haircuts

I couldn't resist one more comment about the humidity. I have touched on this subject various times but it just seems to be getting worse. I am talking about my hair. I wash and dry it and it looks okay. I am not one inch out the door and I look like a Brillo pad. In my opinion (and probably most hairdressers), I do not have great hair. It has a fine texture and really doesn't grow very fast. It has alot of wave and/or curl - that can be good at times, but not when humidity is added to the equation. I am picky about getting my hair cut, but recently I decided that I couldn't wait to return to Texas for a haircut. Coupled with the humidity, the uneven ends were just having a field day on my head. I returned to a salon here that I have been to twice since I have lived here. I couldn't believe it - she remembered my name! She actually did a good job of cutting my hair. I had learned from my two previous visits to stop her when she started to tease my hair in the back. I had looked like Jackie Kennedy and her mid 1960's hairdo when I left.

This reminds me of the dry cleaners here. I took some clothes in (and even had a little hemming job) for them to do. The man looked at the calendar and told me Friday, which was 2 days away. I stood there a minute waiting for a receipt or something. I finally asked if he needed my name or phone number and he nodded no. On Friday, I walked in, he got the correct clothing out and it was only $13.00. Kind of makes you feel special (or maybe unusual?). I guess you need to remember what you take there, in case there is a mistake.

I am leaving today for Texas for the rest of the summer. Ken will be joining me for a couple of weeks. I am so excited to see everyone and to have a bit more to do. Alot of people head out for the summer and activities slow down a bit. I have intentions of doing some posts while I am there but I guess we will see. I am going to close with a picture of the pompom trees (as I call them) getting their haircuts the other day around our apartment.

hiding from the heat and the humidity

I can't believe I am saying this - but I wish it would rain. For a couple of weeks, it seemed like it would never stop raining. Now it is just hot and muggy. I know that I am from Texas and I am supposed to be "used to" the heat and humidity. But in Texas, I don't walk everywhere to do my errands. And when I go into a store, it is like walking into hot closet. I don't know if the Koreans do not have any sweat glands, but they seem to like it warmer. To prove my point, here is a picture I took just the other day (in July) of one of the women hikers.
(However, the lady sitting down with the towel on her head seems a bit warm!)
They are always dressed to the nines in proper walking attire. And don't forget the gloves and the face mask! I have mixed feeling about the face coverings here. On one hand, I am sure that I would have a rash or an acne breakout after wearing one of those while walking in this heat. (I always hated wearing surgical masks whenever I had to while working in the hospital.) However, the plus side of wearing one of them would be that no one would see my sweaty beet red face.

On a more serious note, there is alot of evidence to support wearing the masks here, especially while exercising. During the springtime, we get the yellow sand from the Golbi Desert blown in. Apparently, last year was really bad. And pollution from China can also be a problem. I have read a couple of articles about the Olympic athletes training in China and the difficulties they have encountered. When we first moved here, I used to comment on all the "hazy" days we seem to have - not knowing the cause of it.



Another lovely side of summer here is the influx of mosquitoes. Here is a notice we received from the apartment service company last month.

SUBJECT: Spraying of insecticide

It's getting warmer these days.
In line with this, vermin is appearing.
We can say they are not harmful to body.
If you are worried after bitten by insect, you apply ointment to a wound and
see a doctor.
We are doing regular spraying of insecticide the last date of every month.
If you are interested in this, please call.

I want to interject a comment before I continue on the mosquitoes. I sometimes get tickled at the wording of emails and notices. I am in no way making fun of them - I can't even imagine how I would mangle the Korean language. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if a sweet Korean girl in the management office wrote this. I have been so thankful for her because she speaks English so well.

Back to the vermin. The mosquitoes are different looking than the ones I am used to. They look more like gnats. And the bites you get look more like pimples and don't itch as much. Of course, these are observations from my own personal experience. I wake up with a new one on a daily basis - unfortunately, they are usually on my face, neck and arms. I guess this is due to the fact that these appendages are usually on the outside of the covers. They do sell mosquito nets that go over the beds but we haven't tried that yet. I did buy one of these mosquito zappers.
You put in a couple of double A batteries and you are ready to electrocute those pesky things. Unfortunately, I don't usually have this close at hand when I see a mosquito. Ken has killed a couple with it. It makes a pop noise and the mosquito is dead on the floor. I got a kick out of the packaging. Click on the photo to read what it says.

While I am on the subject of the summer humidity, I want to show you another nifty item.
Someone turned me on to these when I first got here and I use them faithfully in our closets and storeroom. There are alot of brands, here is one I got at HomePlus. They have either charcoal or some white substance in them that absorbs the water in the air. When the container has water in the bottom of it, you ditch it and put in a new one. I have heard that some people have had mold problems, but I haven't due to these handy things. You know, we might have something like this in the United States but I have never had the need for one.

quick trip, quick post

We took the 5:30 p.m. ferry to Busan last night. Martin (Ken's friend, golfing nemesis, and coworker) also came along. T.Y. (Ken's friend, golfing partner and business associate) picked us up at the ferry terminal in Busan. He took us to the Commodore Hotel, where we checked in. This hotel is patterned after the Buddhist temples you see here and was quite lovely.
It is probably an older hotel, but I would definitely stay there again. We had a corner room with a little balcony and a great view of the harbor and the city. The lobby areas had some unique paintings and tile works. I really was impressed with the banister for a stairway.
- this was the head at the top.




The lobby also had a large chandelier of sorts with lanterns.



The hotel was close to our choice (but probably not T.Y.'s) of a dinner venue. We went to Outback Steak House.





After our meal, we strolled the area - I recognized it as an area I had frequented before. In fact, Ken and I had eaten there before.
The place was hopping and we went into several stores (with golf apparel) and walked down some side streets that were lined with bars, eateries and fortune tellers.











I realized that today was July 4th. No fireworks, but here are some lights.

Ken and the guys had a 5:00 tee time, but I enjoyed sleeping in until 7:30 or so. I took off walking back to the area that we had been the night before and did a bit of shopping before I met the guys at McDonald's (apparently T.Y. knows Ken very well) and we caught the 1:00 p.m. ferry back to Okpo.

Ken is taking a nap right now.

thank you for your help

Ken received the following email the other day.


-----Original Message-----
From: US Embassy - Seoul [mailto:seoul_acs@state.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 10:47 AM
To: Adcock, Ken
Subject: Anti-Government Demonstrations in South Korea


The U.S. Embassy in Seoul is transmitting the following information
through the Embassy's warden system as a public service to all U.S.
citizens in the Republic of Korea. Please disseminate this message to
U.S. citizens in your organizations or to other Americans you know.

The U.S. Embassy urges American citizens throughout the Republic of
Korea to exercise caution during demonstrations and vigils protesting
the resumption of American beef imports and the policies of the Korean
Government. The protests, which began eight weeks ago, have become more
violent in recent days. Korean authorities stated on June 29 that they
would crack down further on violent protesters. They have begun using
water cannon and fire extinguishers to stop the advance of demonstrators
and have stated that they reserve the right to use tear gas.

Up to this point the demonstrations have not been overtly anti-American
in nature, but American citizens are nevertheless strongly urged to
avoid the areas of the protests and to exercise extreme caution if
within the vicinity of demonstrators. The center of protests in Seoul
has thus far been Seoul Plaza in front of City Hall, with demonstrators
frequently attempting to move north along Sejongno toward the Blue
House, the Presidential residence.

American citizens should stay current with media coverage of local
events and be aware of their surroundings at all times. The U.S.
Embassy in Seoul will continue to keep the American citizen community
informed of any changes in the overall security situation via this email
system and the Embassy websites at http://seoul.usembassy.gov and
www.asktheconsul.org.

The Embassy encourages all U.S. citizens to register their presence in
Korea with the American Citizens Services office at the U.S. Embassy or
via the Internet at
http://travel.state.gov/travel/abroad_registration.html or
http://www.asktheconsul.org/.


I know that this has been going on for the past couple of months, but so far, in Okpo at least, I haven't experienced anything I would say was anti-American. In fact, let me tell you about my experience last Sunday.

Ken had gone to play golf on Sunday. The weather had been rainy but around 12:30 it cleared up and I decided to take advantage of having the car to get out of the house. Since we don't have Target, or Marshalls, or Dillard's, or Pottery Barn, or TJ Maxx, or Anthropologie, or - I think you get the idea - I decided to head out to take some pictures. I took a route along the coastline where we had been a few weeks previously. I wanted to get some pictures of the rice fields I had seen
and possibly go to some beaches. I came to a beach that had a gravel clearing beside it for parking. I parked, walked down, took a couple of pictures
and decided to head out. But when I tried to back up, my car wouldn't move. I got out to look under the car and couldn't really see anything of significance that should hinder my car from moving. At that time, an older man was driving by in a small truck. He stopped, looked under the car and proceeded to get a big rope out and attach it to the back of my car. We gave it a try, but my car wouldn't budge. He motioned to me to wait and he would be back. He returned with a little tractor of sorts.




Once again, he attached the rope to his tractor and we gave it another try. Once again, it hardly budged.
He then set out in the direction of the beach and returned with some men. They opened the hood and assessed the situation. They then tried to lift and/or push the car. But no luck. With the hood open, I could see a rock sticking up into the engine area. By then, a couple of women had arrived on the scene. One of them might have been his wife. I forgot to mention that Ken had accidentally left his cell phone at home, so I hadn't tried to call him. However, I have an "emergency card" in my wallet with phone numbers of people to call on his project and such. I called the number for Hertz (where we have our car rented) and got someone who spoke Korean. I handed the phone to the man and he talked for awhile. Then the lady talked to them for awhile. By then, a wrecker that apparently the man had told to come arrived. I think the man told them my car was a rental and they left. We all settled down to wait for relief.


Not knowing what to say or do, I took a couple of pictures of the area.





Our numbers had increased - there was now a little boy
(the older woman explained with her hands that he was eleven and big for his age) and girl and another man on the scene. I tried to motion that they didn't need to stay but maybe they wanted to be on hand to see what the American woman with the curly hair (it was quite humid) would do next.



By then, Ken had arrived home and called me. I told him I would call when I was on my way home. Somewhere along the line the eldest lady started patting me on the shoulder and for some reason it made me a little teary. Not crying or anything, just eyes welling up a little. It can be frustrating in another country when you cannot speak the language. I was just so thankful for their help. Not that I couldn't have called someone to help, but it was sweet of them to come to my aid without even asking.
The wrecker arrived. It raised the front of my car up and there was a piece of concrete with rebar (is that how you spell it?) tangled up around it. I guess the rebar had caught the underneath of my car because the concrete wasn't very large. I actually think the episodes of trying to pull my car back caused the piece of concrete to rise up and get further up under the engine. He assured me my car was okay and I was free to head home, as was everyone else. I hope I didn't offend the man that came to my rescue. I tried to give him some money but he wouldn't take it. So all I could do was to bow to everyone and say thank you. I didn't stop to take any pictures on the way home.