Back to Seoul

I made it back to Korea okay. It's interesting that during 1 month in the USA, I don't think that I heard one news report about the Swine Influenza. On the flight, they handed out an extra form to fill out, regarding the flu. We were told to turn it in when we deplaned. That was interesting - the took my form and I think checked my temperature. It looked like a thermometer that you use in your ear, except this on didn't actually go inside my ear. He just pointed it into my ear.

Then two days later, I got a phone call from someone in the government (health department?). She said they were following up on all passengers arriving from America, and wanted to check that I was not experiencing flu symptoms (I am not). My colleague CH reported that they also called him two weeks ago when he returned from the USA. They are taking this flu very seriously here.



Today I made a short trip to Costco, and finally found a small George Foreman grill. It is a very small one, a good size for cooking for one. What kept me from buying one in the past is that the few such grills I've found here in Korea were all too large.

I noticed that Jackie Chan is now promoting the grill, along with George Foreman! There is an Asian recipie book entitled "Jackie Chan's 10 Favorite Recipes" included in the package. It is nice to have an owner's manual for a Korean appliance that includes text in English as well as Korean (in fact, there's Japanese and Chinese, too). I think I could do a lot more with my oven and rice machine if I could only read the instructions.



Finally, I want to thank the kind family that let me sit at their table in the Costco cafeteria (chicken bake and sweet pickle relish - yummmm). As usual, I made the mistake of visiting Costco on Sunday, the most crowded day of the week, and there were no free tables in the dining area. I was pleasantly surprised when I heard a voice in English ask if I would like a seat. My table mates were Korean Americans, living in both Korea and Virginia, back here in Seoul for summer vacation.