SPAM Received

The Stumbling Brother finally received his SPAM gift set all the way from Korea. It was quite a long haul for this case of SPAM. First of all, I decided it would be easy to carry it home from the store instead of taking a taxi. My arm was about 2 inches longer by the time I arrived home that night. Next, I tried to convince The Stumbling Parents to bring "some SPAM" back home for their son. They agreed until they saw the size of the gift set - it was bigger than their suitcase! Finally I took it with me on my business trip last month to Hawaii. But not before I spent several hours on the internet and telephone with various Government agencies trying to learn if it was legal to bring SPAM into the country. Finally a kind doctor at the Department of Agriculture (or was it Food and Drug Adminstration?) told me that canned pork was okay, but canned beef would be a problem.

So, for the first time ever, I checked the "I am carrying meat into the country" box on the customs form when I arrived in Honolulu. The clerk asked me to show them the meat, which I did. He got a good laugh at all that SPAM. He opened up a file cabinet with over a hundred books of regulations, but when I explained my various phone calls with the USDA, he agreed that SPAM should be no problem and let me go. Whew... I was sweating for awhile there.





The last leg of the journey was by UPS Ground (from Hawaii????), where it encountered a train delay somewhere en-route from Canada to Tennessee. CANADA??? Why was my package in Canada in the first place? I am so confused. So this SPAM gift set has gone from Seoul South Korea to the Hawaiian Islands to Ontario Canada and finally to Alabama. To The Stumbling Brother... Bon Appetite!

Q-Turn?

I see occasionally very unusual road diagram signs here in Seoul. For example, some interchanges (IC in Konglish) are notoriously complicated. The diagram of one of these ICs looks like something from an advanced organic chemistry book. And I've never have my camera handy. But the other day CH and I were driving to a meeting, and we came to this stop light. I was able to whip out the camera in time to snap this photo. It's not one of the complicated IC diagrams, but it is interesting. You've heard of "U" turns of course, and probably you know "P" turns. What on earth is this one? I named it a "Q" turn (fortunately we were only turning left and didn't have to follow this crazy path):



Briefly, U turns of course turn you around so you're going in the opposite direction. In Seoul, sometimes at a busy intersection that has cloverleafs, and you can't turn left directly. Instead you cross through the intersection in the right-hand lane, then turn right immediately on the cloverleaf. With this manoeuver, called the "P" turn, you end up effectively making a left turn.

Dumb and Babo

Awhile back, the movie "Dumb and Dumber" was recommended to me. I'm not quite sure why - perhaps I look like someone who is dumb? Or perhaps I look like I enjoy dumb movies? Anyway, Sunday night I had nothing to do so I walked around the corner to the DVD rental shop. I looked for it myself at first, and despite that fact that I know the Korean alphabetization method, I still haven't quite figured out how this shop arranges the movies on the shelves. So finally I had to go ask the clerk: Do you have the movie "Dumb and Dumber"? She started laughing at me! She nodded yes, and proceeded to get it for me. I still am not sure why she was laughing at me.



Well, I watched the movie and really liked it. I guess I am a person who enjoys stupid movies. Later I read on the internet that this movie launched Jim Carrey's career. Also, I'm not sure how I missed this movie. It came out in 1994. You would have thought I would have had a chance to see it in the 13 years since. I would place it in the same category as Airplane! [1980] and Young Frankenstein [1974], although not quite a good as those classics. Interestingly, I noticed that Terry Garr, whom you may remember from a 1968 episode of Star Trek, appeared in both Young Frankenstein and Dumb and Dumber.

Title explanatory note: in Korean, DUMB = BABO (바보)

Slow Sunday

I was pretty slow and lazy yesterday (Sunday). I was bored, so I decided to go visit an area near the Han River, not too far from the nearby Costco store. I walked around some, and especially enjoyed the Han River Park in this area. Problem was the cold and wind. I couldn't walk very far on the river parkway because it was so cold. Later I learned it went well below freezing yesterday afternoon and evening! Here are some views





Here is a stop for the new "water taxis" recently introduced. I've never been on one, and believe me, yesterday was not a good day to be on the water.



I got a kick out of this sign. Since I like puns, this sign on a tall building under construction was especially interesting. From the English point of view, the name "Viewtiful" is a good pun on Beautiful and View, both of which this building will have being right on the Han River. What makes this more interesting is that in Korean, the words Beautiful and Viewtiful are spelled exactly the same. At first I thought it was someone's Konglish mistake, but on further thought I believe it was intentional.



Next, I've never seen a crooked power pole before:



Finally, some more good Konglish.

To help to make happy life with those whom you want to be in this moment

To help to enjoy leisure time through various culture marketing and find beauty of life.

I wish I had held the camera steadier, can't quite make out the third one.

Armburn

I burned myself yesterday with boiling water. I was making a Korean dish which required boiling some noodles, similar to cooking spaghetti noodles. The food is called JJajangmyun (짜장면). It is usually better to have this dish delivered, but I happened to have some in the freezer and decided to cook it.




When it came time to put them in the strainer in the sink, I made a mistake. My pots in Korea don't have a long handle, but instead have two small handles on opposite sides of the pot. I don't have any pot holders, but instead just us a kitchen rag as a pot holder. Well, I only had one rag nearby, so I foolishly tried to carry the pot to the sink using only one hand and one handle. I almost made it to the sink when the pot fell from my grip. I got boiling water splashed on my arm - BUT I was able to save most of the noodles!



I immediately put it under cold water and used some ice on it. But it still hurt pretty bad. I tried to visit a nearby clinic which my colleague CH told me was open on Sundays. Indeed it was open on Sundays, but it had closed just an hour eariler than my accident! I went back home, applied some lotion to the burn, and took some Tylenol. I took a short nap, and when I woke up it felt MUCH better. This morning it feels even better. There was a slight sting when I took my shower, but I'm not worried about it anymore and don't plan to try the clinic again. It sure looks much worse than it feels. I took the photo this morning, but yesterday after it happened my arm was MUCH redder.

I will not be boiling any more water until I go to the store and buy some of these:



Credit to Sue at My Korean Kitchen for the JJajangmyun photo which I shamelessly stole from her site.

Island Time

Once more I took a short trip to Hawaii. I didn't take many photos this time, but got a few odd shots. First, for those of you old enough to remember the movie Airplane!, you may remember Jimmie Walker (J.J. from Good Times) appeared in the beginning of the movie. His character washed the airplane's windows and checked under the hood for the oil. Well, when I was waiting on the airplane, I happened to see this very same sight right outside the window! He didn't check the oil, but this guy was washing the windows with what looked like a very long dust mop. I wasn't able to catch the cleaning mop in the photo, but you'll have to trust me - the guy on this lift was actually cleaning the windows:



And here's old JJ doing it his way:



Here's what bi-bim-bap looks like on the airplane:





Here's my first animated GIF - this is the plane chasing it's shadow as we land at Incheon. (Looks like you have to click on the photo to get the animated effect)

Sillegal

Silly + Legal = Sillegal.



I read these in the newspaper this morning. A survey of 4000 people was taken by a television show (which featured a legal drama program) to vote on the top 10 crazy laws in the UK. I assumed it was a UK television network, though the article wasn't clear. Anyway, here are the results:

1. It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament (27%)

2. It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British king or queen's image upside-down (7%)

3. It is illegal for a woman to be topless in Liverpool except as a clerk in a tropical fish store (6%)

4. Eating mince pies on Christmas Day is banned(5%)

5. If someone knocks on your door in Scotland and requires the use of your toilet, you are required to let them enter (4%)

6. In the UK a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants, including in a policeman's helmet (4%)

7. The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the King, and the tail of the Queen (3.5%)

8. It is illegal not to tell the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing (3%)

9. It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament wearing a suit of armour

10. It is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls of York, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow (2%)

I thought these were pretty funny. You've got to think carefully about #8. I cannot vouch for the truthfulness of these, so before you go hunting for a Scottish archer within the walls of York, please check with your UK legal advisor first. And whatever you do, don't die in Parliament while wearing a suit of armour!

Cool Car

I'm not one who usually oogles over cars, but I must make an exception in this case. Twice this year I have seen this Mercedes Benz driving on the road, and my eyes popped out! I've included a couple photos from the internet, but they don't do it justice. This car has such a radical look, when you see it contrasted with other cars on the highway it really stands out.





I have no idea if this is available all over the world or not. But keep your eyes out - if you see one there will be no mistaking it. If you are reminded of a crescent moon shape, that's the car. Oh - the model is the CLS-350.

Reading

To answer Young Stumbler #1's question recently, YES, the book on Einstein that I am reading is written by Walter Isaacson. I am really enjoying this book, but that may not be surprising since I often like biographies and books about history. Even if you are not an Engineer, Physicist, or Mathematician, this book is very enjoyable and interesting. At least through the first half of the book, which is as far as I've read.

What really surprises me is that Mr. Isaacson has made some of Einstein's concepts very clear to me. Apparently Einstein himself wrote several books aimed at the layman to explain his theories, and just the few quotes in this book really helped me. I was exposed to these theories in Physics classes at Engineering School, but I had a difficult time grasping their meaning. I only wish our teachers had taken just a few minutes to put these discoveries in their historical context, and present some of the very simple thought experiments that Einstein himself employed to explain these things. If my crusty and stubborn 45-year-old brain can still understand the theory of relativity, imagine how much more so my 20-year-old brain could have understood it.



Speaking of the aging process, I am embarassed to show my other reading material these days. I'm not embarassed about the book, but about the reading glasses that I must wear! Somehow I ended up with this very old book from my parents home MANY years ago, and decided to start reading it. The problem is, the print is SO SMALL! With great embarassment, I found a pair of cleap reading glasses and I must use them to read this book. In my defense, I don't use reading glasses for any other reading. For some reason, this particular edition has REALLY tiny printing.

Impostor

I am going to join the trend here in Korea amongst celebrities - and admit that I was posing as a graduate of a university which I didn't attend! Well, I was only an impostor for one night, and I was a pretty bad impostor, since I openly admited being an impostor. And lest anyone get worked up, I really AM a university graduate, just from a better another engineering school.

During The Stumbling Parents' visit to Korea, I mentioned that we met with KA and MA, the visiting professor and his wife. In order to tell this story, I must further reveal that KA is a professor from Mississippi State University (MSU). As luck would have it, this week they had the first ever international MSU alumni chapter meeting here in Seoul, and KA invited me to come along! [ for my Korean friends, "XXX alumni" are people who graduated from XXX university - my dictionary calls them 졸업생들 ] We had expected it would be about a dozen men getting together for an official 30 minutes or less meeting, then adjourn to a Korean BBQ restaurant. Was I in for a surprise.

I arrived at the Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul, which was my first time to visit this place. Wow, it was a huge hotel and really nice inside (I'm glad TSP didn't see this place, or they would have been disappointed with the Niagara Hotel). I realized this was going to be a big deal when they told us to go to a meeting room on the 36th floor of the hotel. There they had namecards for everyone (me included), and we were introduced to the MSU President and Alumni Director, both having traveled to Korea specially for this meeting! KA/MA brought WB, an American MSU graduate (not an imposter) who is teaching at a university in southern Korea, near where KA is teaching.

All of us westerners were seated together at one of the front tables while we listened to the speeches and ate dinner. I was further surprised when the speaker thanked me personally by name for attending the dinner, and then realized my name (along with the other Americans) was featured prominently in the evening's program! WB and I were thanked for "being active in Korea as the MSU alumni", and KA and MA were thanked "for being together at this place today". It was too much.

Here is KA and MA, pointing to my name in the evening's program:


Here is the MSU President giving his speech:


WB trying to put on his MSU baseball cap:


Trying to cram everyone into one big picture:


But no, there was more. After we were finally finished with speeches and dinner, the brought out presents to give to all the Americans attending the meeting! I will confess that I did admit the truth to the MSU president and alumni director - I am NOT an alumni from MSU, but rather I am a Rambling Wreck. However, I do have some connections to MSU. I have two family members who are alumni, the engineering director at my first company of 12 years was also an alumni, and my current company's president is an alumni (he's the one who introduced KA to me, since they were college friends many years ago).

Well, here is the nice gift bag I received:


Cufflink and Tie Clasp set:


Wallet and Belt set:


Here is the program cover from the evening:


And the non-Korean menu. It was delicious.


I was worried about eating duck jello. I expect my jello to be sweet. Once I got over the shock of jello tasting like meat, it was actually pretty good. The rest of the meal was first class. MA especially enjoyed it - she has been having a tough time adjusting to Korean food.

We finished up about 9pm, and my friend JI called me. Last night was his infrequent dinner out with fellow students from his English Academy. They often request that I join them so they can speak English with me, but I've only gone once or twice in the past 6 months. Since it was only a few subway stops away, along the way home, I stopped by for an hour or so and spoke English with a bunch of Koreans at a Chinese restaurant - how strange is that?



I told them my story about being an imposter at the MSU alumni meeting. These guys immediately reminded me about the recent scandals here in Korea which I mentioned at the start of this post. If the press catches me being an imposter, I will have no choice but to return these nice gifts. I don't mind returning the cuff links, since I don't have any French cuff shirts, nor the belt, since it is too small for me (or should I say my belly is too big for the belt). But I'd like to at least keep the tie clasp and the wallet... please....

Canteen

Last night I met my friend JI and one of his buddies JM for dinner. JM suggested a fusion chicken restaurant, which sounded good until I heard that they tried to eat there previously but got lost and didn't find the place. We walked quite awhile, but eventually found it. My first impression was that the place was closed. The lighting was very dim. We sat down and ordered our food, and as I looked around I realized I was eating on the set of the TV show M*A*S*H. This place was decorated to look like an army camp. I was even more surprised when they brought our beers to use in metal canteen cups:



This cup is from the standard US Army WWII canteen (maybe Korean War, too). Back in the USA, I have one of these exact same canteens in the garage!



The place is called The Flying Chicken, but I can't quite connect the name to the decor. They have a website, but even knowing a little Korean I can't figure out how the website is related to the restaurant. There are no photos of food or menus that I can see. Strange.

When I went to buy a loaf of bread today, I noticed some bagels for sale. They had blueberry ones, but I don't really like blueberries. So instead I got a sweet potato bagel! It's not exactly our American sweet potato, but a similar one famous here in Korea. I'm planning to eat it for breakfast, but I don't have cream cheese. Either I'll eat it with jelly or melt some cheddar cheese on it.



Finally let me show this interesting fried snack that came with a place of french fries the other night. I thought it was a weird onion ring, but actually it was potato. Happy Potato.

Chobap

A new restaurant opened up this week on the 1st floor of my building. It is called U9, and apparently is owned by the BHC and/or BBQ chicken restaurants (I don't understand the whole story). They serve Donkatsu (something we ate on The Stumbling Parents' visit) and Chobap. I don't understand the sushi / sashimi distinction very well, but I believe Korean Chobap is closest to sushi. It is slices of raw (or marinated or smoked?) fish served on top of small balls of rice. I had been craving this for a couple weeks now, and we never had a chance to try this during the trip. So tonight I had nothing to do so I went down to eat Chobap along with Einstein (I'm reading a super-thick biography of him). I didn't have my camera, so here's a photo I snitched from their website:



I didn't get too much read in Einstein, however. A nice old man came and sat down next to me. I recognize him as a resident in our building. He told me all about his international travels - he has family and business in Germany and USA, besides Korea. And he served in the Vietnam War in the Marines.

When I finished up, after I paid for my food, the owner gave me a box. She said it was a present. Later I figured out it was because it is a new store. When I got back home and opened it, it was a hand towel!



It was good. Next time I'll have to try the Donkatsu, although I think it is much less healthy than Chobap.

Jealousy

Oops - I forgot the best photo yet from TSP trip! In their hotel room, they had a luxurious bathtub, with whirlpool jets and bubble bath soap. Living in an officetel, I don't have a bathtub, and I was very jealous. Here is TSF soaking in the bubbles:



By the way, I think the second best photo from the trip was of the pumpkin duck food. Neither of these top two photos were taken by me - I need to work on my photography skills.

Trip Summary

I prepared a summary of The Stumbling Parent's trip. CLICK HERE to see it (I also added a permanent link on the blog sidebar below). I did something interesting with this summary - I added Google Earth placemarks for all the various places we visited. If you have Google Earth on your computer, you should be able to click on any of the "Location" links, and you will be "flown" to that spot automatically. Pretty cool.

Takeoff

Today was the last day in Korea for TSP. I went over to their hotel in the morning, and helped them packing, and also I installed Asian fonts on TSM's computer.





After getting all packed and the car loaded, we walked down the street and ate Korean fast food at the Kimbap Heaven - you could call this the Korean McDonald's. Then it was off to the Airport. Here's the bridge to Incheon:



You can see that after 10 days in Seoul, even TSM was giving the "V" sign for photos:







I asked the Korean Air clerk to please make an exception and allow my parents to use the lounge. I told her that I was a Skyteam Elite Plus member with over 1 Million Miles. My mother came to Korea for sightseeing, and broke her toe. Could they please allow them to stay in the lounge? To my surprise, the manager easily agreed to that request. But she actually seemed more worried that she couldn't offer them adjacent seats. But TSM reported back to me that once the plane took off, the seat next to her was empty, so they got to sit together afterall. And it was a bulkhead seat, with extra legroom.

Well, that's all for the trip reports. I have prepared a trip summary, which I will post about next. We had a great time, and TSM was already making a list of places to visit "next time"....

Tea Fight

Well, for the last full day in Korea, the Yongsan Electronics Market and the traditional Korean market at Namdaemun was on the agenda. My colleague CH had been busy attenting some continuing education classes the past few days, but he was able to join us for today's outing. But before we could begin sightseeing, we had to go ONCE AGAIN to Itaewon to pick up the suit and shirts that TSF and I had made. I couldn't get TSF to pose in his new suit, but here's a photo of my shirts.



After picking up the suits, TSM finally went down the street and bought a special pot she has been talking about all week. This potter seemed to be pretty talented, and she did some research about him on the internet. He is a little bit out of place, there in Itaewon. Anyway, the pot will be shipped by ocean to the USA where it will hopefully arrive in one piece.

After those preliminaries, we headed first to Yongsan for some electronics shopping. But we were too hungry to begin shopping right away, so we searched out some Donkatsu at the food court. This is a dish from Japan that is popular here in Korea. This place was interesting, because there was a bowl at the table with regular and black sesame seeds. And a stick. While you waited for your food, you were supposed to crush up the seeds to make a seasoning - think mortar and pestle. To this was added a special Donkatsu sauce, similar to our BBQ sauces in the USA. The wiki page says it is called "Japanese [thick] Worchestershire Sauce", which is a pretty good description of it.









We were always photographing TSM with her mouth open, so I had to include at least one such picture:



So, we finally hit the shopping area. TSM was really in heaven, with floor after floor of electronic gadgets. She ended up buying a Bluetooth stereo headset for her PDA phone, and an external USB hard drive for archiving her geneological data.





After draining their pocketbooks, we left the car at Yongsan and took a taxi to the Namdaemun market.







Gee, The Stumbler is not looking very happy:



So we arrived at Namdaemun, and TSP were getting tired from all our walking. We went into a coffee shop to have some tea. Just as we were sitting down, some old women at the table behind us began to argue. Really loud. Suddenly one women threw her tea on the other lady! Then the waitress got involved in the argument and was shouting too. Finally they all settled down and left. CH told us they were arguing about money, and TSF thought he meant arguing about who would pay the bill! But the fight was too loud and angry for that, so we think it was about BIG money. Anyway that was a little excitement for the day.





We made it to the market, and got a few small things. I bought TSM an Italy Towel. We saw all sorts of interesting items for sale, and LOTS of clothes.









Well, that finished up our day. Again everyone was too tired to go out to a big dinner, so we ate again at the food court. We ate a fusion fried rice place, then drove back home.