God, I love long weekends! Once a term, a magical time comes where the older kids have midterm exams, which means they cancel their supplementary classes only to spend time on their actual classes for about two weeks. While not every class gets canceled, you still end up with situations like mine, where my Saturday and Monday classes were gone and I had a nice extended mini-vacation to play with. Sounds like time for a trip! Another coworker, John, also had the same time off, so we spent the weekend up in Seoul. We got there Saturday night and stayed until Monday afternoon, which was plenty of time for sightseeing and frivolity. Met up with some friends that I hadn't seen for a while, even since training! We checked out some areas in Seoul that I never got to see during my week of hellish training, went to some cool bars and a club or two. Seoul's a cool place to visit, but I'm glad I don't live up there; it's a bit too much all the time. There's tons to do, but I enjoy a more laid back Busan atmosphere. I could also just be a loser. Hmmm...
Anyways, we went up there mainly to go check out the DMZ, or for you non-cultured people the Demilitarized Zone. It's the border between North and South Korea where there is a fenced off 2 km area where neither country can really enter or bring military forces. Now, some people might ask the pertinent question, "Why?" to which I respond most intelligently, "Cuz!" It's a big attraction for tourists, with buses going up with people by the hundreds. And it's also a really interesting look at foreign relations outside of that peaceful, idyllic image that some of us keep in our heads. I personally found it very interesting to listen to all the rhetoric being thrown about on the South Korean side, with little comments being thrown in showing the North Koreans in such a terrible light and pushing all the blame squarely on their shoulders. South Korea can definitely be guilty of painting different historical and current events in a light that's far too favorable for themselves (Dokdo, anybody?), which I guess is the case for anybody, looking back on all those years of American history in grade school. I need to read up on more history between the two now...
So anyways, the tour consisted of a few different stops along the way. First, we stopped at a little park area called Imjingak with a silly amusement park called Peace Land! The great thing about all the stuff we saw along the way was it all had names like "Unification Village" and "Freedom Bridge". By the end, we were calling everything by those names: "Man, I'm hungry. Let's grab some Unification Ice Cream at the Freedom Mart." But yeah, there was a Peace Bell and a Bridge of Freedom where over 12,000 POWs were exchanged after the war and a bunch of other monuments to peace and unification. And souvenirs! We then went up past the military blockades to the main area where they showed us an epindary movie about the DMZ that included rockin 80s music, super dramatic shots of some little girl crying/frolicking around the DMZ, and a mystical butterfly that heals wounds and restores good will and peace. We were laughing the whole time, but I don't think the other people there appreciated it so much. We then walked down to the 3rd tunnel, which is a place where those dirty commies tried to dig through to the other side and invade our way of life, only to be halted by the forces of righteousness. And butterflies. It was a grueling walk for two reasons: 1) Korea doesn't believe in making inclines/declines easy by including luxuries like switchbacks or stairs, so we enjoyed a brisk walk down and a ridiculously difficult and long walk back up, and 2) the NoKo's apparently didn't have 6'2" American tourists in mind, as I was hunched over the entire time and cursing genetics. Finally, we got to the observatory that looked out over the DMZ, and you couldn't take pictures past a certain point in case you were suspected of spying or something. On the North Korean side there was a fake village that was set up to apparently fool everyone that everything was a-ok over there, no doubt also hiding untold numbers of NBC's strapped to little puppies. Those crafty bastards. Another highlight of that area was a sign for the military forces there that said "N1CE". We took a few pics doing thumbs up there. I forgot my digital camera, but bought a disposable and am having them developed AS WE SPEAK!
All in all, a good weekend. Got a little time to do more sightseeing and went to one of Seoul's palaces, Gyeongbokgung, which was a cool look at some historical Korea. I love touristy shit sometimes. Side note: older Korean buildings and historical sites are some of the ugliest in Asia, for one specific reason. While the outsides look cool and different and interesting, the insides are always painted in the most godawful gaudy colors, like pinks and neon greens and whatnot. If some aspiring historical architecture expert (achem) wants to see if that's really the original colors they used, I'd like to know as I seriously doubt it. Also went to the bookstore, Kyobo, of course, which is fabulous in Seoul as they have a massive foreign section. Only bought one book, Bonk, which is done by the same author as Stiff, an amusing book about cadavers that I bought a little while back. This one's about the science and history of sex and sounds amusing.
Finally, next weekend is the Pusan International Film Festival, which is a huge event down here that people have been mentioning for some time. I could regurgitate what I read from Wikipedia, but I'm lazy, so here are some excerpts:
"Pusan International Film Festival held annually in Busan, South Korea, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. The first festival, held from September 13 to September 21, 1996, was also the first international film festival in Korea. The focus of the PIFF is introducing new films and first-time directors, especially those from Third World countries. Another notable feature is the appeal of the festival to young people, both in terms of the large youthful audience it attracts and through its efforts to develop and promote young talent."
I've got a good amount of tickets and I'm totally stoked! Here's a list of the movies I'm checking out, to give you an idea of what there is. Unfortunately, a lot of the really big ones were almost immediately sold out, and these ones were still somewhat hard to get ahold of as a lot of other things that I was looking at were also sold out. Enjoy, and catch yall later!
Bottle Shock United States 2007 108min Randall Miller
Winemaking perfectionist Jim and his free-spirited son are trying to make the perfect California chardonnay when a British wine snob chooses their wine to take part in a tasting in France. That sets the stage for a drama that will shake the worlds of both Jim and of wine.
Mental Japan, United States 2008 135min Kazuhiro Soda
MENTAL observes the complex world of an outpatient mental health clinic in Japan, interwoven with patients, doctors, staff, volunteers, and home-helpers. The film captures the candid lives of people coping with suicidal tendencies, poverty, a sense of shame, apprehension, and fear of society.
Another Planet Hungary 2008 95min Ferenc Moldoványi
Shot on four continents and spoken in five languages, this docu-drama studies the problems facing Earth today. Looking at rampant ecological, political, and social unrest and injustice, Moldoványi’s two-year survey of where we are and where we seem to be going is an illuminating look at contemporary human experience.
The Vanished Empire Russia 2008 105min Karen Shakhnazarov
Moscow of the 1970s, and the Soviet Empire’s zenith is also the beginning of its end. Three university students wrapped up in their own romantic dilemma fail to see their home’s downward spiral into non-existence, not recognizing the passing of a defining era—both personal and political.
Empty Chair Iran 2008 100min Saman ESTEREKI
A series of directors are making each other’s movies, blurring the lines between actor and director. In the end, who is the one who ends up yelling “cut” from the “empty chair”?
Terribly Happy Denmark 2008 95min Henrik Ruben Genz
Robert Hansen is a cop transferred to a remote village in Denmark. His usual days there are not much. One day, a woman comes to see him telling him that she has been abused by her husband. But as he is trying to help her, he falls in love with her getting himself into a big trouble.
Button Man Hong Kong, China, Taiwan 2008 80min Jen Hao Chien
Wei is the “button man”, an expert cleaner for the gang, a man who comes after a murder scene, takes care of the victim, disposing the body and leaving no evidence behind. Who would have thought that one day, he would become a target of their list….
Nightmare Detective 2 Japan 2008 102min Shinya Tsukamoto
The whole thing started out as a prank. Yukie and her friends lock their classmate, Kikukawa in an equipment room in the gym, to scare her. Though they let her out in the end, Kikukawa stopped coming to school the following day. Yukie began to have nightmares about Kikukawa
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