Saturday, January 16, 2010
This girl got into Delta's elite lounge :)
Ulsan to Seoul was a very early, short flight and I needed to transfer immediately to another airport upon arrival. The transfer was much easier than I expected, and I even had time for one last bibimbop meal before getting on the plane. Once again, I fortunately slept 10 out of the 14 hours I was on board but had a 6 hour layover in New York before arriving in Boston. I somehow talked my way into the Delta Skymiles club and hung out there drinking free drinks and eating free yummy food until boarding to fly to Boston. I was suppose to be in first class but the large plane I should have been on was bumped down to a really tiny one, so there was no first class anymore. Anyways, Colas picked me up at the airport which was the best welcome home I have had thus far coming back from survey :)
Adventures in Geong-ju
Of course I went to bed late, as normal; but this time I was trying to finish up my work so I didn’t have to worry about it anymore – until 4 am. Because of this, I didn’t get up early to go on my adventure day like I had wanted to. I got up at 11 am and wasn’t ready to leave until 12. I went back and forth about whether I wanted to take a bus or take a taxi to Geong-ju – the ancient capital of South Korea. Because of the little time I had left, and also due to the hotel pushing me to do so, I took a taxi there. This took about 45 minutes and cost me 60,000 won, which is equivalent to about $50. Not the #1 thing I would like to spend my $ on, but maybe was necessary since it was so late in the day. Once I Had arrived and told the taxi that no, I didn’t want him to wait for me (sorry you can’t convince me to pay you $70 just to hang around!) my first thought was OK, so how will I get home? So I bought my ticket and then tried asking someone if they could help out with that. Obviously there was no English, but another guy standing by overheard me trying to ask a question so he called his English-speaking friend who helped me out. In the big parking lot you can take a bus to the inter-city bus station, she said. Ok. I was relieved, I would worry about it after that’s all I needed to know.
I went in and walked about the temple, it was chilly out but not uncomfortably cold; like October in New England. Though unfortunately, I decided to use my gloves and of COURSE I lost one of them. It was beautiful, but was very similar to the other temples I had visited and I was annoyed that they requested no picture-taking inside the temples. The foliage was electric. I didn’t think anywhere in the world had foliage like we did back home. A fashionable looking mother called me over with “excuse me! Excuse me!” She wanted to know what I was given as a guide. At first I thought maybe she was from another Asian country and couldn’t speak Korean so she wanted to know if I had something that could actually help her too. But no, she was just looking out for me and wanted to know if I had any questions. Her daughter had learned about Bulguksa (the name of the temple) in school and they had talked about coming here many times before it actually happened, today.
After taking photo after photo of temple and nature, I went out where I came from and pondered what I would do next. A guard saw me standing around and came over and handed me a piece of fruit which looked like an apple. (When I got home I decided to try it and was so confused. It was very, very sour/bitter and had an uncomfortable texture. So I asked someone about it and they told me it was a quince. Quinces are meant to be cooked and eaten, not eaten raw.) I decided to walk up a trail that was nearby, I didn’t really know exactly where I was going but I wanted to get to the Grotto which Joe had also recommended. During the start of my hike, (and it was a hike!) I took out my map and an old lady yelled to me where I was going. Then, apparently her son who was up the hill about stopped me and asked me further if I needed help. He spoke English decently and apparently lived in Newport, RI way back in the 1990’s while attending navy school. He gave me his cell phone # and told me to call him if I needed anything.
I started walking up, up, up and it was beautiful. It was 2 kilometers and I thought it would only take a half hour to get there but it was already past 4, would be dark soon, and I wanted to make sure that I would be able to get a bus to the bus station so I decided to turn around. On my way down I met an small older man with a walking stick taking a hike. He tried to say my name and I tried to say his and we both cracked up as we realized how different our languages were, and how we couldn’t even closely pronounce them. He couldn’t get Basler, but at least he got Lauren right. He spoke very little English so we communicated as much as we possibly could and he offered to drive me to the bus station. I said sure. I didn’t really know exactly how I was going to get there yet anyways.
We got in the car and he asked if it would be alright to make a stop at his house first, so of course I didn’t really have much else to say besides sure. We walked in and I took my shoes off. He called to his wife and kids to come meet this American girl. The kids didn’t come but his wife did. We sat Korean-style (on the floor) around a wooden table and drank some “Korean-style” coffee which was very good! I asked him if his wife had a kimchi fridge which is a necessity in all Korean homes, and he pointed it out; it was a huge freezer-like container that was larger than the refrigerator. And this is rice wine! He said and handed me a small bottle to take. And this is fruit! And he handed me a fruit which looked like a tomato, but wasn’t. It smelled ungodly horrible so I didn’t even go near it, but I took the rice wine in my baggage home to the US.
Then, we left. He must have told his wife he was driving me to Ulsan, because he told me he wanted to in the car. Then, his wife started calling non-stop and was clearly very upset about it. We tried going to Ulsan but the traffic was terrible, so he wanted to turn around, go back to Geong-ju and try again in a little bit. So he pointed out some of the sights, and his wife was still calling, some of which he answered and hung up on her and some of which he completely ignored, until he eventually shut his phone off. Geez, I felt horrible. He said sorry Lauren, but I can’t drive you to Ulsan I will take you to the bus station. Which was all I wanted in the first place! He helped me buy my ticket and then we got a bite to eat; gim-bap which is rice rolled in seaweed stuffed with different vegetables – it’s almost like vegetarian sushi. It would have been great with some soy sauce. We said our goodbyes and his hug lingered a little too long and it creeped me out a little bit, but I was getting on a bus. Good luck answering to your wife mister! Maybe you should think twice about picking up an American next time, haha. It was a good, peaceful day and now it was time to pack for home.
I went in and walked about the temple, it was chilly out but not uncomfortably cold; like October in New England. Though unfortunately, I decided to use my gloves and of COURSE I lost one of them. It was beautiful, but was very similar to the other temples I had visited and I was annoyed that they requested no picture-taking inside the temples. The foliage was electric. I didn’t think anywhere in the world had foliage like we did back home. A fashionable looking mother called me over with “excuse me! Excuse me!” She wanted to know what I was given as a guide. At first I thought maybe she was from another Asian country and couldn’t speak Korean so she wanted to know if I had something that could actually help her too. But no, she was just looking out for me and wanted to know if I had any questions. Her daughter had learned about Bulguksa (the name of the temple) in school and they had talked about coming here many times before it actually happened, today.
After taking photo after photo of temple and nature, I went out where I came from and pondered what I would do next. A guard saw me standing around and came over and handed me a piece of fruit which looked like an apple. (When I got home I decided to try it and was so confused. It was very, very sour/bitter and had an uncomfortable texture. So I asked someone about it and they told me it was a quince. Quinces are meant to be cooked and eaten, not eaten raw.) I decided to walk up a trail that was nearby, I didn’t really know exactly where I was going but I wanted to get to the Grotto which Joe had also recommended. During the start of my hike, (and it was a hike!) I took out my map and an old lady yelled to me where I was going. Then, apparently her son who was up the hill about stopped me and asked me further if I needed help. He spoke English decently and apparently lived in Newport, RI way back in the 1990’s while attending navy school. He gave me his cell phone # and told me to call him if I needed anything.
I started walking up, up, up and it was beautiful. It was 2 kilometers and I thought it would only take a half hour to get there but it was already past 4, would be dark soon, and I wanted to make sure that I would be able to get a bus to the bus station so I decided to turn around. On my way down I met an small older man with a walking stick taking a hike. He tried to say my name and I tried to say his and we both cracked up as we realized how different our languages were, and how we couldn’t even closely pronounce them. He couldn’t get Basler, but at least he got Lauren right. He spoke very little English so we communicated as much as we possibly could and he offered to drive me to the bus station. I said sure. I didn’t really know exactly how I was going to get there yet anyways.
We got in the car and he asked if it would be alright to make a stop at his house first, so of course I didn’t really have much else to say besides sure. We walked in and I took my shoes off. He called to his wife and kids to come meet this American girl. The kids didn’t come but his wife did. We sat Korean-style (on the floor) around a wooden table and drank some “Korean-style” coffee which was very good! I asked him if his wife had a kimchi fridge which is a necessity in all Korean homes, and he pointed it out; it was a huge freezer-like container that was larger than the refrigerator. And this is rice wine! He said and handed me a small bottle to take. And this is fruit! And he handed me a fruit which looked like a tomato, but wasn’t. It smelled ungodly horrible so I didn’t even go near it, but I took the rice wine in my baggage home to the US.
Then, we left. He must have told his wife he was driving me to Ulsan, because he told me he wanted to in the car. Then, his wife started calling non-stop and was clearly very upset about it. We tried going to Ulsan but the traffic was terrible, so he wanted to turn around, go back to Geong-ju and try again in a little bit. So he pointed out some of the sights, and his wife was still calling, some of which he answered and hung up on her and some of which he completely ignored, until he eventually shut his phone off. Geez, I felt horrible. He said sorry Lauren, but I can’t drive you to Ulsan I will take you to the bus station. Which was all I wanted in the first place! He helped me buy my ticket and then we got a bite to eat; gim-bap which is rice rolled in seaweed stuffed with different vegetables – it’s almost like vegetarian sushi. It would have been great with some soy sauce. We said our goodbyes and his hug lingered a little too long and it creeped me out a little bit, but I was getting on a bus. Good luck answering to your wife mister! Maybe you should think twice about picking up an American next time, haha. It was a good, peaceful day and now it was time to pack for home.
Making Friends
Today… was just frustrating. I felt like nothing got done. I woke up late for my 10/1030 meeting, (got there right on the cusp of 10:30, luckily after waking up at 9:40 am and needing to shower). It was a good meeting but then I went all the way back to the hotel and (after a family discussion via skype – woohoo Steph for finally downloading it!) I had to go back to the exact same area I just was without realizing it. Koreans are so hesitant to speak English and even to just understand what you are saying – I got nothing from the two places that I needed to go. It sucked. I spent FOREVER looking for a cab in apparently the wrong place and finally managed 10 minutes to go re-ask for permission to survey the grocery store at the other Home Plus (30 minutes from where I just was) which I was granted for tomorrow.
I went to dinner with the girl that helped me out significantly with phone calls, and it was … pretty good, OK. She was very hard to read, she seemed happy to invite me out but she didn’t seem that happy to actually be out with me, if that makes any sense at all. I think she was just really shy, as I have come to realize the Korean personality just is. It was difficult to make conversation, and I even fell asleep on the car ride home (though I totally blame this on the butt-warmers on the seat). Her name is Ms. Bea – I can’t remember her Korean first name, she studied in England for a bit and she told me that she asked everyone to call her Lisa because that was easier for Westerners. So this is what I called her. She did try to teach me how to use chopsticks the right way (and I failed miserably as usual). We went to a nice buffet restaurant, and she explained to me what everything was. On the way out a Korean girl (probably just a little younger than myself) was waving profusely at me through a glass window; at first I thought she was waving at someone else (and I was a bit embarrassed) but I turned to look and there was no one there. Strange. When I got home, I fell asleep almost immediately; I was exhausted and I was forced to get up 11 hours later for a realtor meeting. But, I felt very refreshed the whole remainder of the day and even had trouble sleeping that night.
Yesterday I had a pointless realtor meeting at 10 am on a Sunday. He was a source we had met for years but I think he was getting old and his brain was getting slow. He was having a difficult time interpreting any of my questions; his young assistant was explaining things to him after I would try twice. Ugh it was frustrating. I got to practice the art of handing over your business card with two hands though. One of the other realtors I had met with (the first one from the UK) had mentioned this to me and it kicked in after I handed over the first one; I was rude (without even thinking) and didn’t give one of my cards to the assistant, but when I did I made up for it by getting this rule right. Everyone has the same last name here. There are millions of Oh’s, Kim’s, which especially stand out. I met 3 people with the last name of Oh just during my short trip in Ulsan.
I went back to the RIGHT Homeplus and did the survey there; the people were very friendly and were nice about saying sure. There were very few people who bothered me though I did have a lot of stares and someone asked me just “where are you from?” and I said “America.” They said ohhh and that was it. The little kids are so cute. They see someone who doesn’t look like them and immediately try speaking English. I have gotten many “hi’s!” and “hello’s!” from children learning English in elementary school. One even said to me “my name is ….” So I said, my name is Lauren. Then he got shy, said bye and ran away to go tell mom he spoke English with a foreign girl.
After having a similar meal to the one I had the night before (at the buffet restaurant at the hotel this night), Ms. Bea had made a ton of phonecalls for me – (even though a bit boring, she’s still pretty awesome!) so I checked these and headed down to the bar downstairs where I got a drink and did hours and hours of work writing up all my housing reports and clearing up all the C&S stuff. Two Phillipino girls were on stage in sexy little outfits trying to appeal to the foreign men with their sultry voices. Ms. Bea (Lisa) had told me that the Phillipino girls come up to make a living this way normally, and many times doing immoral things with foreigners.
I went to dinner with the girl that helped me out significantly with phone calls, and it was … pretty good, OK. She was very hard to read, she seemed happy to invite me out but she didn’t seem that happy to actually be out with me, if that makes any sense at all. I think she was just really shy, as I have come to realize the Korean personality just is. It was difficult to make conversation, and I even fell asleep on the car ride home (though I totally blame this on the butt-warmers on the seat). Her name is Ms. Bea – I can’t remember her Korean first name, she studied in England for a bit and she told me that she asked everyone to call her Lisa because that was easier for Westerners. So this is what I called her. She did try to teach me how to use chopsticks the right way (and I failed miserably as usual). We went to a nice buffet restaurant, and she explained to me what everything was. On the way out a Korean girl (probably just a little younger than myself) was waving profusely at me through a glass window; at first I thought she was waving at someone else (and I was a bit embarrassed) but I turned to look and there was no one there. Strange. When I got home, I fell asleep almost immediately; I was exhausted and I was forced to get up 11 hours later for a realtor meeting. But, I felt very refreshed the whole remainder of the day and even had trouble sleeping that night.
Yesterday I had a pointless realtor meeting at 10 am on a Sunday. He was a source we had met for years but I think he was getting old and his brain was getting slow. He was having a difficult time interpreting any of my questions; his young assistant was explaining things to him after I would try twice. Ugh it was frustrating. I got to practice the art of handing over your business card with two hands though. One of the other realtors I had met with (the first one from the UK) had mentioned this to me and it kicked in after I handed over the first one; I was rude (without even thinking) and didn’t give one of my cards to the assistant, but when I did I made up for it by getting this rule right. Everyone has the same last name here. There are millions of Oh’s, Kim’s, which especially stand out. I met 3 people with the last name of Oh just during my short trip in Ulsan.
I went back to the RIGHT Homeplus and did the survey there; the people were very friendly and were nice about saying sure. There were very few people who bothered me though I did have a lot of stares and someone asked me just “where are you from?” and I said “America.” They said ohhh and that was it. The little kids are so cute. They see someone who doesn’t look like them and immediately try speaking English. I have gotten many “hi’s!” and “hello’s!” from children learning English in elementary school. One even said to me “my name is ….” So I said, my name is Lauren. Then he got shy, said bye and ran away to go tell mom he spoke English with a foreign girl.
After having a similar meal to the one I had the night before (at the buffet restaurant at the hotel this night), Ms. Bea had made a ton of phonecalls for me – (even though a bit boring, she’s still pretty awesome!) so I checked these and headed down to the bar downstairs where I got a drink and did hours and hours of work writing up all my housing reports and clearing up all the C&S stuff. Two Phillipino girls were on stage in sexy little outfits trying to appeal to the foreign men with their sultry voices. Ms. Bea (Lisa) had told me that the Phillipino girls come up to make a living this way normally, and many times doing immoral things with foreigners.
Hi are you American? Can I have your phone number?
In the grocery store a girl walked right up to me and said “hi! Are you American?” Yes…. “hi nice to meet you. Can I have your phone number so we can keep in touch?” This lady was definitely NOT Korean. She was Phillipino and asked me to come to a Phillipino/Korean cultural event she was holding tomorrow. So very random.
I got to my dinner meeting late. I hadn’t yet had to deal with traffic and I had a whole lot of it going back to the hotel. I showed up 15 minutes late to a meeting with Mr. Neal Kim. We drank coffee while discussing the market and then we shared some dinner – Korean BBQ over a grill in the middle of our table. It was excellent and the Korean side dishes were plentiful. Then we had a beer at a Westernized bar and discussed politics and life. I tried to tell him about some of the bad experiences I’ve had here (though most have been nice) and he said that in general the Korean culture is quite friendly. I would agree with that, only if you can exclude the hotels. Also, I feel like some people look down on me a bit because I do not dress up all the time. He also didn’t know what my friend Surin/(Heather?) told me about the fact that girls wear whitening skin lotion. It was very interesting to hear about him saying his mom (and her family); when she was very young could barely afford to eat rice. Now she drives a Bentley. The Korean economy boomed over the past 30 years or so.
Ulsan is the largest manufacturing facility for Hyundai in the world. Everything here is Hyundai – the cars, the trucks, the equipment, the departments stores, my hotel, etc. etc. I have seen a ginormous boat lined with cars which I’m sure will be shipped to some undisclosed location soon. This is also a ship-building port. You don’t want to breath too much around this area, so I have been told. And there are “love motels” EVERYWHERE. For decent hotels, there are really only 2 in the city. But “love motels” are widely abundant. You can only guess what the name signified. Within such a shy culture, it’s very shocking to see such a thing as these very “loudly” advertised motels. OK I must head to bed. Goodnight!!
I got to my dinner meeting late. I hadn’t yet had to deal with traffic and I had a whole lot of it going back to the hotel. I showed up 15 minutes late to a meeting with Mr. Neal Kim. We drank coffee while discussing the market and then we shared some dinner – Korean BBQ over a grill in the middle of our table. It was excellent and the Korean side dishes were plentiful. Then we had a beer at a Westernized bar and discussed politics and life. I tried to tell him about some of the bad experiences I’ve had here (though most have been nice) and he said that in general the Korean culture is quite friendly. I would agree with that, only if you can exclude the hotels. Also, I feel like some people look down on me a bit because I do not dress up all the time. He also didn’t know what my friend Surin/(Heather?) told me about the fact that girls wear whitening skin lotion. It was very interesting to hear about him saying his mom (and her family); when she was very young could barely afford to eat rice. Now she drives a Bentley. The Korean economy boomed over the past 30 years or so.
Ulsan is the largest manufacturing facility for Hyundai in the world. Everything here is Hyundai – the cars, the trucks, the equipment, the departments stores, my hotel, etc. etc. I have seen a ginormous boat lined with cars which I’m sure will be shipped to some undisclosed location soon. This is also a ship-building port. You don’t want to breath too much around this area, so I have been told. And there are “love motels” EVERYWHERE. For decent hotels, there are really only 2 in the city. But “love motels” are widely abundant. You can only guess what the name signified. Within such a shy culture, it’s very shocking to see such a thing as these very “loudly” advertised motels. OK I must head to bed. Goodnight!!
A Study? Yes. Ok
Today I remembered that I was told that Koreans don’t like the Japanese. In fact, they don’t like Chinese or the Russians, and the older generations tend not to even like the Americans. Today was a good day, but a bit frustrating as well. After trying to finish up some last-minute things at one of the major grocery stores and realizing that things just didn’t seem completely right (almost all of the restaurants that were previously there were gone?), I realized that I surveyed the right grocery store in the wrong location, so I need to go back to another one (the right one) either tomorrow night or Saturday, ugh. I spent too much time pacing around the around trying to figure out where everything could have possibly gone. The security (basically whose job it is is to be nice, greet people and bow) must have thought I was nuts, Luckily, most likely the prices will be the same so I won’t need to make any major changes (just check on a few prices and check on the additions I made to see if they are there as well), but it’s still a pain regardless. I was hoping to use Saturday as a day-off but instead I think I’m going to need to spend some time filling up some holes and later, sipping tea at the restaurant and writing up my reports. On the way back from lugging my groceries (which included 3 bottles of wine for realtor gifts), I had a very talkative taxi driver who couldn’t speak English. He went on and on in Korean with an English word thrown in here and there and I think he wanted to believe that I could understand him, so I tried to nod my head, smile and laugh as much as I could to make him feel good. That’s an awkward situation which all you travelers out there know exactly what I mean, you’ve been through it.
I had lunch with a British guy who was married to a Korean woman and was responsible for housing at the Hyundai Foreigner’s Compound (which is a very popular place to live for foreigners who live in Ulsan). He brought along a guy who works for him who was from Boston, go figure. From there, I took a cab downtown to go to another department store to survey the grocery store. The manager the day before (as I mentioned above) told me it was fine to do the survey, whether or not he understood what that meant didn’t matter to me, so I tried to use his card in the grocery store when I was asked over and over what I was doing. One manager pointed out to me; “but this guy is only the director of the women’s department; I’m sorry but..” but I persisted over and over that he had spoken to the Lotte Department store in Seoul and everything was worked out and I was told it was fine. I was visibly getting frustrated. I think if you had to put a description to Korean attitude, it would be – “as long as you’re happy everything is ok”. They left me alone; all of them, once I started being persistent and becoming upset. It was great; anywhere else in the world you would be kicked out. Really, all I had for proof that my entry was approved was a flimsy business card from a man who oversees women’s clothing. How serious can you really take that.
Everywhere else I went to – book open throughout the rest of the departments – people hang around you and become very curious until you ask them to help you find something. There seriously must be one worker per every 3 feet squared in these crazy Korean markets – you are always surrounded by someone who is meant to be there to help you. They all took their job very seriously, too – and luckily didn’t ask too many questions except for… study? Yes. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.
I had lunch with a British guy who was married to a Korean woman and was responsible for housing at the Hyundai Foreigner’s Compound (which is a very popular place to live for foreigners who live in Ulsan). He brought along a guy who works for him who was from Boston, go figure. From there, I took a cab downtown to go to another department store to survey the grocery store. The manager the day before (as I mentioned above) told me it was fine to do the survey, whether or not he understood what that meant didn’t matter to me, so I tried to use his card in the grocery store when I was asked over and over what I was doing. One manager pointed out to me; “but this guy is only the director of the women’s department; I’m sorry but..” but I persisted over and over that he had spoken to the Lotte Department store in Seoul and everything was worked out and I was told it was fine. I was visibly getting frustrated. I think if you had to put a description to Korean attitude, it would be – “as long as you’re happy everything is ok”. They left me alone; all of them, once I started being persistent and becoming upset. It was great; anywhere else in the world you would be kicked out. Really, all I had for proof that my entry was approved was a flimsy business card from a man who oversees women’s clothing. How serious can you really take that.
Everywhere else I went to – book open throughout the rest of the departments – people hang around you and become very curious until you ask them to help you find something. There seriously must be one worker per every 3 feet squared in these crazy Korean markets – you are always surrounded by someone who is meant to be there to help you. They all took their job very seriously, too – and luckily didn’t ask too many questions except for… study? Yes. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.
Ulsan - Home of Hyundai
… Is a weird city. Very industrious here. Actually, this is the city where Hyundai manufactures all their cars. Everything is Hyundai Hyundai Hyundai, even all the heavy equipment. And, it’s a shipbuilding port. I have never seen so much heavy machinery in one place in my whole life. Yesterday after napping (since I only got a couple hours sleep at night), I went out to HomePlus (Tesco) to do the survey. I had almost finished and someone stopped me to ask what I was doing and told me no. A girl younger than I was. This made me mad. Of course, I didn’t have the name of the manager who told me it was alright and apparently she couldn’t reach him (it was around 11pm at this time, he had probably gone home from this 24 hour supermarket). Man, was I frustrated! I could feel my blood pressure rising. She ended up letting me finish since I was almost done, but she clearly disapproved. This pissed me off.
I got home much too late (I couldn’t believe for a second that it was already 12 am!) and room service wasn’t operating. I couldn’t eat dinner; I hadn’t eaten since about 7 am. I tried the well-expired Pringles and some well-expired mango juice from the mini-bar to hold me over. I couldn’t finish the Pringles though, they were very stale.
Once again I went to bed much too late. So, I didn’t get up until noon. I went to the front desk to ask about translator help and a girl offered to help me, well – a guy at the front desk offered for her actually, haha. She didn’t think it looked like many calls (little did she know) so she said she’d help. It took about two hours, and we weren’t finished but she needed to go to a meeting. She reluctantly said that we could continue when she was working on Saturday. But, then I offered her a good tip for her services. She refused, refused refused, but I insisted over and over and finally she accepted, but she wanted to take me out to dinner with it. What a deal, right? Not only that, she said she would prefer to come in on her day off to help me out and then we could go to dinner together. Good deal.
After that, I assumed incorrectly that part of the survey was at the Hyundai department store that was right next to my hotel. I wasted time asking for permission there. Good thing I planned to go to Lotte department store before finishing up with Hyundai, because there was another Hyundai downtown (where Lotte was – about a good 20 minutes from my hotel) that I was suppose to go to. When approaching Lotte, I saw it so I needed to double-check my notes. Getting permission at Lotte was very frustrating. I asked a manager who spoke little English. Literally, we went back and forth on the phone with a girl who was helping out in English trying to explain both of our sides to each other. He made about 1,534,574 phone calls before saying that he was sorry but he couldn’t help me for some reason that the “translator” gave me that I couldn’t understand. Then, I said well I did the same thing at the Lotte in Seoul and for some reason this created a different story. He made another 2,533,645 phone calls and finally said that it was OK, and I thought he said it was OK because they had confirmed that I did the same thing there. If that was the case, that would be funny because we got a very unofficial OK from the supermarket manager who said that “normally this is a very big process but I’ll close my eyes if you do the survey today”. This whole painful experience put me off about a full hour which sucked. When I finally walked away, I turned back to see him with his head down laughing hysterically (or maybe he was crying? Haha). Well buddy, I need to deal with this daily, so it can’t be that bad.
Then, I decided to re-ask at Hyundai downtown. Apparently my co-worker Joe was stopped and scolded by a manager, but I walked right up to someone who was not a manager (when I was looking for a manager) and they said it was fine, so I just proceeded finishing the survey without asking first. It was grand, I had no problems, and everyone was very willing to help out.
I went to Outback for dinner. Apparently you can order a Korean dish at Outback, so I did it. The meat wasn’t that good, but the shrimp and veggies on skewers was. So was the fried rice. I was starving, my stomach was beginning to eat itself since I hadn’t had a decent meal in days. I’m still so happy to be completely full. All for today, more tomorrow!
I got home much too late (I couldn’t believe for a second that it was already 12 am!) and room service wasn’t operating. I couldn’t eat dinner; I hadn’t eaten since about 7 am. I tried the well-expired Pringles and some well-expired mango juice from the mini-bar to hold me over. I couldn’t finish the Pringles though, they were very stale.
Once again I went to bed much too late. So, I didn’t get up until noon. I went to the front desk to ask about translator help and a girl offered to help me, well – a guy at the front desk offered for her actually, haha. She didn’t think it looked like many calls (little did she know) so she said she’d help. It took about two hours, and we weren’t finished but she needed to go to a meeting. She reluctantly said that we could continue when she was working on Saturday. But, then I offered her a good tip for her services. She refused, refused refused, but I insisted over and over and finally she accepted, but she wanted to take me out to dinner with it. What a deal, right? Not only that, she said she would prefer to come in on her day off to help me out and then we could go to dinner together. Good deal.
After that, I assumed incorrectly that part of the survey was at the Hyundai department store that was right next to my hotel. I wasted time asking for permission there. Good thing I planned to go to Lotte department store before finishing up with Hyundai, because there was another Hyundai downtown (where Lotte was – about a good 20 minutes from my hotel) that I was suppose to go to. When approaching Lotte, I saw it so I needed to double-check my notes. Getting permission at Lotte was very frustrating. I asked a manager who spoke little English. Literally, we went back and forth on the phone with a girl who was helping out in English trying to explain both of our sides to each other. He made about 1,534,574 phone calls before saying that he was sorry but he couldn’t help me for some reason that the “translator” gave me that I couldn’t understand. Then, I said well I did the same thing at the Lotte in Seoul and for some reason this created a different story. He made another 2,533,645 phone calls and finally said that it was OK, and I thought he said it was OK because they had confirmed that I did the same thing there. If that was the case, that would be funny because we got a very unofficial OK from the supermarket manager who said that “normally this is a very big process but I’ll close my eyes if you do the survey today”. This whole painful experience put me off about a full hour which sucked. When I finally walked away, I turned back to see him with his head down laughing hysterically (or maybe he was crying? Haha). Well buddy, I need to deal with this daily, so it can’t be that bad.
Then, I decided to re-ask at Hyundai downtown. Apparently my co-worker Joe was stopped and scolded by a manager, but I walked right up to someone who was not a manager (when I was looking for a manager) and they said it was fine, so I just proceeded finishing the survey without asking first. It was grand, I had no problems, and everyone was very willing to help out.
I went to Outback for dinner. Apparently you can order a Korean dish at Outback, so I did it. The meat wasn’t that good, but the shrimp and veggies on skewers was. So was the fried rice. I was starving, my stomach was beginning to eat itself since I hadn’t had a decent meal in days. I’m still so happy to be completely full. All for today, more tomorrow!
I have been to Russia
Here, in Yuzhno, they drive on both the right and the left side. When I told Yulja I was surprised, it seemed to her that she didn’t even know that some drove on the left side. Most drive on the right. But, on the way to the hotel my taxi was driving on the left side. Like I said, Yuzhno is nothing to write home about – stern people, soviet-style housing, seemingly very little driving organization on the road, and everything is dark, dark, dark (including the weather while I was there), but they have beautiful mountains in the near distance. I was very observant of these after it had snowed, the day after Yulja’s and my trek back to the hotel from another hotel where we had our dinner, in a snow storm. At first she had told me that she needed to go home and cook dinner for her husband, (because a good wife does that), but her husband was preoccupied with a friend so she was able to eat with me.
When we were in one of the electronic stores Yulja pointed out a guy to me who was playing with a chain in his hand. She said, do you see that man? Yes… we watch out for these guys. Usually the Russian mobsters do things like that. They are dangerous people, you have to watch out (not just tourists but local people) because they’ll come up to you and ask if you have any sunflower seeds or cigarettes and they get mad if you don’t have the right answer. I don’t really know what “mad” meant, but I really didn’t want to find out.
But, after all, now I can say I have been to Russia.
When we were in one of the electronic stores Yulja pointed out a guy to me who was playing with a chain in his hand. She said, do you see that man? Yes… we watch out for these guys. Usually the Russian mobsters do things like that. They are dangerous people, you have to watch out (not just tourists but local people) because they’ll come up to you and ask if you have any sunflower seeds or cigarettes and they get mad if you don’t have the right answer. I don’t really know what “mad” meant, but I really didn’t want to find out.
But, after all, now I can say I have been to Russia.
My new favorite thing
When leaving the hotel, I left a good tip for Zoya, the girl who helped with phonecalls for me, and many groceries for the maid (a product of not getting kicked out of the stores). I had hoped for some time to wander around and take some pictures, especially after the new snowfall, but I didn’t have the time. I went to bed much too late and slept much too late, of course. Yesterday was a good day. Well, besides hearing about nana having a heart attack! Yulja went everywhere with me; back to the grocery store to finish it up without problems, to the automobile store for tires (the lady working there spoke English and was super nice!) to the real estate agent, to a couple malls…so I took her out for dinner in the end. She made everything so much faster for me and said things like “I’m not going to leave you until the end because I feel responsible for you”, and I got a bunch of “is it OK if I ask you a question?” and the question would be something simple like, “are you married? I wanted to ask you since we first had our meeting. Why aren’t you married?” Etc. Etc. She is 21 and just got married, with beautiful blue eyes that make you wonder if she’s wearing special makeup so that they stand out. Bright red hair. Pretty girl, very nice girl. She can speak English very well but has a much harder time hearing and understanding it. She was one of the few reasons I had a decent time in Yuzhno. 2 days ago, we mastered the supermarkets together, we even had the security guard that was pacing the alcohol section helping us out with finding wine brand after wine brand. He didn’t question what we were doing and even recommended a good wine/alcohol from time to time. Little did he know I had my precious voice recorder held so stealthily under my scarf. I love my voice recorder. It is my new momentary favorite thing. At one point, Yulja said to me, he likes you. He was recommending certain bottles, he wouldn’t do that if he didn’t like you. My response was, good! Less chance I’ll get kicked out. In the grocery store, I ran into a lady from Texas. I asked if she was an expat and she said no, we are retired teachers who moved here to teach English. I didn’t want to offend her but I wanted to ask her… what?? Why? If I was moving from my hometown, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk would not be my top choice.
We had a traditional Russian lunch together at a new restaurant that was set up cafeteria style, I had traditional soup, salmon covered with cheese, some rice with lamb in it, and a typical Russian dessert made from cottage cheese with a dash of sour cream on top. It was a lot of food, but it was good. Yulja didn’t feel well after the 2nd grocery store, so we decided to finish the next day. I trekked on through the driving rain, snow and darkness alone to some of the other locations I needed to get to. Finally, enough was enough and I was soaked through. I went to Mishka pub for dinner in the basement of the hotel and grabbed some fish and some Russian baltika beer. I didn’t know the difference between two choices (of baltika) so I asked which one was the best and they ended up giving me one of each because they couldn’t understand me. Someone asked me in English, probably an expat, if I was doing homework and I said “something like that”. I didn’t explain further this time. Maybe because I didn’t want to be up all night.
We had a traditional Russian lunch together at a new restaurant that was set up cafeteria style, I had traditional soup, salmon covered with cheese, some rice with lamb in it, and a typical Russian dessert made from cottage cheese with a dash of sour cream on top. It was a lot of food, but it was good. Yulja didn’t feel well after the 2nd grocery store, so we decided to finish the next day. I trekked on through the driving rain, snow and darkness alone to some of the other locations I needed to get to. Finally, enough was enough and I was soaked through. I went to Mishka pub for dinner in the basement of the hotel and grabbed some fish and some Russian baltika beer. I didn’t know the difference between two choices (of baltika) so I asked which one was the best and they ended up giving me one of each because they couldn’t understand me. Someone asked me in English, probably an expat, if I was doing homework and I said “something like that”. I didn’t explain further this time. Maybe because I didn’t want to be up all night.
Not all Koreans are nice..
I’m procrastinating on writing. I’m not sure why I don’t have the same desire to write this time around. But I have a whole lot of notes ready to be written up. I am back in Seoul, my home away from home. I still don’t know what I think of this place. The people at the airport were very friendly and helpful, but then I got off the bus and wanted to take a taxi and the taxi driver didn’t budge from the car to help me put my baggage in. Actually, an old lady picked my bag up for me to help me out. I couldn’t believe how rude that was, and on top of it; of course he didn’t help me take the bags out of the car either. I wish I told him that I would pay him once he helps with the bags. What a jerk. He was even a jerk when I asked him to go to the hotel. After that experience, I was feeling discouraged. So, I took a nap and got up at 9 to get dinner, but I couldn’t get dinner anymore. Great! I utilized the minibar instead, in one package there were two beers and a pouch of beef jerky. Well, one beer would have done just fine but the pack came with two. What a great dinner it was.
The flight back to Seoul (the best airport in the world) wasn’t too bad. I do love this airport. The flight was bumpy, and at one point they came on the radio and said “we were experiencing severe turbulence so please fasten your seatbelt and keep the kids seated”. But, it wasn’t that bad. Nothing I hadn’t experienced before. We got a hot meal (thank goodness cause I hadn’t eaten yet!) and all the drinks and legroom we could ever want, and the staff are very friendly. I guess that’s what you get flying on “the best airline in the world”. They didn’t even charge me overweight charges this time!
The flight back to Seoul (the best airport in the world) wasn’t too bad. I do love this airport. The flight was bumpy, and at one point they came on the radio and said “we were experiencing severe turbulence so please fasten your seatbelt and keep the kids seated”. But, it wasn’t that bad. Nothing I hadn’t experienced before. We got a hot meal (thank goodness cause I hadn’t eaten yet!) and all the drinks and legroom we could ever want, and the staff are very friendly. I guess that’s what you get flying on “the best airline in the world”. They didn’t even charge me overweight charges this time!
Welcome to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (Russia)
What a trip it is here. I got in yesterday and was exhausted, I probably should have done a little bit more than I did but really, I was exhausted. I didn’t sleep much the night before in the really sketchy airport hotel I had; uncomfortable mattress and pillow, in a loud area, the internet wasn’t working, it just was certainly not the best situation. And, I needed to be ready for the shuttle at 7 am. Ick. I took Asiana airlines over though; apparently the “best airline in the world” flying out of the “best airport in the world” for the 4th year in a row. I was soooo happy that my schedule worked out this way because otherwise, I would have had to take some really sketchy Russian airplane. I didn’t meet anyone interesting on the plane. When I arrived, they checked my tourist visa (yep it was fine…. Shhhhh I’m actually here for work), and I was declared free of any H1N1 virus, and then they scanned all our bags over again. I got a taxi outside; it was very expensive for a short ride, $20 USD. An 80 year-old man took me to the hotel in his little old car which was about to fall apart. The scenery was intriguing, surprisingly probably one of the most run-down, dreary locations I have ever been to. There was building after building of trashed or torn-down, or REALLY old buildings around the area. It was cloudy, the ground was hard, cold and gray and everyone was dressed in dark clothes. The hotel isn’t excellent, but it’s really not bad at all; I don’t mind staying here. It’s got a kitchenette, is relatively clean, and everything and surprisingly, the people working here are very nice. (Though one of them took me to my room and tried to open the wrong room; used her master key to do so and it had been locked by the people that were staying in the room! Whoops.) I took a little nap and then ventured out to see if anyone would give me permission to survey their grocery store, and I got negative answers at both locations. UGH, I hate stealthing, especially in small marts. I was a bit depressed by this and very tired, so I came back to go to bed early, especially since there are no streetlights here, and only some of the intersections have pedestrian lights. One of the girls at the front desk was going to help me in the morning with some phone calls.
And, she did. She was a typical Russian girl, smiles very little, very stern and serious but she said she had spent time in Washington. Everyone there in America was very nice to her, so she wanted to help me out for free. I even offered her money and she refused, but offered a smile when I did so. That was enough. She helped me for three solid hours. After that, I went to visit Mr. Valentine Kulik who works at one of the companies where many foreign executives live when they stay here in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. The taxi could not go into the gate, so she left me outside and I waited for him to come. I didn’t see him, but a guy who was there tried to talk to me in Russian but of course I could not understand. He put me on the phone with someone who spoke some English and I tried to explain why I was outside. He was offering to drive me wherever it was that I needed to go within the complex. But, Mr. Valentine was coming to pick me up and I couldn’t get ahold of him, but I had waited for him for a long time. Somehow we figured out that we missed each other, but my new friend Mr. Aura (who is the manager of the compound) took me to visit Mr. Valentine. Nice guy but didn’t smile much, but that’s the common trend anyways. We only needed to speak for about 20 minutes.
I came back to the hotel and tried hard to get motivated to go into that grocery store. After a short nap, I did it. Well, I did half of it, and it wasn’t that bad. But, tomorrow I need to finish what I did not get to, and hope there will be different employees there – and I need to do the whole other grocery store, ugh. I spoke with the previous surveyor’s translator. She is another person, didn’t seem excited to hear from me but her words told me that she is free all weekend and is so excited to meet with me and to practice speaking in English. She is going to walk around with me in the grocery store. We’re just going to pretend that we’re shopping together, and I’m going to talk out loud and use the voice recorder which has so far come in lots of handy. I love it, and even though I hate having to use it, I’m glad he’s good to me. OK bed time, super busy day tomorrow.
And, she did. She was a typical Russian girl, smiles very little, very stern and serious but she said she had spent time in Washington. Everyone there in America was very nice to her, so she wanted to help me out for free. I even offered her money and she refused, but offered a smile when I did so. That was enough. She helped me for three solid hours. After that, I went to visit Mr. Valentine Kulik who works at one of the companies where many foreign executives live when they stay here in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. The taxi could not go into the gate, so she left me outside and I waited for him to come. I didn’t see him, but a guy who was there tried to talk to me in Russian but of course I could not understand. He put me on the phone with someone who spoke some English and I tried to explain why I was outside. He was offering to drive me wherever it was that I needed to go within the complex. But, Mr. Valentine was coming to pick me up and I couldn’t get ahold of him, but I had waited for him for a long time. Somehow we figured out that we missed each other, but my new friend Mr. Aura (who is the manager of the compound) took me to visit Mr. Valentine. Nice guy but didn’t smile much, but that’s the common trend anyways. We only needed to speak for about 20 minutes.
I came back to the hotel and tried hard to get motivated to go into that grocery store. After a short nap, I did it. Well, I did half of it, and it wasn’t that bad. But, tomorrow I need to finish what I did not get to, and hope there will be different employees there – and I need to do the whole other grocery store, ugh. I spoke with the previous surveyor’s translator. She is another person, didn’t seem excited to hear from me but her words told me that she is free all weekend and is so excited to meet with me and to practice speaking in English. She is going to walk around with me in the grocery store. We’re just going to pretend that we’re shopping together, and I’m going to talk out loud and use the voice recorder which has so far come in lots of handy. I love it, and even though I hate having to use it, I’m glad he’s good to me. OK bed time, super busy day tomorrow.
One last meeting
The next day I had one meeting left in the morning before leaving the hotel for the airport. We had a 3 hour meeting (which I didn’t expect of course) and even had to rush to finish it up. We must have veered off subject for at least 45 minutes, but I let this happen because I thought we had the time. He also wanted to take me out for a nice typical Cantonese lunch. But, I had to leave and anyways – I think I’d had enough “typical” food to last me a good while.
One crazy Taiwanese lady who lived in Canada
The next day, Summer picked me up a bit late. I wore working attire because I really didn’t know what to expect. He drove me down the street to their office and I was sitting next to what looked like a present and I had a strange feeling it was for me. When I walked in, Annette handed me some information that was pretty much of no use to me and then told me we would have lunch in about a half hour. Annette was talking on and on about this and that and she said “would you like to meet the Mayor?” So, I didn’t really know how to respond to that so I said “sure?” She had her assistant get on the phone immediately to see if we could work out a meeting with her, but she needed 24 hours notice and tomorrow I didn’t have time. But, just the thought of it made me feel special and silly at the same time. What would I say if I met the mayor of Kaohsiung? Thanks for having me, you have a great city?
After that, we sat around and did nothing; no one was really doing anything including work. Really, I wasn’t surprised; despite being the 2nd largest city in Taiwan there really wasn’t too much going on here. Lunch was made by the company maid/cook. It was served family-style on a table-top that rotated. The food items in front of me were things I wouldn’t normally eat. Don’t get me wrong, they were not atrocious by any means – but there were things like shellfish that didn’t open on their own (I was told at home that if it doesn’t open automatically when cooked, then don’t eat it!) and there were pieces of bones with bits of meet and lots of fat on them. Not my idea of a great meal. Asian food is just different, I’ve come to realize. Much different than I’m use to and it takes an acquired taste to get use to it. After lunch, for some reason, we needed to wait another 45 minutes before we could leave on our “tour”. I checked my mail mean-time and Annette sat down in the waiting area up front and fell asleep. Literally. Can you imagine? What if a customer walked in, maybe that was normal? I just hung around, took out my phone and started playing games, and at times just stared at the fish because I had no idea what else to do.
When it was time to go, Summer went out and cleaned the car and we hopped in. Just as I thought, Annette mentioned that the gift in the backseat was for me. We drove to a part of the town listed on my grid and oh look, we happened to be driving by a mall. Would you like to go see the mall? She asked; I could tell she wanted to go in so I said sure. Not like I haven’t had enough of Taiwanese malls after seeing all the major malls in Taipei as it was. So we did, we went in the mall. Just before getting in to the department store, there were some umbrellas that caught her eye, they’re good and they are cheap, she said. So we walked in the store and checked it out. She picked one out, a UV protection umbrella, bought it and said here; this is for you. This is to prove that the Chinese are nicer than the Taiwanese. HAHAHA – after she had already bought me these really nice bath salts. Annette was my suga momma apparently. We walked through the department store and into the mall where there was a store that sold all sorts of exercise and relaxation equipment. So of course, we stopped to check it out and try it out. There was one that we both got on that did nothing but shook your fat. Apparently it was the new way to lose weight! Very popular in Japan. We did that for about 10 minutes until moving on to the foot massagers, and then the back massaging chairs. Poor Summer was just hanging around saying nothing (as usual) and looking bored. Annette decided to buy the fat-shaking machine (even though she was a super skinny little lady) and we sat in the massaging chairs until the transaction was approved. Two girls who worked there went off for a bit to go and get something, and came back with some passes and a huge stuffed something or other which Summer carried for Annette. She said to me, I don’t know what I would do without him. He was an agent and she was his boss and she used him as a chauffeur, etc. So funny.
Our passes allowed us a trip on the (very slow) ferris wheel so we went up to the top and pretended like we were children. What a crazy day. From there, we went to the seaside where I took some pictures of some beautiful temples and Buddhist statues. Then Annette thought it would be nice to visit the old British consulate location, so we did, and here she bought me a magnet to take home with me. We took a ferry to a small island where we walked around a bit looking at the open-air seafood markets and decided to eat at one of them. We had some fresh raw tuna slices, bamboo, fish soup, etc. All of it was chosen off of the ice where previously it was sitting out raw, and it was all paid for me! I was a little nervous, once again; but it was pretty good and I ate as much as I could stomach.
We concluded our night with some “ice cream” which was more like a frozen drink. Annette asked Summer if he had a girlfriend – to which he replied no, and then she asked him if he had a female lover – which he replied no. Then she said “as a boss, I try to keep work and personal life separate. I don’t ask those sorts of questions” and I tried as hard as I possibly could not to burst out laughing. She was one crazy Taiwanese lady who had lived in Canada.
After that, we sat around and did nothing; no one was really doing anything including work. Really, I wasn’t surprised; despite being the 2nd largest city in Taiwan there really wasn’t too much going on here. Lunch was made by the company maid/cook. It was served family-style on a table-top that rotated. The food items in front of me were things I wouldn’t normally eat. Don’t get me wrong, they were not atrocious by any means – but there were things like shellfish that didn’t open on their own (I was told at home that if it doesn’t open automatically when cooked, then don’t eat it!) and there were pieces of bones with bits of meet and lots of fat on them. Not my idea of a great meal. Asian food is just different, I’ve come to realize. Much different than I’m use to and it takes an acquired taste to get use to it. After lunch, for some reason, we needed to wait another 45 minutes before we could leave on our “tour”. I checked my mail mean-time and Annette sat down in the waiting area up front and fell asleep. Literally. Can you imagine? What if a customer walked in, maybe that was normal? I just hung around, took out my phone and started playing games, and at times just stared at the fish because I had no idea what else to do.
When it was time to go, Summer went out and cleaned the car and we hopped in. Just as I thought, Annette mentioned that the gift in the backseat was for me. We drove to a part of the town listed on my grid and oh look, we happened to be driving by a mall. Would you like to go see the mall? She asked; I could tell she wanted to go in so I said sure. Not like I haven’t had enough of Taiwanese malls after seeing all the major malls in Taipei as it was. So we did, we went in the mall. Just before getting in to the department store, there were some umbrellas that caught her eye, they’re good and they are cheap, she said. So we walked in the store and checked it out. She picked one out, a UV protection umbrella, bought it and said here; this is for you. This is to prove that the Chinese are nicer than the Taiwanese. HAHAHA – after she had already bought me these really nice bath salts. Annette was my suga momma apparently. We walked through the department store and into the mall where there was a store that sold all sorts of exercise and relaxation equipment. So of course, we stopped to check it out and try it out. There was one that we both got on that did nothing but shook your fat. Apparently it was the new way to lose weight! Very popular in Japan. We did that for about 10 minutes until moving on to the foot massagers, and then the back massaging chairs. Poor Summer was just hanging around saying nothing (as usual) and looking bored. Annette decided to buy the fat-shaking machine (even though she was a super skinny little lady) and we sat in the massaging chairs until the transaction was approved. Two girls who worked there went off for a bit to go and get something, and came back with some passes and a huge stuffed something or other which Summer carried for Annette. She said to me, I don’t know what I would do without him. He was an agent and she was his boss and she used him as a chauffeur, etc. So funny.
Our passes allowed us a trip on the (very slow) ferris wheel so we went up to the top and pretended like we were children. What a crazy day. From there, we went to the seaside where I took some pictures of some beautiful temples and Buddhist statues. Then Annette thought it would be nice to visit the old British consulate location, so we did, and here she bought me a magnet to take home with me. We took a ferry to a small island where we walked around a bit looking at the open-air seafood markets and decided to eat at one of them. We had some fresh raw tuna slices, bamboo, fish soup, etc. All of it was chosen off of the ice where previously it was sitting out raw, and it was all paid for me! I was a little nervous, once again; but it was pretty good and I ate as much as I could stomach.
We concluded our night with some “ice cream” which was more like a frozen drink. Annette asked Summer if he had a girlfriend – to which he replied no, and then she asked him if he had a female lover – which he replied no. Then she said “as a boss, I try to keep work and personal life separate. I don’t ask those sorts of questions” and I tried as hard as I possibly could not to burst out laughing. She was one crazy Taiwanese lady who had lived in Canada.
The most comical realtor meetings ever
Despite bad luck with sources in the past, I was able to get meetings with 4 different people; all of which seemed to be fairly decent sources. However; all of the realtors except for one, LOVED to veer off the subject and talk about everything but the topic I tried to focus them on which was extremely frustrating. Because of this, I was only able to cover little ground despite meeting with them for a lonnnng time.
The first lady I met with, we talked for an hour (and again, didn’t get through half of the things that I hoped for) but she offered to take me on a housing tour of the city which was quite amusing. Her driver took us around in her car and we went to all the different neighborhoods on my housing grid, and in between tour stops, I tried to get as many additional answers out of her as I possibly could. Though, we visited some properties and I was able to see first-hand the different characteristics of the properties that expats would live in here. We drove around for about 2 hours (after a 1 hour meeting at the café) and she wanted to take me to lunch but I needed to get back for a 2 pm meeting. The people at the café must have thought I was nuts; they saw me sit down with different people 3 different times throughout the whole day, and every time I ordered the same thing and had the same waiter.
The people from the second meeting also drove me nuts. One of them was a guy who spoke no English – (whom I later found out was Annette’s constant companion), and the other was Annette who was so nice and lived in Canada for 10 years, but again it was difficult getting information out of her. These realtors made you wonder if they even knew the market at all; they kept on changing their story, and everyone’s information seemed to be completely different. I met with Annette and friend (his name was Summer) for an hour and a half and I had another meeting in minutes so I wanted to get them out the door before the next realtor came and saw me sitting there with other realtors. Sneaky sneaky, and it all went down just in time. They left and Julia walked in. I needed to run upstairs quickly. Annette had offered though to take me on a tour the next day, I didn’t want to say another realtor had already done that so I said sure sounds great. I had no idea what I was in for.
When I came back down, we sat at the coffee shop (yep my 3rd time of the day and literally, this time I had just gotten up from the table) and I ordered the same thing from the confused waiter. Julia was great. She was to the point and appeared to know her stuff even if she didn’t at all. (I think she was a great source, but not as great as I initially though). We got through the meeting in normal time and she was pleased to meet me; she said she never knew this type of job existed but she was happy to help.
This was it for today. 3 meetings down and I had one more on the day I was to leave Kaohsiung with a loyal source we had met for years. Tomorrow I had a few things that I wanted to do but didn’t know how long my “tour” with Annette would last; well we’ll see!
The first lady I met with, we talked for an hour (and again, didn’t get through half of the things that I hoped for) but she offered to take me on a housing tour of the city which was quite amusing. Her driver took us around in her car and we went to all the different neighborhoods on my housing grid, and in between tour stops, I tried to get as many additional answers out of her as I possibly could. Though, we visited some properties and I was able to see first-hand the different characteristics of the properties that expats would live in here. We drove around for about 2 hours (after a 1 hour meeting at the café) and she wanted to take me to lunch but I needed to get back for a 2 pm meeting. The people at the café must have thought I was nuts; they saw me sit down with different people 3 different times throughout the whole day, and every time I ordered the same thing and had the same waiter.
The people from the second meeting also drove me nuts. One of them was a guy who spoke no English – (whom I later found out was Annette’s constant companion), and the other was Annette who was so nice and lived in Canada for 10 years, but again it was difficult getting information out of her. These realtors made you wonder if they even knew the market at all; they kept on changing their story, and everyone’s information seemed to be completely different. I met with Annette and friend (his name was Summer) for an hour and a half and I had another meeting in minutes so I wanted to get them out the door before the next realtor came and saw me sitting there with other realtors. Sneaky sneaky, and it all went down just in time. They left and Julia walked in. I needed to run upstairs quickly. Annette had offered though to take me on a tour the next day, I didn’t want to say another realtor had already done that so I said sure sounds great. I had no idea what I was in for.
When I came back down, we sat at the coffee shop (yep my 3rd time of the day and literally, this time I had just gotten up from the table) and I ordered the same thing from the confused waiter. Julia was great. She was to the point and appeared to know her stuff even if she didn’t at all. (I think she was a great source, but not as great as I initially though). We got through the meeting in normal time and she was pleased to meet me; she said she never knew this type of job existed but she was happy to help.
This was it for today. 3 meetings down and I had one more on the day I was to leave Kaohsiung with a loyal source we had met for years. Tomorrow I had a few things that I wanted to do but didn’t know how long my “tour” with Annette would last; well we’ll see!
Welcome to Kaohsiung! (Taiwan)
Kaohsiung was my favorite as far as nice people go, but also my hotel was excellent. There were about 14 restaurants in my hotel alone; none of which I really had time to eat at because I was so busy. The hotel had an older style to it, but very pretty and all the staff were very helpful. The hotel was huge, and even had a mall attached to it which came in a lot of handy for buying realtor gifts.
Everyone I met here was just really pretty awesome, starting with the way over. I met Mr. Lee (who everyone called Tuna) who was in the fishing business. He was Korean, and sat next to me on the plane and talked talked talked, half of which I couldn’t understand at all. He helped me get settled when I went there and asked me if I wanted to meet up with him at some point and get dinner or something, so I said sure, why not. While I was in Kaohsiung, he sent me an email and I sent him one back late at night. We had spoke of meeting up maybe the next night but we didn’t know our schedules so we would see if it worked out. The next evening, he called me when he got in and it was nearly 12 at night and he wanted to know if I wanted to get a drink with him or go to a night market, or something of that sort. I was like, really? Do you know what time it is now? I politely declined but we realized that we would be on the same flight the next day back to Seoul so I would see him then. The next day, once again he helped me get situated – called the hotel to have them come and pick me up and even waited for me until they got there.
Everyone I met here was just really pretty awesome, starting with the way over. I met Mr. Lee (who everyone called Tuna) who was in the fishing business. He was Korean, and sat next to me on the plane and talked talked talked, half of which I couldn’t understand at all. He helped me get settled when I went there and asked me if I wanted to meet up with him at some point and get dinner or something, so I said sure, why not. While I was in Kaohsiung, he sent me an email and I sent him one back late at night. We had spoke of meeting up maybe the next night but we didn’t know our schedules so we would see if it worked out. The next evening, he called me when he got in and it was nearly 12 at night and he wanted to know if I wanted to get a drink with him or go to a night market, or something of that sort. I was like, really? Do you know what time it is now? I politely declined but we realized that we would be on the same flight the next day back to Seoul so I would see him then. The next day, once again he helped me get situated – called the hotel to have them come and pick me up and even waited for me until they got there.
Finally some sightseeing in Seoul
Today, I saw the side of Seoul that I had been waiting to find. I knew it existed but I was too lost in surveyland and the snobby standard Westin hotel to see where its’ life was hiding. I decided to take the “economical full-day tour of Seoul” and it was very nice. The tour included a Buddhist temple, 2 palaces, lunch, 2 Korean outdoor markets, and special amethyst and ginseng shops that they take you to in order to rip you off. I met two Guatemalan women during my trip. The amount of people were scarce because the weather wasn’t that great, it poured during the first half of the day. So, it was just me and the two Guatemalan women who worked for Save the Children. The first stop was seeing my first Buddhist temple; I was able to take pictures of the temple and everyone in it. The colors, and the feel of it were beautiful. We went to the National Museum of History after that and walked through a few of the exhibits. A Chinese guy a little younger than me asked me something in Chinese relating to his camera… could I take a picture of him? I didn’t know what he was asking me. He clearly was getting frustrating and I was too so I just said OK just to see what would happen. With his whole family behind him, he started focusing to take the picture of just me in the National Museum. I was a bit shocked, I wasn’t sure if I should feel flattered or shy or surprised. But regardless, I walked away smiling. We stopped to have a typical Korean lunch at a pre-arranged tourist restaurant but it was nice. We took off our shoes and had lunch sitting on the floor the way a Korean family would normally. I ordered bibimbap and the two ladies had beef bulgogi and we shared a little of everything. Our tourguide and our driver sat at a separate table but the tourguide frequently came over to take pictures for us and check to see how we were. I liked our tourguide, he was a very nice guy who tried his best to make sure we were very happy. After lunch, the two Guatemalan ladies and my tour guide left me, that part was over and only I was continuing on for the second half – a tour all on my own! My tourguide was a young girl who had actually studied in Boston at Berkeley. She was psyched to have a fellow Bostonian with her, (never in her history of tours had she gotten a Bostonian in a tour) and she really took me under her wing and took care of me.
When in the ginseng snack store, I didn’t want to try any of the snacks in fear there may be nuts involved. My tour guide (Heather in English, or maybe she just likes that name because in Korean it’s something like Surin) told one of the workers (who was insisting that we try the snacks) that I was allergic to nuts so I didn’t want to try anything just in case. So, the girl replied, very confused – why are you allergic? Shows how normal allergies are here!
When in the ginseng snack store, I didn’t want to try any of the snacks in fear there may be nuts involved. My tour guide (Heather in English, or maybe she just likes that name because in Korean it’s something like Surin) told one of the workers (who was insisting that we try the snacks) that I was allergic to nuts so I didn’t want to try anything just in case. So, the girl replied, very confused – why are you allergic? Shows how normal allergies are here!
The people you meet: Julie, Linda and Joe
We have had a couple translators while we were here, one of them was alright, the second one was awesome though, apparently (says Edit). I called the international university nearby to see if someone would want to work for us and a guy on the other end named Joe helped out tremendously. When he couldn’t find a student to do the work, he went out of his way to find a friend to help us the very next day. She was alright, but she wasn’t persistent enough, really. She gave up much too quickly so we didn’t get all the information we needed. The second time we were stressing and needing a co-worker, it was 10 pm at night and we were about to give up (or hire one for a minimum $400) when the realtor I was going to meet the next day called me in my room to discuss where to meet. I told her about our predicament and she called 15 minutes later with someone who could help us out. We were so psyched.
Julie is the assistant of a realtor I met with. And, Linda was a real estate agent, one who we had never met before but she is the representative for BP in Korea, so I was asked to meet with her. Both ladies were amazing, and I had an absolutely wonderful time with them. With Julie, we talked about smiling – how Koreans don’t smile at someone they don’t know. The difference in our cultures (they aren’t friendly and warm until they know you well enough) Julie has an “idea” that all Americans are fat, friendly, independent and smart (she said to me, oh so you studied in the US? You must be really smart!) She also said to me, wow it seems like you eat a lot, how are you not really fat? I meet a lot of Americans and none of them are really fat. But your portions are so large! It was really funny, I laughed a lot. She told me that Koreans don’t tell jokes. They were shocked when they saw our president on TV at the inauguration dancing with his wife. That would never be broadcasted in Korea! Also, just as people don’t normally tell jokes, it would be a disgrace for the president or the first lady to say anything sarcastic, just joking around. Also, when I told her about the health care issue we have going on in our country right now, she was shocked that we don’t have some sort of health care reform. I would have loved to continue talking with Julie, it was so much fun to get into the intricacies of the Korean culture.
Linda was awesome, probably one of the nicest realtors I have met. She understands what we do and has never met with us before so she wasn’t tired of my questions. We met at a really cute little French café and she insisted on buying the coffee for us. We sat and talked for 3 hours; mixing between personal talk (again on culture) and housing talk. She confirmed the discussion I had had with Julie that Koreans were very friendly once they got to know you, but cold up front. She had lived in Cambridge for a year so we had a lot to talk about. After the 3 hours, she asked me to go to lunch with her, but I needed to get back to Edit. I was a bit bummed cause she wanted to take me to a typical Korean meal. Then on the way out, after all her help (she was ready for me to keep going and going with questions!) she turned to go back in for a second and I said oh! I think I’ll take some cheesecake for my co-worker (since Edit loves it) and she went and bought the blueberry one; I said is this for me? And she said no. Once the man handed it to her she gave it to me and said “Lauren this is for you”. After buying me coffee, giving me a whole 3 hours and planning on taking me out to lunch after, she bought me a whole scrumptious cheesecake. If I was relocating to Seoul, she would be my first pick as a realtor/relocating agent. Above all, everyone around the world is really the same. We may have different mannerisms and different culture, but deep down we are all the same person defined by our morals and the characteristics that make us who we are. She was genuine, and that’s the best quality you can find in a person, I think.
My friend Joe from the University called me to check and see if everything was OK; he had heard that we had not finished our work and wanted to see if we needed someone else to help out. What a great guy.
Julie is the assistant of a realtor I met with. And, Linda was a real estate agent, one who we had never met before but she is the representative for BP in Korea, so I was asked to meet with her. Both ladies were amazing, and I had an absolutely wonderful time with them. With Julie, we talked about smiling – how Koreans don’t smile at someone they don’t know. The difference in our cultures (they aren’t friendly and warm until they know you well enough) Julie has an “idea” that all Americans are fat, friendly, independent and smart (she said to me, oh so you studied in the US? You must be really smart!) She also said to me, wow it seems like you eat a lot, how are you not really fat? I meet a lot of Americans and none of them are really fat. But your portions are so large! It was really funny, I laughed a lot. She told me that Koreans don’t tell jokes. They were shocked when they saw our president on TV at the inauguration dancing with his wife. That would never be broadcasted in Korea! Also, just as people don’t normally tell jokes, it would be a disgrace for the president or the first lady to say anything sarcastic, just joking around. Also, when I told her about the health care issue we have going on in our country right now, she was shocked that we don’t have some sort of health care reform. I would have loved to continue talking with Julie, it was so much fun to get into the intricacies of the Korean culture.
Linda was awesome, probably one of the nicest realtors I have met. She understands what we do and has never met with us before so she wasn’t tired of my questions. We met at a really cute little French café and she insisted on buying the coffee for us. We sat and talked for 3 hours; mixing between personal talk (again on culture) and housing talk. She confirmed the discussion I had had with Julie that Koreans were very friendly once they got to know you, but cold up front. She had lived in Cambridge for a year so we had a lot to talk about. After the 3 hours, she asked me to go to lunch with her, but I needed to get back to Edit. I was a bit bummed cause she wanted to take me to a typical Korean meal. Then on the way out, after all her help (she was ready for me to keep going and going with questions!) she turned to go back in for a second and I said oh! I think I’ll take some cheesecake for my co-worker (since Edit loves it) and she went and bought the blueberry one; I said is this for me? And she said no. Once the man handed it to her she gave it to me and said “Lauren this is for you”. After buying me coffee, giving me a whole 3 hours and planning on taking me out to lunch after, she bought me a whole scrumptious cheesecake. If I was relocating to Seoul, she would be my first pick as a realtor/relocating agent. Above all, everyone around the world is really the same. We may have different mannerisms and different culture, but deep down we are all the same person defined by our morals and the characteristics that make us who we are. She was genuine, and that’s the best quality you can find in a person, I think.
My friend Joe from the University called me to check and see if everything was OK; he had heard that we had not finished our work and wanted to see if we needed someone else to help out. What a great guy.
We got our nails done in Asia
I am sightseeing tomorrow, and really excited for a day to hopefully have fun and see the culture. Seoul has been a whirlwind of malls for me and I’m tired of it. I’m happy that no one really approached us and got super sketched out by what we were doing, though; it was pretty nerve-racking to have someone watching you every single step of the way, since there was someone on every corner meant to help out. In honesty also, I’m a bit sick of people who don’t smile when you approach them, and are really overall a bit unfriendly and cold; aside from the realtors that I met; all of them were very nice, especially Linda and Julie. Edit called me tonight and she had a wonderful day in Pusan where she nearly finished the survey in one day. I’m really hoping that my last stop in Ulsan will be like that. It would be nice to end with an easy survey and get to look around a bit; see the real Korea that I have heard so much about since everyone should be very friendly here, because that is what I was told and why I wanted to come in the first place. Plus, I haven’t really tried too much of the local food because I have been nervous about what I’m eating. Some of the local stands we have walked by have an awful, awful smell to them that I can’t place. (Reminded me a bit of Taiwan….) Some sort of cooking meat probably, but I thought that food was suppose to smell good. This smells fried, stinky and unhealthy. I really don’t want to accidentally eat it. I have tried some of the local food, and I’m surprised at how unhealthy a lot of it is. Fried, thick and heavy. How do these people stay so thin?
A lady asked me what I was doing (in a Gap, I couldn’t believe we found it, and a Marks and Spencer’s!) I told her I was doing a study. She hesitated and said OK, but no cameras. What made her think I wanted to take pictures? Edit is learning how to speak Korean with her new dictionary. Top of her priority was to learn “may I please have a train ticket to Pusan?” so the lady gave her a student ticket; Edit is almost 30 years old! But, she certainly had no complaints. The department stores here are at least 10 floors with high-end brands branched throughout the floors. If you want to find Tommy Hilfiger, GOODLUCK. And the malls are a pain in the ass confusing. They are usually in some sort of building (an office building) and you need to figure out how to get to the mall. And they are huge, and normally you end up walking around in circles trying to get to where you are going to because they are so confusing. The weirdest thing I found was that availability of many products (including some groceries and random things like DVD players and microwaves) was so much better in Taiwan. Some of these things were just impossible to find in Korea, and they were so spread out. It was so strange; grocery stores were organized in the weirdest way I have ever seen. But at the end of one of our shopping trips, we got our nails done. What a typical thing to do in Asia, but it was nice to pamper ourselves, we needed and deserved it!
A lady asked me what I was doing (in a Gap, I couldn’t believe we found it, and a Marks and Spencer’s!) I told her I was doing a study. She hesitated and said OK, but no cameras. What made her think I wanted to take pictures? Edit is learning how to speak Korean with her new dictionary. Top of her priority was to learn “may I please have a train ticket to Pusan?” so the lady gave her a student ticket; Edit is almost 30 years old! But, she certainly had no complaints. The department stores here are at least 10 floors with high-end brands branched throughout the floors. If you want to find Tommy Hilfiger, GOODLUCK. And the malls are a pain in the ass confusing. They are usually in some sort of building (an office building) and you need to figure out how to get to the mall. And they are huge, and normally you end up walking around in circles trying to get to where you are going to because they are so confusing. The weirdest thing I found was that availability of many products (including some groceries and random things like DVD players and microwaves) was so much better in Taiwan. Some of these things were just impossible to find in Korea, and they were so spread out. It was so strange; grocery stores were organized in the weirdest way I have ever seen. But at the end of one of our shopping trips, we got our nails done. What a typical thing to do in Asia, but it was nice to pamper ourselves, we needed and deserved it!
Gamsa Hamnida
The subway systems here, both in Taiwan and Korea are pretty amazing. We could learn a thing or two from them; especially Taiwan. When you buy a ticket, you are given a coin. The coin goes in and out of the machine when you enter the subway, and you need the coin to get out of the subway (you put it in the machine again), then the coin is gone. Talk about efficient and cost-effective! Not only that, but the subways appear brand-new. They come every few minutes and have very clean, nice-looking gates which open when the train appears to prevent anyone from falling and/or trying to commit suicide. And, don’t even think about chewing gum or taking food on the system; you’ll get a hefty fine. All in the name of keeping it clean. A really nice girl saw Edit and I looking at a map and stopped to ask us if we happened to need any help, she helped us through the whole process of getting a transit card and which stop we would need to go to. It’s people like that who will just make or break your day. She was one of the few people we met who spoke English very well.
Another day, another grocery store. This one wasn’t as spread-out as the last and the manager didn’t think twice about telling us it was fine to write down prices; he was super nice about it. Not as many people tried to question my work or stare over my shoulder; (though a good portion of them still did that). Here, people are much more pushy than in Taipei, and if they run into you they are much less likely to apologize. I may even venture to say that some people were quite rude. I wasn’t expecting that after all the great things I heard about Korea!
I have been told, and have noticed, that products that are created here are not imported; such as soy sauce and rice. It makes it a pain in the ass to record symbols on the survey book though; and it makes for bad comparisons. The fresh food here though is surprisingly amazing. When it comes to baked goods? Move over France. The selection and quality is just incredible, and I have never been so tempted to eat cake. During lunchtime, I walked around the whole mall about 3 times trying to decide what I wanted to eat. Dumplings? Sushi? Some concoction that looked amazing but I didn’t know what it was? The best looking donuts ever? A fruit smoothy? Home-made tarts and cheesecake? Ice cream? A burger from Burger Project? There was too much to choose from so I bought lunch and then got a pizza with Edit (sat down at a restaurant). I decided to save my lunch for later.
If I come home and continuously bow for no reason, don’t be surprised. I think my stomach muscles are getting stronger from the need to show the locals some respect with the simple gesture of bowing a little when saying hello or goodbye, especially since I don’t speak any Korean and I’m not quite sure how much they understand “thank you”. I’ve always seen it in movies but it’s cool to actually experience it and know how important it is in their culture. Many of them say hello and goodbye with a bow so I have tried to do the same thing, without the Korean. “Gamsa homnida” is thank you, but I’m pretty sure I have absolutely no idea how to say it correctly. Korean is a pretty language, they drag out a lot of words and have strange accents for others. It’s interesting how being emerged into a culture can really show you the beauty of the people. I never really found Asians very attractive, but now I am seeing things a bit differently.
I talked to Mom and Uncle Bobby over skype tonight which was very nice. I am somewhat worried that I will find myself a bit lonely when Edit leaves. The more and more I do this job, the more negative sides of it come out, I think. But, I still love it enough to keep it for at least another year. I worry immensely about life after surveyland, I really do. Laurel is passing in her resume on Monday, I wish her great luck, how crazy would that be if she got the job???
Another day, another grocery store. This one wasn’t as spread-out as the last and the manager didn’t think twice about telling us it was fine to write down prices; he was super nice about it. Not as many people tried to question my work or stare over my shoulder; (though a good portion of them still did that). Here, people are much more pushy than in Taipei, and if they run into you they are much less likely to apologize. I may even venture to say that some people were quite rude. I wasn’t expecting that after all the great things I heard about Korea!
I have been told, and have noticed, that products that are created here are not imported; such as soy sauce and rice. It makes it a pain in the ass to record symbols on the survey book though; and it makes for bad comparisons. The fresh food here though is surprisingly amazing. When it comes to baked goods? Move over France. The selection and quality is just incredible, and I have never been so tempted to eat cake. During lunchtime, I walked around the whole mall about 3 times trying to decide what I wanted to eat. Dumplings? Sushi? Some concoction that looked amazing but I didn’t know what it was? The best looking donuts ever? A fruit smoothy? Home-made tarts and cheesecake? Ice cream? A burger from Burger Project? There was too much to choose from so I bought lunch and then got a pizza with Edit (sat down at a restaurant). I decided to save my lunch for later.
If I come home and continuously bow for no reason, don’t be surprised. I think my stomach muscles are getting stronger from the need to show the locals some respect with the simple gesture of bowing a little when saying hello or goodbye, especially since I don’t speak any Korean and I’m not quite sure how much they understand “thank you”. I’ve always seen it in movies but it’s cool to actually experience it and know how important it is in their culture. Many of them say hello and goodbye with a bow so I have tried to do the same thing, without the Korean. “Gamsa homnida” is thank you, but I’m pretty sure I have absolutely no idea how to say it correctly. Korean is a pretty language, they drag out a lot of words and have strange accents for others. It’s interesting how being emerged into a culture can really show you the beauty of the people. I never really found Asians very attractive, but now I am seeing things a bit differently.
I talked to Mom and Uncle Bobby over skype tonight which was very nice. I am somewhat worried that I will find myself a bit lonely when Edit leaves. The more and more I do this job, the more negative sides of it come out, I think. But, I still love it enough to keep it for at least another year. I worry immensely about life after surveyland, I really do. Laurel is passing in her resume on Monday, I wish her great luck, how crazy would that be if she got the job???
Adjusting to Korea
Oops didn’t get up in time for the gym, but hopefully I will tomorrow… I haven’t updated my phone for the current time here in Korea, it’s still an hour behind Taiwanese time. So, when Edit called me at 9:45 the first thing I realized was that it was 9:45 and not 8:45, oops. 2 days in a row I got up late! What’s new. It was rainy and gross out today, we started late (around 12:30 pm!) and we didn’t have any luck with the business center (they wouldn’t do our phone calls for us), so the day wasn’t starting out too well. When we arrived in the mall they had a system so that you wouldn’t get rain on the floor; you put your umbrella in the plastic bag and rip it off, and you have an umbrella cover! Brilliant. We asked for permission and the manager of the grocery store used a lady who spoke English and manned the coffee counter to translate for us. What he told us is that technically we need to go through the marketing department on Monday, but if we wanted to do it today he would “close his eyes” and pretend he didn’t see anything. So, we kinda had permission, at least we knew we couldn’t get in trouble. When the manager was leaving (he appeared to have really important meetings to attend to) Edit and I performed a series of low bows to express “thank you I know it’s not in your place to say that it’s OK to write down prices in the whole mall, but we appreciate that you will allow us to”. Not many managers would ever do such a thing. There were many people who said “no prices” and wanted to know what we were doing, and many others who clearly disapproved, but we got through it without anyone trying to kick us out. A few ladies even stared over my shoulder as I wrote down the information, without saying a word to me. One lady at the counter where we initially asked for permission signaled to me that I had a pretty face. I’m sure she doesn’t see much like it in the sea of beautiful Asian people (they really are quite beautiful).
When we moved into the clothing section, one girl laughed at me as I was writing down the prices, and another one looked pissed when I knocked over a shirt – she reached down to grab it out of my hands and rearrange it herself before putting it back on the hanger; I was taken back by her rudeness. But, no one said I couldn’t write down the prices. There were 3 people at every corner trying to help you out which was quite annoying especially when I don’t even know how to say hello or goodbye or thank you in Korean (it’s really not easy to remember, I swear). Overall, the nice employees outnumbered the rude ones, but it’s so much easier to remember a bad experience. We had a lunch of some weird pumpkin and salad sandwhich, I had a chicken skewer with veggies, and we also shared a squash with cheese and seafood on top. All was very good grocery store food. I also may have had a krispy kreme donut for 2 days in a row (MAN are they addicting!)
For dinner, we tried to find grandmother’s bimbimbap amongst the “business clubs” for men looking for a peep show or maybe even a prostitute, but we found another bimbimbap restaurant after having absolutely no luck with English and striking out after looking for help in a Texan restaurant – (at one point during the explanation he said his memory was clean, whatever that means!). (Seriously, so much less English here than Taiwan!) The bimbimbap was really good. Shrimp in the middle, and a medley of cucumbers, mushrooms, cabbage, egg, lettuce, onions, etc. etc. which I mixed around with some kimchi, rice and pickled jalapenos made for a great meal, and a semi-healthy one too.
I couldn’t get in touch with the realtor today to go out for Halloween tonight, I was bummed a little, even though I really wasn’t in the mood to go out. I think her mailbox was full and her direct line kept on ringing and ringing. Oh well, I didn’t go to bed early tonight anyways.
When we moved into the clothing section, one girl laughed at me as I was writing down the prices, and another one looked pissed when I knocked over a shirt – she reached down to grab it out of my hands and rearrange it herself before putting it back on the hanger; I was taken back by her rudeness. But, no one said I couldn’t write down the prices. There were 3 people at every corner trying to help you out which was quite annoying especially when I don’t even know how to say hello or goodbye or thank you in Korean (it’s really not easy to remember, I swear). Overall, the nice employees outnumbered the rude ones, but it’s so much easier to remember a bad experience. We had a lunch of some weird pumpkin and salad sandwhich, I had a chicken skewer with veggies, and we also shared a squash with cheese and seafood on top. All was very good grocery store food. I also may have had a krispy kreme donut for 2 days in a row (MAN are they addicting!)
For dinner, we tried to find grandmother’s bimbimbap amongst the “business clubs” for men looking for a peep show or maybe even a prostitute, but we found another bimbimbap restaurant after having absolutely no luck with English and striking out after looking for help in a Texan restaurant – (at one point during the explanation he said his memory was clean, whatever that means!). (Seriously, so much less English here than Taiwan!) The bimbimbap was really good. Shrimp in the middle, and a medley of cucumbers, mushrooms, cabbage, egg, lettuce, onions, etc. etc. which I mixed around with some kimchi, rice and pickled jalapenos made for a great meal, and a semi-healthy one too.
I couldn’t get in touch with the realtor today to go out for Halloween tonight, I was bummed a little, even though I really wasn’t in the mood to go out. I think her mailbox was full and her direct line kept on ringing and ringing. Oh well, I didn’t go to bed early tonight anyways.
Seoul - beautiful hotel, service needs some work
Seoul. I’m here and exhausted, but at least I’m in an absolutely gorgeous hotel, the Weston Chosun Seoul. There is music in the bathroom, a doorbell, plugs for both European and American standards, an electronic notification when the newspaper has been delivered, even an espresso machine in my room... I have had many close calls, but this might be the nicest, most modern hotel I have ever stayed in. I left Laurel this morning (after having slept with all the lights on for a grand total of 2 hours) in a huge rush because I had gotten up a half an hour late. Poor Edit was probably waiting for me downstairs; I woke up at the time we planned to meet. I rushed out and tried to make sure I had everything (nothing has been missing yet) and Edit and I got in the cab to the airport. I didn’t sleep in the cab, but I wanted to; I had a coffee Edit had gotten at the hotel for us so I couldn’t yet. We checked in with no problem and did some window shopping; I was exhausted and passed out pretty much the second we sat down. And then on the plane (intermittent with dreams about crashing, as always) I was in and out of sleep for the whole 2.5 hours.
When we arrived in Seoul it was cloudy out and once again it looked as though we were about to land on water because we couldn’t see a thing. For some reason, our phones were so far from even remotely working that we needed to rent local ones here. Then we took a limo-bus to the hotel – which was about an hour away – for $10 USD. Of course, I was immediately asleep. When we arrived at the hotel I got the sense that we were being treated like misfits, but this was most likely because we looked like them. Everyone else was in suits and skirts and had an air of elegance about them. Not us, and especially not me; I wanted to try a free drink sample and almost caused the glass it was in to shatter on the floor. Real smooth. Even though it was 2 pm, apparently Edit’s room wasn’t ready yet so they needed to give her a new one, once she insisted. (Really people? Last I checked we were staying at a 5 star hotel!) Edit thought maybe it was because we are women? In general the people at the hotel were just snobby. Maybe we weren’t dressed nicely enough (suits and skirts are the way to go here). Who knows. Again, once I got in my room I was out in lala land until Edit came to find me 3 hours later. We walked through the luxurious hotel, it’s 5 restaurants, full gym and pool, and a nice sauna where we saw many butt-ass naked much older women with floppy boobs. I’m hoping to take an aerobics class here during my stay. Outside the hotel isn’t much less in standard than the inside. The Westin is surrounded by many other high-end hotels, as well as countless malls with all the riches you could want inside of them. We took some time to check out the grocery store we would potentially survey (my favorite part of the survey, of course) and I got lost in a sea of homemade baked goods, kimchi, ice cream, chocolate, and organic aisles. Yes we would be back here to look at prices! We found that the basics of Korean might actually be more difficult to learn and remember than Chinese, though Edit’s all ready to have fun with the language. She likes it. I keep forgetting how to say everything. But, I’m already convinced that the food is better than Taipei. We went to an organic noodle bar for dinner tonight and I got Shanghai something or other with hot spices, noodles, cabbage, onion, garlic etc. I split a roll of sushi with Edit too. Delicious! I’m becoming an expert in my own personal way to use chopsticks. I’m really not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing. After lots of half-work, half-chatter boxing I’m ready for bed now. The streets are quiet and I want to use the gym tomorrow. Goodnight
When we arrived in Seoul it was cloudy out and once again it looked as though we were about to land on water because we couldn’t see a thing. For some reason, our phones were so far from even remotely working that we needed to rent local ones here. Then we took a limo-bus to the hotel – which was about an hour away – for $10 USD. Of course, I was immediately asleep. When we arrived at the hotel I got the sense that we were being treated like misfits, but this was most likely because we looked like them. Everyone else was in suits and skirts and had an air of elegance about them. Not us, and especially not me; I wanted to try a free drink sample and almost caused the glass it was in to shatter on the floor. Real smooth. Even though it was 2 pm, apparently Edit’s room wasn’t ready yet so they needed to give her a new one, once she insisted. (Really people? Last I checked we were staying at a 5 star hotel!) Edit thought maybe it was because we are women? In general the people at the hotel were just snobby. Maybe we weren’t dressed nicely enough (suits and skirts are the way to go here). Who knows. Again, once I got in my room I was out in lala land until Edit came to find me 3 hours later. We walked through the luxurious hotel, it’s 5 restaurants, full gym and pool, and a nice sauna where we saw many butt-ass naked much older women with floppy boobs. I’m hoping to take an aerobics class here during my stay. Outside the hotel isn’t much less in standard than the inside. The Westin is surrounded by many other high-end hotels, as well as countless malls with all the riches you could want inside of them. We took some time to check out the grocery store we would potentially survey (my favorite part of the survey, of course) and I got lost in a sea of homemade baked goods, kimchi, ice cream, chocolate, and organic aisles. Yes we would be back here to look at prices! We found that the basics of Korean might actually be more difficult to learn and remember than Chinese, though Edit’s all ready to have fun with the language. She likes it. I keep forgetting how to say everything. But, I’m already convinced that the food is better than Taipei. We went to an organic noodle bar for dinner tonight and I got Shanghai something or other with hot spices, noodles, cabbage, onion, garlic etc. I split a roll of sushi with Edit too. Delicious! I’m becoming an expert in my own personal way to use chopsticks. I’m really not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing. After lots of half-work, half-chatter boxing I’m ready for bed now. The streets are quiet and I want to use the gym tomorrow. Goodnight
What's that Smell?
In general, (but mostly as a result of the type of food they cook) to me, Taiwan smelled badly. It smelled a combination of dirty and horrific, almost like what you would envision burning flesh smelling like. On many occasions, it really curbed my hunger and desire to eat. I had to be at the right place (NOT surrounded by that smell) and somewhere that had pictures of what I was about to eat before I could order. A part of me wanted to order something unusual just to say that I ate it, but then I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to eat it and would be totally grossed out. Intestines, frog legs, livers, brains, you name it, they sold it. Anyways, Taipei was a great city that both Edit and I really enjoyed and it was awesome to see Laurel. It was time to move on to Seoul.
Laurel was around for such great fun!
Laurel came to visit me and I was soooooo psyched. She stayed at no extra charge and it was awesome, besides that I wish I could have spent more time with her. We went out one night and met up with a guy she had met during her travels; he was also staying in Taipei. We checked out the night markets; some of the food looked absolutely disgusting (like squid and fish on a stick) but some of it looked great (the dumplings). I didn’t have the courage to try the street food though. I didn’t want to take the risk of potentially getting sick while fully across the globe. There were people at these markets who were, like in the US; clearly selling illegally; at one point we almost got run over by some people with wheelbarrows who were just plowing through crowds because the police were looking specifically for menaces like them. We also took a stroll through
Snake Alley, and I wish I could honestly say that I drank snake blood like most surveyors past, but I didn’t. I didn’t even get any pictures of any snakes! There was no one out in snake alley and I had no one brave enough with me to drink the blood also. And, in order to obtain the blood, a snake would have been killed for my sake and I didn’t really want to make that call, so I reluctantly passed.
We made sure to take a ton of pictures with the Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world until Dubai opened up the NEW tallest building in the world (at the turn of 2010?) most of these pictures were at the start of Edit’s and my “vacation” days – we had a few days to just hang out and relax so we took a bottle of wine to the NYC tribute statue (a replica of the statue of liberty) and sat on it due to the lack of tables in the area. We broke out our glasses and very obvious bottle of cab and started drinking in public – which we later found out was very illegal! We wondered why people were staring at us. Those stupid foreigners. Laurel was so accustomed to drinking in the streets in Korea that she was sure it wouldn’t be an issue at all. Our “illegal” drinking in the street became much more obvious when I dropped my first glass of wine on my lap. Smooth. Now we really had people just staring at us wondering what the hell we were doing. After buying sunglasses while tipsy, we went to the Hyatt hotel and took prices over glasses of vino while making stories up about the people around us, especially a sad looking woman sitting in the café alone, whose lover must have stood her up. That night we made it out to some Japanese hot springs where we bathed in numerous pools of varying temperatures (between hot and cold) and we took rice wine shots in between. Edit and I had ordered a bottle of rice wine a few days before. We tried, really hard to like it but it just never worked. It really just is gross, fyi.
During one of our free days, we went out to Wulai which had indigenous people and beautiful waterfalls. We just walked for hours. On the way back we took a ride to the tea fields - we stopped for a pot of tea and to hang out with a woman’s pet rabbit who humped her hand when she was trying to feed it. But on the upside, the views were spectacular; you could see straight out to the Taipei 101 – (not a huge surprise since it is the tallest building in the world!) We were going to get something to eat in these roaming, very local hills but nothing seemed to spark our fancy. I’ve just come to the conclusion that I don’t like real Chinese/Taiwanese food. We went all the way back into the city to get dinner at a place that was recommended and it was a real let-down. There were very few swanky restaurants with semi-normal food – high quality restaurants weren’t an American luxury last I checked? (I hope never to see intestines and brains and livers on menus again). The place we ate at was small and had a fast-food atmosphere to it. We were not impressed.
Snake Alley, and I wish I could honestly say that I drank snake blood like most surveyors past, but I didn’t. I didn’t even get any pictures of any snakes! There was no one out in snake alley and I had no one brave enough with me to drink the blood also. And, in order to obtain the blood, a snake would have been killed for my sake and I didn’t really want to make that call, so I reluctantly passed.
We made sure to take a ton of pictures with the Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world until Dubai opened up the NEW tallest building in the world (at the turn of 2010?) most of these pictures were at the start of Edit’s and my “vacation” days – we had a few days to just hang out and relax so we took a bottle of wine to the NYC tribute statue (a replica of the statue of liberty) and sat on it due to the lack of tables in the area. We broke out our glasses and very obvious bottle of cab and started drinking in public – which we later found out was very illegal! We wondered why people were staring at us. Those stupid foreigners. Laurel was so accustomed to drinking in the streets in Korea that she was sure it wouldn’t be an issue at all. Our “illegal” drinking in the street became much more obvious when I dropped my first glass of wine on my lap. Smooth. Now we really had people just staring at us wondering what the hell we were doing. After buying sunglasses while tipsy, we went to the Hyatt hotel and took prices over glasses of vino while making stories up about the people around us, especially a sad looking woman sitting in the café alone, whose lover must have stood her up. That night we made it out to some Japanese hot springs where we bathed in numerous pools of varying temperatures (between hot and cold) and we took rice wine shots in between. Edit and I had ordered a bottle of rice wine a few days before. We tried, really hard to like it but it just never worked. It really just is gross, fyi.
During one of our free days, we went out to Wulai which had indigenous people and beautiful waterfalls. We just walked for hours. On the way back we took a ride to the tea fields - we stopped for a pot of tea and to hang out with a woman’s pet rabbit who humped her hand when she was trying to feed it. But on the upside, the views were spectacular; you could see straight out to the Taipei 101 – (not a huge surprise since it is the tallest building in the world!) We were going to get something to eat in these roaming, very local hills but nothing seemed to spark our fancy. I’ve just come to the conclusion that I don’t like real Chinese/Taiwanese food. We went all the way back into the city to get dinner at a place that was recommended and it was a real let-down. There were very few swanky restaurants with semi-normal food – high quality restaurants weren’t an American luxury last I checked? (I hope never to see intestines and brains and livers on menus again). The place we ate at was small and had a fast-food atmosphere to it. We were not impressed.
High level of service and availability
So far, Taipei was a pretty cool place. The people were so friendly. We had no permission problems; everyone just wanted to help out. The level of service here was just unbelievable. There was a person at every corner trying to help which was both awesome and severely annoying at the same time. If you needed someone they were there, but if you didn’t want someone watching, no luck on that. At one of the grocery stores, the manager even seemed amazed at what we were doing and wanted to know everything about it and where we were from. She seemed, basically; completely honored to have us there. One day I bought a nice pen as a realtor gift. When it came time to pay, I handed my credit card to the lady at the counter and suddenly she sprinted away with it. She didn’t have a machine with her. Coming back, we watched her as she started sprinting back to us to return my credit card to me. It was utterly hilarious. The people at the hotel were great too. The breakfast staff knew both Edit’s and my (last) name and eventually knew our room number as well. (Not to mention that the complimentary breakfast was amazing! Everything you could imagine was available – from tradition Chinese dishes to western cuisine). When we would leave in a taxi to go out, the doorman would give us a business card with the hotel’s information and address on it in Chinese symbols so that we could communicate how to get home. We may have been screwed otherwise! The business staff did everything they could to help out with our phone calls (even though it was a bit frustrating that they couldn’t finish everything we asked of them). When the phone calls took too long, they helped us hire a translator who came to the hotel. He was in Edit’s room. When I walked in I was shocked. He was very tall and thin and nearly jumped at me with all his anxiety. He had a serious stutter, and he was completely wound up like he was worried that we might yell or hit him if he did anything wrong. “He-he-hello Ms. Basleeeerr, ma ma my name is ……………” I was absolutely and completely shocked that a guy with a stutter worked for a translating company, but… hey; he ended up getting our work done quickly and efficiently so we couldn’t complain.
Also, availability in Taipei in the stores is just awesome. International brands were available everywhere which made the survey much easier. In one store, I asked for the price of CK sheets and the lady told me but said “they are made in Taiwan”. It almost seemed like the expected quality in Taiwan to be different than that of the US because they were made in Taiwan. Little does she know that products sold in the US are also actually made in Taiwan!
Also, availability in Taipei in the stores is just awesome. International brands were available everywhere which made the survey much easier. In one store, I asked for the price of CK sheets and the lady told me but said “they are made in Taiwan”. It almost seemed like the expected quality in Taiwan to be different than that of the US because they were made in Taiwan. Little does she know that products sold in the US are also actually made in Taiwan!
Seat belts, nazi symbols and language barriers
It’s amazing how many seat belt comments I have gotten on survey. One taxi driver yelled at me NOT to wear it even though we were going fast, weaving through traffic during congestion during rush hour time. I really don’t understand these taxi drivers, do they really just have that much faith in themselves?
We were in a grocery store one day when I noticed a cup of noodles that had the nazi signs on it! I was in complete disbelief so I took a picture. Little did we know… the smart Laurel informed me that the backwards nazi symbol was actually a sign of Buddhism. What a coincidence…
Edit and I went to AIG because we needed a quote for car insurance. So, we take the elevator all the way up to the top and walk in to the really nice office where we are greeted by two girls who became giggly when they realized we spoke English not Chinese. “Hello, we would like to speak with someone about car insurance?” OK the girl says, and puts us into a conference room and brings us green tea. A few minutes later, in walks a man who says “Hi, you have a meeting with Carl ****?” Edit and I look at each other and start cracking up. No no no, CAR Insurance! Unfortunately, this guy wasn’t able to help us but he told us where to go. That’s language barrier for you! Chinese symbols are just amazing. It’s so intriguing how people communicate with symbols; their details are so intricate so it’s unbelievable to see people write them quicker than we would write a word made from the alphabet.
We were in a grocery store one day when I noticed a cup of noodles that had the nazi signs on it! I was in complete disbelief so I took a picture. Little did we know… the smart Laurel informed me that the backwards nazi symbol was actually a sign of Buddhism. What a coincidence…
Edit and I went to AIG because we needed a quote for car insurance. So, we take the elevator all the way up to the top and walk in to the really nice office where we are greeted by two girls who became giggly when they realized we spoke English not Chinese. “Hello, we would like to speak with someone about car insurance?” OK the girl says, and puts us into a conference room and brings us green tea. A few minutes later, in walks a man who says “Hi, you have a meeting with Carl ****?” Edit and I look at each other and start cracking up. No no no, CAR Insurance! Unfortunately, this guy wasn’t able to help us but he told us where to go. That’s language barrier for you! Chinese symbols are just amazing. It’s so intriguing how people communicate with symbols; their details are so intricate so it’s unbelievable to see people write them quicker than we would write a word made from the alphabet.
Shi She!
Is “thank you” in Chinese. I can speak Chinese! The first week of being in Asia was great. I fell asleep super early and woke up around 6 to go to the gym, eat breakfast, and get ready for the day. Of course, this didn’t last that long; after the first week I was struggling to find time to work out because it wasn’t happening in the beginning of the day.
One day in the morning at breakfast, there was one man (European) who walked in with three asian girls. There was no doubt by either Edit or myself that these girls were prostitutes. It was disturbing.
So, umm… half of the public toilets here are nothing but holes in the floor, and you can flush it. Literally you stand over it and pee. Disgusting. There were little pictures outside of the stalls that would tell you which type of toilet you were entering and I made sure to stay far, far away from the ones with nothing but holes. Though; a part of me did want to snap a picture of it. I wasn’t really quite sure how OK that would be though. Aside from the holes in the ground, they have a system where you can stick your hand in front of a symbol and the sound of water and a toilet flushing blares from your stall. This is “courtesy” sound effects which I think is hilarious. Throughout Taiwan, there is an insane amount of motorbikes everywhere. At a green light, you would wait for 30 seconds while only huge motorcades went by and cut off all the cars. So dangerous; one day when it was raining I actually saw someone fall while making a turn at an intersection.
One day in the morning at breakfast, there was one man (European) who walked in with three asian girls. There was no doubt by either Edit or myself that these girls were prostitutes. It was disturbing.
So, umm… half of the public toilets here are nothing but holes in the floor, and you can flush it. Literally you stand over it and pee. Disgusting. There were little pictures outside of the stalls that would tell you which type of toilet you were entering and I made sure to stay far, far away from the ones with nothing but holes. Though; a part of me did want to snap a picture of it. I wasn’t really quite sure how OK that would be though. Aside from the holes in the ground, they have a system where you can stick your hand in front of a symbol and the sound of water and a toilet flushing blares from your stall. This is “courtesy” sound effects which I think is hilarious. Throughout Taiwan, there is an insane amount of motorbikes everywhere. At a green light, you would wait for 30 seconds while only huge motorcades went by and cut off all the cars. So dangerous; one day when it was raining I actually saw someone fall while making a turn at an intersection.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Reporting from the future..
The first thing I noticed on arrival to the airport in Taipei was all the masks. About 60% of all the people I saw were wearing them, and there was a disease control area which checked your temp if you looked or felt bad. Later in the trip, it was so funny to see young couples walking around holding hands. Think of Carrie from Sex in the City walking around with Big with a mask on. The romantic aspect of it just doesn’t jive. The taxi ride to the hotel was long so I passed out in the car towards the end. I was done for, but was still feeling that travel-wired. Though I was psyched to get into my room and take a good long nap.
But, that didn’t happen. I arrived at 8 am and was informed by the really nice man that my room wouldn’t be ready until possibly 2 pm. At this point I felt bad for anyone who came even relatively near me because I smelled. I just really wanted a shower. So, what did I do? I had him direct me to the fitness center where I took advantage of my dirtiness and my overtired wiredness and went to the gym, for almost an hour and a half. The only thing that kept me from continuing was that the man came back to find me to let me know my room was finally ready. It felt so wonderful to finally take a shower. I reserved my nap for later after I had sent some emails.
Edit arrived and we spent a good hour chatting. We decided to nap (which I had to drag myself up from) and meet up around 7 to go find some dinner. The concierge directed us to the street which had long stretches of “typical” Asian cuisine so we walked down and checked out menus determined to find one with some English, but no luck. We picked a place to walk into and although there were no English menus, the waiter spoke English. The funny thing I noticed about the Asian culture is that if they see a white person, immediately they are going to think there is no way they speak Chinese so if they speak English, you will be greeted in English. That prevents the whole awkward “do you speak English?” conversation which kinda makes life easier! There was a wait, but we decided we would wait. One very large beer later, we were sitting down to Japanese barbecue. It was awesome, like fondue, but with a grill and no cheese! Our waiter cooked raw chicken, shrimp, beef, ricecake, squid, and vegetables for us, right at our table, on the grill. He mixed on different toppings for everything. It was delish.
That was it. We were done, and went home to bed. I was in bed passing out by 12:15 (which was so strange to think that while it was 12:15 am here, it was 12:15 pm at home!) So, ultimately I come to you from the future
But, that didn’t happen. I arrived at 8 am and was informed by the really nice man that my room wouldn’t be ready until possibly 2 pm. At this point I felt bad for anyone who came even relatively near me because I smelled. I just really wanted a shower. So, what did I do? I had him direct me to the fitness center where I took advantage of my dirtiness and my overtired wiredness and went to the gym, for almost an hour and a half. The only thing that kept me from continuing was that the man came back to find me to let me know my room was finally ready. It felt so wonderful to finally take a shower. I reserved my nap for later after I had sent some emails.
Edit arrived and we spent a good hour chatting. We decided to nap (which I had to drag myself up from) and meet up around 7 to go find some dinner. The concierge directed us to the street which had long stretches of “typical” Asian cuisine so we walked down and checked out menus determined to find one with some English, but no luck. We picked a place to walk into and although there were no English menus, the waiter spoke English. The funny thing I noticed about the Asian culture is that if they see a white person, immediately they are going to think there is no way they speak Chinese so if they speak English, you will be greeted in English. That prevents the whole awkward “do you speak English?” conversation which kinda makes life easier! There was a wait, but we decided we would wait. One very large beer later, we were sitting down to Japanese barbecue. It was awesome, like fondue, but with a grill and no cheese! Our waiter cooked raw chicken, shrimp, beef, ricecake, squid, and vegetables for us, right at our table, on the grill. He mixed on different toppings for everything. It was delish.
That was it. We were done, and went home to bed. I was in bed passing out by 12:15 (which was so strange to think that while it was 12:15 am here, it was 12:15 pm at home!) So, ultimately I come to you from the future
I'll fly you to Asia!
Well, holy sh**. I’m in Asia, and my sleep is completely messed up. I took only a 2 hour nap earlier today, woke up completely disoriented, and then went to bed exhausted at 12 and woke up at 3, then at 5, then at 6 and was unable to go back to sleep. And, I have that “you slept too long” headache that I get when I nap and my body thinks it should have only been for a 3 hour period at max. Wake up, body. You’re in Asia, get use to the 12 hour difference, please!
My journey began Monday morning at 11:30 am. 32 hours later I arrived in Taipei. I had a first stop in St Paul to drop off and pick up some people, so I got off the plane for an hour and a half to stretch and such. It was already a long ride. I made it to LA 8 hours after leaving Boston and had dinner plans with my gorgeous friend Meredith from home, and our friend Jason was also able to come out and join which was such a nice surprise. I was going to have to wait for her so I went to the bar and had a margarita and a bloody mary, and only then did I realize how dehydrated I had been (despite drinking lots of water, I swear!!) I was very tipsy. I almost lost my things about 3 times. Once (after leaving the bar and going downstairs to wait for Mer) I got up from my seat to use the bathroom, dropped my boarding pass on the floor and left my workbag with everything important for me on this trip. It wasn’t until someone said “you dropped something” that I turned around and realized how dumb I was. Good going Lauren, and I haven’t even left the country yet!
We went to a really nice restaurant where Meredith works (so we got 40% off whoop whoop) – kobe beef sushi, bass, salads, a cheese plate, and 2 other desserts ensued (not to mention a cocktail and a ton of wine). The 3 of us reminisced to old times growing up, laughed a lot and weren’t ready to leave when it was time. Since Mer and I had clearly drank too much, I took a cab back to the airport. Luckily I didn’t leave anything important there.
I wasn’t expecting it, but my flight on China Air was actually really nice. And, it was a double-decker plane. The entertainment was decent, and I slept off and on for a good 8-9 hours (the wine did me in, I didn’t even need to use the xanax!) Surprisingly, even though I still hate flying it has gotten a bit better for me, I have realized.
My journey began Monday morning at 11:30 am. 32 hours later I arrived in Taipei. I had a first stop in St Paul to drop off and pick up some people, so I got off the plane for an hour and a half to stretch and such. It was already a long ride. I made it to LA 8 hours after leaving Boston and had dinner plans with my gorgeous friend Meredith from home, and our friend Jason was also able to come out and join which was such a nice surprise. I was going to have to wait for her so I went to the bar and had a margarita and a bloody mary, and only then did I realize how dehydrated I had been (despite drinking lots of water, I swear!!) I was very tipsy. I almost lost my things about 3 times. Once (after leaving the bar and going downstairs to wait for Mer) I got up from my seat to use the bathroom, dropped my boarding pass on the floor and left my workbag with everything important for me on this trip. It wasn’t until someone said “you dropped something” that I turned around and realized how dumb I was. Good going Lauren, and I haven’t even left the country yet!
We went to a really nice restaurant where Meredith works (so we got 40% off whoop whoop) – kobe beef sushi, bass, salads, a cheese plate, and 2 other desserts ensued (not to mention a cocktail and a ton of wine). The 3 of us reminisced to old times growing up, laughed a lot and weren’t ready to leave when it was time. Since Mer and I had clearly drank too much, I took a cab back to the airport. Luckily I didn’t leave anything important there.
I wasn’t expecting it, but my flight on China Air was actually really nice. And, it was a double-decker plane. The entertainment was decent, and I slept off and on for a good 8-9 hours (the wine did me in, I didn’t even need to use the xanax!) Surprisingly, even though I still hate flying it has gotten a bit better for me, I have realized.
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