Ten Lil’ Nuggets

10. Samsung Orientation. 7 am wake up, then a bit of Korean breakfast. Mmmm. Off to the Samsung’s security (who knew?) training center, rolling up in a bus while we pass a group of security guards practicing taekwando on the soccer pitch Uruguay practiced on for the 2002 World Cup. Step into a gym for some stretching…..and boom, out comes this instructor and some techno. That’s right kids, bust out the legwarmers, we did Jane Fonda proud. Very ugly. Only slightly less ugly were the quotes yelled out by one of our Korean staff members during a team climbing activity – “Step on me! Step on my face!”, followed closely by “I wish I could touch people in the office”. Too funny. This sign was seen on the walk between the climbing wall and the center. That about sums it up.


9. Digital Pet. Oh yeah, that’s right. My snazzy little cell phone comes with a digital pet feature. Of course I adopted a cocker spaniel. Of course I named it Ginger (my parent’s dog). And of course it’s obedience level is awful and won’t sit on command. It’s always cool when you’re in an elevator and your pocket barks. Very professional.


8. Korea + Drinking = Match Made in Heaven. You may have heard that Koreans like to drink. You have no idea. Company dinners never ever end sober cause inevitably everyone toasts each other and people yell out “one shot” (which basically means bottoms up – not so cool with a full glass of red wine!). But outside of Samsung, it’s pervasive too – Soju (Korean vodka) is dirt cheap and bars are everywhere. It’s very common to see hammered, and I mean hammered, people walking around at night. For example, we tried to grab a cab a few weeks back outside our hotel. Right next to us was a guy, in his 40s, in a business suit, passed out against a street lamp on a six lane road, basically drooling on himself. And this was only midnight! Trust me, it’s pervasive. Here’s a pic of the beloved “bomb shot” – a shot of whisky dropped in a beer. It’s dropped by shaking up a beer, aiming it at the first shot and opening carefully so the shots drop like dominos. Guaranteed to have you hugging a toilet by the night’s end.


7. Cell phone purchasing. So Korea is what is known in the cell phone industry as an "open" market – the carriers don’t subsidize the phones, so you have to pay the full price - $300-700! Ouch. On the upside, when you buy the phone you’re told to ask for a “special gift” which turned out to be…..body deodorant! What tha? Cause when you’re buying a cell phone, no promotion works better than deodorant! The choices are mind blowing – GPS phones with navigation, banking on your phone, broadcast digital TV, Korean to English dictionaries built in (very useful for this gringo), and sliders, sliders, everywhere. Although this isn’t my phone (mine’s the SPH-V9850, such a snazzy name!), I thought I’d share this nonetheless. You should recognize this girl from last week’s post:


6. Norae bang. Literally “Singing Room”, the Korean karaoke. See nuggest #8 for motivation. Yours truly has torn up about a dozen songs in the two times I’ve been, and somehow ended up with toilet paper rapped around his head like a mummy while singing “O Bla Di” that last time. Classy and professional. For an idea of what this turns into see below - courteousy of a co-worker of mine who is a pretty quiet spoken guy…..normally.


5. North Korean Protests. This city loves a good protest. In fact, it’s so common to see police in riot gear around city hall on the weekends, you don’t even notice it after awhile. What are they protesting? How the hell should I know, I only know 200 words in Korean! No, usually it’s anti-American, anti-Japanese, anti-government, and of course the biggest of all, anti-North Korean. A few weeks back, on quiet Sunday morning, we took a 10 minutes cab ride to the city hall area to go cell phone shopping. Stuck in some minor traffic outside city hall, a 10 lane road, this protestor runs out within 10 feet of our cab, and lights a North Korean flag on fire. So hot I could feel the flames with the window closed! Now that’s not something you see everyday. Unforutunately some photographer jumped in front of me to block my camera phone attempt at capturing this moment of glory. Just outside my hotel is the Japanese embassy, home to a protest every Wednesday since they left August 15, 1945!

4. Kimchi. Kimchi, Korean’s national obsession of a dish is everywhere. Fermented, pickled, spicy. It takes some serious getting used to. They are so obsessed with kimchi that in about 2/3 of the apartments I see, there's a special luxury in them – kimchi fridges!
3. Random people. The old lady that wanders the aisle of the subway yelling something while toting an icebox full of cucumbers and a knive, with 5 slices of cucumber on her face. Awesome. And then there’s the guy riding down the sidewalk by city hall with his bicycle trailer selling sets of kitchen knives. What businessman is looking for a set of knives in the middle of the work day? This one!

2. Pissayo. The Korean word for expensive. And damn this city is ‘spensive. Like $17 for a cocktail in some clubs, $19 for an imported beer like a Hoegarden, and $8-9 for a local beer. You can find plenty of “reasonable” $4-5 beers, but damn there’s some pricy places. And then there’s fruit – like $18 for a watermelon. $8 for grapes. $3 for an apple – in the megamart grocery store! On the upside are the hundreds of 20 year old girls in knee high socks hocking their company’s food. They didn’t teach us that gimmick at Kellogg. Of course there are some bargins in this city – taxis, subway, ice cream ($0.50-$1.00), and of course, soju!


1. Hines Ward. Who knew? Hines Ward, last year’s Super Bowl MVP, is half Korean and half African American. Lived in Korea until he was two, then moved to Georgia with his father. His mother, who doesn’t speak English, moved to the US, worked three jobs, eventually won custody of him and raised him. He never learned Korean so they couldn’t communicate growing up. Now that he won the super bowl, of course, Koreans have adopted him as their own, and he’s in ads all over the city. Random. Here he is with his mom this summer in Korea: