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I have proof that at least one person besides my mother reads my blog - a non-family member commented on my Korean Air playing card post. I want to point out that you can get at least one other free thing - The Jeju Island Water Spray bottle. They pass these out in the business class cabin, but I'm sure you could request on in economy class. Just tell the stewardess that you have a severe skin condition and need to frequently moisturize, and I'm sure she'll bring it:



By the way, this is an older style bottle, about 5 or 6 inches tall. I've noticed on recent flights they've switched to a shorter, miniature version.

There are a couple interesting looking bars around the area I live, that I have not had the chance to visit. Since I'll be moving next weekend, I decided to go visit a couple of these this week. The first one is named the "C U Bar". I thought it was a silly way of spelling "see you", but I found out it is instead pronounced "Kyoo-Bah", almost like Cuba would be pronounced by a Korean. Met a nice guy who was the manager and only employee, except for a waiter who would appear from time to time. When I asked for 1 more bottle of beer, I said, "One more bottle, please". He repeated this command to the waiter, "One more bottle, please", and the waiter said, "yes, one more bottle". I felt like the captain of a submarine!

The other place I visited, in hindsight, we had visited maybe 3 years ago with John and CH. I don't know why I forgot about it, because in better weather they have a roof-top patio where you can sit outside. This place is called the "Z1BAR", and has a slogan that I honestly couldn't understand until I got home and looked it up in my dictionary:



Zone for Beautiful Anamnesis to Remain... just rolls off the tongue like a perfect slogan should, right?

When I sometimes break down and eat at an American fast food restaurant, I sometimes eat this thing called a spicy chicken wrap from KFC. The last time I ate it, I was staring at it, and thought to myself, there really is no secret to making this. It is just chicken, lettuce, tomato, mayonaise wrapped in a tortilla. So this week I bought a head of lettuce, some pathetic greenhouse tomatoes, and thawed some chicken breasts. Instead of frying the chicken (which was a failure last time I tried it), I simply grilled it with red pepper and black pepper. Wrapped it all up, and it was delicious. Highly recommended, simple to make. No photos - I was so hungry I ate it immediately before thinking to take a picture.

Most of my friends know that when I travel on Korean Air, I always request a couple decks of playing cards. I don't know why I do it, I guess it has just become a habit I can't break. With all my trips, I currently have quite a collection. Here are my 24 sealed decks, and that doesn't count the decks I've given away to friends or opened myself and used.



Well, I used to joke with my friends why Korean Air didn't pass out sets of Hwatu cards. After all, it IS Korean Air, used by Koreans, and the hwatu cards are by far the most common in Korea. (I wrote briefly about them in this blog entry). On my most recent flight in December, I happened to ask the stewardess why they don't have Hwatu cards. To my surprise, she told me that many years ago, Korean Air DID offer them, just like the do today with western-style playing cards.

Where do you find old, odd stuff? E-Bay, of course. One day I did a search on E-Bay, just out of curiosity. I wondered what these Korean Air hwatu cards looked like, and did anyone have them for sale. I didn't find any hwatu cards, but I did find this fellow selling a deck of regular playing cards for $25 minimum bid! He claimed they were a "hard to find" item, which I guess justified the price (it took me some time to realize that HTF is E-Bay jargon for "Hard To Find"). That was just amazing! I have 24 decks, and I was quickly doing the math (it would have been $600). I checked back on this auction a couple weeks later, and found out that it did not sell. In fact, he tried to sell them again for $16 and failed. I guess these cards are worthless afterall.



Have I lost $600 or not? If you lose money that you never had in the first place, is it really lost?

I almost forgot about this photo. Last month CH and I were walking down the street to lunch, and saw this pile of trash on the ground. As best I figure a dentist office must have closed down. Teeth and jaws everywhere.... yuck!

You know you've been missing American cooking too long when you get excited about finding this in the store:



By the way, they tasted delicious. I'm not sure why they export frozen vegetables from Washington State all the way to Korea (that's not visible in the photo - it is printed on the back of the package). It's not like these are special vegetables that they don't have in Korea. Strange...

Well, I've done it again - somehow I've ended up with another stomach ache. I believe it was something I ate on Saturday night. I was bored, so I headed out to the area where the new apartment will be, and went to a movie theater which was recently constructed. Even though it is usually hard to get tickets on a Saturday night, I had three things going for me. First, I was alone - I figured there might be an odd seat available. Secondly, this was a new theater and perhaps not as many people have discovered it yet. Also, I was flexible in which movie I wanted to see. There were two American movies I was interested in, "I Am Legend" with Will Smith and "National Treasure II" with Nicholas Cage. I got there, purchased a ticket, and within minutes I was seated in a theater which was about 1/3 empty to watch "National Treasure II". My plan worked. Conclusion, the movie was very good, but I think not quite as good as the first one. Not exactly a spoiler, but let me say the story very definitely left open the possibility we'll be seeing a "National Treasure III" in the next couple of years.

Next I went to have some chicken at KFC, but they were just closing. Across the hall their competitor McD's was still open, so I reluctantly ate a hamburger. Afterwards I went to Trevor's bar in the snow, to find there was only one guest. We sat and watched Hockey for a few hours and ate a hot dog. Even after watching some games for three hours, and having lots of rules explained to me, I still don't quite get this game. I told Trevor I found it very boring to watch, but perhaps it would be more interesting in person. He tells me, it is just colder to see in person.

After visiting Beer O'Clock, I was hungry again and found myself at a new place called "It's Miller Time". This is a brand new place only opened a couple months ago. I've been there a few times with my friends, and have also used this place as a "waiting spot" while waiting on my buddies to arrive. I ordered a plate of sausages and onion rings, and met the owner of the shop for the first time. She is a former airline stewardess of 15 years, and speaks English perfectly. I found out that she gives me and a few other foreigner customers a 10% discount, simply because we are foreigners! Wow, that's a first! At least she isn't giving me the Senior Citizen Discount like in Hawaii!

Well, the next day my stomach was killing me. It could have been the McD's burger, or the sausage, I don't know. I'm pretty sure it was not the hot dog, since Trevor told me he didn't have any stomach pains the next day. Anyway, I've been either sleeping or lying on the sofa watching TV for 3 days straight. Finally on New Years Day I felt brave enough to try eating again. I made some chicken with rice soup. Over the past 24 hours I've eaten more and more, and now (Wednesday AM) I'm almost back to normal.

Well, since I haven't been out much, I don't have any good photos to share. Instead I stole two from the internet showing the New Years celebration here in Seoul and in New York City. We drop the electric light ball at Times Square in America, here in Korea they ring a huge bell 33 times to usher in the new year. I kind of like the bell, especially the log / clapper. But this year the Times Square electric ball has been completely re-designed, and is kind of cool, too. I got to enjoy both celebrations on TV, lying on my sofa clutching my stomach...





While I was laid up with a belly ache, The Stumbling Family was enjoying New Years celebrations with our friends in Sunny Florida! I received a report that the first day in Florida they grilled burgers, went boating, and soaked in the hot tub! Reportely the second day of their visit (New Year's Eve party) they were going to be enjoying grilled oysters, crab cakes, chicken, and swimming. I'm jealous.