Korea Update

So last night I went out with some of the people in my classes, and it was pretty entertaining. We went someplace called hong dae (sp?), and I drank a lot but did not get drunk.

Random things I noticed:

• No rae bangs with glass windows on them, so people on the outside can see in


• Cafes with the same sort of setup


• Do not touch the cotton candy guy's dog. Go away! I did not try to touch said dog, but someone else in the party did


• I suck balls at darts


• One of the FinKL girls grew up to be a Soju model. There's my contribution to the universe of "where are they now" updates. I highly doubt that anyone who reads this ever heard of FinKL, but that's OK.


• Saw a band playing Hanson songs in a park with people dressed for "Happy Days" dancing around in a park. It was actually really neat.

It was a good time, though I don't think I'd do it again. I felt like I was watching a movie of a past life or something.

Stupid interwebs

So there's this thing that your browser sends along to web sites to let them know what language you speak. It's called a language code. The one that mine sends is "en-us," and not the "ko" that they should be looking for to ship people content in korean.

Google and Youtube completely ignore this useful string and assume that because I'm hitting their sites from Korea that I can somehow speak Korean. Google is better in that since I have an iGoogle page I can actually search for things and not get gibberish in return. Youtube shows me several recommended videos in Korean every time I go to my home page there, so that's pretty much retarded. Do no people travel around the world? I don't get it. Someone, somewhere, is stupid. Maybe they thought that they'd help me out in case I didn't know how to set my language code. Thanks, morons.

That could actually be related to some advertising scheme. Hell, maybe there are videos there that aren't OK to play in Korea due to some ridiculous copyright restrictions.

Yay copyright. Copyright is basically saying that it's trivially easy to do something these days (make copies of things) so you'd better make laws to protect people having their work duplicated. It's on par with making calculators illegal to protect jobs for people who are good at math. Long term it will disappear, and people in the future will have a hard time understanding how stupid some people could have been. Pretty much every argument in favor of it presents the dubious claim of it being an incentive for innovation (you can sell what you made for a certain amount of time exclusively), or tries to frame it as "how would you feel if you never got compensated for your work?"

The first is bullshit because people would be forced to innovate even more (just in different ways), and the second is bullshit because any viewpoint that relies on you having been injured personally or imagining that to be so is an irrational and emotional response - not a good way to determine policy.

Korea Update

Back to Korea for work. Staying in a new place this time instead of one of the 2 places I already knew. Took some notes on my iPhone (using airplane mode all the time just so I have a pip-boy) while I was exploring and trying to figure out the best way to get where I need to go tomorrow.

Do not get off the train at Yongsan Station unless you want Electronics or a prostitute. I figured that it should be relatively close to where I need to be (the military base) and was the closest stop on my line. I was confronted with a street of hookers behind glass doors. I'll say that they had better bodies than typical koreans, but I'd rate them a poo out of 10.

A lot of people wanted to talk to me today, apparently. Talking "at" me is more like it, but that's OK. Probably 15 people made comments to me at various times, and 3 people said that I was very beautiful. Their word. I don't think that they know other words for "good looking," since one of the 3 was an old man (2 others were typical girls - no they were not prostitutes). This was 3 distinct encounters on different subways. Every person commented on my height, and maybe 8 commented on my build (wide shoulders).

I would not stay at this hotel again. The room is fine, but for some reason my throat keeps randomly getting itchy so I think there's something in the air. This is a fairly industrial area. I'd actually stay closer to Seoul Station next time since that's kind of like a hub and not super far from anything that I give a crap about seeing.

Anyhow, go Korea. For some reason I'm not liking this place as much as I did the last 2 times I was here. I don't know if it's just the area I'm in, or if I'm finally sick of it. People get sick of everything, and I think I'm probably sick of Korea. It's tiring to have to spend a while walking around to find a restaurant with nice pictures up of the food so I can point to what I want to eat. I should try Outback. I wonder how similar it is to the same place in the US? All of these korean barbecue places are the same, and I can't try random stuff since peanuts are in a lot of stuff.

OK time to get a little work done and then get to bed. I'm tired. I think I walked about 12 miles today (seriously). My dogs are barking, and if they had a place here that sold comfortable walking shoes in my size I would buy them. I think my driving shoes are dead. They did their job for a few years, but now they just hurt. It's almost worse than walking barefoot. Their replacements are too dressy (and uncomfortable) to use for daily wear. I ordered some shoes online, but I won't get them for another few weeks (when I make it back to Vegas).

Final Korea

I forgot that I was supposed to finish the Camp Grenada song. This piece is less inspired but I figured I should put it together for completeness' sake.

Enjoy! Recall that this is only the rest of the song after the original in the other post a few back.

I kept dodging
all the hookers
no massages
no good lookers
I ate expensive
K-B-B-Q
They won't serve it unless you order it for two

Take me Home...
oh Andre Genna
take Me Home
I hate Korea
don't leave me
out here in Kang Nam
where
I might
take a peanut for a pear
Take me home
I promise I will not make sounds
in Vegas class
while playing around
in back of the class
Oh please don't make
me stay
I've been here for four whole days.

I've had enough
of bulgogi
and the pizza
with calamari
let me come home
Cindy misses me
she says she don't but I'll stick to my story.

Wait a minute
it stopped raining
no umbrellas
I'm just saying
time to go out
this is better
OK both of you can disregard this letter.

Safety first!

I just located a "Fire Escape Device" in my room. There are pictures in my Picasa Web Album of it in addition to some other pics I took while here.

One picture is of a woman pushing around a broom attached to a sort of scooter thing like old people ride on at supermarkets in the US. She was at the COEX. Some of my other pics were from random places downtown and random alleys.

It's about time to go find some dinner. I'll try yet another new random place. It's always entertaining to eat alone, as people don't seem to do that much here. I guess I could try to make friends, but it's gay to walk up to people and try to go out to eat with them immediately.

Tomorrow I'll be getting some dinner with some people from class.

Oh, I braved the subway back to the hotel today, and it was easier to do than I thought. I still had to make sure of my location and where I was headed on several occasions, but that's OK. I made it back fine and dandy.

Take me home

The following should be sung to the same tune as the old "Camp Grenada" song, heard here on youtube.

Hello Andre
Hello Genna
Here I am at
Seoul Korea
Korea's very
entertaining
And they say we'll have some fun if it stops raining

I went hiking
to the COEX
I got lost and
couldn't get back
You remember
I can't eat peanut
And I ate 3 so far and then had to vomit

All the cabbies
Speak no English
And subway signs
Are writ with gibberish
I saw some T-shirts
Out in public
And I still can't make sense out of "VIEW MY CUBIC"


---

I'm hoping to have a happy ending to this one. All in all it's been pretty solid, but the rain has been a huge damper on everything. We'll see how the week pans out and see f I can end on the same note as the original song.

Ben Hur and Korea

So on the plane ride over here I watched Ben Hur (as part of a quest many of us undertook to watch every Best Picture). My quick review is that it's a less entertaining Gladiator with Jesus overtones. It's like the Gladiator writers saw it, removed the Jesus stuff, improved the dialogue, and upped the action. Just watch Gladiator if you need to only see one. Its message is better as well, being about redemption and living your life instead of redemption and looking to a random dude for your morals and cure to leprosy.

Now that I'm here, I see that it rains a lot. It hasn't stopped since I touched down, and it's been almost 24 hours. I took some pictures and will be updating that album. The highlights have been finding my favorite cookies again and figuring out the subway. I took a couple shots of a Lotus dealership for the antecedent of the Best Picture quest as well.

This time over here I'm staying in Kang Nam, which is better than Itaewon (place I stayed last time). It's cleaner, and the people are generally better looking (both men and women). I'm apparently close to this underground mall called COEX, but have not yet found it. Before I leave I will do my best to make it there.

If anyone needs anything from Korea, now would be a good time to issue your request.

I know you got Seoul

So here's the thing: I can barely eat in this country. Everything is sesame this, or nutty that, and Thai food seems to be absurdly popular. Given that even soy is something I can only ingest in moderation, I'm in bad shape. I'm losing weight, though, so that's good.

Anyhow, I'll aggregate some observations that I've made.

• The elevators here have undo functionality.
  Hit a floor button, and it lights up. Hit it again, and it turns off (and doesn't go to the floor). I was lucky enough to spend time in there with a Chinese tourist (who apparently didn't understand the concept either). He got in, and with a slight frown (you either know the smug "I'm going to hit the same button too" look or you don't) he hit the lobby button, which I had already selected. So I tell him to hit it again, since it had canceled the call. He looks like he's going to start arguing with me so I just hit the button myself. He says something like "ungh" and then hits it too. Obviously the call was canceled yet again.
  Eventually we got to the bottom floor and he gave me some prickish glare and a snort. I think he's related to the guy that sat next to me on the airplane ride over here, both of whom would be evidence in favor of turning the gobi desert to glass.
  


• McDonalds here is weird
  Bulgogi burger, shrimp burger, kim chee. I don't think I need to go on.


• Cops are kids with sticks
  Some of these riot police can't be more than 18 or 19 years old, and only about half of them would know how to use their stick if they needed to (I'm judging by how they hold the weapon when at rest).

That's about it for now. I'll try to remember more later. My sleep schedule is still ridiculous.

Hello from Korea

So anyhow, I'm here in Korea and I have a class that I need to teach in about 7 hours. My sleep schedule is all screwed up, and I've never experienced this sort of jet lag before in my life.

If I come to either Google or Blogger from my hotel room here, it happily picks up my Korean IP address and renders every page in Korean. I thought that there existed a google.co.kr page or something that would work for people wanting that, or that there might be a way to easily switch back to English.

If anyone knows of a way, feel free to call my cell phone (or reply here) and let me know.

Anyhow, I did some exploring here, and walked all around the city. I must have gone about 8 miles in total since it took me a few hours. Some of it was steep, too. I made it all the way over to the Norwegian embassy, and then found my way back to a location that I knew well enough to find my way back to the hotel from.

I think that this is the safest city I've ever seen. I'm pretty sure that you could let your kids run around freely and they'd find their way home unscathed. Women can likely walk around at night alone and not be accosted. At no time was I in any danger, and some of the places that I walked past were pretty run down.

At one point I was able to look down into a set of dilapidated houses. I mean that some roofs were actually collapsed, and only a subset of the original homes were still standing. In the back yard some little girl (maybe 12 years old) was dancing around as if she were rehearsing for a play, or something. I thought that was neat, and should have brought my camera battery charger. It was akin to a scene from one of those dramas.

I tried without success to locate either a charger or a new camera (maybe they have smaller ones over here, and I like small), so I have no pictures, but I have the memories.

I'm guessing that my Tuesday will be my next shot at going out and about, since I think I'll probably pass out tomorrow night after the class and dinner.

Some other things that happened were that I had a guy address me by saying: "YOU WANT BETTER SHOES?" Me: "I think these are pretty good!" I have very nice shoes, and doubt that he could create a superior pair for me.

Another couple guys tried to fit me for tailoring to give me suits. I would have definitely done this if I felt like I'd be this same weight for a while longer. I'm planning on using my next couple months of work to lose weight, since I always skip lunch and burn more calories when working than when in between projects.

I found the future location of the Hard Rock Cafe here in Seoul, but there was no store to be found. I was unable to buy the requisite shirts that were asked for by people back in the US. Perhaps there is a store somewhere else? I'll be out and about at least a couple more times before I leave.

My hotel is right over a night club, so if I were here with friends that might be a neat thing to do. Apparently they go out on Sunday nights too, since there was a steady stream of cabs when I walked across the street to acquire some coke for my fridge.

Another thing that is kind of bizarre is the scale of things. I saw doors that anyone over about 4' would have to duck through. I also have tiny furniture in my room. By tiny, I mean:








Anyhow, I'll try to take a few pictures outside before my camera is completely dead, but I can't guarantee much. I typically shoot a ton of pictures if I'm in "picture mode," but I'll have to be more selective since I'm guessing that I have fewer than 20 before it dies.

Oh, and dinner was alright. The food is marginally inferior to LA Koreatown, but that's mainly because of the meat quality here (it's sub par). The preparation is basically identical.

I'm sure I've forgotten to mention some things, but I'll probably remember them later.

Cindy's up, so I'll cut this short. Not that I was going to remember more anyhow.