Korea

A big surprise

I was in for a big surprise this afternoon.  My replacement as chair of our association asked me to meet with him about something.  He told me about a past issue we were having and asked me to join him on a walk to discuss it.  He took me down to our coffee shop, and out popped half of our association board and the general manager gathered there to throw me a surprise party.  They gave me a really nice certificate laminated to an oversized oriental concrete roof tile (see photo below), the same kind of tile we used to repair the association building roof.  I was absolutely surprised, beside myself…and touched!  I couldn’t believe it.  It’s one of the nicest things anyone has done for me.  The tile is heavy and believe it or not, pretty expensive.  Their thoughtfulness is priceless.  I stepped down from the board last September, and I thought that would be the end of it after one year as chair and one-and-a-half years on the board.  Of all the special moments I’ve had during my time in Seoul, this one ranks near the top.  It’s been a trying two weeks for me at work, and this was such a welcomed respite from the onslaught on my desk waiting to be done.  My certificate and roof tile are now proudly displayed on my shelf behind me.  I’ll carry that 15 pound concrete tile around the world with me.
 
For the Shutterbugs:  I posted some photos tonight of Halloween activities from the past week.  My son is the one dressed up as Batman (see my previous blog entry).  I also posted some photos of our pet spider, a golden orb weaver we named "Charlotte."  Charlotte is still around and as big as ever.  She must be two-and-a-half inches long by now.  We’ll be sad when she finally crawls away in a few days or weeks.

Fan death vs. mosquito death

The other night I couldn’t sleep.  I woke up at 3:30 a.m. with a mosquito buzzing around my head.  The lil’ buggers here are much more aggressive than the ones in parts of the U.S. where I’ve lived, and now is the time of the year when they seek refuge indoors, out of the cold and (literally) into the arms of humans.  It seems as if they visit you, not once, not twice, but thrice a night for a hemoglobin refill.  Fed up with the inconsiderate bloodsucker, I turned on the bedroom light, tracked it down, and mercilessly dispatched the annoying critter with a fly swatter.  I returned to bed victorious over my quashed foe, but by then I couldn’t fall back to sleep.  At 4:30 a.m., another nasty cretin buzzed around my head.  Fed up once again, I ended up getting up for the rest of the day.  Mosquito net is the surest way to eliminate annoying mosquitoes, but we decided to forego a net, because we did not need one last year.  What a mistake.
 
To avoid a repeat assault last night, I tried something new to discourage mosquitoes from accosting me–I turned on the fan full bore.  The air turned cool, and I hunkered down to keep warm, but I wasn’t berated by any mosquitoes.  I had a blissful, buzz-free night.  As an added precaution to keep the mosquitoes at bay, I closed the bedroom door.  Fortunately, I survived.  Most Koreans believe in "fan death," a condition where an individual in a closed room with a running fan faces a heightened risk of death.  That’s right–if you close the door and run an electric fan, you are more likely to die.  The alleged causes are many, including suffocation, poisoning, and hypothermia.  Is it true?  Ask a Korean, they will probably tell you "yes."  Ask a non-Korean, and you are likely to hear strong skepticism.  As a foreigner, I am more than willing to run the risk of fan death, particularly if running a fan in a closed room helps me avoid another, more credible, cause of death–mosquito death.  At the very least, my skin will look better, and I won’t be subject to so many mosquito welts!