Konglish

Spending the past two years in China, I have become a little desensitized to the mangling of the English language, otherwise known as Chinglish. I have posted some pictures in earlier blogs showing some of the prime examples of this entertaining phenomenon. After visiting Korea, Karen and I were disappointed by the lack of what would be considered Konglish, or the Korea version of Chinglish. The Koreans, apparently, have a much better grasp of the English language than the Chinese. With one exception, that being this tour bus we passed while in Seoul.

Run...DMZ!

Recently I visited what has to be one of the strangest places in the world. North of Seoul, by about 55 km, is something called the Demilitarized Zone(DMZ). It is essentially the line of demarkation between South Korea and North Korea. Established in 1953, its basically the location of the world's greatest staring contest. Tension runs high in this thin strip of land that runs east to west in a jagged line across Korea. The town that we visited is the only place tourist are allowed to visit along the entire DMZ. Entering from the South Korean side, one must first endure a briefing given by fully armed US soldiers who show a powerpoint and make you sign a paper basically saying that if a North Korean soldier decides to shoot and it kills you, its not the US governments fault. The US maintains a small military presence near the DMZ to aid South Korean in case of an attempted invasion. North Korea has tried to invade into South Korea in the past, but not in a convential way. The South Koreans have discovered over 4 tunnels that North Korea built in an attempt to invade. One tunnel came within a few kilometers of Seoul. When discovered, the North Koreans told South Korea they were coal mines, and even went through the trouble of smearing coal dust on the walls to keep up appearances. As a tourist, you are allowed to enter blue buildings that stand on the border of North and South...and can walk to one side of the building, where you will be standing in North Korea.

North Korea is across the road...yikes!

Sox and Cubs in Korea

Seoul has a very Western feel to it...a vibe unique to the city and unlike any I had felt before in Asia. One of the reasons Seoul felt so familiar was the Korean's love of baseball...and the large number of baseball hats that were worn in the city. It never dawned on me during my time in China, but the Chinese do not wear baseball hats. Its rare to see a baseball hat in Shanghai. In fact, the Chinese hardly wear anything on their heads. Quite the opposite in Seoul. Everywhere we went were baseball hats representing teams from across the baseball universe. By far the two most popular hats were Yankees and White Sox. Since I am a Sox fan, I wanted to document the incredible number of Sox hats being worn in Seoul....

Trying to be fair and objective, I searched in vain the entire week I was in Seoul for a person wearing a Cubs hat. I thought my search was going to be fruitless, but on the last day I stumbled across a student at Seoul National University wearing a Cubs hat...

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. I mean after all, the Sox own the South Side. Whether its the South Side of Chicago or South Korea, the Sox are IT! Since the Cubs are big in the North Side of Chicago...and considering the scarcity of Cubs hats in South Korea, one could surmise that the Cubs must be HUGE in North Korea. Could the C on a Cubs hat stand for something more substantial, more nefarious than a furry little bear? Could it stand for Communism? Hmmmm....

Spam A Lot?

Karen and I just finished a 7 day trip to Seoul, South Korea. The next few blogs will be about some of the things we saw, heard, tasted and otherwise experienced while staying in quite possibly the coolest Asian city we have visited.

On the second day in Seoul, while on the subway(which had heated seats...get with it Chicago!), we saw a well dressed woman carrying a large bag filled with several cans of Spam. It was strange, for sure, and confusing, but we watched her exit the subway with her cans of pressed meat and thought nothing more of it. It wasn't until a few days later when we came across a few Westerners that we found out the truth about Koreans and their Spam. Its actually considered a very classy gift in the Korean culture to give someone Spam. Since meat is so expensive in Korea, Spam is seen as a luxury item. When one Korean gives another Spam, its not the punchline to some joke, but rather a show of respect and a thoughtful gesture. Think about that the next time you walk past Spam in the grocery store....

Christmas in February

Its a little late...but here is an interesting video from Christmas night in Harbin, China.

Hot Pot

Hot pot is a Chinese style of cuisine that in theory, should be simple and fun, as it allows the eater a chance to interact with and literally cook their own food, right on the table top. In practice, as Karen and I both found out the hard way, you are really just trying (a) not to set the restaurant on fire (b) contract some rare type of food poisoning from severely undercooked meat (c) burning any of a multitude of appendanges that come into play trying to control the food with the eternally frustrating chopsticks (d) all of the above

My first, and its safe to say last, time in a hot pot restaurant was over Christmas break. Karen and I were in Harbin, and we both passed a local hotpot place that was teeming with locals and decided to stop in. The traditional Chinese hot pot meal is centered around the two hot plates that they set on center of your table. Into that bowl goes water and some spice, with the bowl divided into two sections, one spicy and one cool. They turn the hot plate on and within minutes a nice geyser of steam is rising from the center of your table and you know its time to add the food. They then bring out raw meat and vegatables, and you add them to the boiling water and after waiting a few minutes you pull the meat and vegetables out of the boiling water and after letting them cool (I learned after the first bite...this is an important step!) its bon appetit. There was one small problem. We didn't really know what any of the stuff was that we were supposed to add to the hotpot, and we didn't know how long to cook it. The wait staff was extremely busy, so our waiter tried to help us but could only give us tips, he had other tables to wait on. Luckily for us, sitting directly behind us was a family of five, including the grandmother, and a voiciferous litter 5 year old girl that was more than willing to come over to our table and show us how to cook and eat the food. I can only imagine what she must have thought - two grown adults struggling to master the simplicities of what for her is a simple Sunday meal. She was extremely helpful, so much so that we called her, much to her delight, xiao laoshi(little teacher). All in all it was an enlightening experience, but after leaving the hot pot place Karen and I immediately went to the only restaurant in the city that served Western food - McDonald's.

Country Roads in China

Let me set the scene for the fascinating collision of two worlds. Last night, Karen and I met up with some friends at a small bar in Shanghai where they have a live band that plays American music. We had been there a few times before and were friends with the lead singer, an interior decorator/entertainer who has the most interesting assortment of English vocabulary words. Last night, for example, he asked us about Montague, the French politician who advocated for three branches of government and the separation of power in the highest offices. I honestly didn't remember who Montague was when he asked me, but Karen remembered, and we were able to "save face". Interesting conversation...

Later in the night, as we were preparing to leave, I heard the first few chords of a song that strikes very near and dear to my heart. My home, my family, my song....7000 miles away it still evokes the same feelings. We are coming home soon guys....