To Mecca and Back

Greetings,

Today we made the great trek to the Korean location most visited by foreigners...the historic site known simply as Costco. And yes, it's real, and it's spectacular.

Don't get us wrong, we love Korean food and have so far been pretty adventurous with our meal choices (including one particularly painful episode which saw us saying "I'll have what he's having" without indeed knowing what he was having), but as I'm sure most of you can understand, you can only live for so long on bulgogi, korean barbeque, and sugary garlic bread. So with the simple goal of attaining the much sought-after, and rarely found, staples of western cuisine, we spent an entire Sunday on one grocery shopping trip. As you can imagine it was slightly difficult to make such a trip to another city without a car or any experience with the Korean bus or rail system, but with the help of our new friends, Katie and Robin, we are proud to say that not only was the mission accomplished, but that apart from a broken suitcase handle, there were no casualties to report.

Ulsan is equipped with a Hyundai Department Store, a Walmart, a Megamart, a Carrefour, a Home Plus, and a Lotte Department Store, but all of these combined cannot match the sheer magnificence that is Costco...

One cannot rely on mere shopping bags alone when stocking up at Costco, so with the advice of more seasoned veterans, we began our journey with a giant suitcase, a backpack, and enough guts to put John Wayne to shame.

This is Ulsan bus depot, where we eagerly awaited our chariot.

As mentioned before, this is Katie and Robin, who have been in Ulsan since last October and make the Costco trip about once a month.

While this might look like an ordinary shopping cart to the untrained eye, a careful inspection will reveal that there are over 18 pounds of pretzels stowed in the undercarriage. We were forced to cut off part of Robin's head, but it was a sacrifice we willingly made to bring you this abberation in snack food consumption.

It is moments like these that you just can't find in Canada: being absolutely extactic at finding Honey Nut Cheerios and dill pickles.

Speaking of things you just can't find in Canada, here's Robin receiving his free sample of Heineken beer. Fortunately for everyone involved, they cut you off after your eighth sippy-cup, so Shayne wasn't able to repeat last week's incident at the local grocery store (just kidding...or are we?)

Shayne at the check-out, holding his two jumbo jars of olives as though they were gold medals won on behalf of Canada in the art of shopping. Seconds after this picture was taken, the crowd hoisted him on their shoulders and did a victory lap around the warehouse (editor's note, in Jo's version of the story there were no medals and the cashier simply looked at Shayne as though he had eaten one too many pickles if you know what I mean).


One picture can hardly capture how four foreigners managed to stuff themselves, a driver, and seven bags (each weighing about 100 pounds) into one small Kia sedan. In fact, we didn't leave Robin out of the photo, he's merely trapped under all of the bags. We can only say one thing: Thank God for air conditioning.

After completing this epic trek, not only is our kitchen fully stocked with breakfast cereal, pickles, meats of many varieties, taco kits, and enough margerine to oil up the entire Italian soccer team, we managed to spend a day with some great people and experience what it truly means to be a member of the ex-pat community in Ulsan.

Cheers,
Jo and Shayne

Yes Virginia, There is Kindness in Korea

We have been looking forward to today all week. Traditionally we go exploring on Saturdays (sure we have only been here for 14 days but traditions have to start somewhere, right?) and we had a long list of locations we wanted to see. So we woke up at the crack of dawn, threw on our Tikki hats and were out the door. Our initial goal was to visit the Ulsan Science College and check out their recreational facilities. We have been wanting to get in better shape for awhile now and we heard that they have a decent gym. On the way to the College we noticed a sign for a Buddhist Temple and decided to make a brief stop to explore. Upon walking up a long drive we were greeted by an amazing entrance way that really captured the style of Asian art that we are most familiar with. In one word it was gorgeous.

We walked around the compound for a few minutes (waving to the welcoming monks every few feet or so) until we found the main area of worship. We really wish that we could have taken pictures inside but it was not allowed. The walls were lined with candles, paper lotus flowers, painted dragon carvings, beautiful artwork and, of course, pictures of Buddha everywhere. The main pulpit area was decorated with golden statues and faced a sea of pillows where practitioners could meditate in peace. Neither of us are strongly religious but we both agreed that it was one of the most serene and peaceful rooms we have ever had the pleasure of being in. After a few minutes of admiring the artwork and tranquility we were approached by staff who gave us some sort of sour apple drink, and made hand signals suggesting that they wanted us to eat. We have always heard in passing that if you are traveling and hungry to visit a Buddhist temple, because they will treat you to a remarkable amount of food. Let us just say that it was everything we have ever heard. We were welcomed into some sort of hall and were placed at table with many strangers. However, it was never uncomfortable or unnerving to eat with complete strangers as everyone was incredibly friendly and welcoming.

(Just minutes before Shayne shaved his head, put on monk's robes and started mumbing about how great Richard Gere is)

We were given a large assortment of vegetarian foods and have to say that every single dish was tasty. It was much better than the Buddhist vegetarian fare we tried back home.

(Oddly enough, we weren't able to supersize)

After the meal we bid our gracious hosts farewell and once again headed to the College. The funny thing about the College is that it’s on a hill that must be only second to Everest in terms of gigantic mountainous ranges of death. With bellies full of vegetarian delight and enough common sense to avoid unnecessary pain we avoided the College and decided to go explore another area of town instead.

What happened next isn’t really important so our tale skips ahead until the journey back home. It started out normally enough. We got on a bus, nodded to the driver, placed our money into the machine, and then went to sit down. But friends, this is where our story takes a turn to the macabre. The bus fare in Ulsan is around 80 cents per person. So imagine the surprise of the driver when Jo accidentally dropped the equivalent of twenty dollars down instead! His initial reaction seemed to lean between disbelief at our stupidity and hope that it was indeed a tip of epic proportions.

Between our broken Korean and his broken English we managed to decipher that he wanted us to stay on the bus until the end of the route so he could remedy the situation. As friendly as the Korean people are, we could feel their eyes taunting us as we sat with heads down in shame, knowing that we had failed in a task that any five year-old could accomplish.

(Remember that even a degree cannot prepare you for the vigorous tests of the public transit system)

Luckily, instead of an hour-long ride across Ulsan, which we had feared, we only went about five minutes past our stop. At the bus depot, the driver asked us to wait, while we’re sure he went inside and had a good laugh with his co-workers about this day’s batch of stupid foreigners. Luckily for us, we were in Korea where kindness seems prevalent (as long as you’re not driving, walking, trying to speak Korean to cabbies, trying to defend hockey to 13 year-olds, or explaining that kimchi doesn’t have to go with every meal including dessert). The driver not only gave us our full 20,000 Won back, but showed us to the proper bus back home and instructed the driver to not charge us. I can’t imagine a Canadian driver (especially in Vancouver) being so kind and helpful to a couple of ultra maroons.

Tomorrow we are traveling across our province to visit Costco in Daegu, so stay tuned.

Cheers,

Shayne and Jo

Knock knock

In Canada, if you live in an apartment, you can go a long time without anyone knocking on your door. Maybe even a life time. Not so in Korea.

In the week and a half we've been here, apart from water cooler guy, movers, and air conditioner installers, we've had three random visitors.

The first was last Wednesday. At around twelve noon our doorbell rang, and at the door was a Korean lady Shayne and I recognised from around the building. She started speaking to us in hurried Korean and pointing downstairs. We, like any normal person would, thought something might be seriously wrong, but since she spoke absolutely no English, we invited her into our apartment and called our boss. Mrs. An, among her other attributes, has become a very handy free translator for us.

After explaining the situation to Mrs. An and handing the phone to our neighbor, we sat back as the woman started explaining whatever it was that she wanted. At first we stood there, expecting to have the phone handed back after about 30 seconds - a sufficient amount of time for an idea to be communicated. After a couple of minutes, however, we took a seat and exchanged "what the H*** is going on here?" looks. After a couple more minutes of animated Korean conversation, punctuated every now and again by a significant "ahhhhh!" by our visitor, Shayne picked up his novel, and I started daydreaming out the window.

Finally the woman handed the phone back to us, and Mrs. An explained that the stranger was our downstairs neighbor, and she wanted us to tutor her son in English. Apparently this took 10 minutes to explain. Mrs. An had taken her number, so we said good-bye in broken Korean and she was on her way.

Then, yesterday morning we were rudely awoken at the obscene hour of 9am to another knock on our door. Shayne braved the trek out of bed, and was greeted with a random Korean and a big plate of kimbap, Korean sushi. He was so out of it that he mumbled out a "comsamneda" (thank you in Korean) and shut the door in their face - having no idea who the hell they were, or why they were giving us this strangley oderous version of Korean Sushi.

(Kimbap...not my favorite, but Shayne thinks it's okay. This batch, though, smells a little bit funny.)

Last, this morning at the more reasonable hour of 11am, two Jehova's Witnesses came to the door. Thankfully they spoke no English so they left and didn't leave what looked like Korean versions of the Watchtower with us. We fear, however, that they may come back with a translator....sigh...even in Korea we can't escape religous canvassers.

Now we have nothing to do but wait for the Korean version of Ed McMahon to show up and tell us we have won the princely treasure of 2 million won.

Cheers

Jo

A Grand Tour of La Palais de Ulsan

Greetings,

Throughout history every great leader has had a palace deserving of their talents. Emperor Shah Jahan had the Taj Mahol, Louie the 14^th had Versailles, Kubla Khan had Xanadu, and Joanna Groves and Shayne Robinson have their Korean Shangri la. Perhaps the biggest fear we had moving to Korea was the dread we faced over the possibility of living in a 100 square foot apartment.

One previous job offer that we considered came with a 350 square foot apartment for the two of us and that seemed to be a decent offering. But about a week before we actually came here our boss announced that she had traded in our studio apartment for a 3 bedroom palace. It was like a scene in a movie. We wanted to start a slow clap and just start crying wildly. That being said we were still nervous that we would be living in the middle of nowhere or that our place would be falling apart or any of the other common fears people have when they move in to places they have never actually seen (do people do that? Or are we the only ones stupid enough to try?).

Anyway, enough of our babbling, on to the show....

The outside of our building is far too massive to capture in one shot. It ain't much to look at, but it's home. We live on the 4th floor, and that only means one thing....stairs.

Stairs....so many stairs.


They seem to go on forever. Well, actually it's only four floors, but we're fat and out of shape so give us a break (and yes, we were lazy enough to post the same picture twice).



An entrance, shocking isn't it? I bet you never expected in your wildest dreams that Korean houses have entrances too. One thing of note is the door bell. It has this high pitched annoying laugh for a bell. It's like some damn anime cartoon sound. We will probably end up tearing it out of the wall and putting up of those 50 pound door knockers instead.



We were surprised by the size of our kitchen, since it's bigger than most of our friends' places back home. We don't have an oven, and our stove is a two-burner gas range. To remedy the situation we bought a toaster oven and plan to bake cookies...two at a time. We just got the water cooler yesterday, and so gone are the daily trips to the corner store to buy overpriced bottles of the finest French spring water.


Here's another view of our kitchen. As you can see it has been decorated in the style of most Park Avenue penthouses. You might also notice the size of the fridge, which we are told if we water daily and shower with affection, will grow into a full-sized fridge in a matter of months.


The "west bedroom" which we currently use for storage. We are very proud of our Christmas tree, and our membership in the Red Neck Club of Southern Ulsan for displaying it year-round.


Here is our movie theatre that also poses as our living room. In all seriousness, we were pretty stoked to find a 27 inch television, two giant speakers and enough stereo equipment to really pound out the John Tesh when the mood hits.


Another view of our living room. The couch is brand new, and the coffee table reminds us of a Salvador Dali painting. It's a fair sized room, and probably bigger than the entire first apartment we were considering.


This is where the real action takes place. Not only do we have a toilet, but a sink too. Yes, a sink. We also have a bathtub, and although designed for Munchkin Land, Shayne manages to wash half his body at least once a week....just kidding.


We were lucky enough to get a brand new queen-sized bed. When you get over the fact that it's harder than concrete, and covered by a blanket that induces epileptic seisures, it's probably the nicest bed either of us has ever had. You might also notice our second 27 inch television. Yes, we are indeed that pimped out.


Here's the other half of our bedroom, that contains a dresser, some Ikea shelving (God bless Ikea), and the vanity where Jo spends hours asking the enchanted mirror, "just who is the fairest of them all?" Oddly enough, we think it might be gay because it always answers "David Hasselhoff."

Well, that's pretty much it. We can't properly convey just how happy we are with our new place. It's so much better than we expected and bigger than any we have seen for teachers in comparison online. We definitely will have to take our boss out for some kimchi stew and soje to celebrate.

Until next time, cheers.

Shayne and Jo

Much ado about nothing

Greetings

As explorers reporting back to our mostly Canadian base we know that we must fulfill certain expectations about what we discuss on our blog. Certainly, you, our friends and family, are sitting on your chairs biting your nails eagerly waiting for us to talk to about Korea’s cuisines, peoples, culture, history, and art. And we will get to all that, but in good time. Today however, old friends, we will talk about something much much more important. Today I will be giving you a detailed report about the most significant subject of any country or continent, the available television channels.

The Korean television experience cannot be explained by mere words or by a solitary post but I will try my best. Conveniently the channel listings start at channel 2 just like in Canada. I’m not going to lie, I was expecting them to start with a channel Q or a channel !^ or even a channel 1. But nope, our tale begins with boring old channel 2.

From that point on the first 15 channels or so seem to exist only to carry soap operas, infomercials, and shows about samurais, rock stars, and frustrated married women. At least that’s what they appear to be focused on using my sophisticated knowledge of four Korean words and an almost equal base of English words.

Our tale gets interesting around channel 19. That’s the first one that covers English material and is also infamous for displaying really bad soft core porn at completely random times. The channel operators seem to have no issue running some lame porno after an episode of McGuiver or Murder She Wrote. I will say that nothing quite reminds you of the fact that you are in Korea than going from watching Jessica Fletcher solve a mystery in Cabbot Cove to watching the delivery man arrive unannounced at some poor woman’s house in “Lonely House Ladies 4 – The Return of the Washing Machine.” And all within the span of 3 or so minutes.

My lame jokes aside I cannot complain about the quality of television in South Korea. All and all they offer about 75 channels and at least 6 of them broadcast in English at any given time. They offer a wide selection of programs as well. Much of what I don’t remember being available back in Canada. For instance, I have gotten back into the Wonder Years, McGuiver, early seasons of ER and enough sports to make even me appreciate the finer points of Cricket.

The biggest highlight of Korean television is the sheer number of Mixed Martial Arts programs available. In Canada, I got a few fights every few months or so and if I wanted more than that I had to order pay-per-view. Or more appropriately I had to wander over to a friend’s house and leach off of their generosity. But here I not only get all the Asian matches that cost a fortune to order in Canada I also get the UFC pay-per-views for free as well. This fact I discovered today by accident and proceeded to scare the crap out of Jo as I pranced around the living room screeching and dancing happily as though I were a cast member of Beverly Hills 90210 who had been given a time machine back to 1993 where life wasn't so cold or lonely.

Anyway, I've become sidetracked, but the point is that overall the Korean television experience has been rather pleasant. The only thing else I will note right now is that the 5 or 6 Japanese channels we get seem to show only Samurais and nothing else. They have shows about classic samurais, married samurais, baseball playing samurais, samurais who work as greeters at Walmart and even a show about a samurai who works in an office. That one is my favorite because everything else is normal expect for the presence of the samurai and nobody seems to note the strangeness of the situation. In one episode he gets tired of the photocopier jamming up and decapitates the entire second floor. It definitely beats reruns of Friends or Seinfeld.

Another oddity is the fact that nothing seems to have a concrete schedule. What plays one day at 5:00PM will play the next day at 6:00PM or never again. But that’s a different story for a different blog. I can’t believe I have already wasted this much time rambling on about the television over here.

But now, like the career of the fat kid from Head of the Class, I’m done.

Cheers

Shayne

(Minutes after telling Jo that "Yes, I did indeed leave the cap off the toothpaste")

(I....have nothing funny to say about this pic. I just dig Chris Farley)

Saturday Night's Alright for Kimchi

When we finally arrived in Ulsan we were greeted by Mrs. An (our new boss), and Laura (the outgoing teacher), and also that unique odor that only heavy industry and a substandard sewage system can bring. To say the least it was all a little overwhelming.

Ulsan (pronounced Ool-san), is just what you’d expect from a city of a million people with a large industrial focus. It’s crowded, urban, and not a little polluted. That being said, I think we made a good choice. We live a ten minute walk from the ocean (The Sea of Japan), there’re tons of amenities, and we’ve managed to find most of the foods from home (albeit in strange and various locations). And then there’s our apartment. Shayne wants to write a full entry about it, but I’ll say now that it’s way bigger than what we were expecting.

Our job has been hectic. Laura told us when we arrived that she had prepared everything for our first day of lessons. Or so we thought. She had photocopied “get to know you” sheets, which the children were to fill out, and which she assured us would take up at least two day’s worth of classes. It’s true that the task was difficult enough to occupy the lower level students for forty minutes, but the upper level students finished in under 10 minutes! That left Shayne and I (each in different classrooms) scrabbling to find something else to do for the remainder of class. Shayne spent the time lying about life in Canada (apparently we all regularly dine on moose), but I have no recollection of what I did, as I think I blacked out from the stress. The rest of the week in class was much the same, with Shayne and I trying to find our teacher's footing without the students catching on that we had no idea what the hell we were doing. Somehow we managed to do it with the help of a pocketful of Canadian change and that glorious childhood game hangman. Thank the Lord for hangman.

Despite our harrowing classroom experiences, we have a dream boss. Mrs. An’s husband is some sort of executive in the Hyundai ship building plant in town, and it seems that she opened the school for lack of something better to do. To that end, she doesn’t care at all about money. To think that we stumbled upon the only hagwon (private school) in Korea that is not all about the bottom line! Also, Mrs. An is extremely friendly and accommodating. So far she’s treated us to a meal four times, and she genuinely wants to become friends with all of her staff. And if that weren’t enough, she’s willing to give both of us regular Korean lessons for free! From all the horror stories we’ve heard about cheap and conniving hagwon directors, we’ve had some amazing luck.

Okay, that’s the overview. Now for a bit more detail. The first time we tried exploring our city, we were treated to the real Korean experience. It was, in a word, odd. We decided to make our way to the ocean and ended up at Ilsan Beach (Ilsan beachie in Konglish). It is not a nice beach. It smelled of dirty sand and tainted surf.

Uninspired, we looked for somewhere else to go and noticed a large set of stairs heading up a forested hill to the right of the beach. We began our journey into nature with visions of hushed woods, wildlife, and fresh air. But apparently we weren’t in Kansas anymore. Half-way up the stairs, we noticed the forest had turned into some sort of shanty town with several deserted 'rehomes that looked like they might also be restaurants. At the top of the stairs the shacks became interspersed with rundown carnival games. Actually, make that one carnival game repeated 10 times. Shoot the balloons with a dart and you too could win a stuffed kimchi doll. Then, just as we thought we were the only humans wandering on the hill, the path opened out onto a full-fledged market with hundreds of people. And this was no regular market. The snack stands sold little steamed potatoes, tiny shellfish no larger than a dime, and boiled silk worm pupae, and the fish stalls sold the most disgusting fish I have ever seen, including what the ex-pats here call sea penises. I’ll post later with photos, and I believe you will find that description most appropriate. *shudder*

Anyways, that’s about enough for now. I’ll leave off for Shayne to write about kimchi stew, Japanese samurai soap operas, and Korean Chinese food.

Jo

The view from our apartment. Those yellow things are kimchi storage vats (...just joking - they're water tanks)

Some girls in one of my classes playing Uno on game day (...also known as teacher take a breakee day)

Two cars, three planes, 4 subways, and a Bus

So we are ALIVEEEEEEEEEEE

The last seven days have been absolutely insane but we need to start from the beginning: the great trek.

(I'm sure I could make a joke about the one bag missing from the photo but then Joanna would beat me up)

We sleepily drove to the Vancouver airport at 5:30AM with my father and his girlfriend Dawn and after saying our goodbyes we left Canada for the wonderland known as American Customs. After a brief stay (I will save the story about Uncle Sam and his latex gloves until we are back in Canada) in customs we found our seats and waited to fly to Seattle. If any of you have ever been to the Sea Tac International Airport you would know that its like landing on the Moon. YES, THE MOON. The Airport even has its own subway system. As well, it manages to operate as a major flight system without the use of any staff at all. In fact, we spent fifty minutes just circling on the B line until a kindly homeless man directed us to our proper line. I will never even know if people spoke English at the Airport as the only person who would talk to us was a homeless man who grunted and gestured with his hands.

Having usually only flown Air Canada I was dreading the thought of a 12 hour flight. If you have ever been unfortunate enough to utilize the services of Air Canada you would know that they are able to duplicate the prison experience rather well. There are only ever enough pillows and blankets for a quarter of the population and if you ask for more food you are more likely to get shanked than get service.

However, flying with Air Korea changed my mind completely about flying. First, when we arrived at our seats we were greeted with not only pillows and blankets but complimentary bags that included sleeping masks, toothbrushes, and strangely, socks. As well, every seat came equipped with personal monitors. I don’t mean the crappy ones that West Jet uses either. These babies were loaded with dozens of movies, hundreds of songs and albums, cartoons, video games, and even shopping options. I cannot say enough about the food either. It was great and it came with all you can drink wine and beer as well. I didn’t partake but Jo filled up her purse with wine to save for later.

The man beside us was nice enough to teach us the ropes. He had flown with the airline numerous times and knew what to expect. He had them bring a bamboo mat for his feet and they not only put one down for him but the pilot actually came and washed his feet and cut his toenails too (okay that didn’t happen but it was pretty close).

Upon landing in Seoul we had about 5 minutes to marvel at our new country before we had to navigate our way to another airport in a different city for the last flight of our journey. Somehow using our own unique brand of Konglish we made it to Gimpo airport and flew to our new home of Ulsan. In all it took over 24 hours but after our first taste of Kimchi we knew it was all worth it.

(Air Korea, or as we Koreans say: The Big Blue God of the Sky)

The Last Goodbye

Greetings from Vancouver.

The last three days have been an emotional rollercoaster that would put any Disney ride to shame. From dozens of last goodbyes, to crying parents, to the sad feelings that come when you leave behind so many wonderful people we have really faced the gauntlet. Right now I am typing this entry four hours before I have to wake up and head for the airport. It’s going to be a bittersweet day. Sweet because I will be leaving North America for the first time and heading to a new country to do a job that I’m really excited about. Bitter because I now realize just how much we will be leaving behind.

They say that you don’t know what you have until it’s gone and it seems that they are right. We have so many great friends and family members in our lives that it was easy to take things for granted. The idea of living in a new country with no one we know around for thousands of miles will definitely put things into perspective for you. Anyway, we want to say our last final goodbye and that we are really going to miss all of you.

I promise that the next entry will be funnier or at least semi interesting. But it’s midnight and a fellow is allowed to be a little emotional on the day he leaves home for the first time (even if he stayed till the ripe old age of 23 and lasted longer at home then any of his friends hehe ). The next time we post we will be doing so from Korea.

Until then, enjoy some pics from today.

Cheers

Shayne

Saying goodbye to the boys (and Kayla)

The Eager little tourists (in Kelowna of all places)

(I only wish that we could have taken him)

The Countdown

Well, we decided that it was about time to post on the site...considering we've been telling people about our new blog, but have yet to put anything remotely interesting on it. So, even though our trip hasn't officially started yet, and there's not a whole lot to report, here's our first post.

It's ten days until lift-off, and we're starting to get a little freaked out about the big move. Not that we're having any serious doubts about the whole moving to Asia, eating pickled cabbage for a year, learning to love karaoke “bangs” thing, but I don’t think anyone would consider this a small step, and we’re finally starting to realize it. Take this morning, for instance. We’re staying at Shayne’s Dad’s place, and his new girlfriend from China has cooked up some “congee” for breakfast (Asia’s version of oatmeal, except made with rice). As I’m contemplating the pot of starchy-smelling, slightly translucent white goop, I wonder if this, or its Korean cousin, is what I’ll be expected to eat over there, and my heart starts to beat a little faster as I wonder if I’m going to be able to find a box of Cheerios in all of Korea. And that’s only breakfast.

Anyway, it’s thoughts like these that have Shayne and I looking at each other regularly like we’re about to bungee-jump off a bridge and we’re not sure if the patchouli-scented surfer dude attendant remembered to attach the cords. We gave each other one of these looks as we realized that it’s June 19^th, and we’re leaving in only ten days. Ten days. Ten days and we still have a to-do list half a page long to complete: embassies to visit, belongings to put into long-term storage, friends to have parting drinks with, clothes to buy, bags to pack, and a million other things. You get the idea.

As for right now, we’re making final visits to Victoria and Vancouver, which are making us realize how much, and how many people, we’re going to miss when we’re gone. But that’s about it for now. There will be more to come soon, with photos of our new pals Kim Il Dung and Sung Yuk Dee, along with many zany anecdotes about those crraazy Koreans. Stay tuned.

J.