How 'bout them dawgs?

Today was the weekly meeting of DAWG (the Daegu Area Writing Group, not some sort of UGA fan club as one might suspect). Unlike last week, I actually showed up on the right day this time, although I did show up a couple of hours early. No, this wasn't some sort of dumbass mistake like I made last time; I wanted to spend some time re-orienting myself in Downtown Daegu. I realized that I'd been in Daegu for more than a month, and hadn't been downtown once. This being my third time in glorious Daegu and all, I felt no need to rush down there immediately upon arrival... but today was a georgeous day and a perfect temperature, and I decided it was time for a good walk about downtown. I took the subway into the center, and did a little reconnoitering, a little shopping. (Okay, so I'm not much of a shopper. The only thing that I bought was a little thing to hang on my cell phone - that's something everyone here seems to do. Since my phone is pink, I got a pink cat-head to go with it. The whole ensemble is embarrasingly cute.)

At that point I still had nearly two hours to kill before the DAWG meeting, and downtown Daegu on a Sunday afternoon was beginning to wear thin. (The "downtown" area is essentially one huge shopping/dining/hanging out place. Let's just say that there's only so much manic-shopping-crowd I can take in one afternoon.) So I went for a walk - outside of the hectic center. I headed east in search of the Gukchaebosang Memorial Park, which I easily found. In English, the name of the park is National Debt Repayment park, and it was created to honor the movement (from the turn of the 20th century) within the Korean Empire to pay off the country's debt to the Japanese in order to regain national sovereignty. (Apparently Korean citizens were urged to donate any amount they could to the cause.) The park is a nice place to rest, full of benches and fountains, and it contains one pavilion with a giant bell. Unfortunately, I can't tell you the significance of the pavilion/bell, as there weren't any signs around to enlighten me.

Gukchaebosang Memorial Park

Gukchaebosang Memorial Park: Pavilion with Bell

Gukchaebosang Memorial Park: Pavilion with Bell

Pavilion close-up

After exploring the park (it wasn't particularly big) I decided walk in (essentially) a giant square in order to get back to where I started, as I had plenty of time left before I needed to be at the coffee shop to meet the DAWGies. Along the way I discovered Highville Lake City. See, Gwen and I are both originally from a small town in north Florida by the name of Lake City... and here we are in Korea and we simply cannot escape! I've seen advertisements for this place on TV (they tend to pronounce it Lake Shitty, which I find hilarious), although I didn't know where it was before stumbling upon the half-completed high-rises today. (Does anybody else find it amusing that it's Highville Lake City?)

Hmmmm....

Welcome to Lake City!

Several times along my route I saw the following signs:

Youngmee, Gwen, somebody -
please tell me what the hell this is all about!
(Click here to see it large. Look at the details.... so strange!)

I misjudged how long it would take me to get back to the coffee shop, and by the end of my walk I was scurrying down the sidewalk like a madwoman. I suddenly got somewhat panicked that I was lost or had totally misjudged the distance, as if Fate were trying to tell me to stay away from these DAWG people. Well, luckily that was just my mind being all paranoid and weird as it tends to be. I made it to the coffee shop promptly at 5pm, and was neither the first person to arrive nor the last. The people were all very nice - quite funny and weird (a combination we all know I love). Three of them read pieces, and they were all quite excellent. (To be honest, I feel rather intimidated. It may be a while before I'm comfortable enough to share any of my work with them.) AND one of the group members brought in a book she'd recently finished called In Siberia by Colin Thubron, which I was able to take home. I'm definitely looking forward to reading it, although it's going to be an act of will not to flip straight to the Baikal section! All in all, a good day.