Melody Visits (Day 1)

Friday7.11.2008

Melody came to visit for the weekend (Thursday night-Monday
morning). Her leavings are hair (scattered liberally around the floor
of my 1-room apartment) and photographs.


My second morning SAT class.


These kids are all right.


Lunch on Friday.

A recurring theme of Mel's visit was her protests of my (allegedly)
inadequate bachelor diet.


Two minutes after taking this picture, we saw a lady back her car up
and ram into a truck also backing up. In the confusion of the
moment, Mel snapped a set of surreptitious photographs.




Copping a squat. 蹲。




Our supermarket. The soju section.

Koreans love their alcohol... in fact, this is the only
country I've been to where I feel less comfortable
drinking (for reasons of not wanting to misrepresent
my personal stance on drunkenness) than I would
in the States.






Delivery scooters for the Pizza Hut behind my building. These dudes
are on that straight hardbody Easy Rider. I have seen one cold wipe
out in the rain and push his joint to the curb. Forget fixed gear bikes,
scooters are where it is at.


Afternoon TOEFL class.


My building. Technically known as the "Ilsan Vista,"
it has the dubious distinction of being crowned with
large signs for the ground-level BYC outlet.

BYC is a lingerie/underwear store.




There is a giant convention center about a mile and
a half from my building.
On her first night here, we walked out there, after
watching part of the fountain show at Lake Park.


At night, the various exhibition halls of the center are lit up like a
vision from Final Fantasy VII... at least that's my opinion.

Come to think of it, playing Final Fantasy VII as a kid seems to have
informed my adult architectural aesthetics to an inordinate degree.


It seems as though the center is supposed to have a
pool of water lapping at its banks; but, for reasons
that I can only suppose are of water conservation or
an accidental drowning lawsuit, it was drained. We,
naturally, strode through, cold Moses style.


Then the rocks began to annoy our sandals, so we
knew the ledge.


A portrait of the artist as a young woman.


KINTEX.

Korea is the most innocent country, ever.

The Kintex center is... open to the public. Entirely
so; we saw some strolling couples walk right
through the main doors at around 12:30 AM, and
we wound up sneaking up a back stairwell by
accident.

In what kind of country can you sneak into a large
commercial center by accident?


Brought to you by Chilsun Cider. This stuff is great:
for 990 KRW (a bit less than a dollar), I can get 1.5
liters of it at the grocery store. Chyea!






Goyang-Si is building a quaintly commercialized 华城
next to Lake Park. But Korean developers were faced
with an alarming proposition: How might they ensure
their audience's knowledge that this area is the China
town?
Obvious solution: GREAT WALL = CHINA.
durr.

More to come.