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.