you are the place that spaceships merely dream of.

photo 1: mounds of disgusting dried fish. little guppies and what not...but to see them in this setting and not on my lunch plate, they look like mounds of pure silver.
photo 2: this was a streetside fish cookery. rachel bought a piece of fish and it was one of the best tasting fish i'd ever had.
photo 3: this is general view of the market. every shop looked like this one except that it went on for what seemed like miles.


we went to the fish market in busan. when rachel told us that we were going to go (and it was not asking, it was definitely telling) i was not too thrilled, but i must admit that it was well worth it and i had a great time. we went to eat at a fish place but there was no menu for us and ultimately a nice korean guy who spoke english came over and helped us. he asked what we wanted and ordered for us. he said he ordered us 4 different fish, but instead of getting 4 pieces of fish, i'm pretty sure we got 4 different types of fish, but much more than 4 pieces. between the 4 of us, our bill came out to be 4$ each for some really fresh and delicious fish. i don't really recall what we did that evening. at this point, my battery died on my camera and i didn't get to take anymore pictures. ultimately though, one person split off and the remaining three went to an underground market where i bought some converse knock offs called "only star". we then went and saw a movie, a bad one, i won't even tell you the title...but it was pretty horrible. i'm not going to tell you what it was because i knew it was going to be bad...i'm ashamed. after that, everyone crapped out and wanted to sleep. so we ordered pizza and watched tv. the end.

birthday in busan pt.1

photo 1: rachel, briana, me...in our hostel, roll of toilet paper, preparing ourselves for maximum fun.



my 3 friends and i took a trip to busan last weekend. my birthday happened to fall during this time. i left work after a rather rotten day, we met up w/the girls at the subway station and took the train into seoul. we then boarded the bullet train to busan. the thing apparently goes about 300km an hour. so it only took 3 hours to get to the other side of the country...my birthday happened on the train! we arrived and took a cab to our hotel. the drivers in korea are like stock car drivers. at one point during our journey, he hit 160kmh...roughly 99mph. the 4 of us were laughing and nervous because we realized how easily this man could kill us all. our little hostel was really nice! but it only had one bed and so we had to rotate our sleeping arrangements. but considering, for 3 nights, we only had to pay about 16$ each made it manageable.
photo 2: haeundae beach as i will always remember it.

the next day we went to haeundae beach...which was probably the greatest beach i've ever been to in my life. i've got some pictures to prove it. i've never been to a beach surrounded by mountains before, but as it would turn out, this is the best kind of beach. we then ate fish. the first were gutted and then cooked whole w/all the scales and eyeballs, etc. it was really great! i'd never eaten fish like that before. usually when you order fish you get this sterile piece of boneless meat in front of you, but with this, your fish had a face and certainly had bones if you didn't eat him properly.

photo 3: have you fed the fish?

that night, we drank beer in our hostel room, then in the chicken restaurant, then on the beach, and then at a bar. everyone was very cheerful...so as most cheerful people do when they go to the beach, we bought some fireworks! it is hard to light things at the beach though, due to the constant wind...but we managed somehow and played w/the fireworks for a while. i had mentioned to the group that i wanted to do nori bang/karaoke for my birthday but that it would be great if there were koreans w/us. it just so happens that some korean guys (obviously interested in the girls) started talking to us on the beach.we went out w/them to a bar and they bought us beer and then tagged along w/us to nori bang. one of them was named "mistayoo" and he told us his english nickname, which was forgettable and so i gave him a new nickname: Mr. U. i told him it made him sound like a gangster and he acted so incredibly happy. he said "me?! gangster!? thank you!!!"it was fun, but something was bothering briana. it seems that she had become uncomfortable when she saw the guys "choosing" which of the girls they were going after. she didn't want to say anything because she wanted me to have fun. how thoughtful, briana!

photo 4: fun w/fireworks

i really needed a break from work...i'm ready to be done w/this job...it's not that i hate the teaching aspect so much as i hate my work environment. the trip has made me grateful for having good friends here. so here's to padraig, briana, and rachel!
photo 5: padraig, briana, rachel, me and my sunburn.

iphones making music

at the concert i went to in seoul on sunday, there was an older japanese guy who put on this performance. he was a professor somewhere and he didn't speak any english (as i discovered when i tried to talk to him after the show)...but he wrangled 20 iphones into this piece. he set them up and then had the audience participate and touch them while he was manipulating it from his computer somehow. it's pretty wonderful.

i have many adventures to speak of and many photographs and videos that document said adventure...but i am tired. i was out all day and fell asleep on the subway and on the bus. so i will now spend the rest of the night writing letters and sleeping. tomorrow, i am hoping that i will post my pictures (i went to the lotus lantern festival which took place in a picturesque buddhist monastery). i also went to a crazy experimental music concert. it takes place once a month and it was pretty phenomenal. a japanese guy made music with 20 iphones...no, not itouches...iphones...20 of them...how much would it cost to have 20 iphones? 5k? it was really great and i recorded the majority of his performance. so tomorrow.

nothing more than a green mist

so hey guys. having a bit of homesickness. i don't know why really. it's cold here, really cold...my clothes haven't dried yet from the wash. i'm on bus duty this week, so i have to wake up an hour earlier to get the kids. i still can't go to bed before midnight though. so i'm sleepy. all the time. my friends and i booked a few nights in busan for vacation. i don't really care if we do anything. i just don't want to work for a few days. i want to talk on the telephone. i want to like kimchi. i want to not be a stranger in a strange place. don't forget about me.

booking club

so i went to the booking club...but it didn't work out so hot. to refresh your memories, a booking club is a place where guys go, buy a table, and then the hosts bring girls to your table so that you can hit it off...girls go to meet guys and get treated like pieces of meat and to get free drinks. padraig and i went, but we were with our friends briana and rachel.
they didn't understand that we weren't their boyfriends even though we told them over and over. we paid 40,000w for the table, a table that seats 4. there were four of us. since we were sitting with the girls, it made it look like we were doing what we were supposed to be doing, talking to girls, so they never got dragged away and we never had any girls brought to us. it was funny. we left eventually so that the girls could meet some guys and as soon as we left they took them to some. one was apparently very good looking, but his friend was passed out drunk. it was a crazy place to be. there were light shows, dj's, bands w/choreography, and a "sexy show" in which the male dancers ultimately went down to thongs. they cater to a female audience mainly...i think that 90% of the people in that place were women...we were told that we have to go w/out girls one time...but i can't foresee that happening. i can meet girls at the grocery store or something. i'll post more pictures of this event later, i took some video as well. in the end, padraig and i went to the bar to play pool and were quickly joined by rachel and briana who told us that they didn't find what they were looking for and decided that they would settle for second best.
and this picture is just of me and irene, the best little girl in the world.

new song

a single bird - holding rabbits
i recorded this song last night. i need to add some alto recorder and some more guitars...maybe i should mix it some as well. i wrote this song last november and have only just now gotten around to recording it. oh well, hope you like it and that it doesn't make you want to shit yourself with despair.