Monday morning was clear again after the rain, though the air quality was already back to the baseline mid-50s. After digesting my breakfast, I went out for my longest run yet–15.5 km. Midway through the run, I stopped to take a photo and saw a message from my parents. Oh yeah, Monday morning, Skype time. I wrapped up the run as quickly as I could, and dug out my computer for the monthly check-in.
While talking, one of the hostel workers came by to give me a gift bag, thanking me again for helping them shoot the hostel promo. It was a canvas tote bag, which is always useful, and a mug, which just makes me laugh. So, I’m already the crazy guy who carries a mug around so I can use my Aeropress to make coffee, but now I have two mugs. It’s a lot of extra weight in the suitcase to lug around. I’ll have to figure out something to do with it, especially as I kind of prefer the one I already have — a freebie from a conference — which has a picture of a brain and the Guangzhou skyline on it, versus just the name of the hostel.
After a quick shower, I had lunch at my usual spot, ordering the Soybean Paste Stew, and drinking a whole pitcher of water. I had just gotten back to the hostel and plopped down on the couch to zone out, when I had another call to take over WeChat. By the time that was over, the exercise and meal were wearing me down, so I took a quick power nap before heading across the street to get a free coffee and get a little bit of work done.
In the late afternoon, I headed over to Home Plus to buy a salad, but took my time exploring options to get more nutrients and stretch a dollar. I found a pack of pre-cooked (oven roasted) chicken breast that was basically the same unit price as fresh chicken breasts and avocados were also on sale, though the price would still shock anyone in the US. They worked out to about a dollar each or the price of a bottle of soju. Although on second thought, nine bottles of soju might be fun.
I tried to do a bit more writing or studying in the evening, but I couldn’t quite get in the mood. I’ve noticed, I’m losing my mojo. Even for Korean studying, the motivation is flagging. I went up to bed fairly early and read for about an hour before turning off the light.
While I was downstairs making my coffee in the morning, I got a call from someone I haven’t seen in a few years. I guess I need to finalize some plans to add 3 months in Europe to this global trek and add a visit to Paris. I suppose I wouldn’t mind some A1 level French. Merde!
I walked over to the Busan City Museum of Art and toured all the galleries on the third floor, which consisted only of a exhibition (“Unbelievably Heavy, Awfully Keen”) to a contemporary Busan-based artist and a smaller handful of pieces listed as donations from some rich person. I was quite impressed by Bang Jeong-A’s artwork and sense of humor. Some of the works were quite psychedelic and the names of the paintings surpassed the usual descriptive — self-important spectrum one often finds on the title placards. For example: “He Had a Grudge Against His Unfaithful Girlfriend who was Living with him and…”, “Take This, You Brats”, “What Made Her Life So Miserable?”, and “Goons–Yes! Bro, Bro, Bro.”
On the way back to the hostel, I swung by Home Plus again to get more salad fixings and a snack, and ate at the hostel. I opted against a full-on nap, but ended up dozing on a couch in the coffee shop after reading for a bit. I’m maybe a day from finishing Pride and Prejudice. Speaking of literature, I was perusing Twitter and found a discussion of which books a guy says is his favorite is a giant red flag. Scrolling down, I think I’ve read 80% of the titles and authors being piled on and definitely enjoyed them. I get how saying a particular book is your favorite may reveal the shallowness of your intellect, but I feel like we are moving closer to some book burnings. There seems to be Cultural Revolution-style mob mentality rampant through the progressive circles of the online community, and even a recent oped arguing this point aroused an inordinate amount of wrath from the China twitterati. Nevertheless, the fact that thought policing and identity politics are starting to be satirized suggests a reversion to the mean may be coming.
Anyways, in the late afternoon, despite being a little hazy, I went out for a short run along Haeundae beach alternating sprints and jogging. Without even showering, I changed to less smelly clothes and went to get a haircut in an old school barbershop. The barbershop was “straight out of central casting,” with 60s music on the radio and a DJ running through the events of 1966 while introducing each song. Despite being traditional, it was luxury and probably the most expensive haircut I’ve had in my life. I kept looking at the price list, which had numbers like 3, 5, 7, 1.5, and thinking those prices seem way too cheap. Well, instead being multiples of a thousand (which is the norm when abbreviating in Korea, especially as 1000 won is about a dollar), they were multiples of 10,000. C’est la vie. The barber spoke English and it was a much better experience than a hair salon.
I went directly to dinner afterwards, checking out a restaurant from the list of recommendations in the hostel. As I was heading back the 100m or so to the hostel, some large drops of rain started falling. I plopped down on the couch just as Eat, Pray, Love was starting on the projector. I was almost tempted to watch but it isn’t really the environment to follow a movie. I played on my phone, but regularly looked up to marvel at the style of exoticism that appeals to middle America. I couldn’t feel more like a farang if I was walking down Khao San road in fisheman pants and a Chang tank top. On the other hand, I would be willing to pay money for a movie that was just Julia Roberts eating pasta. And now I am imagining a whole series of films of famous actresses eating various foods. Heavens.
I went upstairs early and kept reading Pride and Prejudice, but was interrupted at some point to Facetime yet another person. I spent nearly an hour in the stairwell, where I could get a decent Wifi signal. At the end of which, both of us agreed as to how weird the situation (the call, not the circumstances of where I took it) was. Then, straight to bed.
| Lunch (Duinjiang jjigae) | 6,000 |
| Home Plus | 23850 |
| Subtotal | 29850 |
| Home Plus | 11990 |
| Haircut | 30000 |
| Dinner (Suyuk) | 10000 |
| Subtotal | 51990 |
| Total: | 81840 (495 RMB) (USD 73.76) |
Running Total:
10305 RMB
(USD 1535.6)
Daily Average:
234 RMB
(USD 34.9)