barry burton
In Korea…
So I made it to Korea Monday around 6 PM and after waiting in line for a while, got through Customs without any trouble. Took a mini-van-taxi (complete with bright multicolored LED’s all over the interior, evoking what can only be described as that cheap-prom-limo type aura) for the hour ride from Incheon Airport to the hotel just outside downtown Seoul in an area called Central City (though its not at all the center of the city). Fantastic view from my room — lots of high rises nestled around tree covered mountains. Seoul is very big, very clean, and very modern. A surprising large amount of english is found on sign-age, but people seem much more adept at read and writing this language than speaking it. Today we took yet another mini-van-taxi (sans shiny distractions) an hour south to Suwon City. The security was pretty tight getting into the office building (getting work laptops in was a big hassle, so my camera was out of the question). We worked there all day but as of yet have no direct engineer to engineer communication as the business people on both sides are the only people involved who speak both languages, so progress was much slower than it could have been. Leaving the office building I was surprised to find platoons of armed guards protecting the entrance as well as some of the sidewalks on the campus.
Before riding back to the hotel, we went to a nearby Korean barbecue restaurant (this seems to be the cuisine enjoyed for special occasions here) and had to remove our shoes to enter the restaurant and sat on mats on the floor at a low table. The concept of having dinner cooked right at your table is extended to having your dinner cooked right at your table by you. The waitress brings out a menagerie of small dishes including a very thick egg soup, lettuce covered in pepper sauce, raw crab in the shell, a pepper sauce based stew containing tofu and octopus, a rice porridge, steamed pumpkin, and of course kimchi. Some type of beef is placed on the grill in the centre of the table, along with an assortment mushrooms, onions, and garlic cloves. The epitome of family style dining, this is all shared amongst the table, and without anyone having their own plate. Bed time now ends an interesting and educational day. With any luck the strange foods will prove rich fodder for strange dreams. :)
