A waste of bits and bandwidth

Saturday 9:40 AM :: Wow, I can’t believe that it’s Saturday already. This time tommorrow, I’ll be getting ready to head to the airport. It all went so fast.

I also seem to have picked up a cold or something. Yesterday I wasn’t feeling so well and today isn’t that much better. Hopefully I get over it quickly. Walking all over downtown Seoul on a cold windy day didn’t help things any… *sigh*

Oddly, I met a girl from Vancouver on the train. What’s even odder is that we live about ten minutes apart from each other. Small world this is.

Be home soon.

Thursday 3:30 PM :: Ug, I’m missing my laptop. Stupid battery died just as my pics finished transferring. I also realized that I’ll be screwed if the hotel in Japan can’t give me a transformer to use. My camera will last but my iPod won’t…

I’m back at COEX after getting a bite and going to Starbucks one last time. If Biff and I were ever in Seoul, we could live in there. Smoking room, good coffee and comfy chairs. All we’d really need is wireless. No problem.

Going to meet Mia tonight for dinner and I’m looking forward to it. We had such a good time last year. I can’t believe that it’s Thursday already. The folks are going to be getting home from Vegas soon (hope they’re not broke) and it won’t be long before I’m back on a bus to Inchon.

MiHwa has Friday off which is going to be so nice. I’m having fun and it’s going to get better now that MiHwa is off. What that means is that I don’t need to think anymore… Not thinking is a good thing.

[UPDATE] My transformer just died. See you all next week… [/UPDATE]

Wednesday 5:30 PM :: I guess I should have been reading ThinkSecret sooner… Not that it would have helped me. Cnet covered the storey too.

All is well here. I ran over to Techno Mart this afternoon. It was similar to Yongsan but not so huge. Ten floors of digital goodness but what do I need? Well, I could use a Powerbook if anyone is so inclined. I did end up at COEX on my way home, hitting the Starbucks for a cup of coffee. Overall, a quiet day but that’s ok. Tomorrow is to be cool so I don’t know what I’ll do. Maybe I’ll go to Itaewon and be around other white people.

The good news is that my buddy Derek has hooked me up with a contract when I get home. A couple of months to start with an option to renew every month after that. That makes all the difference in the world to return home knowing I have someplace to go to.

Hope all is well with everyone at home. Maybe more later…

Wednesday 10:30AM :: I’m motoring around pretty well if I do say so myself. I went to Lotte World on Monday, just to look around a little. When I got there, this elderly woman comes up to me with this huge smile and says “Hello, how are you?” I wasn’t sure what she wanted but it seemed she was happy to see me for some reason. She said goodbye and was on her way. She had the biggest smile like I had just made her day.

Later in the evening, MiHwa and I went to Ji-Young’s for dinner as well and it was so good. I’m really liking Korean food; even more so than last time. Nice to see Ji-Young again too. I met her in Vancouver and then saw her again last year. She recently got married but her husband’s job at LG means he works outside Seoul so they only see each other on weekends. Too bad as I would have liked to have met him.

Yesterday I went to Yongsan which is the electonics district. It’s even bigger than I remembered; over 5000 stores. Laptops, cell phones and MP3 players as far as the eye can see. Talk about geek heaven…

Took me 3 trains to get there but I made it ok. I mostly stayed in one area as it would be easy to get lost and not find the train station but even then it was more than I could see in a day.

I bought some headphones as I managed to destroy mine on my way out, a USB light for my laptop and a thumb drive. Yes I already have a thumb drive but now I have an LG thumb drive and you don’t!

Today, I’m not sure where I’ll go… maybe to Techno Mart. It’s similar to Yongsan but not so huge. I think I’ll stop at COEX on the way home. There’s a Starbucks in there that I like and I think I’ve finally learned how to order a coffee without confusing the staff.

Oh, I talked to Paul and Rachel and they seem to be busy but doing well. Paul has a ‘system’ for dealing with cockroaches. Good on ya mate…

Monday 10AM :: Four days in and so far, so good. We had a good weekend ; everything is more relaxed this time and we just take it as it comes. Last year we had everything planned out and we were gone all day.

Friday’s COEX adventure was great. I got on the right train but was heading in the wrong direction so I got myself going in the right direction and all was well. Twice in the mall I got interviewed by Korean English students; it was so funny to stand there and answer their questions as they were obviously looking for westerners.

Later Friday evening, we took the train to Itaewon and had a pretty good Mexican dinner. Itaewon in the foreign district so I didn’t feel like such an outsider. Lots of honkys around

On Saturday we went shopping in GaRiBong which is a place that MiHwa likes to go. I’ve never seen so many people in one place. Even MiHwa was surprised at the number of people that were out. Once again, picture the fireworks on a Saturday evening and put all those people in a shopping area and that would come close to what it was like.

We had dinner at a place close to here on the way home and then we went to catch a movie. Hitch is a great movie; go see it. In Korea, you have assigned seating in the movie theaters.

Sunday we thought we would hit the Namdaenum market which is a huge outdoor market. You can buy anything there but it’s so crowded and tight it’s hard to see everything. I’m much more comfortable this time and have no problem muscling people out of the way. It’s not considered rude to bump people gently as you go past and you really need to in order to get around.

We also went to Insadong and went back to the same teahouse that we went to last year. Had the same lemon tea and it was just as good as last year. While we were sitting there, hundreds of riot police went running past. We never knew what was going on but it didn’t look like a drill…

Anyway, time for a shower and I need to do some laundry. I’m not sure what the day will hold for me. I’m just going to pull out my travel guide and see where I end up. Tonight we are going to see Ji-Young and her new husband and have dinner at their place.

Hopefully another update tomorrow…