Tag Archives: november

Fall in Ulsan 蔚山 and a cat named Karen

Sunday, November 15. We took a city bus north to Ulsan, about 1.5 hours from Banyeo-dong. We had ourselves some lunch.
fries-DSC_0944Fries.chicken-DSC_0956Spicy chicken and beer. chicken-DSC_0948We walked around Munsu Football Stadium to see the fall foliage.   
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We saw 단풍 leaves. (Asian Maple 紅葉). leaves-DSC_0965 reflections-ulsan-DSC_1009People fed 비단잉어 at Ok-dong ji.cat-ulsan-DSC_1049A tomcat snacked on scraps outside a bubble tea shop. puppy-DSC_1055Later that night in Busan, an old man got on bus 80 near PNU. He was carrying a large paper shopping bag. While he stood near the back doors in the crowded bus, the bag’s bottom ripped open and a puppy fell onto the bus floor. The puppy looked dazed. The man picked up the puppy and put a finger to his mischievous smile.  Over 25 years ago, I went with my mom and dad to Valparaiso. My dad was selling his mother’s house on Cerro Mariposa. After doing his tramites at the notaria, we walked up a hill to a big house that was giving away kittens. My dad used to say gatos porteños were la ultima chupa del mate in terms of cats. We had to get a new one in Valparaiso as the last of our porteño cats had passed away. According to him, these gatos porteños were among the best roof crawlers in the world and had most likely descended from a fine lineage of British cats brought to the port by Lord Cochrane during the early days the Chilean War of Independence. So the cat lady at the big house lead us down a long corridor and opened a white room with a high ceiling and the floor covered with newspapers. The cats were all over. It smelled of piss and shit. I picked a black and white cat that had batman mask fur markings and a mustache. My dad shoved the cat inside a blue bolsa de feria. The cat was not happy. Back on the plano of the port we hailed a trole and rode around the city with the cat growling from the bag. Because the cat had attempted several escapes while in transit, my dad folded the bag around the cat so the whole package looked like a pissed off blue salchicha. In Los Andes, my mom christened the cat Karen after her own sister. Karen the Cat lived a peaceful life on the roof of our house until her death in the early 2000s.karen-reflection