More From Mike: Confusion

As you can imagine, Jean Anne and I get numerous stares riding the subway or walking down the busy streets of Seoul.  It’s not uncommon to see an Asian girl with a “foreigner,” but an Asian guy being with a “foreigner” is not something you see too often here.  There are two types of stares we receive, and they’re gender specific... the first type of stare is focused on Jean Anne and most often given by older Aorean women.  “Icy” may not be the most accurate term but according to my beautiful wife not all that far off.  I am sharing this based on what my wife says, because in all honesty I don’t notice these types of stares... but my wife has the most amazing radar for picking up these types of looks.  The second type of stare is focused on myself and is most often given by Korean men (both young and old).  Unlike those of the korean women, these stares are stares of puzzlement and confusion.  I get this overwhelming feeling that these people are wondering what in the world this beautiful girl is doing with that guy!  Perfect example:  last Friday we had dinner with Jean Anne’s co-workers at a Brazilian steakhouse in Itaewon.  We were being served by a Korean gentlemen in his 30’s.  But before I get into that, let me just say that every time my wife makes reservations under the name “Mrs. Kim” and arrives at the restaurant, she has to persuade them that she’s really the one that made the reservations.  Back to this Korean man... after couple rounds of him coming to our table and giving me a quizzical look, here’s the conversation he had with my wife: 

Waiter Man: You’re Mrs. Kim... you’re married to him?!

Jean Anne: yes!

Waiter Man while looking at me strangely: Is he rich?!

laughter...

Waiter Man: Is he smart?

Jeananne: He’s the best! 

Water Man is not convinced...

Waiter Man: How is he married to you?

Me: Mr. Waiter, can you stop asking her that question, because I ask myself every night, and I don’t want her to start questioning her decision as well!!!!!!!!!!!

go figure... 

Update from Mike

I haven’t written a blog post in SO long... here is my quarterly update:

Work is very busy but going well.  I love my Soldiers and leadership and couldn’t have asked for a better situation.  There are challenges every day but overall the job is very rewarding.  I will be very busy until about June... I really wanted to go home before then but it doesn’t seem like its going to happen.  I started playing soccer again.  It’s awfully cold here in Korea (can’t wait until the winter is over!), but the indoor season is in full swing.  I’ve been playing mostly with my company soldiers, and it’s been fun.  I am contemplating whether to join the Camp Casey Post team but given the responsibilities of work I may have to pass.  I’ve also been doing Tae Kwon Do here, which is a great stress relief.  I can’t go as consistently as I want but am having a great time with it.  It’s something I never really did growing up (aside from couple sessions after Korean school), but I’m enjoying it now.  

Jean Anne wrote about our TV, but let me give you a background on my TV experience.  TV and I have a love/hate relationship.  My sister and I always loved TV but were deprived of it in our youth.  To be honest, I think it was a good decision on my dad’s part not to have TV for numerous years growing up, because it forced us to play outside.  I think thats why I grew up playing every sport.  Even after getting a TV at our house, I vowed for a year in high school to concentrate on studies and not watch it... HAVING SAID THAT, TV became a bit of a holy grail... so having a 52” TV to watch soccer in HD is awesome!!!!

Tae-lae-bi-jun

Did we tell you we bought a TV?  My sweet husband was going to write a post about it, but he's been busy watching it and hasn't had time, hehe.  Our new tae-lae-bi-jun is a monster--a fifty-two inch screen that now dominates my living room.  Happy birthday, handsome husband!

 I've used it to watch a movie or two, but I hadn't really sat down to flip through the Korean cable channels until tonight; I'm not working today but I'm on a night-shift schedule, so I had a few hours to kill while my handsome husband was asleep.

Three a.m. TV offerings in Korea appear to be similar to those in the U.S.--a few home shopping channels, old movies, and (this one was a tad surprising) what appeared to be Asian porn.  There are multiple Australian channels as well as one in Japanese and one in Chinese.  And at least three showing Anime.

Two channels have Western cartoons--one in English, and one dubbed in Korean.  Funny to see a Johny Quest-looking cartoon character bust out some fierce Korean.  A whole lot of channels are dedicated to several flavors of Korean drama--the modern melodramatic drama, the historical amazing costume drama, and the man-with-straw-in-his-hair drama (this one may be historical, not sure).  There are at least three golf channels, and no fewer than five soccer games showing on different sports channels.  There are also entire channels dedicated to showing video games.  I'm not much of a gamer myself, so I couldn't tell you what game was being played, but I find it interesting that there are enough people who want to sit in front of their TVs and watch the screen shots of other people playing video games to support entire channels.

There were also multiple educational options.  There were history and science channels, as well as classroom-style teaching shows.  One program featured a Korean guy teaching English.  Blackboard and everything!  I'm not sure why the vocabulary tonight was "shrew mouse" (pronounced "shuh-rlue mou-suh")--I can't think of a single occasion before writing this post in which, as an English speaker, I've ever needed to know the word "shrew mouse", but I think it's fantastic that people can sit in front of their TV and learn English.  I wish we had similar foreign language shows in the States!  Oh, there was also a show with a white girl teaching Chinese.  Hmm.

Language lessons were not the only educational offering, however--there was also a show with a very attractive young lady teaching calculus.  No wonder Asians are the smartest!

Seoul Folk Flea Market

I am a fan of flea markets.  My fascination began in college, when I discovered the huge flea market just off the interstate, at the same exit as my rural Tennessee university.  Who knew people sold antiques, plastic toys from China, silverware sets, and dilapidated furniture all in the same place, on the side of the interstate?!  I subsequently became a Goodwill / Salvation Army / random junk shop shopper, purchasing my first set of dinnerware from such for a grand total of $9.47.  And my fascination only grew with the discovery of Asian junk markets in China.  What could be more awesome than a random collection of reproduction pottery, Mao buttons, old posters, and jadite?!  So when I discovered the Seoul Folk Flea Market, I knew it was a must-visit.

Sweet, long-suffering husband and I set out a couple of weeks ago to do a recon.  What a fun place!

My handsome husband, I may have forgotten to mention, did not think he was a big flea market fan.  He said that since my eyes lit up when he mentioned it, he'd go with me, but I don't think he expected to actually enjoy it.  Oh little did he know!  For you see the flea market has something for everyone.  First, it was the old records selling for about a dollar each that started to change his opinion.  Then the food court sealed the deal.

We're both a fan of Asian food courts.

This meal?  About $9.

We wandered for an hour and a half or so, until the vendors started covering their stalls with blankets to go home for the night.  We were on our way out when Mike spotted a chest perched on top of some other furniture.  "That's pretty cool."  "Oh wow, I've been looking for one of those!" I said.  We asked for a price; it was reasonable.  We decided to return another day with the car.

The next weekend we braved Seoul traffic and found our way back.  My sweet and long-suffering husband was feeling a little under-the-weather.

So we found this guy, selling some kind of herbal / honey / vitamin medicine drink.

 Looks...delicious....

We wandered for a bit, then circled back around so that I could get a picture of this guy:

 Hehe.

We then made our way back to the chest we'd picked out.  It's not an antique, but we liked the design and the price tag, so we bought it.  We made it safely back to the ah-pah-tu, and installed our purchase in its new home.

Hooray!

Names: Two Funny Stories

One of my very favorite activities in the whole world is to curl up in the crook of my handsome husband's arm and exchange stories about our day.  Or days, if I haven't seen him in a few.  Somehow my funny stories seem funnier, and even my frustrated or angry or sad stories seem a bit funny, when told from the comfort and safety of my sweet husband's hug.  This has nothing to do with the two funny stories I have for you today--I just thought I'd share.

Story #1:  My hardworking husband was a day late coming down to Seoul last weekend (not funny) because he got pulled into "Courtesy Patrol"--policing up drunk and/or rowdy soldiers in "the 'Ville" just outside post, from about 10 p.m. to 4:30 the next morning.  (Like I said, not funny.  Or fun, for that matter.)  He was standing in one of the local bars with his Sergeant, warming up before heading to the next potential trouble spot, when a soldier approached him.  "HEY Sir!" said the soldier, giving Mike a big hug.  Mike returned his greeting, albeit with a little less enthusiasm, trying to figure out if he'd ever met this soldier, and if so, where and when.  The soldier noticed the look on Mike's face.

Drunk soldier:    "Sir, you don't remember me?!"
Sweet husband:  "Uh....."
Drunk soldier:     "I can't believe it!  I carried you like three miles back to your quarters that one night you got crazy at Johnny Bar!"
Sweet husband:   "Yeah, I think you're confusing me with someone else."
Drunk soldier:      "No way!" points to Mike's uniform, "CPT Kim!  CPT David Kim!"
Sweet husband:   "Uh, it's actually CPT Mike Kim."

Awkward silence followed.


Story #2:  As I've mentioned before, I work in the fourth story basement.  There are A LOT of stairs between my office and the rest of the organization.  On this particular day, I had called one of the other offices with a question, but then ended up having to trudge upstairs for an unrelated issue.  I walked in the office upstairs and started talking to one of the Sergeants, when the Lt Col noticed me.  "Oh, Lieutenant Lee, I'm glad you came up--I was just going to call you back." The Sergeant looked at me, then looked at the Lt Col, then (pointedly) back at me.  "Oh, wow," says the Lt Col, "did I just call you LT Lee?"

Awkward silence followed.

A Short Tale of a Blond Baby

One of my coworkers was just recently able to move her family over to Korea.  I asked her tonight how everyone was adjusting.  "Oh, it's great!" she said.  "We're loving being here together.  My husband was just hired by one of the defense contractors here, so we're excited about that.  My two-year-old is really excited to go back to daycare--she misses her friends and getting to play with other kids.  You know we've been taking her down to the playground in front of the apartment, and she'll try to strike up conversations with the Korean kids, but they don't understand her and don't really want to play.  She gets so frustrated!  But she's definitely enjoying minor celebrity status--the Koreans love her blond hair."

Heh.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a good New Year's celebration.  My wonderful husband and I hosted a few of the Camp Casey crowd down in Seoul for the night, but my jet-lagged self couldn't stay awake long enough to ring in 2011.  No big deal though; the handsome husband and I got to celebrate together for an ENTIRE WEEKEND with no work and only minimal interruptions from the command-issued cell phone leash.  Glorious!

I had a great Christmas with my family too (although I wish my sweet husband and I could have been together).  The best part of course was spending time with family; going to Opryland in Nashville and the Camp family farm in Alabama were also really fun.

I think I already posted this one, but it's just so pretty!

Sharing the backseat.  

Out the window, somewhere between Huntsville and Nashville.

Opryland

One-horse open carriage

The farm

Grandmother at the farm