Okay everyone... It's been taking me forever to post lately... mainly because I've been working on a new website.... Day in and day out it's felt like lately... making tiny adjustments here.. and tiny adjustments there... It's finally DONE!
I will NOT be posting anymore at this address.... and I WILL be posting on at least a weekly basis on my new blog because my aspirations for a successful part time photography business may depend on it!
You can now find my blog and new couple shoots... etcetera at
www.cliffmarck.com
*please be aware that there is a NEW post below this one about my overnight men's meeting with the Korean males from my school (click older post below) and new stuff posted on the new site already (click the link above)...
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Overnight Men's Meeting in the Mountains!
During the Summer... I was invited to join all of the other male teachers from my school to attend an "overnight men's meeting" as they deemed it... I was pretty unimpressed that this meeting landed on the day we returned from our busy busy trip to Beijing, China....
All the men met up at the school around 3pm and started speaking korean... this.. was going to be a long night I thought to myself...
We all took different cars and I rode up with Jung-Il... my first co-teacher's boyfriend... We drove for about an hour outside of Busan... We took winding roads through quaint Korean towns littered with the tradition that becomes amiss in the larger cement block of a city we've come to know in Busan.... We drove up a mountainside and down a mountainside until we eventually reached our destination...
This place was gorgeous... It was a small wooden cabin hidden away near the top of a mountain surrounded by different ranges... It shared this peak with a few neighbors and had a very natural feel to it... They had a garden.. flowers... grass and everything else that I was convinced didn't exist in Korea... Here are some shots of the cottage as well as the garden.. grapes... flowers and stuff like that...
After a little bit of shooting the breeze... the boys decided it was time to throw on the meat... They eat sooo much food... and it NEVER stops coming... all the way from 4pm - 3am.. there was some type of food around to eat... It was ridiculous... the second picture is of bar-b-q dried squid... machee-a-sayo! (delicious)
Then we got hit by the brightest sunset I've seen in a LONG time while I was having a conversation with Jung-Il on the front porch..
After this... My friend Minsu hangim (brother) asked me to take his picture with the sunset.... These were his natural poses by the way... :) and one out of focus shot taken by him...
Nightfall came quickly after that and the bugs were pretty insane up in these mountains... There were some massive moths...
We went inside and the soju and makju (beer) started flowing at an unbelievable pace... We watched the Busan Lotte Giants (baseball) game and they taught me how to play a card game that is pronounced go-do-ree.. It is way too complicated for me to try and explain here and now... I don't remember half of it anyways... The cards were tiny and it was all about certain parts of the pictures matching... and we ate grapes... delicious Korean grapes.... the kind that actually taste like the artificial "grape" flavouring.... I've never had this kind in Canada...
After a few hours of learning go-do-ree and losing a few thousand won (like 5 bucks)... the guys decided it was really time to start knocking them back.... and head outside to the deck... And it was not beer at this point... but soju.... uuuughhhhhhhh.. I HATE SOJU.... especially after this night... But check out the party hat that got busted out... there is a hilarious picture of the oldest male teacher below with the party cap on...
Here are some pics of the aftermath.... I didn't drink half as much as the other guys... but still payed for it the next day...
After that... well.. after that we went to bed... and by bed.. i mean we all slept in a giant room on the floor for about 3 hours until one of those freaks got up to start the coffee up around 6am...
They made me hangover soup... which was the most disgusting thing I've ever touched I felt... and my stomach was just turning...
They don't eat breakfast food... we had kimchi... meat... rice and hangover soup for breakfast... i wanted to die....
All in all... I had a great time.. and the more drunk the Koreans got.. the more they tried to speak English as their confidence grew... but it needs to be said that I will NEVER drink soju again... NEVER.
All the men met up at the school around 3pm and started speaking korean... this.. was going to be a long night I thought to myself...
We all took different cars and I rode up with Jung-Il... my first co-teacher's boyfriend... We drove for about an hour outside of Busan... We took winding roads through quaint Korean towns littered with the tradition that becomes amiss in the larger cement block of a city we've come to know in Busan.... We drove up a mountainside and down a mountainside until we eventually reached our destination...
This place was gorgeous... It was a small wooden cabin hidden away near the top of a mountain surrounded by different ranges... It shared this peak with a few neighbors and had a very natural feel to it... They had a garden.. flowers... grass and everything else that I was convinced didn't exist in Korea... Here are some shots of the cottage as well as the garden.. grapes... flowers and stuff like that...
After a little bit of shooting the breeze... the boys decided it was time to throw on the meat... They eat sooo much food... and it NEVER stops coming... all the way from 4pm - 3am.. there was some type of food around to eat... It was ridiculous... the second picture is of bar-b-q dried squid... machee-a-sayo! (delicious)
Then we got hit by the brightest sunset I've seen in a LONG time while I was having a conversation with Jung-Il on the front porch..
After this... My friend Minsu hangim (brother) asked me to take his picture with the sunset.... These were his natural poses by the way... :) and one out of focus shot taken by him...
Nightfall came quickly after that and the bugs were pretty insane up in these mountains... There were some massive moths...
We went inside and the soju and makju (beer) started flowing at an unbelievable pace... We watched the Busan Lotte Giants (baseball) game and they taught me how to play a card game that is pronounced go-do-ree.. It is way too complicated for me to try and explain here and now... I don't remember half of it anyways... The cards were tiny and it was all about certain parts of the pictures matching... and we ate grapes... delicious Korean grapes.... the kind that actually taste like the artificial "grape" flavouring.... I've never had this kind in Canada...
After a few hours of learning go-do-ree and losing a few thousand won (like 5 bucks)... the guys decided it was really time to start knocking them back.... and head outside to the deck... And it was not beer at this point... but soju.... uuuughhhhhhhh.. I HATE SOJU.... especially after this night... But check out the party hat that got busted out... there is a hilarious picture of the oldest male teacher below with the party cap on...
Here are some pics of the aftermath.... I didn't drink half as much as the other guys... but still payed for it the next day...
After that... well.. after that we went to bed... and by bed.. i mean we all slept in a giant room on the floor for about 3 hours until one of those freaks got up to start the coffee up around 6am...
They made me hangover soup... which was the most disgusting thing I've ever touched I felt... and my stomach was just turning...
They don't eat breakfast food... we had kimchi... meat... rice and hangover soup for breakfast... i wanted to die....
All in all... I had a great time.. and the more drunk the Koreans got.. the more they tried to speak English as their confidence grew... but it needs to be said that I will NEVER drink soju again... NEVER.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Beamosa Buddhist Temple Stay
If you click on the link below, it will take you to some photos of a temple stay Laura and I participated in during the last weekend in August. It was a very interesting experience, and I think we can learn a lot from the Buddhist community. They don't waste a thing, they don't have or need any personal belongings and they are completely dedicated to being in the moment... as in... right NOW... and NOW and NOW.. I'm sorry I just wasted three moments in your life but it was to prove a point. The active mind is a very vulnerable and destructive thing at times. Think of all the times you've looked back on a situation and been upset because of the way things went.... get over it... it happened then... you should be only worried about now.. because that's all we've got. Conversely, think of all the times you've built up an upcoming event to be absolutely amazing... and then been let down when it didn't happen or didn't reach your imaginative standards... stop doing that... you're only hurting yourself in the long run... LIVE IN THE NOW! These are the basic concepts I appreciate from Buddhism and try to take with me on a daily basis; however, there are many things about the religion that I strongly disagree with.
When you become a monk, you are expected to leave all worldly possessions and attachments at the door; not limited to your own family. Now this, I disagree with strongly. The best times in my life have been with the people I love; my friends, my family. The ability to procreate and share a life with somebody... to raise a family built on trust and emotion is important to me. These are a few of the most amazing things given to us by God, and it is something you must abandon in order to become "enlightened." I say no thanks.. I'll live with my semi-destructive mind for my life.... but thanks to Buddhism the ups and downs will seem less volatile, and I'll make a stronger attempt to stay in the moment as often as I can... my tongue is dry... I'm going to get some water... that's a nice breeze coming in the window... my back hurts... i'm blabbering.... talk to you soon!
Click the link below to see how our experience went.... look for the wagooks (white people).. there weren't many of us :)
Buddhist Temple Stay Photos
When you become a monk, you are expected to leave all worldly possessions and attachments at the door; not limited to your own family. Now this, I disagree with strongly. The best times in my life have been with the people I love; my friends, my family. The ability to procreate and share a life with somebody... to raise a family built on trust and emotion is important to me. These are a few of the most amazing things given to us by God, and it is something you must abandon in order to become "enlightened." I say no thanks.. I'll live with my semi-destructive mind for my life.... but thanks to Buddhism the ups and downs will seem less volatile, and I'll make a stronger attempt to stay in the moment as often as I can... my tongue is dry... I'm going to get some water... that's a nice breeze coming in the window... my back hurts... i'm blabbering.... talk to you soon!
Click the link below to see how our experience went.... look for the wagooks (white people).. there weren't many of us :)
Buddhist Temple Stay Photos
Monday, September 7, 2009
Exploring Beijing, China (Day 3)!
Today we're going to visit Tiananmen Square... the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and it wouldn't be a trip to China without doing some good old fashioned black market shopping (Laura was glowing)!
By day three our feet were hurting from the consistent hussle and bussle of the guided tour... we didn't really have any time to just explore or relax except for at night and by that time we were basically out of gas...
Started the day off with a tour of Tiananmen Square... I'd say it's most famous for the photo of "Tank Man" below...
This guy was brave enough to step in front of a convoy of tanks who were sent in by the Chinese government to break up the protests at Tiananmen square during 1989. These protests protests were sparked by the death of a pro-market, pro-democracy, and anti-corruption official, Hu Yaobang, whom protesters wanted to mourn. By the eve of Hu's funeral, 1,000,000 people had gathered on the Tiananmen square... so that should give you a sense of scale for how huge this "square" is.. It's the largest in the world... and is located directly in front of the Forbidden city which was built for the Ming family dynasty and constructed for Mr Zhu Di.. the same stud who ate with gold chopsticks from my previous post... Many rallies and famous speaches have gone down in front of the forbidden city..
Here's a picture of the lineup of people waiting to catch a glimpse of where Mao was burried in the middle of Tiananmen square.. It literally stretched for miles and there was no way I was waiting in it... NO.. WAY.. It was also really hot out as you can tell by all of the umbrellas in both of these shots... Yeah.. not raining... in Asia... SUNNY + HOT = UMBRELLA.... I'm used to it... They're scared of good ol' vitamin D...
And next.. we walked across the street to the forbidden city... This is the most ridiculous, over built, exhuberant (i don't have spell correct at school.. sorry), and pompous pad I've ever seen... It was enormous... I actually got sick of taking pictures.. now that's a sense of scale for ya! Here's the entrance way... Notice Mao hanging proudly over the entrance... like I earlier said.. this was built for the Ming dynasties emperor Zhu Di originally...
Mao's big ol' head...
For anyone not familiar with Mao... He was the leader of the communist party back in the day.. i don't know if it was 30's 40's 50's... but all I knew is he started the commie trend... and led the peoples republic of china until he died in the seventies... he is a pretty controversial person...
i'm no political science major.. but what i can speak from is a small bit of experience... people in China have to work hard.. there are so many of them... that in order to be successful (better than the other million people trying for the same job) they have to study 16 hours a day... eat a few meals.. and maybe sleep 4 hours a night if they're lucky... this type of competition would make me a commie as well.. wouldn't it be nice if we could all just do a job and get paid for it and live just as well as the next guy? yes.. in theory it's good.. in practice... good luck... after all .. who's going to want to go to school for 8 years to be a doctor and get paid the same as the next guy? ............ exactly! that's a pretty simple viewpoint... but.. i'm a simple man... onto more of the trip....
Here's an image of a totem pole made of cement inside the gates of the Forbidden City... quite a bit of detail on this one... done by hand i presume as well...
Here's a heavily cropped photo of a few Chinese guards... we weren't allowed to take pictures... so I took one really far away and this is how it turned out :(... oh well...
Here's an image of one of the Lions who guard the gates to one of the temples...
Next we went inside and trekked around a bit... as in an hour and a half... of temple after huge temple... I won't bore you with ALL of the photos... but here are a few...
The tour guide was sooo confused on how to work my camera... here's one of Laura and I... not so forbidden anymore.. is it?
And another temple..
The detail under these temples was much more intricate than the one's in South Korea... and fresh paint as well...
one more...
Here's another detail shot of the cement posts that were engraved every couple of feet....
Tourist!
Last one for the forbidden city... some rocks leading up to the temple ... I thought it looked cool...
Next.. we were off to lunch right?? WRONG.. we stopped at another tourist center to see how silk bedsheets were made and to be pushed into buying a new comforter... it was interesting.. but by this point... we had caught on to their ways and weren't impressed.... we got out of their pretty quick... here's a few snaps of the silk making process...
These are the worms they use...
Here's the area where they pull the silk and feed it into a machine to make single strands into nice thick bundles of goodness...
Next these bundles of silk are stretched over a stretcher/dryer?? .. haha.. i can't think of the proper word.. sorry...
Then after these dry out a bit they are taken and stretched further into the size of the comforter or blanket... you'll have to see Laura's blog for that shot.. But they basically stretched about a thousand of these sheets for each comforter... and they're apparently allergen free ... good for them.. we're still not buying one...
So we got out of there alive ... and grabbed some lunch... then went to the Summer Palace to see Emperor Zhu Di's Summer house... the forbidden city wasn't big enough for him I guess... WOW...
Here's the Marco Polo bridge... which was reconstructed about a hundred years ago....
It was surrounded by water as per his majesties request.... too bad he never swam... he just liked the serenity of it all... good for him...
A cement boat made purely for it's looks... and obviously not for it's functionality...
Laura on our water taxi boat... (not cement)
Another gorgeous entrance way....
Artsy shot through the trees of a temple here....
Another dragon head on the front of a boat... the dragon symbol represents the man in China... and the phoenix symbol represents the woman.. traditionally the dragon head is placed in front of the phoenix in order to represent his power... at the Summer Palace we heard a story of a woman who came into power and she placed her phoenix in front of the dragon to show her empowerment and was soon known as Dragon Lady.... I now call Laura "dragon lady" every time she asks me to do something :-)
Here's a picture of Lolo and our tour guide Cici right before we finished the tour...
and here's where Laura got locked up for stealing out of the wishing pot.... she's still there.... jk.. it's actually a jail cell for eunich's who had disobeyed someone of a higher power...
Good bye Summer Palace
Hello black market....
Yeah.. she was THAT happy... there are miles of shoe/coat/shirt/purse vendors just dying to give away their products for dirt cheap prices... (think like 10$ for a coach purse that was most likely made in the actual factory and snuck out the back door to this place to sell... some of them were brutal fakes as well though)... Here's some shoes...
Another shot of Laura with a new Chinese salesperson friend... still beaming with delight...
Again.. hahah...
Here's a clerk... but I mainly took it to show Laura haggling with the calculator in the background... they start at about a hundred dollars equivalent.. Laura pays about 15$ ... good girl...
After talking them down.. Laura smiles and says "really?"...
Jackets upon jackets...
How's this one look??
Rows and rows of vendors again...
After a few hours of this and a birthday present of a bunch of things from me to Laura... we were spent (literally) and ready to leave... we settled for a Subway dinner that was delicious and went back to the hotel to clean up...
After this.. I was so tired of taking pictures... I decided I wasn't taking my camera with me while we went exploring on our last night in China.... BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER...
We found the food markets... that sold as I mentioned previously... scorpions on a stick... fried chicken heart.... sheep penis... snake... and fried ice cream... yeah... SHEEP PENIS??!??!... It was amazing.. there were tons of people and crazy stuff getting chopped up and hacked everywhere... and as much as I am upset that I forgot my camera... I still got to experience it and see it all happen before my own eyes.. which barely happens without a viewfinder in between me and the subject these days... so I am great full after all..
We got up and left the land of the rising sun (wait.. that's Japan.. isn't it? oh well) at about 5 am !
My next post will be about my "men's meeting" I had with all of the male teachers from my elementary school last month... we stayed the night at a teachers cottage in the mountains outside of Busan... it was beautiful, and extremely interesting as an insider to their culture... that one will be within the next two weeks... then after that... it's time for a new blogsite :)... still in the works...
Take care for now!
By day three our feet were hurting from the consistent hussle and bussle of the guided tour... we didn't really have any time to just explore or relax except for at night and by that time we were basically out of gas...
Started the day off with a tour of Tiananmen Square... I'd say it's most famous for the photo of "Tank Man" below...
This guy was brave enough to step in front of a convoy of tanks who were sent in by the Chinese government to break up the protests at Tiananmen square during 1989. These protests protests were sparked by the death of a pro-market, pro-democracy, and anti-corruption official, Hu Yaobang, whom protesters wanted to mourn. By the eve of Hu's funeral, 1,000,000 people had gathered on the Tiananmen square... so that should give you a sense of scale for how huge this "square" is.. It's the largest in the world... and is located directly in front of the Forbidden city which was built for the Ming family dynasty and constructed for Mr Zhu Di.. the same stud who ate with gold chopsticks from my previous post... Many rallies and famous speaches have gone down in front of the forbidden city..
Here's a picture of the lineup of people waiting to catch a glimpse of where Mao was burried in the middle of Tiananmen square.. It literally stretched for miles and there was no way I was waiting in it... NO.. WAY.. It was also really hot out as you can tell by all of the umbrellas in both of these shots... Yeah.. not raining... in Asia... SUNNY + HOT = UMBRELLA.... I'm used to it... They're scared of good ol' vitamin D...
And next.. we walked across the street to the forbidden city... This is the most ridiculous, over built, exhuberant (i don't have spell correct at school.. sorry), and pompous pad I've ever seen... It was enormous... I actually got sick of taking pictures.. now that's a sense of scale for ya! Here's the entrance way... Notice Mao hanging proudly over the entrance... like I earlier said.. this was built for the Ming dynasties emperor Zhu Di originally...
Mao's big ol' head...
For anyone not familiar with Mao... He was the leader of the communist party back in the day.. i don't know if it was 30's 40's 50's... but all I knew is he started the commie trend... and led the peoples republic of china until he died in the seventies... he is a pretty controversial person...
i'm no political science major.. but what i can speak from is a small bit of experience... people in China have to work hard.. there are so many of them... that in order to be successful (better than the other million people trying for the same job) they have to study 16 hours a day... eat a few meals.. and maybe sleep 4 hours a night if they're lucky... this type of competition would make me a commie as well.. wouldn't it be nice if we could all just do a job and get paid for it and live just as well as the next guy? yes.. in theory it's good.. in practice... good luck... after all .. who's going to want to go to school for 8 years to be a doctor and get paid the same as the next guy? ............ exactly! that's a pretty simple viewpoint... but.. i'm a simple man... onto more of the trip....
Here's an image of a totem pole made of cement inside the gates of the Forbidden City... quite a bit of detail on this one... done by hand i presume as well...
Here's a heavily cropped photo of a few Chinese guards... we weren't allowed to take pictures... so I took one really far away and this is how it turned out :(... oh well...
Here's an image of one of the Lions who guard the gates to one of the temples...
Next we went inside and trekked around a bit... as in an hour and a half... of temple after huge temple... I won't bore you with ALL of the photos... but here are a few...
The tour guide was sooo confused on how to work my camera... here's one of Laura and I... not so forbidden anymore.. is it?
And another temple..
The detail under these temples was much more intricate than the one's in South Korea... and fresh paint as well...
one more...
Here's another detail shot of the cement posts that were engraved every couple of feet....
Tourist!
Last one for the forbidden city... some rocks leading up to the temple ... I thought it looked cool...
Next.. we were off to lunch right?? WRONG.. we stopped at another tourist center to see how silk bedsheets were made and to be pushed into buying a new comforter... it was interesting.. but by this point... we had caught on to their ways and weren't impressed.... we got out of their pretty quick... here's a few snaps of the silk making process...
These are the worms they use...
Here's the area where they pull the silk and feed it into a machine to make single strands into nice thick bundles of goodness...
Next these bundles of silk are stretched over a stretcher/dryer?? .. haha.. i can't think of the proper word.. sorry...
Then after these dry out a bit they are taken and stretched further into the size of the comforter or blanket... you'll have to see Laura's blog for that shot.. But they basically stretched about a thousand of these sheets for each comforter... and they're apparently allergen free ... good for them.. we're still not buying one...
So we got out of there alive ... and grabbed some lunch... then went to the Summer Palace to see Emperor Zhu Di's Summer house... the forbidden city wasn't big enough for him I guess... WOW...
Here's the Marco Polo bridge... which was reconstructed about a hundred years ago....
It was surrounded by water as per his majesties request.... too bad he never swam... he just liked the serenity of it all... good for him...
A cement boat made purely for it's looks... and obviously not for it's functionality...
Laura on our water taxi boat... (not cement)
Another gorgeous entrance way....
Artsy shot through the trees of a temple here....
Another dragon head on the front of a boat... the dragon symbol represents the man in China... and the phoenix symbol represents the woman.. traditionally the dragon head is placed in front of the phoenix in order to represent his power... at the Summer Palace we heard a story of a woman who came into power and she placed her phoenix in front of the dragon to show her empowerment and was soon known as Dragon Lady.... I now call Laura "dragon lady" every time she asks me to do something :-)
Here's a picture of Lolo and our tour guide Cici right before we finished the tour...
and here's where Laura got locked up for stealing out of the wishing pot.... she's still there.... jk.. it's actually a jail cell for eunich's who had disobeyed someone of a higher power...
Good bye Summer Palace
Hello black market....
Yeah.. she was THAT happy... there are miles of shoe/coat/shirt/purse vendors just dying to give away their products for dirt cheap prices... (think like 10$ for a coach purse that was most likely made in the actual factory and snuck out the back door to this place to sell... some of them were brutal fakes as well though)... Here's some shoes...
Another shot of Laura with a new Chinese salesperson friend... still beaming with delight...
Again.. hahah...
Here's a clerk... but I mainly took it to show Laura haggling with the calculator in the background... they start at about a hundred dollars equivalent.. Laura pays about 15$ ... good girl...
After talking them down.. Laura smiles and says "really?"...
Jackets upon jackets...
How's this one look??
Rows and rows of vendors again...
After a few hours of this and a birthday present of a bunch of things from me to Laura... we were spent (literally) and ready to leave... we settled for a Subway dinner that was delicious and went back to the hotel to clean up...
After this.. I was so tired of taking pictures... I decided I wasn't taking my camera with me while we went exploring on our last night in China.... BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER...
We found the food markets... that sold as I mentioned previously... scorpions on a stick... fried chicken heart.... sheep penis... snake... and fried ice cream... yeah... SHEEP PENIS??!??!... It was amazing.. there were tons of people and crazy stuff getting chopped up and hacked everywhere... and as much as I am upset that I forgot my camera... I still got to experience it and see it all happen before my own eyes.. which barely happens without a viewfinder in between me and the subject these days... so I am great full after all..
We got up and left the land of the rising sun (wait.. that's Japan.. isn't it? oh well) at about 5 am !
My next post will be about my "men's meeting" I had with all of the male teachers from my elementary school last month... we stayed the night at a teachers cottage in the mountains outside of Busan... it was beautiful, and extremely interesting as an insider to their culture... that one will be within the next two weeks... then after that... it's time for a new blogsite :)... still in the works...
Take care for now!
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