More Pics, U.S. Thanksgiving and Missing Shopping in Seoul.

For those readers who are not family I've edited out quite a few shots (thanks, Ma) to give you more of the highlights of my parents' visit to the 'big city' (of Vancouver..if you know where they're from you'll know why this little place of 1 million or so is big).


Here's a version of '52 pick-up'...Spencer really liked it. (My Dad looking on; he liked it too.)


Spencer and Winston have an early Christmas.


Wow....what a surprise, it's a train!

Maybe it's part of being a boy, but these guys love trains, cars and things that move around on wheels...oh, ya, and robots, too.


Winston taking his new book for a spin.

Ya, a book, but it has a vibrating thingy in it that makes the cat on the cover seem to purr.


2 boys in the tub.


The bear sleeps off its jetlag.

When I need to sleep I can pretty much do it anywhere...but on a leather sofa is fantastic. Spencer and I like to wrestle so here is a pic of us...he first took every blanket and pillow he could find and piled them high on me.


Watch out for the bear in the cave, Spencer!~

Watching TV today you'd think that Thanksgiving in the U.S. was the most incredible travel day on the planet? Well, you can't deny that it is a big day for the U.S.: about 37.2 million people were on the road or in the sky (no one travels by canal nowadays, do they?) and they were likely going pretty far (the U.S. is about 9.6 million square km--compared to Canada's 10.0 million square km it's good-sized, but to Korea's 98,000 it's about 98 TIMES larger). But, is it even close to Korea's 추석/Choo-seok (Thanksgiving) city-to-hometown exodus? Let's see. The U.S. has 37.2 million people in transit out of a population of 293 million people (12.7%) and Korea has about 30 million of its 48.6 million on the roads (Koreans prefer bus/car over airplane)--or 67.7%!! And all of that traveling occurs in an area about the size of Indiana! Then there is the griping about the gasoline prices. In the U.S. gas is about 1.97 USD a gallon while in Korea it's approximately 1,400 won a liter. Convert won to USD (1,058 KRW/USD) and liters in to gallons (1 liter = 0.26 gallons) and you get an equivalent price of (this is mind-boggling) 5.09 USD per gallon in Korea! Holy crap!

But Korea has us (Canada and the U.S.) beat when it comes to buying consumer goods (especially clothes and toys which are made in the region). I often wondered how much companies like The Gap and Old Navy and Sears paid for their merchandise, but after shopping in Seoul for 2 years (and it isn't even the cheapest place to get stuff) and getting good names (got a couple of Van Heusen shirts for 5USD apiece) I now understand. While cruising the stores in the mall today I say the same quality (and sometimes the same brands!) on sale here for about 10 to 15 to 20 TIMES as much as I can get it in Seoul...and that's not even the wholesale I'm-buying-a-container-of-these-things-give-me-a-discount-price! So, you have to figure things are doing alright as long as the stuff can move out of the stores and you can keep costs (like wages and shrinkage/shoplifting) down. The only place that had close to Namdaemoon prices was a larger Dollar Store (the smaller ones are a rip-off here much of the time). I also saw kids' toys here (mostly cars and tracks and 'stunt' cars) for sale at little booths in the mall for 30CAD (25USD) each...literally the same ones I saw in Seoul for 10,000 won (9USD).

Why the discrepancy? Well, transportation, for one. The stuff has to get here. Then a few more middle-men with their self-interested fingers in the pie (I'm not against this, but it's a cost.) Add in real estate fees for the stores here, higher selling wages, higher taxes and indirect costs, advertising...it seems to make sense. And if you look at this stuff in places like the U.K. and Western Europe I hear it gets even more brutal for the consumer.

What really makes sense is my plan now..to go to Seoul at least once a year to stock up on stuff. Heck, I can get toothbrushes there 6 for $1 and here they are like $3 each! Add it up...a few suits, a suitcase of shirts and ties for $5-$10 each rather than $50-$100 and you got yourself a trip to Korea paid for in savings.