Movies and Political oddities

Well, not much to really say this week. I might slowly begin to ease from posting every Sunday and simply take this to once every two weeks (twice a month give or take) as things have been becoming routine for me; the usual weekly route going into the weekend and the same goes fro the weekend going back into the work week. I did however do something pretty awesome Sunday, and that was see X-Men; Day's of Future Past.
I must admit, I didn't expect to actually go to a movie, but one of my Airsoft buddies had mentioned he was seeing a flick Sunday night, so I decided to check it out and see.

The movie was playing in Gangam, a very hip and happening city, which as the name refers to, it's also the place where Psy came from (hence his song, Gangam Style).

Yeah, I don't think they play down that fact at all...

It was a pretty bustling part of Seoul, very active and a large mesh of foreign and native individuals, what really surprised me was where the station actually was; centered right in a massive underground mall that seemed to spiral on forever (with 12 exits/entrances to boot) it got pretty confusing, but thankfully, the signage was a big help in sorting out where I had to go, and once I met up with my bud and his friends, we started off to find dinner.
I keep forgetting that Korea is built upwards, you can walk into an alleyway and be surrounded by several stories of shops, bars, restaurants, you name it.

We had a sit down dinner at an Italian restaurant and before we knew it, we had eaten and made our way to the movie theater nearby for our showing.

I was originally expecting a Korean dubbed movie with English subtitles, but it was English dubbed with Korean subtitles. Either way, X-Men, Days of Future Past was quite a movie and I really enjoyed the whole thing (including the ending which added some interesting place for another movie after this one.)
When we finished, we actually had to step out into the rain; and this is one of the heaviest rain's we've seen since we got here. The Rain Season is upon us!

A memorial tree of all the wishes to those perished
in the Suwon disaster.
It's been 3 months since that happened.

Another odd thing going on has to be the government elections. For those following what's been going on, a lot has begun to shift with the aftermath of the Suwon disaster. A lot of organizations have been looked into, a lot of rules changed and policies developed, and (not being 100 percent sure) a lot of government officials are being criticized; especially the President.

Apparently, the situation was so bad, that many Korean's are just furious about the terrible organization of it; from the Coast Guards poor response to the lack-luster inspections of the ship to everything leading up to this terrible tragedy and how so little had been done prior to be wary of this. Another interesting thing I heard was the owner of the ship had actually fled the country as all these accusations and legal troubles began to target him for his negligence.

 It also seems unnecessary to see people who aren't directly involved taking flak, ala Miss President. The PM actually resigned in her place to take responsibility for the blame, but can anything really be changed about it? As one of my co-teachers had learned from talking to one of the Korean teachers, the Korea's are just mad about it, they want action, they want change, and they certainly want something done to the organizations at the forefront of the blame (Mostly coastal services and such) for how poorly this was handled. It seems odd, coming from a Western perspective, but it seems Korean's are far more diligent about this sort of thing and they don't let things go easy; especially when almost 200+ teenage students lost their lives because of some terrible management. I'm not the right person to really judge anything; something like this is well beyond my scope and tbh the first thing I've ever really experience. I mean, I've lived through 9/11 and know what its like to take a serious loss, but in regards to the system failing to be properly prepared, well, that's something someone higher up should deal with.

Whatever the case, I've already paid my respects to those passing: I've shared my hate and my sorrow because they are students and children who had lives ahead of them, but there isn't much else I can do for them. I just hope by the time this finally settles, everything will be sorted and new policies, management and security protocols will be in place to make sure this never happens again.

My votes for number 2...or maybe 4? Perhaps 1?

Something else that surprised me was the fact there is a Mayoral race in Bundang. Each day since last week I've seen champagnes showing their 'number elector' to the citizens of the city. I'm not sure what they say, but it seems the numbers they display are the numbers of the ballots to be voted by the people.
Due to the Suwon incident, a lot of these campaigners couldn't get their full show into service, and many have to resort to large groups of people supporting their champing with their colors and numbers on display. Quite something in comparison to what I remember from the Mayor race back home.

Suffice to say, things like that have been going on, but for me its business as usual. I have my life and duty to handle on my own accord and though it isn't as exciting as my first few weeks, I'm sure much more will happen in the coming months ahead.