Nathan Goes to Korea

North Korea's at it again...

2009-05-25T05:13:00.000-07:00

North Korea once again defies international warnings with its underground nuclear weapons testing. The US Geological Survey said a 4.7-magnitude quake was detected at 0054 GMT, 10km (six miles) underground. Russian News quoted it as being between 10-20 kiloton, significantly more powerful than the 2006 tests (BBC).

This time they've managed to piss off China, in addition to the predictable responses from the US, South Korea, and Japan.

Former Korean President Commits suicide

2009-05-23T02:18:00.000-07:00

Former president Roh commit suicide today, leaping behind his mountain home. He was known for his pro-North Korean stance. He grew up in a poor family, self studying for the bar exam without a college education. Roh received recent criticism for the economy and was undergoing an investigation for accepting bribes. He apologized to the Korean people, "I have no face to show to the people. I am sorry for disappointing you". It's worth mentioning that his platform was based on anti-corruption and that it appears that it was his family, not he, who accepted the money totaling $6mil.

This is an unfortunate tragedy for a man so accomplished, who has done so much for his country. May our flags fly at half mast to honor the president.

http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/world/former-korean-president-in-suicide-411972.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30894701/
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/05/22/roh.dead/

Bali Airport Lounge Access

2009-05-19T09:30:00.000-07:00

Hopefully this is my last Bali experience in Bali. I'm typing this entry on my laptop from a free Wifi connection at the airport lounge. It's nice here. Not that nice, though.

Right after we cleared customs there were people advertising the executive lounge with signs. 100,000 rupia/person for those without the privilege of business class tickets. Heck, we have 3 hours to burn - $10 each seems like nothing. A quick investigation of my pockets revealed what I already knew - about $60 in Korean Won, $2 US, and no more Rupiah. My new best friend, who we'll refer to as "Bob", assured me that it wasn't a problem that they didn't accept credit cards - there was a money changer nearby. Besides, they accept dollars or rupiah. Unlike every other world currency, the Won rate was printed on a laminated sheet of paper. Needless to say, they wanted in excess of $50 in Won for $20 in Rupiah. Yeah, right!

No problem still, Bob maintains. He'll escort me to the ATM machine then the lounge. Way too trusting, I left my bags with Katie. The first red flag was going through customs in the wrong direction. Bob takes me to a customs official and they chat in the local tongue. He asks for my passport, assuring me that I'll get it back on the way in. OK, fair enough, I have my boarding pass and government issued ID.

We walk down the stairs to the general international deparature section of the airport. Bob points outside and says the "ATM's there". What!?!? I ask if he's going with me, to which he responds, "No". A quick glace at the seemingly hour long line through security is enough for me to bail - the lounge isn't worth that much.

Bob senses my discomfort and introduces me to another airport security guard - his "friend" after a few Indonesian words. This particular official is guarding a locked glass exit door where he could obviously let passengers circumvent the metal detectors and X-ray systems. Bad juju. Bob assures me that it won't be a problem to get back in. I remain confused, staring at the line of passengers with their luggage. We go over the plan - come back to this door. The security guard will escort me to the front of the line. Just give him a little money. Aghh...the light clicks in my head.

I exit the airport with my boarding pass but no passport and a wallet with no money. The ATM eating Katie's Korean card looms in the back of my mind. Eventually, I get $25 in Rupies. I slip the guard 50k under my boarding pass - not so smooth. The amount is high, but I didn't feel like taking my chances. True to his word, he takes me right to the front of the line. Bob awaits on the other end of the metal detector. Luckily, I have no bags to X-Ray.

The rest is history. I got my passport back without any payoffs. We got in the lounge without event. Katie did notice a credit card machine before falling asleep on the couch.

Bali - Last day

2009-05-18T21:06:00.000-07:00

There's always enough hand made quality souvenirs in Bali. It's entertaining to watch the artists at their crafts before buying gifts. In this case she was working near the pool at the Hyatt.
We ended the vacation with a snorkeling trip off a glass bottom boat. I didn't end up doing any SCUBA diving, but that's just fine.

There were lots of colorful tropical fish, starfish, and a nasty eel to watch.

That evening we saw a "fire dance" show near a temple with an incredible ocean view.
The monkeys there were a bit more aggressive. They'd steal tourist's glasses, sometimes selling them back for fruit.

Bungy Jumping In Bali

2009-05-18T08:30:00.001-07:00

My second AJ Hackett Bungy site. As cool as it was jumping at sunset and night, it may have been better to jump a few hours earlier for the pictures to turn out.

The first jump was their "traditional" by the ankles. Frightening, as usual.

The second jump was with a harness, which allows you to do more silly things. I ran off the edge with the intention of doing a few back flips, but pretty much wussed out after about a half of a flip.

Third jump was a "pedal bike". They put me in this black leather Evil Knievel suit. Riding off the edge was a lot more intimidating than I'd have guessed. They attached the bicycle to the bungy cord as well. Unfortunately, my safety line got caught in the front fork of the bike early on the fall. The result - I was hanging upside down under the bike. Oh well, still fun. Safe? I hope so.

I should have done the "motor bike". You ride a motorized scooter down a ramp then off the edge of the tower. I can only imagine...

The highlight was my tandem jump with Katie. I think she wanted to be talked into it - it didn't take much. They attached us both by our ankles and off we were!

Bali Day 4 - Adventure Sports!

2009-05-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

Today we moved hotels to the Bali Hyatt, which is amazing, by the way.

Kate was going to do a wakeboarding lesson, but we decided against it. It was a little windy and the ocean was rough. I got a chance to play behind the boat. Our host managed to do a pretty impressive job considering the fact that it was the worst board I've ever seen. Instead of boots, the bindings resembled the front of sandals. He moved like an experienced surfer and was able to do some jumps and 180s.

I got a little air, but ended up falling too often. One time my feet came out of the bindings while I was still in the air! I blame the silly helmet they made me wear.

We rented a Jet Ski at the same beach that offered the wakeboarding. It was a pretty good time. We managed to throw ourselves off the vehicle a few times.

I got a chance to play a little ping pong with a Russian Woman who must have played in the 1974 Olympics - she was pretty good.

Monkeys!

2009-05-16T19:29:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the Monkey Forest and Monkey Temple in Ubud. It was pretty fan-tastic! The pictures speak for themselves.

I did get scammed by a local (right), but it was worth it. After buying bananas to feed the monkeys, he sold us some overpriced bags of lychee fruits. The monkeys went nuts over these! They would literally climb all over you until you handed over their prize. Then they'd often hang out on your shoulders, making a mess on your clothes.

The guy sold me "his artwork", which was cool and hand made, but not likely by him. $20 later he was long gone. I saw similar pieces in the nearby market for cheap, cheap that afternoon. Oh well. He did show us around like he owned the place.

According to our guide, there were 450 monkeys there. It was pretty amazing having so many running wild.

Later that afternoon we did a whole lot of shopping. When it started raining hard we sat down to eat at the first place we saw. It was fantastic!

Day 3 - Evening

2009-05-15T20:07:00.000-07:00

On our way downtown we stopped at a fabric store. I walked out with a cotton shirt that has pineapple fiber interwoven and Katie got this hand woven silk piece that changes colors as it moves and in the light. We vowed not to spend any more money and kept moving!

This picture screams Bali! A tourist van is blocking the entire road. The scooter waiting for it carries 4 people and a chicken. I missed the picture of a man, a woman, and a TV on a different scooter!

We bought tickets for a traditional Balinese dance. With about 90 minutes to kill we wandered around Ubud. It's crazy there, so much going on...nothing like our little haven. We ended up here for a drink. It was listed in our guide book like all of the other cool places.

The dance was entertaining for a half hour, then we left for dinner. This new Thai place had an amazing ambiance and mediocre food. The restaurant made a call on our behalf and our free shuttle service was there!

Day 3 - Elephants!

2009-05-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

We were up at 7 to go for an elephant tour at 8. A call to the front desk and we had fried rice, fried noodles, fruit, and coffee delivered to our room. Pretty fantastic eating outside with the rice paddy view!

The Elephant tour arranged driver was waiting for us promptly at 8. I didn't expect to see such amazing views during our hour long ride. It was another "drive and shoot" photography moment like yesterday.

We elected for the "long" elephant tour, which included lunch and a ride through town. It was amazing and Marsela was a great sport. We went through the park, which was beautiful, and had several stops where we could get off. We were lucky enough to see a few monkeys, then a local, who might as well have been a monkey, up in the treetops. He was cutting down leaves and coconuts, then made it down rediculously quickly. We stopped at this really cool hut that he built and he gave us coconut milk in a coconut (tasted ok, not sweet). For Marsela, 2 entire coconuts. She would stomp them, lift the pieces with her trunk, then chew out the insides. She even finished our 2 when we were done.

We were greeted by the locals in their village. On the way back we saw a family of ducks and swans in the rice fields. There were the typical families on scooters and even a van with Japanese tourists taking pictures of us!

When we got back Marsela took a dip in the pool and let me ride on her neck! She played a harmonica, which was a neat trick! We purchased 2 fruit baskets to reward her for her hard work. She loved the corn and pineapples!

After that we got to play with a baby (5 year old) bear! She was too damned cute - about a hundred pounds of "I want to lick you and climb all over you"!

The baby elephant was much more into the food we had and much less into us. She would also go after your camera and other such non-edible things. I was petting her head and apparently I tickled her. She nearly knocked Kate and I over with one trunk swing. Lots of power there.

Lunch was mediocre then we were off to our hotel. I had big plans for the afternoon, but I promptly conked out.

Day 2 - Coffee, Elephant Cave, and a sunset

2009-05-15T20:04:00.000-07:00

We drove onward to a coffee and cocoa plantation. The free assortment on the left is: Bali Coffee (OK), Ginseng Coffee (delicious - I bought some in the gift shop), Hot Cocoa (tasty), Ginger Tea (not bad), and Lemongrass Tea (Interesting). They had free local tobacco to roll, but I declined. The Ginseng Coffee was really good. I bought some in the gift store to take home.

Next stop, Goa Gajah, the Elephant Cave. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves. The Elephant cave is an old Temple that was rediscovered in the last century. It has nothing to do with Elephants, by the way. Here we were scammed by a local. He approached Katie, giving her a tour of the different things. It was annoying since we only had 20 minutes since we wanted to catch the sunset at the next famous spot, but he had interesting information. The whole thing lasted about 10 minutes. I tipped him 5,000 rupies and he informed me that the going rate was 50k. After going around and around I gave him 20k more and said that was more than fair since we hadn't agreed to anything.

Katie gave in and handed him the cash. I still think that I should have dragged him to the "tourist security guard", paid the guy 10k and explained the situation. Oh well, 5 bucks is no big deal, but it's the principal. Everyone else has been very polite.

Our final "tour" destination was Tanah Lot this famous temple on the beach. It was breathtaking, despite the fact that the sun set behind clouds. It was also a tourist magnet, swarming with travelers with a range of accents. We sipped drinks from coconuts from a restaurant on the cliff. We're told this is one of the reasons to come to Bali. (Unfortunately, my better pics are on the other camera)

We had dinner in a place from the guide book in Ubud. Fresh tuna was on the menu so we ate up - sashimi and a grilled steak. I also had pork spare ribs. Delicious.

Day 2 - to the Volcano...

2009-05-15T16:40:00.000-07:00

Our hotel has everything you need. The free shuttle service will take you anywhere local for free. The restaurant is good, cheap, and always open. The front desk has tour brochures and will arrange everything for you. They have massage facilities and local artists (woodcarvers) work on the compound.

The first day out we had a hotel provided driver take us around the island. We had 8 hours to go wherever we wanted for $60. Better deals are easily found in town.

We made a few stops along the way. The first was a shop with vintage painted signs. The next was a grassy terrace with a view. As soon as we stepped out we were covered with locals who inundated us with their wares. They literally put their stuff in your hands and all rapidly yelled numbers. It made me a little nervous and Katie flipped out - it was worse than China she claims. Their other trick was to say something like "1 dollar" or, equivalently, "10,000 rupies" with something like chopsticks in a holder or a chess set, referring to 1 item. After awhile you get used to walking past and ignoring them.

On the way to our first real stop, a volcano, we were stopped by the police. Our driver got out, handed him a few bills, and we were on our way. There were similar payoffs every place we parked and at the main entrance to the volcano. We experienced an interesting aspect of Balinese tourist culture 10-20 cents at a time.

We enjoyed an Indonesian buffet outside, overlooking a vast panorama that included the ocean, volcano, and green shrubbery growing around the black magma from the last eruption. You can hike the mountain. We chose to eat lunch, take some pictures, and move on.

Bali - Day 1

2009-05-13T19:32:00.000-07:00

The flight wasn't bad - under six hours and we each had 2 seats to ourselves! Katie was on the ball. We had a driver waiting at the airport to take us to to our hotel. Great service for after midnight. The arrival was a bit odd, but not as bad as flying into Narita (Tokyo) and Incheon (Seoul) had been the week prior. We had to walk through this decontamination contraption that sprayed scented mist on you, giving your hands a special higher dosage.

On the left is the outdoor hotel "reception" area and pool. The place is fantastic! $55/night gets you a cottage complete with an outdoor bathroom and private balcony with an amazing view of the rice paddies. We had fried rice, noodles, and a fruit spread for breakfast - complementary and the best I've had!
On the left is about $500 in funny money - Indonesian Rupees with bills ranging from 1,000 to 100,000. They should go quite a ways. I'm off to get a $10 massage...

note from day 5 - the Rupiah are highly elusive!

Las Vegas!!!!

2009-05-08T17:55:00.000-07:00

What better way to end a vacation than a weekend trip to Sin City! One short Southwest flight and you're dining in Paris - or playing way too much poker at Bellagio, as the case may be.

Some pics from the Miracle Mile shopping area. We got a kick out of trying to imitate the talented acrobat models in the giant advertisements.

I didn't buy anything, but I did try on some cool Tag Huer sunglasses that had a rubber band from race car tires or something like that.

I also missed out on the indoor skydiving experience, machine gun shoot, and the outdoor "man park" where you can play with heavy machinery, demolishing cars on a 10 acre park. :-o maybe next time...

We did check out lots of sweet vintage rides - almost all available for sale!

O was amazing! It was the 3rd time I've seen it, but it was still awesome! We got cheap "bad" balcony seats that turned out to be fantastic!

And, of course, the buffets were something else!

I'll have to make another trip sooner rather than later...

Japan Trip #2

2009-05-02T18:25:00.000-07:00

I really suck! Here are pics from recent Japan trip #2 back in January. I even wrote things to blog about then never got around to it. Now I forget many of the interesting details.

We'll go through a photo tutorial of the quick 4 day trip with my friend Heather.

We started off like nutcases going to the world famous Tokyo Tsukiji Fish Market at 5AM. Tired as we were it felt hard core to fight the rain at such hours!

It was an incredible experience! You feel like you're in a movie, except very much in the way.

It's also a little strange because you almost feel sorry for the poorly dressed, diligent, fish auctioneers who pull their little wooden carts loaded with a fish or two by hand - that is, until you learn that they may have paid $50k for it! My, oh my!

My first Sumo match was interesting enough. My friend didn't think it was "sumo season", but we managed to get tickets.

I always like running around Japan at night. The crowds of people and lit buildings are distinctly Tokyo. It has a different feel from Seoul. Cleaner, lower highrises, yet more activity with similar amounts of over the top lighting.
Tokyo tower was entertaining - I have this thing for heights. The other tower in Roppongi absolutely sucked because it was too windy and rainy to go outside and you couldn't see a thing! Chuck and I went to 4 different towers in Japan (Osaka, Tokyo, Yokohama, and ugh??) on the last trip.

And there was a guy with a monkey outside! Yay!

Some famous, nice temple that was closed! :(

The 4 days came and went quickly, but, truth be told, I was ready to go by the last day. Not like the last 7 day trip where we felt rushed traveling between cities.

crazy Jeju club

2008-09-02T04:58:00.001-07:00

This Jeju nightclub was absurd! It was half Death Star, half Japanese video game - DDR style. This particular one was popular with a relatively older crowd.

The place was lit ridiculously, with automated walls. They kept opening and illuminated in different patterns. They would randomly drop platforms from the ceiling for the DJ and bands. They included a water show. The highlight was the ceiling opening up in 6 sections with bright lights and a foam bubbles.
Their custom was pretty strange. The bouncers would grab random Korean girls, who would kick and scream as they were being led to tables with guys, then sit politely with them. After a minute or two in front of the drink they would thank them and go off back to their table. Then the cycle would start again. No big mystery - everyone played along. Weird!

Jeju Island

2008-09-02T04:44:00.000-07:00

Quick visit to Jeju Island, the "Hawaii" of Korea with my buddy Austin. It was a whirlwind of two day trip that felt more like going through the motions than a real vacation.

Did some ATV riding and skeet shooting - lame picture, but fun.

Excellent seafood buffet. Those yellow jet boats were out of order.

The maze wasn't too hard. Go Kart riding at the same place was a lot of fun. Scott and Billy rode their Harley's and took a ferry. I missed out on that one bigtime! That picture was in front of the "sex and health" museum.

The plan was to go hiking (right), but it was a bit overcast and we were late. Found out that the view is awesome if you have 4 hours to hike in each direction.

New Bird!!!

2008-08-27T23:14:00.000-07:00

Kip and Lafawnduh added a new member to the Family. Maybe Tina - if it's a girl... I've been worrying for the last few weeks because I used to see scurrying, chirps, and movement in the box, but it's been pretty quiet lately. I've been providing extra food and nesting material, but I haven't been able to tell what's going on. Lafawnduh viciously blocks the box with her whole body and pecks when I get near. Today I lured her away with a treat and got a picture of the little guy. Its head looks nearly full grown with a tiny body - gray and brown, but looks like it will be the same colors as its parents. Didn't want to use the flash - the chick's supercute!

Blog update

2008-08-27T22:28:00.000-07:00

Haven't cleared the digital camera for awhile - here are a few pics that go with earlier posts:

Top level are from Mudfest. I love the truck with all the bottles pushing its way through the crowd.

Next are from President Bush-ie's visit. That was right in front of my building. The light on the right and its twin on the left were kept on for a few hours - throwing all kinds of heat at us.

Another pic of the president from behind. On the right's my over the top custom leather riding suit, complete with mesh lining, fake patches, and integrated protective pads. Amazing what kind of custom work you can get done for $420.

Here are a few pics prior to the Jump at Maeson-Ri. They hooked me and another Navy guy up with 3 chutes yesterday! Everyone else only jumped one. It was outrageous. We jumped in the 2nd, 5th, and 7th(last) balloon runs! Shortly after hitting the ground we grabbed another parachute, got rigged up and checked, then back up again. I still can't land exactly where I want, but I'm starting to get a feel for steering with the toggles! Next week will be big. It'll be a Friendship jump with our Korean counterparts. So I'll get a chance to present a set of my wings to one of them and recieve Korean ones. Not only that, but my first Helicopter jump (CH-47) and my 10th, earning my gold Navy and Marine Corps parachutist.

Cherry Jump!

2008-08-24T01:06:00.000-07:00

My first scheduled jump from a CH-47 Chinook was canceled due to weather - it's still Monsoon season here. Lucky for me the balloon jump still happened. You go up in a small blimp-looking balloon that's tethered to a wench on the ground. The "gondola", a small, rickety, metal platform with vinyl siding takes up 4 American jumpers and our Korean jumpmaster - I'm told it's good for 6 Koreans. It's very different from any other platform we jump. Instead of a fast mass exit from a loud and fast moving aircraft, you step off the edge of the calm balloon one at a time, rocking the gondola for everyone else. Instead of a series of well rehearsed, exact commands and responses, our Korean host moved the chain out of the way and waved his hand - not unlike waiting in line for a carnival ride.

Being outside of a training command was a welcome change. The process of getting suited up and inspected, and the pre-brief and practice were a piece of cake. The controllable toggles and beautiful site added a nice touch.

Unfortunately my detachment sergeant wasn't available for my first jump. I missed the opportunity to be properly indoctrinated. He had cherry pies for each pocket in my cargo pants.

Presidential Visit

2008-08-22T20:00:00.000-07:00

I was invited to see the President speak. Although we filled the gym with what must have been close to 1000 spectators, space was available. Based on OEF/OIF participation, I was selected as one of ten from our command to sit directly behind him in the bleachers. I didn't get any good pictures so I used a few that I found online.

His speech was interesting enough, the event motivational. It was entertaining to see the level of attention that went into every minute detail - secret service, water carefully placed at the last moment, labels on the ground for where he and the generals stood.

There's a lot going on with the US and Korea in the coming years. It'll be interesting to see which direction it goes. Kapchi Kapchida!

North Korea - Hotel of Doom!

2008-07-18T03:43:00.000-07:00

I get a kick when North Korea decides to rattle it's sword or show off to the rest of the world. It blows my mind every time I read/learn more about them. For example, the part about installing antennas even though NK citizens aren't allowed to have/use cell phones. And the propaganda.

Be sure to take a DMZ tour if you come to Korea. Interesting stuff that will hopefully be over in coming years.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080717/lf_nm_life/korea_north_hotel_dc

Boryeong Mud Festival

2008-07-13T18:13:00.000-07:00

Going to the Mud Festival was a last minute decision that turned out to be a lot of fun! We took a 2 hour bus ride to the little beach town that houses the annual event. They truck in tons of nasty mineral rich beauty mud. The outdoor event brings in about 1.5 million people during the one week period! They had local live bands, mud slides, mud wrestling, vendors, and lots of other local activities. Good fun!

Tasty local food

2008-07-10T17:06:00.001-07:00

My friend came back from a local vacation in Korea. Among his awesome nature pictures with his family was this. Click the image for the full effect. Apparently that long wormy looking one is a Hagfish, which enters a Cod via the Anus and eats it from the inside out. It was dead, but that didn't keep it from squirming when it first came out on the plate. Gross! He told me about those other items on the plate - none sounded much better.

Korean food has been growing on me, but I've yet to run across something like that!

4th of July madness

2008-07-05T07:30:00.000-07:00

Had to make the most of my last day home. I'd just come back from visiting Emma in Napa. A few hours of napping, then off. I managed to crash three different parties in separate areas! Good to see everyone. I'm ready to be back home!

Tahoe with the family

2008-07-05T07:19:00.000-07:00

Typical family vacation for us - we were back home approximately 27 hours after departing. It's tough to get us all together at once!

It was a fun trip, though. Got a chance to lounge around the first day, enjoy a few nice meals, then went on a mini-hike at Emerald Bay.

Beautiful scenery at Tahoe! It was only a mile down, but felt like more on the way up!

A day in the city

2008-06-30T08:28:00.000-07:00

Today we went to San Francisco to visit a few relatives. The weather was nice and, thanks to a certain GPS FM receiver, traffic wasn't bad. Always good to visit family and eat well. Pictured on the right is a woman with a fur coat riding a moped, complete with shopping bag dangling off the handlebars. A front picture would have done it justice.

Ducati Woes...

2008-06-29T21:18:00.000-07:00

Even though my bro's been firing it up occasionally, my Ducati battery died in storage. So I won't get a chance to ride my baby this week :-(. Actually, that makes two dead motorcycles since I did the same thing with my BMW in Seoul. Oh well - maybe next time.

It's nice to drive my Honda Accord again. My mom's been taking good care of it.

Wakeboarding in Sacramento

2008-06-29T20:42:00.000-07:00

Kept up the old tradition of going wakeboarding with Glenn. Always begins at about 11:00 on a Sunday morning - the routine has been the same as long as I can remember, even though I only make it once a year these days. We waterski and wakeboard down river to the Freeport Inn for an outstanding brunch then fill ourselves with a huge plate of fries and their famous "Mile High Mud Pie" - today they were out so we settled for the "Banana something or another".

It was good to get on the river again with the family. I felt pretty good on the wakeboard, getting some decent air. Missed out on the waterskii pictures though.

That's me on the left (jumping left) and my Goofy little Bro' jumping right.

Done at last with Airborne School

2008-06-29T08:07:00.000-07:00

Airborne school has got to be the longest short school I've ever been to. With more time I would have blogged about the experience as I went through it. Descriptions and attitude would have been very different from day to day.

That said, I safely completed my first five jumps to earn my basic parachutist wings. I'm now a Five Jump Chump, looking forward to knocking a few more out at my unit. C-130 and C-17 jumps provide totally different experiences. The older prop driven 130s are crammed inside and require a short exit jump. Its prop blast, or jetstream is noticeably hot and doesn't throw you too bad. The C-17 may not look like much, but that beast has power. Guess I didn't really believe the C-17 pilot that I used to do Mui Thai with in Charleston. Those guys would hold the brakes and rev the 4 jet engines. Takeoff felt like a quarter mile launch followed by a hard bank followed by a leveling off maneuver that felt like a roller coaster. That ended up being more thrilling than the jump. A few of the girls in my "stick" (jump group of 30) made hillarious faces and complained about how horrible the 17 was - I loved it.

The jumps were relatively uneventful, as they should be. The night jump in combat gear was particularly fun.

Hot 'lanta

2008-06-25T07:10:00.000-07:00

Fort Benning is in Columbus. This is a picture from the part of town I'm staying. The good news is that my friend Chuck flew in to Atlanta to come visit me for the weekend - what a good guy! Neither of us had been around the city much.

The Olympic Park area was very nice. I had no idea that there were so many attractions in such a small area. It was pretty much a zoo of people.

We went to the aquarium first, only to find that our tickets were could only be purchased several hours out. No worries, there was a lot to see in the adjacent park and CNN building. The aquarium was interesting, but hardly the "best in the world". They did a nice job with 5 major themed areas and the props that surrounded the tanks.

Next we walked next door to the "World of Coca Cola". They didn't advertise it, but military got free admittance - sweet! I enjoyed all the old authentic Coke advertising that they had on display. The bulk of the exhibit was informative, but pretty dry.

Their grand finale was lots of fun, albeit sickening. They gave you a plastic cup and had 64 different taps of drinks from around the world. Surprisingly, most of the Asian ones weren't that bad - I'd had several already. There were a few served in Europe and South America that were disgusting! One in particular from Italy - the name escapes me - was atrocious. It was like a foul soda version of grapefruit juice that burned your throat with a disgusting aftertaste. Ughh! I really liked some of the exotic fruit Fantas.

A little more wandering around the Olympic Park area, then on to a Braves game. There were other things to do, but we'd pretty much filled our Saturday.

That night we went to a Braves Games. Chuck really wanted to go to a baseball game in Asia. We couldn't find one in Korea and missed our chance in Tokyo - our stop at the Kirin Beer factory tour on the way back from Yokohama put us back too late.

The game was pretty eventful. The middle was pretty slow, but the Braves made an exciting comeback against the Mariners in the 9th.

Chuck's one of those guys who can find a historic site, monument, or landmark anywhere. I had never heard of Stone Mountain Park, but he insisted on going before making it back to the airport. I was a little nervous because I had to be back for "manifest" or supposedly I wouldn't be able to jump and graduate.

Take a pool of magma, wait a couple hundred million years, then a few more for erosion and you get Stone Mountain. Eventually some dude chisels Southern Civil War generals in the side and there you go.

We took the gondola up to the top to enjoy an Italian Ice and a (foggy) view of Atlanta. Chuck and I have had a "Tower" theme to our travels so this was a reasonable substitute. He's afraid of heights, but that didn't stop us from Skydiving in Vegas last August.

Air-borne!

2008-06-14T05:12:00.000-07:00

Just finished my first week at beautiful Fort Benning. Airborne school isn't easy, but it isn't hard either. For me the toughest part is being up at 3:45 and standing around all day in the heat. Falling in the gravel pit and the other trainers are nothing but fun. PT is challenging, but doable - we get a little break because they can't run us more than 4 miles during the summer months. The only thing that sucks are the fire ants in the grass - the "black hats" don't do it on purpose, but there's only so many places you can have a few hundred guys do pushups at a time. Speaking of the "black hats", our instructors, they aren't bad at all - much more lenient than I expected. Every time I hear the recent Army boot camp grads and cadets (college students) complain about them I can shake my head - they should try Marine gunny drill instructors. There's no comparison. I get the feeling the Marine I march behind would prefer that madness. The 6'4" recon officer is built like Robo-cop and all Hoo-Rah. He seems to think this is an easy joke of a course - just a prereq for HALO and HAHO. It's pretty funny to see the kids talk about him - they're scared of the guy. He's a scary dude.

So what do we do? Run a lot. Wait. Receive instruction. Wait. Practice drills. Wait. March a lot. Wait. PT. Wait. Yell "Airborne" a lot. Wait. "Standing by to stand by". I'd say we get a good 3-4 hours of instruction/training during our 13 hour days. I'm having a good time, though.

The actual training is great. PLF - parachute landing fall, how we're going to hit the ground. How you put on your equipment, mass exits from a high speed aircraft, body positioning, what you check for, what to do when you land - it's all good stuff. On the left is a 34' tower trainer to practice exit techniques. Good fun, I tell you! On the right is a 250' tower that I hope to get to try.

I can't fault the instruction - our trainers are great. It's just that getting 500 people ready takes time. I guess I shouldn't be amazed that most of the same small group of guys who had to be pushed out of the tower or couldn't hold a body position were the same ones that couldn't do PLFs to save their lives. We get good instruction and repetition. It really only takes a little bit of coordination and athleticism. Surprisingly, by the end of the day Friday even the gimpies had figured it out - right on schedule. I guess the instructors will morph these guys into airborne jumpers. Two weeks to go. I can't wait!

My first soccer game

2008-06-08T10:24:00.000-07:00

My first professional soccer game and it's in Korea. It was a blast! The locals really get into the action. Pictures to follow...

Mad Cow Craze

2008-06-08T08:22:00.000-07:00

All those other protests I witnessed were nothing compared to the recent ones. Forty thousand Koreans took to the streets of Seoul in protest of US beef imports. They're not violent compared to an event of similar magnitude in the States, but heck, still pretty wild.

They're worried about mad cow disease, which can be caused by old cows that eat "recycled" feed. So the import agreement was no bones, and after a few incidents of them finding single bone fragments in shipments of hundreds of tons, they want to boycott US beef. I guess they don't mind paying an average of $50/kg of beef - it's not like they have any, well many, cows in Korea. Big enough issue to plummet the approval rating of the new president to below 30% - the same president that won the elections by an unprecedented landslide only last year. Crazy times!

May update

2008-05-24T04:17:00.001-07:00

Well, I hand wrote a number of Japan trip blog entries and never typed them up! Oh well, sigh...

The latest is that I'm coming home for a week next month. I'm off to airborne school, then will back for a bit. I sent a huge email to everyone who would care. Shoot me an email if you need the details.

Looking forward to seeing all.

New Zealand trip comes to an end

2008-04-14T03:44:00.000-07:00

I'd say that 11 days was way too short to see both islands of New Zealand, but I'm already itching to return home and to work. The trip was a success - I had an incredible time! Highlights, in semi-chronological order, with scenic drives in between:

1. Wandered Christchurch
2. Bungy Jumped in Queenstown where Gil showed us around
3. Milford Sound scenic bus ride, eco-tour with cruise and a flight back over the mountains
4. Heli-hike Franz Joseph glacier
5. Trout Fishing on Lake Taupo
6. Sky diving over Lake Taupo
7. Partied in Wellington
8. Hot springs and Mud pools of Hells Gate in Rotorua
9. Luging and watched friends Zorb in Rotorua

Then 10. - today drove to Auckland, where Max's brother, Nick, generously provided us a place to stay and a great lamb meal.

I stopped at an ATV tour for an hour. It was raining and the mud was awesome! The course through the steep hills and forest seemed particularly dangerous. Good times!

If I had more time, a few other cool things to do:
1. Sky Tower in Auckland (walk on top, bungy, or restaurant)
2. Scuba dive a wreck
3. Tropical area to the north of Auckland
4. Caving near Rotorua
5. America's Cup Sailing (racing) in Auckland
6. White water rafting
7. Mountain biking
8. Local zoo

They have an incredible amount of other activities from: paintball, motorsports, boating, hiking, horseback riding - you name it.

Hells Gate and Rotorua

2008-04-13T02:51:00.000-07:00

Hells Gate, Rotorua - perhaps the stinkiest natural landscape I've experienced. The hot springs and mud pools were shades of gray and brown. They emitted a terrible sulferous odor, yet the area was interesting. It felt like an ominous movie scene waiting for the Boogie Monster to jump out or another planet from Star Trek. After walking the trail we had a mud bath and relaxed in sulferous spas. Probably nicer in the company of a woman, but had a good time anyway.

Rotorua was a shady place at night. Whereas wandering other locations, including the populated capital of Welli, felt entirely safe, last night was more like Oakland or Compton. Shortly after being solicited drugs, I was chatting with a drunk local who turned out to be a cop. Another local drunk who'd recently been kickout out of the club (the line we were waiting in) randomly decited to hit another man I was talking to in the back of the head without provocation. The officer went to talk to him - I followed a few seconds later. By the time I arrived, the officer was on the ground. I helped him up, noting that he was in shock and clearly needed stiches. The troublemaker decided to hit him as well. The rest of the story isn't worth mentioning - needless to say, there had been other incidents and fights that evening.

Zorbing

2008-04-13T02:35:00.000-07:00

In the morning we met up with a group of Americans who happened to have lived in Seoul recently. They went "Zorbing", which is basically rolling down a hill in a giant inflated plastic ball. It looked great, but had to be done wet today due to wind conditions. I wasn't dressed for such activities.

After that we went "luging", which turned out to be a lot of fun. It would be best described as gravity fed go kart racing down a windy paved track. The same ski lifts that bring you back up automatically carry the luges and deposit them on conveyors, bringing them right back to the track - a clever system.

Should have gone with them to see the "World Famous" Sheep show, including a shearing and the Maori cultural dinner. Maybe next time.

Lake Taupo

2008-04-11T19:28:00.000-07:00

Got a short break waiting for my Chicken Tikka Masala and Nan - one of the things I miss living in Seoul. We just finished sky diving over Lake Taupo. We're on our way to Rotorua, the stop back was to get Austin's photos developed - who does that anymore? He had a good reason though, they were underwater pics from snorkeling in Australia.

It was a rough start this morning. They weren't messing around when I asked for my Pad Thai hot last night. Every bite was literally painful. Austin said his stomach was irritated like mine and he only mixed a small forkfull of my noodles into his. In retrospect I'm glad I only finished half of the otherwise tasty dish.

Skydiving was a blast. "Not so scary as exciting" according to our new Welsh friend Ellie, a young recent medical school graduate. Dead on as far as I'm concerned. The view was beautiful. Even at 12,000 feet instead of the more expensive fifteen. The jump "didn't do anything" for Austin, who's now all about the bungy jumping. I'd do it day in and out if I could.

Last night we arrived at Lake Taupo with enough time to charter a fishing trip. We were pretty much the only ones out that evening - a surreal experience. Austin was bouncing off the seats - one too many Red Bulls and he was ready for adrenaline induced adventure. But even he was obviously excited at the thrill of reeling in a Trout. Unfortunately, we both reeled in fish that below the 18" minimum - we were to go hungry for the night. We also both missed our first bites! The guide said we were unlucky, but I donno.

Thursday 10th heli-hike a glacier

2008-04-10T23:44:00.000-07:00

(Pics to follow) for now check out 07APR08, 09APR08, and 10APR08 pictures. Still haven't even touched the pics Austin took ;-0

Foo foo coffee for breakfast and we're off! The "helihike" didn't start until 10AM, but our short flight would put us well above the full day hike on the Franz Joseph Glacier. The tour was amazing! We flew close to the mountains, over a waterfall and circled the snow basin from above. This is one of three major tropical glaciers residing at sea level in the world - another in New Zealand and the third in Chile. The strange thing was how warm it was outside. More snow falls in the basin than melts, which compresses the ice below, forcing slow movement and an enormous glacier that's thaw resilient.

Wandering the glacier felt like a giant playground. The boots and ice spikes provided were incredible. Provided that you remember to keep your knees bent and ALWAYS point your toes forward, you could traverse almost anything - up or down! The guide would carve steps in the ice at difficult spots for the senior members of our group. I made my own steeper detours and Austin was usually nowhere to be found. Admittedly, it was intimidating to go down the steeper sections, but they would make it harder on themselves by sidestepping.

The other half of the day was spent on the road. We cut westward then drove up the coast. It surprised me how varied the terrain was over so short a distance. We'd stop at woodland forrest areas with blue waters and rinky bridges, jungles right out of Jurassic Park with glacier views, and beautiful lakes and ocean beaches.

The roads in the South Island are windy, single lane highways that often carve steep paths through the mountains. Bridges that share a single lane for both directions aren't uncommon. I felt like a wannabe rally car driver - not exactly drifting, but enjoying speed through the windies. Our trusty rental manual transmission Corolla, Ada, taught me a thing or two. Austin had never driven stick before, nor had he much experience in those conditions. After a little practice and instruction he wasn't freaking me out nearly so often!

We stayed at a cheap backpackers lodge that, despite the fancy French name, felt like a haunted house and reminded me of the Jail House.

Back on the road Thursday morning toward the Wellington Ferry. We managed to move our booking forward from 10PM to 2. This leg of the trip was mostly grassland surrounded by mountains, highlighted by trees changing colors to oranges and yellows. We also drove through another famous wine country and lots of livestock: Deer, cows, and above all, sheep.

Now I'm borrowing power for my laptop from the Ferry. Listening to my ipod in a lounge seat that's perched right in front of a center window above the bow - best in the house as far as I'm concerned.

Sunday in Milford Sound

2008-04-07T03:22:00.000-07:00

We're the little bus in the back (reminded me of a certain Maui Princess versus Gilligan's Island dive trip)

Guide had lots of good info...

a weird land bird that can't protect itself from mammals

Kea - mountain parrot that terrorizes visitors and locals alike - in a good way. Apparently won intelligence competition recently. They found that octopuses?? are very smart, dolphins not so much - just a lot of learned behavior, and the Kea is top dog. Smarter than monkeys according to our guide.

Mirror lake was cool.

Lunch in the bus (left) - our adventure guide (right). He kinda reminded me of the Crocodile Hunter.

Lots of cool short walk paths along the way.

More tops on the bus trip to Milford Sound.

Our Milford Sound vessel.

Mineral deposits in the rock. Copper and Cobalt, I believe.

Some Seals and lots of rainbows and waterfalls.

More Milford Sound cruise pics.

A 35 minute flight to avoid the 5 hour bus ride home. Someone else canceled so we got a discount. Apparently rare. I got to be the co-pilot.

Flying above the clouds on the way back - quite a site.

In the air over Queenstown

We landed on a grass "runway" next to a real runway.

Bungy pics I owe

2008-04-07T03:05:00.000-07:00

Bungy pics from yesterday. Lots of great action today. Don't think I'll have time to provide an update until later though :-(

Salute's for you MAJ C - looked a bit retarded since I thought the idea was to face the video camera below, not the hidden cam.

Queenstown with Gilbert

2008-04-06T05:50:00.000-07:00

This first picture, our venison meal from a local brewery was at the end of the day. I'd like to put out a sincere thank you to my fine host! We even got through most of the day without going on about PLCs and SCADA systems! If ever you're in Seoul or America - I'd feel priviledged to show you around.

Today we slept in. Then I woke up confused about the time. It was daylight savings so we set the clock back an hour. That's right - back! It was almost a month ago when the US set their clocks forward. (Mar 9th as opposed to Apr 6th). Well, that had to do with an early full moon, among other things, and New Zealanders also respect the "spring forward, fall back" mnemonic. It's just that fall - autumn - begins in April in the Southern Hemisphere. And in Korea we don't recognize daylight savings.

It was a good day today. Gilbert from the PLCs.net forum drove me around the spots in Queenstown. It's amazing what an "OT: been to New Zealand" post can get you! He first took us to a site overlooking a narrow stream/river where they do Jet Boat rides. I was interested, but Austin had his sights set elsewhere. Those crazy guys come inches from rock walls at high speeds. The impressive units can operate in 4 inches of water.

Next, Gilbert took us up a narrow windy road up a steep hill. It was an amazing view that featured many of the areas where we'd been and were going. Hang gliders were launching from there - made me think of my little bro. Queenstown's the "adventure capital" of, well probably the world. The list goes on and on: Sky diving, bungee jumping/swings, luging, gliders, boats, rides, you name it...

After that we went to Arrowhead. It's an old gold mining town that maintains much of its historic roots. It was a fun place to check out and wander. But we got cut short for our Kawaru bungy reservations.

I'm told this was the first commercial bungy site in the world. It's certainly a great location! I have great pictures to post, the usual tourist trap ones - I should be able to download them tomorrow. That's me - pretty hard to tell, though. I do have a DVD copy of the video.

I opted to get wet. Apparently the farther you jump outward the less wet you'll get. The tune changed for Austin after I stayed dry. He was told that he'd pay for me. I doubt it mattered how he went - they made sure he practically dipped down to his waist.

We made a quick stop at a local winery for a taste test. They get fully booked a week in advance for dinner, but we just caught them before closing. It was the first New Zealand wines I'd had. Very good!

Our last stop was Speight's Ale House for dinner (pictured at the top). Aside from being evacuated due to a fire alarm, all went well!

A few last minute things: 1. Great pictures taken everywhere - will have to see separately 2. Sheep greatly outnumber people here 66 million to 4 million 3. lamb gyros/wraps are awesome!

First night in New Zealand at the Jail House

2008-04-06T05:03:00.000-07:00

Promised pictures from the Jail House.

We didn't stay in Christchurch very long. After leaving the airport for our hotel at 5:00PM, the plan was to drive to Queenstown the following morning. More specifically, the plan was to figure out the plan as we went along. The only problem is that the same red flag kept rearing its ugly face. Most people we talked to had been, or were staying for over a month. When I mentioned my 12 days, the next question was always, "Oh, so which island are you visiting? And what area?" followed by a surprised, "well good luck with that..." response to our plan to see it all.

Randomly wandering into a tour place late at night may have been our saving grace. Who would have guessed that tours book in advance? That we might not be able to get a cheap motel room on the weekend on the spot? That the auto ferry that we depended on needed booked tickets that sell out and get more expensive? Or that the numbered highways on the maps whose distance in kilometers weren't great, but will take many hours since they're windy and only run one lane in each direction? So Åda, our booking agent from Sweden, helped us come up with a plan and reservations.

Most of the places were closed so our bookings had to be done in the morning. Here are a few pictures from a central area in Christchurch near Åda's office. It would have been a great place to hang out for a few days.

It's unfortunate that our awesome scenic drive has been watered down to a collage of thumbnails. But I suspect that scenery pictures will only get better with our trip and those photos will be better viewed in a web album. The blue lakes look amazing - due to the rock base instead of soil. New Zealand was formed as a volcano, not broken off of Australia (thanks, Kelly). That hill picture had a rainbow projected on the side of the hill - first time I've seen anything like it. We drove through a flat region at first, then hills through a varied landscape.

I thought "Fish & Chips Chinese Takeaways" sounded great for lunch. Austin decided that it looked like cafeteria food. So after rejecting my first idea of a sit down restaurant on the basis of it taking too long, we ended up a different one. My award winning lamb curry was excellent as were his fish and chips.

NZ, day 1

2008-04-03T21:23:00.000-07:00

The flight wasn't bad. There were enough extra seats to make the 12 hours fly by. I like Korean air, too. Cute, accommodating flight attendants and good food help - I'm especially fond of the Bibimbop.

After arriving in Auckland, I jumped on a domestic flight to Christchurch.

The couple next to me noticed me scribbling activities and scrounging through an absurd sized pile of brochures. They offered enough good advice during that hour long flight to get me on a solid start.

Austin was right at the baggage claim - things were off to a smooth start.

Our rental car is a new, manual transmission Toyota Corolla. Driving on the other side of the street isn't too bad, except some of the crazy left turns and roundabouts. Shifting with my left hand is a bit weird. The worst part is that I keep turning the windshield wipers on instead of activating the turn signal, which is on the right side. Oh, and I feel really stupid! I couldn't figure out how to get the vehicle in reverse, which is left and up besides first! After consulting the manual I "figured out" that you have to hold the shifter skirt up in order to activate it.

We found a "Jailhouse" hotel. It's a trip! We have a bunk bed that's a real converted jail cell. The manager is the "warden" and the place is all done up! The only gotcha is the authentic shared shower (they did put stalls up). More pictures to follow.

Our technology on the go is great too. Austin brought his router and Vonage phone, and I brought my laptop. We just plug in a common area and can make calls to the states and are fully wired! Sweet!

Off to Auckland

2008-04-03T21:17:00.000-07:00

Chillin' in a bus, feet propped up on the luggage rack. I'm gonna blow a huge chunk of leave - it feels great! What am I doing in New Zealand? Where am I going? I donno! I have a rental car reserved in Christchurch that's due 10 days later in Auckland.

I'll meet my friend Austin. All he asked for from Australia, he left a few weeks earlier, was baby wipes. I guess we might camp for a day or two. He plans on showering with baby wipes - I figure there's probably TP in New Zealand. I'm not worried.

My favorite thing lately is Jonathan Coulton. His catchy, geeky tunes have brought magic to this bus ride. Ok, I've wandered far enough. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures.

First day at the range - and second

2008-04-03T21:16:00.001-07:00

We shot at a Republic of Korea base. That's one of their jump (airborne) training towers.

My first range day. Actually, the first time I've operated anything besides my (less than exciting) primary weapon, the Baretta M9. I got to play soldier and train with an M4. It was a great day, we had plenty of ammo to expend! We did things like firing rapid controlled pairs from a safe ready position and run a qualifying round. I didn't qualify, but had an excuse! The idea of a 3 round burst never excited me much, but now I think it's genius - it's pretty easy to control "semi-auto" sets of 3 round bursts - SWEET!

The second day was M9 qualification. An odd thing for me is that I shoot to the left - in pretty tight groups. Trying to guess and compensate for it at 25 yards was puttin' me all over the place. I qualified sharpshooter once and marksman once out of 3 rounds, but it wasn't pretty.

Later we did an unsupported weak arm drill where we fired with our left hand only - gangster style, but not turned. While my grouping wasn't tight, it was pretty evenly spread around the target! Doww! That right handed left eye dominance is out to get me. Next time I'll have to learn to be a lefty!

My first exercise

2008-03-10T03:30:00.000-07:00

Just returned from my first field exercise. I'm told it really wasn't that similar to what the "real Army" does, but this is probably as close as I'll ever come. We slept in big tents - I'm thinking 15-20 men apiece. Each one had 3 hanging lights and a heater slash A/C unit that arguably worked - lukewarm at night, freezing by morning. When we arrived the tents were already set up, I had an assembled folding cot, a Rubbermaid bin, and half of a small portable clothes hangar rack. Not too shabby - it felt like RV camping.

The bathroom was a short walk from my tent. We had toilets and (very) hot water - I swear they must pressurize it to keep it from boiling. If someone was rude enough to flush the toilet without loudly yelling, "Fire in the HOLE!", you'd hear loud angry screaming of everyone in the communal shower - the scalding hot water probably didn't burn you, but it sure felt like it.

Army Chow was significantly better than I expected. Not great by any stretch of the imagination, but I always enjoyed it. Just slightly below a normal military mess hall, which is just slightly below dorm food - but great considering that we were standing up in an alternate location.

We wore body armor, a load bearing vest (I left my canteens), gas mask suit (behind my left thigh), and helmet. The Army issued me an ACU patterned helmet cover that didn't match my uniform. Guess I should have bought a matching one and affixed my name and insignia - whatever. We also carried our primary weapon everywhere. For many it was an M4/M16, I had an M9.

You can tell it wasn't that cold since I didn't bother to put my gloves on for that picture. They're the big bulge in my right pocket. Pictured with me on the left is Gil, my High School wrestling buddy's cousin and coach's nephew. Funny that we should bump into each other like that. He came and kicked my butt a couple times as an assistant coach when I was a senior. I didn't realize that he was stationed at Travis then. We didn't recognize each other until we were chatting halfway through. On the right is Rich, my co-worker. We have a lot of fun in times to come!

The exercise was a really long week. Guess I learned a lot firsthand about how we conduct modern warfare.

There's a picture from the victory party. We were celebrating our win (surprise, surprise) with our Korean counterparts who we'd been working with all week.

I was slow on the camera. I missed the RV that had a bicycle taped on - yes tape, they'd created a web of packing tape to hold it on. This overpacked blue truck was the next car in front of it. They must have been traveling together. I'll never get tired of sights on the roadways.

Pictures here.

Fire in Namdaemun

2008-02-11T06:16:00.001-08:00

This is a huge tragedy for Korea. I have several other posts that I've been meaning to put up, but they'll have to wait. Take a look at the top picture I snapped in the New Years entry - I wish I'd been standing in front of it.

Namdaemun or Sungnyemun gate was a historic landmark in Seoul. Built in 1398, it was the oldest standing wood building. According to the all knowing Wikipedia, it used to guard the city from Tigers. We're talkin' National Treasure Number 1 of Korea!

My friend James was walking his dog when he took these pictures, the first one at 9:33PM on Feb 10th. He described the significance to Koreans as like the Liberty Bell.

1:43 AM, Feb 11th

1:49 AM, Feb 11th

Next day, Feb 11th 6:45PM

Feelin' shady in Itaewon

2008-02-01T01:04:00.000-08:00

I don't know what it is - I just can't get used to this routine. Every month I withdraw a stack of hundreds, this time an even 50. Sometime later I go find a "money lady" out in town. They run currency exchange services out of small buildings in alleys that sport a yellow sign. They have a posted currency exchange rate, but they'll give you a random amount extra if you bring hundreds and ask (or are a regular). The Army run Dragon Hill Lodge will give you about 850 to a dollar if you're a guest. The bank on base is a little better at about 920 now. I got 946 from the money lady today, even given that we just took a big hit from the fed lowering interest rates.

In any event, I'm only a little nervous riding the subway to Itaewon with my wad. Today is pretty convenient, they had three 1 million won notes for me, so I "only" had 173 of the standard 10,000 won notes. I've been stuck with all small bills - you feel like you're carrying a suitcase full of money. An interesting thing is that the 100k and 1mil notes aren't official currency. I think they're issued by banks or something. You typically have to sign the back of them when you pay, sometimes even write your phone number. It's ok to have many signatures.

Once I had won in my backpack it was ok. There's no reason anyone would jump me for funny money. I was stopped by a tailor in front of his shop. Long story short I walk out having committed a negotiated $500 for 2 piece suit, a long cashmere jacket (same price as the suit), and 2 nice collared shirts - all custom made. I've always planned on getting a couple custom suits while I'm here. I've heard guys get them in the low $100 range. At that price I might get a pimp costume made in white or pink. Here it depends more on the material than the labor, weird. I'm also told that Osan has much better prices. Seoul's getting "expensive".

So I'll be getting a car at some point. I've been too indecisive. I've passed up a free one (accidentally) and several nice ones at about $1000 (doww!). It's funny how your standards change with your environment. I keep seeing $500-800 "Hoopties"and thinking that they're overpriced. Might spend up to about $2500 depending on the deal. It's tough, because you can't expect to get nearly anything back on your Korean car. On the other hand, we have American auto manufacturers that will give military members a great deal on new cars overseas. You can drive them here then get them shipped back.

New Years 2008

2008-01-01T04:55:00.000-08:00

New Years 2008 was less eventful than I would have hoped. The video that James showed me from last year made the dense crowds Roman Candle fire was coordinated - after the bell rang that only occurs on the New Year; it looked like AA gunfire from Desert Storm. Then there were "real" (Class A) fireworks overhead. This year there were a lot of candles, but people were lighting them off for well over an hour straight. I'm told the bell (right) rang once at 11:40 and no fireworks. There was an absurd amount of building and tree lighting, an ice skating rink, several bands, and more police officers than I've seen in my life combined. It was cold, but we still ran around and had a good time.

This has little relevance, but I'll mention it anyways. So I bought a computer at the Electronics Mart, a local nice, high end retail building housing many small vendors. After spec'ing out a computer and negotiating the price they were very nice. They gave me an Internet terminal and a cup of coffee to occupy myself while I waited the hour and half for them to build it. Upon completion I was shown that everything worked - the Internet connection, audio, etc, etc. The first thing I did at home was try to boot to a CD. Big problem, though - pushing the button just made a grinding sound. As you can see in the picture, Adashi shoved the DVD drive in behind the cables that connect my sound and USB ports (above) to the motherboard. He apparently installed my English version of XP from a hard drive image. It took longer to decide if I wanted to fix it than actually do so. Then I realize that he DeWalted the nice anodized thumbscrews on the back. Nothing a screwdriver couldn't handle, but disconcerting nonetheless.

An update for close friends and family: I've been busy throughout the holidays. Went to several coworkers places for parties, had a work holiday party, and several other festivities. Guess I've been too lazy to post lately. Been spending too many geeky hours watching The Office, My Name is Earl, and Star Trek.

Seoul Skiing

2008-01-01T04:42:00.000-08:00

Seoul skiing is no Colorado. It's more like Boreal - except that Boreal's man made snow doesn't thaw during the day and freeze at night to create a downhill iceskating rink. It is convenient, though. An hour drive from the city and you're off snowboarding. The first trip was an evening run after work on a Friday. I think it was around 8-12 or so. What I found baffling was the price. $45 for the lift ticket and equipment rental including: board, boots, pants, a jacket, a helmet, and goggles. The guy drove to the resort in a suit at midnight to pick up our gear. The strange thing is that the lift ticket was more than $45 at the resort. I wonder if anyone actually pays that. The rental at the second trip charged $10 to rent a board and boots - then provided us with 25% off coupons for lift tickets that were slightly more than $40...ugh...?

The skiing wasn't great but I had a good time. I was able to trade in my skis for a board so the second trip felt like two. A few weird things worth mentioning:

1. They had "magic carpet" conveyor belts that took beginners up the bunny slopes. Similar ones behind automated gates would help you onto the lift. Especially silly considering that many Korean snowboarders completely remove their boards before getting on the lift. Skiers with poles shouldn't care less.

2. My friend Max skiing on one foot. See the video on youtube here.

3. Food prices - just like at airports, they don't get the whole monopoly thing.

4. Rental places - there must have been literally 10-20 on the way to each resort all providing the exact same service. What are they thinking?

5. Compressed air stations - they have nozzles hooked up to compressed air to blow the snow off your equipment when you finish. Not a bad idea to remove the bulk of the ice from your board. For some reason the Koreans would take forever blowing their equipment until there wasn't any snow left, but it would still be pretty wet.

More pictures here

More Korea

2007-11-11T23:34:00.002-08:00

selling a $3 acorn cracker/eating tool on the subway

I finally figured out how to pop out of the subway station in the right place. Who would have known that the entrances are labeled? It doesn't seem like coming out of a different exit at the right station would make a difference, but you might find yourself a long ways out of your way on the other side of a street that you can't cross. Turns out to be pretty simple - just follow the circled numbers on the signs. My exit, Samgakji, has 12.

I just got back from running errands at E-mart. It's a large mall-ish, department store kind of thing that has a huge grocery store, I-max theater, and restaurants inside. The department store section had 9 stories that housed many separate vendors selling the same thing. If I recall correctly the 3rd floor was all Cameras, lenses, and MP3 players. One floor had laptops, another cell phones, the next - home appliances. Pretty strange.

I also stumbled upon - Carl, get ready - an e-Sports Stadium on the 9th floor of E-mart. It was locked, but appears to be a competitive video gaming arena. I need someone to read the schedule to verify.

More unique things about Korea:

1. Motorcycles are something else here. I think I'll start an album just on the interesting ones. They seem to be protected like pedestrians. In fact, if a cyclist decides not to run a red light, he'll often become a pedestrian and ride on the sidewalk before returning to the street. I'm still looking for pictures of the motorcycle work vehicles - they carry around so much crap. What are those gloves?

2. Protests are common. I already mentioned that they're a national pastime. I've heard that they protest the minor issues - ie, right turns on reds. At first it seems intimidating. Buses of riot police, the single booming response echoing after the megaphone, the cameras. Then you come back an hour later when the cameras are off and see large numbers of retired age men and women sitting on the ground eating - hardly a public disturbance.

3. Girls wearing miniskirts and boots baffles me. I didn't notice this until recently, and I'm told they wait for the winter. In one particular incident I was outside scurrying to a heated building, bundled up in pants and a jacket - and I don't get cold easily, and a girl walks by me with the shortest imaginable skirt and heels. She had a jacket on, but still...

High profile DV speaker

2007-11-08T18:10:00.001-08:00

You'd think we were at the airport. MPs thoroughly metal detectored us. My co-worker was asked to leave a Gerber outside and the Colonel had to leave his backpack outside - unheard of. I had no idea this was going to be such a high profile event.

You've gotta love the military. The speach began at 1600, so they rolled it back to telling us to be seated by 1530, so we rolled back our arrival to 1500 - and we got there early. An hour before the event would start most of the 800 seats were filled. By a half hour early, it was standing room only. As 1605 rolled around, the Major I was with was bitching about man-hours of productivity. The Colonel responded that "we have a tradition of this" - the little wood choppers were missing hours of productivity waiting for General Washington to bring morale to their little hearts in Lexington.

Admiral Mullen got right down to business. He apologized for being 15 minutes late - he had been on a VTC with el presidente. They, he, the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Secretary of Defense, were traveling through East Asia meeting with their high level defense counterparts. His speech was a fascinating half hour. He kept re-emphasisng his three pronged priorities and switching his focus between transformation and leadership. He then opened it up to a half hour Q & A. Questions came from the gambit, very low rank to very senior. All were well formulated, most very good pointed questions. There were a few that you could only shake your head at - one was about his response to a specific conspiracy theory question about 9-11. He answered all of the questions very well. The ones that were less relevant led into supporting points about what he mentioned earlier. Afterward my co-worker mentioned that at the last similar event a very senior military spokesperson was asked by a female servicemember (in formal terms) if the military was investigating devices that would allow females to go to the bathroom upright. You've got to be kidding! I have no idea how I would smooth over a question like that on international tv.

Afterward they wisked the Admiral off - flashing sirens, motorcade, and all. An MP was directing traffic. No, she wasn't directing, she was controlling it with steadfast intention. If I wasn't with a group in such heavy traffic I would have stopped to watch. There was never a question as to who should be stopped and who should be moving. She would direct multiple streams at a time like a stoplight. Some cars would be turning left, some going straight, and pedestrian control - all based on the number of people waiting. With all the Generals and Admirals she had to pop to and salute several times in the middle of the traffic direction. It was amazing.

I need to be more ready on my camera. I saw the funniest thing on road so far. it was a motorcycle that had a huge, maybe 10 foot tall trailer behind it. The trailer had garbage and the many recycleables, brooms, rakes, etc. It also had a passenger standing way up high in the air. That doesn't sound like much, but a pic will leave you rolling.

Early Thanksgiving at the USO

2007-11-08T18:09:00.001-08:00

It never fails - babies and puppies are timeless chick magnets. Today was no exception. We were introducing members of the Sookmyong Womens college debate team to Thanksgiving, American style. The new food was popular, but not nearly so much as the young man and dog.

Members of our command - probably their wives, cooked Thanksgiving style food. The Koreans brought various traditional local dishes. The event was an interesting chance to experience each other's culture.

Really not much to say about the meal. We sat around, ate, and talked. I did get a chance to meet others that work with me. Most of the girls were pretty shy. These are the ones that our family dry cleaner of 20 years instructed me to marry. I'm looking forward to the next event. We'll probably go on campus to have lunch with them.

Tokyo

2007-11-04T14:28:00.000-08:00

An electronic voice in a "Limousine Bus" (bus) welcomes me to Japan, then reminds us that "cell phones are prohibited as they annoy neighbors". We're on an hour and a half journey to Tokyo from the Tokyo airport, humm? My spontaneous idea to reroute through Narita instead of SFO after visiting Lord doesn't seem so brilliant anymore. Or does it? Perhaps there will be opportunity yet. We've passed 4 nice hotels within a few minutes of the airport. The fact that we'll need to catch a bus for our 8AM international flight tomorrow remains daunting.

I feel sorry for a group of high school exchange students. One girl's comment, "oh how cute, she looks like she's wearing a girl scout uniform - and she's an adult" caught my attention and made me laugh. I looked over to see a petite Japanese woman in a red uniform - a customs officer. The girl had a Southern California accent, but turned out to be North Carolina. Once the group realized that I lived where they were headed they had a battery of questions. "What country is best?", "Will I like the food - I don't do spicy?", and others, to which I could only laugh. The barrage of questions came right when we were stripping down for the x-ray machine.

The United line to get our bus voucher and hotel reservation wasn't bad. It was a little strange looking at the "departures" screen and reading, UA883 - "Not leaving today". WHAT!?!? There were no answers, only customs and immigration lines. Once I found a long United line I knew I was in the right place.

The flight to Japan had been surprisingly easy. The seat next to me was empty so I could creatively lay, stretch, or curl. Some limb would inevitably fall asleep, but no big deal - that was the price of getting some sleep. We were told that a strong head wind would delay our arrival by an hour. I slept most of the 11 hours, which was much shorter than I remember flying in '96.

I woke up for both "lunches". Neither were any good. They made me wish that I'd stuck with the original plan with Korean Air by Delta. They always gave you 2 choices, "chicken" or "beef". One with rice, the other "American style". I was always going for the Asian one, but never got it. I've been duped 3 times now in 2 flights. I felt like I was on some kind of a sick game show.

My Japanese neighbor in the isle seat was great. He never made a move to raise his armrest for a stake in the available center seat; it was all mine!

Long Beach

2007-11-04T14:19:00.000-08:00

I hadn't seen my buddy Lord since I punched him in the jaw in Charleston. Don't think he didn't get me back with a furry of shots. We both miss that Mui Thai class and our friends from there.

Lord's a good dude - yep, I get to brag about you here! Being a studly football player and track athlete at the Academy wasn't enough, nor was being a bona fide war hero saving countless lives in Iraq. And who's ever heard of turning down a Harvard scholarship? It didn't surprise me to hear you exercise your PHD program option in Aerospace Engineering at UCLA. I know you'll kick butt there - don't think I can't still take you on the wrestling mat, though ;)

We ended up walking around Long Beach. The weather was nice - what a beautiful place! Palm trees, the beach, and a growing skyline. We stopped at a sushi place for appetizers, then decided on passing up PF Changs in favor of a Hibachi grill. I had no idea that my friend had never experienced one. Afterward we exchanged war stories over ciders at a local brewery. Not much more to say than that. Lord's lovin' life as a grad student and I was happy to see him.

The Conference

2007-11-04T14:13:00.000-08:00

The Navy Information Professional Symposium was a success! The three day event was loaded with top notch guest speakers and good information about my Navy community. I had the opportunity to meet the senior brass, my detailer whom I've spoken with extensively over the phone, and the senior Navy IP in Korea who has been sending me emails. The real value lay in mingling during social events, lunches, and breaks. Lots of familiar faces from earlier training classes.

The big event was the many San Diego wildfires, which I hear are worse than 2003. Many local attendees were either evacuating their families or assisting their friends. I wanted to volunteer for help, but it wasn't practical. Aside from laying a little ash on my upgraded 2007 rental Nissan Maxima, the fires didn't affect me much. I did feel silly turning in the car with 40 miles after four days, but I did my part by staying off the roads.

On my way to San Diego

2007-10-30T02:32:00.000-07:00

Getting to the airport was a challenge - I made it so. I waited for the bus for what seemed like a lifetime (maybe a few minutes) in front of my apartment. I was 20 minutes earlier than my friend said the airport bus would arrive. It would provide perfect timing given the hour long ride and 2 hours to check into my flight. I was getting nervous as different colored city buses came and left. I asked a local about the airport bus and she pointed me to a map indicating that it would go the other direction to Seoul Station and would require a line change. I'd later find out that bus does run that way first, then go back to the airport. I don't know why I freaked out, but I found myself running with my luggage to the subway station. A half hour of running, scrambling, and riding the subway put me at Seoul Station, even more confused about the airport bus, and slightly behind. At this point even if I knew where to go, waiting for the bus could be a problem. I flagged down the first taxi I saw at Seoul Station and was on my way.

Korean taxi drivers are a funny bunch. "Adashi", we call them. You'd never guess that it was the polite term for "Uncle". I most often hear Americans yelling that as a cab driver cuts them off or stops in the middle of the road. The thing is, they'll break every law in the book to pick you up, then slam on the breaks for every yellow with a running meter. Adashi was playing that game with me at first. A few glances down at my watch and the occasional one at him (hopefully not too dirty a look) and he got the idea. He put 2 and 2 together and drove like the taxi drivers I've come to know and love here. This included driving fast between ticket radar cameras, making "questionable" lights, and doing a little weaving. I arrived at the airport with time to spare. Naturally, I was obligated to break Korean custom and give him a good tip.

Hopefully I find the 601 bus on the way home.

Bad dudes at work and getting settled at home

2007-10-18T06:26:00.000-07:00

On my way to work LT A passed me. I was walking down the sidewalk and he was on his bicycle. He cautiously rode around another pedestrian ahead of me, then rode out of my sight. He's practically a fixture in my 10 minute commute (bed to desk). He always has his helmet and construction style orange reflective jacket over his uniform. He's a mellow guy in his late 30s - he was the one that gave me an in safety brief.

I caught up with him and greeted him as he locked our gate. He says, "good morning" back and casually asks if I saw him fall? "Oh no, I was pretty far behind you", I explained. He mentioned that he was crossing the green pedestrian crosswalk and I thought he said that a car almost hit him. He said that his heart was still beating really fast, but he appeared almost bored. It wasn't until he pulled out his dinged up steel coffee cup that I really started paying attention. He was explaining what happened to the Sargent Major who had recently joined us. A car was making a right hand turn on a red, didn't look at the pedestrians crossing and knocked over LT A on his bike. He curled up out of the way. The car ended up running over his front tire. He said he was OK and shook it off - I guess it pays to be a Navy SEAL. I didn't think to ask whether the driver stopped.

The driving around here still amazes me. My coworker and I took a break from our normal workouts, thank God, to pick up his car and run errands. It's common to see full size buses squeeze through merging cars with less than 3" on each side - only to advance 40 feet and stop behind another car at a light. Before that someone decided to do business with a guy in a van in the middle of the street. I wish I had my camera with me. I saw a motorcycle that had boxes strapped on that went a few feet higher than the riders head! My buddy says that's not unusual. The amount of swerving, merging, honking, and otherwise illegal driving astounds me.

Getting back to the home front...

1. This is the gym that my co-worker and I have been using after work. I didn't realize that volunteering to work out with him meant joining him at least four days a week for heavy lifting of specific muscle sets for over an hour. Everything's sore now except shoulders and triceps since I weaseled my way out of that today - we'll make it up tomorrow, I'm sure.

I've been playing racquetball a few days a week over lunch with other coworkers. I really need to make running a priority to prepare for airborne school. They just came back from a jump today out of airplanes and it sounded awesome! Other jumps are scheduled out of blimps and Chinook helicopters. So getting in shape should pay off big!

2. They recycle everything here! Downstairs in the garbage (recycling) area there's a place for paper, plastic, vinyl, card board, I donno - about 5 other bins. I didn't see any metals, but there are several in front that are only labeled in Korean. Like old blankets, shoes, etc. There's only one small area for what we would consider to be garbage - and they have specific bags that you have to use. Somehow the "food scraps", which looks terrible and smells worse, doesn't stink up the area - they must empty it frequently. They "recycle" that by heating and compacting it then feeding it to their animals. Maybe that's why the super cheap Bulgogi burgers are so nasty! Very cool how efficient they are here. It's a totally different mindset. For example, there are 2 garbage men that ride on the back of each garbage truck to do sorting - shredding documents is probably much more important here. Another example, on the busy tollway there were Koreans standing at the automated machines to grab a ticket and hand it to the driver. You couldn't argue that it didn't speed up the flow at all, but the concept is foreign to me. We would NEVER pay a person to operate the automated system that's there to replace him!

3. House quirks. I still have a few things to figure out - like how to open my dishwasher. Yeah, that's embarrassing. I'll have to put it on my list of "Sally" questions. YOU probably would have a hard time turning on the faucet! Another one is that I kept noticing a mild but fishy smell in my laundry room that would sometimes drift to the kitchen. I tracked it down to a pipe that seems to be venting into my laundry room from within the building outside my apartment. Humm.

3a. The weirdest thing to get used to will be my washing machine. It's brand new and high tech, with lots of buttons and such. It's actually a combo washer/dryer, which is how they come around here. The dryer doesn't really "dry" your clothes. Instead of using lots of energy to heat the air it mists hot water. The result, somewhat damp but mostly dry clothes. What surprises me the most is that it actually takes 4 hours to do this - that's what the fancy LCDs on front predict. It seems to do lots of relatively quick cycles and beep a lot in between. My laundry room includes this drop down clothes hanger rack thing. I'll have to invest in some clothes pins. I'll probably end up taking towels/blankets/sheets to the laundromat on base.

3b. Another building quirk. I've alluded to this a number of times already. The security here is insane! They have their own little mini secret service with earpieces and all! I rarely see the same guard twice - there must be hundreds, and they don't play around! A few co-workers live in another nearby highrise that's pretty nice. They only have a few security guards. Rumor has it that there's something that the ministry of defense maintains as you go upward. I guess that makes sense. Ask me in person if it doesn't.
(RFID Sliding glass door)

Update for the curious - her name was So-Hyun, pronounced "So Young" - not "Too Young", must have been my imagination. I went back and said, "Hi" last night. Hopefully there will be more to follow on this one. Oh yeah, and Austin wants to take me to the "real" clubs here. He's from LA. I'm trying to imagine how packed it must be to meet his approval.

Moving in!

2007-10-15T03:23:00.000-07:00

Getting my stuff moved in was surprisingly easy. It took about 2 hours start to finish. I had enough time afterward to walk into work to return my boss's cell phone and bump into my coworker. It's 7:30 - I just got back from an hour long workout with him in my downstairs gym. He kicked my butt and wants to work out a different muscle set tomorrow!

Once again I got rid of too much, this time to long term storage - some of which I will need. I only shipped 850 lbs of the at least 4000 that I was allotted, 425 of which was my motorcycle. I'm glad that I decided to ship as much as I did, particularly of the kitchen items.

Moving into my building proved to be a challenge, but I've come to learn that professional movers are machines - even the Korean variety! My building security guards were all over the movers from the get go. They wouldn't let them park the trucks at the nearest curb - that's saying a lot in Korea. Here your emergency signals either: a) make you invisible or b) say, "I'm so sorry, prease excuse a me".

So they piled all the boxes on the curb and we took a few trips up the elevator. The picture to the right is part of one trip! The security guards posted a perimeter around the activity and stayed there. I left my motorcycle idling for the first 15 minute trip up and didn't think a thing of it.

I bumped into Doe's wife and grandmother walking their twins. I wish I would have caught a picture - maybe next time. Sally was also wandering about. She offered to help, but I don't think there was anything that the movers couldn't handle.

We inventoried all the boxes and they unpacked everything. They were really fast! Then they cleared out all the boxes and packing material - that's a load of empty boxes/filler to the left.

The manager gave me his card and expects me to invite him over sometime - I probably will.

I'm off to wander downstairs for dinner. I now have a lot of condiments and spices, but I held off on the perishables. I'll be traveling to San Diego for a conference next week for five days. My cookware, utensils, place settings, etc are all here but need to be washed. Very few things are in boxes, but I still have a lot of organizing ahead of me!

My first home cooked meal

2007-10-13T22:20:00.000-07:00

This is the treat that I'm enjoying as I type. In fact, it's my second one! I bought a 45c plastic bowel and a one piece table setting. Not your ideal equipment for PBJ, but it doesn't get much more American than that! My household goods shipment is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. It'll be nice to be one with my motorcycle again.

My real first home cooked meal was last night at Do's party. We started eating at about 9:30 and didn't stop for 2 hours. He had about 12 guests but cooked for 30. All I have to say is that Pho better start worrying if Do comes to town! Soon as we finished a plate they brought out another heaping one - I think the king crab legs was the only single item that we finished. We had those clear plastic looking rice paper rolls that Jan makes. In the center was all the usual Vietnamese veggies including cilantro and those peppers that look hot but taste like green peppers. Do gave me a little red one that burned my poor foreign mouth. The mussels were seasoned similarly to the ones that Chris and I had at the Italian restaurant in Chicago. The rib eye was marinated like the sweet Korean BBQ that we're used to. His pork had a very tasty flavor. Everything was spectacular, although I went light on the pork since I was reminded of a different recent pork episode. I was the only one who didn't speak Vietnamese, and Do was really the only other one that spoke fluent English. It didn't matter, though. We all had a great time!

After dinner they brought out mango slices and cake. It was recently Dos birthday and one of the girls. After forcing that down, they brought bananas and grapes. Ughh...too much.

We then sat down to play cards. They had a blackjack variant that was pretty entertaining. At about 2:30 I could hardly keep my eyes open. I was down about $15, which is pretty sad on $1 games, but whatever. Do said that they would probably go until about 5. It would be his friends responsibility to whip up another meal of similar magnitude from his refrigerators. I was too tired to try to call his bluff. He explained that they stay up late because the guys had just got off work and that they "only" get together once a week. They rotate between about 5 households and eat on a similar magnitude every time, although the "style of food" differs.

Too Young

2007-10-13T21:40:00.000-07:00

It's Friday night. I'm sitting inside a posh bar at the base of my building. My new Korean friend John J, who lived in Australia since he was 5, just excused himself and his coworker to get a private booth. The fact that he moved literally ten feet over from the bar to a table meant nothing to me. To his boss who would arrive shortly this signified respect. "I'm sorry, it's the Korean culture", explained JJ. The PricewaterhouseCoopers accounting manager was doing what was expected of him by purchasing a $100 bottle of wine and entertaining his boss.

In front of me might have been the best chicken fingers and fries I'd ever had. Minutes ago my new friend James, who plays for the Army band, escorted me two doors down and placed the order to be delivered to the bar. James has been in Korea a year and a half, but can sling the 'Gul with the best of 'em. He's very white but once you hear the Korean come out of his mouth you'd swear he was a local. Even John couldn't believe it. But James is a special case - like the Japanese language geek, Wayne (Nathan) from my freshman dorm. James began with 2 semesters of Korean here, had several tutors, and consistently studies vocabulary 3-4 times every week for at least an hour. He explained to me that tipping isn't part of their culture and it's often considered to be rude. The thing to do is thank them a lot for thanking you for thanking them and give/accept everything with both hands, one supporting the other - it's a sort of submissive/humble gesture.

I was sitting in front of the real reason I wandered into the bar. The bartender was cute and eager to converse. She spoke a little English but Korean was more fun. I ran upstairs to my apartment to bring my Survival Korean phrasebook and she helped me pronounce things. I'm not positive about this, but I swear she said her name was, "Tu Yung". The next natural question revealed that she was in fact 20. Good times - I'll have to check up on Tu sometime ;-)

I forgot to mention that James married a Korean girl. He and his friends hyped up various (non-Itaewon) areas. John agreed - in fact, he said that he's been around: New York, LA, UK, and Australia and he claims Korea's where it's at!

John's wife was expecting him home so he helped me get a taxi. He instructed the driver to send me to Shin Chon, which was a couple of miles away. I wandered around for about an before heading back. I think it's next to a college district because there were lots of youngins around - not nearly as many foreigners (Americans) as Itaewon. I'm interested in going back with someone who knows their way around.

Move in day - the new pad

2007-10-12T01:42:00.000-07:00

Living room view

Yay! I'm sitting at my new desk on the 26th floor overlooking trains, traffic, and our work hummers. I'd be able to throw a rock at my office if there wasn't another tower directly in the way. That's good, I won't have to think about work when I come home - yeah, right!

This entry was carried over a borrowed wireless connection from one of my neighbors. Bandwidth tests varied strongly. The best was a 3.34mbps download and 434k upload to LA. I will plug into a 100 meg port and be a part of the buildings lightning fast backbone (I hope...).

The house is perfect. It comes minimally furnished. I wish that I had shipped more than the 800 lbs than I did (including my 400 lb bike). I'll have to figure something out for the guest room.

The entry to my tower is an automatic RFID based, super high tech sliding glass door that hides behind a security tower. My door is a heavy metal thing with a keypad for entry. The "doorbell" has a video camera, speaker, and mic to validate entry. It ties in to the Honeywell home automation system and has a 2nd terminal within arms reach of the master bedroom robo-pot. During testing with Sally I accidentally hit the "alarm" button instead of "speak" or "unlock". After disarming it with my card security was up to check it out - oh well. The home automation system also monitors power usage, sets the temperature, provides a weather forecast, calls management or security, and can be tied into your local phone system. I won't be using it much as my sticky note label system doesn't work on a touchscreen.

You'll immediately notice 2 things when you walk in the front door - an absurdly large set of shoe racks and an incredible view that only looks better at night.

Here are a few shots of my living room - soon to include a TV and electronics. The R2D2 lookin' thing is my air conditioner. The other units I saw were upgraded to have the unit in the ceiling.

The kitchen is nice. It includes gas ranges and a lot of cabinet space. It almost looks normal until you find the 2 refrigerators - not counting the smaller Kim Chi refrigerator in the laundry room. Schaal taught me a thing or two about redundancy - I'll be well taken care of.

The guest bedroom on the left will probably be storage space until someone commits to come to visit - hint, hint. Its bathroom is partially Korean style in that it's lowered and all tiled with a drain. Everything in there but the TP can get wet!

The master bedroom isn't huge, but it's nice. There's a tiled spot between sets of windows for plants. The mini-hallway that leads to the bathroom is like a walk-in closet with more storage room than I have clothes.

An interesting thing about the heating here is that it's provided by hot water in pipes under the floor. Each room has a separate thermostat to control that. Electricity prices are highly progressive here, so I'll have to be particularly careful.

Last, but not least, is my office. I'll be spending a lot of time here! On the right is the view outside the window.

After knocking on my neighbors doors I met a nice Vietnamese American, Army guy named 'Do'. He invited me in for tea and showed me his place. I'm not sure if I mentioned that my floorplan is the smallest in the complex. His unit had many upgrades, including the ceiling A/C and even better views than mine! His setup was very homey and tasteful. He's married, but I'm pretty sure that I outrank him - so I'm probably paying my landlord a bit more than he's paying his. Apparently when he moved in two years ago the towers were brand new and there were a lot of choices. Now these units get snatched up quickly. I'm ecstatic about my find here. Tomorrow I get my own Internet access and my household goods arrive on Monday. Do's cooking tomorrow for a group of his Vietnamese friends and I'm invited. Oh yeah!

There are a few more pictures here. Off to find some dinner...

Victory!!! and a trip to Osan

2007-10-11T00:42:00.000-07:00

(NO COOL PICTURES UNTIL I MOVE IN)

Lets first revel in my housing victory. My command really stepped up and saved me from living on base. Without getting into too much detail, my ideal place had been held for over a week and was about to go back on the market through another Realtor. After far too much effort, I was still spinning my tires with required: exception forms, briefs, signatures, etc. Everything depended on something else and there was a lot of red tape. I already knew that I was going to live off base and that it would be there! I received an email this afternoon that my request had officially been approved. Time to strike while the iron's hot! One more trip to the housing office, this time to get something done! A little bargaining, a little yelling (...getting yelled at, if you must know...), an hour later, and I was off with a smile. I'll meet Sally in the morning to get the contract and should be moved in tomorrow.

Waiting for James' wife at a jewelery store across the street

Tuesday was a command holiday. My sponsor James invited me to run errands with him to Osan. His wife and their neighbor were going to check out custom curtains. Despite the high cost of living, skilled labor is still really cheap here. For this trip I'll bullet point interesting things I saw/learned:

1. I went to where the US forces will be by about 2012. Sucks for them as it's not nearly as cool a place as Seoul.

2. They have combo cameras/radar guns that will automatically issue tickets on the highways; similar to our red light running cameras. Their locations and speeds are well known (and posted). Koreans drive like maniacs between the cameras, then traffic slows down to the speed limit. You don't have to be a PHD physicist specializing in wave propagation or have a magical crystal ball to predict the effects this will have on heavy traffic! They even sell GPS devices that have the cameras programmed in. It'll tell you how fast you're going, how fast you should be, and how far away you are from the camera. Only Korea...

3. The rest stop was an interesting experience. This one was on a toll road - the only stop for another 20 clicks. The Koreans haven't figured out that they can rip you off at a place like this (or airports for that matter). It had a food court, free bottled water, and batting cages. I kept hearing a mechanical voice saying, "Stuu-wike", "Stuu-wike". The funny part was that the nearest batter, a goofy businessman in a suit, was swinging his bat at the air. It took several double takes to catch that. I'm guessing that he was watching the next pitching machine over. Again, only in Korea...

4. "Ho-doc" - I remember the name because after fumbling over the pronunciation several times, James constructed a sentence with words that sounded like the syllables. They look like pancakes but taste like funnel cakes. The paper is to protect your fingers from the burning hot treat. They're not overly sweet, but are very tasty. I think I'm hooked!

5. I saw lots more rice fields. This one's for you dad - you should be proud that I sometimes recognize them! I don't think anyone else particularly cares...one of those father-son moments...

USO ATV and Rafting Trip

2007-10-08T04:11:00.000-07:00

My awesome sponsor James introduced me to Julie. She's a cool Korean American Army nurse. She's the one I have to thank for coordinating the USO trip. They had a $50 package deal to bus you out to the countryside, ride ATVs or play paintball, then go white water rafting. We have the day off for Columbus Day and somehow there were only 9 people - 5 in Julie's party.

The bus ride took over two hours despite the light traffic in our direction. We drove past countryside rice paddies. I forget the name of the town we went to; it must have been somewhere to the north since I'm told we went by the DMZ.

We arrived at some sort of business that did paintball, ATVs, and rafting. They also had a small traditional style Korean restaurant where we were to eat lunch.

After circling the parking lot to get used to our 150cc quads, we were off! It wasn't too all terrain-y but was lots of fun nonetheless. We rode on the less busy public roads and rice field levies. There was a bridge and the scenery was gorgeous! We stayed in a group, but they weren't picky about the faster guys taking off. Since the course was weak we amused ourselves by driving like idiots - passing on the levees, cutting each other off on the corners, bumping into each other a bit, you get the idea. There was a short stretch of gravel that made it easy to slide the back out. One girl, an elementary school Spanish teacher, accidentally drove off the levee in front of me. I don't think she was purposely driving like an idiot. She was ok.

Lunch was fun but not worth mentioning. It was my first time eating on the floor in the traditional Korean style.

The rafting trip was pretty short. They have 3 different sections of river of which we did one. We were the only ones dumb, ugh...brave, enough to be on the river this time of year. The water was cold but the air had warmed up since the cold morning. The water was also low, which meant both that the rating was low (about a 2), and that the river was dangerous because of all the shallow rocks. Apparently during monsoon season the river reaches a solid 3+. I forget the name of our funny Korean guide. There was one rapid that me and my little Army crew couldn't handle. We hit a rock that threw most of us in (hum...) and managed to turn around backwards. Aside from that we stopped twice to enjoy the scenery and jump off a rock.

There was abundant scenery to enjoy from the bus. I took a few pictures then fell asleep all the way home. More shots here.

Wandering farther

2007-10-07T06:16:00.000-07:00

I'm worrying my mother with posts like "I'm drunk" followed by "screwed...". So instead of going to Itaewon again I decided to hit the city tour bus for some wholesome sightseeing.

To recap what you missed from yesterday, I tried some sliced pig nostril (no idea what it's really called) from a street vendor. The dark meat tastes about like normal pork. The lighter meat that gleams in the light is tougher and somehow seems fishy. The fatty part was disgusting and you don't even want to hear a description of the skin. To add insult to injury the man said 5,000 won and the woman charged me seven. Oh well, every time I walk by that particular snack I know I'm not missing anything.

I purchased an all day city bus pass for $11. The attendant spoke much better Japanese than English, but the map and audio guide explained the stops. It was 3:30 and I planned on changing buses to catch the two hour long 7:30 night tour.

I got off at Seoul tower to kill a few hours. I was feeling hungry and Handmade Noodles for King sounded perfect! I pointed to the bowl of the guys sitting next to me - no English necessary! Despite the thick, dark sauce the dish was a bit bland. It tasted like rice noodle spagetti with a non-descript sauce. Nothing a little lemon juice and a whole lot of cayenne pepper couldn't fix! They didn't bring water or take my drink order, so I went outside to Pocari Sweat to order some Confidence. Not the greatest $6 meal, but it wasn't bad. On to the Seoul Tower observatory!

My city bus tour ticket included mini discount tickets. On the way to redeem it there was some sort of festival with a stage and music. The lines for the observatory ticket and entrance elevator weren't bad. The view was spectacular despite the forming rain. After waiting for the bus a few minutes in the cold I decided that it wasn't the day for the night tour.

The city bus passed many interesting locations. I'll have to stop at the traditional villages and temples sometime. I'm sure my mother would enjoy Myeongdong, the upscale area and fashon center. I got a kick out of the Chungmuro pet street - lines of stores that cater to expensive pets followed by a motorcycle street. I ended up getting off in an area that's popular for teens and kids in their 20s. I bought a corn dog whose wrapping must have been made of French Fries - it was pretty tasty. There were some vendor food that even I wouldn't try (guess what that is to the left) - I'll give you a hint, they're bigger and have more character than the coffee beans you'll first mistake them for.

I tried out one of many Internet Cafes where the computers are fast and so is the Internet. Didn't play any games, just some high speed emailing and forum posts. I found my way to a 10th story movie theater to see The Nanny Diaries in English with Korean subtitles. It was an entertaining enough chick flick that I would not have watched in Korean. After the movie ended it was dark outside but well illuminated with cheesy neon lights.

After wandering for an hour (photo tour here) with no idea where I was, I teleported into a subway station. It was relatively easy, and $1, to get across town, including changing subway lines, to my destination, Yongsang Station. Unfortunately, that wasn't close to Yongsang Garrison, where I was staying - that would prove to be a $5 taxi ride. I look forward to taking the subway when I live in front of a stop!

Tomorrow I'll head on a USO sponsored group trip to either paintball or rafting followed by ATVing! Su-weet!

Screwed...

2007-10-05T00:11:00.000-07:00

At my housing brief I found out that, lucky for me, there is available unaccompanied "company grade" BOQ lodging available, meaning that I get to live there. Lucky for me, since I work on the other section of base, I'll get all the inconveniences of living on base without being close to work. What a deal! I do have the option of trying to justify why I need off post housing. The only argument I can think of is that I don't have a car here and hopefully on post housing is far from my work. We'll see if my command can step up to bat for me - if so, I'll be happy and gracious. More posts to follow.

Itaewon again...

2007-10-04T06:25:00.000-07:00

OK, I admit - I'm drunk! Three hours ago I had finished all of my forum posts and I wasn't tired at all! It was 7:45 and curfew was midnight tonight. I have a strong curiosity to push it just because it's there. Let me back up a bit, I had a force protection brief with one of the SEAL officers today. I learned that, despite the fact that Seoul is safer than most US cities, our force protection status has been elevated to the one just above the lowest. The reason is political, but a cerfew is in effect for military personnel! This means that as a perfectly sober colonel at 12:01 right outside the gate I'd get busted, which is a serious offense, but my 17 year old daughter and guest would be perfectly fine if they were drunk and loud at any time! Again, it's chocked up as "force protection", but is political and has been in place since Sept 11th.

In any event, I had 4 hours to check out Itaewon! After a $3 taxi ride (including tip) I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. Neither the bars nor the clubs appealed much. Only some of the clubs that I walked by caught my attention, and that was because I recognized their names from our banned list, "Moulin Rouge" for example. And, true to their word, they had attractive girls at the door. My advice was basically this, "If it has girl(s) outside and there aren't any GIs in there, you probably shouldn't go". That seemed silly at first, but after hearing stories of how the human trafficing works from the Philippines, it made me sick to my stomach. My sponsor had been in Korea for several years in the late 90s, married a Korean woman, and has been back for over a year and his stories hit home. The supplemental force protection briefs emphasized the local reality of human trafficing and prostitution.

After passing a live performance and these uninteresting clubs and bars, I saw several local street vendors. The first one that I passed reminded me that I hadn't yet had dinner. I sat next to a group of older businessmen, pointed to something that looked like Won Tons and prepared to eat. It didn't take much to interact with the locals. They spoke far more English than I spoke Korean, but communication was practically hopeless - it was great fun! They offered me some of their food and sho-ju (it's like weak, 20% vodka - a popular Korean drink). They kept refilling my plate and glass - it took me awhile to realize that they didn't expect me to drink fast, but didn't want to leave me with an empty glass. I had a grand time communicating with the guys without a common language. The highlight for me - and this will sound stupid - was when I was asking what my new friend did. He said the word for "airplane", which I recognized immediately, even though now I only remember that it begins with a "P". Thank you Rosetta Stone! Somehow the immersion worked. I had spent less than an hour with it back in June, and "airplane" was part of the vocabulary. I don't know how, but it stuck! My desire to learn Korean was greatly increased!
Before I knew it, my new friends picked up my tab. I was obliged to return the favor. I dragged them to a "Cheers" and ordered a round of beers. One of the guys had a daughter who was the cutest thing I'd seen in a long time. She knew exactly how to give me a powerful High 5! We got her an Orange Juice and she and her father left early.

My new friend Dong Ju would often sock my arm and hold my hand - my "Welcome pack" explained that this was an appropriate sign of friendship, and the Army authors are very homophobic! I went along with the new group to a club that was playing music, where many young American Army GIs were hanging out. He kept pulling me out to dance, which was a little odd since he's one of very few I've ever seen who's a worse dancer, with less rhythm, than I. Oh well, it was fun.

After awhile the girls who worked at the club got up to sing with the music and dance. OMG, they were good! I was sitting back enjoying them when Dong bought a rose and was trying to get me to give it to them. I really didn't understand what he was saying except "Filipino", but he was signaling for me to go while his 2 friends did the hand across the throat motion. I remained sitting. It was only then that I realized that both (gorgeous) girls, who were excellent singers and dancers, were Filipina - and the force protection brief set in! At about the same time, Dong seemed to realize that the girls had sung the last 5 songs, seemed to be going strong, and I was eager to keep moving. We left!

Dong took me to another little booth for more so-ju. At that point I exaggerated wobbly motions and he became immediately concerned with getting me back home. He walked me back several blocks to the hotel where the AAFES taxis come. We walked past several other vendors and I got a pic on police motorcycle :--). I'm looking forward to seeking he and his friends after I speak some Korean!

Hail and Fairwell

2007-10-04T02:28:00.000-07:00

The military has a never ending history of traditions. Some are fun, some tedious, and many involved alcohol. The new touchy, feely version of the military is getting rid of these rituals. The Navy has a heritage very different from the Army and Air Force. Surprisingly, all share the Hail and Fairwell party. Everyone kicked in $10 to have buffet style hors d'oeuvres (thanks Google, don't I feel smart now). The event started at 3:30 and lasted under 2 hours. It was a great opportunity to meet everyone, give the new guys (me) a little roast, and give the old timers their minute in the spotlight.

I went back to see Sally, my realtor. It turns out that the furnished unit on the 16th floor had been taken, and that the owner of the 26th floor unit didn't want to hold it for long. I was going to try to play hardball and negotiate for a TV and faster Internet access and do more due diligence looking in other areas. I'm staying at the Dragon Lodge, a ridiculously nice hotel with the crappiest service ever. They're not rude, but very un-accommodating. "Do you have toothpaste, the airline took mine?" - answer: "We sell toothpaste at the gift shop". "Do you have complimentary breakfast or coffee?" - answer: "The restaurant on the other side of the lobby opens at 6". Question (at the front desk): "Can I use your phone to call my Sponsor"? Answer: "That's a cell phone, you need to purchase a phone card to call that number". It's not like my room isn't $200/night. They're the only game in town and it shows. But I'm in no hurry - I can stay extra days while I'm househunting and Per Diem covers a little more than my meals and Internet access. The thing is, I get excited every time I think back to that tower apartment. As I weigh the pros and cons, I can't consider living elsewhere when this choice is available. Oh, I almost forgot, the "normal" Internet access is a 100 megabit connection. It will be interesting to see how much bandwidth our building has to the backbone.

Today I went back to look at both units (16th and 26th). The building is amazing. Only one famous building, KLI 63, comes to mind as taller and more striking, but it's miles from work. I would be amazed if walking from my bedroom to my office desk took much longer than 10 minutes. A major subway station is right out front. The building has a workout area that overlooks the main street and an indoor golf range/putting green that you can use for about $2. Parking is great. There aren't as many little shops and restaurants as I would like (many areas are much better) and I haven't seen local markets, but that's a relative description. There are probably 10 restaurants, a bakery, and lots of little shops within a large block. You couldn't count how many are within a mile. The 16th story unit had very nice upgraded trim and granite, but the view of my 2604 :) takes the cake. It has many windows facing both north and south. Nearby towers partially obstruct the view but it's not a big deal. Hopefully I'll provide pictures by next week. My description simply won't do it justice!

Next week the boss will provide us a detailed breakdown of who will be in charge of which projects. My first few are few highly necessary ones that involve inventorying and processes that doesn't sound exciting. However, my boss has made several comments that I have the job that he wishes he had if he wasn't managing. The contractor that I'll be primarily working with/under also got his MCSE in NT 4, was a Microsoft Certified Trainer, recently passed his CISSP, manages/programs all our Cisco stuff, and seems to be very technical in many areas. We got into some specific geek talk about virtualization applications and he shot me down pretty good. I like the guy already. Additionally, my command seems very interested in getting me to many training classes in addition to jump school. They already plan on sending me to a local Security+ and Network+ boot camp style class. Later I will be able to travel back to the states for conferences and other work related events. I will be encouraged to take leave en route, but will be effectively limited to 30 days off peninsula per year. There will be times that I will be working absurd hours for work, in March and April, for example, but I should have a pretty accurate long term schedule. I'm also told that we get to work shorter days in between to make up. They just finished one of those right before I arrived, which explains the overly relaxed command climate; the big man made Monday a "training holiday" and is giving us a 4 day weekend - apparently well deserved.

I found out that the Air Force and Army officers that I work with have the option of extending overseas for an extra year or two, which pays them a few hundred $/mo effective immediately. I like Korea enough already that I was seriously willing to commit to a 3rd year for the extra money. Unfortunately the Navy only offers this to enlisted members. I'm told that I may be able to extend another year if I wish by asking my detailer...great...

My first day on the job

2007-10-02T04:19:00.000-07:00

I didn't really accomplish anything today, but I sure got a lot done. Even after trying to stay up late last night, I woke up at 4:30 and couldn't fall back asleep. My Internet connection had tragically quit working and I couldn't live without it. 5 minutes after calling the front desk the bell boy was knocking on my door. He was polite and didn't try to hide the fact that he was clueless - he even gave me the name and number of a good contact with the MIS department who wouldn't arrive until 8. How dare he? I wandered down to the gym and ran a few miles on a treadmill then came back and showered. I popped in and watched half of Enemy at the Gates for my 12th time - timing finishing breakfast by 8. Not that there was any hurry, my sponsor was coming off of leave and had taken his family back to the airport. He wasn't going to be able to pick me up until noon. Long story short, MIS quickly gave me a static IP (yay!) and I was back to seeing that my forum posts and emails hadn't been responded to from last night. Oh it was nice to be connected again.

I met my sponsor and a few contractors that I'll be working with. These guys first came to our unit in the late 90s and decided to come back and stay - never a bad sign. They had much wisdom to impart including telling me what those things were on the back of cars. They're mirrors, angled down toward their own bumper so that the driver can park ridiculously close to the other cars. But the madness doesn't end there! They actually park their vehicles in neutral so that other drivers can push their car as needed. One contractor told me that it's common to leave your business card in your window so that drivers can call you to tell you to move. He doesn't speak Korean, but recognizes the word for "car" at 3:00AM on the phone when his neighbor needs to get out. This is considered to be polite. And he was parked legally in some crazy double spot.

I've come to learn that the driving situation only goes from bad to worse. Speaking of distance in miles is meaningless. Direction, route, traffic, and lights seem to be much more significant. My sponsor lives a mile and a half from base and the round trip takes him about 40 minutes at lunch. There are times when he calls his wife to tell her that he's going to be another 30 minutes from a half mile away. The first part of his commute home, which can take up to 20 minutes, involves cutting across 4 lanes of traffic then waiting for a stop light to make a left, then another stop light to make another left. There's just no way to make a left hand turn out of the base! I was surprised when we pulled onto the sidewalk to park at the realtor's office, then realized how disruptive the truck with his blinkers on in front of us was. "The lines here are merely a suggestion", my sponsor explained. Everyone drives like Las Vegas taxi drivers - honking, swerving, and cutting each other off is commonplace. Yet somehow, everyone is more or less polite and well composed. I'd be ready to bash some glass if drivers behaved like that in the states.

I went into the office, met the boss, filled out some paperwork, registered my ID, and filled out some paperwork. Tomorrow I'll go to the Navy office and fill out some paperwork.

The interesting thing today was checking out places to live. Our overseas housing allowance was probably based on size in the states. Seoul's extremely expensive to live, but my allowance doesn't really reflect living conditions of someone local of my income - it more closely reflects the size of place that I "should" live in stateside. Unfortunately they're really strict on verifying contracts and "suitable living conditions" so I have a cap of a lot of money to spend for rent. If I find a cheaper place then the government saves money. If I find a slightly more expensive place then my limit, then it gets negotiated down to government rates (since payment is pretty much guaranteed). I also found that I was recently promoted to the very lowest rank (O2) in my cost bracket, meaning that if I make O4 in 8 years and I'm still single, I'll get basically the same amount. In fact, I'll get to spend more on housing than my salary. So the strategy is obvious - maximize your rental for what you're given.

I'll probably live in the first building that Sally showed (no pictures of that one - I may return for try 2). It's a VERY modern high rise that happens to be a couple hundred yards from where I work - except that the main gate, the only entrance, is up a ways on the main street. Still, it is probably within walking distance as a daily commute - my guess would be like going from the Oeste house to campus, and riding a bicycle is an option. High tech is an understatement. Your RFID badge automatically opens these huge glass doors. Security is everywhere to a pesky extent - they made me delete the pictures of the amazing lobby. Apparently even unaccompanied guests get ID'd to come up to your room. There was a 'free' gym that had a row of treadmills in front of a huge window wall that overlooked the busy main street. The apartment, which was the smallest in this tower, was bigger than I need. I think it was about 1200 square feet - the decent sized master bedroom was smaller than the one in my last 1000 square foot apartment, but the kitchen and living room were sizable. There was a small room set up as an office and an extra bedroom. I checked out one on the 16th floor and one on the 26th floor that were both the same price. The 16th floor unit had a few upgrades. Each unit had breathtaking views in several directions. Even the parking lot was outrageous! It was spacious and they had the entire floor covered with the fancy garage floor finish. There's an electronic sign outside that says how many open spaces there are in each of the 5 levels of parking. Btw, EVERYONE is invited to visit me for up to a month - I should hold a developers retreat. Seoul is awesome! You won't regret it! I checked out a few other places - all were incredible (as they should be in that price range).
The pluses: Location near work, incredible view, A major bus/subway station is less than a block away. There are a moderate amount of shops and markets around (many other areas have much better selections). Gym included.
Minuses: Lots of military, relatively far from nightclubs/bars but close enough to base that "courtesy patrol" can stick you with the 12:00/1:00 curfew, which is a big no-no around here. Other places have morning markets and more close shops. Locations near the Han river have awesome biking/running trails, but are also necessarily a few nasty miles from work.

The real question to ask myself is how much I mind a couple mile commute on my bike. Even riding conservatively allows for lane splitting that gets you through every green light. My instinct tells me to go with the close tower.

Pictures of the houses I checked out. Tower views were partially obstructed, but much better overall.

I almost forgot to mention my best meal yet. Sally took me out to an upscale Korean restaurant where we had "bani", some kind of fancy beef rib. As usual, the variety of sides were delectable. I wish I would have taken some pictures. The place was great! I felt retarded as I kept repeating, then forgetting the phrases that she was teaching me in Korean. Maybe that's why she was so shocked that I could use chopsticks!

Checkin' out Itaewon

2007-09-30T23:53:00.000-07:00

View outside my hotel room.

Checking into my hotel at Dragon Lodge was a breeze. For $5/day I get a nice high speed Internet connection - money well spent. I pulled up my sponsors info and called him on his cell phone. It turns out that his family is visiting - leaving tomorrow morning. He called the boss and it turns out my command isn't expecting me until at least tomorrow.

Without wasting any time I jumped in a taxi. I didn't know where I wanted to go, so it was good that the driver asked, "Itaewon?", shopping? I asked, "how much?" At $3 it couldn't be far. We drive through a few blocks of traffic, and there we are! There are an unbelievable number of little stores.

I found a little restaurant in an alley that didn't have any English signs. Perfect, I was very hungry. I ordered the bulgogi, which I'm thinking now just means steak, or more appropriately, meat. It was very different from the Bulgogi that my boss at Guantanamo had taught me to cook. Lunch was great.

I spent a few hours browsing and wandering through Itaewon. I had more fun in the little off alleys than the main street. I was chatting with a few girls at a jewelery store. Long story short they convinced me to get a Folex. I felt silly hiding behind the counter choosing between their hidden selection of: Rolexes, Omegas, Tags, and Breitlings - they only brought out the ones that I asked for though. Perfectly legal for me, but they could get in trouble. It's a very well made piece, but surely not worth the $160 I payed. The going rate may be $40 on ebay, if it were legit. I chose a Panerai - I'll have to replace it with a real one after I make my first $1mil.

After a bit more wandering I found myself in a massage place/spa. I know what you're thinking - but this wasn't a shady location. 16 hours of resting my head on the airplane window developed a serious kink in my back and neck. I asked for the 30 minute version for $30, but the massage lasted about 90 minutes. So I didn't have a problem when the bill came at $60 for 60 minutes. It was the best I've ever had.

On the (short) cab ride back to base I saw more motorcyclists. This time they were weaving through traffic. 2 guys waited a bit, then ran a red light. I've heard that this is considered to be acceptable here. I need to learn the lay of the land and get my local license.

I'll go in to meet my coworkers tomorrow!

01OCT07 0900 (AM...)

2007-09-30T23:36:00.000-07:00

My flight went well. Aside from literally climbing over my sleeping neighbors to go to the bathroom, everything was smooze. I must have slept a total of about 12 hours. The breakfast "omelet" was questionable. Someone must have substituted the usual cheese for salsa looking tomato sauce that tasted like sweet pizza sauce. Maybe I should have tried the rice porridge. The usual fancy garnishes surrounded the meal. The stewardesses were tall, beautiful, cordial, and spoke perfect Airline English.

Arriving wasn't a big deal. I never heard back from my sponsor on where to meet (update from later, he thought my flight arrived in the evening). The customs line was short. They checked my orders and military ID - never looked at either passport. At the baggage claim an attendant identified me as US military and directed me through another extra checkpoint. I was asked if I had any contraband - the usual: knives/swords, explosives, drugs, agricultural products, ... or pornography, .... humm....

I made my way to the USO/military liaison desk. It was about 6AM and nobody was there. A small group of brand new Army MPs were absorbing the local wisdom from an "experienced" Air Force Captain returning from leave, who, it turned out had been there for a whopping 2 months. I bought a hot, wet, sweet, mystery roll that turned out to have seasoned veggies that tasted like meat for <$1. It was very good. One of the Army kids was giving the other crap for "only" meeting one Koran girl on the flight. He had met 3. Yeah...I still haven't been mistaken for a local, but I don't stick out like these guys.

I was told the bus ride would be over an hour - it's been almost 2. Seoul was about 25 Km away, and we were flying thorough beautiful countryside for a long ways. One turn later we hit a wall of traffic. Cars here look normal: left hand steering wheel, more Kias and Hyundais than usual, but many have funny little dishes facing their rear windshields that are centered or on the passenger side. They look like mirrors, maybe Fast Trak devices? I'll find out...

Motorcycles do make their own lanes here, as does our bus driver. One just cut off the road across a shopping center sidewalk and back on. Traffic here looks wild. We just pulled up to a guard gate...later...

More images here.

Travel Day 1 29SEPT07

2007-09-30T23:10:00.000-07:00

Adam asked for a blog, so here goes...enjoy because I doubt they'll last long...

It's about 4AM and I'm just north of where I-5 crosses I-80, less than ten miles from where my family saw me off 11 hours ago. Everything's going according to plan. I'm squished between a 747 window and a young Korean boy with stinky breath. My two word Korean vocabulary, consisting of Kim Chi and 2 words for yes (ye, ne), isn't cutting it! We just ate a delicious mean consisting of ground hamburger and steamed veggies. You mix chile paste and rice in. They also served seaweed soup, wine, coffee, fruit, and other spicy garnishes. Sounds boring, but it was great! I tried asking my neighbor what the various dishes were called in Korean. The best I got was "pickle" as I pointed to the side of spicy pickle slices. I was later told that they translate many things to "pickle". Humm?

Returning to Sacramento 11 hours ago, I arrived at the airport 2.5 hours early - my mother had recently been caught in a long line. Our Bella Brus lunch also went more quickly than we'd planned. As I exited the 1 man security line I caught sight of a cute girl sitting alone at a wine tasting store - score! Turns out she was a soil engineer from San Diego. After completing her masters degree and 2 years experience she had flown to Sacramento to take some big geological test. The older waitress there was the real talker. She was SOOO impressed that I'm a Boeger, apparently one of her favorites. Earlier that day she served, and complained to, the head of CA DMV. 5 comparative wine samples later I was a talker too.

Now to LAX, where I had another 3 hour layover. I considered visiting the USO - they're always great, but I'm glad I didn't. I arrived at gate 6 or 7, then hiked across this long tunnel that felt like the whole airport to get to gate 5. A ten minute Mc'y Ds stop, then exited the airport and walked past terminal 4, then 3, the international terminal. Talk about a zoo! The line to the metal detectors took an hour alone. Fast forward past the ID checker who'd never seen an "official passport", the creepy Asian guy that kept cutting in front of me (I was the creepy half-Asian that kept cutting back), the currency exchange, an hour and a half enjoying my Cingular Internet access, and an absurdly long runway wait.

I'm looking at our flight profile on my personal LCD screen, the application that will sell me movies or music, play video games, and display our realtime flight info. We're now over Vancouver. We will curve up over Alaska and that huge Asian peninsula that I should know from Risk.

Seoul, here we come! Time to get some sleep...