Chuseok

I'm so proud of myself. I wrote Chuseok in Hangul at work on the board from memory and only spelled it with a J-sound and was a little off on the -eok sound. Not bad for 2 months!
Here's a few pics of the view from our friends' apartment- you've seen the lack of view of our place, now see what it's like to be in a real high-rise apartment with a view of the Hangang River. And their place is like 3 times the size as ours. But who could afford the utilities there?
My office had the Chuseok party Tuesday night and we played volleyball and BBQ'd hamburgers and hot dogs- they wanted the American food. So I asked what the ROK military officer in our office what they were going to do for us gringos (I have the term written down at work, but they call us Yankees and the Korean words for 'big-nose') and they just take us out to a Korean restaurant. I called my counterpart a 'slacker' and then had to explain what it meant! He laughed and thought it was funny. He likes the words I teach him- slacker, heckler, etc. And I'm going to ask for an F-4 ride before I leave here. I'll puke my guts up, but what a ride!
Tabitha's party was today and Julie took this picture of Tabitha with two classmates. I had to obscure their faces, since I didn't ask their parents' permission and I wouldn't like it if someone put my kid on the Net without my permission. But their dresses are so pretty. We need to find some for the kids that don't cost $70 each. I saw them on base for that much. So we hopefully can find traditional Korean clothing for less.
I love the gooey rice cakes they have everywhere. Man, those are good. It's rice and something else all mashed up and has a sugary middle. Just a short bike ride away to the E-mart to get some, too.
I guess they're going to open up Kim Jong Il's job- I'll put in a resume and send a get-well card to Kim. I could run that country a lot better than he could.
And the approval came through today for me to stay one more year and get a small bonus. So we're going to be here until 2011. We'll have to fly home every summer Space-A now. That's fine. We'll miss the US if we stay away too long, but Korea has been a lot of fun so far.

Woori Heros Baseball!

We went to a baseball game last night. It's so different (like everything else) how they do things. The teams are owned by corporations. The Woori Heros (tobacco company) played the Doosan Bears (booze company), so it was one of those!
Anyway, they don't cheer or heckle when the other team is up to bat. They make all kinds of noise when their team is up to bat. And they have cheerleaders that get up and dance- and they have a mascot as well. The Heros won, and we all crammed into a taxi to get home faster than the subway that got us there- it was like 1/3 mile from the station to the stadium.
It wasn't super-crowded in there, the hot dogs were expensive and spicy and I tried dried squid- I call it Octopus Jerky. It's a little rubbery, but not bad.

North Korean Money

Here's an activity. Print and cut out the North Korean money and feel free to spend it on anything you want. Since they're up there counterfeiting our money, I thought I'd return the favor.
The picture is Kim Il Sung, I think they call him the "Great Father" or something. But all he's done is produce a crazy, nepotistic kid and make things silly around here. But if it weren't for him, I wouldn't be here, I guess.

I signed up for an additional year here. There's an undisclosed amount of money for doing so, and I guess we all have our price. Mine is just a lot lower that I thought.

Young Chang Piano Company of Seoul, Korea

Yesterday, we had an adventure getting a new piano. I went with Chris Chang and Jenny Han down to the Insadong Market to get the thing. Jenny did the negotiating and talked the guy down to W3.8 million and got it delivered and tuned that day. It sounds great, and there's nothing quite like a baby grand piano in your house. Julie has waited many years for this, and she deserves a nice piano. It's not a $30,000 Yamaha piano, but Korean workmanship to me sounds fine (my ear is untrained to know the difference). The guy tuned it manually and it was really cool to watch him work at it. He'd tune one and start working the octaves. I've talked to a piano tuner before (this is why camping at the KOA's is so fun if you're unabashed like me!) but he told me you have to tune them differently than you'd think or they'd all sound horrible. Because I asked him half-jokingly if he used 88 tuning forks to tune a piano, but they don't do that. In the States, they use a computer and it tells them what to set it to, this guy just did it all by ear. I never saw him use a tuning fork or anything. These people have mad skills at things.

We've been playing the currency market lately. We're trying to make a few bucks on the exchange rates to pay bills and stuff, but you really have to pay attention to it and you have to know where to get the things exchanged. Korea is going to strengthen the Won here soon, so it'll drop, but we'll try to make a few bonus bucks in the meantime.

Here's a palace guard changing- I had to shoot it from the car as we were looking for parking, and here's a lady in a Hanbok. You're supposed to ask permission around here to take people's pictures, but I had the window up and we were driving by so I didn't have time. It's a pretty dress anyway. We're going to take our family pictures in traditional Korean clothes for our Christmas card this year, so I guess we'd better get that done.

I'm going to sign the paper to get the Korea bonus pay. You get a few hundred bucks a month to stay another year. It saves the military money in moving expenses, and we have one less move in the career to have to make. Not like I'm fast-tracked to 4-star general anyway. Might as well let Mr (Air) Force keep me happy. And we're saving a lot of money, but as you can see, we're opening the door and allowing a lot of Won/Dollars to get away. Life's too short to let it all get you down. At least I ride my bike to work now so I don't get stressed about finding a parking place when I get to work, and I get a little exercise- it'll be even better when it cools off more around here.

It turns out our utility costs weren't too bad. Our gas bill for the stove was 3,500 Won and our electricity worked out to being about 1,000 Won a day, so being conservative and a total cheapskate was good for us. We're saving a few bucks there by living off-post. They'll give us all the extra utility money back when we leave here in 2011, so we'll use that for a car or something.

Post Labor Day Holiday

So I get one more day off. No complaints there- especially with the kids in school. Tabitha started school today so we just have Violet. HOORAY!!!

Today we hopefully get the piano- if the money is in. The exchange rate is getting up there to where a guy can make a few bucks on changing the money. So you either sit on that and change it back if it drops, or buy more stuff with less money.

Our gas bill is 3,500 Won. We used 2 cubic meters of gas in a month for cooking. I don't know if that's the heat as well. We'll see in the winter if that thing uses a ton of gas, but there's no appliance in the apartment that I can see to heat the place, other than a thermostat in Hangul and some numbers on it. One of the guys at work paid $90 for his summer electric bill and that took a lot of stress away for me. We didn't run the A/C that much- so that's good news.

It's not raining, so I want to go back to Insadong with one kid and spend money.

Korean Curse

The people here are out to get me. I get a day off, and it rains. We could have gone to any amusement park in the city- and had a good time in short lines. But they made it rain here- I'm certain they knew it was Labor Day and all the Miguk's get the day off. But the Hanguk's made it rain. So we paid the rent (the exchange rate was W 1098) and went to the freezing indoor swimming pool. Waste of a day- but it beats working.

Tabitha starts school tomorrow and the other kids go back as well. Then we have just 1 kid at home for a day. We'll go purchase the "Young Chang" brand baby grand piano for W4000, but we'll try to talk the guy down and get it delivered for less. I can't believe how cheap that is for a baby grand piano. Julie's waited over 10 years for this. We may buy another one and ship it home so we can make a buck on selling one. We're saving a lot of money on the exchange rate alone.

Here's a 'Rose of Sharon' the National Flower of Korea. Their bird is the magpie. I haven't gotten a picture of one yet.

This WON's for you, KEPCO

I wonder what we'll pay for utilities around here. I guess in living off-base, you have a little extra money for utilities and if you save it, you keep it. So we didn't run the A/C too much this summer and hopefully we won't have to run the heat too much when the winter months come around. Korea Electric Power Company is going to build a lot more nuke plants and there will be more power and hopefully the rates will drop- in 2025. I just didn't know the utilities would be so much around here. You don't hardly think about it in the US- we loved our pellet stove in Nebraska, because gas and electric went way up and we were able to heat the whole house for $300 for the whole season- and Julie kept the house at 77 degrees. That probably won't happen here. We may have to get a kerosene heater for the house as well.