Bye for now

We're leaving in an hour. The mood is melancholy. Belinda has a bad headache. My brain has been noticeably fried from my kookoo shift work. Michael had KFC and is on top of the world.


This trip was beyond great. We're relieved to get back home, but we agree that we can't wait to come back next year.

Location:Incheon Airport

The Episode Where Rob Tears His Pants In Half

I'm going to tell this story sort of backwards, because if I lead with a bunch of pictures from Seoul Tower, I'm going to lose some audience before the really critical scene.

Michael and I were walking back to the subway from the cable lift station at the base of Mt. Namsan, when I managed to rip the entire crotch off of my shorts. Maybe I was still reeling from the fantastic views from atop Seoul Tower followed by some Cold Stone. That's probably it. Anyway, I wasn't looking where I was going for a split second, and some little pipe thing grew out of the ground in front of me. I somehow kept from physically hurting myself, but the pain from hearing that RRRIIIIP was sharp and deep. My shorts were ripped in half from the top of the inseam to the top of the zipper. Drawers were exposed. We were about 1/3 of the way back to the station, which meant about 10 more minutes of walking with my hands in my pockets pinching the front of my shorts together like a paper cut, not to mention the subway ride, transfer, and walk to the hotel. After only a few yards I decided I needed to find a safety pin. In that part of town it's totally reasonable to scan the street as you go, expecting to see a safety pin. I didn't find one though. My last ditch effort was to stop in front of one of the many nondescript shop doors and see if I could bum one.

Here's the door I picked. It was open.


The wi-fi gods were smiling, and I was able to leech a signal long enough to use my phone to translate "safety pin". The lady in the door was understandably confused, so I motioned to my fly, and she ushered us inside like we were being chased. Inside were spindles of thread of every color covering every wall, and a workbench with three or four lever contraptions. She was a button maker. She pulled out a chair and gestured at me to sit, which I did. Then she set about searching for a beige thread to match my shorts. Why not, when you can? She cut a good foot of it and handed it to me with a large needle.
Driving a needle through that multi-layered part of pants hurts like hell, but by God I got those shorts streetworthy again, fully intending to trash them when we got back. Meanwhile, she gave Michael a few drinks of water and gave him a few buttons to remember her by. Oh, I'll remember you, button maker. Gamsahapnida.

Ok, that said, here's the trip to Seoul Tower.

Korean History Reenacted by Teddy Bears.....

At ground level at Seoul Tower, an attraction they are very proud of is the Teddy Bear Museum.

In fact, we were not allowed on the elevator up until we had gone through both sections of the TBM. I expected no more than a couple of old bears in glass cases. They had that too, but the actual theme of this museum is to tell the story of Korea's history through little animatronic bear scenes.

The still photos do no justice at all to the awesomeness that is TBM, so here, accompanied by music from Eun Se-Na, and dedicated to Erin, is a montage of our breathtaking journey through plush history.

A few funny shots that had no home

Yes, I was as confused as you are now. The words "good morning" in yellow above that poor elephant didn't help a bit. However, the white words to his right are "hemorrhoids" and "colonoscopy". This is a billboard for a hiney clinic. It's in a subway station.

This is a t-shirt for sale at Namdaemun market. The text reads, "When Rovio began writing new versionsof thegame for other devices,new issues APP STORE". [sic]
We've all giggled at bad translations, but that's not what you're seeing. What we have here is part of a sentence pulled from roughly 1/3 of the way down Rovio's (company that made Angry Birds) official company overview. "App store" is a few paragraphs further down.

Ads for plastic surgery are everywhere here, but same with Birmingham. This one made us laugh though. The copy, "Do you wanna small face? Yes! I wanna" was funny enough, but then you have the teary-eyed pear, football, and slice of bread that represent common but unacceptable face shapes. Are you a football, pear, or slice of bread? Then you should wanna.

I'll let you come up with your own caption here. The ones I can think of are just too obvious. This is in Seoul's Children's Grand Park, which is an AWESOME place that everyone should visit. This guy will still be there, I'm sure.

Is it Dokdo? Is it Takeshima?

Every weekday morning, there is a familiar uproar in the form of impassioned speeches, group chants, and rock music across the street from the Japanese embassy in the designated protest area, which happens to be 7 stories right below my window.



(You can see the Japanese flag flying on the roof - upper right corner.)

Japanese/Korean relations have been icy for hundreds of years, but mostly since the occupation during the first half of the 20th century. Consequently, that protest area is backlogged with countless groups waiting their turn to shout their grievances at the front gate.

The most popular one nowadays involves a new turn in a decades-old dispute over a small hunk of rock WAY out in the ocean.






Detailed history here.
The international community has long recognized it as Korean-controlled Dokdo Island, but Japan disputes this claim and refers to the island as Takeshima. This disagreement has mostly led to no more than grumbles, until a couple of years ago when the Japanese Ministry of Education issued a directive that Japan's ownership over "Takeshima" would now be taught as fact in schools.

The day I took the pic above & video below, a large clump of Korean veterans from (believe it or not) the Vietnam War were doing the protest. Notice across the street that the police guarding the embassy are massed between two large busses.

There is a cool little model of Dokdo at Anguk metro station.


As Michael demonstrates here, there's just something about this island that awakens some real aggression.

Location:Japanese Embassy (aka outside my window), Seoul, South Korea

Korean lesson for the day:

"Belinda" is Korean for "blend".

Location:Mr. Pizza

Michael wuz here.

On Friday the 8th, we stood in the very room in which our son was born.

The clinic is located in the town of Uijeongbu, north of Seoul.

The social worker said, "We are here," after about a 1-hour drive, although we had stopped in the middle of an intersection of two alleys. There were fruit and trinket vendors every few steps, and dozens of motorbikes weaving past us with their cargo.



















On the main street, among thousands of shops and restaurants no larger than their own signs, she led us into Dr. Shin's Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic (신소연 산부인과). We had both been expecting to see a hospital. This was simply a doctor's office buried in an office building.

The Dr. who had actually delivered Michael was hoping to meet him, but ESWS gave her the wrong day. We were instead introduced to her colleague who was equally delighted.



Until they actually led us back to the delivery room, I didn't actually believe we were going to get to see it. Possibly I still don't believe it.

The post-delivery recovery room. Ms. Han had made Michael's adoption plan before he was born, so I'm not at all sure if she kept him in here with her.

















Sometime soon, I will translate these signs. I'm interested to know what else is officed here.