We have news!

Baby Breuhaus #2 is already in his/her second trimester. In the midst of the chaos of moving out of the US and settling into Seoul I learned pretty late in the game that I was pregnant. Add to that no medical insurance while Brian was awaiting his visa, we actually didn't get in to see an OB until the baby was 12 weeks along! We got all caught up during 4 hospital visits in a week, ultrasound and all. We wanted to post those pictures but we threw it away by accident! What can we say-we're unfit parents even before the baby's out of the womb. BB2 is due to 'drop' December 22nd.

Jack notes
Every time a train rumbles by below our 10th floor apartment, he wants us to pick up him at the window so he can watch it go by. Since we live less than a half-mile from Seoul Station, that sometimes happens about every 5 minutes.

Cub notes
The latest guy to shut the Cubs out is a guy named Boof Bonser. How much worse can it get?

Korea notes
Some things I like about Korea: women often walk hand-in-hand down the street; people brush their teeth after every meal (there's practically a line in my office bathroom after dinner), people don't honk much and everywhere we go people are always talking to Jack and being friendly.
Some things I don't like: People are allowed to drive around in trucks with loudspeakers to sell their goods, older men and women are more revered -- so they will RUN YOU OVER if you are in their way and people don't use dryers, to save energy, so you have to hang all your clothes.

Incheon along
We joined Patty's aunt and cousin, Q-Hyun, age 9, in Incheon on Saturday. We saw a huge memorial commemorating 100 years of friendship (1882-1982) between Korea and the U.S. Of course, at the time, Ronald Reagan had just invited President Chun for a visit stateside -- which had the effect of legitimizing a brutal military dictatorship government to the world, only two years after it killed hundreds of student protesters in the Kwangju massacre. But I digress. Here's some neat pictures! (And look, a bird is pooping on Gen. Douglas MacArthur's head!)

This is really dumb to mention, but ...

It's a very exciting moment. Jack used a urinal for the first time. He gave me the sign at a Chinese restaurant in Incheon (you can guess what it is), and I brought him to the bathroom. Instead of using his little potty, well, he stood up and went. These kids, they grow so fast.

We spent Saturday in Incheon which is home to something no other place in Korea has: a Chinatown.

Apparently, the Koreans are about as friendly to Chinese immigrants .... as, well, Japan is to Korean outsiders. In other words, not very. So, there aren't a lot of Chinese in the country, except for this little spot.

One restaurant had a little doggie in the window. Hmmm ... wonder what they sell there?
Patty also tried out something new (to us), an umbrella on a sunny day. The Koreans, as well as most of Asia, hate to get tan -- mostly for vanity reasons. So the women actually carry around umbrellas. It's very cute.
Also pictured is the gate to Chinatown in Incheon and the courtyard of a Buddhist temple. Very peaceful. Very serene. Unfortunately, we were kicked out and told NOT to shoot photos, you &*(&*(@#$@#. Well, he didn't use that word, but I don't speak Korean so I don't know what he said.

So, what's it like for a country (that cares about soccer) to have their dreams snuffed at 6 a.m. by Switzerland?

Well, hundreds of thousands went home sadly, many tears were shed and the whole country wondered what could have been ....

But, there is some good news!



$1 T-shirts!!!

Here's a better view of the craziness, from my newspaper

Booming Up. Always.

These photos just appeared yesterday all over the JoongAng Ilbo (Korean version, the #2 newspaper in Korea) and the JoongAng Daily (the English version). The idea is, they want us to push newspaper subscriptions. And they wrote this partly in English, and partly in Korean. But what the hell does this mean? Even the Koreans don't really know.

This is one crazy country

I just got back from spending the evening with a few hundred thousand close friends. And everyone is STILL fired up about Korea's dramatic come-from-behind win over ... well, Togo. But hey, a win is a win and it's more, unfortunately, than the U.S. could do. I went down to City Hall with a few people from the newspaper. About a hundred thousand people were dead quiet in the first half, after Togo took a 1-0 lead. But it was bedlam after Korea came back to win. A lot of fun. Everyone is still screaming "Tae-han min-guk," with the endless beat that follows ... 1-2 pause 1-2 pause 1.

Here are some photos from tonight's craziness.

At top, is a view from City Hall. There were many more people there than it even looks like. The next shot is some Korean fans. They were doing face-painting, and I wanted to get a picture of that ... but they misunderstood and posed for this photo. How embarrassing. The next shot came after Korea won the game, and the final one was the masses going home on the subway. Of course, everywhere, people were shouting and chanting. It's two hours after the game ended, and people are still honking their horns and cheering.

Elevator fun
Technology is very popular here, even the elevators talk to you. One cool thing is that if you press a button on an elevator, and it's the wrong floor, all you have to do is press it again and it's undone. So, when people hit floors below the one I'm going to, I like to quietly hit the button again. It makes the trips to my floor much faster.

Cup fever!
We are about two blocks from City Hall, where there are about 50,000 fanatics wearing red, getting ready to watch South Korea vs. Togo in the World Cup game. I'm going to join them soon, and take a few photos. People are getting carried away. They've actually written editorials about how evil Togo is, because their players complained about their pay, and said the great South Korean people would never do such a thing. All about good vs. evil. Still, I'm rooting for Korea. This whole thing is absolutely crazy, but fun.

Patty's birthday weekend

Well, it took us almost 8 hours by plane, subway, bus, taxi and ferry to get there, but Goeje Island was worth hit. Here was the view from our hotel room. We got to listen to the ocean all night long.

Patty and Jack had fun at this pebble beach on the island. The sound of the stones rolling under the waves crashing in is one of the official "100 most beautiful sounds of Korea."

I was a little disappointed by all these rules, rules, rules on the beach. A little shamanism among friends never hurt anyone.

Here are a few shots of the Island, including Patty enjoying the view at Oedo Island -- which is a botanical garden accessible only by ferry ... and only when it's not windy.

Finally, Brian's breakfast Sunday morning was fresh sliced abalone (fresh sliced by a woman on the shore, with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth, that is) out of the ocean, washed down with a little soju. Pretty salty. I don't think I'll have that one again ....

A break in your day for some gratuitous, unnecessary pictures of Jack.














Up left, Jack in the playground in front of our apartment. Middle, Jack staring down some Korean kids who might try to take his toy duck. And below, one of Jack's favorite activities, playing the keyboard half-naked.

Partying in the suburbs ... Part II

Patty can't believe it's all free
Jack made a new friend. Of course, anyone with food is his friend.

So, what do we do on weekends?

Well, since I asked .... Here's one thing that we never did at Newsday (or any other paper, that I can remember). Two weeks ago on Friday, we closed the paper early and the entire staff headed up north to this "rustic" spot, where we got to use a big cottage in the middle of a whole bunch of big cottages. There were food and drinks. And our top boss, the equivalent of the publisher, was going around with a bottle of whiskey offering a favorite Korean drink: the boilermaker. Basically, you put a shot of whiskey into a glass of beer and slam. The idea, of course, is to get drunk as fast as possible. And in a society where everything fast is valued "pali, pali," or "quick, quick," Koreans don't even waste time sipping their booze. Anyway, there were also prizes (I won a wallet), and of course, another Korean staple: no re bang, known elsewhere as karaoke.


Here's an overview, before things got too crazy.
This guy is my boss -- at the same level as the editor of the newspaper. He's got some fans. The words underneath come from the guy who took the picture, one of the business editors. It just means, basically, "yahoo, Mr. Kim...."
This is one of the American editors -- the youngest guy. To Patty's sheer amazement, he speaks perfect Korean. Here he is, singing a traditional Korean folk song.
The guy on the right is our esteemed editor. He, too, speaks Korean, -- and worked for four years in North Korea Without him, who knows where we'd be.