Well......yes, I made it to Busan Saturday, and for as much as people said it was a nice place, it did surprisingly little to reinforce any impression I have ever had about Korea. I could handle the 45,000 KRW (about $45,) a night for the room, although it was kinda far from the center of town, necessitating learning a bit about the Busan subways. (And I admit, as little as I know of real subways, these seemed nice enough--they were clean, safe, well lit, and mostly pretty nice.) I didn't appreciate getting 'jacked for a 2-minute, $10 cab ride. What I discovered, mostly was Iksan, bigger and with more fish smell going on. Going by the map of Busan I saw, there were beaches, museums, and even an aquarium; but quite frankly, I have no interest at this point in even attempting to discover them. I sure everything that the maps claim is there, really is, but as is typical for Korea, tradition, culture, and everything similar seems to get pushed aside or made utterly inaccessible to make room for this swarming, throbbing mass of humanity and their day-to-day needs. Which is sad. On the bus ride, the countryside was pretty, reminiscent to my American mind of the Poconos, although perhaps a bit larger. And dotted with traditional -style Korean buildings and Porter trucks wherever you looked. I was reminded of the words of Miami Herald writer Edna Buchanan on the way home, when she said "sex, and the desire for sex, has gotten more people into more trouble than any other force in humanity." Or words to that effect. So it is with the Koreans, who particularly upon getting married, get hellbent on making babies. I have no problem with children, but criminy, people, when it gets to the point where your individuality and tradition get lost in the relentless crush of bodies, when you have to live the way you do because you have no damned space, you're WAY past the point where new people in your country make sense. I find little I see that makes a great deal of sense to me, but we've hashed over that good. It seems to me that particularly Korea and China are staring straight down the barrel of what was explained to me in a social science class in college, as a "die-back." Quite simply, once the population of a given area hits its "carrying capacity," or just kind of bumps up against the stops of what the land and sea around will handle, what happens is usually famine, or epedemic, or some brand of natural catastrophe. And call me cold if you like, but if it happens, and takes out a large part of the population, don't tell ME you didn't see it coming. If I learned about it in college 20 years ago, the information is out there, ergo if you're ignorant enough to disregard it, your impending sadness over loss, or your own death, are well deserved. I can't tell anyone to care, I can only wish they did, and preserve myself. Which I do, which I will, and which I will be hellbent on doing. I'll get off my soapbox, now, but frankly, sadly, my impression of this country seems to be cast, and overall, I'm inclined to just say to hell with the idea of Seoul at Chu Seok, if it's going to be more of the same. Dammit.