Wash Day

Sunday is my wash day, but today was special. After some confusion at the store, I finally found an 8 meter long clothesline which I can temporarily stretch across my apartment. So today I washed my blankets (Korean-style sheets), and now my place looks like a tent.

Choco Pie

Choco Pies, a Korean favorite snack food. For folks back home, think Moon Pie. Chocolate Moon Pie.



So tell me readers, which is more pathetic.... (a) that one of the local networks produced a 30 minute program devoted to the history and development of the Choco Pie? or (b) that The Stumbler actually WATCHED a 30 minute program devoted to the history and development of the Choco Pie?

Speaking of Choco Pies, I found this interesting (but 3 years old) article on the Arirang website while searching (unsuccessfully) for a link to the above-mentioned show:

Korean Confectionary Firm Produces a Choco-Pie Index to Gauge Consumer Prices

You may have heard the terms like "the Big Mac index" and the Starbuck's Tall Latte index. By tracking the prices of those popular foods around the world industry watchers compare exchange rates and prices in different countries.

Well most recently Korea's confectionary manufacturer Orion came up with an index of its own based on the prices of its all-time favorite product Choco-Pie a chocolate-covered snack. The company says as with the Big Mac the Choco-Pie is a standardized product selling well around the world. The regular box of 12 pies costs 1 U.S. dollar and 99 cents in Korea. New Zealand had the highest Choco-Pie index of 3-point-34 dollars. China, Vietnam and Russia were the three countries where the product was the cheapest costing as little as a dollar 39 cents for a box.

MAY 04, 2005

I had no luck finding a chart of the Choco Pie index behavior over the past three years, but then again, I am not familiar with financial data websites.

e-Lock

At the office, I have repeatedly forgotten to bring my key. If CH was out at a meeting, I would have to go back home and get it. This week our colleague WT decided on his own to install an electronic door lock (CH and I were out all day at the factory). It's great! It is the same style that I've had on the apartments here.





A few years ago, Mrs. Stumbler bought a similar electronic lock for the front door. She installed it on her own, but I remember helping at some point aligning the lock's bolt with the hole in the door frame. What I like about this lock that WT bought is that it looks much easier to install. Since it's bolted to the outside of the door, I think the latch and bolt would be much easier to align than were it mounted inside the door. So, unless one of us forgets and locks the door the old style with the key, I don't need to worry about forgetting my office key in the future.

Corn Silk

The Stumbling Mom reported that she had found a Korean "pure corn silk" tea, which was said to be delicious. I was suspicious, and asked my Korean teacher about this. After a few problems trying to translate "corn silk", it turns out that indeed there is such a tea. In fact, I've seen it advertised often, and just didn't know it. It is popular as a bottled drink, though they might sell tea bags. In the grocery store, I see all kinds of various teas. I only know how to find the brand of green tea that I like, and of course I can find regular english tea (they call it "black tea").

Here is a photo of a bottle of corn silk tea I bought to give The Stumbling Mom...

Toothless

UPDATE: The procedure went very well yesterday. Everything was very familiar to me - that is, the Korean dentist's tools and techniques seemed the same to me as my dentist back home. Only one difference - they have cable TV at this place. During a couple of short breaks while the technician was working on the temporary crown, I was allowed to watch the Discovery Channel! Of course, the part I was most afraid of, pulling the old tooth's root, was not done until the very end of the appointment, thus building up my anticipation (and fear). It didn't really hurt at all, but it was a real strange feeling. Especially the sound - I guess because all this is connected to my jaw bones, it seemed that I could hear even the smallest sound as the tooth was being pulled. With the tooth out, he put in a couple stitches and then the technician cemented in the temporary crown. I'm supposed to go back in this morning for a few minutes - for what, I'm not sure. But it isn't a problem - this dentist is located in my office building, so it's very close. Let me conclude by saying this procedure went much better than I was anticipating. They did a good job and I was far more comfortable than I imagined. If anyone want's a dentist recommendation here in Seoul, let me know.



I was out for dinner and some light drinking with JI on Tuesday night, and ended up breaking off one of teeth almost completely! I wish I could report an exciting story, say, I was in a big street fight defending the reputation of American beef. Or at least I tripped on my own feet (don't laugh, it's happened even when no drinking was inolved) and stumbled down two flights of stairs. Alas, the truth is so dull. I was simply eating from a small bowl of peanuts, when one particular peanut happened to snap off the tooth! Fortunately, the tooth didn't hurt, although I've had a strong, dull headache since then.

In hindsight, the tooth had been repaired a long time back, I think it was in the 1980's with a root canal. It was already weakened, and the peanut just happened to press on it the wrong way. After visiting the dentist, and confering with my USA dentist, I'm going to have a crown installed. I had a mold made yesterday, and today they will extract the remaining root and install a temporary crown. After two months, they will install a permanent crown. Even though I don't normally enjoy dental work, surprisingly I'm able to tolerate most procedures pretty well. But I remember having my wisdom teeth pulled many years ago, and it wan't too pleasant. Hopefully this will be better.

Andre Kim

On my recent trip to the USA, I was re-directed at Incheon Airport from the Business Class lounge to the First Class lounge. Apparently the Business Class lounge was overcrowded. I was relaxing in the lounge, when I decided to go visit the toilet. Well, both toilet stall doors were locked, but one fellow was unsuccessfully either trying to lock or unlock his door - there was a lot of rattling of the latch. I just waited for a minute, in case he was on his way out. Suddenly, the door opened up and there I was face-to-face with Andre Kim.



Actually, Andre Kim is a famous Korean (fashion designer) that I had heard of long before I ever came to Korea. His style / appearance is, um, unique and unmistakeable. At first I thought I was looking at an astronaut! Anyway, later in the lounge I saw him departing, and noticed that he doesn't carry his own luggage, either. He has an assistant carry it for him. But then again, if I live to be 73 years old, maybe I'll NEED an assistant to carry my bags.

Now I can claim that I've used the same toilet bowl as a world-reknown fashion designer...

(photo shamelessly stolen from YeinJee's Asian Journal)

Hammer Food

A new restaurant "stall" opened up in the food court downstairs in our office building. It sells Chinese-style food. They had an item on display in the glass case where you choose your meal, identified as "Hammer Food". Actually, instead of the word "Food", they used the Korean word Tang-soo-yook, which is basically sweet and sour pork with vegetables. I was curious why it was called Hammer food, and CH couldn't understand, either.



Now, being from the USA, I can use a knife, fork and spoon. Having travelled around Asia and having lived in Seoul, I can also use wooden, plastic and stainless steel chopsticks. I have even tried eating Indian food with my hands in Singapore. But I have NEVER eaten with a hammer!

Turns out there was a fried tortilla "cone" covering the dish, and you are supposed to crack it open with the wooden hammer. Interesting gimmick. But it was delicious. And now I can add hammer to my eating utensil repetoire.

Kitty Kountries

I have now accumulated 26 different countries in my Hello Kitty "country national flowers" collection. According to Wikipedia, there can be up to 193 different countries in the world, depending on your definition of "country". But should I get all those magnets, I'll need a few more refrigerators!

My count of 26 doesn't include the 35 or so duplicates. When I buy my diet cokes in the morning, the man at the store has taken to giving me a big fat handful of the magnets at one time. Today I hit the jackpot, getting 5 new countries and only 1 duplicate!

Rubbish

I happened to be taking out some trash early Wednesday morning, which is the next day after Recycling Day on Tuesday. I was surprised to see just how much recycled material was bundled up ready to be carried off:

Questions, Questions

I saw something that one of my cousins would be interested in, and I was trying to search for it on the internet. I found it, but I needed to register on a Korean website. I went through this long process, only at the very end to be told that I had previously registered and didn't need to do it again. Well, this morning I visited an American website, and was suddenly prompted that my profile needed to be updated - they needed answers to some "security questions", or else I would be denied access to their site in the future. How are these incidents related? Well, in each case there was a long list of questions from which to choose, and you were requested to provide an answer.

American-based Web Security Questions:

What is the name of the first school you attended?

What is your paternal grandmother’s given name?

What is your father’s middle name?

What was your favorite place to visit as a child?

What is the name of your first pet?

Where did you meet your spouse / partner?

What is the phone number you remember most from your childhood?

What is the name of your childhood best friend?

Korean-based Web Security Questions:

What is your place of birth?

What is my motto?

What is my number 1 treasure?

What is the name of my most memorable teacher?

What is a secret about my body that no one else knows?

What is a date I want to remember for a long time?

What is a memorable gift I have received?

What is the name of my most memorable friend?

What is the name of the book that left a deep impression on me?

What is a phrase I like from a book I have read?

Who do I look up to?

What would I be if I were born again?

What is my favorite cartoon character?

What was my dream during elementary school?

Who is number 3 on my cell phone?

Where did I go to elementary school?

What is the name of my pet?

What is my favorite Karaoke song?

What movie left a deep impression on me?

What is my favorite sports team?

What struck me was the difference in the questions between the Korean and the American website. To be fair, there were a few identical questions, such as "what is the name of your first pet" or "what is the name of your first school"? But most of the questions were SO different, I'm sure it says something about the difference between the two cultures. But being an engineer and not a social scientist, WHAT it says about the culture differences I have no idea.

However, having been in Korea so long, I guess I need to make a personal motto and try to remember my elementary school dreams, just in case I need to register again on a Korean website. As for the item I was searching for my cousin, I'm still waiting on a reply, don't know if I will be able to get it or not.

Costco Shopping

Finally made it to Costco this evening. And I can confirm that weekday shopping is by far the best way to go.

First, I found a pizza small enough to fit in my tiny oven. It is thin crust, and I mean super thin crust:



I cut up some of this Italian sandwich meat and added to the pizza before baking. I thought this looked similar to pepperoni, and it worked out well.



I break up the large package into two, and freeze one. There are three meats in the pack, and I can only identify the Salami. It was the meat in the upper-left of this photo that I cut up and put on the pizza - it must be either Calabrese or Capocollo.



This was my first time to bake a pizza in the oven. I tried to pre-heat it as instructed on the package. Problem was, the display on the oven didn't show me the current temperature, only the set temperature. I just let it heat for about 15 minutes, then put the pizza in. The box said cook it 10-15 minutes, and I set the timer for 12. It was almost burned when I checked it at 11 minutes! I forgot that the convection oven cooks quicker than a regular oven. Fortunately, it was not ruined, and it came out pretty good for my first time.

The standard hamburgers and hot dogs. I'll freeze all the hamburger tomorrow. The hot dogs were new - they used to sell a brand of Brats in this same size package. Besides these ones called Polish Sausage, they also had one called Cheese Dogs. I like cheese, but I'm suspicious about cheese that the factory puts in the hot dogs. If I really want cheese in my hot dog, I'll put it there myself.





I considered getting a steak, but the cuts that looked like good grilling steaks (well marbled cuts) were packaged at about $50/tray. The price per pound was probably reasonable for Korea, it was just sold in a tray of 7 or 8 steaks - far more than I need. If (and that's a big IF) they resume American beef imports, maybe I can find a decently priced steak.

Not shown here are the two large frozen bags of healthy meats, that is Salmon Steaks and Chicken Breasts.

The other interesting purchase was "organic" peanut butter. I wasn't so much interested in an organic product, but instead I wanted something reasonably sized, and creamy style instead of crunchy. When I got home, I realized that organic peanut butter separates from the natural peanut oil in shipment. I tried to stir it back up, but it was too stiff to stir without making a mess. Finally I put it into the blender, and managed to mix it that way. Problem is, it made a big mess, and I lost a lot of peanut butter to the sides of the blender. When I was all done, the resulting peanut butter was WAY to soft and runny. I'm not very satisfied so far, and unfortunately it was a double-jar pack of peanut butter!

Latch That Window

After my recent visit to the USA, I returned to this scene in my apartment:



Turns out I had shut the window, but not latched it closed. They had some strong winds while I was away, combined with the "yellow storms" and plain old rain. You can see the line of dust left by the yellow wind. Not visible are the small warped bumps on my sofa arm (it is wooden and contains a small drawer). That'll teach me.

While I am not a good housekeeper, and don't dust and vacuum often enough, I can assure you that this dust photo is indeed yellow wind from China, and NOT the result of my poor cleaning.

Hello Kitty Condom?

It was pouring down rain this morning, and I forgot my umbrells. After getting out of the taxi, I ran into a 7-11 in my office's building. I don't usually visit this place, but I could get there without getting wetter (see below grammar note). I shook the rain off my eyeglasses and computer bag, and headed for the soda cooler. As I was paying for my Diet Cokes (excuse me, Coke Lights), the lady handed me what I thought was a CONDOM with my change! I asked the two clerks in my broken Korean, "What is this thing?" They both kept saying "Hello Kitty". Incredulous, I asked them "This is a Hello Kitty CONDOM?"



They broke down laughing, and finally I realized it was one of these "discs" that you are supposed to collect, one from each country! Had I not read about this collection mania on another ex-pat's blog [scroll down to "I Have A Hello Kitty Addiction" and read up from there], I would still be wondering what on earth this thing was. As it stands, I now have a collection of 1 from Taiwan:



GRAMMAR NOTE: speaking of "wetter", I learned some grammar the otherday while taking a shower with my new Shower Radio. They were playing one of these "Let's Learn English" program, and were talking about Comparatives and Superlatives. I learned that when the word has one syllable, say WET, the comparative uses the -ER suffix, for example, WETTER. But if the word has multiple syllables, say INTELLIGENT, then the comparative is made with the words MORE or LESS, for example MORE INTELLIGENT. Wikipedia says to "use MORE or LESS with polysyllabic words borrowed from foreign languages". I'm not sure about that foreign language part, but I don't trust Wikipedia 100% anyway. I knew this intuitively, but I didn't know there was an actual rule for it! Now I know why many Korean friends can't answer my detailed Korean language grammar questions!

Memorial Day Plans

Spending almost all my time in Korea, I forgot about things like national holidays. This point was made clear to me this week. I was in the USA when my Korean colleague CH had a sudden business trip to a nearby city. Well, we couldn't let this opportunity pass, so I extended my stay a few days. We arranged for CH to visit our office and meet all the staff. After all the arrangements were made, I realized that the scheduled day was Memorial Day, and nobody would be at the office! We scrambled to make another plan, and it actually worked out well. We met the two company owners in the morning for breakfast, then CH came to my house for a Memorial Day outdoor picnic.

First, I brushed some red potatoes with olive oil, and sprinkled them with Hawaiian sea salt, chives, and garlic powder. Put them on the grill for about 30 minutes, turning every 10 minutes.





Actually, I would love to have a large grill here in Seoul, but my apartment doesn't have an outdoor balcony (technically I live in an "office-tel"). And even if I HAD a balcony, I've heard grilling on the balcony is discouraged. Hmmmm, but there is a small "park" on the 13th floor right outside my door... I'll have to think about that.

While that was cooking outside, inside Mrs. Stumbler prepared green beans, yellow squash, salad, homemade bread. As soon as the potatoes were finished, I put the ribeye steaks on the grill.



We finally sat down to eat. It was a little warm outside on Monday, but fortunately we were not bothered by the mosquitoes. Here we all are enjoying the food.





After the meal, we brought out some watermelon for dessert. The Stumbling Brother gave me this hat, which I couldn't help putting on the watermelon. After watching the Indiana Jones movie last week, this seemed appropriate:



Check out the "bird's feet" pattern in the watermelon...



We were so full, there was no more room to eat the cheese cake! Thoroughly stuffed, I drove CH to a nearby city for his meetings. Actually, I beat CH back to Korea by one day. Assuming no delays, he should get here tonight.

Proud Again

Twice in one week! Last night Young Stumbler #2 graduated from High School! We are all so proud of him. Now 50% of The Stumbling Children have graduated - 50% more to go. The graduation ceremony took place in a large arena, which appears to be frequenly used for Hockey games!







There were a lot of people there. In fact, even though the class size (about 450) was similar to YS#1 graduation ceremony, I think the crowd was about twice the size! Also, the crowd was more casually dressed than at the University graduation. Given the heat in the arena, I can't really blame them. I took my coat off for the whole ceremony it was so warm. I couldn' resist taking a picture of this young fellow with a mohawk haircut:



Here is YS#2 receiving his diploma from the school principal:



I tried to get a good photo, but I was't quick enough. When the last student graduated, the principal stated "I now declare you to be graduated", ALL the students threw their caps up into the air. It was quite impressive, although in this photo you can barely see a hat or two:



By this time it was 9:30pm. We tried to meet at a steak house YS#2 receommended, but it was closed. We went to a nearby place instead, and enjoyed a good (but slow) dinner. I think every restaurant in the city was crowded from the graduation crowd going out to eat and celebrate. Here is YS#2 and his Proud Stumbling Parents:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

This week was full of celebrations. Last night we celebrated YS#4 Birthday! She is now 8 years old! Congratulations!



Check out this strawberry cake!!! It tastes as good as it looks:





Fuzzy, and I mean fuzzy, slippers:

So So Proud

Yesterday Young Stumbler #1 graduated from college. The Stumbler, indeed the whole family, are so so proud of her. Here are some photos and narration...

We arrived at the gradutation creremony about 1 hour early, but as you can see the seats were already filling up! We chose some seats at the very back of the auditorium, right behind the orchestra! I worried it would be too loud, but actually it was quite nice.







Here's YS#4 and The Stumbling Father:



The ceremony began by all the faculty and graduations students marching into the auditorium. Here is YS#1 walking in. During the whole ceremony whenever she walked right by us, she never saw all the family waving at her.



Finally everyone was at their seat, and the ceremony began. We got to listen to a few speeches, then they began calling everyone's name for the graduation.



Here is YS#4 leaving her seat and heading to the stage:



And the magic moment - she receives her diploma (sorry for the grainy photo, but I was sitting so far away, I'm lucky to have gotten the photo at all):



Right after the ceremony was over, EVEYONE went outside to hook up with their new graduates. It was very crowded, but we finally found YS#1. Here she is, thinking "WHAT??? I HAVE TO GET A JOB???"



Here is the happy graduate and her family:





We went back to her dorm room, and we finished some last minute packing. We filled two cars with her things ("I will have just a couple of boxes left, Dad" she had told me the week before).



As I was packing the car, I decided to make her teddy bear (who has been around almost as long as YS#1) a college graduate, too: