I got cut off during that last post.  Anyways, it’s our last day in Cheonan - my aunts left to pick up my grandma, and my mom’s passed out on the bed.  I think I’ve gained 10lbs in the past few days - somehow my aunt thinks that “no, I’m really too full to eat that” means “Oh, yes, please give me a double serving AGAIN.”   We’re going back to Seoul later today - as much as I love the country, I’ll be glad to get back to the metropolis.  I’m such a big city person.

Went for another run this morning, and took lots of pictures.  I’m having trouble uploading them on my aunt’s computer, so I’ll post them when I’m back in Seoul.

I can’t believe we’ve only been in Korea for 3 days.  We’ve been staying in Cheonan (a couple hours west of Seoul) for the past 2 days at my dad’s oldest sister’s house.  It’s beautiful here - her house is in the hills, and she has a huge garden with squash, chili peppers, lettuce, asian pears and dates.  It seems lots of retired couples move here from Seoul.  The weather is crisp and a bit chilly - I went for a run this morning, and it was soo peaceful.  My route was a winding road up the mountain, next to rice fields and apple and persimmon trees. 

Greetings from Dynamic Korea: Hub of Asia.  That’s the new slogan that’s replaced ”Land of the Morning Calm,” to portray S Korea as a, well, dynamic country.  The mascot looks like a cross between a forest spirit from Princess Mononoke and a Pokemon Jigglypuff.  On crack.

At Incheon Airport, there was a big “Welcome to Dynamic Korea” poster on the way to baggage claim - it was a picture of four scientists happily working on a robot named Albert Hubo (hubo for ‘hub of asia,’ albert for the creepy plastic Einstein head). 

Anyways, I’m in my grandmother’s apartment in Gangdong-gu, Seoul.  My mom and I arrived at 4:30pm, after a 5 hour flight/layover in Dallas followed by a 13-hour flight from DFW to Seoul-Incheon Airport.   We flew on Korean Air, and the 13 hours really weren’t all that bad.  Some highlights:

• One of the films shown on the flight was “Monopoly,” a pretty good Korean thriller.  The other two films were Over the Hedge (I fell asleep) and The Sentinel (lost interest when I realized Michael Douglas was the main character). 
• More than half of the plane was Vietnamese.
• Korean Air has the best airline food.  Lunch was bibimbap - steamed rice with namul (mung bean sprouts, oyster mushrooms, radish, beef and something else I can’t remember), sweet/sour pickles, a packet of seasme oil, a tube of gochujang (red bean paste) and miyukgook (seaweed soup).  Dessert was fruit and green tea.  mmmm.  Dinner was chicken with pasta.  bleh.  But the cheery cheesecake was a winner. [photopress:Korea_20060921_02.JPG,thumb,alignleft]
• A few episodes of the Korean comedy “My Brother In Law” were part of the in-flight entertainment.  It was hilarious.  I’m adding it to my torrent wish list.
• Those inflatable neck pillows are awesome.  Best $8 I’ve spent in a long time.
• Wine (red and white) is free on Korean Air.
• Korean Air flight attendants are very pretty, very polite and very robotic.  They creeped me out.  The pale turquoise uniforms and the washed out makeup didn’t help.  There was one I nicknamed Lady Cyborg, and whenever she came by, I imagined her saying, “Hello, welcome to Korean Air.  Please take your seats, or I will gladly kill you with my bare hands.  Thank you.” 
• Korean Air started playing the graduation march theme song when they opened the door to let everyone off the plane.

It took us only 30 minutes to get our bags, go through customs and exchange money.  Four aunts met us at the airport, then we headed into Seoul for a yummy shabu shabu dinner with two more uncles and a cousin.   Seoul reminds me of NYC - except much, much cleaner. 

Tomorrow morning, my mom and I are going to a Korean spa/sauna. Then, we’re going to a wedding, then off to Chunnan where my dad’s oldest sister lives and where my grandmother’s nursing home is.  We’re spending 2 days there, then coming back to Seoul with grandma.  Other plans in the week include hiking up Namsan, buying jerseys of the Korean soccer team (the white ones they wear at home games), and spending time with grandma of course.  

[photopress:Korea_20060921_01.JPG,thumb,alignleft]  And lastly, I have to mention the Coffee Suitcase.  Giving gifts when you arrive/return on a big trip is very Korean, so my mom brough a suitcase filled with bags of coffee and nothing else (coffee beans are really expensive in Seoul).  She ended up liking the smell of the hundreds of bags of coffee so much that she started using extra bags as air fresheners.  She planted little bags of coffee all over the house….in the bathroom soap basket, in her closet, in the linen closet, on the coffee table, in my dad’s office, in her car, etc.  

Ok, off to try to sleep. 

No, I didn’t fall off the face of the earth.  Though in a couple of days I’ll be on the other side of it.  I’m spending 2 weeks in Korea with my mom.  I’m really looking forward to seeing my grandma, our thousands of relatives and hanging out in Seoul.  Plus, I get to see Elaine!!! We have plans to find some good jjajjangmyun.  mmmm

Ok, random stuff:

• Dragon Boating:  Still managing the HoustonHeat.org website, though I’m spending much less time now that it’s up and running more smoothly now.  In August, we went to Tampa for the National Dragonboat Championships, and we did well enough in the 250m time trials to make it to the Gold division in the 500m finals - and finished Bronze in the Gold B division, and 7th overall!  Not bad, given that our team had only trained for 3 months, it was our first time competing and we kept up with experienced teams who’ve been around for years.  We’re still practicing on the water every Saturday & Sunday, with two land workouts each week.  Last week, one of the Coaches had us crawling backwards up a hill in Allen Parkway - seemed easy at first, but it was a serious workout for the arms, shoulders and abs.  I was sore for days. 
• Running:  I’ve been running with some DB people in the mornings at Memorial Park, and then a few long runs on the weekends.  Two of us are doing the Koala/Luke’s Half in October, and the others are training for the Chicago marathon.  We did 11 miles last Saturday, and there were definitely lots of runners out.  Marathon season has arrived.
• Project Runway:  This season is boring.  I still watch, but fourfour’s reviews are far better than the show itself.  I finally stopped by Chloe Dao’s Lot 8 store in the Village.  She was selling a mix of her own stuff, some Japanese labels and also some Emmet McCarthy dresses.  I’ll never understand why her final collection on the show was so fugly - the clothes she makes and sells in her store look really nice.
• Korean Dramas:  You know you’re addicted when it’s 2am, you’ve been crying from some weepy storyline, and you promise yourself…”just one more episode…then I’ll go to bed….”   I should watch more Korean movies, so I don’t get caught up in 16+ episodes.   I did finally see OldBoy and JSA recently - both pretty good movies.
• The Cats: Skokie & Blossom are still their happy, furry selves.  

Anyways, I couldn’t not blog about my trip to Korea, so here ends my 2-month hiatus/break/procrastination/avoidance/whatever from escapevelocity.   It’s been so long since I’ve posted anything here, I couldn’t remember how to log into the backend.   Then I spent a few minutes deleting over 2,000 spam comments.  geez.