Leah’s Cafe

The Taiwanese woman we met at the international cafe invited me to join the quilting class on Friday. The ladies are mostly the spouses of International students who study at the University in this small town. They meet regularly at a house near the university. Since the house is not within walking distance, I planned to take a commuter bus to go there.

However, T found out his father would be running errands in the morning and could give me a lift, so I didn’t get a chance to take the bus yet. These buses are not as big  or as comfortable as the JFK Airport Shuttle. But, the bus stop is right in front of our house and it’s pretty convenient to take a bus to go downtown or the university.

There were about eight of us there, three other Asian women are from Taiwan, China and Indonesia. The Indonesian woman was very happy to learn that an American woman and I can speak Indonesian/Malay. She wanted to teach us cooking some Indonesian dishes!

We spent time chatting and getting to know each other while our hands were busy with the quilting. Actually, we were doing the cheater quilt. We sew on the pre printed quilt instead of starting from fabric pieces. :-)

We got a pair of used washer and dryer for a steal but ended up have to resell the dryer due to it being a gas dryer and we have only electric hook up in the laundry room at the basement. It’s necessary to get a dryer as we won’t be able to dry the laundry on the lines when the weather turns cold.

They are many people in the opposite situation i.e. moved into a place that has gas hook up and try to get rid of the electric dryer. So, we have been looking at craiglist.com for a reliable ,less than two years old used electric dryer for a couple weeks. We did find some very good deals. But T was concerned about hauling it home and bring it down to the basement, and it’s not worth hurting our backs doing that.

We finally decided to get a new one from the store today, so we don’t have to worry about delivery and installation! We went to Sears to check out the GE dryer that we saw online. It was priced at about $750 on sears.com.(not including all the taxes and delivery charges, which will be about $100+)

But then we saw a LG dryer that in the same price range, has the same functions and a larger capacity, but was on clearance due to a scratch on the top of the dryer. We don’t mind the scratch as it ’s hardly visible and saving of $200 is a substantial amount of money for us who are just starting out.

So, we decided to buy the LG dryer instead. They are going to deliver the dryer on Tuesday morning and I am looking forward to clear the laundry piles.:-)

We went down town to shop for warm clothes and household stuffs after dinner. We wanted to check out the dryers at Sears but it was closed when we reached there at 7.15 p.m. In this small town, most stores close at 9.00 p.m and some close at 7.00 p.m!

We first went to TJMax, a discounted store, it’s quite small, thus the selection is quite limited. Found a few trousers that I like, but could not find the “short” ones, the “normal” and “long” ones were too long for me. Bought a pair of jeans that has the “short” version and two pairs of tights. Also went to JCPenny, which’s just a few blocks away, bought half a dozen of warm socks and a pair of chenille gloves with the $10 coupon we got in the mail!

Then, we went to Target, bought some hand towels and wash clothes. These were on sale  for  $1.58 per pack, four wash cloths in one pack and two hand towel in one pack. They are not the plush and soft type, but I prefer the thinner ones, they are easier to dry and save on energy. :-)

Though we do have enough hand towels and wash cloths, they are all in brown color and got mixed up a lot. So, we got them in two colors, beige for him and green for me, so they don’t get mixed!

We also checked out the clothes drying rack. We saw one selling for $29.99 on target.com, but it’s not available at the store. Drying racks are probably not very popular here as most people just dry their clothes in the dryer. We wanted a rack to hang the almost dry and some of the sweaters as dryer tends to shrink them.

Actually, this chrome metal drying rack is quite small and won’t be able to hold too many clothes., but it’s the better built one that we can find. We actually found one wooden drying rack almost the same size  of this metal one at the garage sale and paid $2 for it.

It’s quite light and was blew off from the balcony on second floor to the lawn few days ago!  Despite falling from 12 feet height, it’s still in tact and nothing is broken. It might look flimsy, but it’s surprisingly well built!!

In the last two years, in fact, in all those years as a bachelor, the big boy often just had some junk food, coffee or skipped the first two meals of the day totally! By dinner time, he would be so hurry, he would have eaten a horse, if it’s available!

A combination of heavy dinner at odd hours and  then late night snacks in front of TV. Are you even surprised he put on back the 30 pounds that he lost in the first two years of our marriage? Since he wanted to lose weight and stay healthy, we thought bring lunch to work might help.

As a start, we got a food container from Walmart, it’s not strictly a Bento box, just a plastic container that has two compartments.

The first day, I cooked a little extra during dinner and have the leftover Ginger Onion Chicken to go with the rice. Cut some celery and tomatoes for some extra fiber. It’s good that the big boy loves vegetables! He just put the vegetables on a plate and reheated the rice and Ginger Onion Chicken in a microwave.

The next day, there was no leftover from dinner because he cleaned up all the Steamed Asam Catfish we had for dinner. So, I made him two slices of Peanut Butter Sandwich with Blueberry Jam, egg rolls and  cut half an apple.

It went on well for the rest of the week except for one day he came back with the lunch unopened as he was too busy that day. It’s cold in the morning, my brain might be still trying to defrost, in a blur, forgot to take pictures of his lunches! I prepared most of the food at night, some days the lunches were all packed, he just have to take them out from the refrigerator and go.

I went on to purchase a Clickety Click three-tier Bento box from Ebay for about $7 including shipping.

Thought the yellow Monkey who says “My name is Mink, I like to read the fantasy story. I am very excited when I read” is so cute, though the big boy is not totally impressed with a monkey lunch box. He thought it’s for the little boys, not a big boy like him.:-)

My in laws are in their 60s. After battling with cancers and illnesses for the past 10 years, they decided to sell their house and moved into a retirement community. Though they still lead an active life, they could not cope with yard work and maintaining a house anymore.

Main building in the retirement community

The retirement center is built on 30 acres of scenic campus with park-like setting. There are two stocked fishing ponds, large community areas, ample parking for residence and guests, garage parking and 24-hour security. The landscaping, building and residence maintenance are contracted out to professionals. The center is run by full-time activity director and staffs who organize social and recreational activities. The other facilities include game Room, fitness center with personal trainer, library, computer resource center, craft and hobby room, wood working shop, resident Gardens.

It offers choices of apartments, duplexes, independent living, assisted living and  nursing home.

Apartment living

Duplexes

My in laws at first moved into a 3 bedroom apartment and stayed on the waiting list for  duplexes for two years. They later moved into a 2 bedroom duplex once it’s available.

The duplexes (what we called semi-D in Malaysia) are really nice, they range in size from 1,300 to 1,700 square feet. These professionally landscaped single-level brick homes feature two to three bedrooms, two baths, and include a fully equipped kitchen, an attached garage with opener, spacious sun room, and a full basement.

Fully equipped kitchen

Spacious and bright living space

Master bedroom with attached bathroom

All interior and exterior maintenance is done for them, the lawn is mowed for them. They offer flexible dining plan and served three meals daily at the cafeteria. They can bring guests and can also reserve private dining rooms for special events.

Parents in law usually have breakfast on their own, and if they do not feel like cooking lunch and dinner, they can order meals at the cafeteria and just drive or walk over to the cafeteria during designated time.

The food at the cafeteria is prepared by professional cook. My parents in law brought me there for brunch yesterday. They have good cook, I must say. The food not only delicious, they are prepared the healthy way too. The  retirement center is pretty well designed to ensure personal independence and quality of living. I really don’t mind living here when we retired in future.

Most of the people who live here are in their 70s and 80s, the oldest man lives here is 105 years old! He drove until recently he decided to surrender his driver licensse and gave his car to his grandson (who must be in his 60s!). Parents in law who are in their 60s are the youngest couples here!!

Only brought four pairs of shoes from home due to luggage space constraint. It’s getting cold here,  can’t wear the sandals and slippers.  I have been wearing the tennis shoes since arriving here. So, we dropped by Kohls on Saturday evening, wanted to get shoes that can be worn to church and work, or maybe also boots for the winter.

The shoes department at this Kohls was having a sales, though there was not much of a crowd there, the shoes were in quite a mess. The big boy got impatient after an hour of trying on many pairs of shoes. So, I shooed him to the demo massage chairs nearby, so he could have a good massage and I could shop in PEACE.

At the end, got myself a pair of slipped on Oxford shoes with leather upper and flexible outsole. The elastic inserts on both sides provide easy slip-on wear. The suede trim along the collar, mircosuede lining and cushioned footbed really make your feet stay comfortable. This patten comes with a wider version and that solved the problem of not able to find shoes that fit my unsually wider toes. :)

Casual Slip-On Oxford Shoes

Also got a pair of Suede Clog Slippers. The suede upper gives  an earthy look and the faux-fur lining and padded foot bed are very comfortable. I only realized they are slippers for men when we reached home. But, who cares as long as they are comfortable.:-)

Suede Clog Slippers

Both were on 40%-50% discount, we paid about $60 inlcuding taxes for both and received $10 voucer for  next purchase. Didn’t have time to look for winter boots as we have to rush off to meet my in laws for dinner. We most likely would come back here to continue the shopping next week.

Decided to purchase five new domains last week. It was a bulk purchase that comes with free privacy registrations. After using a discount coupon, paid only the full price of two domains when bought separately.

Since won’t be working outside the home temporarily, might as well make full use of the time to setup more blogs and work on some of the existing ones. Have also been checking out web hosting blog to look for the right hosting package.

I would need a multiple domains web hosting package because my plan is to host all five of the newly purchased domains with one hosting plan to save cost. I am looking for a hosting company who is reputable to have negligible downtime and is fast to recover from it. Jilted the last web host because they took too long to solve the overloading problems that my blogs were experiencing. The current one is doing good, but I would prefer not to put all the eggs in one basket.

Have been browsing the web for unbiased user reviews of the web hosting companies before purchasing a hosting plan. I have never paid full price for a hosting package, always look for discount coupons, promotional code before getting one!! In fact, I have gotten a few hosting packages for less than $10 in the past two years!

The big boy left for a toy show to trade his action figures and hot wheels 6.30 a.m. So, he had  arranged for his parents to pick me up for Church. His parents attend the United Methodist in the neighboring town, about 15 minutes drive from where we live. Most of their relatives i.e. uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces and second cousins attend this church. However, we do not plan to attend this church, so today is just a visiting.

Oh boy, I have never seen a congregation with so many elderly people. :-) It’s not that I have anything against elderly people, we were at the second service at 10 a.m. more than half of the people are older than parents in law, who are in their 60s! However, it’s encouraging to see some older people are continuing to serve in whatever capacity they can.

We went to the cafeteria the retirement community where parents in law live for Sunday brunch after church service. It’s a buffet on Sunday. They have wide selections of breakfast, sandwiches, salads, fish and chicken. I had some baked salmon, salad and a croissant sandwich, they were delicious. They must have a good cook at this retirement community!

We went to the International Cafe at the Lutheran Church on the university campus to meet up with a group of international students and Christians who meet there every Friday evening for dinner and socialization.  They are students from Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle East.

Was nice to meet some Chinese women from Taiwan and China. They invited me to join a quilting class that they are organizing next Friday! Really excited about the quilting class, can put the three boxes of fabrics from the estate sale into good use! It’s something to do and keep me occupied when it gets cold in the winter.

Someone introduced me to Renee, a math instructor at  the university and Gleen, an ex HR person at the community college, they told me I can apply to teach math at the junior college or university as long as  I  can show evidences of a Masters degree and teaching experience. I thought that would need a PhD to do that, but they confirmed that won’t be neccesary. That’s good news!! I am glad we make that connection here at the International cafe!

I have initially thought of taking a course that leads to an IL teacher license that enables me to teach in the public school system. Have been browsing the web for information on this courses including some universities that offer online degree. Some online universities like Capella University do offer courses in education. It might be another alternative for people who can’t leave home to attend classes physically, or people who work full time.

*This blog post is based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

We bought a pair of GE washer and dryer off a co-worker of the big boy. The co-worker just recently moved in with the boyfriend, so they were trying to get rid of the extra pair of washer and dryer quick and cheap. The pair were at least $900 when they were bought new from the store 9 months ago, we got them for $200, it’s a good deal, isn’t it?

The washer worked just fine, but the big boy found out we only have electric hook up at the laundry room in the basement, and the dryer needs a gas hook up! Alas, we have to sell the dryer and get an electric one. We listed the gas dryer on Craiglist.com yesterday, to sell it for $150. We got a couple of people called  or emailed to inquire immediately, one guy suggested we trade with his 3 years old electric dryer (he just moved into a house that has no electric hook up, only gas hook up), another guy is going to come by this Saturday to look at it and may take it right away!

If we manage to sell the dryer for the asking price of $150, that means we only pay $50 for the washer! It’s quite a crazy experience, isn’t it?

Today is the big boy’s day off from work, we decided to go for garage sales. We started with no anticipation of what to expect but ended up loading and unloading the backseat and trunk three times. We found a bunch of stuffs we need for the kitchen and household, at really good prices. We paid $0.25 to $1 for individual items or $0.50 to $5 for a box of miscellaneous stuffs! We spent about $70 in total for everything we hauled home!

2 Vintage blue cornflower Corning Wares, an Anchor oval pan, a Pyrex square pan, a Pyrex rectangular pan, and a Pyrex casserole.

2 dinner sets. Each set has 24 pieces. Both are unused, still in the box!

8 jars, different shapes and sizes. (They are good for storing food and my fruit enzymes projects.)

A set of unused 12 drinking glasses, 4 wine glasses and some miscellaneous drinking glasses.

14 crochet and craft books.

78 spools of threads and other sewing supplies.

3 boxes of fabrics.

A rocking chair.

A clothes drying rack.

A rice cooker, a crock pot (slow cooker) and a food processor.

2 steam irons, come with fabric starch and  “Magic sizing“.

A winter coat, a huge bag of sweaters and cardigans.

The estate sales is at the house of an old woman who has moved into nursing home. Her daughter engaged an agency to conduct the estate sales. It’s amazing to see what one can collect in her lifetime! Looking at the boxes and containers full of stuffs. it’s obvious that she was a collector of many stuffs! She also never throw away all her children’ stuffs. They were tones of wooden toys, sport equipments and even a pool table at the basement. I bet she would have kept the Soccer Goals at the basement if her children used to have them!!

The big boy has a friend who is married to a girl from China. They told us that they shop for Asian groceries at a town 45 minutes from where we live. So, we decided to have an early dinner at 5.00 p.m  yesterday and then drove down there to check out the store.

Super H-Mart is one of the chain grocery stores owned and run by Koreans. This particular store we went to has a generous floor plan and the store is spacious and clean.

I was so happy to find the store, it not only has most of the ingredients for Asian cooking, the prices are also very competitive. We bought a cart load of fresh vegetables, fruits, seafood, pork and dried goods, total of $102.78!

We thought the gingers we bought at the Thai grocery store was cheap compare to what we paid at the normal American grocery stores. But here at Super H-Mart, it’s even cheaper than what we paid at the little  Thai grocery store. We paid $3.45 per lb for ginger at the normal grocery store, $1.90 at the little Thai grocery store, and it’s $0.69 per lb at Super H-Mart! It is a big difference, isn’t it?

The prices of produce are also so much cheaper compare to the normal American grocery stores. Even for non ethnic food like tomatoes, we paid $3+ per lb at the normal store, and it’s only $0.89 per lb here. That’s it, we are not buying produce from the normal grocery stores anymore.

Even though it took 1 1/2 hours driving back and forth to this store, it’s certainly worth to spend the time and gasoline to go down there. We certainly will be back there to shop at least once a month!

Time really flies, it has been 10 days since arriving here on September 30. Haven’t really completely recovered from jet lag, but the mid afternoon sleepiness seems to have gone for good. Though have not been able to drive here yet, guess driving in this small town with little traffics is no sweat compare to driving in the jungle back home. :-)

Would need the relevant IDs i.e. Social Security card and the Green Card before sitting for tests to get a driving license. Hopefully they will come in the mail in another 2-3 weeks. The big boy also need to add me onto the auto insurance before I can drive the car. He would probably add me onto the existing plan instead getting new auto insurance quotes. The insurance company will consider me a new driver as my previous driving experiences in a foreign country won’t be counted, hope the premium won’t cost too much!

There is no Asian grocery store in the small town that we live. We found out from Google map there are three Asian grocery stores in the same town as the social security office we were going to visit. So, we went on a quest of Asian grocery stores after we got out from the social security office.

The first one is a little grocery store runs by a Thai couple. Apparently, they are a lot of Thai, Laos and Cambodians in the surrounding area. We got a bottle of fish sauce, beehun, Vietnamese spring roll sheets, some garlic and gingers. Also bought some fresh ingredients i.e. lime , lemongrass and galanga for cooking tom-yam. The vegetables were not so fresh, so didn’t buy any. The prices of gingers and garlic were half of what we paid in the American grocery store last week.

The second store is run by a Filipino man. They don’t sell fresh produce, mostly preserved canned food or frozen vegetables. The prices are on the higher side, so we only pick up a bottle of sauce and a packet of snack for the big boy. The owner is a funny guy, he kept calling the big boy Mr Ford and said he looks like Harrison Ford.

We couldn’t find the third store after driving back and forth twice on the road Google map gave us. So we decided to give it a miss.

All my previous teaching jobs required a lot of typing. I have never learned typing and do not know “touch typing” . Though I survived years with my two fingers typing skills, it took too much time to get all the notes and  exam questions typed out. Have you not secretly hoped that someone would invent a voice activated typing program, which you just have to speak and the words will be typed out for you? I have.

Guess what, looks like there is such a product in the market right now! It is the world’s first and foremost software product that recognizes and creates general text from normal speech.

Base on the assumption that most people can speak three times more words per minute than typing them out, that mean you can create documents and e-mails  three times faster with Dragon Naturally Speaking!

Supposedly with my result of Dragon’s typing speed test at 41 WPM, it could improve to be more than 120 words per minute, and that’s lightning speed when typing is concerned, isn’t that?

Does the software recognize voices of people who speak with different accents?  According to the following video, it does! As a non native speaker, I do wonder does it include people who speak with a foreign accent!

The nearest Social Security office is more than 25 miles from where we live. We decided to go down there on Tuesday as it’s the big boy’s day off from work. We left the house at about 7.30 a.m., stopped by the McD to have breakfast before we got on the highway. There were about 10 people lining up outside the Social Security office waiting for the door to open at 9.00 a.m. when we arrived there. I joined the line and within a few minutes, we were allowed to go in. We got a number, sat down to wait for our turn.

Our number was called after waited about 15-20 minutes.  We were told we need my birth certificate for issuing of Social Security Numbers! I have filled up the form required but didn’t bring along the birth certificate because no where in the form indicated that it’s needed!

Oh well, we went home to get the birth certificate and drove down there again. (Wasted two and half hours and traveling over 50 miles back and forth!!) You thought it’s smooth sailing after that.Just the opposite. We wasted whole morning driving down there twice only to be told my name shown in the system was jumbled up. The customer service at the social security couldn’t or wouldn’t issue me a SSN. Even though I have my marriage certificate, birth certificate and passport to prove they ware the ones that screwed up, not me. Damned bureaucrates!

I was too tired and hungry to argue. So I surrendered for a jumbled up name! We would wait till the green card to arrive in the mail and see whether the same happened, then we can get that changed later.

If you have ever watched a Korean drama or movie, you probably have seen the many shots near the Han river (Hangang) and the bridges. I have seen that many times but  didn’t realize that the Han river stretched about 500 km or 300 miles long across Korea. So, they are more than one, in fact many bridges running across it.

Picture taken at at one of the many parks along the river.

It was a cloudy day and was drizzling off and on. Despite it was a weekday, they were quite many people at the park. They were people having picnic on the mats scattered around the park. Yes, the park management is so considerate, they even provide mats  and benches for people to sit down to enjoy the scenery and relax!

The white structure on the picture is one of the many little stalls along the bank that sells snack food and drinks. They have recycle bins at the back of the stalls. You won’t find any litter around the park. It’s very clean.

The park is very well-maintained and have many facilities available. You can easily find clean public toilets along the river bank. They are beach bikes rental available too. Many couples were having fun  on the two person bicycle.

Water taxis that take people to the other side and other jetties along the river

The Seoul City seems to be doing a good job preserving this green lung amidst the skyscrapers.

On the day I arrived in Seoul, after checking in the hostel and cleaning up, I ventured out to the alley to hunt for lunch. There were quite a few restaurants on the same street with the hostel, but they all looked pretty expensive.

Then I saw a little shop on the next street. Wouldn’t even know it’s a restaurant from the outside, the signs were all in Korean.  It was lunch hours, many women and men who looked and dressed like office workers went in there. I thought the food must be good and reasonably priced since the locals go there!

You can see customers were sitting on the floor and eating from a low table. The man who stood at the entrance led me in and seated me at a small table for two. An ajumma (middle aged Korean woman) came to serve, she asked a bunch of questions in Korean. Most of the customers were having BBQ or steamboat lookalike meals which required more than one person to share, so I can’t just point to the next table and said “same”.:-)

I told her I wanted a meal for one person, in English but with  a  lot of hand signs. Then she realized that I am not Korean, she asked “bibimbab“? I have no idea what is bibimbab at that point in time and thought she probably knew better, so I said “yes”.

She went in the kitchen and brought out this:

This is the first bibimbab and the beginning of many bibimbabs I had in Seoul!!

I learned that Bibimbab is a popular Korean dish which literally means “stirred/mixed rice“. So you stirred the rice, vegetables, chili paste and the half-cooked egg yoke with a spoon before you eat them.

The bibimbab at this restaurant came with bean sprout soup, four different varieties of Kimchi and mackerel fish, they all came in small  white saucers as side dishes. It was very tasty and this meal cost 6,000 wons (about $6 or RM20). It turned out to be the most expensive bibimbab I had in Seoul !

The following days, I have bibimbab that cost 4,000 wons and another day for 2,500 wons. Apparently different places sell this same dish at different prices, it could be due to the rental cost at different locations though I did notice the least expensive ones did not have as many varieties of side dishes.

Forgot to pack the contact lenses which were together with the toiletries, they were left at my parents’ place. Decided last minute not to pack the the toiletries bag because the luggage was going to exceed the baggage limit, but didn’t realize the contact lenses were inside until it’s too late!

Fortunately my trusted eyeglasses are with me, or else I won’t be able to see clearly and will be in big trouble. Since most places here required prescription to purchase contact lenses, may have to go to an optician to get prescription for new contact lenses!

Used to wear contact lenses for long hours in the past 10 years. But after numerous warnings from the opticians about  my eyes condition as a result of wearing them for long hours, I have reduced the wearing of contact lenses in the past two years. Now, if I do not change into contact lenses in the morning, I will be too lazy to change later of the day. It ended up that I have been wearing  eyeglasses most of the time. The wear and tear are expected from this constant wearing.

It’s not cheap to get a pair of replacement for my “powerful” eyeglasses. The current pair bought from a normal optical shop, come with multi-coated high indexed lenses and a super light frame cost me an arm and half a leg!

Well,  you can imagine the excitement of finding a n online store that sells stylish prescription glasses from $8! You can read more about the reviews and comments of customers who bought from Zenni Optical. Must check out Zenni Optical, when it’s time to get a replacement, or may be should get a second pair as spare?

Didn’t realize they are so many palaces in Seoul before I came here. Seoul is now a republic and no longer has the monarchy, so this palaces do give us a glimpse of the glorious past and the lives of the royal family at that particular dynasty and time period.

Headed out to visit the supposedly grandest Changdok Palace on the second day in Seoul. It so happened to be on a Thursday and  found out there was no guided tour available on that day. So, decided to visit another palace nearby- the Gyeongbok Palace.

The Gyeongbok Palace was originally constructed in the 14th century but was destroyed badly by the Japanese soldiers during Japanese occupation. The gate and portions of Gyeongbok palace were restored, and many halls, corridors, gardens, and pavilions were rebuilt. The construction continues even today, but will the palace regain the grandeur it possessed over its 600-year life?

Gate to the inner courtyard. Note the 12 animals of the lunar calendar on the roof ? They’re on the roof of most of the structures here!

The main courtyard, where the King conducted state business and received foreign dignitaries. High-ranking officials also assembled in the courtyard for review before the King. Note the stone stumps along the walkway - they were the markers indicating who stood where, according to their rankings, this stumps are inscribed with the names of the respective ministers, generals and other senior government officials.

 Steps lead to the Geunjeongjeon hall. The hall was first built in 14th century but burned down during the Japanese invasion in 16th century and was reconstructed in 19th century.

While the most people in Korea hardly speak any English, the young people seem to be attracted to the Western/American popular culture and are really into it. Both of the guesthouses that I have stayed in two different locations were near the university campuses. The area around seems to have many name brand boutiques, fast food chains and franchised coffee joints.

You see fast food outlets like KFC, Mc Donald and TGIF like the one in the picture below at every corner of the street.

They are many Pizza places. The familiar names like Domino Pizza and Pizza Hut are everywhere. They are also Papa John Pizza, which we don’t find them in South East Asia.

A Papa John store below a massage parlor.

Pizzas are very expensive compare to the local cuisine. But, that doesn’t seem to deter young people who want to spend and to be seen at this places. The advertising, branding and Marketing Company obviously have done a good job.:-)

After eating Kimchi for every meal for four days, decided to order pizza delivery to the hotel room. A small pizza and six BBQ chicken wings cost 25,000 wons (USD25 or RM76)! Which was the most expensive pizza I have had in my life! :-)

Hyundai is probably the first South Korean’s name brand that most of us encountered. We all know it’s the largest corporation in South Korea. The corporate office is a tall and huge building in the central area of Seoul. It’s next to a park and on the same street with the Changdok Palace.

The interesting part was: there are protesters permanently park themselves and their protest signs on the sidewalk outside this building. It seems like the giant corporation tolerates that in the spirit of democracy instead of using their corporate influence to get rid of this protesters.

I do not quite understand the exact reason of the protest as the protest signs were written in Korean. But they are many Chinese characters among the Korean words, so could roughly guess that they were protesting about some past business deals of Hyundai i.e. sold an Engineering subsidiary  or consolidate a  material handling subsidiary, which put them out of job and landed them in financial crisis and bankruptcy. Interesting to me!!

The day before I arrived, they were having a summery 80s. It was raining on the day I arrived and the temperature dropped to the 60s. Today, it’s in the 50s during the day and when I got up in the morning, it was in the 40s!!

Though I was all bundled up from head to toes, it was still freezing cold, so I stayed in the study room with the laptop and portable heater most of the day. This is not even winter yet, OMG!

We were hanging out at the in laws’ place last night, watching the vice presidential debates and baseball game on the TV. Father in law mentioned about the newspaper he saved for me to read, which has the column he wrote for the local newspaper. I asked him about what happened to the history column that he used to write. He used to have the history articles archived on the web.

One of his ex colleague who used to run a web design business on the side helped him to do all the uploading and web maintenance. But, ever since the guy lost his job, he has been caught up with his own life and hasn’t have time to do that. The domain has actually expired! few months ago. Though father in law has bought a new domain and a hosting plan, he  has been waiting for this guy to upload the files to the server for him in the last couple of months. He has also been thinking of paying someone else to do the web design.

I thought may be he can  use the blog format instead of a website, that way he does not have to worry about the archiving and blog is interactive. I also told him if he wants to set up a blog, I can help.:-)

This is a post dated entry for 27 September 2008.

Before leaving for Seoul , I have made reservation at the guest house near Hongik University in Seoul for two days. On the day of arrival, decided to make reservation at another guest house and move nearer to the city center on the third day. The second guest house is not as clean as the first one. But the location is excellent, it’s within walking distance to most of the tourist attractions.

Actually the main reason for moving was because I wanted some human interaction. I Was the only guest at the apartment, the host was at work during the day and came home quite late.  I was mostly on my own and self service for my two days stay.

After checking in at the second guest house, walked out to the neighborhood to have lunch. This guest house is outside the gate of Sungkyunkwan University, which I learned later that it is the oldest university in Korea.

Within stone throw distance from the guest house, there are many little Korean food shops, fast food outlets, boutiques and whole row of clubs! I tried the popular Korean fried “nian kao” in hot red chili sauce but didn’t really like it.

So, I ordered something that look like tempura, but turn out that the filings are glutinous rice, sweet potatoes. They were quite oily, taste alright but not something that I would spend 2,500 wons (RM8 or USD2.50 ) the second time.

Didn’t wear a watch as I have used the cell phone to tell time for the last few years. While I was in Seoul for sightseeing, didn’t have a cell phone and it was really inconvenient. Didn’t want to miss my flight, so thought of buying a watch in Seoul. It’s proven to be much more challenging than it should.

On the first day, went to Dongdamoon, the area with the largest fashion malls in Seoul, where you can find the latest fashions for women, men and children. They have clothing and accessories i.e. shoes, hats, scarves, but not watches in this malls, can you believe it? The next day, was at the Nangdamoon wholesale market, which has everything under the sun but not watches. It was really surprising to me! The host at the guest house told me they sell watches at the departmental stores. Apparently, the fashion malls here are specialized in fashion alone, it’s different from the concept of “mall’ that we are used to.

Went to withdraw money at the ATM machine near Seoul subway station, and went into two of the largest departmental stores nearby.Well, they do have watches here, but they only have brand names like Tag Heuer watches and other high end imported watches. Of course everybody knows the Swiss made tag watches are gorgeous and has unmatched exacting standards. The dilemma was I do not having a big wallet to afford this watches which are well known for their reliability, precision and endurance. :-)

At the end, found a cheap Japanese made watch at a sidewalk  stall near the subway station. It served the purpose for the rest of my time in Seoul. For $15, I couldn’t ask for more, it even has “water resistance”, though yet to be tested out. :-)

It was darn cold this morning, the thermometer indicated 47 degree Fahrenheit ( 8 degree Celsius)! It’s too early to turn on the central heating yet as the fall has just begun! Thank god for portable heater!

It is difficult to do housework when you are all bundled up. I moved the portable heater to the kitchen and was able to take off the sweater and do some housework. If not, probably can’t do anything but hiding in thick blankets all day!

Was able to unpack the food stuff brought from home, stock up the pantry and organize it into a functional kitchen. We went grocery shopping yesterday and spent $120+ on grocery. The big boy’s cooking in the last two years consisted mainly microwavable convenient food, so he didn’t even have sugar and salt in the kitchen!

Now we have uncooked chicken, fish and pork in the refrigerator and a kitchen cabinet filled up with food instead of dust.:-)

We went to JC Penny to get some warm clothes. The store was surprisingly empty despite of having sales. May be it  was a weekday, or maybe people are trying to hold on a little to their cash in view of current financial turmoil? People will definitely be more careful before they decided to splurge on Guess watches or designer outfits at this time, don’t you think so?

Managed to get a few tops, five pairs of warm socks, a knitted jacket and a fleece jacket. The sizes of clothing here are pretty generous, since I am no typical petite and slim Asian, it’s actually easier for me to find clothes that fit here. Always a “L” or “XL” at home, I am a  “M” here. :-)

The daytime temperature was in the 60s (about 16-18 degree Celsius) and fell down to 50s (about 10-12 degree Celsius) at night. I was pretty much bundled up whole day. The fall has just started and the winter won’t be here for another6-8 weeks, wish me luck!

The big boy got me a portable heater, and it has been following me around the house. It has to be my best friend for now. :-)

Despite of the long flight, I was too excited to feel the tiredness yet. But I know it would take a few days to adjust to the time difference and get over the jetlag. We dropped by the in laws’ home, gave them the Choya plum wine and some knick-knacks I picked up for them during my trip in Seoul.

The big boy and his parents were eagerly following the game, wanted to know whether the Chicago White Sox got into the playoff. They have the HDTV turned on but the voice muted, so we could talk while they follow the game. Though I have never touched the batting gloves and can’t tell the head from the tail nor have any idea about the rules of the game and how it’s scored. It’s quite exciting to know history might be created on the day I arrived here!

Apparently, both Chicago Cubs and White Sox have not been in the  post season together in 102 years, or since the 1906 World Series.  In fact, someone had predicted that the likelihood of this happened is like Mars passing a mere 35 million miles from earth, a summer movie about a horse drawing more than flies or a Kennedy kin entering politics in California — as a Republican!:-)

After 16+ hours of flight, stopover and change of plane, the flight from Tokyo Narita airport arrived at Chicago O’Hare airport  yesterday at 1.30 p.m local time, 45 minutes earlier than scheduled. After claiming the baggage, was not sure whether to line up at the visitor or US citizen/resident line. A woman officer was there to help direct people and make sure people fill up the I-94 arrival/departure form correctly. I showed her the brown envelope and asked where to go, she pointed to the visitor line.

Both the visitor and US citizen/resident lines were equally long but were moving at a fast pace. I stayed in line for about 10-15 minutes and then was directed to a separate section for processing new immigrant’s arrival. Two other people were there, it took a few minutes for my name to be called. The officer asked whether I speak English and when did we get married. That were the only two questions he asked before he took my fingerprint, had me signed twice on a form and then said we were done and I could proceed to the custom clearance.

The custom clearance was easy, they didn’t even open my baggage, just ran them through the machine and I was good to go. I was out at the arrival hall at 2.05 p.m, 35 minutes after arrival. The big boy was not there yet as we thought it will take a while to get out. But, didn’t have to wait long, he appeared shortly, before I have a chance to get the coins out to give him a call!