Biking along Gwangju Creek I encountered this man. Sometime in his past, someone must have said "Go fly a kite," and he took it as a personal challenge. I counted more than forty. It appeared he was pulling down the heavens. A few more kites, and the heavens would have pulled him up to them.
Pulling down the heavens.
More than 40 kites on a single string. They dance together in the wind.
Still taking pictures of chairs and sofas randomly placed around Gwangju. It's like the whole city is saying "Take a seat."
Taking a break from shopping to warm up in the sun.
Smoke break under an overpass by the river.
Lone chair, and lonely couple.
Yeah, it's in color, but the colors are just so awesome, I had to share! Prettiest bike ever.
Since I arrived in Korea, I've been wanting to buy a bike. Not only as a form of transportation, but also because I miss riding. So, on Friday, I finally got one. For a while, I'd been holding off, trying to find a road bike in my size on a "flea-market" on Facebook, but I hadn't found what I wanted. One problem is that the Koreans are seriously partial to mountain bikes and hybrids, so none of the bikes on offer were what I wanted. Last Sunday, I bit the bullet, and ordered a brand-new bike from the bike shop across the street. Not the best choice, financially, but I got what I wanted. It came in on Wednesday, but it was raining, so I put off visiting the shop. Thursday was rainy, too. Finally, on Friday, I woke up early, and walked to the shop to pick up my new bicycle.
One thing I love is that, apparently, when you buy a bicycle in Korea, it comes with a bell. I've never had a bike bell before! I mean, one of my bikes has a ridiculously loud horn, but I've never had a bell before! Also, the shop owner gave me a lock for free! I think that's something dealers in America should do.
What have I said about all the apartments being the same?
As you may have guessed, no bus game this weekend. One amazing thing about Gwangju is that the rivers have miles and miles of biking trails along them. One terrible thing about Gwangju is that these biking trails are paved about as well as a farm-to-market road in Arkansas. That means not well, by the way. It kind of makes me understand why cyclists around here prefer the hybrids and mountain bikes.
Anyway, I spent my weekend pedaling up and down these paths, finding cool new places to explore, and realizing how awesomely the Koreans spend their weekends... but that will be a post in the future.
Greenhouses, a bridge, and apartments in Gwangju.
I also discovered another photo series I am pursuing. Including to documentary/street/travel type stuff, this brings the total up to four. I've got my work cut out for me!
To keep this short(er than usual) I'll just end by saying that I did get a flat on the way home today. About five miles from home. Good thing I've gotten so used to walking everywhere!
One last note: don't ever take four months off from biking, and then decided to do 60 miles your first weekend back. Everything hurts...
Happy misadventuring! Remember to bring patch kits and a portable pump if you're biking! (Like I didn't!)
The academy at which I work is about a mile away from my apartment so I walk every day. A few weeks ago I realized that I was missing a ton of great shots, so I started carrying my camera on the walk. I know it sounds like common sense, but for some reason I wasn't doing it. I don't tend to take too many pictures on the way, but every once in a while I catch something I like. Here are a few for your viewing pleasure!
Bottom floor of the building in which I work.
Close to my apartment on a rainy day.
On the way to work I pass a trampoline house. It only costs $1USD for half an hour. I wonder if they allow adults...
On the way home I noticed a lot of students getting out of an event at a local school and walking past some massive apartment buildings. Actually, these are relatively small apartments around this area of town...
So, this hasn't been so misadventure-y yet. Walking to work isn't really a misadventure all the time, is it? Well, from time to time, it is. Just last week, my co-workers and I were walking to work when a man approached us on the street. "I want to change the world," he said as way of greeting.
I've encountered enough weird in my travels, that I feel I have a good sense for when you don't want to have a conversation with someone. I knew I didn't really want to continue a conversation with this man.
John, bless his heart, dove right in, asking, "How are you going to do that?"
I'm paraphrasing, but he essentially said we need to start World War III with North Korea. He then proceeded to follow us all the way to where we work, and even wanted to come up to the Hagwon (academy) with us, thinking he could take classes there. John politely pointed him toward a PC room (cheap place to play computer games), and thus evaded the strange man.
The strange man we met on the way to the Hagwon. He was the one who suggested the picture, but was strangely reluctant to make contact with the foreigners...
Stay tuned for more misadventures!
Fishing on the Yeongsan River.
This Saturday I had a Today You, Tomorrow Me experience.
I was out on one of my weekly photo walks, but instead of taking the bus downtown like I usually do, I decided to stay more local and discover more about the area in which I live. I walked east from my apartment, through a small farming community, and down to the Yeongsan (영산) River. While there I discovered that I should have brought a long lens, because I saw some amazingly beautiful birds. I had gone out with the intention of shooting street and scenic, and therefore had not brought a long lens. So much for packing light...
A tributary to the Yeongsan River.
Farms and irrigation near my apartment in Singa-dong
Transport trouble.
So I wandered around for a while, grabbed some quick shots, and soon got fed up with the lighting situation. It was a hazy, gross day for shooting in a park. I started heading back to an area where I knew I could catch a bus when I saw this kid. He was struggling to figure out how to transport a brakeless fixed-gear bicycle and a brakeless BMX bike. When I first saw him across the street, I thought to myself, "Man, this guy looks like he's having troubles, I'm going to go take pictures of him." He ended up heading the same direction I was, but kept stopping over-and-over, trying to readjust. He would try putting one over his shoulder while riding the other, or try "ghost-riding" one, but it wasn't working out due to the height difference. (Ghost-riding is where you ride one bike while pushing/steering the other, usually by the stem.)
After a few hundred meters (Koreans use the metric system - when in Rome...) I finally turned back to him and asked "Do you need help?"
"Yes," he said.
I could already tell his English was relatively simple, but I asked, "Which way?"
He just pointed, and I mounted the BMX and rode off at a leisurely pace. For a while, he stayed behind, even though his bike was faster than mine. I'm not sure he trusted me. I would stop every once in a while to ask which way, and he kept telling me to go forward. It wasn't until we were within a few hundred meters of my apartment that he apparently felt like I wasn't trying to rob him, and rode ahead. We took a few turns and ended up at an apartment complex less than a kilometer from where I live.
As we rode in, there were many children around the complex, and they gawked at me, a white man (there aren't really that many in Gwangju, let alone Singa-dong), riding a bike with a Korean boy.
"Here," he said.
I gave him a high-five, thanked him for the good ride, and asked him for his photograph. He kindly obliged, and after that, I walked off. But before he was out of sight, I turned back to find that he had given the bike to one of the younger children that had stared at me with such curiosity as we rode in.
The kid with both bikes at his apartment complex.
At this point I kind of felt like an asshole. When I first saw him, I wanted to take a picture so I could post it with some snarky caption like "This guy can't figure out what kind of hipster he wants to be" or something else like that. Instead, he gives the bike to a younger boy. The good news is, it ended up being a Today You, Tomorrow Me kind of experience, which made me feel kind of warm and gooey inside.
In case you don't get the reference (i.e. you don't reddit), here's the source for that phrase: Today You, Tomorrow Me
Feeling like a redeemed asshole, I walked off to the nearest bus stop to play the bus game. And I failed miserably. I lost on my second bus.
The only half-way decent shot I got on the bus game that day...
And, for the most part, that was my Saturday misadventure! Hope yours was good! Keep having more, and so will I!