MontanaRon

An English teacher's blog about his travels and his digital art.

Month: October 2011

Back to Work

October 30, 2011 /

After enjoying more than a week off while the students took mid-term exams, I go back to work tomorrow. I didn’t do a whole lot during the time off, but I did get up to Seoul for a few days; I needed to get some more pages added to my passport. I wouldn’t have needed any more until my passport expired, but the Laos government chooses to take up an entire page with their large tourist visas. Because I go there so often on vacation, I use up quite a few pages in a short time. Although I enjoy Seoul, I don’t really like going up there because I spend so much money in a short time. The passport pages used to be a free service, but now the U.S. government charges $82 for it. Add in the cost of transportation there and back, a couple of nights in a guesthouse, eating, visiting the Kyobo bookstore for a few reading materials, and a trip to the Foreign Food Market in Itaewon, and the price climbs. I was able to get a few spices that I can’t find here in Yeosu, including a Cajun Spice Mix and a bottle of cardamom. I also discovered that they have all kinds of beans and pasta, so I got a couple of bags of couscous and, unbelievably, black-eye peas. Now I can have that traditional southern U.S. dish, Hoppin’ John, which, if eaten on New Year’s Day, will bring you good health and prosperity for the rest of the year. Yummmmm, I can’t wait. Heck, I’m sure I’ll cook up a few batches before then. I might even have to make another Seoul run.

Well, the World Series is over and the Rangers kind of blew it, but what a classic game 6 that was! I watched the replay on MLB TV when I returned from Seoul. I avoided checking the Internet and my email as a precaution to avoid seeing the game result before I watched it. A really exciting game and hard to top, as game 7 seemed rather anti-climactic (unless you’re a Cardinal fan).

I’ve still got a lot of photos to put up, including some from Seoul, so stay tuned for more later (sooner, I hope.)

Yeosu Indoor Fish Market

October 19, 2011 /

Here are a few photos taken in one of Yeosu’s indoor fish markets last April, which just goes to show how timely I am at posting some of my shots. 🙂 The fish markets are located in the area of town where there are dozens of folks selling vegetables, fruit, fish and other staples in a hodge-podge of outdoor and indoor markets. Here’s a view of the main street of this area.

Anyway, the outdoor market is still open, but the indoor ones, of which there are a few, are much nicer for winter shopping. Here’s a photo of the outdoor market, which I took way back in October of 2008 (and which I DID put in the main photo gallery, but not on the blog).

Inside the market, folks are busily engaged in buying and selling all sorts of seafood.

Following are several shots of various creatures from the sea; I know about the crabs and fish, but what the others are called, I have no idea. If anyone knows, please leave a comment. Enjoy.

Vientiane Boat Racing Festival

October 17, 2011 /

The Vientiane Dragon Boat Racing Festival is one of the events marking the end of the Buddhist Lent period, which is called Ork Punsa in Laos and Thailand (read about it at the Buddhism Inter blog, or at this Laos travel blog. The race was held this past Thursday, Oct. 13th, along the Mekong River in the capital. Check out this video posted on You Tube to see some of the racing and some of the other goings-on along the riverbank. Lao Voices also has a short article on the history of the boats.

Nai told me that his entire village was celebrating because many of the young men on the winning team, including one of his brothers, are from his neck of the woods. I’ve watched these guys practice and race before, and they are an amazing sight to watch. The You Tube video above will give you some sense of the strength and team work of the top crews. Wish I’d been there. Someday, perhaps.

Out and About in Yeosu Part II

October 16, 2011 /

Here are a few more shots of various Yeosu scenes. I suppose this post’s theme could be buildings and construction. There’s quite a lot of construction in the area as Yeosu prepares for the 2012 Expo. Naturally, most of the construction is centered around the Expo site, but there are other areas experiencing hotel and apartment building projects.

One of these is the Ocean Park Resort, out near the Soho Yacht Marina. The hotel being built on the property was originally supposed to be about 660 feet tall, which would have made it the tallest in Yeosu. I think that it’s been downgraded due to construction costs beyond the original estimate. You can see the original design and some early photos of its construction at the Skyscraper City website. Originally schedule to be open this year, it now appears that it won’t be finished until 2014. Here’s the most recent photo I took.

Here’s another shot from the Soho Yacht Marina.

Farther left in the photo above, out of the shot, is the Ocean Park Waterslide area. Unfortunately, it was closed on the day I rode my bicycle there. It’s fairly large and I’m told that it gets a lot of use. Here’s just a small section of it.

Back down the shoreline a bit is another hotel under construction. This one’s kind of isolated with not too much going on around it and it’s more than a few kilometers from the Expo site. Still, if it’s finished in time, it’ll probably get a fair amount of business.

And another view.

This apartment building near Lotte Mart and the Dolsan Bridge has been under construction ever since I arrived in Yeosu three years ago, and very little construction has been done on it. Recently, though, things have been picking up. I think the original outfit that was building it went under and a new owner took over. The original artist’s rendering of the complex has changed, as well as the complex name. Maybe it’ll be finished soon, but who knows?

And, just a few more shots taken on a walking trip. The first one is a view of the harbor where many of the fishing boats are docked.

Finally, there’s no sense wasting roof space above your house. While your laundry is drying, you can also dry a few crops up there, too. More later.

A Long Winter–Yanks Lose

October 8, 2011 /

Well, nothing to cheer about in the baseball world for me, at least. The Yankees came up just short against the Detroit Tigers in the American League Division Series, losing the final game 3-2. They can join the Red Sox on the golf course, I guess. I knew I shouldn’t have gloated about the Sox’ collapse. I’m such a jinx. 🙂

In the days ahead, the Tigers play against the Texas Rangers (Strangers) for the AL Championship. Do I care who wins? Nope. I won’t be rooting for either team–I really couldn’t care less. I will, however, cheer on whichever one goes to the World Series, since I detest the National League. There were a couple of great games today in the NL, though, with St. Louis knocking off Philly in a classic 1-0 pitchers’ duel, and Milwaukee winning 3-2 over Arizona on a walk-off hit, which put an end to both of those division series.

I probably won’t be paying as much attention to the games as I have recently, now that the Yanks are out of it, so I should have more time to do other things rather than be glued to the MLB TV feed of the games on my computer. Hmmm, maybe I should take up ice skating. Bring it on, Old Man Winter!

Out and About in Yeosu Part I

October 1, 2011 /

I have a lot of Yeosu photos that I haven’t posted yet, so I’ll start a new theme, so to speak, of Out and About in Yeosu, scenes from around the area, taken in August and September. I’ll try to get a new post up every 3 or 4 days (yeah, right) . . . OK, as often as I can.

First up, I thought I’d do something a little different. Rather than just put up the complete photo, I thought I’d show some close ups, some snippets of larger shots, kind of an abstract thing. First, I’ll show the small shots, followed by the overall scene. Let’s see how this works.

So here are the details. What are they? Shouldn’t be too hard to guess. Please click on each photo to get a larger view. Here’s Number One.

Number Two

Number Three

Number Four

Number Five

Now, so that you don’t see the main photos right off the bat, a little interlude.

Speaking of right off the bat, the first day of the MLB playoffs weren’t exactly heart-wrenching. The over-achieving Rays slaughtered the Texas Strangers 9-0 and the Tigers-Yanks game was rained out.

Looks like the Yanks game will be resumed tomorrow (Saturday in the ‘States) at the point where it was halted, bottom of the 2nd, tied at 1. Detroit scored with a cheapo 🙂 home run and the Yanks scored without the benefit of a hit. That’s one thing about the New York Nine this season–they can win with speed and savvy baserunning. They were 3rd in the American League with 147 stolen bases (Tampa was first with 155), their most since 2001. Jeter actually struck out in the bottom of the first, but still scored the Yanks run, hustling to first base on a third strike wild pitch, one of those baseball oddities. He subsequently advanced to second on a walk to Granderson (former Tiger) and went to third on a groundout to second. He then scored on a grounder to third. Hopefully, the game can be completed tomorrow, though Weather Underground is showing a 40% chance of rain in The City tomorrow night.

The two teams will probably play another game on Sunday, which is Monday morning in Korea, but that’s OK with me, since we have Monday off because of a national holiday. It’s Korea Foundation Day, a celebration of the (mythical) founding of the country, both North and South. Check out a description here.

All right, enough of an interlude; back to the photos. Here are the main shots.

Number One. This one is part of the steeple of a church down by the harbor. Here’s the original shot, which I took from the Jongpo Ocean Park Walkway.

Number Two. There were several boats lined up along the dock at the Jongpo harbor near the walkway and this is a close up of one of them. Here’s the complete shot.

Number Three. These orange balloon-like things appear to be buoys that might be put in the water as warning signals. You certainly couldn’t miss their colorful presence atop the murky water.

Number Four. Seriously, I don’t have any idea of the purpose of these things. They were lined up across the harbor from the walkway. Very odd looking, yes? If anyone knows what purpose they serve, let me know in the comments, please.

Number Five. I must admit I cheated a little on this one. I rotated the original photo a bit in order to cut out the bottom part of the building. Anyway, they’re part of a building housing, I think, a maritime organization, like a fisherman’s hall or something along that line. Again, if anyone from Yeosu is looking, let me know what you think.

Number Six. Finally, the front of the building that kind of resembles a face, I think, is actually a school. Cute, if you ask me.

OK, that’s it for now. I’ll try to get some more Out and About shots up in a few days (giggle, snort, guffaw–c’mon, Ron, get serious), so stay tuned for more later.

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