Sorry if we've been a bit deliquent on mail and such.   As you can shortly see, we've been a bit busy.....

Two weeks ago, we went back up to Seoul.    The Seoul Hilton was having a big Oktoberfest party, and Bosch being a German company sprung for the expats to join.    The party was Saturday night, so we headed up via the train earlyish Saturday.     

The funny thing about the train is that everyone says how booked they are, but when I look there seems to be plenty of seats.    I mean, there are plenty of people on the train, but there are always seats available.   Well, the difference occurs between the KTX high-speed train and the normal commuter train.    As it turns out the KTX is usually has plenty of seats, while the commuter train sells out fast.    Considering the KTX is about an hour instead of close to two hours and is only about $5 more, I’m kinda surprised about that.    But I think some of has to do with the fact the KTX makes almost no stops and a lot of people are taking the train to go to some of the smaller towns in-between the major cities.

So we get into Seoul and check into the hotel.   We had heard about a supermarket near the US base that carried a lot of American products so we decide to head out via the subway to find it.   The trouble is that our directions were given considering you would be coming by car, not on foot.    So we walked.  And walked.   And then it started to rain.   And we walked.   And then it started to pour and we walked some more.    By the time we gave it up, we had walked for about 3 hours and were completely soaked.    We figured next time we would just skip it and come by car, like normal people.

So we get back to the hotel, clean up and head down to Oktoberfest.    The Hilton had gone all out, taking over their biggest ballroom and decorating it in a very Bavarian style.    There were probably about 1500 people there, two massive buffets (one at each end of the hall) and all the beer you could drink.    The food was very good, and the Germans all agreed it was as close to being home as they could expect.    The Koreans love to compete in things, so of course, there were arm wrestling contests, speed drinking contests and others.  

Amongst the nice spread, they had a selection of nice cheeses.    Now, next to the cut cheese, they had some uncut blocks as decoration.   I’m sure you’ve seen the type before.   It's real, but really there for show.    Anyway, cheese is pretty hard to find in Korea and expensive, so that’s one thing you don’t get a lot of.    As we talked with our other Expat friends there was a lot of speculation on what they were going to do with the uncut blocks.   One of our friends has been here for close to three years and he summed it up the best:

            “The first year, you eat the cut-up cheese and are happy.   The second year you joke about stealing the uncut stuff.   And the third year you just go ahead and walk of with the uncut stuff at the end of the night”   Which is basically what they did.    Of course, they had a little help from some of the other expats and a lot of the beer, but several blocks of a nice Parmesan went absent that evening.     Anyway, I don’t feel too bad; the Hilton was charging an arm and a leg for this shindig, so I’m sure they weren’t loosing any money on the cheese.

The following Sunday, we continued to mill about Seoul, visiting a huge fishmarket and the tallest building in the city, which comes complete with its own IMAX theatre, skydeck and aquarium.    Pretty cool.

So that was two weeks ago.   Last week Saturday we went to the big Insam (ginseng) festival about an hour south of us.   We took along our Canadian friend.    Ginseng is a huge deal here and this city is supposed to be the Ginseng capitol of Korea (and the world, I suppose) Anyway, they had vendors everywhere, selling Ginseng food dishes, ginseng wine, ginseng honey, ginseng candy, ginseng chocolate, ginseng medicines, candied ginseng, deep-fried ginseng, ginseng tonics, etc, etc.   You get the idea.     It was all very good, although I found that I like the taste ginseng, it can easily be overpowering.   In small doses, it’s very good.    Our Canadian friend didn’t know what ginseng tasted like and in the first 10 minutes found she really didn’t care for it.   So it was funny to be at the festival while she was finding more inventive ways of not sampling things.   It was still a lot of fun for everyone, however.    

Another observation on the Koreans is that they don’t take “no” for an answer.   Several times we would pass some activity or such and be invited to join.     I saw a guy pounding rice with a gigantic mallet, Gallagher-style and wanted to make sure everyone had a turn.   This is appearently how they make rice-cakes and other products.   When I kept on walking, he literally chased me down the street, grabbed my hand and pulled me back so I could give a couple good whacks with the mallet.   I, of course, then make sure the girls both had a chance as well.    After all, if I’ve got to do it…. Some times I think the Korean motto should be: “You’re going to have fun, whether you like it or not”.

Anyway, everyone was super nice and we really did have fun even though it was raining on and off throughout.   

The following day (last Sunday) we heard from a friend of a friend that one of the US airbases, in Osam was having an airshow.    Our Canadian friend knew someone on the base, and it’s not like I’m one to ever turn down an airshow.    It was a bit smaller then some of those you find in the states, but I think that was largely because it wasn’t immediately open to the public.   You had to know some to let you onto the base in order to see it.   On the other hand, because of that, you got to get closer to the planes then you might otherwise be able to.     Plus they also have the Thunderbirds performing and that was great.     Last time I tried to see them it was a big disappointment (due to screwups at Selfridge ANG) so this was a nice opportunity to make it up.

Osam, being right next to the US base, is like of like a Little America of shops nearby.   We wandered around for while and I was always amazed that all the shops took dollars and had tons of English everywhere.   Coming from Daejeon, that was much different then what we’re used to.    We did find a restaurant that made a very nice clam chowder as well as Fajitas and Tacos.    They were all much better then we had a right to expect for Tex-Mex a la Korea.  

We weren’t able to get into the base PX, but we did find several little shops that had some American goodies.   Found some StoveTop stuffing, always good.   Also evaporated milk was finally aquired meaning Heather now had everything she needs for pumpkin pie (except the pumpkin, but those are easy to get).   One has to plan far in advance for Megook (American) Thanksgiving.     Of course it might take a practice pie or two to get the celsius oven baking right.

Next week is a big Korean thanksgiving holiday (Chusak) here, so finally I have some days off.   We’ll be heading to Jeju island, of the southern coast.    It's supposed to be very nice, so we'll see.    Actually, any place where I don't have to work for 4 days is paradise to me, regardless of anything else.    My only concern is a little typhoon that is building in the Pacific.  Hopefully it will find somewhere else to go in the next week.   Otherwise it could be a slightly more adventuresome vacation then we had thought…

So maybe more to report after that.

Here's the link to the pictures that go along with the blog

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Here's where the typhoon is.   If it hits that little island south of Korea, we will be getting very wet.

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