My Time In the East

Christmas 2005 in Korea! The lights are on the tree. That is a Lego Monorail running around the tree and a Lego Semi truck with helicopter in front of the tree.  

posted by Unknown @ 9:23 PM 1 comments

Funny thing happened on the way to the forum...

Wow! Lots of stuff going on this week and it is only Wednesday!!!

I've been back from my vacation in the US for a little over a week now, and it is still frigid cold here in Korea. The snow/ice had melted enough to allow safe operation of two wheeled vehicles (aka, the moped). Saturday afternoon, I get all bundled up and hop on the moped to go someplace (doesn't really matter). I don't get a block before the rear tire goes flat. Bummer. About two months ago, the the same tire went flat, but was easily fixed by adding more air. Not so this time. But, alas it was too late on Sat night to go find the moped repair guy to fix it.

Fast forward to Monday evening, and I take the moped in for "repair". Needed to replace the tire anyway, it was starting to get a little bald and I can probably use all the traction I can get this winter. Anyway, the guy starts working on the moped; lots of stuff to take off before he can remove the tire/wheel assembly. Oops, rear tire is essentially FROZEN onto its mount. The power wrench doesn't work, even with WD-40. So, he pulls out the portable butane torch to heat up the bolt. Yep, it was a little disconcerting having such an open flame near the gas tank. He got the bolt warmed up enough for it to come off. Tire was replaced and I was on my way after about 30-45 minutes. All that work for $45 (including parts); not too bad.

The funny part about the whole thing was what was on the TV in the shop. It looked like a Korean special interest news piece. The gist of it was how much knitting that certain people did in Korea. There were security guards, cooks and others that either knit while they were working or in their off time. The truely astonishing parts were the individuals that knit a scarf using only her fingers or another that knit a small purse/bag using one kneedle and her hands in about 8 minutes.

Tuesday rolls around, and I realize that I need to run the third load of laundry that I had from the previous weekend. Yes, I usually only do my laundry on the weekends for two main reasons - it is when I have time, and if I don't, I run out of items at the wrong time. So about 8pm on Tuesday, I start the water, throw the clothes in the machine, and settle in to make dinner. I finish cooking dinner, but smell as if something was burning or burnt. I thought maybe it was dinner or the 220V transformer (blew one of those up last year :). Nope none of those things, but then I think that I don't hear the washer machine running. I look out and low and behold - its not working. Its also smokey out there and I really didn't have time or energy to deal with it, so I went to bed.

This morning (Wednesday), I decide that I need to fish the wet clothes out of the washer machine. Let me say that water gets very cold overnight in the winter. Between thawing breaks, I was able to get all the clothes out. During lunch I used a syphon to drain most of the water from the machine. Of course, when I called to have the machine repaired, I was told that I have to warm it up first before I can use it. Okay, there is a difference between cold, frozen and just plan broke.

It gets looked at on Thursday. I'm not expecting much, but if it is replaced, it probably won't be until Monday. So for the time being, I'm saving all my change to feed the machines at the laundrymat.

posted by Unknown @ 9:36 PM 0 comments

Seoul Tower lit up like a Christmas Tree. The blue coloring from the middle section of the tower changes color every 30 seconds or so. I think its been like this since it reopened at the end of November. Of course tonight the top portion isn't lit... 

posted by Unknown @ 8:58 PM 0 comments

TRKR and his new friend, MR SNOWMAN. Of course, I think MR SNOWMAN has moved on to warmer climates by now. 

posted by Unknown @ 8:55 PM 0 comments

Mid-December Update

Well, since my last post I was able to take a few weeks and visit home. It was great to spend time with the family.

Of course, apparantly I have turned my son (TRKR) into a Lego-manaic. During the time that I was home we pulled out the lego bricks and sets that I had from my childhood and starting putting some of the sets together. I think we spent a couple of days playing and building different sets; he would find an instruction set and say, "Lets build this guy." It was fun.

Back here in Korea, winter has definitely arrived. I returned to Korea a day after it was hit by a pretty big snow storm. A week later, there is still snow/ice on some of the northern sides of buildings.

Seoul tower is finally open after a very long refurbishment process. I took a picture, but haven't post a picture of it in its nightly illumination - simply stunning.

Occassionally I walk to where I work. On evening, I was walking back from working late - got new toys installed and was configuring them - anyway, I was walking past a seafood resturant (the kind where the menu is swimming in tanks out front). The cook/waiter/owner comes walking out to catch the meal as I go walking by. The fish gets caught in the strainer (yep, using a strainer instead of a fish net), but decides that it really doesn't want to get eaten. By now, I'm past the resturant, but I hear this "plop". I look back, to see the fish now on the ground and the waiter trying to get the fish. It probably happens all the time, but it was the first time that I saw it. I had a pretty good chuckle the rest of the walk back home.

posted by Unknown @ 10:58 PM 0 comments