Happy Army Day!

Today is Army Day. It used to be a day off (how good would that have been? Mon-Wed off for Choo-seok then Fri off for this!) but now it ain't.


Kimchi Rambos (source)

There are lots of holidays here that fall on specific days (like 개천절/gay-cheon-jeol or National Foundation Day, Oct. 3rd; and 한글날/han-geul-nal or Korean Writing Day on October 9th) but they don't (as sometimes in the West) take the next business day off (as we do in Canada for Victoria Day on July 1st or in British Columbia for BC Day on August 1st). Boo hoo. Well, I guess Choo-seok is enough. If we got Army and Foundation day off (or the next business day) we'd only have 1 work day out of 10 calendar days this past while (plus 한글날)...how good would that be for the country? This year Christmas and New Year's Day are on Sundays too...and I'll likely be in Seoul. Looks like I'll be the Maytag Repairman as most of my foreign contacts (the guys I do business with) will have that week off. Hmmm....got to find a place to hide-out for that time.


I foresee this in my future in late December...unless I find an outlet.

I actually looked this stuff up a while back...in 2003 Koreans had more holidays than almost every country in the world (in fact, I think it was more than every country!) including Israel. If word of this gets out schoolkids around the world will be claiming Korean heritage to get the Choo-seok and 설날/seol-nal (Lunar New Year) holidays off.

Ok, time to work...

Cool Comments Coming...

Finally, after seeing it in action on Shawn, Mike and Jake's blogs I've bent to the will of Haloscan and added its comment code to my blog. This way regular commenters (like Sean) can be automatically logged in. Cool eh?

UPDATE: No, not 100% cool...the old comments I had are lost somehow. (Sorry guys.) Waaaaa! Well, at least going forward Haloscan looks better than the standard one...and I've only been blogging for about 3 months so it could have been worse.

North Korea and Losing my Weight (Konglish)

I was reading a post on the Korea Forum of Asia-ExpatsForum and thought I'd respond to it. Next thing I know, I'm the moderator. Ay-carumba. Anyways, it asked:

Whats the real scoop on North vs South?
Should we believe CNN? Is the threat of war exaggerated? How does the average South Korean citizen view his northern neighbor?

My response:

I've been thinking about this a long time...not least because my wife's family is Korean and I'm living here in Seoul. They remember the day the North came over the hills (they literally did so in plain view from my wife's grandfather's home in northern Seoul) so the emotions are high for some. They also remember the 'people sleeping by the side of the road' and the strafing from the air. For others (those born after the war) this is ancient history and they want Korea to be united and strong...forgetting that the North is pure Communist/Stalinist/Socialist or whatever you want to call it. The North is not about compromise (little in Korea is based on this as it is) but these younger folks have little inkling of that.

That having been said, the North really is running on fumes, if we're to believe the accounts of many. Think of the end of "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand...it's not really running on two good rails now. So, to unite Korea could be a viable (last resort) option for ol' "Dear Leader".

At the end of the day, though, both countries need oil, food and (more generally) trade to survive. South Korea imports food now and will be importing a lot more as time goes on. If the North took the Peninsula there would be, what, 2..3...4 years of food? Not to mention the riots, mass exodus of talent/brains and whatever else would follow.

In the end, I think it's best for the North simply to stick to holding the US at nuke-point to get some oil and try to keep their regime intact (which seems to be all they are interested in) and worry about things when Jung-Il kicks the bucket.

Could it happen...sure. Will it? I sure hope not.

Heck, even when Koreans do get together they usually find a reason to split up again later.

On a lighter note, I actually lost 0.5kg/1 lb (Koreans call this 500 grams, which is much to exact for my liking) over Choo-seok. Unreal. In the gym yesterday and used the shoulder exercise Rodgers showed me...real good stuff. Now my belt is down to the last hole so I figured it was time...time to cut some off (pic below). I waited just in case I put some weight back on, but I think it's going to stay off for a while. My trousers are now pretty loose around my waist so the next step is buying new suits and/or taking in my current ones. Wow...can hardly believe it. I know you're eagerly anticipating my book "The Yeouido Diet". It'll be in bookstores soon.


The cutting of the belt...the most un-cruelest cut of all.

Choo-seok Trip Part V: The Long Return.

After four nights on the road I was ready to head back to Seoul (and its smog and traffic) on Tuesday. Besides, many of the guys had already gone home and that left me with Wendy and her friends...almost all of whom in JeonJu right now are women. The estrogen was getting a little thick. (Little joke, there.)

I got on the Airport Bus (ya, it stops at 63 building in Yeouido near my place, rather than the terminal in Kangnam...and it's more likely to have open seats cuz no one thinks to take it to Seoul) and started the (normally) 3-3.5 hour journey home. Of course, being Choo-seok it took me 5.5 hours to make the trip, which actually wasn't bad. Some people took 12-15 hours to get home from Pusan. But that's only if you take a car...buses get their own lane for much of the highway and planes always have open seats. I have no idea why Koreans are stuck in traffic for on of the 5 days they have off. Something like 300,000 cars leave Seoul and about 100,000 came back on Tuesday, with the rest returning on Wednesday...unreal.

So here are the last of my pics. This first one had me thinking. Is it Quincy: M.E.'s star Jack Klugman or the world-famous hedge fund manager George Soros? A striking resemblance.


Is it Jack Klugman or George Soros?

And from a reststop. Nothing like 5-10 bags of heated 오징어/oh-jing-eo (cuttle-fish) to give the bus a sea-side fresh scent.


Mmmmm...오징어.

Here's one that I took in Geoje-do actually...and I'm too lazy to open the page to edit that day. Better lock up your umbrella if you stay in these parts. But then, who would steal an umbrella?


Better lock up your brolly!

And you know my favorite topic. Here is the inside of the Core Hotel's men's room (ladies, shield your virtuous eyes). Notice the open (ground level) window at the end of the row...some Peeping Tammy would have a field day!


Core Hotel peek-a-boo bathroom.

That's it...tune in next time for the continuing saga of things Korean.

Choo-seok Trip Part IV: JeonJu Ho!

Up at 6AM, get some food, get in the car to get to the bus terminal to get a but to Daejeon then another one to Jeonju. But first, a pic of Rodgers doing his impersonation of Urkel.


Urkel got nothin' on me!

On the way to the terminal I was feeling a little giddy and came up with a parody of "Yeah" by Usher:

Yeah Yeah
Wendy is behind the wheel, in her Matiz
You know what I mean.
Ya, Rodgers riding shotgun, got his pants hiked up just like Urkel,
But it's all a joke.

You know the bags won't fit in the trunk, it's too small
So we got them in the backseat, and they're real tight
Don't need no airbags.

We said oh no! there she goes! Running the red light.
She said hey man, that's ok! I had my flashers on!
We said oh no! she's a local! what we gonna do?!
She said shut up back there, we're all ok, I'm a better driver than you!

And we said Yeah! Yeah!

Ok, it's not poetry....and I forgot most of it before I got to a PC, but I think you can figure out that our little group was having a fair bit of fun.

Here's a shot of Phyllis and Rodgers on the bus...what?!?! He's sleeping again?


Yo Phyllis!

We were met at the station by 원희/Won-Hee. She's one of Wendy's friends from when she worked here last year. Her name means: perfect woman in Korean...and she does her best to live up to it. Her parents have a couple of restaurants outside of town and we went there for dinner. Unfortunately none of the pics I took came out...maybe it's time to get a new camera.


Our host in JeonJu: Won-Hee (with the double peace with cell phone sign).

Here's us packed in her friend's van. He taxied us all over the place, what a guy! Thanks Mr. Kim Gyu-Tae!


No posing allowed in this shot.

Near the restaurant, waaay out in the country they had these scarecrows by the side of the road. Why they weren't in the field I'll never know. They also had rubber gloves filled with water suspended over the doorways in an effort to scare mosquitos and flies away from the rooms...as if a fly would recognize the shape of a hand as a threat. Odd place sometimes.


Scary Scarecrows

We also hit a teahouse that our 'driver', who is actually an architect, designed. He also did many buildings in JeonJu and Seoul. Quite an accomplished and nice guy.


In Da (Tea) House. We gonna sip tea like it's yer birthday.

Then it was out to the bar. Wa-Bar to be exact. We met up with a few more people: Sonya, Mi-sook, Dong-Hwa, Ji-Eun/Jenny and proceeded to chit chat over the trough of beer lodged in ice before us. The Wa-Bar there has a cool promotion. If you collect 70 bottlecaps you get VIP status and then get free nachos for life (or until they go bankrupt); cool deal.


Wendy and Dong Hwa (notice the peace sign).

Dong Hwa was probably the first person Wendy met in Korea, and he introduced her to Won Hee. In Korea you'd call him a 'key man' as he introduces good people to you. I hope he comes up to Seoul soon...he's pretty cool.


Rodgers and his new admirer Mi-Sook.

Mi-Sook...say the name...then think of Austin Powers (the Japanese twins Fook-yoo and Fook-mi)...ok, she's not at all like that...just a little fun. Her English was strikingly good. Incredible use and understanding of slang and normal speech too. Watch out Rodgers!

We got in early (about midnight). Won-Hee cranked the floor heating up to about 12 out of 10, though, and we were was almost fried alive. It was just insane. It reminded of when I went to Pusan and my wife's grandfather set the floor to saute (in order to show off his affluence and cooking skills) and the freezing wind from the porous windows left us with 2 choices: be scalding hot or ice cold.

Ok, enough of that...we lived through it. Here's a pic of Phyllis being a little playful in the kitchen...with a knife. Yikes!


Phyllis protecting her melon.

Choo-seok Trip Part III: Poking Around Geojedo

After all that craziness in Pusan it was good to relax in Geojedo for a bit. On Sunday we had more of Wendy's home-cookin'. Spanish rice (from her parents' home of Puerto Rico) and more monstrous fajitas for me. Mmmmmm. (Should have taken a picture of the things, hope you'll forgive me.)

So, it was off to the famous beaches of Geojedo for a little sightseeing as the sun started to set/we started to get moving at about 4PM. Here are a few pics...somehow Wendy got in a lot of them; guess she's the star of the day.


Beach on Geoje-do.


Wendy enjoys long walks on the beach...


Wendy as a Midget

Rodgers made a friend, too. This guy has a small welding/machining/engineering business on the island and knew a ton of English. He's also one of the few Koreans who likes to come to this sandy beach to swim. Most Koreans prefer pebble beaches (like below) and leave the sandy ones to us.


Rodgers: Whatcha talkin' 'bout Mr. Kim?

So, on the pebble beaches it's good luck to make a rock tower or wall. If it stays up then your wish will come true! I didn't have any mortar with me, but I figure mine's got a pretty good chance. Everyone made towers/walls, but I'm a bit of a egotist (plus, Rodgers' was bigger than mine) so I'll only show you my creation.


My rock tower.

And that's it...we basically took it easy. More to come.

Choo-seok Trip Part II: Pusan All-Nighter

No, not an all-night study session...not like that at all. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

On Saturday we all got up and had breakfast...I made a massive omlette and fried up ham (man, Wendy can get some awesome food at the foreigner's store here)...I had my own bed so I was pretty well rested (hehe). Then we set out to take a look at the island, or to the dockyards, at least. Here's a few pics of our little excursion.


Are we in China or DSME?


Second largest crane in the world (the largest is at the Samsung shipyards down the road).


Under the crane...down by the sea, yeah...those are containers and parts of the ship to be assembled.


Big-ass oil rig...ya, they make them too.


Lovely Ok-po.

And, here's a shot of Rodgers catching up on some sleep in the car. Ain't he cute?


Rodgers catches some Zees.

After that we had lunch...Wendy had some fajita ingredients and I made some pretty DSME-sized wraps. Actually, they were so full of stuff I couldn't even meet the ends of them, let alone wrap them. What a glutton I am.

I think then we headed to the ferry dock (this is where the trip gets a little fuzzy). We caught the 6PM, 45 minute ferry from Ok-Po to Pusan with a plan to stay out all night there and then come back on the 7AM boat. We met Eileen (another DSME teacher from Ireland) and Chris (another Greek engineer) at the terminal and Chris gave a few of us chocolate chip cookies. As we sat down Eileen made the joke that we'd better not 'toss those cookies'...what a prophet she is. She and Chris headed to the can within 20 minutes of the crossing and I felt like death warmed-over for almost the entire time (and for about an hour afterwards). I just got into my 'zone' and blocked everything out (like what you do when your mom is lecturing you) and managed to keep my cookies untossed.

We made our way to Haeundae Beach (pronounced Hay-eun-day, not Hyun-die) and met more people: Marinos, Lulu, Stephanos and Maya (the only Korean in the group) at the Marriott. I tried to take a picture of the beach, but it was dark and it didn't turn out. Oh well, have to go back there and try again later. We had Vietnamese for dinner in a building that had TGI Friday's, Outback, Bennigan's, Baskin Robbins, McDonald's and a few other western places...man, I hate that...I come all this way to sample Pusan cuisine and all they got are burgers and fries, it seems. Anyways, the Vietnamese was good, but the capper was this sign outside the building.


Gland Open...not even correct Konglish, but who would know?


Women To Let...really?!?! (Let is British for rent.)

After that we headed to 북경대/buk-gyoung-dae or the university district (like Seoul's HongDae) to hit the clubs. There was a subway going right there but we ended up in a taxi...the most any of us had been in Pusan was three times which made for a fun time getting to the right place. Here is the sign of our first watering-hole: the locals just call it Vinyl.


Vinyl Underground aka the Big Banana

It's a pretty cool place. There was a resident Mr. Robot doing his thing on the dancefloor...really funny guy, especially around the uber-engineer Chris who didn't want to be loosened up by some weirdo Korean. Well, I kinda egged him on to bug Chris...what a guy, eh? One brutal thing is Rodgers got me a drink but it was too acidic (too much citrus) so I tried to get a new one...the b*tch (did I just say that?) behind the bar made some bs story that since he ordered it I couldn't get a new one. What a load of crap. I wondered what country I was in. I mean, we just bought like 25 drinks between our group and she wouldn't comp me one messed-up one? Screw that. (Whoa, sounds aggressive, but that kinda thing really irks me.)

Next stop was better, a place called Foxy. Foreingers get in free! Two of Wendy's students (well, they are men, about 25 years old) came as well. This was their 'research' for their oral presentation in class. What a deal! One, Mr. Lee had his 'hunting' suit on...a nice two-piece navy deal he bought especially to hunt women (he's on the marriage trail now). The sign as we entered Foxy was priceless...and quite possibly true for some patrons.


Foxy Nightclub is not responsible if you lose your values.

After that we hit a 노래방/noraebang (singing room, or karaoke in Japanese) for some brutal singing (well just mine was brutal). I used, again, my impressive Korean business/shopping slang to get extra minutes on the clock (100 instead of 60) and 2 free sodas...but the rate was 15,000 won so I knew he had a lot of slack to give. Carol had never been to one and I think she liked it. We had Rodgers do "Yeah" by Usher...that was a tough one. I kept saying I'd get him to do a song be some "MC" guy once we got him into one of those rooms...and he did alright. At the end of the time we basically all fell asleep in there until the guy came in and kicked us out. (I understood that Korean, no problem.)

Once outside the sun was coming up and we needed to get to the ferry terminal. I (again, man, am I good) used my Korean to get directions to the subway. Well, the guy just pointed when I said "전철어디세요?" but that was a big thing for me. Once we got off the train we figured that we were going to be cutting it close to catch that boat. Phyllis and Rodgers ran ahead (he's real fit) and the rest of us followed behind. My group, however, went up the wrong ramp and ended up at locked doors...we could see Phyllis on the other side of the glass pounding it and yelling as if a killer was behind us. Once we got our tickets we had to run down what looked like a 1/2 mile elevated hallway to get to the boat...and we had 3 to choose from. I tell you, it was like a scene from Amazing Race (Mery's favorite show). Even with all the rushing I managed to snap this pic of a giant truckload of eggs.


I am the egg-man!

Thus ended our 'evening' out as we got to bed at about 9AM. (Oh, and no cookies or tossing of cookies on this trip across the strait.)

Choo-seok Trip Part I: Arrive in Geoje-do

Here is a typical situation in a Korean office. I booked my bus ticket to 거제도/Geojedo on Tuesday after telling my boss that there were only seats on the 1PM bus. He said it was fine for me to go then. Then at 10AM yesterday (an hour before I was to leave to the terminal in Kangnam) he made mention of a contract we needed to go over...I said, "Well, that's probably not going to happen, is it? It's Choo-seok here for a few days." "Oh no, James, I am in Seoul, Mr. Choi is in Seoul and you are in Seoul these next few days." Hello...I'm in Geojedo...oh ya, that's right.

Then at 11AM I went in to say my goodbyes and he had a task for me. Find something-or-other on the Internet....no problem. 10 minutes later there it was...then 10 minutes to explain it to him. Then I bolted...no time to waste. Missed my Red (faster) bus to Kangnam so took a Green (slower) one. Crap, this won't work...changed to subway (at least then I know how long the trip will take, each stop is about 2 minutes from the next). I then missed the transfer stop. Crap again. Double back, change lines. Get to the station. Handover paperwork, get ticket. Ok...it says 서울(Seoul)=>고현(Gohyeon)...sounds right. Then 09/24, 13:00, 07...hmmm, today's date, time and that must be the bay (place where the bus stops). So I go there (at 12:59) and there's a bus with a similar name on the sign. Then I use my fantastic Korean to ask where my bus is and present my ticket to an 아저씨/ajeosshi...he points down the line of buses. Crap, it's not in #7 at all, it's in #1. Just made it--actually the bus left 3 minutes late (very rare in Korea), so I was lucky. The #7 was my seat number, which a gal whose seat I was in pointed out. Such was how my trip began.


Baseball in da bus.

One cool thing about buses in Korea (especially the deluxe ones, which have 3 seats across rather than four) is they have a TV on...today was baseball, Houston at San Francisco. There's also usually a few kids on board. This gal was especially cute.


Cutie on the bus.


Who could take just one picture?

It took only 5 hours to get to Gohyeon (on Geojedo), which is actually quite impressive for traveling during Choo-seok...but I guess most people left after the regular workday or later into the season. Three others were on their way there and Wendy (my host who is an English teacher on the island) thought I'd be a lot longer so I got to poke around the bus terminal a bit and I got this beautiful specimen of Korean architecture...specifically, how they omit dividers between the men's bathroom and the outside world.


Gohyeon Bus Terminal bathroom...from the hallway.

Wendy has a pretty cool place...a lot bigger than mine. She works for DSME (Daewoo Shipping and Mechanical Engineering, I think), lives in a Daewoo Construction apartment, drives a Daewoo Matiz car and I think pretty much everything else is made by Daewoo as well. (Daewoo is one of the large chaebols or conglomerates that have their hand in everything.) Here's a pic of her car...


Wendy has a reserved parking space near the Admiral Hotel...


...but she prefers the handicap spot.

Anyhoo, we made our way down to what she called "the most happening bar in Ok-po, the Singing Chicken" (Ok-po is a little city on Geoje-do, close to the shipyards where she works. Here's a pic of the outside...you can probably guess that it's not like the clubs in Seoul.


The Famous Singing Chicken

If you need more evidence, this guy was preparing his dinner just down the street.


A good place to fillet fish...on the side of the road.

First though, we had dinner at Delhi, the Indo-restaurant and met Marinos (a Greek guy), his belle Lulu (a Filipina transplanted to Australia...wicked accent!), and Sebastian and Eleanor (a French couple who inhaled a pack of Marlboros between them during dinner). As per usual in a foreign restaurant in Seoul the service was slow but the food was predictable. Funny thing, though, I don't mind having Korean food and people double-dipping their food, but I did get irked a bit when the Frenchies were doing it with the Indo food...no idea why. Maybe I thought they'd get ashes in it or something.

The Chicken was interesting...basically a bar with 3-4 gals pouring drinks and lots of drunk, loud foreigners. There was this one guy from Croatia...funny guy, he was definately a regular there. Crude: yes. Obnoxious: yes. Funny as hell: oh yes.

After that is was off to pick up Phyllis (a Dutch gal), Rodgers (an American dude) and Carol (a Canadian English teacher). We all sacked out and got up early to explore the island before heading to Pusan that night to pull an all-nighter and return again on Sunday morning.

On the road again...

As noted, I'll be braving the highways of Korea this 추석/choo-seok in an effort to find some fun. Yeouido is veritably shuttered (as is much of Seoul) during the holiday so I might as well take this opportunity to see the country; and my destinations: 거제도/Geoje-do, 전주/Jeonju and (to a much lesser degree) 부산/Pusan are about as country as you can get here. I've actually only been to three places outside of Seoul: 부산, 전주 & 영덕/Youngdeok (a tiny fishing village on the East Sea known for its 영덕대게/Youngdeok DaeGai/bamboo crab).

To celebrate the season many (if not all) of the businesses in Korea give their employees and clients gift packages--they do the same on a more selective basis for 설날/seol-nal (Lunar New Year). Last year it was a much-needed shampoo/soap/bamboo toothpaste gift box, this year it's...SPAM! I've noticed that places where the US Army has/had a large influence (such as Korea, the Philippines) they think Spam is a real delicacy...perhaps because during the fighting it was some of the only meat in the country. Koreans even have a famous soup called 부대찌개/budaejjigae (literally means soldier's hot soup) where soldiers in the ROK army would add Spam and hotdogs to their traditional 찌개 (basically hot pepper soup with ramen and some veggies) for extra protein. These days 부대찌개 has a lot more meat in it, but it's still quite spicy.


Nothing says Choo-seok/Thanksgiving quite like a case of SPAM (Note: it comes in a handy tote bag!).

Um, I had enough Spam when I was a kid (actually we couldn't afford a name brand like Spam, so we ended up with Spork) so I'll leave the seal on the box intact and spring it on an unsuspecting 'friend' during 설날 or next year's 추석. Wow, did you just read that Hangul? You're learning tons of Korean from this blog! (Oh, and thanks to readers who correct my mistakes...I think all entries are certified correct 24 hours after their original posting.)

I have a bus to catch today...so this is it. Hope to post from the ultra-modern facilities at 거제도 and 전주 as well...did you just read those too?! Wow.

UPDATE: If you're looking for a foreign ATM in Korea VISA has a page where you can find all ATMs that take their cards in the whole world. From my experience they don't all work with all cards in Seoul, but it's probably better than asking on the street.

UPDATE: I happened across that SPAM in the supermarket...it costs 35,000 won (USD30.5) for 10 tins of the stuff! Hey, next time just get me a couple bottles of whisky or something, ok?

Korean Economy

If that flashy title didn't' grab you then this pic will.


Money, money, money...milk and honey...it's a rich man's world!--Abba

One thing I like about Korea is things happen in chunks. By that I mean that almost everything: e.g., investment trends, newspaper articles, social issues happen in large waves here. The same happens elsewhere too, of course, but the amplitude here seems to defy belief sometimes. So, when it comes to doing a roundup of the news here I find it pretty easy to find a common thread...let's see how it goes.

Basically, the economy here is not so hot. The think tanks are talking about a Double Dip Downturn (say that 10 times quickly) with slowing growth, falling apartment prices and slower real estate sales (an area that many Koreans kind of bank on to provide for their investment returns, as the local stock market is brutal) and corporate governance issues making headlines yet again (corporate governance has to do with bribery, accounting scandals and other white collar crime). Bankruptcies are also happening, with the Young Chang, Samick merger being called off on account of government intervention due to threat of competition matters (good job, watchdog!). Even the hookers are having a tough go of it with the double-whammy of a slow economy and new policing measures. All of this shows up in none-too-pretty numbers such as increased insurance fraud, people not paying their phone bills and even suicide.

North Koreans who came here to escape the repressive regime of 'Dear Leader' have not had a good time, either. Many are marginalized by South Koreans and end up in rather unsavoury or unclean jobs (the dreaded 3Ds: Dangerous, Dirty and/or Difficult). Even native Koreans who are lower down the ladder (such as part-timers) are having a tough go of it and workers at Korea's nuclear energy sites are facing their own health concerns. Of course, as anyone who has been in Korea for any length of time may know: all workers have the threat of the 회식/hwei-shik (office party) above their heads at the end of the working day.

This could be part of the reason why China is rapidly closing the tech gap between the two countries. Another problem is Koreans are just making too much money, which makes competing with the Indonesias of the world more difficult (but Koreans perhaps are a lot more productive...I think the jury is out on that, though). In Japan, though, where the economy sucks and their wages are among the highest in the world they can still continue to move along (slowly) because their internal consumer base keeps on buying. To counter these threats from China, Korea is exporting its 'expertise' in credit cards and, in a tit-for-tat arrangement, starting to open its rice market to imports and even lowering tariffs in many goods that may come from overseas (although I doubt many Koreans could buy a non-Samsung or non-LG plasma display).

There are some bright points, though. For one, the rich are still buying Ferraris and Maseratis. Samsung has trumped the world's chip-makers and got down to 60-nanometer processing power. Korea has developed Super TVs. New car models are starting to rev up sales here. In financial news, the risk premium on Korean bonds has dropped (which is a good thing). And, a new, healthier ginseng beer has been developed--finally!

Korea is also moving ahead with its (Stalin-like?) plans to develop industries (like IT) and even whole cities and regions to attract foreign capital and investment. They're taking on such huge markets as Russia as well (with their mouthwatering Choco Pies, for starters) and, when that fails, workers are even opting to work outside of Korea in order to achieve their dreams. This, I think, is a good thing because even though they say that kids learn the same in any language and some new education concepts are being tried here I believe the strict family, school and (for men) military training that virtually all kids go through here leads to less creative thought and an unnaturally high regard for hierarchy. But, that's the way things are here.

Ok, that's it...if you read every article linked too you probably took over an hour to read this. If you're still bored there is an interesting board on tax matters in Korea (written in English) that I found lately...enjoy.

Choo-seok is here again!

Well, here it is again: 추석/chooseok (Korean Thanksgiving). (Some sites on this big-time holiday here, here and here, some pics of traditional food here, a couple of articles here and here, and Lotte's Chooseok gift site is here.) For Koreans this is one of the 4 times a year when they are to visit their parents/ancestors graves; but most just go on or about Chooseok as hometowns can be quite distant from the city (of Seoul, usually). Some, however, take the time off as a chance to get out of the country completely.

I have a plan (as they say in Konglish) to go to 거제도/Geojay-do (Go-je Island) for the first bit of the time off (we get the Monday to Wednesday, Sept. 27-29th off) with a few friends and meet some buds down there too. Should be fun. Then maybe to 전주/Jeonju (city). I really haven't seen as much of Korea as I'd like to have after having been here for almost 2 years. You may know, this was the place where the lovely and talented Shawn started his sojourn in Korea...and the setting for his hugely popular book, to boot.

Chooseok is a nutty time here, though. Over 30 million people take to the highways (yes, about 3/4 of the population) but that has been changing a bit lately and it mostly happens on the weekday holidays (those are the real Chooseok high times). I'm hoping I won't be trapped in this:


Chooseok traffic....yikes!

One reason I can go down there is that my father-in-law will be in Canada--have a good trip!--so I have virtually no English-speaking relatives in Seoul. As well, my Korean friends either have company over, will be going elsewhere or should be at home to be with their parents/family. And, my family isn't here (boo hoo) and I know that pretty much the whole town shuts down and looks like this:


This was in August--but Chooseok in Seoul is similar.

Since they rollup the sidewalks, I need to stock up on things this week (just in case I come back early or something). I got some food already as well as these lovely razors. Check it out...10 razors for 1,000 won (USD 0.80!). That's 8 CENTS each. They're pretty good, too...I can use them twice before chucking them (how eco-friendly of me). So, cost of shaving per week: about 30 cents. A bud of mine uses them Gillette Sensor Nuclear-Powered razors on his beard...just 2 shaves out of each of them blades too...cost per week: about $5. Unreal how different things are. Bics here are like 600 won (50 cents) each, so if you want the name there's that option; but I figure they'll all from the same factory in China so who cares. I get mine from a hunched-over 할머니/halmeoni (grandmother/old gal) near exit 13 or 14 of 동대문운동장/dongdaemoon-oondongjang (Dongdaemoon Stadium) subway station. Normally they're 2,000 won in the stores, and I might have been able to haggle her down a few won (I sometimes get 40-50 at a time) but I just don't have the heart to do so. Actually, this time a friend of mine got them for me: saying, "Oh, I was sent here by a foreigner to buy razors from you." Wonder what went through the old gal's min when she heard that.


How much for all that steel?

With the father-in-law heading to Canada (and returning) I put in my order to my wife for some products we can't get too easily here: deodorant and decent-sized gel. Oh sure, I could go to Hannam-dong and pay an arm-and-a-leg or get tiny gel tubes for horrendous prices at 7-11....but the mule is on the plane (I'm one for him too) so why not get it from home?


Necessities that you can hardly find in Seoul/Korea.

What have I been up to at work? Well, research mostly. Lots of fun/fund stuff to read. Also some long-eared stuff like this (direct pdf link here). If you can understand this on the first pass you're a better stats student than me.

Tomorrow I got some stories lined up on the Korean economy...I bet you can hardly wait!

Only from the mind of the Minolta-makers (and Aussies).

First: here is the official launching of Yusheng's Asia Trip; including a week in Seoul.

Second: I saw a famous 외국인/weigookin (foreigner) today: Robert Holly. He was at 'my' 7-11 getting 삼각김밥/sam-gak-gim-bab (triangle gimbab) also. He came here many, many years ago (started in Pusan, giving him a funny dialect that he uses to get laughs, from what I hear) and is an international lawyer as well as publisher (sites here and here) and celebrity (lots of talk shows, McDonald's ads). Of course, he's fluent in Korean and has a Korean wife and even a Korean name (하일/Ha il). It's pretty cool to spot these kinds of guys here...goes to show that if you stay here long enough and work hard that things can happen for you that could probably never happen in your home country. (Another spotting here.)

Third: Thanks Alex (pic here) for this little tidbit on Japanese ingenuity: Sapporo (A commercial city in northern Japan on western Hokkaido) stadium Seating capacity of 42,122, what's unique about this Stadium is that, it's an indoor stadium with the playing field out side, and when required, the field will move inside the stadium. Not only that, the field once inside it will rotate within its axis to ensure the spectators will get a all round view of the game being played. (You spin me right 'round, baby right 'round...like a record baby right 'round...)

Overview schematic...with the field inside the stadium.


Side view, with pics of the actual stadium.


Field outside the stadium...with extra sod in the 'bleachers'.


Wow...field in the stadium in all its glory.


Overview of the turntable in action, what's under the field and transformation from baseball to football/soccer.


Here it is in its natural habitat (until the city grows around it, that is).

Fourth: Thanks to Mery for these examples of Japanese, um, ingenuity...not sure why you'd want a house on its side or a restaurant on its head, but they did it.


Honey, did you rearrange the furniture again?


Party of 5 for the attic?

Fifth: And from the Aussies...this drink: Two Dogs. I snapped this at a little bar (꾼/kkoon, means 'expert') in Daehangro...it's a funny place. Cheap tequila (if you're into that sort of thing, you can get a bottle for 46,000 won-USD40!) and on the menu (pic didn't turn out) is says (in Korean) "The only booking here is up to your ability" referring to some clubs where the management 'match' opposite sex patrons in a move to get things interesting...you're on your own at Kkoon.

Anyways, about this Two Dogs drink; it's similar to something we have in Canada: Mike's Hard Lemonade, but the name sets it apart. Take a look at the tagline: "Why do you ask?" The joke goes like this (um, it's not too PC, so get ready):

An Indian/Native boy approaches his dad, the Chief, and asks: "Daddy, how do you name us children?"

The Chief says, "Well, when you're born I take a look around and name you after whatever I may see. For instance, your brother: when he was born I saw a massive bear on his hind legs up on a distant hill, so I called him Standing Bear. When your sister was born I saw a deer bounding across a wide field so I called her Running Deer. But tell me, why do you ask Two Dogs Copulating?"

Ok, so in the joke copulating was replaced by something else, but you get the point. (As a side note, my old roommate's father had the nickname Two Dogs from the joke from his 'buds' at the bank he worked at...no idea why this theme keeps recurring in my life.)


A drink that sounds like a joke.