I’ll start with the most interesting news as I’m sure that’s what you’re all here for….and here it is….I’ve had a haircut. Now I know what you’re thinking – “Dammit Dan! How can I possibly enjoy the rest of this post when my mind has been blown clear out the back, front and indeed sides of my skull?!” Well you’re just going to have to try aren’t you?! What’s done is done.
It’s been something that I’ve been somewhat dreading for the past 3 months. Koreans have different hair to westerners, I don’t know how it’s different, but it is. That’s the first hurdle. The second is the language barrier. Thirdly, Koreans males up until around the age of 21 or so will have only a certain few different styles. During their school years (up until about 19 I think) they have to abide by the school regulations for boys’ hair which, from what I’ve seen is just ’short’ If they stray from these regulations they get a visit from the discipline teacher complete with cane. After they graduate from school they get the two years of national service and the mandatory haircuts that come with it. But today I bit the bullet and went for it. I took one of my kind co-teachers with me for translational purposes. Fortunately it probably wasn’t even required. I’ve possibly just had the best haircut I’ve ever had!
The whole thing probably took around 30 minutes (about 3 times as long as it does in the UK) but this guy was meticulous. I mean he seemed to be examining each individual hair and ensuring that it was to his satisfaction before moving on. I even got a shampooing thrown in. I’ve never had someone wash my hair for me since I’ve been old enough to do it myself. It was slightly disconcerting at first but it was pleasant enough. I did sort of feel like a dog as I was getting towel dried. Almost did an almighty shake when he’d finished. So for the detailed cut and wash it was 8,000 won (around £4) not bad to be fair. Also, the guy who cut my hair was dressed up as some kind of Dickensian street gent (although my literary references are never going to be accurate). He was wearing tweed trousers, a grey suit jacket, green wool waistcoat and a white cotton scarf. I wanted to put a soot covered, slightly battered top hat on him. So far, it’s been just positive reaction (whether it made sense or not) ranging from the following three comments from staff:
- “Now you look like a real Englishman.”
- “Ohhhh Korean style!”
- “8,000 is very cheap.”
And a joint reaction from the class I taught after I’d had it done: “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH!”
At least I think they were positive.
Over the weekend I went to Haeundae which is a popular district of Busan, mainly because it’s on the coast. I’d seen the promotional movie a week or so earlier in a DVD Bang (like a mini cinema where you can rent a DVD to watch in small rooms with big sofas, big screens and big speakers):
That’s right, it’s Korea’s first major disaster movie. Basically a mega tsunami hits Haeundae and destroys it, but not before there’s some laughs. As a film it was pretty strange, the first half was a fairly standard rom-com and then everyone got killed. Not very good to be honest. But it was fun when we went to visit and could see all the buildings the big wave ’smashed’.
This is where the tsunami hit. One of the main character's restaurants was on the other side of the bay.
These two buildings got nailed showing off some quite nice glass shatter effects.
A few people were saved via helecopter from the top of this hotel, including the daughter of a divorced couple who ended up making up just before they died. Ahhhh.
I imagine that these probably got hit too.
Now this bridge serves as the setting for one of the most fortuitous escapes from repeated certain deaths that I have ever seen. It's probably worth watching the movie just to see that scene. It's UN-BE-LIEV-ABLE!
Look out! A massive wave! Just kidding, there's nothing there.
This guy was making a sand sculpture for the upcoming '2010 Polar Bear Swim' which, as I understand it consists of people going for a swim in temperatures that are far too low for swimming.
The seaguls were out in force, divebombing various people who looked like they potentially had food, or in the case of some of the smaller kids, potentially were food.
Fish farms, I would have thought.
One of the Korean Kings. I'm not sure which one.
This robot was guarding the entrance to a conference room that was used for a 2005 Asia Pacific economic meeting of some kind. I'm not sure what would happen if you tried to go through that door. I'm guessing at sudden death. Fortunately, we were able to fool it by going in through the side door.
Look! Plastic food! I don't know why, but still!
Some bright spark put the Americans next to the Vietnamese. Well done mate! Well done.
Went to see a fancy hotel. You can tell it's fancy by the stuff hanging from the ceiling.
Had some fancy pine-needle tea. You can tell it's fancy by the fact that it's pine-needle tea. It was great too! It will apparently give me the vision of a hawk and the life expectancy of a god!
Last week I brought you David Walliams selling fried chicken. Well this week I bring you Guss Hiddink selling pizza!
"My name's Guss Hiddink, and whenever I'm in Korea, I eat at Papa John's Pizza!"
Other things I saw on that trip were a dog giving birth, some aggressive restaurant selling, and penguins that could burst up through solid concrete. But that’s a story for another day.
I got to name a kid this week. And when I say that, I mean that I got to assign him with an English name. They don’t have to have one really, but the rest of the class did and I didn’t want him to feel left out. I wasn’t keen on forcing a name onto him (as much fun as it might have been) so I wrote a series of names (of people I know) up on the board and let him choose. He eventually settled on ‘Dave’. But during the decision making process the other students (just the boys actually) were yelling out suggestions and I wish, oh how I wish that he’d gone with one of them. Just a few that I managed to pick out from the onslaught of noise: ‘Fire’, ‘Lion’ (we already have a ‘Tiger’ in that class), ‘Sniper’, ‘Zombie’, and my personal favourite, ‘Knife’.
