A few years of cellphone pics.

My cellphone didn't take the greatest pictures, but it was convenient to have around when I came across something noteworthy but didn't have my camera with me. Sometimes I had to rely exclusively on my cellphone to take pictures for posts, like in 2008's May 18th write-up. But usually I saved it for something spontaneous or bizarre, hence the over-representation of the latter here. Before leaving Korea in February I tried to email to myself everything I had saved on my phone. Here's a little of what I was able to save. You've seen some of these before, while others are one-off or were intended for posts that I never got around to writing.

We'll start off with an advertisement for a switch cover at Home Plus. It apparently has miraculous powers.



Out of all the logos . . . this Suncheon store is one of many in Korea using a Confederate flag on its bag.



Notebooks are an excellent source of Gibberlish. This one, for some reason, quotes "The Fish" by Mary Oliver. An excerpt:

The first fish
I ever caught
would not lie down
quiet in the pail
but flailed and sucked
at the burning
amazement of the air
and died
in the slow pouring off
of rainbows. Later
I opened his body and separated
the flesh from the bones
and ate him.

From a student's notebook. Usually loud and out-of-context "hi"s weren't the problem.



This English book for young children laments the passage of time.



A weight-loss program in Suncheon, a poster that was around the corner from the bus terminal and probably funnier without any explanation.



I used to get a lot of hits from Naver searches looking for information about Korean culture in English. The search also led people to a few English-language books designed to help Koreans explain their culture to foreigners. As I wrote in a January 2009 post, they often took it a little too far.



Got a lot of use out of the "Visitor" tag, from the 2008 Gwangju International Food Fair, an "international" expo I photographed with my cellphone because I lost my camera about an hour before.



I went two years in a row, and the highlight both times was the bakery.



People standing, and sitting, in line for some soju.




People standing in line because everyone else is standing in line for samples of Kenya coffee.



I've written about this before as well, a bizarre poster that used to hang between the Gwangju Bus Terminal and Nongseong Station.



Crossing an eight-lane road near my school, choosing not to use the crosswalk just beyond that hill, or the pedestrian walkway just to my right.



To be fair only one student out of several hundred took the Korean flag lesson as an opportunity to hate Japan.



In December 2008 I snapped a bunch of photos of posters the students made as part of their winter festival. It was the year of Mad Bull Shit, and a lot of the posters reflected their attitudes, and the attitudes of their teachers and parents, toward President Lee Myung-bak, the United States, and American beef.










Remember they had cigarettes with a Pirates of the Caribbean theme? A few months later I was flipping through a magazine at the eyeglasses store and found an article that said Brazilian model Raphael Garcia was the guy they hired to play "Black Jack."



This picture of white people elbow deep in kimchi at the annual Gwangju Gawk at Foreigners Festival were part of a regional photo competition.



From time to time there were banners around Suncheon warning foreign English teachers to beware of committing any immigration violations by tutoring Koreans.



A bizarre name for an English school.



Actually, only the second best sign at my former school. Here's number one.



Shirt.



After South Korea lost to Japan in the World Baseball Classic, this congratulatory message went up over the Japanese celebration.



At another former school they tried to remedy some Konglish by using a book from one of those snake oil salesmen.



School food.



Students in front of the Gwangju Bus Terminal were trying to raise awareness about Korea's historical claim to part of Manchuria.




We had a good discussion on this site about whether this was an epic movie title fail.



Don't be fooled by the 만원. That's only the cost of delivery.



There are pros and cons to looking at the puppies in Gwangju.



There's plenty of bad Japanese in Korea, too.



This Vietnamese restaurant in Gwangju almost got it right.



Become a nurse, and roll with a dude like this.