vol. 6 : .....still in Busan

Right, okay, so. I'm still in Busan, even though I had planned to be in Daegu yesterday morning...haha SURPRISE GUYS I hate life.
So I bought the new camera, and took some really nice pictures. I saw A Celebrity! at Lotte department store, and ate street food weird chickin on a stick and the freshest peach juice of my whole life, and then went out to dinner with a girl from my hostel from Texas.
and took a picture.
and turned the camera off.
and then turned it on to take another one
..... and it's broken.
in the exact same way. it doesn't focus. I literally, literally cannot even.
Not even two bags of gummy dog bones and watching Taemin eating a ricecake version of himself on Star King could help ease the pain. About four people from my hostel tried fiddling with EVERYTHING and reset it, etc etc etc...no luck.

Sooooooooo today was The Great Busan Camera Adventure PART TWO. _{And if anything happens with this camera so help me I will lose all remaining faith in love or justice, jfc please please please be a good camera pleeease}
I would really like to subvert these memories so I'mma keep it brief, but the amazing Jin whom I love wrote out a bunch of hangul saying THIS CAMERA DOESNT WORK THE FOCUS IS BROKEN I BOUGHT IT YESTERDAY and Suzanne met me at the Lotte Giant Globe and holy dang I was glad to see her and say words like BELLINGHAM and ENGLISH and SOBBING FOREVER etc etc and we went off to find Home Plus AGAIN jfc. We got there in 40minutes instead of 2.5 hours, so that was an improvement, and then the dudes at the counter spoke, say it with me now, ZERO ENGLISH but read the note and tried the camera a zillion times....
....yeah it worked perfectly. I was like, you have GOT to be joking me, I cannot EVEN right now; luckily Suzanne had seen it being demented and knew I wasn't making it up but he didn't so that was bad.
So he called Jin who is my angelic heroine and they had a chat in moontalk and then suddenly the camera did it's demonfocus thing and I was like SEE SEEE SEEE and he said Gley or Lead and I was confused but then I got a brand-new grey Canon Mju 7010. Again. And this thing had better #$^#ing work. I pointed at the camera (bad one) and was like 'WHY??' and he just shook his head and said I don't know, so the mystery remains how on earth two fine cameras could have malfunctioned in the EXACTLY IDENTICAL FASHION in TWO SUBSEQUENT DAYS unless cursed by the heavens in which case they can chill out now thanks.
Hopefully it's not the charger or something...but why would they sell all this stuff (100% of the things in that camera/with that camera were bought IN BUSAN) that doesn't work here??? So everyone please cross your fingers and inquire with higher deities that this bb works like a dream rather than NIGHTMARE OF DEMONSPAWN.
Oh also Kara in pink cheerleader outfits was STILL PLAYING on endles repeat in the background. The employees must have a major boner for Kara or something cos I only had to see three hours of it and I would be happy to never see it again thnx. Although they did play No Other which has been my zen song for most of the summer so that put me in a nicely zen place ahaha. Sort of.

Then we had Green Tea Lattes at the Home Plus Food Court and embarked on Further Adventure.

Went up Busan Tower, which Suzanne had never done (!!) so it was perfect! This totally random dude comes up to us in the exhibit about the crazy difference between present and 1954 Busan and talked to us for probably about twenty minutes in pretty good but amusing English about the 'soul of the animal and soul of the human' and how much better the old days were because everyone was pure of heart and looking only to support fellow human souls and best spiritual friends with the cow.
The dude looked about 35 so I was side-eying him a bit about that - like, what were you THERE I really don't think all of Korea was just 'pure innocent souls' 24/7 amidst crippling poverty and a hugely devastating war (even though I definitely wrote a paper two years ago about the Surprisingly Romantic Memories of the Korean War among survivors) OMG A SPIDER JUST BIT ME ON THE FOOT WTF I WILL KILL YOU wow it itches like a mother already. perfect. in related insect experiences, I have a jillion more mosquito bites (probs cos we're by the coast/water?) and my bedbug/cockroach/??? bites are healing sloooooooooooooowly after itching like burning for four days and swelling up gigantically. GOOD TIMES PLS GO AWAY NOW.

Anyway where was I , oh right random dude. So he went on and on and then wanted us to sign his book he like whips out because Suzanne is 'very venerated old educator' etc etc and then we managed to escape down to where this loud traditional music was playing and there were a bunch of traditional dancer chicks! Totally awesome! There was also a group of girls with traditional instruments waiting in the wings (KAYAGEUM CASE WOOO) but they weren't on for another hour so we peaced out.
Then we walked through a peaceful shady grove FULL of really old dudes playing Go! It was also totally awesome! It was like Retirement Park Party Zone, all these ancient dudes in their utility vests playing Go and feeding pigeons. you go, old dudes.

Then we got lost some more and bought Engrish tee shirts which I'm pretty sure the salesladies clued in as we read them aloud and cracked up hysterically (my favorite: LOVE IS ONE YOU THING ABOUT DURING SAD SONG) and then went to the second Lotte department store (THE EARTH IS OWNED BY LOTTE HERE BASICALLY) and had lunch at the Mongolian Grill.
It is frankly ASTOUNDING how much happier and more comfortable I feel with just one other person here, ugh seriously. I always feel self-conscious alone! Which, like, who am I trying to impress here; Mr. Metro with his V-neck and couples sneakers (what is that about, anyway, man o man) will never love me, may as well run free, but there it is. Am getting much better though! SMALL STEPS GUYS.

Speaking of Steppes there is a HUGE Russian population here! wtf! Who knew! A lot of the subway signs are in Russian, they sell nesting dolls in a lot of the souvenir stores, and of course THERE ARE RUSSIANS. It's pretty bizarre.

Then we parted ways (FAREWELL AWESOME HEROINE SUZANNE ILU) ... except Suzanne paid for me to get in with her little keychain doohickey and then went on ahead to HER stop... yeah so I had no ticket. Not a problem since all I want to do is leave, right? HAHAHAHA ENJOY KOREA DUDES you have to put in your ticket to LEAVE. Ahaha fantastic. I tried my previous method that worked in Seoul, namely, busting through the barrier like a crazy rhino, but hohoho Seomyun station was ON TO ME and didn't budge. I was literally locked in the subway station. OH BABY this is the stuff nightmares are made of.
I didn't really know what to do and people were flowing all around me like What is this chick's deal so I wandered back down the stairs to a differnt platform hoping for... uh I dunno a way out, but that wasn't happening JUST MORE PLATFORMS AND TRAINS AND LOCKED GATES. Finally I stopped at one of the underground beauty stores and went HELLO TICKET EOBSOYO at the girl who worked there and she led a a bit away and said 'elevator, no ticket' OHOHO IC. So hot tip, if you use the elevator it comes out ON THE OTHER SIDE of the locked gates and you can run free! love it!
So I ran free.
And then stopped immediately to buy tiny awesome crap at one of the omnipresent shop things...like I have room for that. Tomorrow I really hope the post office opens early, but I suspect I'mma be hauling GIANT MASSIVE BAGS of Home Plus goodies and subway crap all over Korea haha. HELLO DAEGU I AM LIKE THE SPACE STATION ORBITED BY SHOPPING HELLO HELLO

Then I bought even more banana milk, like my third of the day lol damn you guys I am gonna miss the banana milk something FIERCE when I get back, they better be hiding this stuff somewhere in Uwajimaya fo REALZ, plus some mango milk and a delicious vanilla ice pop that melted faster thatn I could eat it since it's about nine billion degrees all the time.

now I look a COMPLETE mess and am recovering in the hostel again...am supposed to chat with Deokjae about tomorrow (SURPRISE I AM NOT IN DAEGU JUST SIT TIGHT DUDES) so we shall see...