Korea

Meeting up with a World Adventurer

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting for the first time someone who has been reading my blog.  Courtney came to Korea for the day on her way home from a trip to Viet Nam.  She lives in California and works for a company that frequently sends her to Southeast Asia.  She went out of her way to come to Seoul from Incheon Airport so we could have lunch today!  I was very honored.  She wanted to meet my family too, but unfortunately they couldn’t make it.  Courtney said she’s been reading World Adventurers off and on for quite some time and wanted to meet me in person.  She is a very nice person, and we had a splendid time.  It turns out that she is a good friend of one of my colleagues working in Viet Nam.  It’s a small world for globetrotters like us.
 
At noon yesterday, she came to my workplace, and we went out to eat to a local bulgogi restaurant.  She asked me whether I think Korea is really like what I write about in World Adventurers.  Yes, and no, I answered.  I try to be as honest as I can without intentionally offending, and sometimes I tone down my own opinions.  Korea has its share of frustrations, but it has also been a wonderful place to live.  Blogging to me is a bit like writing an autobiography.  It’s a chronicle of my life that occasionally glosses over reality.  Then again, very rarely will you find a completely honest autobiography.  The author always wants to look good and avoid controversy.  I asked her if there were any topics she thought I should write about, and she mentioned she would enjoy reading about cross-cultural marriages because my wife is from China.  I told her I usually avoid talking too much about my relationship with my wife out of respect for her, but I do think I can give tips on making international marriages work.  Many people marry spouses from other cultures.  Most don’t realize when they marry just how much more difficult a cross-cultural relationship can be.  It takes a lot of effort to make it work.
 
In case you’re wondering, she gave me permission to talk about our get together.  If you’re ever in Seoul and want to meet up while I’m here, let me know.  I’m not shy. 

End of a long week

I just woke up from a long nap and still feel a bit
groggy.  My drowsiness is a natural reaction to what was a very
long week.  We are short-staffed at the office while a colleague
is on vacation, and we have to do about a
third more work per person while they’re gone.  Today I went
to Jongam in northeast Seoul to visit an American who’s in
trouble.  I drove through one of the nicest parts of Seoul to get
there, an area known as Seongbuk.  It’s situated in the hills just
northeast of the Blue House, the Korean presidential
residence.  Seongbuk felt a bit like Beverly Hills,
California, with ritzy, gated homes clinging to the hillsides. 
I’m sure that many of Korea’s wealthiest executives make their homes in
those hills.  The commercial area of Seongbuk reminded me of an
upscale version of Adams Morgan, one of the more colorful areas of
Washington, D.C.
 
When I returned to the office, I wrapped up my work for the week
and waited to join my family and some coworkers for dinner.  My
office mate organized a get together for new arrivals and their
sponsors.  We met together after work and went together to Bukchon
Kalguksu Restaurant (북촌 갈국사) just to the east of Gyeongbok
Palace.  Handmade noodle soup (손갈국사) is this restaurant’s
specialty.  The soup and mandu (만두), or minced meat wrapped in
wonton wrappers, were delicious.  I shared some soju (소주), a
smooth, potato-based liquor, with a colleague.  It was
nice to have some soju for the first time in a long
time.  Unfortunately, between the soju, hot weather, and spicy
food, I felt a bit light headed.  Perhaps I overheated, or maybe I
was just tired.  I felt really unsettled while I was eating and
couldn’t wait to go and get some fresh air.  We went home soon
thereafter, and I headed to bed and took a long nap.  I feel
better now.  I’ll still sleep very well tonight.
 
My wife asked tonight whether her sister, who lives in
Shanghai, could come visit us in Seoul.  I agreed.  She
gave her sister a call tonight to see if she’s interested, and she said
yes.  We will have to write a letter on her behalf inviting
her to visit us.  I’m confident she will be eligible
to visit us in Korea.  In the past, she has been refused a
U.S. tourist visa; however, I’m optimistic that this time she will
qualify for a Korean visa.  If she gets her Korean visa, I think
in the long run it will help her qualify for a U.S. tourist visa if she
wants to visit us in the United States.  She definitely does not
want to immigrate to the U.S., but the burden of proof
for Chinese who want to qualify for visas to visit the U.S. is
very, very high.  Visiting Korea and returning to China will show
that she has traveled overseas without immigrating.  It gives
her a track record.
 
Baidu.com‘s underwriters seem
to be getting a bit greedy.  If you recall, I wrote a blog entry
earlier this week about whether to buy Baidu.com.  It seems that
Baidu upped its IPO price to $27/share because it has generated an
amazing amount of buzz.  I put in an order to buy it at the high
end of its price range yesterday–$25/share.  $25/share is already
overpriced, in my opinion.  $27/share is merely hype
chasing.  I refuse to up my order to buy at $27/share.  My
blog entry on Baidu.com seems to be getting a lot of traction on Google
with so many curious folks doing searches, trying to figure out whether
to buy the American Depository Shares of a relatively unknown Chinese
search engine company.  Between my discussion of Baidu and
CNOOC, World Adventurers had more hits this week than it usually
has in one month.

Children's Grand Park

I missed out on my usual blog session yesterday, so I thought I would be prolific and write two blog entries today.  This morning my family and I went to Children’s Grand Park in East Seoul.  It has just about everything a child could want–a huge playground, botanical garden, a small zoo, a camel ride, an elephant theme show, and a water park where children can play in an artificial stream.  I have to admit, it’s pretty cool.  It only cost 900 won (90 cents) per adult, and young children are admitted free of charge (parking is a bit pricey).  You can’t beat that price.  We still spent 14,000 won for lunch and a few thousand more for some drinks and snacks, but all in all it’s a cheap date.  The elephant theme show costs 6,000 won (about $6.00) per person.  We decided to pass on the show.
 
My son had a great time at Children’s Grand Park.  He played for about an hour on the playground, sliding down slides, playing on the teeter-totter and on all sorts of kiddie rides.  He had the most fun at the water park .  If you come to the Children’s Grand Park, be sure to bring a swimsuit and towel for each child.  We didn’t and had to improvise.  Our son waded into the water in his daiper.  By the time he was finished, it weighed about a pound after soaking up water!  He had a great time playing in the water, climbing on the rocks, sitting in the boat, and climbing the small step waterfall.  After he finished, daddy lent his shirt to dry him off.  I’m sure I elicited some stares from onlookers as I took off my shirt to use as a makeshirt towel.  After all, everyone around us was Korean.  It reminds me of a time in 1994 when I visited rural China.  A freakish rainstorm drenched me as I walked in the countryside.  I sought refuge in a kind peasant woman’s house.  Not thinking, I took off my shirt to wring it dry on her dirt floor.  I’m sure I broke just about every rule of etiquette doing that!  I’ve wizened up a bit since then (I hope).  I’m sure she didn’t know what to make of this person who was probably the first Caucasian she had ever seen in her life. 
 
After we left the water park, we visited the park zoo.  My son was especially enthralled with the monkeys and the lions.  He loves the animated features "The Lion King" and "Madgascar," whose main characters are lions.  I pointed out "Simba" and "Alex," his favorites.  For the first time, he encountered many of the animals he read about in books and played with as toys, including an elephant, zebras, ostriches, tigers, kangaroos, and yaks.  I wonder whether these animals lived up to his expectations, because live animals are really never as cute and cuddly as their stuffed or drawn counterparts.  Next to the elephant pen, we saw a film crew filming the park.  I’m not sure why they were filming; perhaps they were filming a scene for a Korean drama.  Perhaps my family inadvertantly became extras in the film.
 
The park is very much a family-oriented park.  I saw some childless couples but nary a single person.  The majority of the park visitors clustered in families.  I saw some families visit without the fathers, many of whom have to work on Saturdays.  It’s interesting that Korea is a very family-friendly country, yet at the same time it has the lowest fertility rate of any OECD country (just 1.19 children per woman in 2004–the OECD represents the world’s top 30 economies).  Korea is going through a so-called "kid crisis" where the population is increasingly aging (7.2% of the population was aged 65 or over), and fewer and fewer couples are having children.  The park today was filled with families.  I saw more families here than I’ve seen elsewhere in Seoul.  Central Seoul is very much dominated by singles and couples.  I see very few children in Seoul beyond the school girls and boys who use mass transit to travel to and from school.
 
Thought of the day:  I thought it very odd that Children’s Grand Park would feature a plastination exhibit.  A macabre art form developed by Gunter von Hagen in Munich, Germany, plastination is very creepy to those who are squeamish about death and an affront to those who believe in the sanctity of the body after death.  Plastination is a process by which those who donate their cadavers are embalmed with plastic rather than formaldehyde and then carved into artistic art forms.  The plastination exhibit at Children’s Grand Park was well advertised throughout the park with vivid images of corpses that underwent plastination, including fetuses and deformed children.  I kid you not (no pun intended).  When I was in Munich in 2003, I thought about visiting BodyWorlds, home of the plastination phenomenon.  However, my American traveling companions thought I was crazy.  Plastination grossed them out.  I caved in to peer pressure and did not visit BodyWorlds while in Munich.  I personally find plastination intriguing.  I am amazed by the fantastic creations that result from plastination, and I’ve pondered what would prompt someone to donate their body to be plastinized and put on display.  Instead of being buried, one’s body ends up in an artistic exhibit for all the world to see.  Not surprisingly, plastination conjures all sorts of moral and ethical issues.  I am an American who finds plastination fascinating, yet I still think it is in very poor taste having a plastination exhibit on display at a children’s park.  This is especially true with regard to the photos of the fetuses I saw.  I wondered whether Koreans have objected to this exhibit.  Considering that Korea may be the first nation to clone a human being, I would not be surprised if Koreans generally do not object to plastination exhibits at a children’s park.  The COEX Mall also has a plastination exhibit, indicating that Koreans find this odd mummification process very fascinating.  I’m certain many Americans would be appalled.