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Korea, the next installment
Jan. 28th, 2008 07:54 pmNo plan survives contact with the enemy.
I was originally going to head down to Daegu on Thursday. That waited until Friday afternoon, and involved riding back with Guy instead of taking the train. Leaving Seoul on a Friday afternoon was not unlike leaving Washington, DC on a Friday afternoon. We headed down Route 1, an interstate-grade toll road that runs all the way to Busan. We made a stop at Osan to get a bite to eat. We hit a Phillipine eatery for food. Guy's wife is Filipino and is known there.
Due to the delay in getting to Daegu, Guy and I went in to work on Saturday. We asked for the soldiers who do sysadmin work to come in to work with us. The two more experienced guys are both short-timers, but the other three who have had the training were there. It was a long day, but a good one. I wrote them up to my boss so he can mention their names in front of Colonels.
Sunday was a day off. I didn't do much at all. I did go out a bit. I picked up some apples from a street vendor, and got some shrimp porridge along the way. Yum.
In the hotel, I was waiting for an elevator. A young girl (six-ish) greeted me and offered me a piece of gum. She told me that the woman holding her hand was her grandmother. I offered her an apple. Cuteness.
Monday, I decided to walk in to work instead of taking a cab. It's a good three and a half miles or so, but the weather was cooperative. We got done what we could get done; I bugged out.
I went out to see what I could find for dinner. I saw a sign that said "Korean Restaurant". I walked in. It is a traditional style place. That means you park your shoes at the door (where there was a lot of space to stash shoes. It also means you sit on the floor. Thankfully, they had a chair thingy that gave me a back, and I was able to stick my legs under the table. The staff were dressed in long skirts and such.
The menu had English captions which made it easier to pick the meal. It's not an a la carte thing, but rather a small number of combinations listed. They tried to offer me bulgogi instead of the sashimi, perhaps thinking I didn't want raw fish. I insisted on sashimi. :) They brought out some eel, some skate, braised beef ribs, salad, tempura, a casserole thingy that was mostly mushrooms (the long skinny kind that sort of come in a block) and condiments. They seemed a bit surprised that I could handle chopsticks, but they got over that real fast. After a pause, they brought out more food. Some soup of the bean variety plus some soup that probably had seaweed in it. Another piece of fish. Some rice. A slice of pineapple tempura sprinkled with sugar. Kimchee in a half a dozen forms, including the "typical" cabbage in red sauce.
I didn't finish everything, but I didn't miss by much. I was stuffed. $33, more or less. Damn!
I'm sitting here watching professional vollyeball on the telly. They have a Go channel. Televised games of Go with commentary! I also noticed that most of the newscasts include a signer in the corner. Sort of like close-captioning, but in-band. Neat.
Google map of Daegu with markers
I was originally going to head down to Daegu on Thursday. That waited until Friday afternoon, and involved riding back with Guy instead of taking the train. Leaving Seoul on a Friday afternoon was not unlike leaving Washington, DC on a Friday afternoon. We headed down Route 1, an interstate-grade toll road that runs all the way to Busan. We made a stop at Osan to get a bite to eat. We hit a Phillipine eatery for food. Guy's wife is Filipino and is known there.
Due to the delay in getting to Daegu, Guy and I went in to work on Saturday. We asked for the soldiers who do sysadmin work to come in to work with us. The two more experienced guys are both short-timers, but the other three who have had the training were there. It was a long day, but a good one. I wrote them up to my boss so he can mention their names in front of Colonels.
Sunday was a day off. I didn't do much at all. I did go out a bit. I picked up some apples from a street vendor, and got some shrimp porridge along the way. Yum.
In the hotel, I was waiting for an elevator. A young girl (six-ish) greeted me and offered me a piece of gum. She told me that the woman holding her hand was her grandmother. I offered her an apple. Cuteness.
Monday, I decided to walk in to work instead of taking a cab. It's a good three and a half miles or so, but the weather was cooperative. We got done what we could get done; I bugged out.
I went out to see what I could find for dinner. I saw a sign that said "Korean Restaurant". I walked in. It is a traditional style place. That means you park your shoes at the door (where there was a lot of space to stash shoes. It also means you sit on the floor. Thankfully, they had a chair thingy that gave me a back, and I was able to stick my legs under the table. The staff were dressed in long skirts and such.
The menu had English captions which made it easier to pick the meal. It's not an a la carte thing, but rather a small number of combinations listed. They tried to offer me bulgogi instead of the sashimi, perhaps thinking I didn't want raw fish. I insisted on sashimi. :) They brought out some eel, some skate, braised beef ribs, salad, tempura, a casserole thingy that was mostly mushrooms (the long skinny kind that sort of come in a block) and condiments. They seemed a bit surprised that I could handle chopsticks, but they got over that real fast. After a pause, they brought out more food. Some soup of the bean variety plus some soup that probably had seaweed in it. Another piece of fish. Some rice. A slice of pineapple tempura sprinkled with sugar. Kimchee in a half a dozen forms, including the "typical" cabbage in red sauce.
I didn't finish everything, but I didn't miss by much. I was stuffed. $33, more or less. Damn!
I'm sitting here watching professional vollyeball on the telly. They have a Go channel. Televised games of Go with commentary! I also noticed that most of the newscasts include a signer in the corner. Sort of like close-captioning, but in-band. Neat.
Google map of Daegu with markers
