So, about 1.5 months into my stay, I noticed I was getting a little shaggy. I was begining to worry about getting my hair cut in Korea. They have different...styles and tastes. Besides, when I lived in Anahiem, my barber was an Asian dude (who spoke no english) and his haircuts were terrible. I stepped into a rather posh looking salon, where I was politely greeted and directed to look at a huge stack of fashion snapshots for styles.
Most of the Korean Styles looked like this:
I didn't want to look like David Bowie from "Labyrinthe" so I pressed on.
Finally! I arrived at the foreign movie star section. I have never been so happy to see Tom Cruise!
This wasn't the exact photo mind you. But his concervative scientologist values translate into a fine caucasian haircut. No crazy mowhawk. No massve asymetrical bang over one eye. No uncomfortable asexual side locks running down the cheeckbones. Just a good old fashioned crew cut!
The 25 minute cut cost only 10,000 W. (About $8.50). That included a shampoo!
I was all ready for the annual activity day!
Activity Day --
So I work for a large company called Avalon that owns and operates English language schools all over Korea. Three of those are in Gwangju. We took a whole Saturday to compete in various feats of strength, agility and absurdity. The winning school won a fancy meal out!
I will save you the suspense, my school won!
We loaded ourselves onto two large charter buses (that looked very arabic on the inside). We injoyed som Kim Bob (a sushi restaurant chain) for breakfast. It came in a long tinfoil tube, a cylinder of sushi. Most people who new what they were doing opened the foil right down the middle, like a hot dog bun. Not this guy! I managed to consume mine like a burito or roll of cookie dough!
We went to a city on the coast called Muckpo. It kind of looks like it sounds. Long ago it was one of Korea's busiest port cities, no it hold only a large population and a merchant naval academy.
This picture was taken later in the evening when the tide was in. When we arrived in the morning you could see the slimy concrete stairs (which I immediately slipped on) and a beach of rocks. There were all kinds of little sand crabs running around!
We used the Maritime Academy's sports field for our competeition. We had some large tents to keep the Harsh Korean sun off of us. Odly enough they had set up foil mats (that looked suspiciously like heat blankets) to keept the sand off.
The first even was the balloon poping super adventure. Teams of two would race to see which couple could run down, fill a balloon and pop it between the two of them.
We won!
I am the large caucasian wearing a twins cap embracing the Korean.
It reminded me a lot of this picture:
We then had an abusively large jump rope contest. Beleive it or not I am considered to be one of the "taller" team members. So they used my natural sense of rythm as a rope turner.
Enjoy the Video!
Later we had Tug-Of-War
You cannot see me in this photo. Yours truly is bringing up the rear. I have a good forty pounds on most of the school, so I was the most ideal anchor.
I cannot beleive we lost!
I don't remember what I am smiling about in this picture. Most likely someone is getting hurt.
Before the awards ceremony there was a Majic show.
All I could do was think of GOB from "Arrested Development."
There was also a talent show. We were given remarkably short notice about this, so I just did the Andy Kaufman "Mighty Mouse" lip sync performance.
Ahhh, after the awards was the best. A large plump slow roasted boar on a spit greeted all of us when we came back to the beach.
The only way to describe the feeding frenzy that insued is "pork orgy."
You could have filled a shoebox with all the pork I ate. My system almost shit down completely. A warchest of Korean beer also was provided. It was an excellent way to end the day!
p.s. last weekend I enjoyed a second boar roast downtown! The meat was so fatty I didn't even have to chew.
p.p.s. Sorry this last blog was overdue, but I posted on my sketchblog a couple weeks ago.
http://petergulsvig.com/sketch-blog
I have been doing a sizeable amount of drawing and writing, so check it out and see what I have been doing with most of my time here!
1 comment:
Peter! Now that I know this exists I am going to read it religiously. Three things: 1. You should have just told your barber that you wanted to look like the men his father fought with in the 50's 2. Excellent display of your cracker rhythm. Very strong arms.... 3. I wanted to see the whole pile of swine skeleton. Two bones seems less than impressive.
Missing you like the desert misses the rain,
John
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