I am truly sorry for not updating sooner. The last six weeks has eaten up not just my energy, but my time as well. I never truly appreciated the slavery of a nine-to-five shift until I had to teach by one for an extended period of time. My life went from splitting my waking hours between teaching and living to revolving around teaching almost exclusivly. I would wake up early, work all day, and by the time I had made it home I was too exhausted to even think about things like uploading images or boiling down my thoughts for the blog. I look back at the past six weeks with wonder: I can't believe I updated at all.

Here are a few photos from the last week.

Helmets? Who needs helmets? Helmets are for little girly men (and their girly children).



What is truly odd about the above photo is how much Koreans seem to care about foreigners and helmet usuage. In the early days of my stay in Korea (I've only been here five months, so that's not too long ago), I rode for a little while on the back of Julie's motorcycle without a helmet. Yes, I know, that was fantastically stupid, especially when one considers how bad the driving is in Busan. No one pointed out my apparent deathwish with greater fervor than the Koreans themselves. It seemed like the driver or passenger (or both) in the cars and taxis that passed by Julie and I would be waving frantically and pointing at their heads.

"Helmut-uh! Helmet-uh!"

Julie's friend Robin got her helmet from a taxi driver. When they pulled up to a red light, he leapt from his cab, ran around to the trunk and pulled out a beat-up white construction helmet for her to wear. Satisfied, the good samaritan jumped back into the driver's seat of his taxi and returned to cutting people off, speeding, tailgating and generally endangering the lives of all those around him, helmet or no helmet.

Mr. Kim had a birthday. I didn't catch how old he turned, but he's been with the school since it's founding in the early 1960s. That's a lot of water under the bridge.



I finally got a free hour this past weekend and climbed Bongnaesan. It was a beautiful day, so clear you could see the outlying islands of Japan. I was gearing up to let loose a few 'primal screams' when this guy showed up. That's lens flare coming in from the left, the result of a cheesy Tiffan filter on the front of my 50mm. It kind of works, though.



Gavin and I took a trip to PNU for some reason, I forget what. Oh yeah, we went to shoot some footage for a movie on Busan that we are cobbling together. After shooting the footage on the train out to Nopo-dong (which means absolutly zilch to most people reading this), we set course for nowhere and ended up in PNU. Gavin and I have similar wandering habits: Set a general course, get distracted, wander off course, get distracted again, drink coffee, try to set a course again.

There isn't a lot to see here past the PC Bongs and Hofs. In PNU (Pusan National University), there is a nice running track that follows a massive drainage culvert parallel to the raised subway tracks. The buildings of PNU rise high above the little bridges and roads that cross the concrete creek. People travel the rubber footpath by foot or by wheel. It's pleasant.











Other folks turn the cold concrete walls into works of art with spraypaint. I think the government sanctions the projects, because the graffiti artists didn't seem the slightest bit unnerved by my camera or Gavin's inquizativness.







As you can tell, I didn't have a lot to say this past week. I'm saving the Korean files for next week, and I have a bunch more photos of the play rehearsals, but I'm going to wait until I have a little more energy and a bit more to say before I update again. Have a good night (or morning)! --Notes

PS--I have to make an amendment to last week's update. Kristen majored in Spanish while attending Northeastern University in Chicago. She is considering a speech pathology degree (post-grad). Sorry, K. I hope everything is correct, now. --N