Thursday, January 28, 2010

Is this...Is this the end of Gangwon Notes?

In the next few weeks, I will be moving to Busan, to join  my wife who will be leaving sooner, as she has been transferred there.

I have been looking for work there and have some good prospects.  If nothing comes up, I will look at teaching from my home.

I love Gangwondo and have enjoyed my time in Sokcho and Yangyang.  This is a beautiful place to live and raise a child.  Busan will be nice, too.  I will enjoy having a bookstore with English language books in stock.  Still, from this apartment in Sokcho I was able to walk to the beach and to a mountain.  I was able to ride my bike in safety.  The friends I have here have been wonderful.  I will certainly have many reasons to visit after I leave.

I will not start a 'Busan Notes' blog but I will work on a name and a new (but linked) blogging identity.  The 'Kwandong' in Kwandongbrian is the name of historic tourist areas in the region and won't be all that appropriate in Busan.

This blog is fairly smalltime but would anyone like to take it over?  I might post here once in a while, but I don't know.

5 comments:

Kevin Kim said...

I'll be curious to see whether anyone decides to take your blog over. Personally, I'd feel very, very awkward about stepping into someone else's sovereign territory. You've written an excellent, thoughtful blog, and I feel almost as if that legacy would be obscured by the intrusion of another voice.

But that's just me. I have ownership and territoriality issues.

Good luck with your move down south. As you know, the weather's going to be markedly different, and the local culture promises to be very, very different from what you've enjoyed in Sokcho and Yangyang. But as you say, Busan has its own merits. I've only visited Busan a couple times-- each time briefly-- but I've enjoyed myself each time. Busan is Seoul's less pretentious cousin.

I look forward to seeing your next blog, whatever title you finally give it. (What's wrong with "Busan Notes"? Then again, were I blogging from Busan, I'd be likely to name my blog something like "Life at the tip of the Penis" or some such.)

kwandongbrian said...

Thanks for the compliments!

Maybe 'Busan Notes' would work - it would certainly be less sweeping and pretentious than 'Gangwon Notes' when I have written only about the East Coast.

I guess what I mean is that I don't want to tie my identity to a single place - the blog could be 'Busan Notes' but my gmail address will not include 'Busan' or 'Kyeongnam' or the like: it will be something I can travel with. If/when I return to Canada, I would like to use the same email.

I am somewhat familiar with Busan - well, I was twelve years ago when I lived in Masan (next door to Busan).

Tripp A. H. B. said...

bummer; the legacy that is kwandongbrian is undergoing a radical transition. how very strangee... and you weren't at the camp this winter! you seemed to be a permanent fixture at the camp and on the web; you've smashed a concept of my reality! this world seems no longer fixed, awash in a sea of change and impermanence...
ahhhhh!

kwandongbrian said...

Kevin,
I meant to add that I look forward to your next blog - or the continuation of your walk, if that is what you choose.

Tripp,
I made every one of the first few camps but only every other one in the last few years. I may still be able to attend future camps. I certainly want to although I worked this winter at a camp in Goseong that offered similar pay for much better hours. I like the Minjok for the quality of students - and the friends I work with.

Anyway, all is change - It's a fact an done that I need constant reminding of.

PAKA said...

well, sometimes change is good. and sometimes that change is instigate by a kick in ass. good luck brian. if i ever return to korea, i'll be sure to give you a call. at least you'll still have a beach where you are and a mountain.