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.