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Cribbage, Euchre, Rummy, and Other Such Forms of Amusement

The tragedy of my current line-up of friends is that none of them like to play cards. When similar tragedy struck early on during my first contract, I rectified the situation by getting a group together via Pusan Web. At this exact moment, and roughly half of the other moments that I experience, neither Pusan Web nor Korea Bridge are working. I'm sure it's just my connection. Nonetheless, if anybody is down with the not even remotely lame, super amazing experience that is playing cards, drop me an email (bigwhitebarbie at gmail dot com). I'd love to get a group going again. I play cribbage, euchre, a couple of Rummy-style games, and would be happy to learn more. Except for poker. I don't bet money, and poker without betting is positively blah.

I feel it closing in...


You know the bit in Goodfellas where Ray Liotta's cooking dinner, transporting coke and dealing with his family while off his nut and getting tailed by a helicopter?

Well apart from the hard drugs and felony, that's kind of how I'm feeling at the moment. This week we're pretty busy with clearing our apartment, getting our travel details in order and preparing our jobs for the next teachers to take over from us. On top of that I'm trying to switch Street Foodie to Wordpress without losing everything I hold dear, and the rainy season has just hit BIG TIME.

As such all I've got to show for myself is the above photo of a dukbokki/soondae hybrid I recently discovered in Nampodong while scouring the area for a fix. This thing is swimming in so much corn syrup it looks like the creepy plastic food you get outside some restaurants. As such I had kind of expected this to be a medley of the worst features of both dishes, but something in there surprisingly worked. The soodae was a little less gelatinous than I've had it before, feeling somewhat more substantial between the teeth than previous incarnations, and the dukbokki wasn't that bad.

withdrawal



Episode 4 .... Come out, come out, wherever you are!

I Dream of Korea

In a former life, I was a 26-year-old late bloomer who never lived away from home, save the two years I was in the college dorm bubble at Alfred University. I slept in the same room since I was 10, writing for a weekly newspaper, coasting.

And then, I was living in South Korea.

It was almost four years ago. Two years out of college and still the idea of teaching English in South Korea was firmly in my head. It had began with a post on the college's job forum I read one day during Magazine Writing, which involved little to no writing because our professor did little to no actual teaching.

"See the world! Learn a new culture! Get paid!"

Or something like that. I had always envied those who got the opportunity to travel cross-country or across Europe, while I always felt that was out of reach because I was thousands of dollars in debt from credit card bills, and over $10,000 in debt from student loans. All that travel would have to wait.

But, here was an opportunity to teach in a foreign country, to absorb their culture and get paid while doing it. I could pay off thousands, see a new land and even write a book about my exploits. Who wouldn't want to get involved in that?

Apparently, I didn't once I was involved in it. It took only 40 days, a few near-sleepness nights, about $300 in toll call charges, a lot of cigarettes and one last-minute search for a replacement teacher, but I was home by Christmas Eve 2005. You can read more about it here.

Four years on, I still think about South Korea and the opportunity that was, never was, could be again? It really feels like a lifetime ago. I hear the cells we have now are not the same cells we will have tomorrow, and in seven years no cell in our body will be the same as seven years before. Which would mean I still have some cells in my body from when I was a pretty green traveler trying to get over to South Korea, only to try and get as far from it as possible 40 days later. Maybe it's those cells that remind me of that lifetime ago every once in a while.

Or maybe it was the e-mail I received today from an online travel guide accepting me into their 12-week internship. 2005 really was a lifetime ago, wasn't it?

—John Dunphy

RIOTS IN URUMQI

Apparantly there were serious riots in Urumqi, China, yesterday, a city in the western province of Xianjiang. They say the death toll is at least 120 people, with hundreds more injured. I spent some time in Urumqi last summer during my travels, and am not terribly suprised, since the local Uighur Muslim population chafes under the domination of the Han Chinese, who make up a majority in this regional capital. Word has it that the riots may be spreading to Kashgar as well, the site of an attack during last year's Olympics that killed 16 security personel.

It's probably for the best that I've decided to avoid Western China and Central Asia this summer, going south instead.

South Korea Trip - Geoje Island 거제도

Alright you can check out the video of my trip from Busan to Geoje in South Korea. The trip in total was 160 kms. I rode the #2 highway out of Busan to Yongwon to catch the ferry to Geoje. On the trip I checked out a theme museum, POW war camp and a botanical garden. With the footage I shot of the POW museum, I tried the catch the vibe there. I expected a war camp museum to be a little more serious. The idea of the squating part came from watcing many people get up there and take funny pictures. I also walked by the man in the photo below several times, till I noticed a certain attenion to detail.

"I got it! I got it! I got it!...."

Proximal interphalangeal joint fracture-dislocation of the right index finger. Occurred during attempted catch of foul ball at Lotte Giant's game Sunday, July 5th. Will likely require surgery.

Update: Orthopedist said that unless the bone fragments migrate into the joint surface as swelling goes down surgery is unnecessary. I go back Friday for x-rays and reevaluation. On antibiotics and pain meds. Exit wound closed without sutures.

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