KTX Lady Milk

When we last spoke (or when you last listened), I was on a high from climbing my first mountain (even if it was closer to a baby-hill in a proper mountaineering context). Today I climbed in another way, and cheated for most of the way up. I took the elevator to the 36th floor of the building of the guesthouse that I'm staying in, then climbed a few flights of emergency exit stairs up to an open hatch to the roof. I'll plead ignorance of the Korean language in thinking that what was written was saying: stay the hell out, but it was not only unlocked, but held slightly ajar by a rope. I took this as a sign that I was meant to whip out my camera and take a few nighttime shots of the Busan skyline while perched 10ft up on an emergency ladder perilously close to a terrifying drop. I wasn't actually on the roof, but more like peeping out on it (the hatch was tied in such a way that it would neither open nor shut). I really love the colours of long exposures at night--such magical illumination.

Backtracking a little, I took the Korean bullet train (KTX) down, which was very comfortable and pleasant. I was a little sad that we have no such similar option back home to get to Montreal. VIA is nice, but it doesn't travel at 300km/h or cost $50. The kind old lady that I sat next too didn't speak any English and my Korean is pretty much limited to saying please and thank you, hello and goodbye, which exhausted half of my vocabulary by the time we'd sat down. She was very grateful for my long-armed help in putting her purse up above in the storage compartment, such that she bought me a milk from the trolley when it came by later. She really aggressively slapped my hand when I offered to pay. She was nice. I'm grateful to her for showing me that delicious milk product, because all the writing is in Korean and I had no idea that it would be so tasty without her gesture. I believe it is some kind of red-bean flavoured soy milk, and I've been drinking it ever since (edit: I've since learned that this delicious beverage is banana-flavoured milk).

Yesterday from awakening to sleeping involved four movies and half of a really good book (The Sisters Brothers). It's safe to say that my head had a lot of stories to sort out and think about. 'The Fifth Estate' spent the first half building Julian Assange up to be an idealist prophet, and the second half tearing him down as an out-of-control egoist. The original 'Dawn of the Dead in 3D' had a campy 70's feel to it, with really good vs. really bad, and despite the weird pink paint colour of all the blood, was actually very enjoyable. 'The Keeper of Lost Causes' is a Danish thriller about a cop with conviction about an old case being improperly handled, and the main character reminded me of a Danish version of McNulty from The Wire. My favourite movie of the night however, was 'The Devil's Path', a Japanese movie about a gangster on death row who seeks out a journalist to uncover his own past digressions with the law in order to incriminate his former boss in retribution for his betrayal. It kept me really engaged between 4-6am, so it's safe to say that it is a really engrossing watch.

Anyonghi Kesaeyo