Monday, September 25, 2006

Igidae

Just a few pictures from yesterday's hike along the coast. There is a great path that runs along the opposite end of the bay where I live.

This is the "Gwangan Dae Gyo" or the Gwangan "Great" Bridge. It couldn't be just called the Gwangan Bridge because that would make it the "Gwangan Gyo" and everybody knows that is just silly talk.

It is an impressive bridge and lends some validity to Busan's claim to be the San Fransisco of Asia...

The path hugs the shore and often goes right along the rocks using suspension bridges and wooden catwalks. All along the rocks near the water you can see sport fisherman. I call them "sport" fisherman because they are all well dressed in new gear and seem to be just enjoying the surf and keeping every minnow they catch. Not as much interested in feeding their families as they are being outdoors.

The rocks are very cool with lots of huge waves crashing over and that really visceral feeling that the ocean always seems to give. I feeling of power and depth, a sense of vastness... you know when you look out across the water that it goes half way around the world.


Next time I travel back home, I might take the boat.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

A few words concerning trans-Pacific air travel...

So I arrived in Busan on Saturday night around 10pm, it was a confusing and surreal arrival as I had embarked the previous Friday morning at 10am from Toronto.

I think what makes traveling to Asia so confusing is the time change. Coming back to Canada was a cinch. Leave Thursday at 7:30pm and arrive the same Thursday at 7:45pm. Love that date line, it creates a hole in time in which you had spent 14 hours sitting in a semi-comfortable chair, breathing recycled air and marveling at a projection screen, over the heads of several dozen people ahead of you, which is indicating that you are currently 10,300m over Siberia. (I've always wanted to go there!)
This hole in time is easy to reconcile. You haven't lost anything and you can pretend it didn't happen by just stopping your watch as soon as you sit down on the plane before take off and starting it again when you land-pause and unpause.

However, when I flew back. I had all this missing time to deal with, I mean the actual travel time was only around 23 hours or so. The missing 13... the made me feel really tired. Deep down. Even as I write this on Monday I feel like my blood is thick porridge and my eyelids are made of lead. Everything is just dragging.

Better get over it. Off to Shanghai the day after tomorrow.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Home for a Rest


I have been back home in Canada for about two weeks now, it has been a fantastic break from the grind in Busan and I finally feel completely rested and aclimatized. I did learn a few tricks as to how to opitmize the adjustment to the 12 hour time zone gap and the counter culture shock:

1) As soon as you sit down on the plane and before you even buckle your seat belt, change your watch to the time at your destination and start thinking in that time.

2) Upon disembarking, get in a car and head to the nearest lake. You will need 1 inflatable tube and 1 motorboat with at least 75hp.

3) Proceed to have someone drag you across the lake and top speed (I recommend at least 30mph) and then when you reach the center of the lake engage the surface of the water with your face.

4) Upon the recovery of your senses and the realization that your are floating prostrate in the middle some lake in western Ontario, you can consider your yourself fully de-planed.

For further illustration, you can consult the enlargement below.

As you can clearly see, I am exhibiting none of the signs of jet lag or cross-cultural anxiety.

It is not as strange to be back as I had anticipated it would be. I found it a little bizarre at first to see all of these familiar faces around me. I felt that everyone was an old classmate or teacher that I had forgotten. I mean everyone around me looked like someone I used to know. This is probably because I have been surrounded by seas of Asian faces for 15 months and it is the first time I have been surrounded with people of similiar feature.

Aside from the other tangible elements of being back home; the food, beer, cheese, cable TV, masculine clothes, english speaking cashiers, clerks not following you around stores, the complete absence of car horns, no one yelling at you to come into their store, jay walking, buses that run once an hour, having to call for a taxi, the lack of megaphones being used to sell things, and comforting presence of family and loved ones, it hasn't been much of change. Happy to be here and also will be happy to be back in two weeks.

I guess the trick is to not let your expectations dictate your impressions. The less to expect the more to impress (bubble gum phil. quote 2376#g, patent pending)