d-Wizz Hankuk Travel Diary [2005]
Day 17 (2005-08-12) / Day 18 (2005-08-13) / Day 19 (2005-08-14) 
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Day 18: 2005-08-13 (Saturday)
I spent quite a long time preparing for and then finally succeeding in making my first scatological video. After this pinnacle of achievement, I consumed the other ramyun for breakfast. Next, I set up the 4-track recorder in preparation for Jimmy (장진우: Jang Jin Woo), who I was hoping would record some vocals for me that afternoon. Having tested it and making sure everything would work properly, I headed out to find a PC bar for e-mail, MSN chatting and to write more travel diary. I was concerned about getting behind with writing this diary, as I was about a week in arrears, and I was not keeping up with it.
I was also very excited about the video I had just made and I really wanted to share this news with one of my many scatologically tolerant friends, many of whom are on MSN.
Soon after I logged on, one such friend signed in to MSN and we began chatting. I opened up with a scatological line almost immediately, because I couldn't contain my enthusiasm to tell him. We talked about our respective scatologies for a few minutes, then the subject turned to what we would be doing later that day. I was due to meet Jimmy at 1215, so I was just filling in about 2 hours. At 1145, I left the PC bar and went back to the hotel to prepare for the meeting. We had arranged to meet at the Dong-daegu fountain where I had met Young 26 hours earlier.
I was fortunate this time to find a seat in the shade while I waited for Jimmy to arrive. After greeting each other, we went back to the hotel and I discussed my plans with him. I explained that I wanted him to try recording some vocals for the FX project in the hotel room with me after lunch, and then show me some of the sights of Daegu's CBD. The next day, I wanted to visit his church. He agreed with my plans, so we left the hotel and went to a nearby restaurant to enjoy 김밥 (kim-bap) and 오뎅국 (o deng kuk) for lunch.
Returning to the hotel for an FX recording session, I put a new blank tape in my 4-track recorder and set up the microphone, CD player and headphones. I asked Jimmy which songs he felt most confident singing, and he selected "So You Would Come", which he sang in English. He was a little nervous about the whole process, but I kept encouraging him to do the best he could. We did about 3 or 4 takes before I decided it was good enough. He then tried "The Potter's Hand" in English. I had hoped he would sing something in Korean, but I did not have Korean lyrics for any of the songs with me, so we could not do that. We decided to leave the recording there – we had recorded two songs and I could do something with that. I asked Jimmy to record a spoken vocal "tag" in both English and Korean for FX. "Hello, this is Jimmy, you're listening to 'Foreign Exchange'". When that was done, I packed up the recording equipment and we left the hotel to go downtown.
Again, I was on the Daegu subway, heading for Jungangno. Jimmy took me to a Christian bookshop, where we found the "Power Worship" music book, containing hundreds of songs popular in Korean churches. I was going to pay the W5,500 myself, but Jimmy decided to make it a gift to me. I also noticed the large range of CCM CDs there, and wished that I had the money to buy some, but I could not afford any at that time.
We walked along the main street, which was full of people. Jimmy confided to me that he did not like crowds. He could not spend much more time with me, as he had to go to a Bible study in about 45 minutes, so we were walking towards his bus stop. We made an appointment to meet at the fountain at Jungangno (not Dong-daegu) subway station at 1030 for church, and I took one last photo as he boarded the bus and left.
Jimmy had advised me to return to the subway the way we had walked, but I was feeling adventurous, so, armed with my map of Daegu, I decided to walk back to the hotel. It was only 1730, and the sun was still a few hours away from setting. I looked at the map, located my current position and that of the hotel and estimated it was about 3 or 4 km. I began to count steps and walked in what I believed was the direction I wanted to go.
After about 1,000 steps, I realised the direction I was walking was correct, but that I was one block further south than I should be, so when I came to a major road, I turned north and walked until I reached the next major road. Then I resumed my easterly course towards Dong-daegu.
I noticed there were many Korean flags on the side of the road. When I mentioned this to Jimmy the next day, he explained that it was to celebrate Korean Independence Day on Monday (2005-08-15).
My sense of direction was vindicated by a road sign indicating that the road I was walking on went to Dong-daegu station. As I walked, I also noticed the judicious and tasteful use of colour on some of the apartment buildings. In Seoul and Gwangju, most of the apartment buildings did not have much colour on them, being mainly plain white with their grey identification numbers painted on the sides. But here in Daegu, I was interested in the use of simple coloured shapes to make these ubiquitous buildings more attractive and aesthetic. I had seen some previous examples of this in my Korean experiences already, but in this instance it particularly caught my attention.
3,700 steps, and I still could not see Dong-daegu, but at that point I passed a 7-Eleven store. I needed a few things, so I went inside and bought a bottle of soft drink, a small carton of milk, another ramyun and a box of breakfast cereal, which is not common and rather expensive in Korea.
A few minutes later, as I walked over a small rise on the road, I saw Dong-daegu. I arrived at the front door of the hotel having counted 4,970 steps from Jimmy’s bus stop. The walk had taken 47 minutes, including time stopping to take a few photos and the shopping at the 7-Eleven.
I lay on the bed and rested for a few minutes before preparing and consuming the ramyun. Then I called Cho Bo-Young to find out if he would be coming to Gwangju with me. He was disappointed that he could not make it this time because he had other things he needed to do, but he said he would call Spike himself and have a chat.
I stayed in my hotel room and listened to some CDs while I updated the travel diary a little and prepared for future FX operations. Then I went to sleep.
Day 17 (2005-08-12) / Day 18 (2005-08-13) / Day 19 (2005-08-14)
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