Busan! Selcas! Five Minutes to Tomorrow...

Ahhhhh~
아 아 아
안녕. Hi there. It's been a while... so, just thought I'd refresh your memory. I'm Gabby. I am a girl from Oregon, USA, living in Hwacheon, South Korea. We are probably friends. Or family. Or you are a complete stranger who just stumbled in here, in which case, NICE TO MEET YOU.

Yay! 인사 끝!

It's Day 112! A lot has happened since I last wrote here!
Buckle up!

I've been spoiled with 3 and 4 day weekends the last three weekends (don't worry, I will make up for it. From now until Dec. 26th I will have full, 5-day working weeks and no more vacation days) so recently I have done many fun things and gone many places and SLEPT. Really slept. Like 12 hours. My meticulously-planned, regular, healthy sleep schedule is all messed up now. :/

What fun things did I do? I went to the Busan International Film Festival, hiked Seoraksan, and attended the Fulbright ETA fall conference in Gyeongju, each on a different weekend.

Three weeks ago I went to Korea's second largest city, Busan, on the southern tip of the peninsula.

Things I've been told about Busan:

Busan is known for fish, spas, and handsome men.

It's also Korea's largest port city.

This was my first time in Busan! My main excuse to go there (5+ hr bus ride from Hwacheon. That's a commitment yo) was for the annual Busan International Film Festival. But... as over 30 other ETAs also went to see the films, it was a great chance to catch up with everyone I spent the summer with too.
Another reason: to escape the Hwacheon cold. We can get below freezing at night recently. And it gets dark before 6 now. And even as I write this my fingernails are purple with cold (not nailpolish). No joke: WINTER IS COMING. 안돼~~~

In Busan I hung out with friends on the the beach and it was so beautiful and sunny. We ate chicken while watching hundreds of Koreans dress up in their traditional dress, hanbok, and perform a musical concert (both Korean traditional instruments and classical orchestra) all conveniently and completely coincidentally on the same beach as us. And it was on this beach that I really noticed Korea's latest craze: the selca* pole. 셀카봉

 It's used like this:

It's great for getting a group of people all in one photo, or a way to capture the background/landscape while taking a selfie. Note: This isn't a new invention. I saw lots of posts on the interwebs about this or that dude traveling the world and look at their awesome photos/video footage taken with a pole just like this~ yay (like I said, good for capturing the scenery)

But recently, like really just this month or so, EVERY person in Korea suddenly decided they must own this. I must've seen over a hundred selca poles that weekend in Busan. Then later that week my host sister begged her dad to buy her one. And just today one of the third grade homeroom teachers proudly showed me her new bluetooth 셀카봉 that she just got in the mail… (It's an epidemic I say!)

*Oh, I guess this is a good place for a Korean culture note. Koreans have their own word for what in America is commonly called a "selfie" or photo taken by yourself of your face by holding out your arm. It's "selca" 셀카. A word made from combining "self" and "camera" or "capture" (my sorces differ on the "ca" origin).

Admire some of my favorite Korean people and their selca power:

Koreans have mastered this. I don't want to be generalizing, but I don't think I would be that far off saying that every Korean knows what makes a good selfie. There is no gender discrimination either. In America, guys often scoff at girls for taking selfies, but in Korea guys do it just as often. Especially celebrities.

*cough cough… no, I didn't just force you to admire SHINee again… man, I'm getting distracted here

 Even in Hwacheon I've seen soldiers sitting in a cafe or restaurant posing for a selca. There's even another Korean culture of ulzzang 얼짱 or creepily-adorable people who become famous by posting their selcas online and even launching model careers- but I'll stop there.. Information overload, right?

giant eyes with circle lenses are a ulzzang must

And whew was that a tangent... Back to Busan...
The Busan International Film Festival!!

 Hi Judith!

I went to the film festival with my friend, Zerin, who was in the same Korean class as me this summer. She is awesome and teaches in Busan.

Speaking of selcas... You can see all the people sitting in the background...

so... I chose this photo even though I'm not looking at the camera

Say, "Hi, Zerin!"

We saw a movie called, "Five Minutes to Tomorrow" 深夜前的五分钟.

Also I just want to say, it was SUPER difficult to get this ticket. But if I go into that story this post will never end... so just know that I BLED FOR THIS:

Five Minutes to Tomorrow is a Chinese film, directed by a Japanese man, filmed in China, with a famous Japanese actor as the male lead, and two Chinese actors as the other leads.

The film was shown in the giant outdoor theater because that night was its world premiere. Before the film, the director and lead actors all came on stage and introduced the film. I had a lot of fun because they spoke in their native Japanese and Mandarin languages. In an ultimate test of my degree in East Asian Studies, I tried to translate everything into English for Zerin before the Korean translator started speaking (because then we both could understand). It was pretty exciting to see that before the movie.

 Some cool professional photos:

And the crappy photos I took:

The movie itself however....
Well. Let's just say I don't want to see it again.
The cinematography was really beautiful. (prepare for STILL CUTS)

The lighting! Mmmhmm…

But the rest was just awkward and trying to be something artsy and deep... You could totally tell that the main actor and actress had never actually gotten to know each other or probably never even had a real conversation together because they don't speak the other's language. Yet in the movie they were supposed to be madly in love, and well... Zerin and I didn't buy it. The silent scenes between them all completely lacked any chemistry or desire and were so awkward, Zerin and I couldn't help but snigger throughout the film. Like it was too awkward for even the awkward turtle.

 Let's awkwardly stare at each other

 Let's awkwardly make physical contact

 Let's awkwardly walk with a good distance separating us

 Let's awkwardly not face each other while talking

Let's awkwardly have a conversation in a car while your other lover drives

My personal fav:

Let's back hug so I won't have to look at your face and you won't have to make any effort to pretend to enjoy touching me

The plot itself was trying to be all deep, with a story line of twin girls who grow up constantly switching places because one of the twins is a trouble-maker. That of course leads to awkward tension between each boyf of theirs.

Then one of the twins dies and suddenly no one is sure of which twin she is and even she is all like, "who am I?" and cries boohoo, while I think, "girl, get yourself together."

So apart from being a generally disappointing film and freezing with the coastal winds blowing in the outdoor theater, I really enjoyed myself that weekend! It was a really great experience~

And since I got side-tracked earlier I'm going to have to end this post here. Stay tuned for the rest of my ketchup business and jazz.

Thanks for reading!

<3
GW