The Business of Pumping

It’s frustrating when you really want to do something, but you can’t. It’s frustrating when you know you have to do something, but the motivation is just not there.

I really wanted to get ready for the Spartan Race, but my injury prevented me from running. It caused me to lose motivation to even go into the gym and ride a stationary bike or lift some weights. First world problems, right. Sure, but they are mine and I need to sort it out.

Yet despite not training I still chose to enter my first Spartan Sprint. I viewed it as a blow to my future active live if I gave up without even trying, even if it meant walking. A Spartan Sprint is a roughly 5km run through the bush, no real path, with obstacles/challenges/test dispersed in between. Can’t flip that tractor tire twice? No worries, just go do 30 burpees after which you are free to “roam” towards the next test. Wall to high? You know what to do.

I ended up doing 90 burpees. 30 because, like most people, I can’t throw a spear. 30 more because I was not able to pull a stone into the air using a pulley. I could not even move it to get in position and start pulling. 30 more because I was not able to do the rope climb. My upper body is weak, I know, but...

I FINISHED THE SPARTAN SPRINT!

Yes, and it was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The finish inspired me. It showed me that I was not nearly as pathetic as I felt. It gave me the will to pick up my Kindle and read “New Rules of Lifting” again. Stepping back into into the gym as soon as possible to get power into my weak body was exciting. The race is still motivating me to stay in the gym and patiently wait for my heel to heal (see what I did there) and winter to pass.

*****

It’s been nearly 2 months since the race and I feel a gym report is in order.

I started off with the 2 week break-in program, took one week of and then started with the Fat-Loss program. Yea,I know I’m not exactly the overweight type, but it is the recommended program for a beginner or someone who has not spend much time in the gym for a few years.

Although there are many exercises in one workout, as there should be, I will use only the Squat to track my progress. Here goes.

For the break-in program I used only the Olympic bar to make sure I learned how to do the squats properly. Before the week was out I had already added a bit of weight, because it was just to light. By the time I started the first section of the main program I was squatting 30kg, 15 repetitions a set, 3 sets, as part of a superset with seated rows. 90 seconds rest between each set. By the end of the first program I was squatting 50kg, 10 repetitions, 3 sets and 45 seconds rest between each superset. Big words for a little man, but here is what it means.

Using an online calculator i calculated that my maximum one repetition squat weight went from 45 kg to 62 kg. If I only had to do one squat, as heavy as I could, then I was only able lift 45 kg. Now I can lift 62kg, once. For the fit out there this seems like nothing. Even I feel it is rather poor, but we all have to start somewhere, no? The question now is “How much is a good MANLY weight?”

This set of standards says I went from untrained to half a novice. I suppose I should not complain. It’s been been less than 2 months and I showed a 25% improvement. That is not to shabby, really. I know my improvements will slow down, but I need to keep this in perspective.

Here are some targets for me to look at. To get to be a novice I should be able to lift 85 kg once. Again, that is the weight be a novice, which will be OK with me. Fitness is my main goal, not pure power. Even so it would be nice if I could do that 105 kg to be considered intermediate.

Of course, I’m pushing the other exercises just as hard, while being careful not to overdo it again. By the time I get to squatting almost twice my body weight I hope to be able to do decent amount of actual pull-ups as well. I think my record is three, before I fail and fall to the floor :(

I think this is a nice base for me to start my new year on. By the end of next year I hope to be in shape with at least one Spartan Spring and a Spartan Super under my belt.

Road Worries

It doesn't happen often, but then it does it is sudden and not rather comfortable. I’ll be riding my bike, rolling along at 100km/h through a tunnel and then I will suddenly become aware of the fact that I am on a motorcycle.

On an open piece of road the noise from my engine dissipates away from me, but in tunnels the sound is bounced back. In a car it is easy to miss when you have the radio on, but on a motorcycle it is a very obvious increase in volume. The droning whirrrrrrr transforms into a loud and deep bmmmmmmmm in an instant.

A few seconds of this tunneling noise seems to be the regular trigger for me. Where I would normally take it for granted, I will become then become very aware of the road which I can clearly see, whizzing past me at great speed. This awareness also informs me that there is very little between me and the road. The only thing keeping me upright is the physics of spinning wheels, and science does not completely understand how this works. They know it works, they know how to use it, but there is no one accepted theory for why it works. Interestingly they are not really sure why planes stay in the air either. Very comforting, isn't it?

I had it so bad once that I felt like throwing up. It happened to me again this week, but it was not that bad and I got over it a few seconds later. It might have helped that I had to stop at the traffic light Standing still helps settle the stomach, so to speak.

People who have driven in Korea knows that traffic lights take forever to change. The system here is infuriating because it feels like you spend half an hour at one light waiting for your turn. This drives people to take reckless chances then they see the lights turn yellow. The reckless chances are taken not just by the drivers, but also by pedestrians.

We at the red light were all watching the green man to get an indication of how long we still had to wait and, of course, just before it turned red for the pedestrians we all looked forwards and got ready to move.

Wouldn't you know it, an old lady approaching the pedestrian crossing from the other side of the road decided she was not having any of this waiting business. But by the time she stepped onto the road the light had already changed and the cars coming from the opposite direction from us were heading towards a green light. There was enough space for them to notice her, but she still cut a line (direct translation from Afrikaans) diagonally across a three lane road. that is three lanes each way, with traffic. She just closed her eyes and “ran” as fast as she could, little carrier wagon thing in tow. The cars on the opposite side did have enough time to see her so thankfully they slowed down to almost a stop.

By the time she reached our side we had already started moving. She was nearly in our lanes. She didn't even look up to see if cars were coming. She just kept her head down and ran as fast as she could. Good job we all saw this happening because she had no idea what was heading her way. I’m sure even the arsehole bus driver who decided that he was not going to slow down for that “just in case” scenario saw her.

Man, I tell you. You can’t even trust a pedestrian way on the other side of the road in this county.

Old Man Teeth

Finally, a dentist who does his job

When I lived in Icheon I never seems to be able to find a dentist. My conversations always seemed to go a little something like this:

Dentist: “What seems to be the problem?”
Me: “Nothing, I would just like a check up.”
Dentist: “Do you have any pain?”Me: “No.”
Dentist: “Then what would you like me to do?”
Me: “I would like you to do a check-up and see if anything it wrong, needs fixing.”
Dentist: “But where do you have pain?”
Me: “Nothing is wrong that I know if, you stupid f***. I want YOU to look and tell me if something is wrong, as if something that will, in a year from now, have me unable to eat and bound to lose a tooth.”
Dentist: “So, you have no pain?”

Sigh. Unfortunately I don’t have insurance back home so doing these check-ups and getting anything fixed would have cost me an arm and a leg.

Yesterday I went to a dentist that I read about in the local Facebook group. He speak very good English, so I was able to tell him what I needed and he was able to explain what was happening.

First up was a cleaning. New rules are that medical insurance covers one per year. Before doing the cleaning his hygienist took photos of my teeth. I don’t mean x-ray shots. I mean actual digital photos, with a small camera in my mouth. Interesting.

After the cleaning the dentist came over and used the images to explain to me what he thought needed to be done. My teeth are in terrible condition. Two of my molars have questionable structural integrity because of the large fillings and he thinks I might need to cap them in the near future. Apparently the current fillings are too big and if he removes that to refills and fix cavities at the edges, then they are in danger of cracking. Scary.

All in all I will have to get seven cavities fixed. Bloody hell! Grinding my teeth is taking its toll and I can’t get a new mouth guard until the fillings are done. About three visits for the fillings, three more for the guard and then it is maintenance like crazy. I don’t want old man teeth by the time I’m 60 years old.

Map On

People who have walked around with me know that I rarely get completely lost. I generally have very good sense of direction and once I have the map in my head I can pretty much walk to my destination in three different ways.

I can do this because I like map. I like maps a lot. You could say that I love maps. I find them fascinating. So, when someone on the Korean Football Forum said that someone should create a map to show where all the lower league teams are, my brain said “Someone should create a map? We love maps. We shall create such a map.”

I created a Google Map and used a combination of Soccerway, Google Maps and Daum Maps to find and mark all the stadiums. I even added the stadium capacities, and had a look at this years average attendances.

This might sound boring to you, but to me making the map was 3 hours of pure joy. While making the map I noticed a few things. Noticing things on a map is what makes them so interesting.

One. When it comes to lower league football, there is a huge empty strip running through the country, starting at the top of the West coast running down and veering towards Moko when it reaches just North of Pohang.

Two. Korea has way too many stadium with capacities over 20,000. it might sound like 20,000 is small, but consider that soccer is the seconds most popular sport in Korea, and even in the top league we have only two teams getting close to an average attendance of 20,000.

What were the the plans for all these stadiums? Who was supposed to fill them, and when? I realise that the stadiums can and are used for other events, but I have been to some of these and not once have we been able to fill more than half a main stand. If they get these events one a month then it is more than I expected. Does the rent from teams and occasional event really justify the cost of construction and maintenance of these stadiums?

Three. Incheon Korail FC plays in a 50,000 capacity stadium. They managed to draw a whole average of 166 people per game this season, with a lowest attendance of 80. How do we know this? Are they actually charging people to watch? If they are, how much?

Four. In the Challenge League, League 2, 4 out of 8 stadiums have capacities of over 20,000. Sangju, with the smallest stadium, was the only teams to have an average attendance to get over the 10% capacity mark.

Five. The National League, League 3, have 4 stadiums with capacities over 20,000 and 4 stadiums falling between capacities of 15,000 to 20,000. One single club was able to get their average attendance to 25% of capacity, and that is only because they have a stadium that can handle 2800 people. I didn’t miss a zero.

Six. In the Challengers League, League 4, there are 4 teams with stadiums over 20,000 with the largest being 43,000 that is not being shared by more than one team. The rest of the teams spread pretty evenly from very small to just under 20,000. I have no idea what the average attendance might be for these games, but I can’t see anyone being better than about 750.

And 750 just happens to be about the average attendance of Cheonan City FC, with grounds that can handle just 2,900 people. Their stadium expenses to attendance ration must be something that actually makes sense. 750 is also not bad if you consider that Gangwon played in the top league and managed only about 1,400 as an average attendance over the season, in a 25,000 seater stadium.

Wow. I liked this way too much. I think I need to go drink a beer and watch rugby for a while.


View Football Stadiums in Korea in a larger map

I'm a shit and I know it

A reply letter to a friend:

Yes, I don't like to be wrong. Who does? Do YOU like to be wrong? I am just willing to defend myself more than most people, but don't you dare tell me I don't admit when I am shown to be wrong. I have apologised for being wrong many times.

What part of me telling you “I’m a socially awkward loner” don't you get? I DON’T KNOW how to make people feel good. I DON’T KNOW how to be naturally nice. I DON’T KNOW how to make people feel special. I DON’T KNOW how to make my real appreciation for something clear. I suck socially and I have been aware of this for a very long time.

The only way I know to express my joy or happiness is through photographs, and I am trying my best to get seriously into that again. I’m trying to take more photos of people (with limited success) because I’m hoping that will make me take more notice of the humans beings around me. See things I don’t normally see.

I thought you understood I was this fucked up socially. Over the last few month I DID noticed you were getting fed up. I tried to be better, but I really don't know how.

I know I can be insensitive, but I’m not a rock either. I might prefer to keep my feelings suppressed, but I do have them. I do see things. I do feel things. I to realize there are people around me.

What is happening here is precisely why I prefer to actively keep people out of my life. Sooner or later they start accusing me of things I’m open and honest about. The accusations are not new information to me.

Someone telling these things about myself don't hurt me. I’m honest about them and could not give a flying fuck that others know this. What does  hurts is that I have no idea how to change, and the people doing the accusing seem to have this expectation that their accusations will somehow make me change. All this does is remind me that I don’t know what I’m doing, again.

Testing for My Great Fitness

I’ve spent some time tooling for a way to asses my fitness so that I can set goals for myself. I doubt there is a definitive test, so I kind of just picked one that looked interesting and went with it.

This one was compiled by Men’s Health. It is all in Imperial, because, you know, the whole world (USA, Liberia, Burma) uses Imperial standard, so I had to convert it for us outlier countries (South Africa, England, India, Korea, Bra... You know what? Just pick a country other than USA, Liberia or Burma.)
With adjustments that likely makes things more difficult for running, I set myself these goals:

• Run 300m in under 60 seconds
  
• Run 2.5 km in under 10 minutes.
  
• Leg-Press 2,25 times your body weight.
  
• Jump up 65cm.
  
• Bench Press 1.5 time your body weight.
  
• Do 40 Push-Ups.
  
• Throw a Basketball 22m while kneeling.
  
• Swim 650m in under 12 minutes.
  
• Have a hip to waist ratio of 0.81
  
• 10 Pull-ups (I’m adding this)

Early this morning I went to see what I could do about the first two. In school I was able to do a 400m in 54 seconds and a 100m in 11.2 seconds. 54s on a 400m is just under 14 seconds per 100m. I know I’m much older and not nearly as fit, but surely I can do 20 seconds per 100m, right?

I prepared for the test with a relaxed but fast 400m jog to warm up. Some rotations of various joints and a light stretch here and there to feel more relaxed and then the real warm up started. 100m at about 60%, another at about 70% and one more at about 85%. I didn't feel the need to do more as I was not going to test my muscles with the full force of a 100m sprint.

Why so little stretching? Research shows that for the vast majority of activities, stretching before said activity is more likely to cause injury than prevent it. Most people are as flexible as they need to be already, but even so, stretching after training is a good thing.

I was wearing my heart rate monitor, so while making my way over to the 300m mark I was keeping an eye on the numbers to make sure I was well rested before I started. Turns out it takes a long time for my HR to drop below 120bpm.

Unfortunately I don't have a watch with a stopwatch on it, so I had to use my phone. This meant I needed to unlock the thing before I could stop the clock. Turns out that takes about 5 seconds then you are trying to do it while slowing down.

I started the 300m run feeling OK, but I very quickly realised I was pushing too hard. One big problem with running this distance at speed is that it is oh so easy to go too fast. It takes practice to know what your body is capable of and keeping output within those limits. Since this is an anaerobic activity, when you start too fast you just know you will reach the end with your glutes screaming at you and your quads going on strike.

No prizes for guessing what happened to me. By about 100m I knew I was not going to finish nearly the way I started and with 50m to go I was already mentally screaming at myself to keep moving. With 20m to go I had no rhythm and nearly stumbled.

Despite my legs nearly giving up on me, I managed to get there in time, and I did so comfortably. It’s been a very long time since I pushed so hard on this distance, and I was really happy with the results. I made it in a comfortable 51 seconds (estimated). I should not really be surprised that this was so easy, because this is what I am build for this is what I did for most of my high school life. The other measures will not be so easy. Keep in mind that the MH test says I should be doing 25m less. I’m guessing that is maybe another 4 seconds I can trim immediately.

I was hoping to do the 2.5 km test as well, but the warm up and single 300m took much more out of me that I expected. After 400m of the 2.5 km I knew I was going way too slow . I was fighting my own mind after just 300m, for heaven's sake. This was not going to work and there was no denying it, so I decided to leave the test for another day

At the moment I do 5km (not flat) in 28 minutes. That is about 5:45 per km. Surely I can do 1 km in 5 minutes if I only need to do 2.5 km? The target is 4 minutes, so I’m thinking that if I don’t need to do the whole 300m test before then I can at least make a challenge of this. Maybe I’ll leave this test for next weekend, or maybe sometime this week.

My first film camera. The Lomography Konstructor

As soon as I saw this little piece of intrigue I knew I had to have one. Why? I don’t know. Maybe because I like putting stuff together and I don’t do it nearly often enough. Looking around the Lomography site did not dissuade me from thinking that this was something I needed to try.

I bought one. I built one. I used one.

Unfortunately, what this video does not really show is the weird view finder. Well OK, it does “show” it, but it was not clear to me what I was seeing. This view finder is one of those old timey ones where you have to look down into the camera. For your viewing pleasure you are presented with a highly vignetted, blurry, reverse image of what you are trying to capture. Until I had the film developed I had no real idea what I had been looking at.

Along with the camera kit I bought a box with three rolls of film, mixed, so that I can learn more about what is available. I decided to load Lomography’s Colour Negative 100 first. I will keep the black and white film for last. I don’t want to waste that treasure.

To fill the roll with images I walked around school, Sanbon and Bomgyae with the weird little camera in hand, looking for things and scenes to capture. All the while I was searching, asking for help on Facebook and chatting to an online friend, to find a place to develop the film. What follows are the results (with minor cropping and an exposure adjustment on one photo where I think the developer over adjusted.)

Considering that I was working with a new camera, could not really see what I was capturing and don’t have any experience with how film work, I should not be as disappointed as I am. I got 8 OK photos, 4 of which I kind of like. On a roll of 36 that is not that bad. I don’t think I get that on my digital camera.

The Konstructor comes with a 50mm lens, a focal length I really like. As far as I can tell it is the only Lomo that is fitted with this focal length. Even though I am looking into getting another Lomo, I guess I will be coming back to this camera every now and then just for the lens.

From looking at the photos I have learned two things. There is a delightful cratch on almost every photos. The Konstructor does not like things to be to close. I guess about 1.5 meter or more should be fine. And the 100 rated film likes a lot of light.

Having the camera close to the subject produces an interesting dreamy blur, but I can’t see that being all that useful most of the time. I also noticed that the 100 would be a great film for portraits where you want part of the subject to be visible and part in the shadows

Bomb It!

<a title="BOMB! by Purple Monkey Feet, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/purple_monkey_feet/9339837416/"><img style="display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" alt="BOMB!" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3717/9339837416_803dc3e575_z.jpg" width="480" height="640"></a>
<p>I finally got to properly photo bomb someone. They spent a good 15 minutes trying to get a photo of themselves instead of just asking someone to do it for them. I was not in the mood to offer, in case you are wondering. She pointed it in my directing and I saw enough of the phone’s face to position myself right in there. Oddly, the photo is mirrored. I wonder why.<br><br>The was kind enough to send me the photo ^.^</p>

A week of phone photos #1

Most Korean cities want to be beautiful. When they have the money they always try to prettify things a bit. I’m not really sure what the process is, but I would imagine that there is no real plan on how this is to be done. It seems like whomever is in charge at that point of time decides that money needs to be spent, chooses something they like and puts it in a spot that they like. The result is some pretty random decorations all over the place.

I have absolutely no idea how property works in this country. I don’t know how land is zoned, acquired or taxed. I know nothing. That is why it always amazes me how every piece of land that is not used as a park, or to steep to plant on, is converted into some sort of farm. It does not matter if you are in the middle of the city, right next to city hall itself, there is nothing there then someone will turn it in to a farm. (I really need to stop putting needles borders around photos)

People in Bucheon do not wake up early on a Sunday. This was after 12 and pretty much no one alive.

The annual Bucheon International Film Festival was held last week. Right at the top of that, thing, in the middle of the photo you will see Bucheon’s slogan, because every city in Korean MUST have a stupid slogan. That one there says Fantasia, whatever the hell that is supposed to mean. For me, the worst about that slogan that it is another one of those English words that is used even though no one seems able to pronounce it. You might say “It is not JUST an English word” but I will say “F*** YOU! It is not written in Korea. It is written with Roman, and in this country that means it is English.” Apparently Bucheon’s slogan is actually… pan-tah-SHE-ah. Yes, whatever the hell that is.

The areas in Seoul that are not all high rises and light are often just shy of shanty towns. This part here, however, strikes that nice balance between modern city and Eastern Asia. Walking here I can actually imagine being in a movie, chasing some gang lord to martial arts his arse down. Its going to be epic, I tell you.

This place is well know for Samgyaetang, a kind of soup dish made by boiling a while small chicken with ginseng. Apparently the place it REALLY well known because this is only half the line. There are more people queued inside and still more out of sight in the back. Needless to say, I didn’t have lunch there.

After all this time it still amazes me that a country can be so obsessed with, and indoctrinated about a large rock. Even worse, all it wants is for the rest of the world to care. It seems every station that tourists will visit has a model of Laincourt Rock. No one other than Koreans cares about this worthless rock. Most Japanese people don’t even know it exists, yet in Korea they learn about it, seemingly every year, from the time they are able to walk.

We managed to finish your paper unicorns. Everyone left about 5 minutes before we were done and only myself and one student did the last bit. Mine is the one in the middle. I was born with little stumps. Be kind to it.

Colour is not always high on the agenda for a building as a while. This lonely little structure here does not care what is usual.

Initially I was not going to go because of the weather, but I woke on at 7:30 on the Saturday and aw a bit of blue through the clouds. Just maybe it would not rain. The clouds pulled back quite a bit and I was not able to stay for more photos. Delicate head without hair, you understand.

Made a proper BLT for lunch. No “cheese” and egg and mayo and sweet dressing. Just B with L and T on bread.

I title this one “Cow licking table”

Yet another construction photo

Badoo Badoooooo!

My new Android phone is empty and needs to be fed. To feed it with a nice collection of apps I was reading up on best/most popular apps for Android. Badoo was mentioned as a dating app. I knew more nothing about the app, which turns out to be a site as well, but it was recommended and I thought I might as well download it and see what it does. Last night I finally got around to opening the app. I filled in the very bare essentials uploaded a photo.

When I woke up this morning I had a view visits, mostly men. Two clicked the “show interest” button, wherever that is, and a further two sent me messages. The one message read:

“Hi, there^^
What u looking for? mean girl or boy?”

Say what? Why would a straight guy be looking for a boy, and why a “mean” boy? My profile clearly stated that I am straight. I changed that after a guy showed interest in me within the first 5 minutes of signing up. (Edit: After proofreading this post I realised that maybe he was trying to say “I mean, boy or girl?”)

Today I spend a few minutes on the site, quickly filling out my profile and changing setting so that I will not be bothered on my phone all the time. Turn out that one of my settings said I was interested in meeting both men and women. No wonder! I’m not opposed to meeting men, but considering that this is a dating site, the men I will be meeting will not just be interested in having someone to occasionally go watch sport with.

Even before the men, with even less information on my profile, I had a message from a woman saying how much we have in common, calling me dear and such nonsense. These things are amazing. No matter what you say the next message will be more romantic and within 5 messages or so you will somehow be madly in love with each other, her parents know all about you and she wants to come visit. Then the request for money starts. Did I mention the model photos? If you ever get a message like that give some nonsensical answer and see how the cut and paste replies come back.

Now that I know what this site/app is about, I’m going to be having some fun. F***ing with idiots who can’t be bothered to read a profile can be very entertaining.

******

After finishing my profile I had a quick look at who visited my page. 75% of the visitors were men. It is interesting how online dating has made it easier for men to meet each other without the fear of being punched in the face by some idiot who thinks it is his business what two people do in their private lives.

Cellulite

I stumbled on to an article about cellulite and, shall we say, “the truth of how to get rid of it.” (Read that in a booming echoing voice)

I had to read it more than once just to understand what the article was trying to say. The formatting of this page is terrible. Full, long sentences are underlined and located directly after full, long sentences in bold. What are we suppose to look at? Which part is the point? Bad use of words like “critical” and “proven” do not help with the credibility of the article either. Whatever, I was able to get the gist of the article and it was this.

1. Cellulite is a marketing term made up by the beauty industry.
2. The lotions and gels that the industry try to sell you do nothing useful.
3. Spas and massages are equally ineffective.
4. Cellulite is not genetic and you can, in fact, get rid of it.
5. The only proven way to get rid of cellulite is to exercise, because cellulite is a visual effect of out of shape muscles.

I did a tiny bit of reading and found this:

1. The term “cellulite” was first used in the 1920s and became common because of it’s use by fashion magazines in the 1960.
2. After an evidence based review at Harvard medical School the conclusion was that all treatments are not really worth the effort. Basically there is no cure.
3. See number two
4. Not only is genetics part of the cause, but research actually points to specific, named genes that help determine if someone will have cellulite.
5. Other causes of cellulite include changes in metabolism, physiology, dieting too hard or too much, sex-specific dimorphic skin architecture, hormonal factors, the microcirculatory system, the extracellular matrix, subtle inflammatory alterations, and alteration of connective tissue structure. So, your muscle tone MAY have an influence, but that is only one cause, and a dubious one at that. Toning your muscles does not equate to changing the structure of the connective tissue, which is the only possible direct link between the muscles and the covering skin.

Why do I care about all this? I don’t really. The link to the article just looked interesting.

Weekend in review

This weekend started off slow and was filled with a lot of wasted time, but the non wasted times were quality. (Jo was involved and wanted to be mentioned at the start of this post, but I'm not sure how to fit her in.)

We saw the cat dressed guy for a cat cafe act like it was the worst job in the world. It worked though because everyone was looking at him.

I found the Lomography store and placed an order for a Konstructor set. They were out of stock.

I went to take photos of Sungnyemun, but my plans were foiled by the fire brigade practicing there. At least I got some good scouting shots for angles and best time to shoot.

I saw a lone woman literally JUMP into the carriage as if she was in a race. Look around for a seat, and then relax because there were only 5 people around.

I finally had food at one of the late night vendors at Namdaemun Market. It was nice with great weather, but it was expensive and I will not do it again.

Afterwards we had to many ciders at Reilly's Taphouse. Pfffft!

We had bubble tea at the best bubble tea place in Seoul. Turns out it is exactly the same chain as the one not so far from my apartment.

We joined the Western Contingent of Seoul FC for the match against Busan. More of them are on the cards

We got lost in a single building, trying to find the art gallery. We were followed by a guy and his girlfriend, looking for a toilet and asking expectantly asking out help by saying “Me...shit” and pointing to his stomach.

We were followed out of that building by the same guy and his girlfriend, again being looked at expectantly with “urm...toilet... where... please”. Dude, I just look Korean, I don’t know this place.

Waiting in the station at World Cup Stadium, I was amused by a middle school boy taking photos on his phone of the condoms in the vending machine. Done with the photos, he inserted money and bought his little brother a roll of sweets.

And lastly we were followed by a girl. She sat next to us at Bubble Pong, somehow managed to sit next to us in Hongdae station and then passed us inside world cup stadium. Amazingly, as we left the stadium, we passed her in the station one more time.

To top of this nice weekend, I didn’t get lost on the subway on my way home. No small feat for  me when traveling on Line 1

Never mind the Foreighners

Yesterday evening, on my way home, there were a bunch of people in the next carriage on making noise. I wasn’t really listening and just assumed it was a bunch of older drunk Koreans.

Every now and then people in my carriage would lean over and glance into the next carriage to find out what the raucous was about. Very often you will find yourself on the train and every person around you is alone, but this evening the three people next to me were together. One leaned over to look at that was going on, came back and said in Korean: “Foreign people.” For them that seemed to settle the matter.

Usually when I hear the the word “Waegook”, it is associated with a white or black person being somewhere in sight, so I was a bit confused over why they would call these noisy Koreans foreign. As I was waiting to get of the train and transfer I got a better look at these foreigners and indeed, they didn’t look Korean. I’m guessing they were Chinese, but I can’t be sure. They did have all the tourist gear with them though.

What I found interesting about the comment of my fellow passengers that being foreign was somehow an explanation for why they were being noisy when, like I mentioned right at the start of the post, it is so common for Koreans to do this that I didn’t even think twice about it.

I also found it amazing that ‘Foreigner’ is used in such a broad sense. it would seem that in their minds, these 5 people are representative of the four billion people who live outside of Korea. Apparently it is just expected that only the fifty million Koreans who live here know how to behave in public. Somehow I, standing quietly next to them as annoyed and any of the other passengers, was included in that broad group.

While all this was happening the guy sitting across from me spend about 15 minutes openly staring at me. Yes, only foreigners have no manners.

I have to admit that all to too often I say things like this as well, and I will do so again,  but more and more I prefer to just say “People” without qualifying their behaviour with their nationality or race. (I refuse to give up stereotypes. They are completely wrong, but they are very useful for getting a point across.) There are times when people of a nation do tend to do things in a particular way, but fact is that maybe half the world  will subscribe to the particular behaviour that you feel is oh so strange.

Sometimes, however, we are just straight out offensive.

Veëls geluk liewe maatjie…

Whenever someone on my Facebook list has a birthday, I write something on their wall:

"Veëls geluk liewe maatjie,
Omdat jy verjaar.
Mag die Here jou seën,
En nog baie jare spaar."

Time and again, and I would put it as high as 75%, people reply with a comment saying something like "What is that?" or "I don't understand :("

Come one people. It is not hard to find out what it means. I know this because I did it. I didn't even copy and paste the text into one of the well known and easy to ding translators. No, I just copied and pasted that straight into Google Search, and without even opening any of the links I already had 90% of the answer.

For what it’s worth, most translators do not support Afrikaans because nearly 100% of Afrikaans speaking people can also speak English fairly well. For that reason I include my translation as well as a video or two women singing the the song followed by the extended add-ons.

Happy Birthday dear friend (closest translation)
Because it’s your birthday.
May the Lord bless you
With many more years

Here is a clip of two girls singing the song. They do follow it up with other song that are traditionally done, but for our purposes we only need to listen to the first part

 

More views from the education location

It is amazing how quickly the the view can change within a season. Only a couple of weeks ago we had a seven whole days of cherry blossoms, and now we have purple flowers everywhere. From what I’ve seen it would seem that Gunpo promotes itself as a flowery city, with these flowers taking center stage. They are in every park. They are on ever bank. They are in ever garden. They are EVERYWHERE.

The last photo in this set is of the view at the back of the school. The apartments still being built is the reason the school population is still as low it is.

Rolling in the road

This happens in South Africa as well, but not really in this particular way, and not nearly as often as in Korea.

Sometimes I stop at a traffic light and I’m at the front of the pack. Usually there will be more than one lane, so there will be a car next to me. This car will then be my short term entertainment/mystery as it either slowly creeps forward (learn some muscle control, dude) or does what I can only call “little hops”, almost as if the driver is trying to anticipate the changing of the light.

I have seen people do these hops until they are almost in the middle of the intersection. I have even see people basically cross the intersection and for no apparent reason just stand and wait on the other side for the light to change.

I always wonder what goes through these people’s minds when they are doing this. All I can imagine is…

Surprisingly often you will see these very same people effectively forget to drive when the light does eventually change. They creep forward, leaving me a full car length behind, but then, when the light changes, I start moving, and soon I will be looking at them in my mirror, still standing. I wonder if the music on their radio changes when the light changes. Maybe to something like this?

I suppose we should not ask questions about the actions of stupid drivers.

Dizzy Tumbles

As always the first graders provide me with great entertainment. This time it was with their abilities to do simple rolls. To be fair, as easy as it can be to just roll forward, when you have to do it at speed and with enthusiasm like they did, it does turn slightly dangerous. When I did hapkido I hit the ground hard a few times because I didn’t land and roll properly. Some are just plain “stupid” though :)

It is time for Dizzy to try a roll.

1. Run up to the mat.
2. Stop dead and carefully place your head on the mat.
3. Move forward, but not to much.
4. Do a slow-motion crash.
5. Get up and pretend you did your roll.

Schools with a view

The view from my school is a bit strange. On the one side you have a bunch of brand new apartments being built. They are just across the road and their proximity makes any kind of view past them pretty much impossible. On the opposite side there seems to be nearly nothing. I will go out and get photos of the apartments soon, but for now I will only show the more scenic side.

From the school’s empty top floor you can see quite far over the Dangjeong neighbourhood. Dangjeong is divided into an original and  an extension. Most of the extension out of view in these photos and what you get is this oddly unbuilt area of Gyeonggi.

In reality what you are looking at it a golf course just behind the front buildings and then the more industrial original Danjeong behind that. Most of the original area is filled with building lower than 5 floors and what appears to be storage and distribution companies. The other areas of Gunpo are the standard fare with crowded apartment buildings a lack of an horizon.

Just photos

I love how some of my nicest photos are not taken with my SLR, but with my phone. One of the reasons I took almost no photos with my large camera for a long time was because my phone kind of filled the gap as the documenting device. The main reason I got into photography, after all, was to document what I saw and share it over the internet.

The first photo was taken at Jindo in the far South of Korea. This woman, for whatever reason, was standing apart from the hoard that was attending the Jindo Miracle Sea Festival (진도 신비의바닷길축제), digging for clams, I think.

After putting it through a few of the new presets I found on the internet and then tweaking it a bit to get what I wanted, I ended up with this photo.

My favourite phone photo came from Mokpo and the waterfront at Sang-dong. I have a similar image taken with the SLR, but the inclusion of a father with his two children was what made this photo my other top shot from the weekend away

*Thank you to Jo for the editing and making my terrible writing be a bit more presentable.

The Great Crossing

A few weekends ago was the annual Jindo Miracle Sea Festival (진도 신비의바닷길축제). I can confidently say that it is no miracle, since we know not just how it happens, but also when it happens. I also have my doubts as to how often it happens. Surely the sea is not that low just one a year at almost exactly the same time? Whatever, I was here to get my photo and play Moses. 

 

As the crowd achieved full motion, my friend asked: “I wonder who is leading?”. I believe my response was: “Nobody is really leading. Someone is just crazy enough to be first.”   Needless to say, I was not the only one taking photos and that meant people getting in each other’s photo space. This woman seemed determined to be in my way, so I decided to make her the subject of my photo. Winning like a Baws! (Like a boss, for those who don’t speak Modern Geek.)   This being Korea, you are bound to see people who have the most expensive boots money can buy. Most of us normal people though, went with the sun 10,000 won near disposable Silly Boots.   We were not the only people crossing though. The event’s full band also made it’s way over and back, complete with flying flags and all.

*Thanks to Jo for the editing and making my terrible writing be a bit more presentable.

Sports Day 2013

It was the first of May and time for my little school’s Sports Day. Contractually I was supposed to have the day off with it being Workers’ Day and all, but the school asked me to come in because all the other teachers had. Worker’s Day is not a public holiday in South Korea. In return for working I would get paid overtime. Pay or no pay, I was not going to miss the chance to take photos of this lot, especially the incompetently funny first graders.

The school population being as small as it is, we were able to start and spend most of the day in the gym. Like with most gatherings in Korea official duties HAD to be observed before any fun could be had. Anyone who knows me knows how much I hate this. I count official traditions at the number one reason I left the Boy Scouts. Why would I want to stand and raise a flag, say an oath, watch others get awards (get one myself when I don’t care what it is) and generally waste time when there is fun to be had elsewhere? At least here I get to walk around and take photos.

I was supposed to help with the events, but no one ever really told me what to do and somehow I ended up doing nothing. That was just fine by me, because I could just have fun snapping photos.

Shooting indoors can be tricky. Light changes rapidly when you change angles and often the shutter speed is too slow without me realising it.There are so many photos that are just too blurry to be any good. Despite that I got a fair amount of OK shots.

The action started off with the first graders. They are old enough to understand what competition means and too young to be good at it. They generally try very hard, but all too often they just plain suck. That is exactly how I like it because it guarantees that I will be rolling on the floor with laughter at some point.

The kindergarteners were also in on the action. They are even more incompetent than the first graders, but their lack of understanding and urgency do not make them nearly as funny as their slightly older fellow students.

One of the more unusual events of the day was the card flipping contest. A collection of two sided coloured cards were place on the floor and the fifth and sixth graders were arranged around it. Some cards were blue side up and some white side up. When the referee blew the whistle everyone rushed in to turn cards over and show their team’s colour. It starts off rather orderly but quickly spirals into controlled chaos. My favourite parts were when one student would turn cards over with another student just following behind undoing the first student’s hard word. There were also the annoying yet funny moments where two students would “fight” over two cards. They would spend a good few seconds just turning over each other’s last card. Blue-White, White-Blue, Blue-White…

No sports day would be complete without short sprints…

…and a super all-in relay.

Of course, at the end of the day there had to be a loser. Crying Cathy here took a spill earlier and came last in her sprint. She would likely have lost anyway, but I think the fact that she was not able to at least give it a good old college try upset her. As she got closer to the finish line she came closer and closer to tears.

Already sad, she was then in the losing team for the relay. At least she was still gracious enough to put her hands together for the other team.