This week

Monday: Except being at work I do not recall anything else.
Tuesday: Have been on a test drive of KIA Motors’ new SUV – Mohave. Great experience.








The feature I was most impressed is every time the car is put into a reverse a small screen appears in left down corner of a rear mirror showing what’s in the back. Fantastic for parking!
For some more Korean winter landscape photos click:
http://picasaweb.google.com/gordie26/Dec18th07?authkey=HQD4WBLrAQI

The same evening had a farewell for Jay first at Buddhas Belly and than at JJ's. Jay leaves for KL on Sunday. She is leaving suddenly and this was kind of ad hoc farewell. But we had a fun night.


Wednesday was election day. I did some housework. Went to the office for few hours (it was holiday) but had to go to finish few things. Before going to the sauna wanted to eat as after 6 pm I was to fast due to medical check up next day. Went with Aicha to new Sortinos. It was around 5 pm. They had "open" signed I entered with a friend and asked if we could eat. The Korean waitress took us to the table. I sat and that she told us we cannot eat as the kitchen is closed. I asked her so why she took us to the table. Her answer was " you can have bread and water". I am supposed to fast but for bread and water I would go to a restaurant.
Aicha and me ended with delicious falafels at Ali Baba. The sauna with a scrub was great. I felt so relaxed and my skin felt smooth.
Thursday: Went to SNUH at Gangam Finance Center to have check up. I was quite impressed by staff there. Altogether I am healthy but have to lose some weight. Had lunch with Karen and Diana. Really nice and relaxing lunch. Karen was leaving in the evening for UK. Diana stays here as her family comes over holidays. Got presents from both but I really thought will have only lunch so – as I true peasant - I even did not bring a card. Got a very nice Christmas present from Karen – a lovely stylish bag from Cambodia.
In the evening had a birthday party for Dessy and Raffaele.
Friday: Spoke with Faye who was at Incheon on her way to NZ. She will visit me and stay with me on Jan 12th. Spent afternoon with Dr. Choi at ye Clinic. Not going into details.
Lazy Saturday – sorting out the wardrobe, watching TV and skyping with friends.

2007 Card

Make a photobook - it's easy!

Sunday

Ylona took Eleni and girls for skating at Hyatt Ice Rink. The cafe there serves hot chocolate with marshmallows in huge soup bowls. That's enough for me to join.
We watched girls skating.
Had hot chocolate as a starter and french fries with mayo for a main course. It was beautiful sunny day and girls skated for about three hours. Enough for Ylona and me to go over all this week events.
Later I went to Sortinos. Met Sonia and had a nice chat over a nice limoncello.

"Opegwon"

Some of you know I wanted to use some Korean photos as cards which would have my contact details once I move to Kiev.
With your help I selected few and decided to go to few printing shops in Chungmungro to order cards. After a great start this morning my spirits were bright and strong. I was ready for adventure. I did not expect going to print shops will be easy but I was determined to have cards ordered.
I accomplished nothing. I wasted three hours of my time and got frustrated. Went to about 15 shops including Kinko's. Not one person spoke a word of English!!! During the process I even called a Korean colleague to help with translation. This was also waste of time. So I decided that making cards was a stupid idea and that spending three hours of my time is enough waste of my resources.
After print shops and cards debacle - in an attempt to salvage going to the town - I went to Insadong to buy hanji paper. Hanji paper is one of things I like in Korea. I went to the shop I usually go and given holiday season choose a lots of paper. Once the lady shop owner calculated what I should pay the bill came to KRW 52,000 (about USD56). I asked for a discount and she looked at me and said “Discount?” Mumbled something in Korean and than I recognized “opegwon” word. "Opegwon" is KRW 500(USD 0.53). I repeated “Opegwon”? Then the lady took a calculator and indeed typed “500”. I do not expect 10% discount (although this would be nice) but she could round it up to KRW 50,000. Obviously she did not want to sell to me and considered me a stupid foreigner. I left the shop and kept KRW 52,000 in my pocket. I'll manage without hanji paper.
On a day like this time until Jan 30th passes to slow.

December update

I am already one week in back in Seoul. Two weeks of Europe seem like a distant dream.
I liked Kiev and I am looking forward to go there Feb 1st. People in the office are young and driven. My department exists on org chart only. That means I have a luxury of creating my own team. So far I always “inherited” department and in the beginning there was always a period of adjustments on both side.

I did not have any time for sightseeing in Kiev but I saw a church almost every hundred meters. Never saw a city with so many churches.
From Kiev I flew to Amsterdam. I had three hours of sunshine in one entire week.
I enjoyed strolling canals. It's so nice to be in a city with a history. It's such a treat to walk along 16th century houses.

There were lots of Russian tourist in the city. Ten years ago one could hear mostly English and Spanish.


This time second most heard language on the street was russian. Well - Peter the Great liked A'dam too. The story goes lovely A'dam inspired Peter the Great to build St. Petersburg.

I saw apartment I bought in August for a first time. It’s good I like it. It looked bright and light even on a sad rainy day - and these prevail in the Netherlands. Cees - the painter did marvelous job painting. With Uri and Ana Maria I made some small plans about flat arrangements.

At HO spent four days in meetings. Still managed to see some friends which was great.
Back in Seoul started moving arrangements. In the office except for lots of work I had some things with the office restroom. On Monday I had "ajuma" accident. I pushed slightly opened doors and there was a cleaning ajuma sitting with her pants down holding a phone in the hand. I turned but the woman went after me. I have no idea if she was fast enough to put pants up. I run back to my office. Closed my office door. Urge to go to the restroom disappeared for some time.
Than on Wednesday in the restroom I found a Korean magazine. There was an article on beauty with "10 reason's I am beautiful". I could not resist so I took a page from the magazine and scanned it.
It reflects Korean state of mind. I had friends for dinner and we just laughed as we have no chance being beautiful if we are not Korean.



Had Year end party on Friday evening. It was my first and last year end party in Korea. Everyone told me it's the best one. So I choose well.


You can also see a funny Season's sculpture which is in front of my office building. I have no idea what the sculpture is about. Perhaps in land of Samsung robots bring presents. At least the sculpture is different from usual Xmas trees, deer’s, etc...

The major event last week was the oil spill. How a barge got loose and hit the tanker still puzzles me. On some Korean blogs they are pointing out a Samsung conspiracy theory which is that Samsung caused intentionally this oil spill in order to divert attention from a scandal about bribing prosecutors. Sounds unbelievable but this is what Koreans write on their blogs. For photos how the spill is cleaned check
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2007/dec/10/oilspills.wildlife?picture=331510224

A day before ....

I am flying tomorrow to Kiev. I had KLM flights booked last week. Seoul – A’dam – Kiev and back.
Today around noon the secretary informed me KLM cancelled a Seoul-A'dam flight for tomorrow. No explanations given by KLM. The agency suggested I fly via Paris and take a plane at 6.50 am for Kiev. All hotels around the CDG airport were fully booked. I was to stay at Novotel in Roissy. This means I have to wake up at 4 am to get 6.50 flight. I do not think so.
I proposed to the travel agent to look into flights to Kiev via Vienna, Frankfurt and Moscow.
I fly via Frankfurt. Than the agency asked me to first request KLM endorsement of my flight changes and than go to Lufthansa counter for check in. I did not respond enthusiasticaly to that suggestion so now I have a ticket and have to go to LH counters directly. Hmmm....
Had a great night with Aicha. She returned from her honeymoon in Indonesia. She has lovely photos of places she and her husband were together. Tonight two of us had a photo with three bottles of wine at Okitchen! We had great food and even better time together.
Than I came home and wanted to pack. But I could not find my suitcase. I remembered I left some clothes in the corridor for Fema with a note that this is for her (I started to clean my wadrobe). Opposite to that was my suitcase and a case with wrapped paintings. Immediately I understood that Fema thought not only clothes but the suitcase with two rugs packed for my new A’dam place and paintings are for her. I called her. Indeed she took rugs and paintings home but fortunately left the suitcase in the garbage room. Lucky me - my housekeeper does not like a perfectly functuning sturdy Samsonite suitcase! Went to the grabage room to pick it up and pack.
After I packed I opened my emails. Found a message from the mover in A’dam. The message is: “Our local contact phoned you today but you were busy. If you want to schedule appointments for 2nd week of Dec contact them”.
Indeed Asian Tigers contacted me on my mobile today afternoon while I was in the meeting. The lady requested me to send them an email. I have a policy of answering mobile calls but if something is not urgent and I am in the meeting I am not going to dwell into a conversation. I did not receive an email from Asian Tigers following their mobile call. And yes - I was busy today as I am flying tomorrow to Kiev and A'dam and I will be out of the office for two weeks. There were a lot of things to do in the office. To write an email - as suggested by Asian Tigers in order to set an appointment for survey - while they just call me on my mobile - was not on my today's "to do list". How this travel started God knows what awaits me next two weeks.

Little Red Lady

This year is full of horrible news. The most recent one is about the Little Red Lady been sunk in the Antarctic Ocean. It is heartbreaking to watch MS Explorer sinking. I had an unforgettable experience sailing on the lovely Little Red Ship from Dec 16th 2005 to Jan 3rd 2006 doing the same tour "Spirit of Shackelton" the ship was doing now.
I met wonderful people on the Little Red Lady. The crew and guides were fantastic. Three of the fellow passengers became close friends. It is a relief to read that the crew and passengers are safe on Norwegian ship. I feel bad for the crew who must had lost all they personal belongings for which they work so hard. They are mostly Filipinos, Ukrainians or Russians who stay on the ship the entire year. They keep their belongings on the ship and must have lost all of it.

I am not sure if the crew on the ship is still the same as almost two years ago. I know that the tour guide Aaron Russ and the assistant tour guide Sarah McElrea continued to work with Gap.

Left: Aaron (sitting) and Gus on the zodiac

Dinner with the First Officer and Sarah
I occasionally get an email from Sarah. Last time when I heard from her she was back home in New Zealand. I pray she and Aaron are well. Few photos of the crew are below. I have warm memories of Edgard, Kosta, Svetlana, Dr. Vlad, Gus and of course Capt. Paul Heslop.

The crew put utmost efforts in passangers safety and comfort so all of us can have an unforgetable experiance. The Little Red Ship was "my home" for three weeks.

Capt. Paul Heslop was amazing. His nick name was "Pack-Ice Dancer" as he could superbly navigate through heavy ice.

Toasting 2006 with Capt. Paul on Drake. Note: Capt toast with water.

Left: Passengers watching ship navigating thorugh pack-ice around Antarctic Peninsula

Capt. Paul was very funny, approachable. He took his job very seriously and superbly navigated through heavy ice and other perils we encountered during the journey.

With other three Spices I had such a great time on the Little Red Lady that I wanted to repeat the experience. I had a dream that once I will be on Explorer again with my friends I met on the Red Lady. The dream was to do the Arctic tour and look for polar bears and enjoy aurora polaris sipping JD.

Left: Spicy B and Rockhoper Spice enjoying snow in Paradise Bay

The dream got a first dent when Gap in the cost cutting exercise fired Capt. Paul Heslop in September 2006. Some fellow tour passengers wrote a letter to Gap trying to understand why Gap is firing such an amazing Captain. All of us who contacted Gap got just a bland, bureaucratic letter. It was all about cost cutting. So Gap chose for - "paying peanuts and getting....". I do not know where Capt. Paul is now. I am sure he must be heartbroken about the Red Lady.
Following that event I had a fantasy that Capt. Paul will be back on MS Explorer and four Spices will have safe sailing on the Red Lady again.
Now it turned out the Gap’s short sighted policy of reducing costs ended with sinking a wonderful, extraordinary, unique jewel of a ship. I am really curious how an experienced captain with iceberg-enhanced hull run into "a submerged ice" in calm waters and sunk the Lady.
I feel for the crew and passengers who had to go through a nightmare of being evacuated and suffering hypothermia for about 5 hours until they were rescued.
I do not feel anything but frustration for Gap who by hiring a "less expensive" captain put profit before lives and safety of passengers. Such shortsighted profit driven policy destroyed an amazing and wonderful Little Red Lady.
The Little Red Lady definitely deserved to have a better captain. And she did not deserve unfortunate fate to sink in the Antarctic Ocean.

I wish all the passangers reach safety of their homes soon. I am very, very sorry for the crew who lost their home, belongings and jobs.

For details of the accident check: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/24/america/24ship.php?page=2

More photos of the Little Red Lady and its crew: http://picasaweb.google.com/gordie26/LittleRedLady

Farewell to Faye

Faye is leaving for Beijing on Friday. As I fly to Bangkok tomorrow evening I had a dinner tonight with Faye and Georgie. Found out Georgie is leaving Korea too – for HK which is great news. Might sound strange but I feel better if people I like leave this place too. Horrible thing to leave behind great, fun, like minded people in a place like Korea. We spent evening expressing relief we are leaving this place. Later when Peter joined us he compared the feeling of relief of knowing you are leaving this place to taking off a pair of new shoes half a size too small after walking 20 miles. The sense of relief…is so invigorating.
I will miss Faye. We were doggie mums . Well she still is. We have same feelings about this place and our life here. We were soul mates. We did not see a point in pretending having a great time here and worked hard to have good times.
I could always call Faye, scream out my frustrations and count on her sympathetic ear. I am worried how will she find Beijing. But I am hopeful. To me Beijing seems more cosmopolitan than Seoul and Chinese – at least in major cities - appear to be more open minded than Koreans. Hope this is not deceptive. Encouraging thing is that one of my friends moved from Seoul to Beijing in May and she enjoys it. I truly hope Faye will enjoy it too and have great time in Beijing.
I’m so glad I leave in about two and half months as it would be hard to stay here alone without her.

Faye,Marina, Tatyana and me at Sortinos last week

With Faye, Georgie, Peter at Barlin tonight

Yesterday I had a “typical” Korean experience. For last few days I have some light ear pain. As I fly on Thursday evening I wanted to check what it is. Especially as the pain got to the point where I could not listen on the phone on the painful ear. So I went to the hospital. The GP looked at the ear but sent me to the ear specialist who could see me almost immediately. I had to wait about 10 min which for us - used to wait for hours in European hospitals - is fantastic.
While I waited for the ear appointment I sat next to a Korean ajuma. When I sat next to her she moved from me with a loud smirk. Well, I can imagine she did not want me to pollute - with my Caucasian stink - her flower design ajuma trousers. Few minutes later the ear specialist look at my ear. He was a typical old Korean ajashi with monosyllabic English ability and detached patient manners. He diagnosed I have a light mid ear inflammation. He told me he will prescribe some medication which I have to use 3 times a day for next four days. Went to cashier, paid for appointments and got a Korean prescription. In the pharmacy they gave me a small bottle with a label “ophthalmological solution”. I explained to the pharmacist I have ear pain and do not need eye drops. She was surprised and went to phone the hospital and check a perscription. Well, in Korea you never question a higher authority – in this case a doctor. So few minutes later the pharmacist returned and said the doctor confirmed I should use eye drops for my ear inflammation. I just turned and left. Thank God I have some otosporine at home (from my diving times) so I use it instead of prescribed eye drops. If a pain persist I am in Bangkok on Friday and they have good hospitals with English speaking staff and more caring patient manners.
This incidents makes top three doctor experiences in Korea. The first two are:
“No husband, no doctor” told by a receptionists at the reputable Seoul hospital when I wanted to see a gynecologist. "You have a traveling tumor” diagnosis by a dermatologist concerning the swelling on the cheek caused - most likely – by a wasp.

Getting by...

I want to thank you all for understanding and sharing my grief. Your support and understanding means very much to me. I planed to write earlier but than I get so emotional. I avoid being in the house as I miss my Bongo boy terribly. It’s hard to wake up in the morning without him. He slept with me on bed and in the morning he would gently wake me up. I miss his Bongo dance when I get back home from work. I miss our walks. I hate to go to the grocery shop as usually I would go with him. Sometimes I think I am better but than my throat gets dry, my hart gets a pinch and tears flood my eyes. I cannot help it.
I thought to go after a taxi driver – but those who live here know it would not work and for sure would backfire. The other possibility was to write a letter to the municipality or the city hall and ask to paint yellow stripes or put a traffic sign “slow” but I am afraid that might backfire too.
So I decided to focus helping. With huge help from Faye and Chaitanya I fostered Sylvie – a golden retriever. She was a gorgeous, skinny, long legged blond and it took only a week to find a home for her. Blonds are indeed very lucky...Sylvie was adopted by an American family on Camp Hamprey. They already have a dog so Sylvie would have a company. They will leave Korea in 2009 and will take her to US. It's a pity Sylvie's parents do not have time to get in touch with us but I am sure they and Sylvie are happy together.

Since last week I go to see a jindo Karen tries to save. This jindo is designated as a “dinner” for a sick grandfather and chained to a house close to the Embassy. Karen initiated negotiation with the family and Embassy staff will hopefully buy him from the family. I hope a new puppy will not appear the very next day after we buy the jindo. On the photo you can see how short is a chain he is on.

Some people tell me to get another dog immediately. I cannot. With Sylvie whom I fostered for a week I did not bond. There has to be some spark in a heart for a four legged creature too.
I also tried to get involved in Daejon dog shelter - but I find it too distressing. For those who want more information here is the link: http://www.lonelylifetime.com/need-home/daejeon-shelter-forced-to-close.

I heard today that a great Australian lady who is training dogs for blind Korean people for a Samsung foundation got attacked while she was walking a dog in the park. Koreans threw stones at the dog. Allegedly they were afraid of a dog on a leash with a red jacket - which is a sign he is getting trained for blind people. If anyone tells me this is a developed country...

The good news is I am moving to Kiev, Ukraine as of Feb 1st. That’s my next three year assignment and I am relieved to leave. I have Bongo's ashes still with me. I decided to take him with me to Kiev. I cannot make myself leaving his ashes here. He had a wretched beginning. Even more wretched end and I want to take him to some wonderful spot far from here.

On a different note, finally newspapers started to report about the Samsung scandal today. I first heard of it on Oct 29th, and read it yesterday on the blog, but only today did it trickle to the papers. It's interesting reading and gives a good insight how this country operates:

http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=855&Itemid=32

Bongo

Dear All,

My heart is breaking.
This morning my adorable Bongo was fatefully hit by a cab. We were walking back home from our morning walk. He was on the leash. The hit was fateful and he died in my arms.
All of you know how much Bongo meant to me. He came to my life suddenly. I did not plan to have a dog but the moment my friend Diny told me “there is a shih tzu for adoption” I wanted him. When I saw his photo it was a love on first sight. I just could not resist his underbite.
Bongo was a street doggie who chose to hang around the right house in Itaewon. Heather and Frank saved him but as they were leaving Seoul they could not take him.
The first day I got him I took him for a walk. He actually did not want to go out and our first walk was me holding him in my hands walking around my neighborhood. It took few days for him to develop a taste for walks.
Our last walk ended me holding Bongo in my arms, running and trying to get a taxi to the hospital.

I miss him dearly. As most of you have a dog or a cat you can imagine how I feel.
Bongo was so good to me I am sure he is now well taken care of.

I am grateful to Faye, Karen, Jennifer and Darrel who were with me today to mourn Bongo. Without them I do not know how I would made through the day.

Special thanks to Dr. Kwon who took care of Bongo and me today. Without his kindness and help I would not be able to manage.

To all of you with doggies and cats – please give them a nice long cuddle.

God bless Bongo.

Gordie

October update

It has been a long, long time since my last blog. But I have been quite busy. The apartment purchase goes well. The completion date will be on November 1st. No need for me to sign the purchase agreement - the notary will sign it for me. I plan to finally see the apartment around New Year.
After Cambodia I have been to Bhutan. I traveled to Bhutan via Katmandu. It was nice to see Bibu and Praveen again. This time Katmandu had less garbage and more electricity than in February. Bhutan was great. Looks like fairy tale country with all the wiping cypresses, blue pines, dzongs and friendly people. To all of you I sent the album with photos so I am not going to write more about it.

Since mid August I had problem with my cleaning lady Fema. She worked for me two and half years. Mid August she complained of shoulder pain and did not clean for almost three weeks. Than she called that the father died and she went to Philippines. I did not hear from her for almost five weeks. Last Saturday she called. She is back. Time at home was difficult because not only her father died but a week after her father died her oldest uncle died, and the next week the mother’s cousin died. I told her I hope she went to the church every day because obviously heavens are taking to her family. Nevertheless Fema said she will come on Monday. Than on Sunday she called that she does not feel well and - she will not come on Monday. I was quite disappointed. I tried to call her Monday to Wednesday but could not reach her. Always got a voicemail. Than on Thursday Fema called to tell she feels better and will come on Friday. I told her there is no need to come. There is no more deep comfort zone she got used to. She is not reliable and with my way of life I have to have some I can rely on. It’s a pity as she was really nice and Bongo loved her.
Socially I had quite a week – Monday some Koreans came to my place to look at my Russian paintings collection; Wednesday I had a dinner with my girlfriends; Thursday I had Dessy and Raffaele at my place for some red wine; yesterday I went with Faye to the German restaurant at Somerset. They have best French fries in Seoul. The restaurant was fully packed - mostly with Koreans. We never saw it so packed. Usually it is a quite place with mostly western patrons who live in the Somerset. Faye and me had a great relaxing dinner. On our way out the owner who knows Faye came to say hello. She commented how full the place is. He replied that since Ms. Shin affair broke up the Koreans come to see the place and have the food Ms. Shin had. For people who do not live in Korea -Ms Shin is the art curator with the fake Yale degree and her "art friend" Mr. Buyon lived in the Somerset at taxpayers expense. For the details of the scandal visit following links: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2765578.ece, http://www.londonkoreanlinks.net/blog/2007/07/22/fakes-and-curruption-in-art-and-academia/, http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200710/200710120015.html

Anyway I find strange people go to the restaurant and try food a woman with the fake Yale degree had, but it's great for the hard working restaurant owners.
Today was Bongo's play day. Somehow he knows it is Saturday today and he started to bark around the noon - which is almost a time we usually go to the park. My next trip is to HK in two weeks. I hardly wait to see Pauline and Wyger. Bongo will be with Françoise – a charming westi on the photo.

Update

I knew I did not post anything for a long time but I was surprised that it was that long. Now summer is almost over and I am done with the travelling and the purchase of the apartment in A'dam progresses well.

Shortly after my last blog I went to Mongolia for the Nadam festival. It was great to be back there and escape (at least for few days) monsoons. I enjoyed space, saw cristal clear blue sky and had cold crispy nights to sleep. I also saw a night sky with so many stars I got dizzy. After Mongolia I flew home. I almost missed a flight. I caught a taxi which did not have enough gas to drive me to Incheon. I got to the airport few seconds before check in closing time. Once in the plane I realized I forgot my Croatian driving license at home. I arranged a rent a car in Zagreb and although I had Korean driving license with me I did not believe Korean license will be acceptable. To my surprise it was!!!

Croatia was very hot. But in my parents garden in the shade of a huge linden tree the heat was bearable. My father is not doing well, but given what he was through last 12 months and past couple of years I think he is doing great.

I took many walks with my mum. On our walks we missed Ira very much.

I saw my 91 year old grandma who likes to go out for drinks and tease waiters.

My sister and her hubby are great.

Ela is fine too but this time I did not see the boys. Her three gorgeous sons were enjoying the beach. I saw shortly Andrea and basically entire time I was with her I complained about Koreans.

11 days past very quickly . On my return flight to Seoul my mum joined me as we planed that she will spend three weeks in Korea. We arrived in the morning and exiting the plane we were wrapped into hot air. It was rainy, gray, hot, humid. Unwelcoming and it stayed that way for the entire next three weeks. My mum was surprised with Bongo. As she is used to Ira she told me Bongo is not a dog. I did not commented but I think Bongo understood her because he was a trouble when she walked him. Over three weeks they warmed up to each other.

Two years ago I took my mum on some trips to Korea but this time I decided we should go to Angkor Wat. I was so impressed with Angkor in December that I wanted to go again and taking my mum looked as a good excuse. I hooked up with Alex – who was my guide in Dec and we had great time. Although there is a rainy season in Cambodia, the weather was much better than here. We had mostly sunshine and blue sky . Few times we had showers which would not last more than an hour. I think I would share photo album shortly. Few days before I went to Angkor with my mum I got from a broker info about an apartment in A’dam. I saw the photos and I like it immediately. I contacted my trusted friend Ana Maria and she went to see it. She confirmed that the apartment is exactly what I want. So I decided to buy it. While I was in Angkor Ana Maria signed the purchase contract. Now I am busy arranging financing which on a distance with a time difference is a bit tricky. But I have a nice lady as a bank contact and I expect everything to be fine.
I do not expect to go to the Netherlands next year but if that happens I have a great place.

Here is still hot and humid. And few great friends keep me sane.

Repairs

Lately I have a lot of appliance repairs. My internet is frequently down. Last week I had a problem with the TV cable. I am not sure if I wrote in the blog about my internet problems. In this land of technology and highest broadband density in the world my server gets down frequently and I cannot connect for days. My internet provider is KT (Korean Telecom). Since March I had four visits. The last one was last week Monday. However, after the Monday visit I had internet shortly in the evening and then the server went down again. Hmmm…
Next morning I was not happy talking to the guy at KT service center. Among other things I asked him to send me someone with brains to fix the server. So Tuesday afternoon they sent a man and a woman. On previous visits I had only a man. I do not recall was it a same guy or different ones. Do not remember their faces…
The woman spoke a bit of English so I asked her why I have server problems. Her answer was: “Your cable is too long”. Hmmm... so in land of semiconductors, LGs and Samsungs a problem is a length of a cable? You cannot argue with that. By the way I cannot have wireless in my Seoul apartment because "my apartment is too big". I thought that's why you have a wireless...but I am just a Balkan girl. Anyway, for time being the server is OK.
Today I had two guys from “sky” cable network to fix a receiver. They put the new receiver as the old one was dead for a week. The funny thing is they said they will repair the old one (which did not give any signs of life for the past 7 days) and will come to replace the new one they installed today with the old one - on June 23rd. So I have two weeks of TV until receiver resurrection. I wonder in how many days after 23rd I will have to call a service again. Why they cannot leave the new one? Or perhaps they like foreigners so much they have to visit them frequently.
Talking about repairs my friend Ylona had a problem with airco in her new car. Here in hot, humid, traffic congested Seoul a car without airco is not a pleasant experience. So Ylona went to the garage and asked them to fix it. The guy checked and told her that the airco is OK. She said "No, it’s not. I am so hot in the car". The guy answered: "You are hot because of your body heat".
Well, Ylona is “hot”, but not “that hot”. But she went ballistic when she heard the guys reply. They cooled down and fixed her airco.

Monsoons and fumes

Girls playing with Bongo

Last two weeks work did not leave me much time blogging. We had few transactions in the final stage. I signed one agreement at 9.30 pm last week. At least we are busy….
The monsoon season started about 10 days ago. I am not so good in taking bad weather photos. Somehow this rainy season looks bearable. This is my third monsoon season here so perhaps I got used to it.
Last Sunday I was at the base with my friends - Yolanda and Patrick. It was very nice to hear they will be also on the Mongolia trip second week of July. I have been with Yolanda and Patrick to Vietnam and Cambodia so we know we travel well. They gave me a tour around the base. The base is old. US Army never thought they will stay so long, so some structures on the base go back to 50ties. Most exciting moment for me was to see wild pheasants. Yolanda told me they are around, but seeing them walking around the base was exciting.
Yesterday I had lunch at Darrell’s place and met Jennifer with Françoise, Esthel, Marc, Maryanne. Françoise is a one year old Westi. Marc also has a dogie and his dogie and
Françoise take a walk together every Saturday around 1 pm. I asked if I can join with Bongo as he needs friends. Darrell got great take out from Marrakesh nights: cuscus, hummus, falafel, tabule. Delicious food. I heard about some English teachers Korean experience. I heard about an incident of a 6 years old boy who started masturbating in a class. Quite disturbing as one wonders where a 6 years old can learn this. Or kids here are very advanced?
I also heard that a 7 year old kid told a teacher in the class: “You are gorilla and you should go to your back to your shity country”. In case such things are reported, teachers who report are accused of being liars and usually lose their job.
I mentioned about a case in newspapers where two girls had a spat and one of the girls asked her boys friends to rape another girl. So about four-five boys gang raped the other girl. Of course it was not the boys fault, but the girls fault as her mother works and she could not be properly brought up.
We talked about racism against whites. Recently on two TV programs there were documentaries how foreigners are to blame for bringing AIDS and drug addiction to Korea.

I spent Saturday evening with Faye sipping cocktails at the roof on Bungalow. Walking on the Itawon street we saw two ladies running. Behind them was a truck in smoke. Faye and myself started running too. It turned out this was a fumigation truck against mosquitoes. I can understand the municipality wants to reduce number of mosquitoes, but why do they do it on a Saturday evening around 10 pm? Unless Koreans consider foreigners as a pest too, so they know it’s easiest to fumigate them on a Saturday night. Running from a cloud of poisons fumes Faye and me bumped into a guy from New Zealand. He lived here 6 years and came back to visit friends. He said that he and his friend had a dinner on a terrace when the truck appeared and the guys on the truck directed a smoke to restaurant patrons enjoying their meal. I am sure fumes added to the taste….
Faye and myself checked a Bulgarian restaurant “Zelen” which has a handsome waiter Philip. Unfortunately there is no “chushki burek” or “shopska salad” on the menu. Philip is also not on the menu. Philip’s brother Mikhail works at “Bricks” but we did not like the place and proceeded to “Ape with the Pipe” – Leo’s new place. Leo looked a bit tired. He said he will get a dog next week and keep his cats. I continued with cocktails. Faye ordered a jasmine tea. We did not want to eat but Leo gave us delicious quiche on a house. I saw my photo in the bathroom and it looks great there. As Faye also has two of my photos in her bathroom, I am now officially the bathroom artists.
Rain continued on Sunday morning which I spent reading about Tito and watching “Mr Housewife” a Korean comedy which I liked. Around noon it stoped raining for a while. I quickly took Bongo out. I was lucky to meet few girls who already know him and were happy to play with him. Bongo was running after girls. They laughed and had a lot of fun. He got so tired....

When we arrived home he was chasing his tail. Apparently a sign of dominance. I guess that's what chasing girls does to a dog...
Met Faye for lunch. We decided to go to St Ex. On a way there we saw two great jindos and said “Hello” to them. We said "hi" to the guy as well and it turned out this is David Peackok who runs Cindy shelter for dogs. He is Scottish as Faye. On his lap David had Gaby, a one eyed shitzhu he rescued from the street. Dr. Kwon operated her eye. We spend some time talking about dogs and vets, dog trainers etc. Next to David was an older guy. He also has dogs: a Maltese and a Jack Russell terrier. Lunch at St Ex was a disappointment. I ordered salmon with blini but I did not recognize bliny when they reached my plate. I complained and got a free desert which was actually delicious. But I regretted I did not go to Sortino’s. Going for a coffee we met Jackie and her new baby Jasmin. Jasmin is about three and half months old, but she has great smile and a strong grip. She speaks Korean – “aaahhhh”, “mmmmm” and similar monosyllabic Korean words. Very cute baby. We had coffee at “La cigale” which was great. Then I went home to Bongo. He needed his dinner and an evening walk.

June 17th - a doggie day

On a way to work I took a photo of a doggie at morning coffee (see photo). At work opened an email and my neighbor asked me to help to find a home for Soju – a two year old Shitzhu found at the University grounds. I sent emails to Karen Busch from http://www.lonelylifetime.com/ and Chaitanya. I also spoke to Karen about contacting Sunan from KAPS. Then going to get a new passport, I saw a doggie taking a nap in the shade of the newsstand (see photo). My friend from Diny who end of April moved to Beijing sent me an email about spending a weekend with her two doggies at the Dogiepark. There is a hotel with cottages. Each cottage has a TV set. There is also a swimming pool for dogs.(Sorry, no photo). Sounds crazy, but very dog friendly and so different from this place.
Worked until late. Came home and took Bongo for his evening walk. Passing a bus stop a girl approached me and asked me in fluent English about Bongo. She then start sobbing. Her mum lost her dog two days ago. Her dog was Shitzu just like mine. She does not live in the neighborhood and she looked quite heartbroken. I wished I could help her.
Next stop was a store. There we met a typical Korean toydog. People do not believe when I tell that here a typical dog has purple/green/blue/pink ears and tail. Finally I have a photo to prove it. The dog on the photo has unmistakably ultra green ears. That I go to the exceptionally nice shop, shows that this dog was allowed to roam around. I leave Bongo outside to wait (see photo). All in all – it was a very dog day.
Oh and by the way _ my server was down since Saturday. In this country of high technology I have problems with the internet and now for a fourth time in two months I have a KT guy coming to fix it.
My New Zealand neighbors Sarah, Stefan, Gabrielle and Ingrid moved today. The go back to NZ on 15th July. Bongo will miss Ingrid. I will miss them all. I was sad to see their balcony without lights tonight.

Good bye to Exit-T - photos of their last two nights in Seoul

Shakira- was the last Exit-T song

Champange on the house for the band Bella and her fan celebrate...

Working JJ's crowd

Bella

Maja