Sand Festival Shenanigans

Well, I am graduating from Advanced Individual Training in Arizona in a couple weeks and then I will be in the real Army, but unfortunately the tasks we do here are either too uninteresting to write about or topics I'm not supposed to talk about.

Instead this is going to be story time.

There was one weekend while I was in South Korea that I never wrote about because it was one of the longest night I had while I was there and I was too exhausted to record the events. This was one of those nights where you leave and go out into the town with no real expectations of what is to happen with just your phone and wallet to take you where you need to go (and effectively just the wallet as smart phones in Korea have a strangely dismal battery life).

My destination was Busan, specifically the Busan Sand Festival at Haeundae Beach. I met my good friend Erik at the Busan bus terminal on Friday night, when we arrived it was later in the evening due to the 3 hour bus ride to get to Busan from Yeongju. From there we caught the subway into downtown Busan where we met up with a few other TaLk Scholars at a foreigners comedy club, we caught up, had a few drinks there listened to the half-witted but sometimes clever jokes from the local stand-up crowd (mostly about the peculiarities of living in a foreign land), and then caught a Taxi to Yeongdo-gu which is a large island off the coast of Busan where we were staying for the weekend.

The next day we woke up and grabbed a bite to eat before setting out to find the rest of the TaLk Scholars attending the Sand festival. We took a bus off the island and found the nearest subway station where we proceeded to Haeundae Beach.

The Sand Festival was very crowded. There was at least one stage set up on the beach and many events and things to see. The main attraction of the Sand Festival however was the large sand sculptures that were being showcased on the beach. There was a pyramid, castles, characters, among other things.

Now, the thing is however, festivals are almost an everyday occurrence in Korea. It is a way for them to celebrate and not forget the small things in their culture that they know can easily be lost if not celebrated and revered. Festivals are also a way to promote tourism across the country and to get people to spend money and boost the economy of various parts of Korea. The Sand Festival really wasn't the point of visiting Busan. The point was to visit friends and have a good time.

After the sand festival Erik and I met up with our friends Aimee and Andy and we went to a Korean Steak restaurant. It was a good meal, but now it was time to have fun. We went to a club called Elune located in the Paradise hotel. This is one of the better clubs in Busan and it is one of my favorites. We spent a few hours here but after drinking enough Erik and I wanted something more. In Paradise hotel (the same location as Club Elune) there is also a casino open only to foreigners as gambling is illegal for Koreans in Korea. Erik and I decided it would be a good idea to go into a South Korean Casino for the first time.

The Casino

The Casino was not overly extravagant as Casinos in Las Vegas are. This venue was purely designed for Gambling and it was open 24/7. It was 2am or so by the time we arrived in the Casino. Mind you, this was the first time I've ever played in a Casino. We took out cash and proceeded to the roulette table (we were unsure of the language barrier for other games such as poker or blackjack so we stuck with the game that required the least amount of talking).

Starting play, 10,000 won on red.

Lost.

Determined I play 10,000 on red again.

Win.

This goes back and forth for awhile while the free drinks keep rolling in. I eventually win about double the money I put in. But I decide to keep playing.

Anddddd....I run out of money.

Erik runs out of money as well, time for a trip to the ATM.

We both get cash and continue playing for hours, we eventually win our money back but end up breaking even. We decide we're done so we walk outside looking for something to eat.

The light hits our eyes. We were in there or 4 hours and neither gained nor lost money. It was as if we were frozen in time being entertained until the sun rose above the horizon.

We quickly were the last late night customers of the local "mexican" bar (horrible tacos and nachos by the way, it was more like chips and salad). and then when the subway opened we made our way back to the island. We were able to hail a taxi at the closest subway station to the island in order to get across the bridge. Unfortunately when we crossed the bridge we weren't sure where to go, so the taxi driver dropped us off in the middle of nowhere on an island which is half the size of Busan itself.

cool. (I may have been slightly annoyed in this picture as i was walking up a mountainous island at 6am with a hangover setting in)

Now we're tired, walking up and down huge urban hills trying to make our way to the other side of this island until we can find another taxi or a landmark. We end up making or way to the motel by asking to go to a Lotteria which happened to be near the motel. It was 7:30am and after being awake or almost 24 hours we crashed.

This was one of the longest nights I had in South Korean. the very definition of "winging it". In a country where we don't know the language, just doing things because "why not?". Being with friends to share the experiences with and who can take the good times and the annoyances with decent strides. This is what traveling is about.

Reboot

PREFACE:

It has been a year since I have made an entry to this blog and a long one at that. Since my last addition to this blog, I returned home to Maryland in late July of 2012 to a new house, another semester at school, and a task of finding a job in the area to pay my own bills for once. When I was home I found a steady job at a local air-conditioning company as an administrative assistant. Everyday I was going to work, coming home, taking a class here and there, and basically doing nothing else. Is this what I was to expect from life?

No. Fuck that.

I have a dream, passion, a flaw to some. I wish to see the world, travel it, and experience everything it has to offer. Living in new places, working new jobs, and having many friends in many places that I can share my life with.

To accomplish these ideals I tend to dive into opportunity head first, almost recklessly. Last time I applied to a random teaching program that happened to visit my school. At the time I wasn't an education major or English major, with no experience I jumped at the opportunity and a couple months later I was living in South Korea by myself learning as I went. I should have stayed for as long as I could, looking back it was ideal for me, but I was more ambitious. I came home and went into a slump, I saw what a possible life in America would be like. I saw a 9-5 job in a place that didn't need me or use any skill I may have and I saw all the money/reward for wasting my time get spent on gas money to get to the job I hated.

Seeing a trend start that I didn't like, I started researching my options, a few weeks later I again rashly dove into another life changing opportunity.

I joined the United States Army.

The skills, travel, and experiences I will have will hopefully have no comparison to a life at home. Either way I am on a track that can accomplish my vision of having an extraordinary life.