Life and Seoul

2008-06-09T22:53:00.004+09:00

We had a absolutely amazing trip to Bali, Indonesia, as we wrap up our time in Korea. I'm going to graduate school in international relations at the University of Chicago starting in September, and we are leaving the country on June 30. I love Korea and I have loved living here. I hope to be back.

I will post some more (I think), but here are just a few pix from our trip ...

2008-02-16T23:07:00.001+09:00

Bjork!

Declare your independence! Declare your independence! Raise up the flag. Higher, higher ...
That's what we heard as we got showered with confetti in the last song of the Bjork concert in Seoul last night. For an anniversary president, I got tickets for Patty. We got standing room only seats right in front of the stage, probably about 14 rows back. Fantastic. Bjork was in full crazy form, jumping around the stage in front of a 10-piece brass band from Iceland, wearing flags on their head and triangles on the forehead. It was a lot of fun, probably one of my top five concerts ever. There were only about 5,000 people there. My ears are still ringing.

The other top four:
Steve Ray Vaughn's last concert ever (w/ Eric Clapton and Buddy Guy in Alpine Valley, Wisconsin). He died in a helicopter crash an hour or two after the show.
Kermit Ruffins in a New Orleans dive jazz bar.
Buckwheat Zydeco in Milwaukee Summerfest.
Midnight Oil in New York. It was a special unpublicized show, and I was standing only about 5 rows from the front in just a small room, not much bigger than a bar.

Honorable mention:
Run DMC/Beastie Boys in Rockford in the early 1980s. One of my first concerts.
Bruce Springsteen in Giants Stadium
Rolling Stones at Alpine Valley near Milwaukee.

2007-12-23T15:51:00.000+09:00

One for all ...
So, we had a big party with 90 friends and family on the 18th floor of the Foreign Correspondents Club, overlooking City Hall and the ice rink set up for the holidays. (See picture with the view) Excellent food, wine on all the tables and even candles, brought by hand from the United States.
What was the occasion?
Anne's first birthday.
Yes, it was crazy and extravagant and maybe even a bit silly. But it was a lot of fun -- and actually pretty normal for Korea. In fact, our neighbors were appalled at the simple "hanbuk," or traditional Korean costume, that we had for Anne to wear. So they pitched in and bought the beautiful outfit that she wore. My mom (in blue) came too, flying all the way from Chicago!
A "dol" or first birthday celebration, goes back thousands of years to when the children often didn't live to be that old. When they reached "1" they were "home-free." Anyway, today the tradition lives on. There are three huge events in a person's life here: the wedding, the dol and the 60th birthday. And even the 60th birthday isn't quite what it once was.
Here are some pix:

2007-11-15T15:09:00.000+09:00

Clack on. Clack off.

The things you learn overseas ... we had a story in yesterday's paper that described a woman as a "clacker." The reference came from the movie "The Devil Wears Prada," and was about a woman who wore high-heels as she clack-clack-clacked down the hall. Anyway, one of the editors asked what a "clacker" was. We looked it up, and it turns out the word is quite common slang in Australia. It means "anus."

2007-11-01T11:59:00.000+09:00

I love this picture of Anne with Patty's second-oldest uncle. We were in a Korean restaurant in the Ahyeon area.

2007-10-29T12:32:00.000+09:00

Mmmm... I hope they have shrimp and cocktail sauce.
So, there's a buffet in Daegu, and it must be pretty exciting because both of the other English newspapers, the Korea Times and the Korea Herald, wrote front page stories about it.
I think they meant Buffett.
Because Warren Buffett visited there recently, and told people they should buy Korean stocks. I hope to have pix of these papers soon :)

2007-10-18T09:45:00.000+09:00

Beijing, China

It's a strange feeling to go somewhere for nine days, then come back feeling like you knew less about the country that you did before ever visiting it. That's China. An amazing amalgamation of elderly women with bound feet, children with slits in their pants that make diapers unnecessary, wealthy entrepreneurs profiting from raging capitalism and communist scholars. There's a huge amount of optimism about the future and a lot of excitement about the upcoming Olympic games.

We ended up staying in Beijing the whole time, and saw a bit of everything: the Great Wall in Mutianyu, Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the weekend antique market, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven and even the Pearl Market, where Jack got excited and threw up all over a toy stand.

Anyway, here are some pix

This is the Temple of Heaven, basically the Buddhist worship place for emperors.

Some seafood at Wangfujing Market. Almost good enough to eat!

By order of the Communist Party of China, the uniformed children of this elementary school all lined up and raised the flag of China. It was about a 15-minute ceremony that I could see from our hotel room.

Jack playing around at the Beijing Aquarium, inside the Beijing Zoo.

Patty at the weekend antique market. We bought several handpainted originals, most costing less than $10. We later went to an art biennal, and found that many of the paintings were ripoffs of top Chinese artists, such as Liu Ye, who are commanding $500,000 a painting or more.

This guy was selling feathered hackey-sack type balls for about 15 cents each. I guess that's why there was no bargaining. He let me take pix of him on the condition that I send some photos back to him, which I will.

Here's the Forbidden City, on the only rainy day of our trip.

At the Great Wall on Mutianyu, though, we had perfect weather and an amazing three hours on the wall.

The next two pix are from the The Summer Palace. Not a bad summer retreat. The most amazing feature to me was the walkway for the emperor. It was entirely handpainted, with 8,000 paintings. The walkway went on for a long way, maybe half a mile.

The whole crew at the summer palace. Jack is flashing the peace sign, which is all the rage for kids in Korea when they take a picture.

Take a look at this menu. The English translations are quite funny. The first one is "Husband and wife lung movie."

And finally, scorps on a stick. Tasty.

2007-10-14T17:17:00.000+09:00

Jack's birthday

We've had a little problem lately with Jack. The last two birthday parties he's gone to, HE blew out the candles. Well, on Aug. 19 (yes, I'm late posting), Jack had his OWN birthday party to mark his 3rd birthday. Jack's gotten quite good at showing people three fingers when people ask him his age. Anyway, here's a couple of pix from the big occasion

2007-10-05T00:11:00.000+09:00

Borneo
A friend told me recently that he's heard of the phrase "going to Borneo" as a euphemism for getting drunk, but he's never known anyone who went there. Well, we were crazy enough to do it. We dragged our kids there for a few days -- even went down a python and crocodile infested river with our little babies. Yes, we are the parents of the year.

Anyway, here's a few photos -- of the sunset at the hotel we stayed at, a domestic water buffalo cooling off, the night market in Kota Kinabula, Malaysia on the island of Borneo and a proscibus monkey we saw in the wild.

Here, too, is a story I wrote about the trip.

Where the monkeys seem strangely familiar

2007-10-01T11:31:00.000+09:00

To the market for burgers ...
U.S. meat has been the source of a lot of controversy here. Korea is a pretty closed country to exports, and US beef has been banned since 2003 out of fears of mad cow disease. Of course, the many cattle farmers here who get the highest prices in the world for their beef haven't been complaining. However, as part of a controversial free trade agreement, U.S. beef is coming back to the market. Slowly. Boneless beef only, at first.
The first day it went on sale, Patty, me, Jack and Anne went to the market to buy some U.S. beef! As we went in, we saw about 500 Korean troops marching out of the store. Patty started to get nervous. We went inside, and found no beef for sale. Protesters had stormed the store about two hours earlier, trashed the place and forced the store to agree not to sell any beef.
Here's a link with a photo of a protester throwing manure at the beef counter
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2878042

Happily, however, US beef is now sold at stores all across the country and the protests have faded away ...

2007-07-01T17:58:00.000+09:00

Cheongnyangi Market

As rapid modernization gobbles up Seoul, this place is a step back in time. Kind, weathered faces everywhere. Generous and humble people. Almost no one minded me taking their picture. The colors were intense, and almost anything was available -- from live dogs and chickens to be butchered, to garlic stacked as high as a fence and extending hundreds of yards.

Here are some photos

2007-06-16T10:35:00.000+09:00

Back, back, back ....
I've been busy. That's about the only lame excuse I can give for not updating the blog, but I'm adding about six entries today covering some of the craziness and our travels in the last six weeks or so. Anne and Jack are both doing well, and Patty remains the mom of the year.
Patty Jack and Anne skipped this even, a Korean corporate tradition: the let's-get-smashed-out-of-our-minds-in-the-name-of-bonding retreat. At least once a year, the JoongAng Daily drives up north about an hour, rents out cabins and has a huge feast. The kalbi was amazing here. Although no one stayed overnight, there was a campfire, lots of alcohol and plenty of karaoke, of course. The guy with glasses (hanging out with the designers) is the head of the entire newspaper, the equivalent of a publisher. He went around with boilermakers (whiskey shots dunked in a glass of beer) and called out "no exceptions, no exceptions!!!" Of course, that made things a bit awkward for those who don't drink, but they didn't get pushed too hard. The other guy below, at right, is our features editor. At the end of the night, everyone drove home.

2007-06-16T10:34:00.000+09:00

Next to our hotel in Sokcho, right next to it, was this farm. At the farm, there were about 30-40 dogs, which we heard each morning. I took one close-up photo (below) before getting shooed away. We also followed a pickup truck almost certainly taking dogs to slaughter. I later went to an old-school market in Seoul and saw a cage of dogs in front of a whole bunch of sliced meat. I even saw a woman butchering a dog. I was really horrified and sickened. I know that much of that is my Western sensibility -- here, eating dogs has been going on for a long time and is rather widely accepted -- but it's still hard to stomach. I know it's cultural and I should accept it (the wide availability of guns in the U.S., for example, makes many outside countries ill), but it's not easy.

2007-06-16T10:23:00.000+09:00

Sokcho. Mount Soraek is one of Korea's most famous tourist spots and this town sits right at the foot of the mountain. We got a deal through the JoongAng Ilbo (our mother paper, or the 'mothers' as I like to call them) to stay at a pretty basic hotel for $50 a night. So, we made a long weekend out of it. At left, is a giant statue of Buddha in the mountains. It's probably 75 feet tall. The bridge is Sokcho at night. Patty's uncle met us on the last day, and took us to a fresh fish barbeque which was one of the best meals I've had here. They just kept throwing the fish on the grill until we couldn't eat any more. We also rode a strange ferry that went about 100 yards across a canal. You had to pull on a rope to drag it across. We all pitched in. Also below is Anne next to the ocean (the light was fantastic), Brian and Anne at a fresh fish market in Sokcho (cheap sushi for everyone), Patty, Jack and Anne working the telescope in the mountains and another tasty dinner of chicken and tons of veggies ....

2007-06-16T10:21:00.000+09:00

These are just a few random photos. I've been taking a photography class, and have probably shot 1,000 photos in the last two months or so. So I'm in the zone. I need to learn the "delete photo" zone. At left is Jack outside the chic "W" hotel in Seoul, in front of a light that turns on at night. We went to the "W" for a one-year birthday party for the daughter of Patty's cousin. The other two photos were taken in Sokcho, outside our hotel. Sokcho is where the mountains slam into the beach on the East Coast of Korea -- a really long swim would bring you to Japan. Below, is a rose bush outside our hotel and a shot of Jack. The other photo is Patty and Anne at the playground.

2007-06-16T10:12:00.000+09:00

We decided to go visit Patty's aunt (baby grandma, as Jack calls her, because she's the youngest) one weekend in May. Somehow that turned into a full family get-together with most of Patty's eight aunts and uncles. We ended up renting a new house in the middle of farmland in an area called Gongju. We had plenty of Korean barbecue, soju and -- of course -- no re bang. That means karaoke, and that's what's going in the photo below. It had rained a lot recently, so Jack managed to get covered head to toe in mud. Fortunately, there were lots of aunts and uncles around to help out .... :)

2007-05-03T23:40:00.000+09:00

This really happened.

I checked into it carefully with the reporter, and it's not a joke: a county in Korea gave an award to 3 government employees for drinking heavily at local bars and with local staff for a period of 20 years. Why? They gave the local economy a boost.

JoongAng Daily link

2007-04-27T14:41:00.000+09:00

More journalism follies

The other Korean English-language newspaper is the Korea Herald. Despite the basic rule of journalism that you never, never, never report something in advance as if it already happened (don't even assume the sun will rise), that's what they did.

On the night of National Assembly elections, before the polls closed, here was their headline: Uri sinks lower into crisis after election debacle.

They cited election polls. But the truth is, the Grand National Party -- Korea's other major party -- fell way short of expectations. This was the REAL story, their headline the next day: GNP reeling from election setback.

2007-04-26T11:22:00.000+09:00

We wuz robbed!
I still can't believe this happens, but this gives a sense of the quality of Korean journalism here. The Korea Times, an English language newspaper which is loaded with typos in headlines almost every day and shoddy journalism, actually stole a story from us.

Our newspaper, the JoongAng Daily, is part of the JoongAng Ilbo, Korea's second-largest newspaper, with a circulation well above 1 million. Anyway, we translate many of their articles for our paper. (JoongAng means central in Korean and Ilbo means daily).

On Monday, the JoongAng Ilbo (Korean version) printed a story about spouses using spyware to spy on their husbands or wives. Apparently, that is getting much more common here. Anyway, the story appeared first in Korean on the JoongAng Ilbo Web site. We assigned a reporter to translate it, and were holding the story to use on a slow news day. It was on our budget for Wednesday. The only problem, the Korea Times translated the JoongAng Ilbo story and used it as their own, in the Tuesday editions. The reporter used her own byline. The story was exactly the same with two slight exceptions: in the anecdotal lede about an anonymous couple only known by "Kim," it was changed to "Ahn." The age of one of them was changed from 38 to 37. The rest of the story, including the quotes by a named consultant and lawyer, were identical.

I pushed hard to do a story of our own about this outrage, but it hasn't happened -- yet, anyway. We'll see what comes out of this. I still can't believe the blatancy of it.

2007-04-26T11:13:00.000+09:00

Temple, temple

I went out to the beautiful Jogye Temple for a freelance story for Newsday about Koreans' reaction to the Virginia Tech shooting. Basically, I went up to about 80 people and said "Yong-euh haseo?" Which means, do you speak English? Hardly anyone did. I got my best interview, finally, when I talked to a guy I knew who lives in our building. I guess Koreans aren't crazy about some strange-looking foreigner asking them a bunch of personal questions :) Hmm, maybe that would apply to Americans, too?

Anyway, here are a few photos. The temple hung white lanterns to remember the dead, and from the lanterns were the names (in Korean) on yellow cards of the people who had been identified as of last Saturday. Inside, a monk chanted and banged on a drum in front of three giant Buddha statues. It was quite beautiful. The woman in the photo is bowing before a shrine dedicated to the Va. Teach victims. There was a big banner that said in English "We pray them peace."

Also, here's a link to the story

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-wokore042

2007-04-19T12:08:00.000+09:00

Stop, it. Really. Please stop.

First, a U.S. state senator of Korean descent apologized to his colleagues. Then, the Korean envoy to the United States said he'd go on a 32-day fast to show his grief. And then, this embarrassment: The Korea Times, an English "newspaper" in Seoul, ran a front page unsigned box saying how the newspaper "deeply regrets" the fact that the shooter of the massacre was Korean. Folks, THERE IS NO REASON TO APOLOGIZE!!! Koreans here seem to feel a sense of shame about this. Yet, this is not a race or ethnicity issue. There are millions of successful, well-adjusted Korean-Americans, and some that get into trouble, just like any race, ethnicity, religion or other background. It was one messed-up kid. We should be able to leave it at that.

2007-04-18T15:57:00.000+09:00

Birthday fun
I've been in journalism for almost 20 years (including in New York on 9/11) and last night was one of the craziest. I was running the paper because our chief editor is out of town. The big stories of the night were the Va. Tech shooting and -- in something we've followed for a while -- the selection of the host of the Asian Games in 2014, for which the Korean city of Incheon had a strong chance to win.

We expected a news conference about 6:30 p.m. to announce the winner of the Asian Games, and we had a strong story out of Virginia with vivid quotes from a Korean student who'd been shot, but not seriously injured. So, as the night went along, our page 1 was in good shape.

Then, came news about the Asian Games, which is a major event in these parts. The ceremony was dragging on, and the delegates were going to have dinner before announcing the results. That meant the decision was due about 10 p.m. That's our deadline.

Then, about 9:15 p.m., we started getting word that -- it was possible -- a Korean was the shooter in Va. Our original story quoted the Chicago Sun Times as saying the guy was a Chinese national. About 9:45 p.m. -- 15 mins. before deadline -- we learned that it was pretty sure a Korean was the shooter, but it wasn't confirmed.

We got an extension to about 10:20 to close page 1. At 10 p.m., I was standing in the middle of the newsroom watching 2 TVs (both with clusters of editors around them). One had the Incheon result. The envelope was on a pillow. Someone carried it over. More words. More speeches. "Just say it!!" I was yelling, with a smile.

The other TV carried the Virginia press conference. It didn't start until 10:05, of course. Come on, come on ... Slowly, the news trickled out with details about the shooter.

Then the frantic rush. We'd prepared several stories with the possibilities about Incheon, so that was an easy swap when Incheon won the games.

However, the updates to the Korean shooter story (now the lede of the paper) kept coming. We were updating and polishing and rewriting and redoing the headline until the last possible second. But we got it all in. Whew.

During the whole process, I felt amazingly calm. When it was over, I sat back and actually started to sweat and maybe tremble a little bit. Quite a 37th birthday ...

2007-04-16T23:59:00.000+09:00

Simple, black and white

I find it fascinating, living in another country, when something that is widely accepted in fact in one country is the opposite in another. Consider the egg. Koreans have come to believe that brown eggs are fresher than white ones; Americans think the other way around. Thus, you can't find white eggs here -- except at Easter -- just like you can't find brown ones in the States, except at your friendly neighborhood farm stand.

2007-04-06T06:36:00.000+09:00

Pancakes at 4 a.m.

And plenty of them ... We arrived back into Seoul on Tuesday morning. Still battling jet lag, we all went to bed about 9 a.m. and were up by 3:30 a.m. Early bird special, anyone?

We dove into our massive amount of pancake mix that we brought back from the trip. Breakfast food in Seoul can largely be found only on the black market, so we came back with 15 pounds of pancake mix and 27 pounds of oatmeal (only $6 for a 9 pound box in the USA). Along with some real maple syrup we found at a Mennonite store in southern Wisconsin, we should be set for a while.

Speaking of the trip, it was phenomenal. It was crazy to fly into Chicago, then to Washington, then drive to New York before flying home. But we wouldn't do it differently again. It was so good to see all of the family and friends ... we can't wait to go back. The best news is that everyone tells me they read the blog, although hardly anyone comments, so I'm newly inspired to make new posts. Highlights included steak at Pederino's in Chicago after Wisconsin squeaked by Texas Corpus Christie in the 1st round NCAA (thanks Adam), a day trip to Monroe, Wisconsin, Tuesday night in Madison with TGEED and my family, Baby Anne's baptism and party in Rockford, Her 100-day celebration in Washington with Patty's sister's family and her parents, cherry blossoms on the mall in Washington, meeting up with Eli, Theresa, Sumathi and Tomoeh (all formerly from Newsday) and our short trip to New York with Lorna and Asandon and the Hyo Shin crew.

When I got back, in true Korean tradition, my boss told me I'd gotten fat on the trip and needed to lose weight :)

Here are some photos: Baby Anne's baptism in Rockford, her 100-day celebration in Rockford, the Korean War Memorial (a few hundred yards from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington) and a gratuitous shot of Jack goofing around.

2007-02-08T00:29:00.001+09:00

Ain't she sweet?

2007-02-08T00:29:00.000+09:00

Ain't she sweet?

2007-02-08T00:20:00.000+09:00

Alive and, well ....

I'm typing with two hands and rocking the baby, in a sleeping chair, with my feet. If I don't, I'll hear it! (From baby Anne) Patty's desperately trying to catch up on some sleep. She's gotten a total of about 4 hours in the last two days. That's in part because she now teaches for an hour each day at 7:30 a.m. Her choice! Fortunately, it's only for a coupla months.

Some random thoughts
If you tell someone you'll meet them for lunch here, you don't have to say what time. It's assumed to be noon. You'll get a funny look, actually, if you do ask the time. The lines form outside the restaurants at the stroke of noon, then they dissipate. Crazy.

Something else crazy: the winter mini skirt. Yes, I know a married guy isn't supposed to notice, but it's fascinating. The weather is 10 degrees outside, and women everywhere are bundled up in a heavy coat, chic boots and a mini skirt with bare legs. I guess it's better to be fashionable than comfortable.

Pack journalism
So, the head of Hyundai, one of the largest companies in the world and 2nd biggest in Korea, was sentenced to prison for 3 years for bribing and embezzling. Not ONE newspaper here led with it ... except the JoongAng Daily (and the IHT for all of Asia). Why? Well, no one expects he will go to jail for that long after the appeals. But more importantly, some have said quietly that newspapers don't want to disrupt the Korean economy and they don't want to upset a major advertiser by making a big deal of it!

2007-01-22T08:15:00.000+09:00

Life is good!!!
Another glorious sunrise with the Bears! Wakeup call was 5 a.m. today, and it was worth it. What a thrill to see the great city of Chicago celebrate like that. Wow. I think I could hear the cheers from here. I'm holding baby Anne as I speak, and thinking of all my family and friends in Chi-town. At its heart, Chicago is truly a Bears town. Interestingly, this vindicates the Chicago Sun Times, which took some heat for putting palm trees next to their logo rather early in the season -- symbolizing a trip to Miami and the Super Bowl for the Bears. And, although I don't want to take too much credit for this, when the Saints were about to kick a field goal that would have given them a 17-16 lead, I put on my Walter Payton jersey. The Saints missed the kick, and the Bears outscored them 23-0 the rest of the way. Yes, yes, yes ...

2007-01-16T10:54:00.000+09:00

Did you know you can eat cereal from a saucher plate?
I may buy the kid's food and clothes, but my 2-year-old calls the shots -- let there be no doubt.
This morning, I poured him a bowl of cereal. Alas, he didn't like the bowl. So, I let him choose which bowl he wanted. He chose a tiny blue saucer. Then, he INSISTED on keeping all of the cereal from the original bowl. So, I poured in on the plate, then coated the cereal with some milk on the tiny plate. Guess what? It worked.

2007-01-15T06:23:00.000+09:00

Yes!
It's 6:22 a.m. on Monday morning and I've been up for three hours. Why? Well, watching the Bears-Seahawks game of course. The TV picture was great, but the game was in Korean so I listened to it on the radio through the Internet -- 30 second delay. Weird. But the Bears won, so it was all worth it. Time to get some sleep.

2007-01-10T16:20:00.000+09:00

Sleepless in Seoul

So, I know what I'm supposed to be doing. Gushing over the new baby, cooing every minute, enjoying this amazing experience.
Here's what's really going on: Baby Anne keeps us up half the night, because for her day is the time to sleep and night is the time to eat. And stare and eat and stare and get changed and eat and keep the parents up. Especially mom, the provider of food. That makes mom and dad very cranky.
Then there's Jack, who is severely bent out of shape because he is not getting absolutely 100 percent of the attention that he received before the birth of little baby Anne. That has taken the form of him scribbling all over the living room floor, the TV and his bedroom in crayon. It has also taken the form of him screaming "NO!!!" at the top of his lungs, at times, to simple requests such as "Do you want me to read Mother Goose?"
The right reaction: smile, gently prod him to calm down and encourage him to express his feelings
My reaction: Fight, fight, fight the animal-like urge to wring his neck.
Did I mention being a little cranky :)?

2007-01-08T21:28:00.000+09:00

The first photo was taken in central Seoul, on a cold early January night.
The other photos show baby Anne and Jack, and baby Anne with her only great grandmother, who came to visit us today.

2007-01-04T23:04:00.000+09:00

About two blocks from our newspaper's office, in central Seoul

2006-12-29T00:51:00.000+09:00

A couple more of the wives' tales ...

If you cry during the birth of your child, it will damage your vision.
Your joints get out of whack all over your body when you give birth, so you have to stay warm so they will mold back into place.
Another thing about our little yoda -- can I call our baby that? -- is that in Korea, instead of giving out cigars, you are supposed to offer out dok (pronounced duk). Basically, it's rice that is slightly sweetened. And no, it's not very good.

I bought $70 worth of dok for the office, so people could have giant slices, about half the size of a brick. I'll take the cigar.

2006-12-28T16:41:00.000+09:00

A great thing about Korea ...
For about $320 bucks a week, we have a woman in her 40s helping us full-time (though, probably just for 2 weeks). She cooks, feeds and changes the baby, and boils the baby's clothes. She'll even iron and give Patty massages. However, she has some interesting wive's tales related to having a baby.
Apparently, women aren't supposed to brush their teeth for 3 months after giving birth, because their gums are so sensitive.
In fact, women usually are told not to even leave their bed -- not even for a shower -- for the first month. (Fortunately, Patty has not followed either suggestion). The idea is that they need to stay constantly warm and also rest their muscles.
The woman also told Patty to be sure to take care of the post-baby swelling around her feet, because that can turn into fat.
She also wants Patty to eat seawood soup six times a day, which is full of iron (to restore the blood). That is actually quite healthy and a tradition that has probably been going on here for new moms in Korea for thousands of years. Kinda cool.

2006-12-17T23:48:00.000+09:00

The miracle of birth

Photos ... the first minutes of Anne Kim Breuhaus' life. Her first moments with mom. A hospital room with a view, the day after. And finally, the nurse presents Anne Kim to her brother Jack (not pictured).

Wow. Sometimes I forget how amazing it all is, and what a blessing it is from God.
Patty woke up at 6 a.m. on Saturday when her water broke. At first, I was irritated to be woken up. Then, when she told me what was up, it didn't seem real. We called our neighbor, and she arrived within minutes to watch Jack. We were at the hospital by 6:30 a.m. Patty immediately got admitted, and they said she'd been dialating -- 2 cm. The first thing she did: call for some pain killers! The anesthesiologist was there in minutes. We would not have that luxury later on ... but that's ahead in the story. Well, in Korea, the tradition is for the second birth NOT to take an epidural. Patty put that tradition to rest quick. Well, by 8 a.m. or so, she starting feeling some pain. She called out for help, and more pain killer, but the anesthesioligist just watched and did nothing. Turned out, he was right. Because 15 minutes later she was feeling no pain. And she didn't the rest of the delivery. She went from 3 cm ... to fully dialated in about 20 minutes! The nurse checked, called out in Korean that she was dialated, and that staff came a running. We'd had a resident doctor with us the whole time, but within about 60 secs, there were another five nurses and doctors. Our OB doctor came in too, out of breath from running. (Patty's doctor, who we love, was out of town in Japan for a 2-day conference. Well, what are the chances the baby will come that day, we thought? A whole week early). Anyway, they took us to the delivery room, and the baby came out with just three pushes. They did an amazing job and we were really well cared for. The place we stayed was a brand new wing of the children's hospital, and they even served shrimp for dinner. Overally, we think we got better and more intense care than our delivery on Long Island. Just one problem: the anesthesiologist never showed up to remove the epidural needle. All day, we kept calling for it to be done. And all day, we kept getting excuses. Finally, we decided to get Western. Patty told them if she didn't get the needle out by 12 midnight, she was going to file a formal complaint. At 11:45 p.m., they wheeled her to a whole other wing of the hospital where the anesthesiologist was working. He took it out, took about 3 minutes.
That night, it snowed. It was amazingly beautiful and a perfect way to end the night. We can always tell our little Anne Kim Breuhaus that it snowed the night she was born.

2006-12-06T21:14:00.000+09:00

Yank off
That is your English lesson for today, courtesy of the JoongAng Ilbo Korean edition. The above was the actual headline, next to the phrase "Kaplan's biz English," and here is the actual text (sandwiched between the Korean characters).

Conversation
A: James has a good body. He must've exercised hard.
B: Tell me about it. When I first met him, he shook my hand so hard I thought he'd yank it off.

Yes, it's true. I have gone two months plus without posting, and I return with this.
How do you say pathetic in Korean?

2006-09-22T11:33:00.000+09:00

Hail to thee, JoongAng ...
Just got back from the JoongAng Ilbo's 41st anniversary celebration. There was an auditorium full of Korean men in suits, with four Korean men in suits facing them from the stage. I guess those guys were the top bosses, but I have no idea.Anyway, they handed out awards to 51 of the people -- and made sure to have plenty of diversity: 5 of those 51 were women! The highlight of the ceremony was the singing of the company song at the end. Dang, why doesn't Tribune come up with a song? Oh yeah, now I remember ... It's Go Cubs Go!!!

2006-09-20T11:53:00.000+09:00

Take me out ...
Well, the North Koreans still won't cooperate with anyone and almost ALL of the TV shows here are in Korean, oddly enough. . So, hmmm, what to do ... what to do ... what to do ...
I know.

BASEBALL.

Yes, baseball, Korean style. Thundersticks for everyone. Cheerleaders, both male and female. Sparklers in the crowd. And sports teams that aren't named after their town, but rather (and what's more important than this, let's be honest), for companies. Capitalism at it's best.

So, one of the reporters here, Jee-ho, and I took in a crazy game of the Kia car company Tigers vs. the Doosan business conglomerate Bears. I'm hoping this will catch on back home. I would love to see Disney get throttled by GE ... or Gannett take a beating from Google ... or see General Mills crush Exxon.

Anyway, at this game, we were rooting for the Tigers. They were the "little" guys.

P.S. Kia won, 6-2. I think Hyundai, GM and Honda and shaking.

2006-09-17T23:45:00.000+09:00

Trainspotting
Choo-choo! That's the only sound it takes to get the 2-year-olds running. Patty had some moms and kiddies over the other day, and this is what happened when the train came by.

2006-09-12T00:57:00.000+09:00

Five years and 8,000 miles away
We saw Flight 93 in Seoul recently, and it really brought me back to that day. And week. And the months and years afterward that we wrote and covered that event for Newsday. And of course, the coverage still continues.
Here, we did not do one story on 9/11. The JoongAng Ilbo, the larger Korean version of us, did a page on it But the JoongAng Daily did not. There was no local angle.

2006-09-07T14:22:00.000+09:00

You won't find this in "Beautiful Baby" magazine
I was putting Jack to sleep last night. And, since it was only 11 p.m., he wasn't happy about it one bit. First, he started crying. Then, he started coughing. I picked him up to pat his back and out it came. I was covered in vomit from my face to my feet. Jack was fine. He was laughing 10 minutes later and blessedly asleep not much later than that.

2006-09-07T11:59:00.000+09:00

Disoriented
The word "oriental" seems to be not offensive here. In the States, using that word to describe an Asian immediately brands the speaker as either ignorant or, at worst, racist. But here, I've come across the word many times in newspaper stories, although I usually edit it out. In addition, people here can get degrees in Oriental medicine and get an Oriental massage. No one seems bothered by it.

2006-09-02T22:21:00.000+09:00

One night in Sinchon
This place is a big college hangout and a good place to grab some food -- especially when we were skipping the 100-day birthday party of a cousin of Patty's daughter.

The first photo is one of our favorite places to go in Seoul, KK for short. The second is a view of the streets of Sinchon, full of hipsters. It's three subway stops from our house. The last photo explains why I came to Korea.

2006-09-02T16:46:00.000+09:00

A fantastic trip to Phuket, Thailand

I felt sad on the last night, because I never wanted to leave. Check out the whole slew of photos (60 or so) on snapfish. Here's the link

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=51923357/a=38080572_38080572/t_=38080572

And these are a few of my favorite shots

2006-09-02T16:38:00.000+09:00

Crazy train

Sometimes, it's good to be the outsider in a foreign culture. On our way back from Daejeon Beach, we got on a packed train home. In fact, we had to buy a ticket on the black market (!) for an extra $5, through our taxi driver, just to get on the train.

Well, we took our seats and put Jack into a stroller, hoping he'd have a nice sleep on the way home. Soon, an older man ambled on the train and sat near us, in the handicapped seats. He sat in his seat, then turned the seat in front of him around and plopped his feet on the seat. Because the train was full, (and the guy only bought one ticket), the conductor asked him to give up the second seat. He would not. He started screaming about how he always travels this way and wasn't going to stop now. (Translated by Patty). Well, soon, a couple of old women got on the train. There weren't enough seats because of our pal, so they both shared one handicapped seat. That didn't work, so one of them sat on the floor. So ... I told one of them to take my seat, and then I went and plopped myself down on the seat the older man was using as a foot stool. I sat on the corner of the seat and stared at him. Most Koreans would not do this, because older people (especially older men) are revered and it is not right for a younger person to rebuke them. But I'm not Korean!!!
So, everyone got nervous when I did this, and the conductors got involved. Eventually, they asked the old woman to sit on the seat and share it with the guy's legs. This time, the guy was willing to let her. But still, he argued with the conductor the whole way, until he got off the train.

2006-09-02T16:16:00.000+09:00

So, we went to Daejeon Beach a couple weeks ago, and stayed in a friend's cabin. (Our friends the Pangs in Seoul, cousins of our friends the Pangs in New York).

The trip was great, except I tried to crush and drown Jack. First, I walked away from his stroller when looking for the cabin. About 15 seconds later, it somehow tipped over, dumping the poor little guy on gravel and cutting his face in two places.
I should have learned. Later, we went to a famous bathhouse in the area, and I brought Jack to the kiddie pool. I took a few steps away, turned around, and couldn't see him. The kid was in the water, face down, even though it was only about 4 inches deep. By the time I grabbed him, Jack was screaming and everyone in the bath house was staring at the white guy ...

Well, now that true confessions are over, here are a few more highlights.

This seafood dinner was amazing. All fresh clams and shellfish and actual fish on the bbq. It was about $35 for all three of us, with a couple of drinks and tax and tip.

Next is the Korean national flower, the Mugunghwa

And finally, here is a shot of the beach. It is by far the most modest beach I have ever seen. Almost everyone wore shirts and shorts into the water. Maybe three or four people (out of probably thousands on the beach) dared to wear a bikini top with the shorts. I saw one Western woman and one person wearing a bikini. Not coincidentally, they were the same person.

2006-09-02T16:11:00.000+09:00

What advertisers REALLY want us to do

2006-08-15T11:18:00.000+09:00

Liberation
Well, it's Aug. 15. And besides my parents anniversary (happy 25th!), that also means Korea's celebration of independence from Japanese colonial rule from 1910-1945. On my way to work yesterday, I passed a big parade. Somebody held a large paper-mache tiger, which carried a string wrapped around a tiny American soldier's neck. Strangely, Liberation Day is tinged with anti-American feelings. Strange, because, as I recall, the Americans had something to do with the war ending and the Japanese surrender in 1945. However, this country has a foreign population of less than 1 percent, so many people haven't been around people from other countries much. At home, I never feel too patriotic. But here, sometimes I feel like waving an American flag. Although the U.S. has its problems, it has always welcomed foreigners from other lands. And that makes it great. Cue Neil Diamond's "Coming to America" here. (Which I played last night on my i-pod. Twice)

2006-08-12T21:57:00.000+09:00

A blessing from God
Yes, we love our little skeleton. She's about 5 inches long right now, and scheduled to be born on Dec. 22. And yes, this one's a girl.

2006-08-12T19:42:00.000+09:00

We're back.
To all of my loyal readers (or is it reader at this point?), many apologies for not posting lately. I guess eating dog got to my brain and slowed it even more. While we're on the subject ... Koreans love to do things in groups. And there are three days of the year where the tradition is to eat samkyetang (a chicken soup) or boshintang (yes, dog soup). The idea is, you eat either of the two dishes to help you get through the hot days of summer -- which last about 3 weeks, right after the rainy season. Each time, the samkeytang and boshintang restaurants are packed. Well, Sunday was the last of the three (though I'm not sure the hot days are over, it's been in the high 80s for a while). We went to the same restaurant across the street from our apartment. And this time, I had the samkyetang! The photos are of the restaurant. The first word, in Korean, means boshingtang. The second means samkyetang. I'm not sure the third one, but it's a type of "tang" or soup. (Patty just told me it's a fish stew, or soup). The poster is the liquor ad for eating dog with a type of soju, or Korean liquor. The red word means "STRONG" in Korean. You can see the guy with the cowering dog. Finally, the third photo is Patty's uncle downing some boshingtang. Tasty! I don't think I'll have it again (too much Western guilt), but I can say that most Koreans that I've talked to eat it -- and it doesn't seem strange to them.

2006-07-16T11:46:00.000+09:00

A dog gone shame.
Well, I did it. I ate dog. There, I said it. I'm not proud of it, but it's done.
Here's how it came about. In Korea, although people don't talk about it openly, most people have eaten dog at one time or another. The custom started during the Korean War, when there was little to eat. Today, Korea's archrival (enemy?) Japan, uses the derogatory term "dog eaters" to refer to Koreans.
When we moved into our apartment, Patty's uncle proudly pointed to the restaurant right in front of it and said it was one of the best "boshintang" restaurants in Seoul. Boshingtang is dog stew.
Every time I walked by there, I felt uneasy, like it was a sinister place. But I was curious.
So, Patty's uncle wanted to take me there, his treat. I did. Patty didn't. She and Jack went to a playgroup while I ate dog flesh. We walked into the restaurant, took off our shoes (Korean custom at houses and restaurants) and sat at a small table underneath a sign with a cartoon guy and his dog. The sign read, in Korean, "boshingtang" alone -- too hot. But "boshingtang and bek soju" equals STRONG. In big letters. Yes, it was a liquor ad. And in Korean tradition, eating boshintang makes you strong. Well, Patty's uncle ordered and soon there was a pair of boiling bowls of soup in front of us. We got a sauce, too, to dip the meat in. Patty's uncle ordered an extra serving, which came on top of a small portable gas grill. I used the chopsticks, picked up the meat from the bowl, and dipped it. The taste was good, like beef, but with a more subtle taste. I have to say, if it wasn't dog, I would like it a lot. However, throughout the whole meal, I kept thinking "I'm eating dog flesh." I kept wondering what the dog looked like and where it came from. Of course, I don't have those thoughts when I'm eating chicken, squid, turkey, cow, pigs, lamb, goats, ducks or other animals.
Koreans assure me that the dogs are raised on a farm, just like cattle, and they are killed quickly and fast. There's some debate about whether that's true, but I choose to believe it.
Well, Patty's uncle INSISTED that we finish every morsel ... even though I was full about halfway through. By the end of the meal, I felt sick -- and felt that way the rest of the day. I felt vile. And I couldn't get the taste out of my mouth.

2006-07-13T23:19:00.000+09:00

They hate us, they really hate us ...
Well, maybe not hate. But in a crazy day in Seoul, it rained 15 inches and some 40,000 or more anti-American demonstrators rallied at City Hall, about four blocks from where I work. They were protesting talks about a free-trade agreement between the two countries. Mostly, they were farmers, students and union workers. Unlike many rallies, this one ended peacefully. But for a day, at least, I was adding "eh" to the end of my sentences.

Here's a link

Rally in the rain

One thing that's interesting about living here is that I've never felt more American. I am truly defined by my country, both good and bad, which is something that's not the case living at home. Strangely (or not), I actually feel a little more patriotic even. And although this rally looks kinda intense, Koreans by far have been very kind to us.

2006-07-05T21:15:00.000+09:00

North Korea fires test missiles.
Don't take my word for it ... Well, actually do.
My first story as a "foreign correspondent."

here...

Follow up story (day 2)
and here ...

Missile launches (day 1)

2006-06-25T12:43:00.000+09:00

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.

2006-06-25T12:27:00.001+09:00

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.

2006-06-25T12:27:00.000+09:00

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

2006-06-25T12:21:00.000+09:00

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.

2006-06-25T01:26:00.000+09:00

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!)

2006-06-25T01:20:00.000+09:00

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.

2006-06-25T01:02:00.000+09:00

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.

2006-06-25T00:56:00.000+09:00

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!!!

2006-06-14T12:44:00.000+09:00

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

2006-06-14T02:23:00.000+09:00

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.

2006-06-14T02:11:00.000+09:00

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.

2006-06-13T20:46:00.000+09:00

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.

2006-06-13T20:40:00.000+09:00

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.

2006-06-09T22:40:00.000+09:00

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 ....

2006-06-09T22:29:00.000+09:00

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.

2006-06-08T15:51:00.000+09:00

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.

2006-06-08T14:39:00.000+09:00

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.

2006-05-22T17:13:00.000+09:00

Because men have needs, too

Our newsroom secretary told me Friday that I needed to get a credit union account -- today. I wandered downstairs and found the place (after talking to two people who had no idea what I was talking about). However, I already have direct deposit for my paycheck at work at a bank. So, why would I need a separate and second account for money from work? For a secret slush fund, it turns out. In Korea, women generally do the books. So, at our paper, at least, the men are given this "credit union" account for all extra money: bonuses, overtime, holiday pay, whatever. And their wives don't have a clue.

2006-05-15T22:55:00.000+09:00

Hong Kong
Well, I may SEEM computer literate, but I'm not! I loaded all our photos from the trip, then realized that they are all in reverse order. So, in true blog fashion, we're starting with the end of our trip.
Yes, it's INCREDIBLY juvenile of me to post a photo of "Tong Fuk" village, but as a journalist, I'm just reporting what I see. I was unable to get a photo of, and this an exact quote, the "Fat Ho Elementary School." Our bus just drove by it too fast, and my camera didn't snap quick enough. But it really exists, in the serene fishing village of Tai O, on an island that is a 30-minute ferry trip (and 1 hour bus ride).
Here's the ferry port. The high-speed ferry cruises at what seems like 45 miles per hour. In 30 minutes, you go from crazy congestion (see picture below) to complete tranquility and remoteness. Amazing.
This was a "ladies market" at about 10 p.m. in Hong Kong's Kowloon section.
Oy ... completely out of order, but this is Patty buying some dried squid at the Tai O fishing village.
Another view of Tai O.

These are bubbles, so you know what these women are REALLY thinking about.
Oh, now we're back to the Tai O village.
This is a view of Hong Kong's skyline, taken Saturday night, at the peak of the mountain overlooking the city. You can take a famous (at least for tourists) tram to get there. It's basically a train on tracks that go practically straight up. You look out the window and everything is 45 degrees.
Hong Kong is a former British Colony, just like our home country. So we celebrated with some afternoon tea at the Peninsula Hotel, luv ... Cheers.
A view of Hong Kong's skyline from Kowloon. They say it's the most famous skyline in the world, but as a former New Yorker, I'm skeptical.
I just thought the money was pretty ....
A boat in Hong Kong harbor. No idea why this old sailboat is sitting in the middle of this modern harbor.
Here's Patty. She's excited because she's about to enter an ART MUSEUM.
We are looking incredibly relaxed. Why ... why ... why? Oh yeah, notice there's NOT a 2-year-old crazy kid in this picture? He stayed with Patty's relatives in Seoul. I doubt they'll let that happen again.
Here's me at the Korean consulate, wondering if they will approve my visa application. We already sold our house, so it would be REALLY annoying if they didn't let me back in Korea. I'll ease the suspense. They gave me the visa, no problem!
Patty riding a tram. This one on the street, and perfectly level.
Hong Kong is known for its dim sum. This place is in the City Hall building, and was quite good.
Just a shot of a taxi driver, thinking there's got to be a better way to make an living than driving these crazy Americans around.

And below ... Patty at the dim sum place again.

2006-05-15T16:49:00.000+09:00

Teaching English

This is only Patty's second entry to the blog- since I'm not the writer in the family I've been lax about contributing, but I had to tell you about my new gig teaching English. I started the job about three weeks ago. I teach 3 days a week. one class in the morning and one in the evening. I had about 2 hours of notice to take on this 2 month job when the "Western" teacher they requested bailed. Alot of clients do not want Korean nationals as teachers-they think their English isn't as good, or it may be that they feel self-conscious speaking English to another Korean. Who knows, but they were desperate so I got the job. I"m teaching a group of adults who work at the Civil Service Commission, which I think is the admistrative office to the President and other high-ranking government officials.

All that the "Hagwon" (English school) owner told me the first day was to take attendance, have the student pick out English names provided on a list they provided, and give an oral 'level exam' to assess their English competency level. I passed aorund the name list and had them write their new names on the roster. When it was returned to me I had the strangest list of names! The women's names were simple enough: Ann, Sue, Jackie, but the men's names!! I had from my 2 classes 2 "Spinoza"s, a "Robinson", a "Smith" and then a few of the guys went off the list and named themselves "Kitty Hawk" and "King Kong".

When I returned home that evening I looked at the English name list and realized that the men's name list was full of, how shall I say, unconventional names. Here is a sampling: The list was written in Korean, so I'm translating as best as I can!

Shagal (?)
Casper
Moses
Dio
Santa
Neitsze
Livingston
Don Quixote
Smith
Spinoza
Jefferson
Kennedy
Lincoln
James Bond
Sanderson
Jewtime (?)
Dragon

When I mentioned the weird names to the Hagwon owner later, he said he made up that list!

2006-05-12T00:31:00.000+09:00

WE ARE IN HONG KONG!

Yes, I'm typing on the bed of our hotel in the 15th floor. Brian and Patty came this morning, because Brian had to leave the country to get his visa for Korea. Yes, an unfortunate quirk in Korean law ... you must LEAVE the country to get permission to STAY in the country. What that means for us is a free day off for me and a free plane ticket anywhere (in reason) out of the country. We even got Patty's family to help out and watch Jack ... so it's like a second honeymoon.

More pix/updates to come soon.

2006-05-09T11:36:00.000+09:00

Parent's Day
Well, I guess that gives a father an excuse to do about anything, right? I've been tempted many times to just start singing out loud to my iPod. Last night, I officially lost my mind. After stopping in a 7-11 type story to buy an ice cream bar for Patty, I walked outside and started singing "September morn," by Neil Diamond. All of the Koreans tried not to look at the crazy Westerner -- especially when I walked by a busy bus stop. Clearly, I've officially lost my mind. :)

2006-05-05T10:43:00.000+09:00

Happy Buddha's Birthday

Today, Friday, is a big day in Korea. Buddha's birthday overlaps with another huge holiday, Children's Day. So everyone (check that, most everyone ... not this intrepid journalist) gets a 3-day weekend. However, life is good in the Breuhaus household this morning, thanks to a 360,000 won Costco run (thats about 370 bucks), we have a refrigerator stocked with American food. This morning, we ate bagels, omelets and ... mmmm .... bacon. Top that off with NPR on our laptop (the magic of the Internet) and my Sports Illustrated that arrived yesterday. Life is good.

2006-04-30T23:39:00.000+09:00

Gwangju blues

I guess we haven't had quite ENOUGH adventure, so Patty, Brian and Jack went to the train station on Saturday morning and did something we haven't done for years ... pick our destination at the train station. Well, we decided to go to Gwangju (also known as Kwangju) because one of Patty's uncles said there was a great green tea farm and ocean-water spa. The other reason, we wanted to ride the bullet train and see the countryside.

We took a short ride to Seoul station, then found we were at the wrong place. It should have been our first clue. So, we headed to Yongsan. An hour later, we were on the KTX. http://ktx.korail.go.kr/eng/

The train was smooth and fast, screaming at speeds of up to 180 miles per hour. In less than three hours, we were in Gwangju, in the very southern portion of South Korea. Kwangju makes Milwaukee look like Paris for its culture. We went to the art section -- it was basically one block, with about four stores and two galleries. No one was around. Then we went to "new town" to get a hotel. We turned down this one ($35 a night)

to stay at the Central Tourist Hotel, which was $70 -- and supposed to be one of the nicest in town. It wasn't. There was a "sports massage" for $50 on the 5th floor. And I don't know how they define "sports," but I don't think this qualifies.

We had a seafood dinner that looked pretty good (before it was cooked), but didn't taste great. The octopus and squid were rubbery, and the shrimp and crab were scarce.

Plus, we kept hearing music all night. New town, as it turns out, is full of old pasttimes: nightclubs, bars, dancing women, etc. Jack wasn't too happy either. He screamed at the top of his lungs for more than 2 hours. Korea has been fantastic, but at this moment both of us felt very far away from home. It was probably the first time we both were really down.

The next day, we bounced back quickly: thanks to American food. (Or is it Australian). Yes, a big lunch at Outback lifted our spirits (and Jack's too). I'm not quite sure what you call this mixture of bread, ice and water ....

We got to the bus station, and found it that it was a 90-minute bus ride to and from the green tea farm. So, we bagged it. Took a train back to Seoul (yay!) and ate dinner at TGI Friday's with the Sam and Pearl Pang. Thank goodness for American franchises :) Jack loved the balloon so much, he slept with it in his hand Sunday night. This is a dark room -- it only looks light because of the flash.

2006-04-25T23:31:00.000+09:00

Smokin'
One of the joys of Korea is the bathhouses. They date back to the days when people didn't have personal baths in their homes. Today, they are more of a traditional social gathering place with friends and family (or a ridiculously cheap place to spend the night). I just got back from one near our apartment. For 6,000 won (about $6), I could use a men's only shower, several saunas of different temperatures, a hot tub and a cold tub. One of the saunas was so hot it hurt to breathe and my lips started to burn. Then, after you are refreshed and clean, you put on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt (part of the 6,000 won), and go to a unisex area with more saunas, a workout area, lots of mats and areas to sleep and food. I brought a book and just relaxed. Fantastic.

No respect
I am CONVINCED that Koreans are simply not fans of the Cubs. I was thrilled this morning (last night in Chicago) to find that the Cubs were on TV live, with Korean broadcasters, playing the Marlins. I watched every out from the 2nd inning to the 8th. The Cubs were losing 3-0, but put their first two runners on base and were starting to rally. That was when they cut out of the game, to do TWENTY MINUTES of pre-game before showing Chan Ho Park pitch against the Arizona Diamondbacks. For those of you who don't know, Park is the #5 starter for the San Diego Padres. And yes, he's Korean. But the story has a happy ending. The Cubs did rally in the 8th (I found out later) to win the game 6-3. And poor Chan Ho got beaten by Arizona.

2006-04-23T21:58:00.000+09:00

Gotta represent ...
This one's for Adam, Bucky, Chad, Todd and Grant ... my roommates from Wisconsin. We all had season tickets the last time Wisconsin won the national championship in hockey.
This year, Wisconsin was the undisputed best college hockey team in the land. Go Badgers!
Fortunately, I remembered the Styx song (domo arigato, Mr. Roboto), so I was able to thank the bewildered guy who took this photo. (Damn those camera-wielding American tourists ....)

2006-04-23T21:46:00.000+09:00

Legal and lovin' it
On Saturday, I followed the letter of the law. I left the country and came back. My reward? The Korean government allows me to stay another 30 days. Although Japan was generous enough to let me stay through July (90 days), I only visited for five hours. After flying into Kansai airport, I hopped on a train for an hour ride to Osaka. I got some advice for a spring makeover ...
The conductor, a white-haired, white-gloved man, kept rhythmically raising his right hand and pointing forward. It worked: the train followed right behind his gestures.
Osaka Castle was beautiful. A very peaceful area, surrounded by gardens. Osaka is the Chicago of Japan. It's big and well-known in the region, but will always be the second-city.
After this, I took the subway to the Apple store in Osaka. I managed to get there, with only having to ask people for help about six times. I've now ridden the subway in New York, Chicago, London, Paris, Washington, Boston, Philadelphia, Seoul and now ... Osaka. And, I have to say, (with Washington a close second), the Seoul subway is the best. Fast, clean, frequent and -- the best part -- all signs and announcements are in English as well as Korean.

2006-04-23T21:43:00.000+09:00

Lady liberty makes an appearance
I have absolutely no idea the significance, but I had a Statue of Liberty sighting in Osaka. It looked about the same size as it did when I stood on our roof in Brooklyn and squinted at New York harbor.

A few scenic views from the top of Osaka castle. I climbed up the eight floors wearing a jacket (for some reason) and was covered with sweat when I got to the top. Classy, yes I know.

2006-04-23T21:39:00.000+09:00

Saturday night
On Saturday, we have the five aunts and uncles who live in Seoul over for a thank-you for your help dinner. Here's me being a goof:
This is Patty's cousin (I know him as Big Auntie's son), his wife and their six-month old baby.
Here is Olympic Park auntie's family ... and Q-Hyun (love that name), enjoying the spread with uncle Jin-Moon from Oryudong. That uncle ended up staying late and having a few sojus.

2006-04-20T09:18:00.000+09:00

Patty's first entry

Some people have been asking who the talented writer and photographer is for the blog. I must admit i'm neither! but lest any of you think i've fallen into Han River never to be heard from again i'll try to make regular contributions, which until we get a computer of our own will be from a 'PC room'. No, not a place where people are nice to eachother but an internet cafe, which are everywhere in Korea. Right now I'm typing away at a quarter to 2 a.m. Korea time.

We are all feeling a bit more setled now that we have an apartment. The first week in the hotel was the hardest because Jack had nowhere to play and the crib the hotel gave us had some strange features! It had a door on the bottom half, like a cat door in a house, and the top half had a horizontal bar that folded down so that Jack was either crawling out the 'cat door' or climbing up the 'ladder'. He slept in the playyard we brought along. Thank you Graco.

The second week in Oryudong was more fun for me as Jack and I got to live with 'Harmony' and my two uncles. Jack became quite spoiled as you can imagine! Every time he would cry out in his sleep the whole house would wake up and insist that he eat something or that I 'Abbuba' him-Korean tradition of baby carrying on the back. Jack was also quite an attraction at Oryudong Elementary school where Uncle Jin Moon took him to play in the play ground. About a dozen or more school girls would follow him around, doting upon him as he went up the slide steps and slid down the slide. I wish I had a picture-can't say I didn't enjoy watching that! B.T.W. my bother Steve attended that school for one year many moons ago. I wonder if all the school girls doted upon him?

Let's see, that brings us to week three, when we moved into our apartment with a few luggages and boxes. All the meals were eaten out-no complaint here-and Brian was already busy at Joong Ang Daily while I ran around with the aforementioned Amex buying an entire household. My big Auntie and uncle Jin Moon were extraordinary in their help to us, chauffering us around from one mega department store to another with many a Costco runs thrown in. By the way, everything at Costco costs almost double what it costs in the U.S., and you won't find better prices for U.S products anywhere else in Seoul, so that gives you some idea of the mark-up! We just paid $9 for a jar of Quaker Oatmeal at a western grocery store.

The following is a warning for any of you planning to leave the States without your official documents in order. All who don't apply need not read this lengthy cautionary tale:
For those of you know that I have perhaps 5 aliases to my credit will be interested to know it came back to bite me back when I applied for my F4 Visa at Seoul Immigration office (1st visit). My naturalization paper didn't have a name change certificate in the back (required after 1990. Mine was in 1991), so I was sent to the US Embassy to get an affidavit to prove that I was, in fact, Hye Kyung Kim at one time. Meanwhile, my Passport bears the name Hye Kyung Kim because at the time I got it my citizenship paper was invalid due to a date change on the document without a seal. Hence my passport has 4 amendments (2 additional aliases, 2 expiration voids). So since I was at the Embassy I applied for a new passport and submitted it. I came back to Immigraion office (2nd visit) with the affidavit but no family tree, no passport and no photo for Jack. I also forgot that Brian needed to show my passport for his visa (b/c of the Hye Kyung Kim discrepency on the passport). Back to the U.S. Embassy (2nd visit) to retrieve my old Passport and then waking Jack up from a nap to hoist him up at a passport photo booth, then back to Immigration (3rd visit) with all 3 things to finish up my and Jack's F4 application 15 minutes before it closed for the weekend. I should get my visa a week from now-2 days before I would have to leave the country otherwise!
Unless you think that's it, I have to return to Immigration to pick up the F4 and old passport, then to the Embassy to pick up the new passport and get my old passport voided out, then back to Immigration to notify them of my new passport! A spy never had it this hard!

The following is a warning for any of you planning to leave the States without your official documents in order. All who don't apply need not read this leagnthy cautionary tale:

For those of you know that I have perhaps 5 aliases to my credit will be interested to know it came back to bite me back when I applied for my F4 Visa at Seoul Immigration office (1st visit). My naturalization paper didn't have a name change certificate in the back (required after 1990. Mine was in 1991), so I was sent to the US Embassy to get an affidavit to prove that I was, in fact, Hye Kyung Kim at one time. Meanwhile, my Passport bears the name Hye Kyung Kim because at the time I got it my citizenship paper was invalid due to a date change on the document without a seal. Hence my passport has 4 amendments (2 additional aliases, 2 expiration voids).So since I was at the Embassy I applied for a new passport and submitted it. I came back to Immigraion office (2nd visit) with the affidavit but no family tree, no passport and no photo for Jack. I also forgot that Brian needed to show my passport for his visa (b/c of the Hye Kyung Kim discrepency on the passport). Back to the U.S. Embassy (2nd visit) to retrieve my old Passport and then waking Jack up from a nap to hoist him up at a passport photo booth, then back to Immigration (3rd visit) with all 3 things to finish up my and Jack's F4 application 15 minutes before it closed for the weekend. I should get my visa a week from now-2 days before I would have to leave the country otherwise!

4/17
For Brian's birthday we had cake (bad) from our neighborhood bakery, champagne from our grocer (worse) 10 cards from aunt Elizabeth and 3 homemade ones: one from Uncle Jin Moon, who came over just to make it with me and Jack. Then we went to the "Texas Western Ice Bar" which boasted the bigest selection of American and European beers we've seen so far-even Brian's favorite Newcastle Brown ($10 a bottle), then to a typical Korean watering hole which serves a variety of 'hof' (beer) and 'beer food' like fried chicken. Then Jack told us it was time to go home.

2006-04-17T15:11:00.000+09:00

Still crazy after all these years.
Yes, Brian turns 36 today. And the cake at the Pangs Sunday night was great ...
But look at all of Brian's birthday cards!!!! Yes, he hates to brag, but you can see how popular he is. Jack is pretty proud, too. Of how much cake he could stuff in his mouth. OK, OK. The truth must come out. These cards were all from aunt TGE (the greatest ever, see previous post)
http://lifeandseoul.blogspot.com/2006/03/what-not-to-do-welcome-dear-readers-to.html

It was our first piece of mail at the new house! There are cards from their dogs, Martha and Penny, Bill and auntie, all the way from Marblehead, Mass. I didn't feel a day older. We spent the morning in Yeouido, which is a beautiful section of Seoul with lots of parks and the financial district.

2006-04-17T14:52:00.000+09:00

Climb every mountain.

On Saturday night, our reward for climbing to the top of this little mountain, was the chance to drop 4,000 won ($4) for a spaghetti dinner. We passed, but only because we had a mountain of food ahead of us at Patty's uncle's 60th birthday party. That's a huge deal in Korea (along with the wedding and the first birthday), but we didn't want to bore you with tons of pictures of the great food at the Sheraton Walker Hill and all the family that came out to celebrate. Oh yeah ... we forgot to take any.

2006-04-17T14:47:00.000+09:00

Cherries Jubilee.

I actually used that headline in a photo cutline for the Joongang Daily. But that's just too good not to reuse. Right? Anyway ... we got to the hotel early for Patty's uncle's birthday dinner, so we walked up the mountain side (5-10 minutes) and took in the cherry blossoms. The smell was amazing. And when the wind blew, the pedals blew around like snow. Very cool.

2006-04-17T14:22:00.000+09:00

Finally, I'm at work so things are slowing down ...

Wait, I'd better erase that in case the boss stops by. Well, it was quite a weekend. Friday night, Brian and two others from the JoongAng daily stopped by the Seoul Foreign Correspondents club to hang out with fellow ink-stained wretches. What a raucous party. There were about six white men, all in their 60s, hanging out and drinking Korea's own Hite beer, which makes Coors Light taste like Guiness.

The next day, we had lunch with Patty's Park cousins (a few of them pictured below, the middle is In-bae, with his wife and daughter). We went to Samwon Gardens, which is owned by the family of LPGA golfer Grace Park. When she wins a major tournament, dinner is free. Unfortunately, it's been a while ...

Jack seemed to enjoy himself....

2006-04-13T20:11:00.000+09:00

Illegal Immigrant
Brian may be about to become an illegal immigrant. His 30-day "tourist" visa expires April 24, and my work visa hasn't been processed yet. So, he either has to fly to Japan, then catch the next flight back to restart the clock ... or take his chances as an "illegal." We'll keep you posted.
Patty should be OK, she's working on getting a visa for people who were born in Seoul and whose parents are Korean. As for Jack, we hope he can latch onto momma's paperwork. Otherwise, he and Brian will fly together for some fresh sushi.

2006-04-12T16:58:00.000+09:00

Play ball!

Well, the batteries on our camera have died, so I don't have any new photos to post. HOWEVER, here's a couple shots from Opening Day at the Mets game in Shea. I was there ... in spirit. (Thanks, Karla ... shown below, for passing these on to me). And I renew my vow to return to attend a game if AND WHEN the Cubs play in the World Series. Signed, the biggest Cubs fan in Seoul.

2006-04-09T15:11:00.000+09:00

Our new home!
Wow. We'll never live in a place like this again. Our apartment is brand, brand new. Not too many people have even moved into the building yet. We're on the 10th floor, with views of Seoul on both sides. (See below). We have so much technology (remote control lights, heated floors, talking rice cookers, a stove with an automatic exhaust sensor, even a bidet) ... but all the manuals are in Korean! Oyy ... We love the place, though. It's got three bedrooms with lots of room. It even has a playground on the bottom. The move itself took about 10 minutes. But we spent the last two days running around Seoul with an Amex to furnish it. Our bed arrives Tuesday and the couch on Wednesday. Until then, our bed is our floor.

2006-04-09T15:00:00.000+09:00

Seoul food.
Meat on the street. What could be better? This guy was selling pork that had been cooked for 30 minutes over charcoal, then slathered with bbq sauce and/or mustard. He was in Sinchon, and sold it for $1.50 (though it costs only $1 in Oryu-dong). Below, Patty bites into a "Thunder Burger" near Itaewon. Our first burgers in Seoul. Darn tasty.

2006-04-09T14:53:00.000+09:00

Childhood memories.
This is the church Patty attended as a child. They still remember her, and they still serve noodles after church -- the same as 25 years ago. Patty's grandmother still goes there, as do her aunt and uncle. We won't be going there for one reason: Brian doesn't understand a word. The kids start learning English at an early age here. A group of little kids kept calling out to Brian "How old are you?" (Not really expecting an answer). Jack held court as usual, Patty's uncle is holding him below. And one of the kids in the nursery during church made a sign for Jack.

2006-04-09T14:24:00.000+09:00

Halmoni (Korean for grandmother)
This is Patty's grandmother and Jack's great-grandmother. We stayed with her for a week (after a week in a hotel) until our new apartment was ready. She's even nicer than she looks.

2006-04-05T13:47:00.000+09:00

An awful sweat ...

Well, I went today to get the health checkup required for all new Joongang Daily employees. We were supposed to go into a room, and then come out into the lobby area wearing a robe -- with your pants on underneath. One of the new copyeditors, a Scot, misunderstood, and came out wearing just the robe. Nothing like getting to know your fellow employees ....

Anyway, here are some of the questions from my exam, quoted exactly:
1. If you have some diseases, describe as follows
2. Have your relatives ever been dead or illed as follows: a. liver disease, b. heart disease ...
3. Do you have any suspicious diseases on your health?
4. What kind of food do often you like? a. I like often vegetables. b. I like evenly vegetables and meat. c. I like often meat. (Put me down for C !!!!!)
5. How about your drinking habit?
6. If you drink, how much do you drink? a. Below 1/2 bottle of soju. b. One bottle of soju. c. One and a half bottles of soju. d. Above 2 bottles of soju.
7. Would you smoke a cigarette?
...
10. How many times do you excercise with an awful sweat per week?
11. Would you have mental or physical difficulties for a month? a. Yes, I often do. 2. Yes, I sometimes do. c. No, I don't. d. I don't know.
And for women only ...
15. Would you have offensive odor on vaginal discharge? a. Yes, I do. 2. No, I don't.

As for me, I'd like to think my odors are not offensive -- but is that really for us to say?

2006-04-04T14:11:00.000+09:00

A fountain outside Seoul City Hall on a gray Tuesday morning.

2006-04-04T14:03:00.000+09:00

RIP "the outfit"
Maybe Jack had something to do with it, or maybe it was an act of God. But the "outfit" is no more. While apartment hunting with our American friend Sam Pang, in his nice car, Jack began to projectile vomit all over his outfit. (Can you blame him?) Well, we didn't have a backup. So, we stripped him down and wrapped him in a blue robe that was in the car. (Then we looked at the apartment. No go, although Jack enjoyed running around in just a diaper. I'm sure the residents of the place thought we were crazy). Well ... when we washed the blue rope with "the outfit," and it bled, turning dark blue. Ruined. Jack is smiling.The last known picture of the outfit.

2006-04-04T13:49:00.000+09:00

Our welcome to Seoul press conference Yes, it was big news that Patty, Jack and I have arrived in Seoul. As you can see, the journalists were VERY excited to talk to us ...

OK, actually this was a press conference for Hines Ward, who is visiting Seoul with his mother for the first time since she left the country when he was a baby. The father was an African-American soldier and the mother left because of the discrimination she faced for mothering a mixed-race child. Things are much better now (winning the Super Bowl MVP helped), and Ward said he was "proud to be a Korean," which is something he didn't feel as a child.

I decided to cover the press conference, hoping for a few freelance opps. Sucker that I am, I showed up at five minutes to 9 for the 9 a.m. press conference. Turns out, that starting time was only a suggestion. There were about five people in the room. Ward took the stage at 10:05 a.m. At that point, there were probably 200 in the room. It was teeming.

2006-04-02T22:11:00.000+09:00

Gratuitous Toddler Shots

We'll have more soon ... but for now, here's a few gratuitous shots of Jack taken at the airport just before we left for Korea. They were taken by our beloved photographer, Steve Kim. We'll miss his work.

2006-04-01T14:00:00.000+09:00

What can Brown do for you?

Just like Americans have trouble with Asian names, it works the other way around. Patty's aunt has a lot of trouble with my name (which sounds more like Ba-Rye-En in Korean), so she keeps calling me "Brown."