Bunny's Burrowings in Korea

Sun, 09 Jul 2006 12:11:44 GMT

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Gyeongju

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 15:13:56 GMT

Reflected Pagoda
Originally uploaded by bunnymonster.

Today I went to Gyeongju and saw some more old Korean stuff, obviously very little of it is authentic as everything has been knocked down by the Japanese, but the artisans in the 1970s did a steling job of rebuilding things. I also went and saw what at first glance looked like the Tele-tubby valley but in fact was the final resting place of several of the patriarchs of Silla dynasty which ruled Korea around the time of Christ.

Haeundae Beach

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 10:44:36 GMT

Haeundae Beach
Originally uploaded by bunnymonster.

I'm currently down in Busan, it's been gloriously sunny and hot. Today I spent most of the day at a temple and then went to the beach where I read my book and probably got sunburnt. I've never really been into beaches but it's growing on me...

Take care y'all

P

In which our protagonist sees some prostitutes, gets wet and reaches an impressive peak....

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 06:36:31 GMT

As most of you may have realised I never post with much regularity so frankly the fact that I've posted twice this month should come as a bit of a shock.

When I left off, I was due to go to see the tea fields, which I did but frankly the day was far too hot, and so I decided to stay on the bus as that would take me to the beach. The sea breeze helped to keep the temperature at a vaguely sensible level. There was a shortage of hot girls in bikinis though which was a disappointment, though some people were obviously sickeningly in love.... I also decided to donate my sunglasses to the locals, which frankly I think was most generous of me, so expect a lengthy post on the merits of different styles pretty soon.

That evening I decide that I was going to go and visit a friend who lives in a nearby town and so headed home for a reasonably early night, on my way home I walked into an area with lots of faintly attractive ladies loitering near a bus stop, I was curious as if they were going somewhere fun then maybe I ought to go too, however it would appear that the fare to ride this particular bus was more than the 800 won that I was prepared top pay.... The korean style of propositioning seems to revolve around grabbing hold of drunken men and refusing to let them go while they protest vehemently until they decide that they in fact are not quite so against the idea and then off the two go.

Next I headed south to visit my friend Jason, who live in a nice town called Mokpo, I didn't really do anything exciting whilst there as Mokpo whilst nice doesn't really have all that much to recommend it aside from an excellent Galbi (barbequed meat) buffet which for 10,000 won ($10) was a steal for one as carnivorous as me. I also didn't get to meet Jason as he was sick so all in all it was a failed trip really.

After a brief return to Seoul I went over to the east coast to visit a town called Sokcho, and a national park called Soraksan, between being sick (eary,throaty infectiony thing) and the weather being a little less than ideal I spent most of my time holed up in my hotel room watching the A-Team or wandering around the harbour taking pictures of birds. I did get one reasonable day of shooting in Soraksan though it was far too hot for any really good walking I made it up one of the smaller peaks which was pretty impressive. I've already climbed most of the big summits in Soraksan so I didn't really feel like I missed out that badly, but it would have been nicer than feeling terrible.

Now I'm back in Seoul, I had errands to run yesterday and then went to see the national war memorial. Despite having plans to see a liquor museum and a muddy spa I felt totally unmotivated to leave togo anywhere today. I think I might go and try to see one of the palaces later and then go and cheer on Togo against Korea, if only to see hundreds of thousands of people realise that no matter how loudly you shout "Taehan Minguk" If your football team is shit you still are going to lose....

It's been a while

Tue, 30 May 2006 14:14:19 GMT

Right sorry about the last post making a mess of your friends pages.

Anyhow, for those of you not aware I've finished working for a while and so being a boy of leisure I've decided to see what delights I can find in Korea to entertain me for the next month or so. After finally moving out of my apartment on Saturday I spent the weekend in Seoul just aimlessly chilling out which was really nice. I did absolutely nothing of note (well not of note HERE, as I am a gentleman) though Laura and I spent quite a lot of time in motel rooms.....

On one of the brief excursions into the sun I found a japanese style fish restaurant. Which served me...

(sorry it's dark I have no photoshop and the light was terrible...)

This differs from standard Korean style fish as it is grilled simply and not smothered in red pepper paste.... It came with a lemony vinegar dip(to the right) which was excellent, the soup nearest the camera was just a simple onion soup and the one to the left had tofu in it and was pretty good too...

On Monday I caught a bus down to Gwangju, Gwangju is in the extreme south of Seoul and is approximatly 300km from Seoul. The ticket cost me a grand total of $20.80 which I thought was very reasonable (I could have done it even cheaper, but the luxuary coaches have AC and it was hot). After a brief problem actually finding the correct departure terminal, I got on the move and a mere 3.5 hours later I was in Gwangju. Or at least I thought I was....

It turns out Gwangju bus terminal is in the middle of nowhere, this led to a lengthy period in which I tried to work out how to get into the town itself. I finally found a PC room and by means of the interweb discovered I needed a number 17 bus, however catching a number 17 bus in the direction of city hall was not a good plan.The city hall was one of these new complexy things outside the town and soon I ended up at the bus depot ( cue looks of silly foreigner...). The bus driver took it in good spirits and bunged me on the return bus and eventually I ended up at Gwangju station.

I found a cheap hotel and set off to hit the town. Gwangju is a pretty nice place though it is pretty provincial and white faces are at a premium down here to say the least. This means the staring and random wow it's a foreigner style comments are a touch higher, which is fine, though I have started correcting kids who call me american...

This is a traditional Korean food called 만도 (mandu) which are basically like big ravioli, these particular ones contained meat and came with a gingery dipping sauce which was pretty good. I had some fried rice and cola to complete the meal...

I then wandered round the town and found a large bell to comemorate the massacre which took place here in 1980 when people protested about their school being closed (now I'd be glad to have gotten some days off but heh, those craaaazy students...).Seriously though the bell was pretty nice. After taking some more photographs I get randiomly asked what I'm doing by some woman "I'm taking photographs, is that ok?" I ask thinking there must be some big thing about not photographing the monument, "no it's fine I was just curious" comes the reply, a definite winner of the 'question you are most likely to already know the answer to award' for the week....

Today I went to a place called 담양 (Damyang) which has a LOT of bamboo forests near it. Balthor came along and got his picture taken and made some new friends....

On the way back home I got a bit lost, got a bit less lost, ate some mediocre food (cheesy pork cutlets) and am now planning my trip to the tea fields tomorrow, so expect some pictures of tea plants, what joy.....

Right everyone be good to each other, I'm going to see what happens when you insert a power drill into a set of speakers.....

Fri, 26 May 2006 07:27:05 GMT

Right, I'm about to pack up the computer before I go off for a bit of travelage. I'll be online pretty much daily but nowhere near as much as now. If anyone wants me e-mail is the way forward. Talk to you all on the other side...

P

Dragon Lantern

Sun, 30 Apr 2006 16:07:52 GMT

Dragon Lantern
Originally uploaded by bunnymonster.

Went to see the Lantern Parade for Buddha's Birthday (next Friday). The floats were great as per usual. I'll write more soon, promise...

P

The Prodigy

Sat, 22 Apr 2006 08:21:44 GMT

Prodigy
Originally uploaded by bunnymonster.

So here is me meeting BJ Penn, he was in Korea with some of his students who are fighting today. They came in and took over the gym for a bit. BJ was super nice, and we randomly chatted for a bit about stuff. Actually he's taller than I'd imagined...

Fri, 21 Apr 2006 15:28:59 GMT

OMG just met BJ Penn, he was super nice, pictures and explainations to follow, but I need to eat and shower and stuff

Wed, 29 Mar 2006 16:18:48 GMT

Went to watch some football tonight with my colleague Mark, during which I saw no goals, got very very cold and broke my tripod, not the idea evening out. Pictures are up in the usual place. Otherwise all is well, though obviously work involves excess idiots, all of whom mean well but honestly have no clue what they are doing, let alone trying to organise what anyone else should be doing...

Be excellent to one another.

Paul

I think winter might finally be over

Thu, 23 Mar 2006 12:37:51 GMT

Buds
Originally uploaded by bunnymonster.

Spring has finally graced us with her presence, it's been positively balmy all day, which was nice. I bought a new tripod today too, so expect me to make the most of the good light we've been having...

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 17:04:13 GMT

I hate making decisions, I struggle to choose what to have for lunch. So imagine how hard it is for me to make really important choices, especially those which upset someone who I love, that would be oh so easy to take the obvious easy option, but I guess I need to do what I know is right.... Bah, I feel numb right now, so I'll go to bed...

Please look after each other.

Sat, 25 Feb 2006 08:04:20 GMT

Yong San, one of the guys from the gym is starting his national service today, so we went out for dinner after training, which was nice. I would enter inot a long and rambling rant about national service, but frankly it provides the Korean government with lots of cheap labour which keeps my taxes down so...... For dinner we went to a shabu shabu buffet restaurant where we ate a silly amount of meat all for the bargain price of 9,000won ($9 us) each , for those of you not familiar with shabu shabu it's basically a big pot of thin stock into which you put vegetables and very thinly sliced, think wafer thin ham thickness, beef which cooks almost instantly. It is traditionally chinese but Korean's are big fans as am I. Afterwards I came home and Laura had a new dress which is very pretty and looks remarkably good on my floor too....Not just that but she'd made cookies, I am feeling the luckiness...

Choose!

Sat, 18 Feb 2006 08:32:23 GMT

Choose!
Originally uploaded by bunnymonster.

For those not aware 소화기 is 'fire extinguisher' in Korean. I saw these together and liked the quandry.

Yet more squares of doom and destiny

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 16:33:53 GMT

http://kevan.org/nohari.cgi

Bleh, working on Saturdays sucks, I am not sure if I hope they make a big deal about next saturday or not, I'm not working it either way....

Evryone has one So I figure I ought to too

Tue, 14 Feb 2006 04:07:05 GMT

http://kevan.org/johari?name=Bunnyinkorea

In other news there are rumours that work are about to try and pull an ultimate pisstake, they will be firmly told where to shove it. Will update progress later, though it could cause the Bunny to be unemployed and inhabiting "Bunny's Balcony of Beer ™" which would be a terrible shame...

Tue, 07 Feb 2006 15:18:44 GMT

Today it snowed so my morning classes were cancelled so we could go and play in the snow..... I may or may not have made a few children cry due to their skin and snow interfacing.....

In other news my sore throat seems to be turning into a full blown cold, so I'm going to run off to bed so as to try and nip it in the bud...

this post was brought to you by the letter blibble and the number twelverteen

Paul

Sun, 05 Feb 2006 14:43:32 GMT

Well the past few weeks have been pretty uneventful so once more I've had little to write about. But in the interests of keeping the journal current I'll pretend something interesting has happened. This weekend has been spent mostly feeling sub par, not really sick just thoroughly uninspired, as a result lots of the weekend have been spent sleeping and the remainder has been spent baking. This weeks baking has included banana bread, apple crumble, a vanilla cake and a lemon cake. I'm not sure if I have stated my undying love for my oven but frankly I wanted one the whole of last year and as a result I chose my apartment with the intention of buying one and am so glad that I have done so. I really need to get back to the gym, I figure that the end of next week would be an ideal time assuming this sore throat I have gets no worse. Work is the same as usual with intermittent bonus paperwork, I get paid in full and on time with a mimimum of hassle so to be honest I'm pretty content. In fact I think content is a word I could use to describe life in general, I just hope it doesn't develop into a full on rut as then it could all go downhill quickly.

Take care of each other

P

Sat, 14 Jan 2006 15:23:22 GMT

Today we went to Seoul tower in Namsan park, there was walking, climbing and whining. I took some pictures, theyre rubbish you can see them on my flickr page.

Hmm finding somewhere to eat in Kangnam on a Saturday is like trying to find a clasy girl in a sheffield nightclub....

Crappy meme

Sat, 14 Jan 2006 03:36:05 GMT

Ground Rules: The first player of this "game" starts with the topic "5 weird habits of yours" and people who get tagged need to write an LJ entry about their 5 quirky habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next 5 people to be tagged and list their names...

1) I like to chew on things, I'm like a dog in that regard, be it paper, clothes or pens. Oddly I don't like gum very much.

2) I HAVE to wear clean underwear every day, regardless of how clean I am or anything else, it borders on obsessive

3) I like to communicate using random noises and grunts, this can be confusing when I try to use this in the queue for cinema tickets...

4) I will randomly dance slightly and mostly internally at any given moment, possibly on the subway or in the supermarket.

5) I can't stand being thirsty, I can go for days without food with no complaints, but I just have to be drinking all the time, perhaps I truly am part dolphin....

I tag shockeroo, kymied, squeak, stally and sundress

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 15:10:49 GMT

Hmm since the last time I wrote I have mostly been taking photographs and playing with the wonderful world of Flickr. Work has been mostly ass mainly due to people trying to make us do yet more inefficient paperwork, but it seems like noone is going to check if I do this work so I'd suggest the number of days I'll continue doing it will be around the value for pi... I've also been baking again which has been more successful although my yeast was lazy and thus my bread didn't rise well.
I think I might take Balthor out on a photo outing if we get passable weather this weekend, anyone have any requests of anything Korean stylie they want pictures of??
Sorry that this post has been utterly dull and boring but its been cold and I've not done much of note...

Sat, 07 Jan 2006 10:03:23 GMT

OK well I've been merrily taking pictures with the new camera and frankly I'm loving it, some of my misendevours can be seen here. I think we're off to Hongdae tonight so I'll take it with again and see what I can rustle up tonight...

Thu, 05 Jan 2006 16:04:52 GMT

Hmmm, due to a reasonably long seated desire for better photos I got around to checking the prices of cameras in Korea and was reasonably surprised. As a result I went and spent too much money on a new camera today, I shall spend the next few days finding things to photograph till I lose interest and it gathers dust. I will attempt to share some of my misendevours with the camera with you all. In other news my employers are utterly mentally deficient... Oh that and dragging your employees out into the middle of nowhere for crap food is not a great reward for their tolerance of your retardedness...

Tue, 03 Jan 2006 15:26:23 GMT

Today I spent most of the day watching season 1 of 'prison break' and I feel as if I've been robbed, the show is really good and well worth watching with decent scripting and requiring about as much attention as any 'intelligent' US show (i.e that of a small fruit fly) such as Lost or the wire. However the season 'finale' was an utter joke. I feel as if the studio execs. had a hand in this and saw the first 3-4 episodes pulling in big numbers and turned round and said "we know the story only lasts for 13 eps., but we WANT season two", waved some money and the writers went away and redid the end of episode 13 to easily allow a second season. It was like watching a movie and having the projector burn out 15 mins from the end, utterly frustrating.

I'm back to work tomorrow and think I might have to cry...

In other news I feel I need a photographic upgrade, the only problme being consumer electronics in .kr are so expensive its untrue and so I really ought to hold off until I can go on a trip to someplace with cheaper prices.

I love my diet as I get to eat things like, lamb, noodles and chilli sauce for lunch and pork curry and rice for dinner and I still ought to lose weight...(*crosses fingers*)

Same Lemons Different Year

Mon, 02 Jan 2006 15:22:18 GMT

        Well it's been a while, but I figure that as we've slipped into 2006 I better start keeping the old "El Jay" updated.

         I figure it's easier to look backwards as opposed to forwards, (unless you're running very fast then it's far easier to look forwards, but that's largely irrelevant) so I guess I'll bring everyone up to speed on the life lupine.

        I'm still bumming about here in Korea, being reasonably well paid for drawing chickens on a whiteboard and keeping six year olds entertained, it's been a period of great change at work with us going through Korean staff at a rate of knots, yet our director still seems to try very hard to make those who have persevered want to leave. All in all she's pretty good to us though she has installed a new underling who obviously has far too little to do with his time and so keeps on coming up with things for us to do, none of which are particularly pleasant and many of them are most irrelevant. All in all my working life is pretty painless and hopefully it will stay that way, though there is plenty of time for things to go remarkably wrong especially with the new Kindergarten intake in February...

        My social life is pretty dormant still with my address book looking about as pathetic as it's possible to. This annoys me more than anything due to having an apartment which is utterly perfect for entertaining yet I have virtually noone to invite over. I did have a bit of a gathering on Christmas eve which went pretty well but literally a handful of people turned up so they all got very well fed (and watered).As a result Laura and I ended up venturing out on NYE and having a few drinks before midnight kind of crept up us and we came home.

        I'm not training very well at present which is annoying me as I keep on turning up to the gym to find noone there, which happened again tonight, I really should find somewhere new to train but the only other gym I know of is coached by an utter ass and so I shall not be patronising them. I'm kind of keeping in shape though I am sliding into tubbiness and as such am on day one of a new and improve diet, with the intention of losing about 20 pounds over the next couple of months, nothing too serious, I just prefer my weight to have an eight at the front whilst it currently has a nine. This dietary plan will be hindered by my current love of making pizzas and cakey products in the oven...

        Earlier this year my parents came to visit which went spectacularly poorly and confirmed my suspicion that the time has come where we really shouldn't live together, meh never mind I got a Christmas card so I think we're still on speaking terms, but it might well be marginal...

        So what does 2006 hold for the Bunny, this I fear is a big old mystery, I flirted with the idea of going back to school and doing an MBa in Korea, but I think that idea is fatally flawed as I am far from convinced that I really want one, and if doing an MBa is far from a trifling matter and I need to be 100% sure before I commit to it. Thus I'm left with choosing to stick with the safe comfort zone of Korean living or moseying into the unknown that is Japan. I really am not sure which I fancy more, but frankly Bunnies have a huge amount of inertia but I have another few months to make up my mind.

        So that drags you up to speed on all things in the Korean world. I'm going to make a concerted effort to keep updated with any news from the land of the morning calm. I'm kinda looking to the audience as to what you're looking for here as I expect noone actually reads this drivel, so if anyone has any questions or requests I'll hopefully be able to oblige you.