South Korea
Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 1:22 am
I arrived on my new 'home' soil last Friday evening. Intend to live here for 2 years ...... maybe more. We'll see. Wagon has set the over/under at 90 days. haha
First order of business at the airport in Inchon was to exchange some American green into Korean won. One US dollar will get you about 940 korean won. So just roughly, if you want to buy something that would cost $10 you'd fork over about 10,000 won. Walking around a shop at the Inchon airport I was immediately struck by the number of zeros behind the listed price for each item. This book costs 8,500 won, that bag costs 11,000 won, this goes for 10,000 won.....and so on. Hey, it might be time to update your currency system and LOSE a few of the zeros, slants. But, what the hell does a yankee know...?
My wife's brother picked us up at the airport. His name is Yong Mun. He has an older brother who lives in Houston, and his name is Yong Un. There is yet another brother who I will meet later, and I fully expect his name to be Yong Yun ..... but I dunno. Sort of the George Foreman, all five of my sons are George, sort of deal, I guess. Yong Mun is a sweet guy. My wife tells me his is the nicest of her four siblings. When he first saw me at the airport he gave me a VERY warm handshake. Not a nutcracker handshake, but a warm..... e x t e n d e d ...... shake, ya know...? Wouldn't let go of my hand. Feeling me up. Looking in my eyes. Warm. Swear the man had a mind to kiss me on the lips. But....naaaah. Seriously, a VERY nice man.
Drove about an hr to Yong Mun's 'house'.....where my wife and I have been staying for the past few days until our apartment is ready later this week. Very gracious of him to let us stay in their 'house'. BUT, a house it is not. It is a small 2 bedroom apartment. Most all folks live in apartments here in S. Korea. Land is scarce, and only the very wealthy can afford to purchase land to put a house on. You'll drive (that's another story) for a while and see nothing but beautiful hills and low mountains, and then arrive on a few square mile area where there are 20 to 30 20-or-so story apartment buildings. So what you've got is pockets of VERY dense population. We arrived at Yong Mun's apartment building complex fairly late, around 11:00, and we were flat SCREWED on finding a parking spot. None to be found. Cars parked slanted EVERY damn direction all over the friggin' lot. Cars boxed in, and what not. Yong Mun shrugged it off, obviously having seen it all many times before. Said if you don't get home by 6 or 7 o'clock at night you simply won't get a place to park your car that night. I laughed. He drove us up to the door of the building, weaving in and out and around cars placed in all different directions. Yong Mun, my wife, and I unloaded our many bags from the car, and Mrs Yong Mun then came out to take the car 'somewhere' to park it for the night. Yong Mun helped us carry the bags to his 5th floor apartment, and his wife came back from parking the car somewhere about 30 minutes later, sweat on her forehead. haha
Most peeps take the train system around Korea, and it didn't take me long to see why.
I had serious jet lag, so I slept until 6pm the next day (Saturday). My wife, Yong Mun, and his wife went out around 3:00 to do a few errands, and she woke me long enough to inform me that they'd be back later, but that Yong Mun's son, Ye Chan, was in the living room playing some computer games. If I 'needed' anything I was supposed to get help from him. At 6:00 I came out of the bedroom and walked into the kitchen to see about a cup of coffee. Immediately, I felt the laser eyes of Ye Chan on me. Kid was dialed in on EVERY move I made. Appeared that the sight of a yankee rustling around in his kitchen had him shaken just a bit. haha He's 11 yrs old, but that's actually 10, because kids are considered to be one yr old at birth in Korea. Smart boy, Ye Chan is. He approached me, introduced himself to me, saying, "I am Kwon Ye Chan". Last name first in Korea. Ye Chan helped me make some coffee, got me some yogurt and toast to eat, and then showed me how to dispose of my garbage. Yes, 4 separate bags to place garbage in. One for plastic, one for light paper, one for heavy paper (newspaper or cardboard), and one for food. You can't just slop everything into one bag like you can in the good ol' US of A.
After I ate, Ye Chan took me across the street to a NICE park to place some soccer with him. He took a liking to me, and just kept on rambling on and on and on to me in Korea lingo. I'd just sort of nod, smile, and say "yeah? really? is that right?" And on and on he'd prattle about who knows what. Lovely park it is. Five nice clay tennis courts, five clay badminton courts, a nice skate park, a track, a heavily wooded walking hill, with many trails, and a VERY nice soccer field with field turf. Folks all over the area, doing their thing. Saw a sign at the entrance area and could make out that it was built in 2002. Still looks new. Couldn't help but think of my 'hometown' of Houston, and wondered how long a beautiful public park of this sort would last there before the vandals tore it all to shit. Hey, the people here are not interested in tearing their shit up. Refreshing.
I must say, however, that I don't know if there is a shower curtain to be found in Korea. The Koreans are technologically AHEAD of the US in some ways (I'll discuss another time), but they are strangely VERY far behind in bathroom ways. ha
Yong Mun's shower tub has no curtain, and the shower head is a hand-held job. Yeah, water flies EVERYDAMN where, and..... that's how it's supposed to be. There is a set of rubber flip-flops at the entrance to the bathroom, and you are to put them on whenever you go in the bathroom, because there is routinely water on the floor, ..... and everywhere else too.
I don't think I'll get comfortable with this.
Hand-held shower head sprays water, flushing up into Yong Mun's Chatahoochie Canal, and all manner of unimaginable matter is sprayed up into the room, on the mirror, the toilet seat, the floor, .... and the sink where I brush my teeth.
:?
Mix in a shower curtain, Ping...?
More later.
Peace to all, and may God bless the US of A.
Greatest land on the face of the earth.
Out..............
First order of business at the airport in Inchon was to exchange some American green into Korean won. One US dollar will get you about 940 korean won. So just roughly, if you want to buy something that would cost $10 you'd fork over about 10,000 won. Walking around a shop at the Inchon airport I was immediately struck by the number of zeros behind the listed price for each item. This book costs 8,500 won, that bag costs 11,000 won, this goes for 10,000 won.....and so on. Hey, it might be time to update your currency system and LOSE a few of the zeros, slants. But, what the hell does a yankee know...?
My wife's brother picked us up at the airport. His name is Yong Mun. He has an older brother who lives in Houston, and his name is Yong Un. There is yet another brother who I will meet later, and I fully expect his name to be Yong Yun ..... but I dunno. Sort of the George Foreman, all five of my sons are George, sort of deal, I guess. Yong Mun is a sweet guy. My wife tells me his is the nicest of her four siblings. When he first saw me at the airport he gave me a VERY warm handshake. Not a nutcracker handshake, but a warm..... e x t e n d e d ...... shake, ya know...? Wouldn't let go of my hand. Feeling me up. Looking in my eyes. Warm. Swear the man had a mind to kiss me on the lips. But....naaaah. Seriously, a VERY nice man.
Drove about an hr to Yong Mun's 'house'.....where my wife and I have been staying for the past few days until our apartment is ready later this week. Very gracious of him to let us stay in their 'house'. BUT, a house it is not. It is a small 2 bedroom apartment. Most all folks live in apartments here in S. Korea. Land is scarce, and only the very wealthy can afford to purchase land to put a house on. You'll drive (that's another story) for a while and see nothing but beautiful hills and low mountains, and then arrive on a few square mile area where there are 20 to 30 20-or-so story apartment buildings. So what you've got is pockets of VERY dense population. We arrived at Yong Mun's apartment building complex fairly late, around 11:00, and we were flat SCREWED on finding a parking spot. None to be found. Cars parked slanted EVERY damn direction all over the friggin' lot. Cars boxed in, and what not. Yong Mun shrugged it off, obviously having seen it all many times before. Said if you don't get home by 6 or 7 o'clock at night you simply won't get a place to park your car that night. I laughed. He drove us up to the door of the building, weaving in and out and around cars placed in all different directions. Yong Mun, my wife, and I unloaded our many bags from the car, and Mrs Yong Mun then came out to take the car 'somewhere' to park it for the night. Yong Mun helped us carry the bags to his 5th floor apartment, and his wife came back from parking the car somewhere about 30 minutes later, sweat on her forehead. haha
Most peeps take the train system around Korea, and it didn't take me long to see why.
I had serious jet lag, so I slept until 6pm the next day (Saturday). My wife, Yong Mun, and his wife went out around 3:00 to do a few errands, and she woke me long enough to inform me that they'd be back later, but that Yong Mun's son, Ye Chan, was in the living room playing some computer games. If I 'needed' anything I was supposed to get help from him. At 6:00 I came out of the bedroom and walked into the kitchen to see about a cup of coffee. Immediately, I felt the laser eyes of Ye Chan on me. Kid was dialed in on EVERY move I made. Appeared that the sight of a yankee rustling around in his kitchen had him shaken just a bit. haha He's 11 yrs old, but that's actually 10, because kids are considered to be one yr old at birth in Korea. Smart boy, Ye Chan is. He approached me, introduced himself to me, saying, "I am Kwon Ye Chan". Last name first in Korea. Ye Chan helped me make some coffee, got me some yogurt and toast to eat, and then showed me how to dispose of my garbage. Yes, 4 separate bags to place garbage in. One for plastic, one for light paper, one for heavy paper (newspaper or cardboard), and one for food. You can't just slop everything into one bag like you can in the good ol' US of A.
After I ate, Ye Chan took me across the street to a NICE park to place some soccer with him. He took a liking to me, and just kept on rambling on and on and on to me in Korea lingo. I'd just sort of nod, smile, and say "yeah? really? is that right?" And on and on he'd prattle about who knows what. Lovely park it is. Five nice clay tennis courts, five clay badminton courts, a nice skate park, a track, a heavily wooded walking hill, with many trails, and a VERY nice soccer field with field turf. Folks all over the area, doing their thing. Saw a sign at the entrance area and could make out that it was built in 2002. Still looks new. Couldn't help but think of my 'hometown' of Houston, and wondered how long a beautiful public park of this sort would last there before the vandals tore it all to shit. Hey, the people here are not interested in tearing their shit up. Refreshing.
I must say, however, that I don't know if there is a shower curtain to be found in Korea. The Koreans are technologically AHEAD of the US in some ways (I'll discuss another time), but they are strangely VERY far behind in bathroom ways. ha
Yong Mun's shower tub has no curtain, and the shower head is a hand-held job. Yeah, water flies EVERYDAMN where, and..... that's how it's supposed to be. There is a set of rubber flip-flops at the entrance to the bathroom, and you are to put them on whenever you go in the bathroom, because there is routinely water on the floor, ..... and everywhere else too.
I don't think I'll get comfortable with this.
Hand-held shower head sprays water, flushing up into Yong Mun's Chatahoochie Canal, and all manner of unimaginable matter is sprayed up into the room, on the mirror, the toilet seat, the floor, .... and the sink where I brush my teeth.
:?
Mix in a shower curtain, Ping...?
More later.
Peace to all, and may God bless the US of A.
Greatest land on the face of the earth.
Out..............
