Asia Update #6 - Misc. Seoul and Cheju

I have moved into my apartment now. It came with the major furniture, but not a lot of the little things (sheets, towels, blankets, etc.). I made a shopping run after getting the key and have the basics so I can stay here. It needs a lot more before it will really feel like a home. This will take some time, especially given how often I am out of town. Sure is nice, though, to be able to lay out my stuff instead of having to live out of a suitcase.

The weather in all of Asia for August is hot and muggy. Temps around 90°F every day. And none of that evening cooling we find in California - the temps only drop a few degrees at night. Sure makes exercising more difficult - need to always have lots of water and you finish your exercise dripping wet from sweat. Even just walking can be uncomfortable. I think it is a bit worse for me because my body is not used to it, so it causes me to sweat more to try to cool down. They do get 4 seasons here, and it already feels like it is cooling slightly. Probably won't be long before I'll be bitching about how cold it gets here (yes, it does snow here).

Saw a piece in the local news. The Korean Government is trying to increase imports of foreign cars by setting an example. They feel that if the leaders get foreign makes instead of local makes, ordinary people will follow. But the Government official's budget isn't enough for a foreign luxury car, so both BMW and Mercedes are offering significant discounts to these leaders. Sounds like a scam to me to allow the leaders to get luxury cars which they normally couldn't afford without the taxpayers thinking that the leaders are living too high on the hog. No one is complaining, so either my American point of view doesn't work here or their PR machine is superb. How do I get in on this? I'll have to talk to my boss about getting a company car, and what we should be looking at.

Had my first anxiety breakdown. Had read that this would happen. In trying to live in another culture, there are many little things that are different and it can all add up and cause you to explode. The trigger for me was my cell phone. I had a borrowed cell phone here for a while. Big complaint I had was that all the buttons and menus were in hangul (Korean). I couldn't wait for the one they were ordering for me to arrive because of course they would figure out (from my complaining) I needed this and get one for me with English instructions. It arrived yesterday, and no English instructions with it. To make it worse, it is a high end model with lots of options (they did assue that I would only want the best), which means lots of extra buttons and even a little touch screen. Then, it turns out that whoever had this number before still receives a lot of calls, and I don’t know how to respond in Korean yet to tell them that it is the wrong number... This and all the stresses of life in another country all added up and just about caused me to lose it. Thankfully, I made it through that (and the wrong number callers figured out pretty quickly that I wasn't who they wanted when I only spoke in English).

I was heading to dinner one night and saw this place (picture to right). Have to check it out in more detail the next chance I get. I suspect it won't be anything like boy scout camp was back in the States…

I'm am currently on Cheju Island. Cheju is off the southern tip of Korea and is the Korean equivalent to Hawaii (complete with it being the honeymoon capital of Korea). I have a meeting on Monday through Wednesday, so thought I'd head down early and enjoy the weekend here. Some nice sights and it is semi-tropical. Visited waterfalls, rock formations, local history sights, vista points, craters, beaches, more rock formations, etc. The island is an old volcano, so definitely has many interesting rock formations and lots of lava. And the water is clear - hopefully I'll get a chance to snorkel a bit.

The symbol for the island are these semi-phallic shaped statues of gnomes made from lava rock. To the left is a picture of me getting friendly with what is supposed to be the original one. There are lots of copies of this guy in all sizes all over the island and they are available in all sizes at stores throughout the island. I heard there are two different poses they are in, and if a women rubs the correct one she will have a boy when she gets pregnant. Throughout most of Asia, boys are more desirable than girls. Interesting, no one seems to know which pose is the right one…

Rented a car today for my first driving experience in Korea. It went well enough (didn't kill anyone), though I must say I wasn't 100% in compliance with the law (thankfully, never did anything funny in front of the police). I still have to learn to find their road signs and such (they are not where I am used to seeing them). Thankfully, the traffic on Cheju is much lighter than in Seoul, so that made it easier.