5.18, Open Mic and saying goodbye to Carol

On Saturday, Ty and I headed up to Gwangju for an Open Mic night. It was a nice low-key evening, and he rocked the place with a few songs.


On our way to the Open Mic, we found ourselves in a sort of parade/protest that marked the 5.18 Gwangju Uprising. It was headed by a pick-up truck full of guys with (fake?) machine guns, and followed by hundreds (and no, I am not exaggerating) of people (all ages - from children to seniors) in traditional dress banging away on drums and cymbals as they walked along. It was pretty thrilling as the waves of drums circulated up and down the line.

You know, in any other country (and considering that there had been an anti-American protest earlier in the afternoon), I wouldn't have felt right taking photos and stuff. But here, people smiled and waved at us, including this guy who was dancing through the crowd of musicians:

At the end of all these musicians was a group of guys with big red flags.

I'm not sure what they were all about, but other people in the crowd were handing out anti-FTA signs and stuff (against the Free Trade Agreement between the US and Korea).

The next day, Sunday, I found myself on a bus to Busan for a very quick trip to get a stamp on some paperwork for my visa renewal (don't even get me started on what a huge pain the visa renewal process has been this year)... well, a quick trip, not including the 10 hours that I spent going there and back on the bus!

One good thing about this trip to Busan was being able to see my friend Carol from Suncheon one last time. She was flying out on Monday, and we shared a hotel room on Sunday night after a really wicked awesome INDIAN buffet.


We were sharing the hotel with one other little being - Carol's cat Lola, who was rescued by Nina from atop some video games in a bus terminal, and who I wrote about in my Cat Fancy article.

I spent Monday morning running around to the Canadian Consulate, then grabbed a bus back to Mokpo.

I'm still a bit nervous about the visa renewal - and probably for no reason. It's just that nothing here seems consistent. Some people had to show their degrees, some didn't. Some people had to send in their actual original diplomas (only to have them returned folded, torn, stapled or otherwise damaged...). Some needed criminal checks, some didn't. People have even paid different amounts for the visa stamp in their passport. Some people needed interviews, or different drug tests or whatever. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that all my paperwork is in order and that I'll be good for another year.