Asia

Still fighting a cold–and Spanish

Dear Reader, I haven’t been feeling well lately and haven’t had much energy to write.  I will write about last weekend’s escapades tomorrow.  I feel a little better tonight, so I think the worst has passed (I hope).  When I get sick, I usually recover in about four to five days.  I spent some time at my desk today finishing some lingering projects, including the course I’ve been teaching, performance metrics, and an economic assignment.  I also saw some photos of our housing in Asuncion, Paraguay, our next destination.  The housing in Asuncion–at least the exterior–is absolutely amazing.  Seeing where we will be living really helped lift my spirits today.  People say that once you know your next assignment, you start mentally disengaging from your current one.  In a sense, that’s very true.  I’m already planning in my mind some of the steps we need to take to leave Korea and head to our next destination.  In just 11 months, I am scheduled to depart from Seoul, and the time will pass very, very quickly.
 
I signed up for a self-study Spanish course, the same one I signed up for in mid-2005 and then canceled because I had already qualified for a short Spanish language course.  I dropped the course because I did not want to study Spanish, take the Spanish language exam, then score worse than my previous score, thereby disqualifying myself from Spanish-language assignments, including the job in Paraguay.  Now that I know I am headed to a Spanish-speaking country and need to become fluent in Spanish by June 2007, I need to get serious about improving my Spanish speaking and reading skills.  I will only be in the U.S. for about four months (from February until June).  We will be on home leave for 40 days, and then I receive one month of specialized training starting in April 2007.  That leaves just two months, or less than eight weeks, to acquire fluency in Spanish.  While English speakers can quickly learn Spanish, it would be foolhardly to assume that eight weeks is enough to achieve fluency.  Hence, I seriously need to study Spanish from now until I leave Korea.  I started studying it again last week and discovered a renewed interest in language learning.  I had forgotten how much fun it can be to learn a foreign language!  Having progressed from Spanish and French to German, and then on to Chinese and Korean (learning none of them well), I lost my desire to learn languages as they became increasingly complicated.  Learning Korean was brutal.  Learning a relatively easy foreign language such as Spanish is reinvigorating.  In fact, I think I’ll say goodnight and crack open my Spanish book for a few minutes before I fall asleep.  Every little bit helps.

Photos for the shutterbugs

Today we paid a visit to Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul.  It’s the world’s largest church, with 750,000 members attending seven services on Sunday or on weekdays.  If this statistic is true, then about one in twelve residents of Greater Seoul attend this church.  We were surprised to find out that it’s located right next to the Korean National Assembly, Korea’s governing legislative body.  We don’t plan to attend regularly–it’s too bustling and crowded and felt like attending a concert sitting in the stadium seating.  We’ll continue to attend a much smaller church near home.  Visiting this church was an interesting experience.  The music–bar none–is the most beautiful I’ve ever heard (Koreans are fabulous musicians).  I’ll write more about our experience tomorrow as well as about our visit to Seodaemun Prison on Saturday.  I’m not feeling well right now, so I’ll keep this entry short.
 
For the Shutterbugs:  I posted some new photos from our Saturday visit to Dongnimmun and Seodaemun Prison and our visit today to Yoido Full Gospel Church.  Enjoy!
 
Blog Notes:  Editfish, you are right.  I personally have no concerns about a private company, foreign or domestic, operating a U.S. port, so long as that company is private.  When it is run by a foreign government, I’m concerned about undue influence by that government.  The foreign government not only props up the company, but it has a direct influence on U.S. industry.  When it is an industry as crucial as shipping, any such deal merits further scrutiny.  One could make a case that U.S. ports are strategic enough to nationalize or restrict to domestic operatorship.  However, the fact that P&O is a foreign company and already manages a handful of U.S. ports undermines this argument.  If Congress is going to mandate that these ports transfer to U.S. operators, then all U.S. ports should be under domestic control.  I don’t think that is necessary, but if Congress thinks so, then Congress should at least be consistent and not capitalize on the issue for political gain.
 
Teena, thanks for your comment.  Please don’t be discouraged about the U.S. political system and the shortcomings of the two major political parties.  I could write all day about my political opinion and how I would change the U.S. political system.  Suffice it to say, I try to keep this blog as nonpartisan as possible and address subjects that pique people’s interests.  Occasionally, I throw in a political subject for good measure.  I don’t think any U.S. branch of government or political party has as much power as their constituents think they do.  Too many political issues are out of their control, particularly as the world grows increasingly interdependent.  Moreover, the U.S. political system was established with checks and balances to prevent excessive concentrations of power.  I think that the government and political parties can exert influence on domestic and foreign policy through key decisions, although the resulting changes are typically not realized until many years later–often after the ruling party is voted out of power by a disgruntled populace.  I believe that government tends to function better when it works together in a bipartisan manner.  More work inevitably gets done when the Democrats and Republicans quit sniping at each other and get to work on solutions.  If anything, I am opposed to the extreme partisanship that seems to be pervasive in politics.  It has not always been this way.  I think that someday, partisanship–and compromise–will be politically fashionable again.
 
Here’s a case in point–the privatization of the Internet.  An obscure piece of legislation passed 16 years ago laid the foundation for the Information Age.  In 1990, the U.S. Democratic-controlled Congress passed the "High-Performance Computing Act of 1990."  It was signed into law by Republican President George H.W. Bush.  Title II, Section 201, eliminated direct oversight of the Internet’s backbone by the National Science Foundation’s NSFNet, allowing the Internet to function as a decentralized network.  Six years later, Internet commerce caught fire, and the dot.com boom began, fueling a half-decade of economic growth enjoyed by Democratic President Bill Clinton and a Republican Congress.  In 2000, at the close of the Clinton years, the Internet bubble burst, and the U.S. economy went into recession just as Republican George W. Bush assumed the presidency.  The ripple effect of Internet privatization continues to this day.  Five years after the 1990 act privatized the Internet, Netscape Communications went public, and the Internet boom began the following year.  Both President George H.W. Bush and the Democratic-controlled Congress were defeated before their key decision bore political fruit.  Be wary of any politician or political party that sounds overly utopian or makes grand promises–they typically take years to fulfill, if at all.

Yellow Sand is back

I noticed yesterday that the Yellow Sand is back in town.  I knew it when my nose felt dry and dusty at work–the same sensation you get whenever you change a dirty air filter.  Yellow Sand, or hwangsa (황사), is an annual event in northern Asia, where sands from the Gobi Desert in Mongolia blow across the plains into northern China and the Korean Peninsula.  The sand stops at the Eastern Sea (Sea of Japan), so it doesn’t quite reach Japan (lucky Japanese).  The sky turns dingy gray, greatly diminishing visibility, and fine sand granules settle everywhere, including in one’s lungs.  I attached a photo of Seoul Tower taken today.  The photo does accurately show the full effect of Yellow Sand, but it gives you an idea of what it can do.  Medical professionals encourage people stay indoors during bouts of Yellow Sand or wear masks if venturing outdoors.  Unfortunately, silty air still enters and circulates in homes and offices with inadequate air filtering.  Yellow Sand gets into the eyes, nose, mouth, lungs, hair–you name it.  Last year, the Yellow Sand was moderately light, but this year the annual phenomenon hit Korea with a vengeance.  It usually lasts about a week and a half, ruining what would otherwise be a wonderfully mild spring. 
 
I hope the Yellow Sand subsides as soon as possible.  My nose is choking as I write, and I don’t feel so well.  I have a splitting headache, probably because I snorted too much sand today (my family and I went out for awhile).  My negative reaction to the Yellow Sand reminded me that I was very fortunate this winter to stay relatively healthy.  Considering how busy I’ve been lately, I’m glad that I’ve felt great–until now.  I suppose that going outside today without wearing a mask worsened my condition.  My wife and son also have stuffy noses, although I think they feel a little better than I do.  Just a little.
 
On Friday I drove past the Seoul City Hall.  A work crew was in the process of demolishing the makeshift outdoor ice rink in the grassy, circular greenspace in front of the city hall.  Although I’m glad winter is coming to an end, I think it’s a shame the rink was torn down.  It was one of the nicer attractions in downtown Seoul during the past winter.  With its Christmas light displays and casual skaters, and the ice emitting a soothing white and blue hue, the rink brought some coziness to the cold downtown.  The light displays that once graced Cheongyecheon Stream just north of City Hall (see the photo album) are gone too.  Winter is officially over in Seoul.  The Yellow Sands have begun.  I can’t wait for Spring to arrive.