Bussing it to Busan and Down and Out in Daejeon

To steal a classic line from Dickens, 'It was the best of times; it was the worst of times'. That very accurately sums up my last two consecutive weekends. As the title to this entry and my opening line suggests, Busan was amazing. The latter, Daejeon, not so much.

First, the good weekend. Busan is great city. Almost too good. I can see myself spending a lot of money there every weekend if I don't be careful. The original plan was to go with some teachers from Sacheon, but they backed out. No worries, because Saturday night I was meeting an English teacher from Busan, Mary, who I had met on bus a few weeks ago. I left Saturday afternoon after a real nice morning of sleeping late and lying about. My workday starts at 2pm, so this wasn't really different that any other day. I probably should have left earlier though, because the bus hit heavy traffic on the way into the city. The road from Samcheonpo to Busan, like many roads in this country, goes through the mountains, and in one of the tunnels a produce truck lost several boxes of oranges which I would have found comical if I wasn't waiting in a bus for crews to clean it up.

I got into the express bus station about 6pm, Sasang station to Seomyeon station on the subway. Quick cab ride to Hotel Angel, after an amazing recommendation from Lee. For the price, I don't think I have stayed in a nicer hotel. I mean, I have stayed in nicer places, but not for around $30. It was a great location near Youth St., the Seomyeon bar district. I didn't get any nighttime photos because I worry about losing my camera when I go out drinking, but I don't think I could capture the whole neon-fueled seizure-inducing psychedelic craziness that is really any major city in the area. You will have to take my word for it. The bright city lights were a welcome change from my little town.

I met Mary for dinner, but she couldn't stay out late because she had plans for the next morning. She was going to show me around town after she was finished Sunday, but we never got together again that weekend. After dinner I went off on my own to a bar frequented by foreigners, The Fuzzy Navel, and it didn't take long for me to meet new friends, some Americans, some English and Irish, a Kiwi and a Canuck. The bar was small but very trendy. The female bartenders were absolutely gorgeous. At midnight, the bar staff put on a crazy show all involving lighting something on fire—stuff that would never fly in the states. I had my arm hair singed off. The foreigner group got bigger as we bounced around from bar to bar. Some bars do not close here, which is amazing. I hadn't realized how late it actually was until finally turned in at 5am, of course after hitting up an all-night Burger King. I normally stay away from American franchises while abroad, but I couldn't resist. Breakfast was again at another American fast food chain, McDonalds, but that Egg McMuffin was perhaps, considering the circumstances, the greatest single piece of food I have ever eaten. For real.

Did the tourist thing on Sunday, but first spent a few hours in the Lotte Department store. Not buying anything, but just pondering on how much nicer things are in Busan than in Samcheonpo. The biggest drawback about going to Busan was that it made me a little sad that I didn’t actually live there or in Seoul. I caught the new Bond film in the cinema on the top floor of the store. English with subtitles, which is amazing. My Spanish comprehension was even tested as the movie had Spanish dialogue, but of course the subtitles were Hangeul, so I was on my own. Not as good as 'Casino Royale', but still very decent.

Put several more miles on the old Doc Marten's walking around the city. My 'Lonely Planet' said I should go to the Jagalchi fish market. Wasn't impressed. I mean, not even a little. If I was newly arrived in the country, or an American tourist that only goes to Seoul and Busan, yeah, I probably would have been shocked or amused or whatever, but it wasn't anything really that great. I went to the fish market in Samcheonpo my second week here and that was a much better experience.

Like I said, I never met back up with Mary, which is a shame because I would have liked someone that knew the city better being tour guide, but sometimes I like just wandering around a big city by myself. If you know anything about me or heard and of my Europe stories, my exploration of a new city usually involves picking out tall pointy things in the city skyline and trying to get to them, usually with the aid (or hindrance) of alcohol. An example of that was when I was in Dublin on St. Paddy's day. I saw a dome off in the distance, and thoroughly inebriated at 2pm mind you, set off for like 8km to get to it. I was disappointed for some reason when I finally reached it, seeing that it was some kind of 'Refuge for Sinners'. What ballacks! Like Seoul, and other cities around the world, Busan has a tower that provides a good aerial view of the city, so I did that. Very cheap, around $3. I think it was more than $20 to go up in the Space Needle. Busan Tower is one of tallest, pointiest things in town, so of course I was subconsciously drawn to it.

I have to be careful when I get drunk and lost in a city out here. I not only get lost--I time travel! Dave Attell in his comedy sketches used to talk about this, but he would black out and end up in weird places in the future. I go from some sort of neon-charged future cityscape to a 16th century peasant village in about three blocks. 'Wasn't I just in a shopping mall? Why is everyone wearing silk robes and trying to sell me socks or anchovies out of a basket on a dirty street corner?’ I mean, it was weird in Rome getting drunk and lost and for some crazy reason I kept ending up at the Coliseum when all I wanted was to get back to my hostel, but I never once tricked my mind into thinking I was in ancient Rome chillin' with Cicero or something. Here I don't know what to think sometimes. I am still waiting for a samurai to appear as I turn a corner and start pillaging the Korean countryside like the Japanese are wont to do.

Almost missed the last bus back home, an amazing feat seeing that I arrived at the bus terminal nearly two hours early. Apparently all of Sacheon and Samcheonpo had also gone to Busan that weekend, and they were lined up for ages to get home. I knew I wouldn't make the first bus that came straight away, but I had a good chance to catch the second bus (they came every 40 minutes, ugh). That is, if I wasn't for a bunch of inconsiderate a**hole queue jumpers, which apparently part of Korean culture. I was listening to the bus terminal attendants, doing what I was supposed to, and as a result got shuffled back in line. Some people would just come and go right to the front of the queue and no one said anything. In the states, they would probably be picking up their teeth off the concrete for a stunt like that. So I missed the next bus that came, 40 more minutes to wait, but this time I was near the front, I was going to get on this time. But then I had to use the bathroom, bad. I didn't want to get out of line, because I had a hard enough time maintaining my position while I was standing there, let alone worrying if someone will save my spot in line. So I held it, which made for a miserable start to bus ride home—no toilet on the bus. But the driver did stop at a rest area an hour into it, so I was relieved, quite literally. So, aside from a bit of annoying moments, Busan was great, and I will definitely be going back many times in the next 9 months.

So now for the bad, and I will sum it up in two words: F*** Daejeon. I had the worst time last weekend. I was supposed to go to Daejeon, which is almost in the exact center of S. Korea, for a birthday party Saturday, or at least that was the plan. Before that I spent the morning in Jinju with my boss and a group of my academy students that were taking an English proficiency test at Gyeongsang National Uni. I was surprised to see Lee, the Sacheon E. Bo-Young foreign teacher, also there. So after my students were finished, my boss dropped Lee and I off at the bookstore near the movie theater which has an English section, albeit very small, so I could pick up something to read. We got some lunch and walked around Jinju before I caught a bus to Daejeon. A pleasant day so far, but then things turned sour.

First of all, I was told it should only take any hour to get to Daejeon from Jinju by bus. Try twice that and some. No worries, the ride was through some beautiful scenery. But I was getting worried, because I had been trying to get a hold of the people I was supposed to meet several times, and no contact with anyone. I finally get in to town at 7pm, I decided to walk around hoping the off-chance that I would run into someone, but Daejeon is a city of about a million people, so not very likely. I went to PC bang to send some emails, but I figured if they were out they wouldn't be at their computer. I killed an hour in HomePlus and walked around the city a bit while I tried unsuccessfully many more times to get a hold of someone but no dice. I went back to the internet cafe to see that someone had responded at about 9pm. They were already finished and all headed back home. Seriously? I looked at my watch in disbelief. So I didn't meet up with the people I was supposed to, but I was determined to make the best of it. I got a hotel room close to main drag to stash my bag, which I had hoped to forego as I was planning to crash at someone's house.

I really should have done my research on hotels in town. Mine was nice on the outside, s***hole on the inside. The overhead light went out 5 minutes after I went in, and when I asked them to fix it or get me a new room, the hotel clerk just shook her head like I was crazy. I am not the one to complain about stuff like this, so I just said forget it. Worst part though, I paid more for this place than the nice digs I had in Busan. At least the red 'mood lighting' still worked. Some motels in Korea, actually almost all hotels, are known as Love Motels, I think due to the fact that many young Korean adults live with his or her family much longer than they do in the US, and when they want to be 'intimate', they have to go somewhere. So my red light worked, which really made me feel dirty, the dirtiness not lessened by fact that the paper-thin walls allowed me to hear the couple in the next room loudly making sweet and passionate love, but what seemed to me was probably unsatisfyingly quick.

I had to get out of there, so I roamed the streets again looking for good place to get a drink. I tried to go in one place, and didn't see any seats at the bar, and the man at the door wouldn't get me a table. I suspect it was because I was by myself, but as the night progressed I started to rethink my assessment. I am beginning to think that Daejeon is merely filled with a bunch xenophobic racist mother f***ers, and I am sure as hell not going back. Later I tried a dance club that looked like a nice place. Stopped by the bouncer, 'Where are you going' he said in decent English. Confused, I said, 'the dance club, where do you think I'm going?'
'No.'
'Why not?' I was a bouncer in Ann Arbor, so it always feels a little weird on the other side. I was dressed nicely, so it wasn't dress code.
'No Americans. Only Koreans!' Now younger, stupider Ryan would have raised hell. I simply and calmly said 'F*** off you racist piece of s***' and walked away. I hope he could understand that. If you are going to exclude someone due to their country of origin, don't tell them that. Make an excuse or something for f***'s sake. The irony of it all, the club had an English name, 'Club Impact' and said in big neon English letters under the sign, 'high-class dance club and lounge' or something like that. High-class my a**. No-class would more appropriate. It was probably for my own good though, because if they are racist at the door, surely someone inside would probably like to try to start trouble with me.

Like they did on the street on my way home. Some drunk men started hurling insults my way (my students have taught me many Korean curse words, despite my insistence in urging them not to), and one man even accosted me, grabbing my arm as I pushed past. I am a big man, but in this country I am always outnumbered. Younger, stupider Ryan would have left him writhing and bleeding on the ground, but I held the high ground and freed myself and walked off, half expecting to take a blow in the back of the head. I made it back to the dump that was my hotel and just tried to get to the morning when I could be on the first bus the hell out of Daejeon, which is exactly what I did. I don't think I got more than 3 hrs of sleep, as I could hear ever car horn and siren and drunk out on the street. I didn't even try to get a hold of the people I knew in the city. The bus couldn't get me out of there fast enough. The bus ride home was the best part of the weekend. Never in my life will I go back there.

So that was the last two weekends. I will definitely be staying in the next few weeks to save some money, so not much happening in the near future. Sad to say that I am working on Thanksgiving tomorrow (well, today now) but the boss is taking the staff out to dinner, so not all bad. I am even working the 22-26 of December, which really stinks. I feel like that guy in the movies who is too caught up with work to enjoy the holidays. Maybe I will be visited by three ghosts Christmas Eve. I do get Dec 31st and Jan 1-2 off, I guess that isn't too bad, really not enough time to go anywhere though, but we will see. I hope everyone back home has a great holiday, and I am sorry I won't be there to share it with you all. I will probably try to call some of you on Thanksgiving Day, so look for that. Happy Turkey Day and go Lions! (Who am I kidding?!!)

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