Fire in Namdaemun

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.