DLI 63 Building

There's this cool building in Seoul called the DLI 63. It's a life insurance building, but also a major tourist attraction. It has an IMAX theatre and an aquarium inside, plus a few stores, restaurants, and cafes. It's also 63 stories high (oh, leally?) and has an observation tower at the top. I went ahead and bought the triple ticket and did all three. Here are some pictures and videos I took:

A couple views from the top of the building:

The cool thing about DLI 63 is that, unlike Seoul Tower, the observation deck isn't just a lame deck with windows. It's also the highest art gallery in the world. The exhibit when I went was called Kitty S. and it was all about Hello Kitty. Suite.

I was a little nervous at first about taking photos and video, but no one stopped me, and then I saw other people taking pictures of the art, too, so I went crazy:

Some Engrish at the exhibit, too:

Most of the windows were decorated:

This isn't art, but it's a cool part of the bathroom. There are no sinks, you just stick your hands in the box, and sprays of water come out.

This was interactive art. People could use the shapes and pegs to make art or words. A guy next to me said, "What do you want to describe?" I said an apple tree, or an orange tree, and he seemed to have trouble seeing it. Am I crazy or is he?

Immediately, and I mean immediately, after I snapped the above shot, a dude, who didn't even know I was taking pictures, came and stole a piece of my art. This happened while I was actually making it, too, though I don't think it was the same guy. Koreans tend to be kind of oblivious, I hate to say.


This is the only picture of me for the whole trip. A few friends asked me to take their picture, so one of them took mine afterward. What a dorky looking photo.

This one's pretty cool:

Haha, poop cream cone:

This is the ride down from the elevator:

After I saw the art, I went to the aquarium (it's called Sea World). These sharks are at the entrance. This is severe false advertising.

King and jackass penguins:

King crab? I mean, it'd have to be...

The aptly named leaf fish:

Leopard rays:

I don't remember which lizards are which, so... lizards:

Sea monkeys:

Snakes:

Shark? Or shark wannabe? You tell me, Dana.


Albino frog:

Toad of some sort:

Turtles. What a life.

Some water-dwelling snake:

Monitor:

Crocodile:


Upside down jelly fish:

Stupid girl getting in the way of my photo of upside down jelly fish:

Tentacular:

More toads:

Eel:

It was pretty hard taking pictures of the seals. Ah, seals, the torpedoes of the sea.

Ah, the playful Asian otter:

Obviously, I don't have any pictures of the IMAX experience, but it was pretty much the same as any other IMAX, except for the language thing. It was a movie about this dude climbing Mt. Eiger in the Alps, and it was clearly originally in English, with Michael Gambon narrating (so the credits said), but it had been dubbed in Korean. Pissa. I had to use one of those audio devices with an earphone that had the English on it. It was out of sync, though, and that was really annoying.

Finally, after tons of fun for like four hours in the building, I was ready to go back to the hotel for a rest and maybe some more shopping in the famous Insadong district. But when I walked out of the building and by the nearby park, I saw this:



This photo shows about a fiftieth of the actual amount of people who showed up. I think half of Seoul was there. I went down to check it out, and apparently there was a fireworks festival going on that night. Well, I thought it would be stupid to miss that, so I hung around for another three and a half hours to wait for it. I walked around for an hour trying to find some food, and ended up walking back the the 63 building and having some Japanese fusion food for not too bad a price. I also got to listen to some stupid American guy try to pressure his Korean girlfriend into going home or to a hotel with him, instead of staying at home with her parents. Apparently she couldn't do that because they knew she was with him, and it would be socially unacceptable to stay with him. She was like, my age.

After wandering around, getting stuck in the throngs of foot traffic, finally finding a spare piece of grass to sit on, and waiting forever, the fireworks started. They were just like regular fireworks, except the second picture below shows this really cool things they did with fireworks flowing down from underneath the bridge. It looked like a waterfall.

After an hour of fireworks, I got up to go, and then so did most of the other people, even though the fireworks weren't done. The nearest subway station was right by the park, probably a five minute walk from where I was. But, since there were soooooooooo many people, it took about twenty minutes to get there, I think. It was like being in the pit at a major rock concert, except without the music, dancing, jumping, and fun. When I finally got to the subway entrance, this is what I saw:

That's like thirty cops guarding the subway, saying it's shut down at this exit. The sign above seems to say go to one of the two closest subway stations, a 15- or 25-minute walk. I didn't really know what to do at first, and didn't know how to get to either, so I just kind of hung around for a few minutes, and watched the fireworks. After a bit, I figured I'd never get out of there, so I started following one of the main throngs of people. We ended up at the next closest subway station, where again I saw thirty cops blocking the entrance, but then I realized that the station was still open, but everyone had to go to a different entrance a few steps away, so they could control the amount of people. Phew. That whole ordeal took an hour, when it should have taken ten minutes.

The subway was like a sardine can. I got to watch an old guy shame a young girl out of her seat, too. There was a twenty year old girl sitting down, listening to her mp3 player, and right next to her was a mother standing with a baby strapped to her stomach and a little kid nearby. Although I didn't understand much of the Korean, I knew what the dude was saying when he started rambling loudly and gesturing to the girl. She got up out of her seat, though, and I think the mother felt a little bad, but she sat down.

I was thinking about writing a letter to the city of Seoul suggesting they get some sort of system for events like that. It seems stupid and wasteful to shut down the nearest entrance to public transportation. They should have the cops there, and make some people go to other stops, but use some sort of differentiation. Seniors and those with mobility problems could use the closest entrance, families with children the next closest, and singles or couples without children could go the the one after that. The city could also subsidize half price taxi fares and have a shitload of taxis waiting at the end of the event. But I don't think they'd take a foreigner seriously, unfortunately.

Anyway, good trip. It took me two days to write this and get all this media up here, so I better get some comments.

Go Bok Su Song Festival Videos

Okay, so let me add the rest of the videos I didn't put on last time.

I thought this song was wicked boring, so I didn't take much video:



This is a sad song about Japan killing one of Korea's queens of old:


This is a rap band that I assume is at least semi-famous in Korea. They weren't in the contest, but were just there to provide extra entertainment. They're called One-Two, or One-Two something or other:


These boys are from Ulsan. They didn't win any award, despite trying to be like, the Backstreet Boys or something:

Go Bok Su Song Festival

Last weekend Heather called me up and said she'd seen a sign for the Go Bok Su Song Festival right here in Ulsan Grand Park, and said we should go. We tracked down Leon, the new teacher, and walked over there. Apparently this is a big deal. It was on TV. The guy who started it slash whom it's in honor of was like a big star. They showed a short documentary, which I didn't understand, at the beginning that told about him.

There were nine acts (the program said ten, looks like one dropped out or something), and this was the final round of what started off with several hundred contestants. Many previous winners of this festival have gone on to become very famous in Korea, said Heather. Each contestant got one song, and they ranged from traditional to pop. It was all quite funny. Some of the songs even had a few English phrases, but the only reason I know that is because there was a big screen showing shots of the singers, stage, and audience up there, and it had subtitles. The English was completely unintelligible.

The prizes at the end were very, very odd. They awarded seven prizes for nine acts. There were some placings that Heather didn't translate at first, then they had bronze, silver, and gold, then I think a runner-up, and finally first prize. It all seemed like nonsense. Leon said they should have learned from the Olympics that gold is the highest prize, but I said they must have taken a cue from the credit card companies and gone platinum and diamond. I'm funnier than Leon.

Here are some pictures of the venue, in the park. I was surprised that such a big event would have chairs put in such shoddy rows, which of course you can't see here. When we sat down, though, I noticed that besides that fact that the rows were all uneven, you had to move the chairs in the row in front of you forward in order to actually be able to sit down and have room for your legs. Idiots.


In the background is the band that accompanied all the acts, the Ulsan Pops:


Here are all the contestants:


And the hosts. I enjoyed their feigned playful banter, even though I couldn't understand it.



I took a lot of video of this thing. In fact, I took so much video that I filled up my card before all the acts had gone one, so you only get to see a few. For those of you who actually know me, YOU get to see the rest on tape. Something to look forward to... By the way, it's not in focus half the time because it was hard for the camera to figure out what it was looking at with all those bright lights and junk in the background, plus being so far away. We should have sat closer. I didn't think of it. Sorry.

This first video is all the contestants singing a lame song together. Because I didn't get the winner on my video card and can't put her act up here, I'll tell you who won: the chick in the red school girl skirt. To her credit, she is a high school student and so is allowed to wear that skirt without ridicule. HOWEVER, she sucked big time and Heather aptly suggested that she won only because all the judges were 50 year old men.




This is the first contestant. We really like him. Heather translated a little of the summary of all the acts that was given later for us, and she said they said this guy's voice needed more power. I think those judges should be shot right in the ear. When they awarded prizes, he got one, as I recall, but it was one of the lesser prizes.


This act was really funny. The strange thing about this contest was that the acts were allowed dancers, backup singers, and special effects, unlike in American contests, where everything is (supposed to be) fair and equal. So this chick had all of the above. Actually, the backup singers were there for most of the acts--these are the people on the left in white. Anyway, I liked this one, but Leon thought they sucked. Heather said she made a mistake, but she still got like a bronze or something somewhere in the middle to upper-middle place.



Well, Blogger is acting funny, so maybe I've hit my media limit for this post. I'll finish tomorrow.

The Korean Won

The problem with working in a foreign country without paying off all your debts in your native country is that you become subject to the whims of the exchange rate. Right now I am getting slammed.

My boss recently told me that when the US gets a cold, Korea gets pneumonia. With the American economy in such big trouble (and right now I'm just relying on episodes of the Daily Show posted online to get my news), Korea is in a crisis. The won is practically worthless. The government has been trying to force it to stabilize lately, but it hasn't worked very well. They froze the rate at 1000 won to the dollar last month for a couple days, but of course that couldn't last long. Someone told me tonight that they're going to start "injecting" money into the economy as a result of the bailout bill not being passed in the US. Here's a quote from Korea.net:

"If necessary, the government will inject foreign exchange liquidity into the spot exchange market. We'll prevent the won from further plummeting despite a short supply of dollars," said Minister of Strategy and Finance Kang Man-soo on Sept. 30.

When I got here, the exchange rate was around 1000 won to the dollar. Yesterday, the won broke 1200 won per dollar. This means I lose around $300 a month in transferring money to my American bank account, compared to what I was getting at first. I'm really hoping this injection thing, or SOMEthing works out long term. My advice to anyone thinking of coming over here who hasn't signed a contract yet: wait until this money thing gets resolved. Who needs this kind of stress added to the stress of being away from home?