1. As soon as the first shoving match took place, a lot of people took off. As soon as the riot helmets came on, a bunch more people called it a day.

2. A met a nice couple from Seoul. They didn’t speak any English and I was trying to get them to tell me what was happening. I couldn’t understand their explanation, but the guy did tell me to have fun and take lots of photos.

3. Saw a funny couple from Japan. The man had a SLR and the wife had a point and shoot. She seemed to be really angry that the man wanted to shoot more of the protest. He was in the middle of the road and she was standing by the sidewalk yelling for him to hurry up(I guess).

3. There were a few members of a health organization stationed outside the protest. There were there to attend to any one’s injuries. They were the only people that I tried to photo that were not happy with having their picture taken.

4. The commanders of the riot police must have their own bodyguards. I noticed that when they would walk up and down the line they each had an officer with a shield that would follow them.

5. There were a number of riot policemen in pads and street clothes. I wondered if they got called up from a holiday or maybe they are new and haven’t had a uniform issued yet.

6. There were many older riot policemen. I didn’t expect this. I really thought that all of those guys were young men doing their mandatory military/police service.

7. I didn’t get any photos, but you could tell who was there to cause trouble. These guys were already wearing bandannas and carrying what looked like sword cases/long sticks.

8. The police had video and cameras mounted on long poles that they would use to video and photo any skirmishes. Some of them hand held cameras as well. I guess to document what happened.

9. I loved watching the professional photographers work. I have a picture of one of them who brought along a hardhat just in case. It was also interesting to watch the teams with laptops and handheld cameras providing live-streaming video on the net.

10. I got bumped my a riot officer with a shield. Actually, I got pushed in to him when the riot police behind me changed directions. He looked at me and was pretty surprised to see a white guy. I really thought he was going to yell and tell me to get the hell out of the way, but he just looked up and said hello. He looked like he was having the time of his life.

11. The young riot policemen were really young. They didn’t look much older than many of my middle school students.

12. At one point some of the protesters were running up and trying to scare some random officers. The police were only videotaping them. I thought how different this would be in the States. I probably would have seen rubber bullets, tear gas, pepper spray, and maybe someone would have gotten tazered.

13. A jumped on a bus to make my way back to Gangnam. It was pretty surreal watching the protesters run alongside the bus being chased by the riot policemen.

14. Random people driving were not to happy that they were being blocked by police and protesters. I saw a few of them get out of their cars to yell at whoever was blocking their way.

15. I hate that I didn’t bring my flash with me. My whole goal for the day was to go take some photos around the palaces and I was going to work on some HDR stuff, so I had attached my tripod to my bag. My shoulders are aching today from slinging that bag around all day.

16. I should have been more aggressive in getting closer to the action, so that I would have gotten better photos. The one time that I was really close to some shoving; I couldn’t get my camera up fast enough before I was surrounded by people.

17. It was quite an adrenaline rush to watch the first shoving match. Actually, it was quite addicting and I wanted to get in there and get more photos. I really should have been thinking more about how to take good pictures. I took a bunch of horrible photos because I was just trying to press the shutter. I was in M mode and those photos did not come out good at all.

18. I gotta learn to focus on people’s faces more and get tighter shots. I wasn’t able to use the zoom lens much because of the low light.

19. I saw a few other random foreigners taking photos. I really wanted to talk to the guy with the canon with the L lens.(maybe 24-125mm or 24-70mm), but I was going in a different direction. (Maybe I will see his photos on Flickr)

20. It was an interesting day and if I ever see one of these again, I hope to get some better shots.

I headed downtown near City Hall today to get some shots of the changing of the guard and just some random shots near the stream. Well, that changed after I saw all the police around the Korean Press building. I have a ton of photos to process and I think that I got a few that will come out really nice. I was right up close for shoving match between the police and one of the protesters. It was quite interesting. I don’t know if I have ever seen that many police in way place before. I believe that the protest was because of the Youngsan fire, but I am not quite sure. I ended up following the riot police for a good stretch and it actually could have been two different protests. They were shifting back and forth from one corner to another. Here are a few of photos of the day. More to come later.

Tired Man~

Perfect setting, bad exposure on my part.

Pat shooting with the 50mm

Check out the guy watching him!

Everyone watching again. I wish I had a super wide angle.

Patrick and I went over to Central Park. I wanted to get some shots of him skating. It was not the best weather for me to shoot with my new lens, but a couple of his skating shots came out ok. I was really hoping for a bright day. I gotta a lot to learn about shooting in general, but especially with the 70-200.

Before Dinner! JJ Preparing.

Alex and Patrick enjoying JJ’s samgyupsal.

,but I do love Samgyupsal(삼겹살). I don’t think that I will ever get used to cooking on the floor, but again I love it. We had Alex and Pat over for a small Sunday night dinner. JJ has gotten her cooking method down to a science. If you have ever eaten samgyupsal before, you will know why the picnic mat is on the floor. The grease from the grill will cover everything in sight. I have been into a few samgyupsal joints that felt like the floor was covered in butter. We had a great time visiting with them and hearing all about their plans for a European vacation. I am extremely jealous, but still looking forward to going to Singapore in October and then back to the States after that.

I can’t believe that we have never used this service before. 2,000won for somebody to shop for you and then they send it straight to you. I don’t know if I will ever step foot inside Emart or Homeplus again. I actually had nothing to do with this as JJ did everything online. I have no idea if it is even possible with my foreign ID number. It was so much easier using their grocery delivery service. I saved like two hours of my weekend and didn’t have to worry about catching a bus with arms full of groceries. There is no telling how much this would cost me make home if it was even available.

JJ had to work on Saturday as usual and I grabbed the bus to Gangnam as she left to go to work. I made my way via Subway to Namdaemun to hit up a couple of stores where I have made contacts. I was looking for a Canon 70-200 f/4. I was trying to pick up a 내수 model, but really did not have any luck. I have seen a few advertised on the net, but could not find one for a decent price even in the slums shops in Namdaemun. The prices for the 내수 model were not that much cheaper than the Canon Korea version. I changed my mind and started looking at used models. I think that I visited every camera shop in the area. I did have one store that was trying to give me a great deal on a 70-200 f/2.8, but the thing was 1. a little too expensive, 2. way too heavy! I don’t think that I could have held the thing for most of the day. I really wanted to buy a lens that I would get some heavy use out of. I finally found a used copy of the f/4 version. It has a couple of dings on the body, but the glass appears to be in excellent condition. So far, I really like shooting with it, but can already see that it is not a walk-around lens, a great tool to have, but not as a walk around. I did meet some different store owners in the area and will definitely be heading back before I go back to the states. I still want to upgrade my 50mm.

I made one store owner pretty mad for trying to get a better price. Store is not the right word. Booth in a basement is more like it. His price was about 500,000 won more than everyone else. I told him that he was trying to rip me off. He called me 개새끼 and I took that as my cue to leave.(or maybe he had a puppy that he wanted to sell me) I am trying to give him the benefit of the doubt that we were having a language difficulty and talking about two different lenses, but I really think that he thought I was going to pay that much for his used lens. Maybe it was a face-losing situation. I don’t know.

The whole process above took about 3 hours. I walked around for a bit and then decided to hit Youngsan. I have also been wanting to upgrade my kit lens. I have heard good things about the Tamron 17-50 2.8. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to wait or go on and buy on the same day that I bought my other lens. I looked around at few stores and found one that was actually cheaper than the American price, especially with the conversion. I know there have been some quality control issues with this lens, but I’m pretty sure that I got a good copy.

I took the Tamron out last night for a little test when we met some other teachers, but we did not stay long at all. JJ and I ended up hitting a 만두 restaurant and then coming home and watching BedTime Stories with Adam Sandler. Out of 4 stars, I would to give it a one, but it did have some funny moments.

Nice Pour!

Adam contemplating life

Me telling JJ how much I love her for not getting mad that I spent so much money today~!

The home plus deliverly guy is knocking on my door. I will write soon about our first grocery deliverly. If this works, I am going to love it.

I will update with a full report tomorrow. I bought a couple of lenses and spent the day in Namdaemun and Youngsan.