::A Geek in Korea::

My family headed to the Cincinnati Zoo. This might easily be the first time I’ve been at the Zoo in fifteen years. We, as a family, never did anything downtown before this trip, and now we spend every day we can trying to see something new. Today was incredibly hot, so we were worried about getting around and seeing animals before they all decided that they’d spend the day in the shade.

The Cincinnati Zoo had some great habitats. Many were easy to view, but also seemed to keep the needs of the animals in mind. The caretaker for the Bonobos told us that there was even television for the animals to watch to prevent boredom. They might have not been bored, but they were certainly still gross. One of the animals turned around, proceeded to urinate, then stick it’s finger up it’s own ass. Then, as a bonus viewing treat, we got to watch it eat its own feces. We tried to walk away, but the caretaker kept talking to us so we got to see the whole show.

My wife has a bird phobia that reduces her to a cowering mess when she comes too close to anything with wings. Usually this isn’t a problem if I’m around, as I get charged with being the great male protector. Fear me pidgeons! Anyway, we walked through a Lorikeet Aviary at the zoo. We would have made it through, which I thought was going to be a big step on reducing her fears, until a lorikeet landed on my brother’s arm, deficated, then crawled along his shirt. My dad also had a bird land on his hand. He fed it seeds on a stick. My wife’s eyes about popped out of her skull and we headed for the nearest exit before we were covered in feathers.

After that, we headed to a Thai restaurant. It was good, and you could even set the "hotness" level of your dish by telling them a number. No surprise "rat shit"   peppers like my meal in Thailand. (My site is the first on a google search for the phrase "rat shit peppers".) We had some excellent Thai Singha beer too. We didn’t finish our meals, so we got the take out boxes that are in every Asian restaurant in America. I don’t know why every place in America has those things as take out boxes, as I’ve never seen them in Asia. In Korea, food is delivered in either styrafoam or in actual dishes that you set outside your house when you finish so that busboys from the restaurants can pick them back up.

Tomorrow will be another hot day. We plan to see a Reds game with friends.

It’s weird that while I made sure my intimate family came to my wedding in Korea, and we had a huge family reunion two days after I returned to the United States last week, I didn’t truly consider my wife entirely "part of the family" until she went out to our farm in Indiana and met friends to party. Our farm in Indiana is so important to understanding my family as a whole that anyone that hasn’t been out to experience it hasn’t really begun to know us as a group of people.

Luckily for me, four of my college buddies made it out to see me this weekend to help speed up that process. I put in the longest commute of a several thousand miles, but one of the people drove around six hours to hang out with us. He said it was the least to do since I came all the way back in the country just to visit. One of my brother’s friends came from Maine by car, and other even purchased a car after his last one died this week because he had to come to this party. It’s clear that our family’s parties are something not to be missed. We had somewhere up to forty or more people eating, drinking, and having a really good time. For everyone from the party that might be reading this, thank you so much for coming. It means so much.

It’s weird that my college buddies and I still all "click" as a group. Two of my friends have purchased houses in Ohio, and I just got my new apartment in Korea. Someone was starting a job, and I’ve got a new one waiting for me when I return to Korea. Weird parallels. We are in completely different fields and doing very different stuff, but life has a way of keeping people on a familiar path. Our old jokes and mannerisms returned in a few hours of company. Just like old times. My parents have been meeting with the same friends at the farm for the past 30 years, and I intend on making the tradition stick with our clan as well.

This is why travel is so important to me. During this trip, I think my wife has grown to understand me much more. She now sees exactly where my mannerisms come from, my roots, and what I am like in a different environment where people knew me as a child. It has been an excellent way of sharing the things at home that I find valuable even if I am aware of them or not. Who you are when you are the host of a party and when you are just someone along for a good time is completely different. Being around my friends brings out another side of my personality.

There isn’t much more to say, other than to enjoy the pictures if you have access to the Flickr account, or trying to email me to get access if you don’t already have it.

We had our biggest family activity since I have returned to the United States. It started out with a trip to the Argosy Casino. It turns out that you need to present a picture ID to get into the place, and since we didn’t know, my wife didn’t have her passport ready. We walked out without spending a dime in a casino, which means we came out ahead in the end.

Instead of blowing the money on gambling, we bought lots of fireworks. An excessive amount in fact. We got a large variety of different items dedicated to blowing up in the prettiest ways possible. My mom got put into the Homeland security database for ringing up her purchases on her credit card. Beware our bottle rockets!

From there we went to the Newport Aquarium. For being so far from an ocean, there were a decent collection of sharks and other oceanic creatures. We even got to annoy a cousin that works there.

After that we went to the Purple People Bridge Climb. It was easily the least "XTREME" thing I’ve ever done. For all the safety and preparation, you were basically walking up some stairs. It wasn’t even that tall, considering I’ve climbed roller coasters with no safety equipment before in my younger (and much stupider) days. The view was okay, but I’d wait a few months while the tour guides learn the scenery and get their jokes together. We were lucky not to get caught out in the rain, as we were the tallest objects on the bridges.

Today will be spent watching a knock off of the Blues Brothers in concert in a nearby park. Not my plan, but I didn’t have anything else planned.

Yesterday was our shopping expedition. We were told to pick up fry pans as gifts to our relatives back in Korea. They had to pick a large, hard to pack, cumbersome object as their gifts. We picked up three cheap fry pans on a tip from one of our American relatives. We got them for half of their normal price, which meant we picked up all three for the price of one in Korea. If it wasn’t so cheap I would have complained, as it’s taking up roughly a third of all our suitcase space now.

We also did some shopping for items we couldn’t get in Korea. Everyone on the family has been raving about "Croc" shoes. Foam injected shoes. They are indestructible and comfortable, but incredibly ugly. My mother offered to buy us two pairs, so we each go one of our own. They work as slippers and shoes for the house. I’m still not comfortable about wearing shoes in the house, and have developed the Korean mindset that the floors of the house are basically "dirty" as a result.

You can’t just walk outside all day, walk inside, and pretend you aren’t getting the floors dirty after living in Korea. I’ve scrubbed the floors (once) in my apartment in Korea before. The amount of dirt is astounding.  My wife won’t set clothes on the floor when she unpacks. Everything stays in the suitcase or on the bed. Anything that touches the ground gets washed. This is partly because she’s a neat person, but also because my family has a dryer, so washing clothes doesn’t take all day.

We had hoped to go to King’s Island, a local amusement and roller coaster park, but got rained out. Instead, we headed over and picked up my Grandmother. After a tour of her house where she showed off her haul from her trip to Korea and China, as well as all of our gifts, she had lots of reminders of us. We then headed back to my parent’s house.

We plan to see Superman Returns in an IMAX theater in 3D, as per one of my friend’s recommendations. I’ve already seen the film, but the last time I saw a 3D movie was, well, the last time 3D movies were cool in the late 80’s. From there, we head to my other grandmother’s house, where the family will have an old fashioned country dinner.

Two of my college buddies that live in Cincinnati made the trip out to my family’s rural abode to visit me last night on some short notice. My family treated them to a dinner at the local German brewery, and we ate such treats as fried pickles and fried saurkraut. We did get some good mixed drinks for a change, which reminds me that when I got back to Korea I should start looking for a place that can actually mix a cocktail if I want to go out from time to time.

We headed back to the house, played some cornhole, which is really, really not what it sounds like. American ultra-specific regionalism be damned, is just corn filled bags thrown somewhat like the game of horseshoes. My mom and I teamed up and won three games. It’s a rare sport that doesn’t require much physical skill, can be played by anyone of any age, and passes my Father’s sports test.

My Father’s sports test is this: Can it be played while holding a beverage in one hand as well as if you had nothing in your hands. If so, he’ll play it.

Anyway, after the sun set, we got the movie Welcome to Dongmakgol playing on the DVD player. Thankfully, this time all the subtitles worked, so I didn’t have to do any translation. My brother passed out half way through the movie, again. I think my friends liked the movie. They still talked about my screening of Oldboy from the last time I visited.

Today is the big family reunion. Forty or more people I might not have seen for years will show up. Hopefully with name tags. I have multiple relatives born since my last visit too. We’ve been cleaning out coolers and washing down lawn chairs in preparation. It should be fun. We set out the schedule for the rest of the time in the United States too. We’ve got most of the days well covered, but have lots of opportunities for people to stop by and meet us.

We’ve survived our extra long flight to the United States. Seems we flew the "adoption flight", as there were no less than six Korean infants in our section being held by parents that were clearly not their biological family. Needless to say, we didn’t get much sleep on the 14.5 hour flight here. The closest to Cincinnati the airline could get us on our flight into the country was a direct connection to New York JFK airport, two hours out of our way. We then connected to Cincinnati and were greeted by the family holding signs and everything. Several people showed up while we were getting our luggage too. After 24 hours of travel, we weren’t too festive, and I’m sure in the pictures we look like hell.

We spent the rest of the evening with the family chatting. Half our luggage was gifts, which we promptly distributed to the family. Then my brother and I watched Oldboy. He fell asleep before the movie was half way finished after his long day at work. We finished it up this morning. Then in preparation for the huge family reunion tomorrow, we went shopping at Jungle Jim’s. It’s a bit of a legend in this area. We picked through the somewhat lame Korean section, but found some good treats for the family. We’ll prepare bulgogi tomorrow for the family. It’s my first dish presented at a family reunion to represent our "couple". We’re breaking new milestones every day.

Depending on if anyone gets back to me about plans for tonight, I might or might not be watching Korean films with friends. We’ll be spending the day cooking and preparing for tomorrow. We will go to a park or something with the family if no one calls or shows up eventually. Tomorrow is full of relatives and plans. Monday we have my brother to chauffeur us to a destination as of yet undetermined. We still need to sort out our plans for the week before we go camping at the end of the week. We want to stay busy and see as much of the area as we can.

Today was a rather boring day. The constant threat of rain kept me from going anywhere outside for extended periods of time with Yoshi. We got to take a walk around the block in the morning. Several children on their way to school acted as if this 3.3 kilo shih tsu was going to rip them apart like Cujo. Even if he got hold of someones leg and mauled it all day, he couldn’t break skin with his tiny canine teeth. The best he can do is a good pinch, but even then, we have him mostly bite sensitivity trained by this point.

I’m also trying to decide what goes and what stays here. We’ve got a place for Yoshi while we visit. Our Aunt will take him in for the time we are gone, mostly because her children love dogs, but her husband won’t let them have one. This is a sort of "best of both worlds" compromise. We get someone to take care of our dog, they get to play with the dog without needing to keep it long term. It’s good for everyone. If only our houseplants were that lucky. We haven’t found anyone to take them yet. We’re hoping to convince one of the security guards to take care of them while we are gone for a favor.

I finished all the housework I’ve been "allowed" to do to help out. I’m on strict orders not to mess up the kitchen by trying to put away our remaining dishes. Other than one last box of pictures I spread around the house, I had nothing of consequence to do today. This is the unemployed life of someone twiddling their thumbs waiting for an international flight.

I had everything already packed yesterday, so I just needed to pick up a few things for my brother. We are going to watch movies with the family and friends when I come back, so I got some of the movies he requested on VCD. These are basically the equivalent of low end VHS cassettes you can watch on your computer and most DVD players. They are on CDs, usually released much later, and aren’t perfect DVD quality. Very watchable, but very cheap. I got two of the movies my brother wanted to see, Marathon and Oldboy, for about ~8 American dollars. Another release at the store wasn’t burned with English subtitles, so I’ll have to find in on DVD when I got to Seoul tomorrow to pick up souvenirs. It’s a shame that I have so little time with my friends, because I have so many wonderful things to share. It’s hard to catch up when you want to also want to watch movies with them.

There is a difference between the concept of "moving in" and being "moved in". We’ve made the move. I am typing this on my computer in my new "computer room" in the new apartment. My internet connection has been upgraded to a near comical speed. I can down download an entire DVD in the span of two minutes or less as long as the source is located in Korea. Otherwise the speed is just "really really fast". All this for around ~30,000 won (~$30 dollars). Awesome.

The move was entirely too stressful. We had been packing for the last few days, but when the men came to take our stuff away, we just kept piling things in boxes as they took it out the door. Eventually we loaded up two trucks, which is definately proof that I have too much stuff. When I moved to that apartment originally I was at only "one truck and stack it to dangerous heights" level.With my new furniture, I’m probably close to four trucks worth of stuff easily.

Things just kept arriving all day, and I couldn’t leave the apartment for any amount of extended time. I was too busy anyway, putting away everything we own. At least we got some clear weather. I spent the day picking up boxes, moving boxes, taking things out of boxes, cleaning up, and generally not resting for a single second. Only now, 16 hours later, have I had a chance to sit down and rest for a significant amount of time.

Three things got damaged. Our picture wall partition fell off a truck and got cracked. My new desk’s glass got broken after the movers left, and just now as I was typing this post one of the arms on my good chair broke. Damn. Anyway, I have tomorrow to clean up what I haven’t put away today, catch up on sleep, and generally spend my time scrubbing, washing, and wishing I didn’t have so much stuff to wash and scrub. Both of us are super stressed out from a long day, and we are at each other’s throats at the moment. I just want to take a long nap on my new couch and forget that this move ever happened.

Since my computer is packed away awaiting its trip across town tomorrow, I ended up going to a PC room to type tonight. We decided that Seoul wasn’t a possiblity today. We were simply too tired from the day of packing. We got everything we could in boxes, wrapped, and ready to go. Once we had done that, we took Yoshi for his first walk outdoors.

Yoshi loves following us around in his verandah, but as soon as I put the leash on him and tried to get him to follow, he laid down and refused to move. Luckily he is easily persuaded by snacks. I carried the snack bag in my pocket, and whenever he would stop walking I gave the bag a rattle to remind him he got a treat if he kept moving. Eventually he started following us around. The three of us had a nice jog around the block. Exercise at last!

I took him for a second walk alone when I got up from a nice long nap. I had better luck getting him walking without feeding him constant snack alone, but he was really interested in everyone other than me that he met on the walk. He would sit or lay down when I wanted to get him to walk past a person he hadn’t met yet. Several children saw us together, but none of them approached. I don’t think they were scared of the dog. Some of the old women laughed when Yoshi started following them around as they exercised. At that point I was following him, not vice verca. Eventually I got him back into the apartment, and he looked contented.

The best thing about the new apartment will be the opportunity to walk Yoshi around the large parks nearby. I’ve got two days of relative calm after we unpack and before we leave that will be spent with Yoshi exploring the park near the river. We’ll go to Seoul on Thursday before we leave for the United States on vacation to pick up some souveniers. Anyone that wants something, post some ideas in the comments section. Sorry, but you are going to need to visit me when I’m in the States to pick it up.