Charlie's favorite places

seen on the subway, part 2

This is an ad for a radio station:

They don't really seem to be having a good time...

(Taken with my phone on a bumpy, crowded subway;
sorry the pictures are so blurry.)

seen on the subway

Quite interesting to see this on my subterranean commute this evening.
Very specific graphics. Let's hope it does more than just give people ideas.

Saw this one on my way to work a few weeks ago...
Again, don't get any ideas.

A visit to the National Museum of Korea

I'm not normally a fan of museums. I definitely don't like art museums; I'm rather a philistine, and simply cannot understand those folks who can spend hours upon hours in art museums. I love the Hermitage in St. Petersburg... for the architecture of the Winter Palace and the rooms with the Tsarist-era historical exhibits. Historical museums are more my thing, although I tend to prefer period locations (houses, castles, etc) filled with period items to sterile rooms filled with sterile objects, ripped from their original locations and placed safely behind glass. I also dig Cold War era propaganda.

My favorite museum in the world is the Тарых Мамлекеттик Музей - the State History Museum in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Not only is it filled with an insane collection of communist propaganda (including Ronald Reagan in a death's head mask, Dr. Strangelovin' it on on a nuke), but it has an entire floor of Soviet sculptures which one can play on and in and with, and which one can photograph (for a nominal fee, of course). Now that I have a much better camera than I had in 2008, I really must go back to Bishkek and spend some quality time in the museum.

Тарых Мамлекеттик Музей (State History Museum), Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 9/2008

But enough with the reminiscing. Yesterday two of my coworkers decided to take me to the National Museum of Korea, located next to the US Army garrison at Yongsan (near Itaewon). We met up at lunchtime, and had Mexican food at Toma Tillo. It wasn't Taquería Pancho Villa (my favorite Mexican restaurant back home), but it was still quite tasty - and VERY cheesy. Cheese is something I don't get nearly enough of over here.

After lunch I was interviewed by some folks from EBS, who were apparently looking for a foreigner who was willing to say that internet in Korea was crap. I totally disappointed them. Internet speed? Korea knocks it out of the park. Websites all in Korean? I just don't use them. Smartphone service? Yes, it's excellent. I do have some problems with many Korean websites (lack of sensible English translations, overuse of ActiveX, sites that only work on MSIE, etc), but I know better than to badmouth anything Korean in front of a camera!

We then took a taxi to the National Museum. It's located right next to Yongsan Garrison, on land that actually used to belong to the US base. (I remember seeing the building from the base when I was working there in '04; back then, it was still under construction.) It's quite an impressive building, with pleasant grounds on the Yongsan Family Park. For those who like museums filled with small things in glass cases, the place is incredibly impressive. While it obviously wasn't really my thing, it was still a quality museum (and surprisingly NOT crowded, unlike everywhere else in Seoul on a Saturday). My favorite exhibit was the collection of gigantic Buddhist statues. I was thoroughly disappointed by the sparse collection in the Central Asian exhibit. Anyway, photos:

After having seen all I wanted to see of the museum (my coworkers were still wandering about the exhibits), I decided to explore the Yongsan Family Park. It was pretty small, the bulk of it having been turned into the museum. I did, however, come across some bizarre statuary and some creepy playground equipment - including a thoroughly distressing six-legged (!) spider for children to play under.

I also stumbled upon a performance by the Kookmin University traditional Korean drum club. I didn't stay for all of it - as by that point my coworkers had wandered out of the museum and were ready to head out. I recorded this on my smartphone; the sound isn't very good, but I blame the phone, not the performers.

To see the entire set of photos from the museum and the park, CLICK HERE.

My continuing obsession with the Matiz

The Chevy Spark - formerly the Daewoo Matiz - will finally go on sale in the US in Fall 2012. I've been in love with the cute little car since I first spotted it on the Korean streets back in 2004. Now, I know that it's got a weak little engine, and I've never driven one, so for all I know I might actually hate it. Still, I really have wanted a green Matiz for years.

Me, with a Daewoo Matiz in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, 2008

Me again, this past August... Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. May have been a few sheets to the wind at this point. Apparently, so was my photographer, B, as I don't even have to blur my face in this photo; he did it for me.

My friend G in Daegu, South Korea drove a Matiz for several years... yet somehow the only photo I have of it is this blurry one, with her husband doing god-knows-what to it. Spring 2007.
In 2010, the all new Matiz went on sale in South Korea. It was still called the Daewoo Matiz, complete with Daewoo logo and 'Matiz' emblazoned on the back (despite the fact that Daewoo technically no longer existed, having been purchased by GM). These pictures were taken during my very first sighting of the all new Matiz, down in Daegu, July 2010:

Note the Daewoo symbol on the front grill.

At the beginning of 2011, the Chevy Spark appeared in South Korea. By which I mean that all new Matizes carried the Chevy bowtie and had a new name.

Yes, they come in colors other than green.

I read (and I can't for the life of me remember/find where) that the decision to go ahead and start marketing all former Daewoo cars under the Chevy moniker here in Korea was to make them more appealing. Daewoo was a Korean company. GM/Chevrolet (as surely you're aware) is an American company. The Korean lineup of Daewoo/Chevy models are still manufactured here in Korea (although elsewhere as well); you'd think that maintaining a Korean name would be a useful marketing tool... but according to the article I read (why didn't I bookmark it??), marketing cheap, domestically produced cars under the Chevy brand enables people to purchase 'foreign' cars - and the cachet that goes along with having an expensive import - without having to pay expensive import duties. Apparently this also enables dealers to charge more. Yeah.
Anyhow, the all new Matiz/Spark has been launched in various markets around Asia and Europe, but it has not yet gone on sale in the US... but it's coming. The 2013 Chevrolet Spark (identical in appearance to Korea's 2010 Matiz, but apparently with some added safety features required by the US) will go on sale in the US in fall 2012. Not sure what the MSRP will be, although it's supposed to be cheaper than the Chevy Aveo, which starts at $14k.

Taken yesterday, here in Seoul.
And in case you've been thinking that the Matiz/Spark looks familiar, you may have noticed it in Transformers 2 and 3:

I would like to own a Matiz... but I'm not sure it will happen. For one thing, if all goes as planned, I'll be entering grad school in Fall 2012 - not exactly the time to be shelling out for a new car, even if it's the cheapest Chevy has to offer. Besides, I already have a car, and despite its age, it runs great. My car (back in the US) is a 2003 Toyota Echo:

Taken in December 2008, several months before it ran afoul of a Ford Explorer and developed an unsightly dent in its driver's side door and front corner panel. Sigh. My fault.
Back when I bought the Echo, I was 100% set on getting a Honda Civic. Then I test drove one. I'm pretty convinced that there was something wrong with the specific car that I test drove, although the salesman tried to tell me that they were all like that, I just wasn't used to it. Hah. I left the Honda dealer and went straight to Toyota, and I fell in love with the way the Echo drove. Sure, it's got a weak little engine, but it was fun to drive. I've never driven a Matiz; I might have the same experience that I had with the Civic. Meanwhile, the Echo is still going strong, and it hasn't had a single problem. I wouldn't even be considering getting a new car if it weren't for the fact that it is currently my mother's primary vehicle. (Her other vehicles, a 1984 Chevy van and a 1997 Ford Escort wagon, definitely show their age, and are not exactly reliable.) I'd stick with Toyota, but... Toyota no longer makes the Echo; it's been replaced by the Yaris, similar in design to the Spark, but lacking in visual ooomph in my opinion. And it's certainly lacking in terms of color choices.

And then the unthinkable happened...

...I became homesick.

This is a new experience for me. Prior to the past few weeks, whenever I've used the word 'homesick' it's been followed by words such as 'for Kyrgyzstan.' (And I would totally return to Kyrgyzstan in a heartbeat if I could find a way to make it financially viable. Plane tickets are just too cost-prohibitive to make popping over to Central Asia an option whenever I feel the need for some mountains and a yurt.) The thing is, I've spent a lot of time living overseas, and I've never felt homesick. I've been in situations before where I've wanted to leave - but not because I wanted to return home. In fact, when I left the US in the summer of 2010, I was completely convinced that I'd never return.

And yet now I'm homesick.

Part of it is that I am not satisfied with my job. It's not a bad job (and the salary is excellent), but I have discovered that I am simply not cut out for corporate life. Chasing the almighty dollar (or won in this case) really just isn't enough to motivate me. I miss having a job that I can feel passionate about... and I really, really miss teaching. As such, I've decided to apply to graduate school programs for TESOL, and will be leaving Korea at the end of my six month trial contract. It's up at the beginning of March, and I've already told my employers that I won't be seeking to extend it. (They've been very nice and understanding about it.) My last day of work is March 5, 2012... but right now, that feels like an eternity away.

Still, I'm homesick. I miss my family and friends, my cats, dogs, and horses. I want to be working on the old house. I want to be straightening everything out with the cat rescue. Essentially, I want to do everything that I'd intended to do when I returned to the US in 2008. And being older and wiser, well, let's just say that I will never, EVER be manipulated into the kind of abhorrent situations I found myself in back in 2009.

Homesickness is a new and strange feeling for me. I know that it would be best dealt with by going out and getting involved in life here in Seoul... but after a full day's work in Corporate Korea, I don't feel like doing much other than crawling under the sheets with my Kindle. That's certainly how I've spent this weekend. That and working on grad school applications...

Calendar votes are in!

The Desolation Travel calendar 2012 picture votes are in, and here's the final product. Click here or on either of the pictures below to purchase.

Help us decide!

We at Desolation Travel are working on putting together another calendar. Okay, so you might be a bit calendared out, but this is easy! And fun! And you get to look at cool photos! See those pictures below? They're just a fraction of the photographs we're trying to choose from. Just click here or on the pictures below to see the complete album. Comment on (or "like") the photos you think should go in the 2012 Desolation Travel calendar. And as we need to choose 12, feel free to vote for 12!

Seoul Lantern/Crowd Fest and a slight OWS/FTA detour

I spent the daytime hours yesterday running various errands - including a very successful if somewhat pricey trip to the International Clinic in Itaewon, and shopping for cat litter and kitty toys. Knowing that today (Sunday) was going to be wet and miserable, I knew that I'd need to get out and take some pictures if I wanted to get any shooting in this weekend, so I decided to go to the Seoul Lantern Festival, running November 4 - November 20, and held along the Cheonggyecheon - a reclaimed stream/park in downtown Seoul. I knew it would be crowded, but OMFG. I was so unprepared for the insane crush of people.

For starters, I emerged from the City Hall subway station into the middle of a huge anti-FTA /slash/ Occupy Seoul protest being held in front of City Hall and the Deoksu Palace gates, and surrounded by tons of riot police. While this is the sort of thing I might have actually gone to had I known about it (despite warnings against doing so from friends and coworkers; I am a contrary sort), it was thoroughly disconcerting to emerge from the subway into a crowd of chanting (but peaceful) protesters and riot police. I also didn't know what they were protesting, and it took a few minutes of wading through the crowd before I saw some signs that said FTA. I had no idea it was in any way affiliated with the Occupy movement until I read about it this morning on the internet.

Some articles about the protest are here:

Second 'Occupy' protests held in Seoul

S. Korean Activists hold second 'Occupy Seoul' protest

And a photo not taken by me, which does not at all show the crazy huge crowd that I waded through can be seen here.

I only took one photo, after I'd finally cleared the protest zone, of the back end of the last row of riot police. I was trying to do it surreptitiously with my phone, so it's not the best:

I finally made it out of the protest crowd and began making my way to the Cheonggyecheon. And the crowd grew exponentially. I swear at least half of Seoul (which I realize amounts to a good 9 million folks) had turned out to attend the festival's second night. I almost turned around and went home when I discovered that I and several million of Seoul's residents were to be crowded into a tight, winding maze - like we were in line for a ride at Disney, but worse - where I stood, edging slowly forward for a good hour, if not more, before I actually made it to the stream and the lanterns. If you go to this festival, either bring good friends with whom you can have interesting conversation, or bring headphones. Zoning out to my best of Amanda Palmer playlist was the only thing that kept me sane. (And I tried very hard not to think about what would happen if the protest only a couple blocks away got out of hand while I was trapped in this sea of people... Luckily, that didn't happen.) The lanterns - once I finally got to see them - did make for some fun photos, although I'm not sure I would have gone had I known how crowded it would be. Anyway, here are my photos:

Not really the best of photos, but I'm posting it so you can see the crowds packing both sides of the stream, and lining the railing above.










This ginormous peacock was animatronic - it flapped its wings and breathed fire. Check out the video below.

To see my complete set of lantern festival photos, CLICK HERE.