Busan

After my meeting on Friday I went down to Busan early Sat. morning. Or at least I intended to. I really wound up getting down there at around 3pm. Which was fine because I got to spend a good portion of the afternoon lounging around the beach - with roughly 600,000 other individuals. I had a great time, though. Sure, I had to stay in a love motel in the red light district, but where's the adventure in posh accommodations anyway?

I also managed to get away from the city (aka: get lost) and wander up to the mountain overlooking the beach. Up there I found a gorgeous Buddhist monastery. I took a good hour or two to meditate / relax in the room displayed below. I just find it very relaxing... I imagine my mom feels the same way when she prays. This does not mean that I'm a Buddhist, I just enjoy being in places that I find to be peaceful. I did find the juxtaposition between this serene temple and the beach bellow just...weird.

The highlight of the weekend was sitting on the beach in the wee hours of the morning as this

semi-pro guitar group sat around in lawn chairs and performed some really great music. There were only about 50 people gathered around and the whole thing was just very intimate and just plain cool. They even sang a song for me in English because I was the only non-Korean there. (Radiohead's Creep, if you must know) Also, when I sing in Korean, it seems to make people laugh, maybe that's my superpower?

See everyone? Fun IS possible without alcohol, we non-drinkers just have to get really creative.

I also got to take the KTX train down and back. At 300mph it's the fastest train in Korea and the nicest train I've ever been on. On the way back I discovered that I'd been seated in the movie theater car and got to experience a full, surround-sound cinematic experience from the inside of a speeding train. Unfortunately the movie was some horror flick that I didn't care to watch... but the concept of having a movie theater in a train is still pretty impressive.