Separation.

Goodbyes are not forever.
They are not the last word.
They are just something to say,
something to be heard.

They are a continuation,
A forwarding of what is to begin,
A promise, a hope,
not something to condemn.

Goodbyes should not bring torture,
Torment, or despair,
Feelings of comfort and patience
should instead be presented there.

This is not the end,
This is not our last chance.
For in this thing we call life,
it is only one dance

Rain sued for $30 million.

I heard from the news that Rain is being sued for $30 million by a local promoter from cancelling a concert in Los Angeles back in 2007. I also heard about a different lawsuit from another cancelled show in Hawaii. Because of this, all of his succeeding concerts in different parts of U.S. were also cancelled. TMZ wrote an article regarding this, and you could read it here.

I didn't know that Bi started as a backup dancer back in 2001 for a singer named Park Jin Young, who later managed him under JYP entertainment. I don't really listen to his music cause I like his dancing more than his singing. I think as a singer, he's just mediocre and overrated. But I could see his real talent whenever he dances... If you're like me, who watches Bi's "Rainism" video on mute, you'll definitely like his old video below. ^^

Off to Gapyeong. (p.2)

Gapyeong is a small county in Gyeonggi province that is located right in the middle of the Korean peninsula. It's easily accessible by train, and has everything from beautiful mountains, to lush forest, rivers, lakes, and valleys so there's always a huge traffic of tourists coming every single day. Chris is quite familiar with Gapyeong cause we already visited the place multiple times before. The most significant tourist destination there would be Nami Island. My mom is a huge fan of the drama Winter Sonata that made the place famous, so I bought her the "Polaris" necklace during my first visit there. We didn't visit Nami this time, but as we were driving, we saw the small island from afar.



Gapyeong is also known for their specialty Dalk Galbi (which probably originated there), so we didn't wanna miss the opportunity to try it while we're there.. Chris chose this beautiful restaurant by the river. He specially requested to use the tables outside so we could have a better view of the Bukhan River. It was surprisingly warm at that time.. It felt more like summer than spring, and I even saw people wearing T-shirts and shorts.



After lunch, we got back on the road again and Chris saw an arrow pointing towards the "Fantastic Driving Course" written in Korean. Chris got curious of the place so we drove towards that direction, eagerly anticipating the fantastic view about to unfold. We then reached a huge parking lot where a person asked us to park our car cause we're about to enter the "Fantastic Driving Course". Chris couldn't help but ask why did they call it a driving course in the first place if cars can't pass through. The guy gave some lame excuse about the new rules and regulation, and Chris didn't want to argue anymore so we decided to climb on foot. We heard there's a huge lake on top of the mountain, and that's all we could think of while we were climbing. It was so hot at that time and I sweated profusely. After 50 minutes of climbing seeing nothing but trees (no fantastic view or anything), we heard a bus approaching... We took the bus to go to the top, and a very disappointing view of a reservoir greeted us. We just spent a minute there and took the same bus to go down. As soon as we got back in the car, I turned the airconditioner on in full blast. It was later mentioned in the news that it was the warmest day in March for the last 100 years. When we got back on the road again, we passed by several viewing points where we stopped and took pictures..







Our next destination was this beautiful valley... The flowing water in the stream was cold but very refreshing. I forgot how tired I was from climbing when I saw the stream. I saw several people there going in, and getting their clothes wet in waist-deep water. There's a government warning posted, discouraging people not to swim cause the water can get very deep during summer, and several people already died. But since we're still in the early part of spring, the deepest part is just waist-deep. I wanted to relax so I chose a more secluded spot for us.. There were plenty of huge rocks there so we sat comfortably while watching the water flow... The water is very clean and you could clearly see the rocky bottom. Here's Chris looking like a young boy from afar. He didn't know I took a picture of him..^^







On our way back, Chris saw this banner which translates as "Philippine Style Houses" in English.. The word 피 리 핀 would always spark interest and curiosity in us, so we stopped to take a better look of the place. There were rows of "kubo" or nipa huts that strongly resemble the ones back home. Chris thinks the owner stayed in the Philippines for a long time. But I think the owner is purely Filipino. We debated on this topic while we're walking around the area...



Then I saw this tricycle. For a second, I thought I was magically transported back to the Philippines... I can't believe how the "kubo" and "tricycle" got here in Korea. In my head, there's no doubt that the owner is a Filipino (and a damn proud one!), possibly married to a Korean. I called Chris from afar and I laughed when I saw the look on his face when he recognized what it was... and later he said "There might be a jeepney somewhere!". I laughed even harder after that. Chris is utterly familiar with the tricycle back in the Philippines. He strongly complained about their noise, and how tricycle drivers can sometimes be shirtless ^^.



If we hadn't made a reservation to a different place, we would've stayed in that pension. The sky grew dark soon after that, so we drove straight to the river-side pension where we planned to spend the night.



I wanted to spend more time outside the pension, but it started to rain so we didn't have choice but to stay indoors. The rain didn't stop until the next day. It was mildly drizzling and the sky was still dark when we drove back home.

Off to Gapyeong. (p.1)

Last Friday, Chris and I had this 'spur-of-the-moment' decision to go on a road trip to Gapyeong. He came back home early from work that day so he could do a little research on where we could stay. It was difficult to make a reservation at that time, most of the places we checked are already full. Luckily, one guy cancelled and Chris immediately called the owner to secure the place. By 8:30 pm, we already packed everything and shortly after that, we were on the road slowly inching our way towards Seoul. We got caught in a heavy traffic there, and the road didn't clear till we reached Yangpyeong. I could tell Chris was very tired... He could barely keep his eyes open, and skipping dinner and getting caught in traffic made it even worse. The traffic and dizzying red tail lights gave him a bad headache, so we stopped somewhere in Yangpyeong to buy Tylenol and some snack. I know how much he hates driving at night, and I have a very good feeling that he only did that just to make me happy.

Either the medicine kicked in or he was just excited, but as soon as we arrived at the pension, he became more energetic. Both of us were starving, so the first thing we did was to prepare the grill for the barbecue. For some unspoken reason, I find his barbecue much better than the ones we eat at restaurants.



By midnight, we were done eating. And after I cleaned everything up, we decided to go out for a walk. It was pitch-black outside, there are no street lights or lamp posts so we had to use our cellphones to light the way. We had a good laugh scaring each other with ghost stories.. I got my ideas mostly from "Jeepers Creepers" and "Blairwitch Project", but I don't know where he got his (probably from old Korean ghost legends which aren't really scary). I was already jumpy from the eerie sound of the wind coupled with the strangest cricket noise, when out of nowhere, dogs started barking at us. We can't really see them, but they sounded so huge from afar. That was our cue to run as fast as we could towards the pension.

For some strange reason, eventhough I was tired the night before, I woke up early the next day. I could tell it was still too early when I got out of bed.. The sound of the roosters crowing their lungs out was all too weird for me. It was my first time to hear that in Korea. I didn't have anything to do so I went to the kitchen and prepared breakfast early. I cooked rice, and I used the left over kimchi and some meat to make kimchi chigae. It was simple, but Chris said it's delicious.




When we arrived the night before, we didn't get a chance to look at the surroundings. I thought there was nothing special about the pension. In the morning, everything looked much better. It's located on top of the mountain, so the view was quite good.





This is where we had barbecue the night before. It's also nice to drink tea here in the morning while gazing at the surroundings covered in early morning fog.





And here's our room..





The pension is located near "The Garden of Morning Calm", so it was the first place we visited that day. We first visited this place last summer, and I could vividly remember how colorful it was at that time. Flowers are just beginning to bloom this time...





We took turns in taking pictures of each other. We do have trispot, but I guess we're just too lazy to bring it along...


Here are the pictures I took.

돼 지 Dinner.

In an attempt to cheer me up from wallowing over my lost wallet, Chris asked me to have dinner outside last night. I actually didn't want to eat anything, but Chris was starving so I half-heartedly agreed. Instead of going to our usual place, we visited a newly-opened restaurant near home. Chris ordered his all-time favorite samgyeopsal. It didn't look like the usual samgyeopsal we order from other restaurants, and the way they serve it is also different. When the grill was hot enough, the ajumma put two huge chunks of pork. We didn't know what to do with it cause it's not sliced yet, so we just waited. She came back after a couple of minutes and sliced it to serving pieces. As soon as Chris started grilling, and I smelled the delicious smoky aroma of the meat, I instantly got hungry and demanded a follow-up order of rice and soup while waiting for the meat to be cooked. The samgeyopsal was really good..^^ It's a lot better than the ones we order in other restaurants. It's thicker (so it takes longer than usual to cook), tastier, and has a stronger aroma. Both of us agreed that it's one of the best samgeyopsal we've ever tasted. Our next order was 가브리살 (gaburisal). It was also good, but I never really liked gaburisal.

Somber.

I'm feeling a bit under the weather lately, and it doesn't help that I stupidly lost my wallet yesterday, ID's, and credit card included. We already cancelled the card this morning, and I'm thankful that nobody got to use it. This isn't the first time it happened, and it kills me that I wasn't careful enough and did the same mistake again. I lost my other wallet on a bench at a train station last month, and when I came back to get it, I was told that some guy wearing high school uniform took it. Chris immediately called the bank to cancel the card. The replacement came a week after that.. It sucks that I have to go through the same process all over again. I hate repetitive mistakes. Now, all I wanna do is curl up on the bed and wallow in my stupidity and carelessness. In the midst of wallowing, I'm listening to these songs which I recently found to be surprisingly 'depressed-appropriate'. Never mind the sleazy videos that go with the links, it's kind of hard to find it on youtube.


Aidan Hawken - Crush

Black Lab - Weightless

Dishwalla - Every little thing

Grand Avenue - She

In Flight Safety - Coast is clear

Lifehouse - Whatever it takes

Mae - The Ocean

Pilot Speed - Alright

Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars

The Carey Brothers - Ride

The nice, the curious, and the racist.

Like most foreigners, I've had several bad experiences during my stay here in Korea. Koreans in general are well educated with extensive knowledge in world history, politics, and current affairs. But inspite of being well-informed, some of them are still prejudiced and judgemental toward foreigners. I don't really think their society is as multi-cultural as what they've been claiming to be. Koreans afterall are homogenous and exclusive people.. They've always been proud of their pure race, and I don't think they're ready to handle the huge influx of people coming to their country. But I'm not saying that all Koreans are like that cause I've met a lot of really good people here who value friendship, honesty, and trust more than anything else. Sometimes, I get really surprised how kind Koreans can be... They share their umbrella with strangers, and someone even gives gloves in a cold winter night.. They could be very nice, polite, and overly helpful that sometimes it gets to a point where it's annoying already. We think Pinoys are the most hospitable people on earth, but wait till you visit a typical Korean house. They totally give a whole new meaning to the word 'hospitality'.

With my 3-year observation, I've come to categorize Koreans in a 3 point scale.

1. "The Nice" - these people are generally nice to foreigners and are open to other norms and culture. They welcome people from other countries with open arms. They also consider interaction with foreigners as a good thing. They would usually go the extra mile to make you feel comfortable and not alienated in anyway. They ask a lot of questions about your country, only for the purpose of getting to know you more and understand your culture.

2. "The Curious" - these people tend to ogle a lot in buses or subways, only because you look and sound different from them. They're the ones who have limited interaction with foreigners so they're curious about what you do, what you eat, how you talk, etc. They like asking a lot of questions about you, your country, your culture and compare it with theirs. Most of the time, they're cautious and watchful because it's harder for them to trust you cause you're different. But if you've proven yourself trust-worthy, you'd be surprised how nice they could be. It might take a while for them to open up, but when they do, they immediately fall under the "The Nice" category.

3. "The Racist" - these people are plain nasty with despicable attitude. They don't want you in their country, so they'd bash you with every hurtful, offensive remarks possible so you'd just go away and leave their 'purest of the pure' race alone. They like playing power-tripping cause they think they're better than everyone else. They could be mean to others just because they think can, and they have the right to. They disregard everything about you cause you're different, and supposedly 'lower' than them. They discriminate not just according to race, but also religion, skin color, and socio-economic status. It's difficult to change or bend their ideology, so it's best to just ignore them and forget they exist.

Most of the people here fall under the first two categories, and the racist comprises the smallest percentage. The worst I've got from them are just stupid glares and incomprehensible racist remarks which I usually ignore. I've experienced far worse than that here... But it didn't come from those racist Koreans, but from fellow Pinoys, and that makes it all the more harder to swallow.

Sickly.

Our weekend getaway made me really tired, and three days have passed, but I still haven't recuperated. I still have those aches and pains, and yesterday I started having fever. I didn't have appetite the whole day so when Chris came back home from work, he brought me to a Samgyetang restaurant. I'm not really sure about the health benefits of Samgyetang, but it's the only dish I could tolerate whenever I'm sick.





I felt much better after the meal. I still have to take some pills, and drink the Korean medicine which always makes me gag as soon as it hits my throat. The smell of those is more than enough to make me puke, but it works like magic to me.. After downing a bottle of that, I almost instantly feel better. Like if I have the chills, my body would feel warm all over, but the taste is really awful that it numbs my mouth and I lose my appetite.

Day 2 of our Weekend Trip.

I woke up around 8 the next morning with the sound of birds chirping. It's something I never got the chance to hear back in the city, so I went to the balcony and watched them till my stomach grumbled demanding breakfast. I went to the kitchen looking for something to eat, but the cute little kitchen inspired me to whip up something for breakfast instead. Chris woke up as soon as the soup I'm cooking hit boiling point, and the delicious smell of the dish was all over the place. After finishing breakfast, we hung out in the balcony some more while drinking chamomile tea in dainty heart-shaped tea cups...



It was 5 degrees warmer that day... The smell of the crisp morning air was really refreshing, and I wanted to stay there longer. So we left the place around 12 noon and drove to places we haven't visited yet. We kept the windows rolled down so we could have a better view of the place. Chris held my hand most of the time while driving.. I think that's incredibly sweet of him. ^^

We then went to a restaurant for lunch... The food was great and I got to taste my favorite gganjang gaejang dish (raw crab in soysauce).



Our next destination was this viewing point. But the wind was too strong and chilly that we didn't get the chance to sit on those benches..



Next stop was the dolmen burial site from the Bronze Age, which was built 4,000 years ago. A lot of these dolmen are scattered all over Ganghwa. Gulp is the operative word a person says when he sees this for the first time. I can't imagine that these remarkable stones are 2,000 years older than Jesus Christ! I've never really touched anything older than my grandmother, so it was a pretty awesome experience.





We drove to a buddhist temple not too far from the dolmen site. The first thing I saw is this tea house run by monks.. Who knew monks could be entrepreneurs?



And here are the things I saw in the temple..







We had to climb the highest peak of the mountain to see the buddha statue. I was panting heavily when we reached the top. The view there is breathtaking and is so worth the strenuous climb...









The buddhist temple was our last destination. We decided to get back on the road early as we're anticipating the heavy traffic later on. We arrived home past 8 pm, and I could tell Chris was drained from driving the whole day. I was tired too, my back and leg hurts... We drank the previously frozen wine and watched a couple episodes of Simpson's before calling it a night...

Day 1 of our Weekend Trip.

Last Saturday morning, Chris was already awake even before the alarm clock sounded. I guess he's really excited about the whole weekend getaway we planned. I wasn't ready to get out of bed yet, my head felt heavy and I couldn't keep my eyes open. I deliberately redirected my thoughts about the trip, and that helped me to move myself out of the bed and into the shower. It was cold that morning, around 1 or 2 degrees celsius. But other than the chilly temperature, the weather was perfect. By 8:30 am, I already packed everything inside the car and we were on the road shortly after. We first headed to Incheon area, and Chris made a few quick stops there to show me where he studied middle school and high school. As soon as we reached the boundary of Incheon, and I saw the signage saying we're officially in Ganghwa-do, I rolled the windows down and I tried to absorb as much fresh air as possible. The cool crisp wind felt really nice on my face.


I wanted to go some place near for this trip cause two days is awfully short. I didn't wanna waste our weekend being constantly on the road and strapped in the car.. Ganghwa-do seemed like the perfect place to go. It has the beach that I wanted (although not as beautiful as the others I visited), great seafood, and nice country side villages...

The beach-front accomodation came next to our itenerary.. I made it clear to Chris that I wanted to stay in a place that has a good view of the beach. A place like that is not that easy to find, so after 2 nights of endless online searching, he found the perfect place for us. I was in complete awe when he parked the car and I saw the house for the first time. Both of us instantly fell in love with the place...



It has this cute little balcony, adjacent to our room where we waited for the sun to set...






And here's the barbecue place...



After checking everything and our things are finally settled where they should be, we went out to drive around the area. Our first stop was this beach...








Chris brought me to a place where we took a boat going to a smaller island nearby. We didn't plan to stay there for a long time, so we decided to just leave the car at the parking lot.









Chris bought Oishi and we fed the birds with it. Feeding the birds is one of the coolest thing I've ever experienced! Imagine the boat running, the birds flying toward your direction, and snatching Oishi with their beaks from your hand.. Some birds were really aggressive and bit me a couple of times..^^ It wasn't really painful, but it's enough to make me shriek loudly.. After the biting incident, I was a bit scared to feed them with my hands so I just threw it and they catch it midair using their beaks with absolute precision. Around 50 birds gathered near us, patiently waiting for the next oishi I'm gonna throw.. ^^





We reached the smaller island in about 20 minutes.. Here's what it looks like..



We walked around the island on foot, and it was so tiring that we regret not to bring the car. So I looked for a shade, sat comfortably, and took a rest till the boat that'll take us back to Ganghwa arrived...

When we reached the car, it was already 5 pm. We hurried back to the house to catch the sunset in the balcony..



Later that night we started the barbecue... Chris was in charge of the grilling, and my job was to prepare the tuna chigae soup and side dishes.



The red wine we brought from home got frozen by accident inside their problematic fridge. So we were forced to drink semi-frozen beer instead. The beer didn't go well with the meat, but we had a good laugh drinking it in our wine glass. ^^



Everything was perfect that night. After finishing the barbecue, we strolled along the beach. There were a lot of stars that night. When it got unbearably cold, we headed back to the house. I was tired from visiting so many places that it didn't take long before I fell into a deep sleep.