Copyright Infringement

I've gone down to Songtan a few times on my two week vacation. Songtan is the city where Osan Air Base is located (not in Osan which is actually one town away). Here are some of the highlights of these trips.

First, ever since I had the stomach exam a few weeks ago and swallowing the camera and all of that ugliness, I am now very susceptible to car sickness. I only experience this on the local buses. The bus to Seoul is just a straight shot to the city. The bus to Songtan is 2 separate buses, making lots of stops and turns. I get so nauseous on these buses. Now I have to take some Korean dramamine (strawberry flavored) before I take off. Oh well, it works.

In Songtan, you find that everything caters to the soldiers that are there. You find restaurants that serve Mexican, Indian, Chinese, American, Philipino, etc. You find Subway, McDonald's, Popeye's, and Baskin Robbins. You find shops selling shoes in big sizes. There are discount shops that sell leather goods, blankets, luggage, designer purse knock-offs, nice Asian pottery and wood goods, etc.

One shop takes photographs and transforms them into paintings. Now, the ones on exhibit range from tacky to very nice. I liked the painting taken from a nice wedding photo, very sweet. Well, some of them were so tacky. This is a painting taken from a photo of a shirtless guy looking very serious. The painting was under glass, so it didn't come out too well... but this is it. He is sitting surrounded by tigers in the jungle. There are no words.
On one trip to Songtan, Brandon and I had Indian food for a late lunch. By the time we finished ordering almost everything on the menu, we had an $80 lunch bill in front of us. Wow. It was good but not something that I can afford every day!

The highlight to visiting Songtan are the bootleg DVD vendors around. Each sells the newest movies out there. But, the best is the shop that virtually sells about 2000 different dvds. The walls of the shop are covered with pictures of the dvds and a number. You just write down the number on a post it, and turn it in to get the dvds. They even have books of dvds that you can look through. Thank God I don't live in Songtan... my whole paycheck would end up at this place. Anyway, as I'm in this store I can't help but wonder if the police in Korea do anything about copyright infringement. Oh well.