i didn't go to busan

I had 4 days off this weekend so i was going to go to Busan with Rick, but he came down with bronchitis and i didn't really want to go on my own. Also, I just didn't really feel the urge. So, it was off to Commune's again for me - the dingy downstairs ex-pat bar with occasional live music. I saw some of the guys I went to China with last year, and one of them was organising a texas hold 'em tournament next weekend so I fell over myself getting my name down for that one. He came around right as I had finished saying something like "Yeah, noone ever seems to do anything fun around here". So that was good.
Last night I went there to watch "Genghis Blues", the movie about the blind american blues guy who goes to Tulla Tuva, just north of Mongolia to be in a throat singing tournament. Met some cool people and wound up playing pool at Itaewon til three. Nice one.
Just got back from dinner and drinks with YeonJi and some of her friends. We had a pretty cool time and the language barrier wasn't too huge. Not that I could contribute much to the comversation but. I wish I knew what that girl wants.

the yellow sand cometh

You can tell that it's spring in Korea because of the yellow sand in the air.
Every year at around this time, an Easterly wind blows off the Gobi and Takla Makan. The hot and dry spring weather in China carries sand on the northeastern atmospheric current, making the sky here hazy, eyes and lungs itchy, and the air a little colder.
Last year there were 24 days of haze, throughout spring and , just like every meteorological occurence I've experienced here so far, "this year will be/has been the worst on record". Seems like a red-letter year for weather.

In other news, shit. Don't ask me why.

long long time

Well, it's been a while so it'll be bullets today, on everything i can remember that's happenend since, what? Jan 14th? Huh.

• met YeonJi, the daughter of the couple I met when I went to the JimJilbang with Jessica and Joy. We have had some fun together (details below)
• worked at Dongsangro office all through Feb. They are a younger crowd there and the whole set-up is ... more sterile. Definitely a more pleasant working environment, except for the crappy green board markers which spread greasy white spots all over your clothes. It was nice to be downtown to take advantage of the various luncherias. Had lunch with James and Levi most days - cool pair of guys both on the way to marrying k-girls
• went snowboarding! YeonJi mentioned she was going with some friends so I tagged myself along and had a supremely awesome time. This is the main reason I want to come back to New Zealand. I should really get my shit together and send off a CV or 6 so I can maybe get a job when I come back.
• finally took advantage of (student) Brian's offer to visit his academy out in GyeongJu. He is professor at this cutting-edge hydro-therapy dealy. I took YJ along to soothe our bodies of the pain of snowboarding. It was nice to be able to pay back the goodtime. Which reminds me, I really need to send Brian something. Oh well.
• Had some shit nights on the town. It's all good until midnight usually when I start to get depressed that I can't seem to form any kind of connection with anyone in the room except for who I arrived with (invariably Rick these days). The gurus suggest clinking around the room but man, ain't no-one interested in even eye contact so WTF? I guess I'm still a misanthropist at heart and once you start just not liking the people here it's really hard to turn things around and see them as anything other than shallow boring twats (which is precisely what they are).
• got an awesome schedule this month 6:30-12:00! Time for the Gym again - trying the Sisco workout (massive weights 1-2 sets of 8 reps or so) about twice a week. I'm also hitting the running machines cos my fitness level has got to improve. I get puffed after the 3 flights of stairs at the sub station.
• levi showed me how to switch blogger into English so I can change shit around. Hooray. I'll probably be more inclined to put stuff up here in future.

So that's it for now. Chur.