladder. Some time ago, Nicole and Dini moved a small table and a broken chair up here. It's an old office chair without legs so it is perfect for relaxing in. From here, I can see the major towers of Jung-Gu, my neighborhood.

When I first got here, I spent a lot of time on the roof memorizing relative locations so that I could triangulate my way home. It's served me well so far. On the right is Centro Palace--ritzy apartment buildings.

Straight ahead is Debec Plaza- a fancy department store where I buy my chicken.

The highway and river are to my left.

Way off in the distance, you can even see Woobang Tower.

Nothing at first glance is particularly Korean. When you look down from the roof, though, you see all the short little Asian houses and roofs covered in ceramic jars for fermenting and steaming.

Directly behind me is a big church.

Feeling introspective while sitting in the office chair with my computer in my lap.

Climbing down. Going home.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Daegu Food Expo

So, this weekend, I ended up at the less-than-thrilling Daegu Food Tour Expo. There were some nice carved gourds, but that was probably the highlight of the day. It was more exciting to me that I was on any adventure at all... and here's how it started:

On Friday night, Chris talked me into going to Commune, where, as it turned out, there was no pub-quiz going on. While I normally have a one-drink-max policy, I was talked into staying out for a few.

I enjoyed a nice pint of OB, which is roughly on par with Rolling Rock.

And then I apparently made friends with this guy here, Zhian. I have not really done much to make friends with other Westerners, so this was a big event. I talked to strangers and exchanged e-mail addresses with Zhian. He reminds me of my friends from Long Island or Smith. He wears huge glasses and cuffs his jeans. Clearly, we were meant to be friends. On Saturday, he e-mailed me to invite me to an International Food Festival he was going to with some friends. We met up outside of Commune yesterday in the daylight and took a cab with two of his Korean friends to this food expo. On the way inside, Zhian joked, "Wouldn't it be funny if this were one of those things where you only get to look at the food and not eat it?"
Ha ha... oh wait.

There was very little in the way of food to be consumed, most was to be looked at. But, at least some was exceedingly pretty! There were a bunch of carved gourds. Anyone else completely in awe of the idea of carving watermelons as anything other than bowls for fruit salad? We believe that the two side peacocks were carved out of radishes.

More radish/watermelon mixed media. Yes, they did glue a face to that mermaid.

Beautifully Asian.

In addition to pretty gourds, there were pretty cocktails--which also could not be consumed.

Wintery themed gourds.

This was my favorite! It's a wat-o-lantern! I cannot explain the beauty of the glow coming from inside this watermelon rose. It makes me really tempted to make a watermelon jack-o-lantern for Halloween next year.

Simple but beautiful.

Korean pride! The ingenuity astounds me.

Beautiful flower and it looks like the pumpkin in the background carefully had those words removed and then pushed back in, amazing!

Oh right, the food. It was frustrating and difficult to get to. Not much in the way of international and... not all that much food to begin with. But this was an interesting kebab place. We had expected there to be a lot of free food at little stands. Instead, you had to pay for it, there wasn't that much of it, and most of it you could just get on any street downtown.

When I first came upon this, I thought. "Ah yes, this is where we stick children behind tables with cakes and tell them not to eat them? It's just like Birthday Party day at school!" After much pondering aloud and noting differences in the cakes, we determined it must have been a children's cake decorating contest. Why they had to sit behind the cakes, I still don't understand.

A sea of small children in chefs hats listening to somebody speak. Also, none of them are messy at all, which I don't understand. Did they decorate the cakes somewhere else? Were they wearing different clothes?

The judges? I assume.

We left the expo, feeling defeated and still looking for good cheap food.
Well, at least we got balloons out of it.

Balloon jousting.

Little balloon Zhian.
We took a cab back into downtown and got the spiciest chicken I've ever had. I was laughed at by Zhian's Korean friends because I would take a bite, then sit with my mouth open contemplating how to put out the fire that was burning from my lips to my stomach.
Nevertheless, an excellent Sunday afternoon was had by all. Also, I think this means that I found hipsters in Daegu, Korea. Who needs Williamsburg?