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.

Hair and skincare products.

Just came back from the gym. Ahhhh...a good back workout today. One thing I don't get is the plethora of hair and skincare products they have in the men's change room. Back where I come from you're a little fruity if you use gel, but here they have 3 kinds of brushes, lotions, tonics, aftershave and two (count them TWO) hairdryers!


Welcome to the spa.

And here I thought you went to the gym to look more like a man...but these guys end up coming out of there smelling like a woman.

Can't wait for your comments on this one.

Pics and Chicks (as in chicken)

Last night got a little decadent. After 6 straight days of working out and then inlining/blading on Sunday I had dinner with my 장인어른/jang-in-eo-reun (father-in-law). We usually go to a pretty posh place but I think he was a little bagged from his 5 hour drive from 대전/Taejeon so we hit a chicken place. There are tons of them here...seems Korean like fried chicken about as much as Filipinos (which is a lot). The place was called 오마이치킨/oh-mai(may)-chicken, so when the served us the bird I said, "Oh my chicken!" but it was lost on them...maybe it was my pronunciation: should have said "Oh Ma I Chi-ken!" probably. Anyways, it was quite a feed, had a pint (or 500 mili, as they call them here) of beer too. Wow, been a long time. Basically haven't had boozer but for some soju with dinner for the last 2 weeks. Here's another chicken place in Insa-Dong (right near the exit to Jongno-3-ga Line 5 subway station):


Born...to be...Chi-cken!

Here's another funny name...it's a moving company. I have to assume they do more than one-way trips to the gulags of Siberia.


Oh my God! It's the KGB!

Sunday morning I took a morning walk (to get my daily dose of 김밥/gimbab (seaweed and rice treat) from 7-11 and was almost incapacitated by this billowing cloud of smoke. I like these fans, as they spew warm air in the winter and cool air in the summer, but I guess something was happening underground (smelled like burning plastic) that lead to noxious gases escaping that morning. It wasn't so amazing there were toxic fumes (much of Seoul is enveloped in smog on a daily basis) but that no one was doing anything about it...remember, it smelled like burning plastic. I saw this guy surveying it when I returned so I figured he'd take care of it (so much for my do-gooder country-boy mentality).


Where there's smoke...

I know everyone has been waiting on the edge of their seats for more bathroom pics. Well, here they are. I have no idea why I like to point out the differences in these things; maybe I had a traumatic experience the first time I ended up having to use a squat-toilet.

Here's a pic of a 'no smoking' sign on one loo's door. As you can read, the English is not quite as verbose as the Korean. Maybe the Korean says something like, "Those caught smoking in this bathroom will be required to post sentry at the DMZ for the period of one year, or pay a fine of 40,000 won". Anyone know? Reminds me of in Lost in Translation the director is giving Bob Harris (Bill Murray) extremely lengthy direction in Japanese and then the translator simply says: "Look to your left; look with intensity and speak slowly", Bob: "Is that all he said? Cuz it seems like he said a lot more." (Oh ya, and Lost in Translation when translated to Korean becomes something like "Is Love Lost in the Translation"...thereby proving that, not surprisingly, something was lost/added in translation.)


Um, is that all it says?

And nothing really beats the view of the men's john, right ladies? Yup, this was taken right from the (entirely public) hallway...so if you got the right angle you can know a lot more about some 아저씨/ajeosshi/men then you'd care to.


What a view!

And of course nothing beats a shower after a stint in the loo...this tap is just nuts. If you just turn on the water (which, thankfully, I did not) you'd get a lovely cascade of water all over your shirt and pants. Fantastic.


Ready! Aim! ... aw crap!

And, as you may have seen, there are sometimes pictures over the urinals here. Sometimes they are Picasso knock-offs, like in the KITMC building (they're Korea's #2 mutual fund firm) and sometimes they're by a local (and entirely unknown) artist, like in our facilities.


Picasso to pee by.


Jung who??

And, on another topic, if you're thinking of stocking up on kimchi, better do it soon: prices will jump next month.

Ok, I think that's enough for now.

Only a little one today

I have a few pics of my favorite topics (bathrooms in Korea, pollution and Konglish/names) to add copy to but wanted to comment on one of Shawn's recent posts. (I already said something on this topic a while back.) He said that his Korea Life Blog is right up there on the new a9.com's ranking...but if you do a search for Yeouido who do you get? Oh ya, me. Who got game? He got game!

Carseats in Korea and responses to my blog.

Ok, I mentioned this before...but I still can't really get over it. In Korea having a carseat is a really big deal. Almost NO ONE has one, nor do they think it's a must-have...this all in the face of the 'we love our children more than anything in the world' mindset that everyone here has. Maybe it's cost: these things are not cheap here--maybe because they are all foreign-made there is a duty, or perhaps because you only seem to see them in department stores (where prices are crazy, in my view) or maybe it's some sort of cache or premium pricing. Whatever the reason I can't see the logic in spending kajillions of won on hagwons (private tutors/after-school schools) and then chance having it all lost (as well as the emotional trauma) in an instant.

Any comments?


A big deal...or a normal thing...depends where you are. (Big boy, Spencer, is in booster seat.)

Here's another thing that amazes me...the response to my blog. The hits have increased by 50-75% a month for the last while and I'm starting to think that some people actually read it on a daily basis. What started as a way to note observations and vent some frustration (in that order) seems to be kinda interesting...and I really appreciate your reading my 'work'. (I quote Jerry Seinfeld on what he was trying to do with his show: "We just tried to put something 'out there' that we could be proud of and if people liked it, all the better."

About work, though. Another surprise was the number of emails I get from readers who are about 10 years behind my 10-year finance career. They are always very polite and looking for advice on how to break into the business...so I advise them as much as I can. These aren't slouches either (although I didn't exactly go to an Ivy League school, Simon Fraser was voted #1 in Canada), they went to the likes of Oxford, Yale and Stanford. All have an interest in Korea (either born here or living here) and all are looking for a way to get into this seemingly opaque and monolithic industry. I'll try to write a bit more on what I do and the business here in Korea (and generally), but I have to be careful of 2 things (i) the confidentiality we have to keep re: our clients and products and (ii) keeping you from dozing off too much. Let me know any questions or feedback, as you like.

Work, work out and housework...

The last week or so has been pretty different from before on many fronts:

Work: well, I'm always working, but now our firm has a new database supplier for researching hedge funds, which means I have a lot of fun things to do all day like search with various parameters, print off detailed statistical analyses, contact new companies and get information on their funds (not as easy as it sounds, as some of them require an introduction and/or credentials just to get their background info) and follow up on my checklist of about 20 things I need to do before investing in a fund. Whew! Before we had quite a few funds to do this for, now there are hundreds, so looks like I'll be reading about 300-500 pages a day of corporate presentations, due diligence questionnaires, fund overview, offering documents and subscription forms. Asleep yet?

On that: here's a pic of my junior, 최씨/choi-ssi (which is normally written Mr. Choi for us foreigners, but his name is correctly pronounced 'chay').


Here is the camera-shy Mr. Choi as I normally see him.

Work out: I try to keep in shape (round is a shape too!) but now I'm really on the kick. Basically everyday now. If not at 6AM then at 6PM. Yesterday was shoulders (6 exercises, 3 reps), tomorrow is pecs, then tri, then bi (ceps, that is), then back, then legs...plus some abs and cardio in there everytime. Wish I had a bud to go to the gym with, like in '98 when my Carlo and I did a lot of pumpin' up, but I guess this way I don't have to schedule anything either...and I have some motivation to go as well...well, maybe it's the pos/neg motivation from my wife...and everyone else, for that matter. Koreans just don't like chubby people. They figure that larger men are more prone to health problems, so they try to dissuade their daughters from marrying one; and, as for pudgy girls here: forget about it--thin is definitely in.

Housework: ok, so things still pile up from time to time, but I'm getting my ironing done a lot more regularly now. It's amazing how not waking up with a hangover can give you more time to do such exciting things as cleaning your bathroom and doing the dishes. Also taking advantage of living within 5 minutes (door-to-door) of the office and doing laundry during the day. I put a load in in the morning, hang it at lunch (or before, it's such a short walk) and take it down at night...eat you heart out commuters!

With all of this early-to-be-early-to-rise stuff nose-to-the-grindstone Koreans are now calling me a 잠꾸러기/jam-ggoo-roe-gi...sleepyhead. What? For getting 6-8 hours? Ya, I guess that is pretty weird here.

Ok, now that I've lulled you into a blog-induced stupor, you will now go to the Blogarithm link to the right and enter your email address so you can get a dose of this everyday.

Oh, and something is up with my code on this site, I think. I'm starting to see the sidebar to the right shift down below the body/content....if anyone knows why and how to fix it I'd be very grateful. All I did lately was change the link-to page for Shawn's book...so no idea why it's so wonky. Thanks.

Not tonight dear, I have a mid-term. Plus: the P-turn.

Ernie's blog has some pretty cool stuff on it sometimes, like this chart on fertility rates of gals compared to education levels.


Hmmmm...do smarter women have fewer kids, or does it just costs too much?

In Korea more women are having fewer kids, or is it: fewer women are having many kids? It seems this is a problem, but I'm not exactly sure why; there are tons of people here and whoever can seems to be emigrating (for a while or forever). There's like 1 million Koreans in L.A., 125,000 in Toronto and over 50,000 now in Vancouver, Canada. I guess if fertility does go down then that could hurt consumerism here, but they can always (as in the past, and getting better at it with world-beating companies) export. Besides, Korea is so populated that the government is even looking at markets to import basic Korean foods like 대두/daedoo or red bean, 고추/gochoo or hot peppers and soybeans. So I don't think undercrowding is the problem here.

If the government wants to get women to have more kids there are a few ways to go about it: in Canada almost all families get a Baby Bonus (it's not a lot, but it can cover basic expenses); in Sweden and other countries there is free daycare, laws that allow generous maternity leave and even leave for fathers to stay at home to raise the kids (something that is rare here: see articles here and here)); and many companies have daycares right in the factory or office building to allow mothers to be closer to their children but still get their jobs done.

In Korea virtually none of these are in place. Virtually ALL of the child-rearing responsibilities falls on the mother (and her mother, her husband's mother and/or any other female relatives who are closeby or can spare time). Now, I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. I believe it's best for a child to be cared for by its kin rather than some worker--the bond is more important than the title. But, if the mother has to be at home because no one is available or willing to shoulder the burden (traditionally families all lived under one roof, but Koreans are becoming more Western and adopting a nuclear family approach somewhat) then that means the mother cannot work. Knowing this before having children (or before having the next one) one might just put off the whole ordeal and use the time to (i) upgrade their position in the company and (ii) save enough money so they can afford to have kids.

I agree with the ideas of Nobel prize-winning economist Dr. Gary Becker: in the end all choices are based on 'economic' realities. Not purely money, per se, but, rather, decision-makers make choices based on their ability to carry out the tasks. If a gal is educated then already 2-8 of her child-bearing years are gone (assuming she's not attending class and raising child). Thus, after (i) incurring debt and/or (ii) getting to a stage where she can have the position/responsibility/pay she wants she may be loathe to give that up in a hurry. Thus, fewer kids with higher education.

As for Korea...well, the government (and society) have been pushing kids of both sexes to study and achieve for centuries. Now that women can move up the ranks more than ever (but not to the heights seen in the West) they want them to suddenly give all that up and have more kids?

Just goes to show you: be careful what you wish for, it may come true.

Oh, and learned a new (Konglish) term: P-turn. Kind of like a U-turn (which many drivers here have to do because (i) they can't turn left at an intersection or (ii) they can't turn left down a side street (and need to go further up the street, do a U-ee then a right). A P-turn is when you can't turn left at an intersection (like near 광화문/gwanghwamoon) and you need to go straight through the intersection, then take a right (in this case at the Post Office/Ministry or Information and Telecommunications building) then take another right, then (you guessed it) another right and go through the intersection (perpendicular to the last crossing) and be on your way in the right direction. I think a lot of visitors here figure the cabbies are ripping them off by doing this circuitous route, but sometimes it's the only way to get to where you want to go.

Look up...waaaaaaaay up.

This morning I saw a regular occurrence in Korea: the garbage man. Well, the garbage men aren't all that special here, but the recyclers are. They gather together and stack about 10m high bags and bags of PET (poly-ethylene-terephthalate) aka plastic bottles. I sometimes see them on the 팔팔/pal-pal (or '88', the highway constructed along the south side of the Han River to connect Kimpo Airport to the Olympic Park/Venues) with massive loads on them...no idea how/if they get under bridges or through tunnels.


Just 30-40 more bags to go, then we can hit the highway!

This week we're going to lunch at the 한국산업은행/han-gook-san-eup-eun-haeng (Korea Development Bank or KDB: review here). It's a nice place with lots of art displays and in the basement a wicked deal on grub. It's 3,000 or 3,500 won usually (sometimes 5,000, or 4.5USD) and it's basically Korean cafeteria food, but it's quite tasty and you get as many side dishes and kimchi and rice as you like. It's also in an architectural-type building with high ceilings, waterfalls for walls and a sort of minimalist feel (as you can tell, I didn't take many art classes in my day). So, if you're in Yeouido around lunch time on a weekday and want a good, cheap meal (and some art) this is a good spot. It's across the (Yeouido) park from the core, just 10 minutes from the Yeouido Station (line 5).


A pretty good lunch special here.

Pigs and Road Hogs

This weekend was quite odd. Not only did I work out on both Friday and Saturday and inline/rollerblade on both days (on Sat I went about 25km/h, which was pretty foolhardy on the packed sidewalks we have here), but I also didn't drink! Well, I did have a little soju on Sunday night, but that was it. I think my body didn't know what to make of it. I'm also back on creatine, which is basically amino acids (Korea has a drink called 'Amino Up', but it's probably more like water) and protein. From what I know, it's like having a few steaks in a teaspoon. (Even with supplements I know I won't look like this.) I took it with my bud Carlo in 1998. He was on the football team in high school and knew some of the tricks of the trade. I'll have to work out 3-4 times a week now, as the creatine seems to build up in my muscles if I let them rest too long. That's ok, it's a good discipline. I also don't like to drink a lot when I'm on it, so it's a double blessing. Oh, and it's not like steriods or something (no needles), it's a powder you put in liquid (like grape juice) and drink...I'm not into real 'roids.

Anyhoo, with all this no-drinking and hard-lifting I'm getting a lot of rest/sleep. Got up at 7AM on Sunday (last week I was getting home at this time with Minaz) and made my way to 남대문시장/Namdaemoon Si-jang (Market) for a little shopping at about 9:30. Things were just opening up. On the weekdays I hear the markets open at 4AM to do wholesale, but Sunday seems to be another story. Got some undershirts (exciting, eh?) and poked around for a bit then made my way to 동대문운동장/Dongdaemoon Eun-dong-jang (Stadium) where things were, again, just starting to open. The main markets: Hello aPm, Doota and Migiliore were 30 minutes from unlocking their doors so I took a look down the side streets. Found some dress shirts that looked alright (usually they really suck) and the guy had another kind still in the boxes. Looked pretty good, and for 7,000 won (6USD) a piece how could I go wrong? I got 4: but only a small discount as in Korea it's bad luck to haggle too much on the first sale of the day...forgot about that. I have one of them on now...not bad (pic below).


Darn...should have just shown you the shirt and cropped the goofy face. The tie is an Ermemgildo Zegna...about 105USD, on a 6USD shirt-what a travesty!

Oh ya, and here's a pic of the lovely delicacies you can see at Namdaemoon Market...if you dare!


Get yer pig heads right here...nothing beats a pig head!

And, just a pic of what looks like a caltrop (tire spikes) I found on a corner near an exit that leads to 마포대교/mapo-daegyo (Mapo Bridge). I guess you want to be careful to stay in your lane on this turn.


Isn't this a little extreme?

Time for some world news. It seems North Korea had another ka-boom a few days ago. It's interesting. A massive explosion occurs; South Korea figures it out later from satellite images as the U.S. doesn't both telling them about it (they usually give them the info right away, from what I understand) and then (as I heard on the T.V.) the U.S. says something like "Oh, it wasn't nuclear, really no big deal...it was just an explosion and a mushroom cloud." Now, mushroom clouds aren't unique to atom-splitting (they can occur anytime an explosion occurs in mid-air) and you'd think N.K. would have the foresight to blow things like that underground and (as said) they'd be pretty crazy to go ka-blooey so close to China (although they could explain things easier to them-an ally-than the South-an enemy-). Thing is, last night my cellphone was down (no text or calls possible) and it worried me...is this it? Are the Commies coming? Ends up it was probably just a service outage for upgrades, but you never know here.

More lifted pics from others' websites.

I must be a kleptojpegiac...here are a couple of interesting pics from Ernie French's blog. The dude spent 3 years in Japan and is now in China. Seems to have a few stories and some cool pics, to boot.


Go Capitalism!


Hey, didn't he have 5 kids at the last light?

We've got some perfect weather in Seoul now. Basically your not-too-hot-not-too-cold situation. Great for inlining/rollerblading and I'm at the gym like 2-4 times a week too...oh ya, gonna be lean in no time...well, maybe not no time, but soemtime in the next while.

To commemorate the coming of autumn my officetel management had a great idea to service our air conditioners. They said a time they would be there and if I could open the door for them (unlike many teachers here in Korea, my boss does not have any kind of access to my place). So I dutifully opened the door for them and got back to work. When I returned the a/c was gone! Holy crap! So then I figured out (with the help of our handy officegirl whose English is ok) that they will be putting it (or a replacement one) back soon...like after 추석/choo-seok: September 30th. Holy crap again! That's 3 weeks, and this last weekend things were a little warm...waaaaaaaa! Oh well, now that we have cooler temps (and cooler heads) I'm not a fumed. But, you'd think they'd a told me about a 3 week turnaround. The thing was working fine...but I guess they have a schedule to keep or something.

Soju, Visas, Bad Boys and Foreign Companies

What goes around comes around. After decades of Western (read: American) culture being adopted by Korea, now Korean culture (or at least drinking tastes) are starting to be taken on my Californians. In this article we see how Soju Bars are getting popular in the Schwarzenegger State. A friend of mine also has a similar bar in Toronto called 달끼고/dal-ggi-ko (strawberry nose...or the red nose people get from drinking). It's quite popular with the Koreans there, but about 20% of his clientele are 'foreigners' (non-Koreans) too.

Then there is Paris Baguette. This article tells how this French-themes cake house and bakery is making inroads into China. At the same time, Korean kimchi makers are cutting production costs by 90% by making the sidedish in China and shipping it to Korea! Korea is now a net importer of kimchi, if you can believe it.

With all this international news, you might be thinking of your next trip abroad. Minaz, bless his little heart, left me a job to do while he's in the Philippines: check if he needs a visa for his recently-planned 1 week trip to Beijing. I called the number, thinking it was a Canadian Embassy or something, but it was actually Visa Connection, a firm that specializes in getting all the paperwork together for whatever visas that Canadian or American citizens might need. Very cool.

And if you do fly, and have a few drinks, and berate the staff and generally get ugly: watch out. KAL and Asiana have a blacklist of those soju/beer/whiskey/wine-downing passengers that get ornery in the air. Judging from the amount of stumbling, loud talking/yelling, pissing (and puke) I see in the street it was only a matter of time.

Finally: there seem to be a few misconceptions about foreign firms' offices in Korea. I've known people at all kinds of firms here and I can say that if you are in Korea you're going to work hard (at least if you're a Korean--as a foreigner you're kinda in another category). I know one gal at SH&C (which is a joint venture life insurance firm between Shinhan Bank, and BNP Paribas' CARDIF) and she has lunch from 11:30-1:30! 2 full hours. But she also regularly works until 10 at night and on weekends, so the extra hour for lunch ends up translating to 20 more hours a week. Others I know at foreign firms work their butts off too...as do those at local firms. It's more which country you work in that counts more than which firm, perhaps.

#5 in the Top Ten....Kim Jong-il!

As you know, I sometimes get a little lazy and grab stuff from other sites to fill mine. This is one of those times...but I have a Korean bent to it.

Top Ten Signs Your Kid Had A Bad First Day At School.
10. Already voted "Least Likely to Succeed."
9. His class schedule includes daily beatings from bullies, teachers, and the custodial staff.
8. Lunch was whatever he could scrape off the bottom of his desk.
7. His school bus driver made him ride on the outside of the bus.
6. Got tackled twice in gym class--three times in algebra.
5. He comes home pledging loyalty to fearless leader Kim Jong-Il
4. When you ask how his day went he tells you to direct all further questions to his attorney.
3. Homework on the first day: try not to be such a loser.
2. You know the kid everyone picks on? He got picked on by that kid.
1. Your last name is McGreevey.

Of course I got this from the Late Night Top Ten List...as a matter of fact, there are a few Dear Leader and North Korea hits in the Top Ten Lists.

The Terminal Patient and Troyisms

Ever see a movie that makes you so exhilerated, so happy to be alive that it's really, really worth the price of admission? Well, I saw The Terminal last night (a freebie, no less, as a friend of mine got free tix) and it was nothing of the sort. I had low expectations going in, which usually means I'll end up liking it, but it hardly even met those depths. (An opposing view here.)

UPDATE: a real-life Terminal Man story here and here.

Basically, the movie is a Breakfast Club without the antics of teen stars to make it cute. It was Cast Away without the sharks (but there was a Mr. Peanut can in place of Wilson). It was like Ishtar without the camels. Like The English Patient without the bandages (I didn't see The English Patient, but I can imagine). The only thing worth seeing was Hanks' slavic accent and if I wanted that I could have watched the Bosom Buddies episode where he pretended to be a Russian model (just jokin', there was no such episode, but you get the picture).

I went into the theatre relatively awake and emerged (literally) stumbling from lack of stimulation and almost fell asleep standing up on the subway. Ya, a real deadzone: but for some reason the Koreans loved it...laughing, cheering, applauding in parts. Unreal. You never know what'll sell here.


I'm sorry ma'am it's The Terminal...(image lifted from Shawn's Korea Life Blog)

On a lighter note, I came across this in my dallyings on the web. It's a list of Troyisms from Troy McClain on the first season of The Apprentice (second one's page is here). I didn't watch but maybe half an episode of it, but these are some exceptional lines: mostly because they remind me of the logic flow here sometimes. Enjoy. (I was going to cut and paste them here, but there's like 160+ of them...so the link is best.)

My favourites (most like Koreans):
14. I have a big pimple on the back of my back, and it really pains me…
20. I am not superstitious and will not admit that I am…
28. I know who he is but I just can’t tell you…
33. You have got to make it known to know…
45. As soon as we can figure out if the free deal is cheaper than the package deal, then we will get married. (...just substitute set for deal and package)
53. Why are you not left yet…
55. Are you guys learnable…
58. I’m neglecting to hear you…
59. I will be off yesterday…
77. Thank you very much for my assistance…
82. You should be fortunate…
98. I expect a propology from you… (...the only refernce I saw on this propology was that is has to do with the study of props in the theatre...weird)
117. You are treading on thin water…
142. I am going to rechange history…
160. You don’t deserve being talked to right now…

Yes, we certainly don't...

I'll take pot-pourri for 50,000 won, Alex.

Here we go again. You know I usually try to get a common thread in my postings, but sometimes (what I think are) interesting stories just pop up out of nowhere.

#1 Rice farming in Korea is much like that in Japan: it is a protected industry that, as a consequence, leads to (4-6 times) higher prices for consumers than imported rice would cost and, as a consequence, transfers money from each and every consumer to a few who till the land. This is somewhat a good thing, as if a nation simply paves over all of its land and something happens that disrupts trade then there will be little the people can do but starve, but I have to think that this amount of imbalance can't be all good for the economy.

Emotions come into play here, as well. Ask many (especially older) Koreans what they will tell you that Korean rice is better than imported rice. Others say that foreign (usually Californian) rice is not only cheaper than Korean rice but the better soil there also yields a more nourishing crop (a bit of a double-whammy for the locals). Whenever these (or any other competing ideologies) bang heads there is only one thing that can happen...there'll be a rally (below).


A typical Korean race riot...I mean rice riot.

In my first months here I was riding the subway when a crowd of headband-clad 할머니/halmoeni/grandmothers got on the same train. They all crammed in and I could see over all of their heads (not only because of my genes, but because of my diet when I was a kid...better fed children are just taller, but I digress). I recognized 쌀/ssal/uncooked rice (as opposed to 밥/bap/cooked rice) on their headbands and figured out why they were there...they were on their way to/from a protest. I just raised my right fist and said 쌀쌀쌀쌀. They laughed...crazy 외국인/weigookin/foreigner.

UPDATE: Recent article on rice here.

#2 Recently Samsung Electronics lost its (50-year old) golden boy Eric Kim. Seems he left to go to Intel after working his magic at Samsung. He left Korea when he was 11 (which would make that in 1965...at a time when Koreans who left could only take 20 USD with them!) but was lured back in 1999.

Many young Koreans have a similar idea of going abroad to work and then perhaps returning to Korea again later (although Kim didn't likely have much choice in the matter at 11 years of age). It seems they want to get their language skills up to snuff (thank God!) and learn more about the world outside of the Hermit Kingdom.

UPDATE: here's another story on Koreans emigrating.

#3 Speaking of weddings (kinda) it sounds like most young couples have little choice than to head abroad to make their mark. After spending 134 Million won (116,500USD!) for a wedding there is little left to put toward a home here so many couples are just renting at first. Traditionally, the groom's family would provide help with getting them a home and the bride's would basically outfit the new place (with furniture, appliances and hundreds of blankets and bedding).

#4 I asked a few gals what they thought was the difference between Korean men and Western men. The most common answer is that Western men are 'open-minded' and Korean men are 'narrow-minded'. Huh. Interesting. Never thought of us as being Renaissance men, but I guess to some Korean gals us bread-eaters have a more liberal view of the world. I'd have to concur. Many Korean men (the older, the moreso) have a pretty fixed way of thinking. They want to do things in a certain way, be treated and treat others in a certain way and get specific results from focused effort. I guess I was like that to in high school...but something happened on the way to age 33...and I think it has something to do with living on my own for 9 years during some of my school and then afterward. Many Koreans live with their parents until marriage so, for a guy, you go from your mom doing everything domestic for you to your wife doing it (then when you get older you move in with your son and his wife does it all for you, what a deal!).

Also, there are only about 70,000 foreingers in Seoul, a city of 12-15 million (depending on who you believe). So pretty much wherever you go you'd have more exposure to different cultures and people than in Korea...especially in the countryside. Language is a barrier too. I've noticed that gals here usually have a lot better language skills than men (maybe it's just my perception, though) so even if they come across a foreigner perhaps many guys would have trouble conversing.

#5 If you are one of them foreigners in Korea and you want to check out the country there are some pretty cool sounding tours offered by Adventure Korea. I've been meaning to take a look into one, but the timing just hasn't been right...and I've been here long enough and know enough people that I can get around. But, if you're new here or been so busy working that you haven't been able to get out it could be a good place to go places and meet people.

#6 Finally, money. (I'm rambling a bit...got a bit of a cold, dag-nabbit!) Bank of Korea is going to issue 100,000 and 50,000 won notes soon, and it's about time. They got these checks here (much like cash) but it seems pretty weird that the largest denomination is worth 8USD. Sometimes I have to walk around with whacks of cash...and aside from making me feel rich, it's a little cumbersome.

I also finally put some cash into a bank machine today. Usually everything is direct deposited but I was tired of having my balance end in ...9890 so I put a couple thousand won in (they only dole out 10,000 won bills here). It's actually pretty cool. All of the screens are in 99% perfect English and for deposits you don't even enter the amount...just put the bills in the cash dispenser (ya, the same place you take the money from, interesting) and it automatically identifies and counts the denominations and spits out any that are too worn to make the grade. Very cool. Oh ya, and there's a shredder at the door in case you want to destroy that receipt. There's also some sort of stampy thing (to the right), no idea what that's all about.


Look at that mountain of bills...just keep them out of the shredder!

Ok, that's it. Enough out of me for now.

Minaz has Left the Building

Wow, one week has passed since ol' Minaz got here, and it's been pretty entertaining. He saw a lot of the city, but just last night we thought of a few places that he hasn't seen (like the 63 Building right in Yeouido). Looks like we'll be busy when he gets back in 2 weeks (assuming he doesn't have too much fun in Bangkok/Phuket and want to stay there).

One place I wanted him to see was the 서피동파/seo-pi-dong-pa restaurant in 신촌/Sinchon. (Seo=West, Pi=Pizza, Dong=East, Pa=Pajun or Korean pizza/pancake...together they're a tasty fusion dish.) He also had to try 동동주/dong-dong-ju, which is a traditional liquor made from fermented rice. The 6-7% alcohol 동동주 is skimmed off the top and a thicker, more alcoholic drink (preferred by older folks) is left on the bottom. Anyways, he's not in to beer (which he said 동동주 tasted like) and there was pork on one of the dishes (which he doesn't eat on account of his religion) but he liked some of the other grub and enjoyed singing in the 노래방/noraebang/karaoke afterward (man, this guy is becoming 진짜한국사람/jinjja hangook saram-a real Korean). If you'd like to try 서피동파 there's one in 대학로/daehang-ro also, but the original owners moved to Sinchon and their mussel soup has massive amounts of the meat in it compared to Daehangro's. Anyways, it's located near Sinchon Station (Line 2) in a sidestreet behind Hyundai Department Store. Just ask around and look for the sign below (I had one of the 서피동파 place but lost it...so look for Photogenic). There is also a 삼김/sam-gim restaurant there on the same street...SamGim is a great place for 삼겹살/sam-gyup-sal and traditional 김치/gimchi.


Somehow this sign wasn't very 'good to take a picture of'.

You may have noticed that I/we eat out a lot here, well I'm not alone (article, another article). Seems Koreans now blow half of their food budget on restaurant food. I spend about 95% of mine on it...but then I don't have a wife or someone to cook for me and I find that for one person here (I can cook!) doesn't make a lot of economic sense after all is said and done. Besides, in Korea it's a good thing to have a meal together (breaking of bread and all that) and is not really seen as an expense or an indulgence. The nice thing is that Korean meals are normally very healthy and there are always copious amounts of bottomless sidedishes (mostly veggies) unlike the fries and garlic bread we might get with a Western meal.

Hometown: Yeouido is #1

Check it out: if you do a search for "Yeouido" on Google, Yahoo! or Lycos it comes up with my little blog as the #1 entry. No idea how they figure this out, but seems pretty cool to me! In Ask Jeeves I'm #9...darn butler!

Dropping Bombs in the Bunker.

I think Minaz is adapting to Korean (bar) life a little too easily. On Friday we went to 대학로 (Daehang-ro, another university area just north of insa-dong/downtown) where we met some friends and visited a nice little bar up there: 꾼/kkoon (means expert in Korean). We spent some time there and Minaz started talking to a few of the people there--regardless of their English ability. He gets a little more outgoing after a few drinks.

Anyways, after 꾼 we went outside and Minaz did his 'networking' and got a line on a bar which I had seen before but never been to: Bunker (10% off coupon on website). It had a packed dancefloor and no cover (but you had to buy a drink when you got in). Some decent music here, pretty much hiphop and a young crowd...perfect for us old guys. Minaz was a bit of a celebrity and the next thing we knew we were pushed into dance-circles and started to get down...not so much me, but Minaz showed his stuff.


Bunker...a good spot in Daehangro.

I tried to get a few pics of Minaz doing his thing, but this is the only one that turned out.


Minaz in Bunker, raise the roof!

Next we went to 홍대 (HongDae, near Hong-Ik University) and 흐지부지 (heo-ji-boo-ge, Hodge Podge). Minaz had the idea that we shouldn't pay cover so he talked to the bouncer at the door for a good half hour making his case. I now know the gatekeeper's name is Duke and he was born in L.A. and he thinks Minaz is "a nice guy, but [he] talks too much." I concur. Minaz, just pay the 10,000 won (8USD) like everyone else. Anyways, we got in and it was pretty good in there (Bunker was better) and at the end of the night I wanted to head but Minaz (one to extend his time as much as possible) said, "Just give me 5 minutes to strike out with all the girls in here." He got through 4 of them in about 30 seconds then found one that would dance with him. I was getting ready to bolt when our friend Duke came onto the dancefloor and got Minaz to the bar for a free tequila shot...actually, he wanted to get him to stop bothering the ladies, but a free anything is heaven for Minaz.

Finally we left and Minaz continued to talk to anyone and everyone. It was hilarious (as long as you're not on the receiving end). "Hi, I'm from Canada, are you a G.I.? Everyone thinks I'm American and a G.I. Where are you from again?" then there was the "아가씨!/agasshi!/girl!" line that he bellowed whenever he saw a girl....which was often/every 5 seconds. One Korean guy was roped in by him...Sung. Seems he was out with his buds and on the way home to Ilsan (a long ways away) and was a KATUSA (Korean Army Training with the US Army, check out those wages on the site!) guy (so he knows English well) in his military days and also an accountant at PriceWaterhouseCoopers now. Minaz is an accountant so they got along famously, even as Minaz explained to people that Sung was gay and looking for a boyfriend. Ya, hilarious, as long as you're not on the receiving end of his 'humor'. We eventually made it home without getting into a fight or going to jail, which was a bit of luck.


Minaz and Sung...old buds.

Saturday night was 꾼 then 노래방/noraebang (singing room/Korea's karaoke) where I did my infamous rendition of Smashing Pumpkin's 1979 and Bunker again. Sunday I was pretty dead, but Minaz still went out during the day. We had Chinese food at night and he got a pic with 2 of the owner's kids who were these (got to get that from him to post) and the owner gave him an apple...which is 25c in Canada but here they can be $1-2 each. Man, this guy gets all the breaks.


Ah, finally....he's asleep!

Time to go to work...more later.

$1 Stores; 1,000 Won Stores; 100 Yen Stores

Oh ya, I forgot about this picture in my camera. You know those Dollar Stores where everything is $1 or so? Well, in typical airport/duty free fashion here is Vancouver Airport's version...but the item's ain't priced at a dollar, that's for sure.


Vancouver Airport's Answer to the Dollar Store.

In Korean news, the Japanese version (100 yes store) chain, Daiso, is expanding to Korea with a flagship store in Myoungdong and 2-3 others planned. (Over here they will be called 1,000 won stores, of course.)

I'm not sure how well 1,000 won stores can do here as competitors line the streets in Seoul, literally. There are little stalls set up all over the place (like in Yeouido, Namdaemoon, Dongdaemoon, Insa-Dong, Sinchon, Hannam-Dong...) and some sellers even go so far as to simply stop their truck, unload their products on the sidewalk and wait for the foot-traffic to beat a path to their 'store'.

On an unrelated topic, here's a crazy little site with interesting insights into British culture: Channel 118 and the 118 Show.

I'll take pot-pourri for $500, Alex.

I've been reading a lot lately...got a few things to update you on (as well as my entertaining commentary).

#1: According to researchers (article, another one) kimchi has some sort of health-enhancing/protecting qualities. When SARS was making the rounds in Asia and the world Koreans were very proud to say that not one confirmed case was found within its borders (although I think that was disputed)--the main reason: kimchi fought off the virus. Crazy as it sounds, that it common knowledge here. Well, maybe they were right. Seems scientists at the prestigious Seoul National University (Korea's Harvard) have isolated a chemical in kimchi that is safe and can ward of food poisoning. (This is a good thing, cuz I've had a bout of it while I was here...and man did it knock me out!)

#2: Sony has pushed the envelope again; they developed a SEVEN megapixel camera and it likely won't be long before we can get 7mp phonecams here.

#3: Credit card firms are looking for ways to back-fill their incredible losses from the loose credit binge of a couple of years ago, so they are going after their clients (the stores, specifically discounters like E-mart, a part of the Samsung/Shinsegae empire) for additional fees. The stores are hopping-mad. You may know, credit cards make money off of interest charges and foreign exchange trading (when you buy something in Korea with a USD card they charge you a rate above the going rate for won when they bill your card in USD) and also from the retailers. Usually it's about 1-2% (American Express had a reputation for having the highest fees, at about 2.5%) and that's where the local cards (BC Card and KB Card) decided to make some extra dough.

#4: Korea has been advised by The Economist magazine to revalue its currency. It appears that 10,000 won per 8.70USD is not a good idea in the global economy. Also, Shinhan Bank is starting a pilot project to allow ATMs to print/spit out 1,000,000 won (870USD) checks for those who want to walk around with one or two pieces of paper instead of 10-20.

#5: It's official: money wins out over love. Looks like the (Korean) kids of today think that wealth is more important than love. Go figure.

#6: Everything in Korea is extreme...including golf. Check this out: North Jeolla provincial government has just announced plans to build a 540 (yes, five hundred forty) hole golf course! That's 30 set of 18 links in one massive parcel! (I'm usually not prone to exclamation points, but this is too much!!!)

#7: Minaz is getting used to this place. We had dinner with my firm's CEO and then Minaz and I made our way to Itaewon where he did his sleuthing (he calls it networking). Basically he asks everyone where the party is. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't (such as in the picture below when these gals walked away in mid-sentence...haha!).


Minaz chatting up the girls in Itaewon.

In Helios we met a funny guy named Jay. He was like 6'4" and a Taekwondo dude. He had some severe ebonics goin' on...but he figured he knew me so I was safe from his ball-breaking...Minaz was not (haha!). Minaz made the mistake of asking what he does in Korea and his reply was, "Now you see that? You just opened yourself up for one. If my boys from [New] Jersey were here they woulda pumped you fulla lead, stolen your shoes and screwed ya." (He didn't say 'screwed', but you get the idea.) A pretty funny guy.

Stay tuned for more exciting info.

Interacting with Koreans

Minaz and I went out last night. He's here for a week and really wants to see everything before he goes to the Philippines and Thailand...but he'll be back for another 2 weeks after that. Anyways, he really, really wanted to go to 홍대/HongDae (area near Hong-Ik University known for its bars and teeny-bopper/student crowd). Well, I had arranged for a bud of mine that lives and works in Yeouido (이동준/Dong-Jun Lee or "Dong-Jun" or "DJ") to hang with us for a bit. We had a 갈비/kalbi dinner across from my place and things started rolling.

I should back up, though. There are a few things about Korean culture that you may not be up to speed on. One is that younger people should always defer to older people. Even one year younger (as Minaz is with me) is enough. DJ is a little bit younger than me (like 4 months) but we're in the same year so we're technically equals. DJ and I can, according to old-school Korean mores, be friends. Minaz and I can also, but there is always that one year gap. (My other bud Jung-Su and I are from the same year too...same thing applies. My juniors at work can be close, but we are still different.) All this is changing, but it's still very prevalent here. In Canada everyone is pretty much equal, but here (and what DJ and I are used to) this is not the case.

Ok, so back to my story...Minaz wanted to have some fun/drink so he was toasting with soju and insisting we down it. That's no problem for me...but after 5-6 shots I like to slow it down a bit. He, however, wanted to go for the gold and really chastised us for not doing it in 'one-shot'. Well, as a younger person he really can't do that. We can do it to him, and he should comply, but he can't do it to us...at least not as persistently as he did. "Hey, why don't you keep up? You're drinking like a girl," are not things you want to say to your senior without some special permission...and not 3-4 times. Minaz also started talking with the girls at the next table (something that Koreans pretty much never do) and they were curious but basically scared of/timid with him. I've seen that look; it's like a kid and a fire...stareing at it but can't touch it.

Anyways, DJ and I kinda shook it off as Minaz is new to Korea. It happens all the time, actually. Most foreigners come here and see all the positives but don't know or want to follow the rules (myself included) but eventually we all learn to do as much as we can to fit in. At the end of the meal I paid, and Minaz tried to give me money...another no-no. If anything, he should just pay for a comparable meal later; Koreans rarely go Dutch.

Next stop was The Outsider bar, just down the street and in DJ's building. Now, I've been there a few times with clients and my juniors from work and friends so I know many of the staff...but Minaz wanted more. He went up to groups of people at the bars an introduced himself and all that. DJ and I just looked at each other thinking, "What is this guy doing?" A junior can't just leave 2 seniors and do what he wants, he should be with us...and especially if he's just talking to strangers. Man, even in Canada that's pretty out there.


Minaz chatting up everyone in The Outsider (camera phone pretty brutal with distances).

After a while he started to get on the "let's go to HongDae" thing...but I knew that DJ didn't have the energy to go there...and frankly neither did I (um, we worked all day). We thought it was pretty clear..heck there's plenty of time to see it and how jumping can it be on a Wednesday? We left DJ there to blow some of my chips on roulette (not real money, but play$ from the bar) and headed to HongDae. I had to bow out early as I was getting pretty wiped...but Minaz was there for quite a while longer. (He's been all over and knew what to say to the cabbie).

We'll probably be out again tonight, but I've already got plans laid out for us for the weekend, so I'll save myself for that rather than going out til sunrise on a weeknight.

I'd love to see your comments on this (Koreans, foreigners, newbies to Korea) and know what you think of this. Am I hyper-sensitive to this? Am I too Korean now? Should I just let it go?