A New Day for Seoul (and Korea's) Transit System

I've always thought of Seoul's subways as a real joy to be on. They are clean, fast, efficient(more or less) and CHEAP. Buses, on the other hand, are a bit of a mystery to me. I take one bus regularly, but that's it. taxis, however, are plentiful, cheap and (once you know a little Korean) pretty easy to use.

Now things are getting a lot easier and logical. As of today (July 1st) rates will be based on distance traveled rather than number of rides. This makes sense as it always irked me when you had to pay again to transfer from one bus to another or from the bus to subway (this doesn't happen in Vancouver). The new system just has you pay for the length of each little trip. As well, my phone will be able to house my T-Money so I don't need to carry change or fish around for my wallet or 'stored-value' ticket. (It can even be used in convenience stores and cabs soon! And carry up to 500,000 won, or about 435USD)There's also a color-coding scheme to the buses which may or may not make things easier. Unless they have little maps on the buses I think most foreigners will find the new system about a confusing as the old, but a lot of that has to do with the language and familiarity with a city/district that covers many, many square kms.

Check out articles on all this stuff here, here and here.

The Cost of Living in Seoul and Triangle Gimbap

Big cities are famous for being expensive places to live, some more than others, of course. Here is the latest (2004, source) list of priciest cities to live in (sorry not sure how to format a table):

1 Tokyo, Japan
2 London, UK
3 Moscow, Russia
4 Osaka, Japan
5 Hong Kong
6 Geneva, Switzerland
7 Seoul, South Korea
8 Copenhagen, Denmark
9 Zürich, Switzerland
10 St. Petersburg, Russia
11 Beijing, China
12 New York City, USA
13 Milan, Italy
14 Dublin, Ireland
15 Oslo, Norway
16 Shanghai, China
17 Paris, France
18 Istanbul, Turkey
19 Vienna, Austria
20 Sydney, Australia
21 Rome, Italy
22 Stockholm, Sweden
23 Helsinki, Finland
24 Abidjan, Ivory Coast
25 Douala, Cameroon
26 Amsterdam, Netherlands
27 Los Angeles, USA
28 Berlin, Germany
29 Hanoi, Vietnam
30 Shenzhen, China
31 Taipei, Taiwan
32 Guangzhou, China
33 Tel Aviv, Israel
34 Budapest, Hungary
35 Chicago, USA
36 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
37 Beirut, Lebanon
38 San Francisco, USA
39 Luxembourg
40 Düsseldorf, Germany
41 Glasgow, UK
42 Frankfurt, Germany
43 Munich, Germany
44 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
45 Jakarta, Indonesia
46 Singapore
47 Dakar, Senegal
48 Riga, Latvia
49 Prague, Czech Republic
50 Athens, Greece
51 Birmingham, UK
52 White Plains, USA
53 Brussels, Belgium
54 Kiev, Ukraine
55 Miami, USA
56 Barcelona, Spain
57 Honolulu, USA
58 Hamburg, Germany
59 Zagreb, Croatia
60 Algiers, Algeria
61 Madrid, Spain
62 Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
63 Amman, Jordan
64 Kuwait City, Kuwait
65 San Juan, Puerto Rico
66 Casablanca, Morocco
67 Melbourne, Australia
68 Washington, USA
69 Lyon, France
70 Boston, USA
71 Lisbon, Portugal
72 Morristown, USA
73 Houston, USA
74 Almaty, Kazakhstan
75 Tallinn, Estonia
76 Warsaw, Poland
77 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
78 Manama, Bahrain
79 Sofia, Bulgaria
80 Auckland, New Zealand
81 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
82 Ljubljana, Slovenia
83 Dubai, United Arab Emirates
84 Mexico City, Mexico
85 Atlanta, USA
86 Wellington, New Zealand
87 Brisbane, Australia
88 Adelaide, Australia
89 Toronto, Canada
90 Seattle, USA
91 Vilnius, Lithuania
92 St. Louis, USA
93 Leipzig, Germany
94 Perth, Australia
95 Limassol, Cyprus
96 Vancouver, Canada
97 Accra, Ghana
98 Cleveland, USA
99 Cairo, Egypt
100 Denver, USA
101 Detroit, USA
102 Monterrey, Mexico
103 Kingston, Jamaica
104 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
105 Portland, USA
106 Panama City
107 Winston Salem, USA
108 Guatemala City, Guatemala
109 Mumbai, India
110 Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei
111 Lagos, Nigeria
112 Pittsburgh, USA
113 Montreal, Canada
114 Calgary, Canada
115 Tianjin, China
116 New Delhi, India
117 Dacca (Dhaka), Bangladesh
118 Lima, Peru
119 Bangkok, Thailand
120 Tunis, Tunisia
121 Nairobi, Kenya
122 Tehran, Iran
123 Santiago, Chile
124 Ottawa, Canada
125 Lusaka, Zambia
126 Johannesburg, South Africa
127 Colombo, Sri Lanka
128 São Paulo, Brazil
129 Bucharest, Romania
130 San José, Costa Rica
131 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
132 Karachi, Pakistan
133 Chennai (Madras), India
134 Caracas, Venezuela
135 Blantyre, Malawi
136 Quito, Ecuador
137 Bangalore, India
138 Manila, Philippines
139 Bogotá, Colombia
140 Harare, Zimbabwe
141 Buenos Aires, Argentina
142 Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
143 Montevideo, Uruguay
144 Asunción, Paraguay

Whew, that was long...I have to learn more about cutting code so I can make this thing prettier.

Anyways, Seoul is #7 and the first Canadian city is the "Big Smoke" (as my Dad calls it), Toronto at #89 then my recent/dual hometown of Vancouver at #96 (I suspect it'll rise next year as real estate is on a bit of a tear lately).

Thing is, if you have the residence/home thing taken care of (as most teachers do in Korea) then living in Seoul/Korea can be pretty cheap. Of course you can always spend $4,500 USD for a bottle of Macallan 50 year-old whisky at SkyBar, but if you keep your head on straight it's not too bad. Every morning I go to my local 7-11 and have 2 삼각김밥 (sam-gak-gim-bab, literally 3-angled/triangle seaweed and rice) for about 1USD. Today I splurged for a 새우버거 (say-oo/shrimp burger) but the price was still under 2USD. (It's good for dieting too, as my wife near-constantly reminds me, because rice has 1/3rd the fat of bread and likely 1/100th that of a croissant, muffin or bagel.)


My lovely breakfast. Shrimp burger and triangle kimbap.

Down and Out in Sinchon

Koreans have a great sense of community. So much so that sometimes they figure they can have a nap any old place. Now I understand taking a snooze in a subway car (they are safer here) or taxi (done that a few times), but on some steps? Well, it happens.


I couldn't resist taking a pic of this guy...it was like 6PM and he was already sacked out on the front steps of a building in Sinchon (teen district of Seoul). Notice his jacket is a step or so down from his resting place. Must be nice to be in a virtually crime-free city.

The business class tag for baggage. I have to keep this in pristine condition for future flights.

My Lovely Diet in Seoul

I used to cook for myself all the time (making bulggogi, kalbi and even lasagna). Now, however, I'm getting pretty lazy. Food is so good, plentiful and cheap in the restaurants (nevermind that Koeans love to go out to eat so if I did cook a large amount of food about half of it would go to waste anyways) that I've decided not to shop for anything more than noodles and booze. (See photos for the result.)

Far from what I expected, I ended up losing weight and spending about the same amount of money, go figure.


What a balanced diet I have...noodles and more noodles, tuna, gochoo jang (sauce).


My fridge, the oranges are just for show, they've been in there for like 6 weeks. Notice the contents: ketchup, mayo, orange juice (jeju-do) beer, soju, beaksayju, mayshilju, onions.

That's where they heat up the bricks!

I often wondered where the restauranteurs heated up the briquettes or brinks or rocks that they placed in the table for traditional Korean cooking...then I saw this. This place (not a good pic, it was from a taxi with my phone-camera) actually has a fire on the sidewalk right in front of it! The guy is pickin out a red/white-hot brick for the patrons inside. Only in Korea.


Fire in the hole!

Back in Seoul....Back in Smog

It feels like I didn't even leave this place, which is a little scary. Things will be a little weird for a bit (as I take about a week to get over jetlag, unlike some people I know who take about 2 days) so postings may be a little sporatic for a bit. As well, work is getting busier...which is fine my me.

It's kind of interesting, actually. At this job we always have something to do (I do the weekly newsletter, research, presentations to clients, and liaise with our foreign partners) but there are definate lulls and busy times. Just before my vacation was a lull, now we're back in the thick of things.

Speaking of thick, take a look at this pic. Many days here are like this (although, admittedly, not this brutal). Some are blue-skied, but even then you know that the pollution is there. I left my windows upon when I went home and when I came back there was a thin layer of soot on the floor...hmmmm, that seems real nice, eh? Now I know why my mother-in-law always cleaned the floor every day or so. Apparently Seoul has DOUBLE the amount of particles (I'm assuming 'bad' particles) in its air. Anyone who jogs here is nuts (but I, of course, do inline/rollerblade almost everyday, so I'm no better).


Lovely Seoul smog.

One problem is the number of cars here, another is the level of industrialization and lack of environmental laws (or enforcement thereof) but there is also the polution that comes over from China (where things, from what I hear, are a lot worse) and the Yellow Wind/Dust that makes its way to our shores once or twice a year. I was in one of these storms a few years ago (I was the only gomer without a surgical mask on) and I felt pretty weird afterward. If you have a respiratory problem things could get ugly.

More to Come

It's been a busy last couple of weeks, but I'm on my way back to Seoul today. Didn't get near what I wanted to get done on this trip--had planned on heading downtown to see a few buds but couldn't get the time to get away at all. A few friends made the trek up to our place, though, which was cool. It's nice to see friends you've known for 10-20 years after being away for a while.

One guy that came up here was a friend of a sister of a friend who is marrying (as soon as he gets the familial blessing) a Korean, so my wife and I gave him the 411 on Koreans and ways to do things. (More on that when I get back to Seoul, and have more time.)

Got to go now.

The Unreal Tiredness of Raising Kids

When I was in Seoul these last few months I thought my wife had it kinda easy here with 'just' our 2 kids to take care of. Now I know that this parenting thing is pretty tough. The worst thing is they 'tag team' us. For example, one stays up til 3:30AM, the other wakes up at 7AM. One has a nap, and the other gets hungry. And my wife isn't into lots of crap food for them, too...so she is constantly cooking and preparing wonderful delicacies like 'rice brocolli cheese tofu cakes' and 'seaweed and beef soup'--sounds great, eh?! Well, the kids like it and I guess it's good for them.

When I go back to Seoul I know I'll miss these days (and nights) and start my old routine of 6PM rollerblading and going out to the bars on the weekends (maybe even during the week a bit, as my CFA test is finished for a few months). I know the days will be a little less full without my 3-year old jumping (from the couch) onto my stomache/back/gonads...ah, how can I survive? We will have the webcam and daily phonecalls to make things a bit easier, but it won't be the same.

Ug, so tired now...it's past 11PM and I know tomorrow will be busy...and the next day too. My bud of almost 25 years is coming to visit and I'll make the trip to the ferry terminal to pick him up and the new place is now inconveniently 60 minutes from the docks compared to 30 minutes for our old place. No matter, I imagine I'll relish the time alone on a simple car trip.

New Blogarithm Feature

You may have noticed a new feature on my blog...it's a blog email notification thingy (Blogarithm). All you need to do is put your email in the space and "Keep it Fresh" and you'll get an email every time I update this blog. I use this on blogs that I normally read (once I get better at code I'll actually have them posted on this page too) and find it pretty handy.

The last few days have been pretty hectic. Basically in the pool (our complex's or the public one) everyday and running around with the kids and not getting a lot of sleep. My wife and I take turns (one was up til 3AM last night, the other awoke at 7AM)...man, getting back to Seoul and my bachelor pad will be like a vacation--no matter how much work I have at the office.

There they go again...gotta go.

Things I'll Miss

Korea, especially Seoul, is pretty cool; and Canada, especially Vancouver is pretty cool too. Here are a few things I will (and will not) miss:

Things to miss about Korea: being a celebrity (well, a little one, at least...just for being me); 100 kinds of ice cream at the local convenience store (and all for 500 won/USD 0.40); 7 24-hour convenience stores within a block or two of my place; inlining/rollerblading along the Han River; bars with no line-ups; bar-hopping to at least 2-4 places in a night; Korean people; not worrying about water on the floor of my fully tiled bathroom; super-efficient subways; super-cheap cabs where the subways leave off; no taxes, no tipping; great food, and seconds for free; alcohol available at any store; eating live octopus (I mean live as in swimming around in a bowl/on a plate on the table); getting free fruit and/or tea and/or coffee and/or sugary drinks after every meal.

Things to miss about Canada: no pollution (or not noticeable, at least); good mixed drinks (like Dr. Pepper and Long Island iced teas, although that's changing in Seoul now); our complex's pool just 5 minutes away (and it's usually just us or a few people there); burgers that are not served raw (hellloooooo! heard of e-coli?).

Things not to miss about Seoul: drunk guys pissing in the streets at night (well, I am one of them sometimes); people always thinking I'm crazy for not liking tofu; paying like $10 for enough ground beef for 2 hamburgers; having to go to the foreign food section to get my M&Ms.

Things not to miss about Canada: line-ups and cover charge at almost every good bar; larger Canadian chicks (hey, no flamings, please); union leaders who think someone should make $20 an hour to pick up trash when Korean 60-year-old men do it in Seoul for like $100 a month; Vancouver rain in the winter...and spring...and fall...and summer; high (14.5%!) sales tax; tips treated as if they are expected (no matter the service); having to go to the foreign food section to get my ramen noodles.

J.J. Mahoney's: Watch your men, ladies.

Here is the latest from the Korean rumor mill (it made it all the way to Coquitlam, and my wife's ears). It seems The Grand Hyatt Hotel's (in Itaewon) J.J. Mahoney's has a reputation for beautiful Korean ladies using it as a place to pick up foreign (likely white) men...even married ones. So, if you're single and looking for a good time check out J.J.'s (just bring a lot of dough, the prices are about two times that of most other Western bars). If you're married...well, that's up to you (you should know that some of the gals on the prowl there are 'ladies for sale' there was well, and the prices are reportedly quite high). If your man is in Seoul and reading this (or otherwise knows the score) better get a polygraph...from what I saw some of those gals are pretty good looking (not that I was looking, of course).

Well, that's it for tonight. I gotta take the boy to school tomorrow at like 9AM (which is early for my vacation-time now).

There ARE Koreans here

Well, I stand corrected, again. Yesterday I blogged that Coquitlam was an oasis of Whiteness in the sea of Asians that is Vancouver, but oh how I was wrong. We went to the, aptly named, Coquitlam Mall today and put Spencer in the play area with a few other kids. I heard a lady speaking Korean to her boy, then a flock (well, three) ajumas (older Korean ladies) came and sat near us. Later, when we went to the pool, we saw that the neighbors right next to us and across the street are Koreans too. Then on the way back I learned that another two sets of neighbors are Korean as well. They're everywhere!

It's actually pretty cool. One thing about Koreans is they have a pretty good sense of community. Get a group of white people (who aren't farmers) together and we seem to be pretty stand-offish...or at least it takes a while to warm up. Koreans, as you may know, refer to each other as sister or brother as soon as 3 minutes of meeting one another (as I have seen). This is, I think, quite extraordinary. From first meetings with my son my wife called the girls in the area "nuna" or "older sister, as said by a younger brother" (they have a special word for every family member). Also, since Koreans don't normally take to English all that well (or quickly) they really, really appreciate speaking with someone from home. Thus, the community here is quite tight.

So I've still got jetlag...although it's pretty nice not to have to work through it. The boys tend to keep me moving all day, though. Usually I sleep at 3AM or 4AM then get up at 11AM, but it's not a good REM sleep. My best sleep seems to be 1-2 hour naps at 3PM or 7PM. When I wake up from those it's really like getting up in the morning; and getting up in the morning is like waking up at midnight. My father-in-law thinks I should just adjust 100% in like 2 days, but I'm not sure if I'm built that way. If I need to I can do it, but it's like I'm on vacation here. Besides, I do my work at night anyways, when the kids are asleep (and Seoul is awake).

I guess that's it for now. Nothing more profound than this from the day, which is a little sad. I love it here: so clean, peaceful and easy to live; but I kinda miss Seoul too: so dirty, loud and easy to get run down by deliveryboys on motorcycles.

Feels like the O.C., and thinking of T.V.

So I've been in Vancouver a few days now...in Coquitlam, actually. It's really an interesting place; I used to think it was full of Chinese people (not that there's anything wrong with that, but Vancouver's #1 mother tongue is Mandarin/Cantonese, so you'd assume there'd be tons here). Our area is up on a hill in a little bit of paradise, actually. It has started to remind me of Newport in that show The O.C. (O.C. means Orange County). Well, it isn't full of million dollar homes (but there are a few) but the topography is similar (hills, lots of parks, but no beach) and it's really, really white here. I think the only Koreans I've seen have been family and Ensign Harry Kim on Star Trek: Voyager (ya, still have jetlag...watching anything that hits the screen here).

On that note, I think I'm having T.V. overload. Well, with the kids I don't get to see too much of it, but when I do I'm boggled by the 60+ stations (and that's not even satellite!) and all, save one, of them are in ENGLISH! Wow! In Seoul I didn't even bother with cable so all I had was AFN (American Forces Network) (that guy on the homepage is their 6:30 newsanchor...the very reason I like to inline/rollerblade from 6-8PM). Even if you have cable you only get like 2-3 other "B" movie stations...nothing to write home about. Truth be told, though, AFN has a pretty good lineup and I get to learn all about opsec (operational security) and that the U.S. Army in Korea is looking for E-4s and E-5s (enlisted ranks) to be MPs (Military Police). So if you can handle the G.I. ads AFN is pretty cool. Anyways, I didn't remember so many ads for weight-loss programs, get-rich-quick schemes and fantastic kitchen products, but there they were. Of course in Korea most people are pretty fit and they know the best way to get rich is to marry rich or work hard--there are some ads there for kitchen and cleaning product, though, proving that some things truly are universal. One ad that did throw me, though, was one for a 'male enhancement' pill. What?!?!? You take a pill for a bigger willi? One version even had about 30 allusions to 'wood' throughout it. I thought it was a spoof...maybe it was...it was on CNBC during The Dennis Miller Show. If anyone knows, please comment.

Ok, back to my time here. We went down to the clubhouse to have a dip (ya, it's a little swanky...but the pool is outside, so it's not super-swanky) and there were some 18-something gals there sunning themselves and gabbing. Man, this is NOT Seoul. For one thing, no one actually tries to get a tan in Korea. They wear Darth Vader-inspired visors to keep out all the rays they can and everyone is totally covered up. Even when exercising Korean have pants, long-sleeves, even suits. Also, two of the three of them were 'plus size'. They weighed like 2-3 TIMES that of a typical Korean gal. (Not that that's a bad thing...it's just differences...please, no flames.) Then you have to think...if they are 18 aren't they still in school? By that I mean, they have not graduated from college. An 18-year old Korean would be in the library or at a DVD bang, at least. Most likely not at a pool (and I hear they're there everyday for hours on end)...what a different lifestyle. Even after school is finished they'd be working or looking for a husband, or both. Let's face it, many Koreans have little time to be idle (I must say, they do take time to drink and go to the sauna, though). Maybe I'm becoming too Korean now, beating up these gals simply for having a little fun. All I know is if they did that in Korea people might think they are R.S. (room salon, or places where men pay women to drink with them, sing with them and...uh...do other things) girls.

Maybe that's part of the Korean ideal. Women should study and work and find a husband and if they are 'wasting' their time everyday then they must be of low moral fiber. Hmmmm...there could be something to that. Maybe it's part of the reason why so many Korean gals work their butts off (literally, Korean women are usually devoid of a derriere) and seem to push off their own pleasure in some Calvinist tradition. Korean men seem to support this as it not only support the Confucius ideals that many Koreans follow but makes their place as symbolic leader of the home that much more solid (whether it is deserved or not, and we know that in many Korean homes a strong wife controls more than she advertises).

Two kids? You've got to be crazy?!?!

Whenever I see a pregnant Korean lady I really feel for her, because I know that within a few months she will have a 3-5 year sentence to complete and utter child-rearing duties. As with most things Korean, mothers go all out...right from before conception to...well, it never stops.

Today I got a taste of that. What a day! My 3-year old (Spencer) woke me up at 9AM (which is early seeing as I still have some jetlag and was up from midnight to 3AM last night). The younger, Winston, was already up, too. My wife and I must have fed these kids like 5-7 times during the day, they just never stop!

Spencer and I went to his swimming class. We get a discount on regular swimming since he's enrolled. The gal behind the counter asked if he was swimming outside of the class as well...I really had no idea what was happening and said, "I'm not sure." She said, in no uncertain terms, that it meant a lot to her whether he was or not. I just said, ok, he is, how much? Let's see $1.30 plus $2.60...$3.90. You've got to be kidding?! You're bent about chun-on? (1,000 won/$1.15)? This would not happen in Seoul. They'd see Spencer and pay HIM to come into there! Anyways, what I did with him in the pool was pretty much what the 'instructor' did as well...but she had 3 kids to handle. I thought he'd be doing lengths or strokes, but I guess not yet.

After swimming I got my wife a Starbucks coffee. She loves the stuff, and apparently can't justify to herself to buy herself one...those selfless Korean women, bless their hearts. After I came home there was shopping to do. I volunteered to go (kudos for me and time to think), then I suggested Spencer come too (thought he'd fall asleep in the car, especially after swimming) then thought we might as well all go (the list she gave me was going to take a couple of people to complete). Well, the kids stayed up the whole time and I started to realize that this parenting thing is a lot harder when the kids are actually in the country with you (I'm usually in Seoul) and it's just you two (her mother and sister were out of town). Good God, these kids didn't sleep until 11PM! Someday they'll make great investment bankers, I mused.

To all those out there who are single parents, or even just parents, get yourself a Starbucks...you may not be able to drink it before it gets cold, but at least you have a piece of luxury in your hand for a few seconds.

Your Mother or Your Wife!

My wife posed a strange question to me tonight. Apparently this is the new fad in Korea...men are asked "if your wife and your mother are drowning (neither can swim) and you have time to save just one of them who would you choose?". Many men say, "my mother, because I can always remarry...but I can never replace my mom." Ok, true enough, but usually its the wives who ask this and one fellow I know said, in front of a throng of relatives (including his wife) that he'd save his mom. The wife was not impressed.

Let's look at this on a more cultural level for a moment. Much of Korean tradition is based on Confucius' teachings; where younger take care of elder, women take care of men and duty to family is first. Parents sacrifice a lot for their kids to get them the best education, lifestyle and necessities; children, in turn, are expected to do the same when they have the means. Thus, a man should choose to save his mother, who did everything for him (and perhaps still does) rather than his wife who is a bit of a late-comer.

The reason for all of this ultimatum questioning comes from family conflict. A husband's mother often endures a lot from her husband, children, society and her own mother-in-law and, not one to stop the cycle, she will often unleash her frustration on the unsuspecting wife. She comes to pry into, advise upon and attempt to control many parts of the couple's lives under the guise of helping her dear son. With divorce becoming more accepted and this has broken up more than a few marriages lately; and now people are getting a little pre-emptive, perhaps, in asking the husband to make a choice in order to ascertain his convictions.

So, men, if you get this question posed to you first think of who is asking it (probably your wife) take a look around the room to find out who is listening and then give the best answer you can. Just remember, you likely sleep with your wife every night, not your mother.

My trip...not too shabby

As readers will know, my favorite airline is Singapore Air (SAI). They have those personal monitors for everyone with on-demand movies, TV shows and games..and some lovely-looking stewardesses, of course. Another thing going for them is their empathy with their passengers. I've twice been bumped up to business class (with it's better meals and basically flat sleeper beds...what an experience that is). Once because the travel agent made a mistake and SAI decided they'd make my life a bit easier (hint: if you take the same flight 5-10 times they get to know you, too) and another time my flight was overbooked so I too business to San Francisco and got another one to Vancouver (both covered by SAI) as well as 500 Sing$ (300 USD, 350,000 won) which made for a 40% discount from my ticket price.

Anyways, this time I was in line for about 30 minutes (maybe it was longer) and a few times I squatted to relieve my legs a bit. The gal at the counter apologized and put 2 'Solitaire' tags on my bags (will upload pic when I get back to Seoul so you can put your color printer to good use and make a few of your own) that basically put them on par with business class for unloading. Nice.

The meals on the flight were good, there were lots of good movies and, as usual, they gave me one of those sleeper masks when I asked for it (in business it's automatic, but if you ask in economy you'll get one). Upon arrival in Vancouver I saw a rare sight, the customs area was packed! A cruise was in port and normal flights all bunched up to. Not to worry, though, as just as I approached the line they opened another area of inspectors...and in about 10 minutes I was picking up my bags.

To top it off my cabbie spoke English (something that eluded me in Seoul and Vancouver much of the time) and we had a pretty cool conversation about life, marriage and cultures. (He too believes that once you stop looking for a spouse you'll meet them...a little wisdom for you single-but-lookings out there.)

My phone can take pictures here but needs a special chip to connect. I forgot its charger and extra battery, and already ran down the old one...so that's the only blotch on this trip so far; which ain't too bad. I've decided to start to teach him my limited French...which should keep him on his toes. He's already got some of the accent down when he speaks baby-talk.

More K-Pop than you can shake a stick at!

Thanks to Yahoo!'s Toolbar I can now 'capture' the URLs of popups...which means now I can show you some cool links to Korean Pop (K-Pop) audio and video without the need to relate instructions like: "go to the site, click on the pop-audio button then choose...".

So, without further ado here is the link to 24-hour K-Pop audio and the video streaming.

Enjoy.

The (non-existent) Korean welfare state...and real estate in Korea

I had an interesting conversation with my Dad this morning. We were talking about where Koreans put their money. Invariably, they have a lot of real estate and cash. (Cash would include short term investments under one year as well as savings accounts.) The reason? Real estate makes money here. A lot of money. I've seen surveys of Seoul real estate rising about 10-15% PER YEAR for long stretches, even after taking into account the 1997 Crisis (referred to as the IMF crisis here, although it was the IMF that bailed Korea out).

Compare that to Korean corporate bonds which fell 90-99% in 1997 and only modestly recovered, and a local stock market (represented by KOSPI, or their version of the Dow Jones Index) that has not gone appreciably above its 1980s high of 1,000 points (it is now about 800 points, see link) and you can see why real estate makes sense here.

But back to the conversation...I noted that here a 'real big' or 'elite' real estate investor has over 6 billion won (about USD 5,000,000, see converter) in properties. Dad seemed a little flabbergasted. "What the heck do they need 5 million dollars for? They don't need that much to retire." Maybe so, but there is a lot of risk here too.

Take real estate (or any other South Korean asset) for example: if the North toots their horn louder or make a move on the country that 5,000,000 USD is worth about 5 cents. Also, all of it is denominated in won which, during the 'IMF Crisis', dropped about 50% vis-a-vis the USD. Also, if you make a bad investment or some fall victim to a scam--the latest here was the Good Morning City project--you're toast. I saw a lady on TV who lost everything in it. Her comment (between the tears): "Now I know what it's like to go from a rich person to a beggar in one day." If you have one of those, some saber-rattling from North Korea and a weak exchange rate your little nest egg could be almost wiped out.

The government has almost zero help for unemployed, disabled or otherwise disenfranchised workers. The role of family is more important here...so if you have money you should help your family, and if you don't then you should go to them first.

Thus the idea that more is more. Koreans go all out in most things they do, and investing is no different. Why have one apartment when you can have 7? The jeonse system supports this as well. You see, if you have a 400,000 USD apartment and you rent it out there are two systems you can use in Korea (neither of which are the Western ones, except in rare circumstances).

1. Renter signs a 2-year contract and deposits about half the market value (200,000 USD) with the owner. No monthly rent is paid, but the owner can invest in Korean Treasury Bills for about 4-5% per year. That's a monthly rent/return of $750. At the end of the term the 200,000 USD is returned to the renter.

2. Renter signs a 1-year or 2-year contract and deposits about 10%-20% of the market value of the property (10,000-20,000 USD) plus some monthly rent of $400-$600 a month.

In both cases, if the value of the property increases or decreases the jeonse will need to be topped-up or partially refunded. (Of course I'm using USD in this to save my '0' key and to help 'foreigners' reference it better.)

Thus, if you buy a place for $400,000 you can turn around and rent it out and get $200,000 to (if you like) buy another place or whatever. Since there are very, very few mortgages in Korea (kind of a cash society, although there are home-equity lines of credit) the system here is a bit different. The key, of course, is that real estate prices keep going up.

Stop Thinking. Feel it!

Somehow Coca-Cola has a way of summing up things so well. In the early 1970s they had as their flagship jingle "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" (to the tune of "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing") that pretty much summed up the post-Woodstock era so well. It didn't add much to sales, but it was a catchy tune.

In Korea Coke's theme is Stop Thinking. Feel it. which pretty much sums up a lot about Korea and Koreans. (Look at how relaxed that couple is, now that they stopped thinking and started feeling.) Of course they have a high regard for education and math and logic and such, but deep down I think many Koreans really like to work on emotion more than anything else. Westerners seem to sublimate this moreso, or at least display it in a different way. Maybe scratch all that...Westerners and Koreans are probably pretty similar, but the context in which we do it is different.

Anyways, if you think you're losing it in Korea just repeat to yourself "Stop thinking, feel it. Stop thinking, feel it. Stop thinking, feel it." and everything will be alright.

Surfing can be hazardous to your health.

If anything, Korea is a country of extremes. Everything here seems fad-based. I think it may come from Korea's history. It has been invaded a reported 700 times over the years, and each time they got independence I imagine they had to move quickly to get to the next level before the next war or occupation.

Lately (well, not really lately...in 1945) the Japanese Occupation ended. Then the Korean War occurred from 1950-3. After that there was turmoil, but in 1961 Park Chung Hee took over as dictator/president. He had elections, in which everyone was 'encouraged' to vote, but he was still a dictator. After his assassination in 1979 the next few leaders were basically of the same ilk. President Park did some amazing things in his time, however. He took an incredibly backward country and set it on the road to industrialization. Japan had stripped Korea of its resources, people and even its language and culture (many buildings and palaces were razed and Japanese was the official language here from 1910-1945) but President Park was determined to change that. He orchestrated the "Han River Miracle" (the Han River, or Hangang 한강 is the main river in Seoul/Korea) and Korea made terrific strides, if at the expense of some civil liberties.

Fastforward to the present, and my point, and we see that Korea is the world's #1 wired nation. More than Canada, Finland and way beyond the U.S.A. There was a craze to have PC방s (PC bangs or rooms) EVERYWHERE in the country. As well, instead of PlayStation-like games where players go against the computer or one or two people, Korean gamers (always the communal types) play online games with hundreds or thousands of others. in typical Korean fashion, gamers who left their seat for a second could not pause their game...in fact, they may be eliminated. So PCbang owners sold drinks, ramen nooodles and other junk to their clientele. It was just a matter of time before someone died, as related in this article. Yes, someone died from being on the PC. People thought he was just sleeping (imagine how long he was there before they really checked him out) but, alas, he was the first known casulty of the Net in Korea, maybe the world.

Korea, built on extremes, both good and bad.

Only from North Korea

Take a read of this news article fromJoongAng Ilbo about North Korea's opinion on the scaling down of troops in Seoul and Korea (specifically, 3,600 troops are heading to Iraq and by the end of 2005 the current total of 37,000 should drop to about 24,500).

North blasts U.S. troop cuts

North Korea again blasted the United States yesterday for what it calls "an increase of U.S. defense capabilities" after the planned relocation of 3,600 U.S. troops in South Korea to Iraq. Pyeongyang's state-run television network said the plans were preparations for a second Korean war.

"Even though part of the U.S. ground forces will be transferred to Iraq, instead of causing a capability vacuum, U.S. President Bush is augmenting his war policy against the North," the broadcast complained.

"The U.S. security commitment [to South Korea] is a commitment for preemptive war against us," the current affairs commentary said.

Ok, let me get this straight...moving troops OUT of South Korea and, further, OUT of the area closest to North Korea (the DMZ, or DeMilitarized Zone) is somehow INCREASING the U.S. defense capabilities in South Korea??? Well, I've read a lot of North Korean propaganda (such as at DPRK.com, check out the DPRK News section) but this one is pretty unreal.

And with that I'd like to remind everyone that those in the DPRK (I should tell you that means Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or North Korea) are probably very good people, it's just the leadership that seems to be making all the waves (I could be wrong, but I'm not going to go up there and find out). The Korean War from 1950-3 was a brutal event that severed many families...some of whom are now lucky enough to see their aged relatives again (remember, it's been 50+ years) in special reunion projects (albeit only for a few hours before everyone is whisked off to their respective countries). Many, however have or will pass on without ever seeing a sister, brother, child, parent or boy/girlfriend again. We in the West, especially Canada where we've never had a war on our own soil except the War of 1812, could never fully comprehend such things. It really makes your wonder how far one would go to support ideology...I guess we have an idea now.

Just the Facts, Ma'am

I surf the English news sites a lot looking for tidbits on Korea and how foreigners (like me) view the 'Hermit Kingdom' but also as a way to keep up with this fast-moving place. Sometimes, though, one needs to check the veracity of the figures put in the papers...especially the local ones.

Here are two examples of how the English version of the Korea Times and that of the JoongAng Ilbo (Daily). The first is pretty straightforward. Korea Times said that 249 people were arrested for forging Korean passports, but JoongAng Ilbo says just 114 were accused. Huh?

Another one: JoongAng Ilbo said that S&P is positive on Korean banks (a good thing), while the Korea Times said that S&P was a tad worried about the bad loans that banks extended to small and medium-sized firms.

I have no idea why the simple facts seem to be presented so differently...it can't simply be translation, can it?

Learning Korean and Jeon Ji Hyun

Ah, the Korean language...it looks so difficult at first, then as you figure out how to read Hanguel (Korea's surprisingly easy-to-learn alphabet of 24 characters) it seems so easy. Then the vocabulary starts. Oh no. Then the backwards (to us) sentence structure. Yikes! Luckily there are many options for us slow-witted foreigners to take on the language. Of course I could list them here but this JoongAng article says a lot and there are more resources here.

Well, if you're a guy here is some motivation for you: Jeon Ji Hyun (전지현), the latest 20-something (24, actually) star of movies and CFs (I hear this means Commercial Feature, but not positive). I saw her latest movie on Sunday night. It's hard to describe the name...the English version is "Windstruck" but the Korean version is 여친소 (yeochinso) which is short for 내여자친구를소개합니다 (ne yeojachingu rul sogayhamnida) or "I'd like to introduce you to my girlfriend". Surprisingly, both titles make sense. If you like, there is a website (Korean and English, looks quite good, actually) here. The movie is shown in theatres with subtitles at special times, that info is here. For a list of many of the theatres in Seoul click.... here!


Here is a great reason to learn Korean...if I wasn't already married, that is.

I went with a few foreigners as well as a local/Korean/National...of course the Korean HAD to take a picture...so I HAVE to put it up here.


Here we are after the movie...and before the hof/bar.


Update: A bud of mine passed this link on to me. It's 전지현 in a Giordano ad. Apparently it was NOT aired in Korea (nothing XXX about it, it's all about sensibilities of some sort).

How I came to Korea

If you click on my profile you'll make a not-so-startling discovery...I was born in Year of the Pig, as they say in the Korean/Chinese calendar. But blogger.com figured it would be more appropriate to call it Year of the Boar/bore...thanks guys.

Anyways, you may be wondering how a fat, lazy, smelly Canadian guy born in a little town waaaaaay up north finds himself in a place like Seoul...and Yeouido, no less, where only a handful of foreigners visit, let alone live and work. The culprit is my wife. She is Korean, as you may know, and when I was doing financial consulting in Canada we came across an interesting client. He found us through his wife's (see a pattern here? Korean women rule the men) reading my column in the Vancouver Chosun (Chosun is the name of the last dynasty to rule Korea--it was ended by the 1910-1945 Japanese occupation) which you'll find here. It's all in Korean, my email and webpage have changed, though. Anyways, this client is a big guy here in Seoul as well as in Canada and wanted (for some reason) to do something for us...so the next time he went to Seoul we went as well (with our first son, second one wasn't around yet).

When we arrived in Seoul for our 2-3 week visit we met his 'godfathers' as he called them. He wasn't mixed up in anything, he just liked the sound of being untouchable. From there we met another guy then another guy and then, the next day, my current CEO. We had what economists call a 'coincidence of wants'. He wanted a foreigner with training and experience in securities and alternative assets and I wanted a guy with the connections to get things done in Seoul. After a week or so of meeting for dinner and such (his English was pretty good and is better now, but my wife did a lot of translation in the first part) he said: "Don't go back to Canada, stay here and work with me." Not work for me...with me. That was interesting. I knew he had a more enlightened view than most Korean bosses right then and there.

So here I am. It's not perfect, I can't speak a lot of the language and sometimes I almost go nuts here what with the differences in culture and business, but it's not bad at all. I also go home every 2 months or so (my wife had baby #2 in Canada and is still there for a bit longer) which means lots of time in airplanes. I always fly Singapore Air but even then, the prospect of being in the air for 100 hours a year is not all that appealing (ya, that's over 4 DAYS flying, over 1% of the year). I do, however, watch about 20-25 movies a year on the plane, which is cool because Singapore Air has individual monitors with on-demand TV and movies for ALL passengers.

Duck or Dog?

Last night was pretty fun...mostly because of the company I kept. I recently met a couple of finance-types here in Yeouido (which isn't too hard to do, as it's referred to as Korea's Wall Street) who spoke pretty good English (which is a rarity here not only in Yeouido but everywhere in Korea). They had studied outside Korea and deal with international business...but still my brutal Canadian accent made it pretty tough for them to figure out what I was saying sometimes.

There was one time that their accent got in the way, though. When we went to the restaurant the guy (Junseok, the gal is named Hye-Kyung) asked: "Do you like deok?" I wrote it just as I heard it. I thought he meant dog (they eat that here) so I called his bluff and said, "Sure, let's go! What kind of dog?" "Oh no, deok, deok!" "Ya, dog?" "No, deok," he said again. Then I figured out that he meant 'duck' and said, "Oh, 오리 (oh-ri), duck! Not 개 (gay), dog! Why didn't you just speak Korean? I know 오리 and 개!"

The food was great, then we went to the obligatory 이차 (ee-cha, thanks Hye-Kyung for the correction) or second round. Koreans can never just go to one place to eat and drink. Usually we will wander the streets and go out to three, four or five places. A couple of weeks ago in Hongdae (university bar district here) we went to 4 places: the 산낙지 (san-nak-ji, living octopus) restaurant, Old Rock (cool bar), a 노래방 (noraebang, Korean word for karaoke) and finally clubnb (or noise basement) until the wee hours of the morning. (Personally I prefer the Kangnam version of clubnb, but since we were in Hongdae we went to that one.)

The coolest thing here about bar-hopping/pub-crawling is there is almost never a lineup and very rarely a cover (just in the clubs, never in bars). I think this is because people are always moving. In Canada if you get in a bar you never, never leave until you go home...which means those who want to get in have to lineup. Also, if a Korean is asked to wait (for anything, especially after a few drinks) they will just balk and leave...and no bar-owner would like that. Maybe that's why Koreans in general are moving around more and Canadians are so sedate (relatively...if you've lived in both places you know what I mean).

Update: looks like everyone wants to be on my blog...for some reason. Here are the pics of my gracious hosts of the evening.


Junseok, who works in International Business and has an MBA...he's trying to come up with a fitting Western name for himself, if you have one to suggest just leave a comment, please.


Hae-Kyung, who works with him. She too has an MBA (and from my wife's alma mater of Ewha Women's University, no less). Hae-Kyung is really good at English and is quite bright...and single (men, take note). She thinks her face looks like the moon, or 달덩이 (Daldeong-ee) as they say here, I guess so...

More about Seoul, Korea and Koreans

There is so much that is different here from anything I've ever seen (well, I haven't travelled that much, just in Canada, the US, Philippines and Japan). And I mean totally different. Maybe it's because I've been here long enough to see a lot, I dunno. Anyways, if you'd like more on this place take a look at my Virtual Tourist pages.

Here it is, the superfantastic phonebox!

Today is a great day. Our lovely officegirl Jung Mi (please no letters, that's what secretaries are called here) went to LG Twins building and got me a new phone. I really needed one on account of (i) my old one was all in Korean...which was fine because I memorized where to go to do things on it...and (ii) the screen kept going blank because I produce copious amounts of sweat when I inline skate and was dumb enough to be on the phone at the same time. Well, after 4 screens at 60,000 won a pop I decided it's time to get a new one...but I may end up breaking this one too.

It's soooooo cooooool. It has a little camera which I used to take a picture of the box (of course it took me a while to figure out that I couldn't use it to take a pic of the actual phone). I also took a pic of our lovely officegirl...and then inputted her name and number as well...then ordered up caller ID (something I didn't have before, much to my chagrin). Then I asked her to call me to test it out. Her mug showed up on the little screen on the outside of the phone (how cool is that?!?!) and she immediately started panicking and saying, "Change! Change!" haha, Some Korean girls really hate to have pictures taken of them. She did, however, insist that I put the pic on this posting...go figure.

This phone really rocks. I can take pictures, email them or send to other phones, and send and receive normal emails too. Also, it has a language converter so everything is finally in English. It's tiny, too...like the size of a fat businesscard.


Here she is doing the Korean sign for "take my picture".


Here is a coworker of mine with the same pose. Why? Why?

Street Sellers

One thing I love about Seoul (and I mean this about Korea in general...I just happen to be a little Seoul-centric) is the street sellers. I don't really trust the food they sell on the side of the road (except ice cream) but virtually everything else is fair game for me. For example, to get ready for my trip to Canada and generally stock up, in the last two weeks I bought:

2 plants in a can for my nieces (8,000 won)
2 lightweight sports shirts for inlining (10,000 won for both)
1 pair of shorts for inlining (20,000 won)
3 bags of dried 고구마 (goguma, sweet potatoes or yams, they were selling 1 for 3,000 won , 2 for 5,000 but I got 3 for 6,000)
1 tie (at an amazing price of 5,000 won, or USD 4...and I can't really tell how it's worse than the ones I bought for USD 100 back home.)
10 disposible razors (for 1,000 won, or USD 0.80 FOR ALL TEN)
1 noise-making toy hammer for boy #2 (1,000 won)
3 Disney photo albums (but I'm sure ol' Walt didn't make a penny on these....just 1,000 won each)

The clothes-seller guy spoke pretty good English...I know because he held my hostage for 5 minutes as we talked about how Korean men are getting fatter (hence his stock of larger sizes for husky guys like me) and how he learned English working for the US Army about 20-30 years ago. The goguma-guy didn't know a lot of English, but he did speak Spanish owing to the fact that he lived in Argentina for a few years. Unfortunately, Spanish is not one of my languages...I know a fair bit of French from my school-days, a smattering Japanese and, of course, some Korean. Anyways, when I passed the goguma-guy later in the week I gave him a big "hola!" (Spanish for hello, and the extent of my proficiency) and he returned one as well...wow, bridging the cultures with another one...how UN of me.

Below is a picture of the famous Yeouido tie-truck. This guy stops in the hotspots and unloads silk and polyester ties on neckwear-hungry salarymen.


Here they are: 2 for 5,000 won (USD 4.50)!

Mmmmmm....I love pork.

Wonderful oh-gyup-sal at my favorite pork restaurant.

It's official, pork has now outstripped beef as the top meat import to Korea. (See JoongAng Ilbo link) and no wonder...what with Mad Cow Disease and Avian Flu virus going around. The only thing that seems 'safe' is pork. Of course, as you may know, oh-gyup-sal literally means 5 layers of fat...so maybe it's not super healthy.

Well, I wasn't that bad, I did do 2 hours of inline skating (as they call it here...rollerblading seems to have a tough time rolling off the Korean tongue) beforehand...but the 오겹살 was drowned by a lovely concoction called 오십세주 (oh-ship-say-joo) which is a 50/50 mix of 백세주 (baek-say-ju, literally: hundred year alcohol) and 소주 (soju, literally: booze) thus the translation of the combined drink is called 50 year alcohol. Intersting, eh?

April Fool's

Poo-ha-ha (as they say in Korea). Gotcha! Or did I??