Weekend of Good Calls

Good Call #1: The decision to go to Busan for the long weekend was one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life. I knew that I didn't want to waste 4 days in Cheonan, and I knew that hanging out on the beach near the ocean might be good for the spirit.

Good Call #2: Asking my friend Matt from Daegu to come along for the ride. It turns out that he had gone to Busan the week before and had a terrific lead on a fantastic hotel along the beach.

Good Call #3: Everything else we did on the trip!

We got to Busan at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon and Matt's friends Scott and Arthur told us about the UN War Memorial Cemetary in Busan. So we got to the cemetary at 4:45 pm and the cemetary was closed. What a disappointing start to the trip, we had heard so many good things about this cemetary. Just as we are going to walk away, a security guard walks up and gives us the Ok sign for 10 minutes. It turned out to be the most inspiring 10 minutes of my life. Besides being some of the most breathtaking landscape I've ever seen, there were many beautiful monuments that honoured the many soldiers who gave their lives so that South Korea could be free from opression. Cemetary; Good Call.

After the cemetary we decided to find the motel that Matt stayed in the week before and book our rooms. All the way to the beachside, Matt was playing up how great the rooms in this hotel were. He was understating the sheer awesomeness of the rooms. For 20 bucks each a night, 4 of us shared a room with 2 king sized beds, a 6 foot scrren with a sony high def LCD projector, a shower with 2 shower heads and a jaccuzi/steam room. Oh, and we had sex lights in both the bedroom and the steam room. Jamjalee Hotel: Great Call.

After dinner we decided to grab a couple of beers and head down to the beach. There we met a bunch of foreigners and we just sat and chatted with them as the waves crashed along the beach. We ended up meeting a guy named Denis who has been in Busan for a year and a half, and a girl named Erin who has onlky been in Korea for a week. We ended up spending the whole night until 5 in the morning just drinking beer and hanging out on the beach with Erin as most of the the Koreans on the beach shot off fireworks to celebrate Choo Soek. Drinks on the Beach: Key Call.

We woke up at around 11 am the next morning and decided to go hit the Star Wars Exhibit at the BexCo just a few blocks away from our hotel. Because it was being shown in Korea, we really didn't expect too much. Boy, were we underestimating the power of the force! For 13 bucks we got to see original costumes and set pieces, including the podracers and other various cool flying dealios from the new episodes. Now I am not a huge Star Wars fan, but I truly appreciated the history that was present a that exhibit, right down to the original sun-stained model of the Millenium Falcon. Star Wars Exhibit: Good Call.

After we got backto our hotel room, we decided to go for a little dip in the pond. As we were told by many foreigners that the water was too cold to go in, we didn't know how long we would survive. It turns out that everyone we talked to are just a bunch of pussies. The ocean was warmer than most lakes I've swam in back home. It was so amazing to feel the waves take you 50 feet back towards the shore. After our dip, we were given a free beach ball and we decided to hit it aound a bit. We encountered a problem though as the wind proved too strong to hit it around in a circle. So, like good Canadians we invented a new game that we entitled "WindBall Extreme 2006". We had a chant, proper positions and rotations, and even a scoring system. Basically the game involved us all facing the same direction and hitting the beach ball into the wind and seeing how many times we could hit it before the wind took it away. We got extra points for lay-out dives in the sand. The Koreans were just loving it too, as we noticed in the final set that we had quite a gathering of spectators who were probably wondering why they had never seen this dynamic new game on TV before. The Beach: Sweet Call.

But the invention of new games didn't end there. After supper as we were headed to the club, we discovered a nice courtyard at the Marriot located on the beach. It seemed like it was designed for a game of soccer as it had little concrete benches at either side shaped like little soccer nets. One problem though, all we had was Scott's empty Fanta bottle which looks like one of those old school stubby beers. So we paired off; John and I representing Cheonan vs. Matt and Scott representing Daegu. The competition was fierce, and the play was at an excellent calibre and in the end John and I were able to take the cup 3-1. After the game we were rewarded with the inaugural "Fanta Cup" and we all walked to the club sweating like a bunch of beasts. Fanta Soccer: Glorious Call.

We then went to a little club called U2 which I will forever call U'n'8 or a 9 , on account of every girl in ther being ultimately better looking than any other girls I've seen in Korea thus far. We just sat and enjoyed the scenery for the rest of the night. U2: Beautiful Call.

Today John and I were talking about how much we enjoyed our trip to Busan and that at the beginning of next summer we are going to try and make it down to Busan every other weekend. I hope that we can because for the first time that I have been in Korea, I was totally at peace with being in a country other than Canada.

If anyone would like to see an alternate telling of this tale, you can visit my buddy Matt's blog at www.matthewnorick.blogspot.com. It might just be a Good Call.

Ronnie