A bit of something at MorningCalm

How US Publishers see translated fiction

Texassery

First, to prove that Konglish is worldwide, I present you with an authentic "should have been poofed proofed first" sign from Texas. How many mistakes do you see?

Second, to assuage the OAF and to prove that not all is bad down here, the parents at breakfast..

Tomorrow I leave for the Yay Area....

BPU2 ranked among top 18 Unis in Physics

Go beloved employer!

here

Unfortunately, as in most Korean (English) papers, there is no link to the actual study data

This and thattery

Some scrapticiousness...

• MACY'S SUCKS: As I navigated the public transportation from SFO to San Jose, I realized that I would be passing the Macy's I intended to shop at. Since I was more than four hours before check-in time I decided I'd stop and do my shopping there and then. Walked in and asked the guy (oh, "sales-representative", I should say) if I could leave my bag at the counter. He flatly refused saying he "couldn't be responsible." I said, ok, is there a concierge around here? He said, "No in Macy's and I don't know about the mall." So, I couldn't shop there. I trudged out and towards the bus stop and, lo and behold, saw a Men's Wearhouse who were more than happy to see me leave my piece of luggage in front of their counter.
  
  Consequently, it was Men's Wearhouse that got my $375 of shopping. In this economy I can't imagine how a Macy's can't find the way to help me spend some money in their shop. And this Macy's is right across the street from Santana Mall, where the shopkeeps are forelock-tugging obsequities who would do anything for the sale (well, not that!).
  
  
• The hotel was splendid and the next morning BKF picked me up. He and JAE had a bit of an adventure as they ran over a box-spring that flew off of a vehicle in front of them. When I spotted them in the parking lot, they were snapping various pieces of plastic body to the metal frame underneath. This worked in all cases, so in essence the car wasn't hurt.
  
  
• Then it was off to Rossotis for burgers. The BFK and krewe as well as MAF and chilluns. I snapped a few pictures of these folks (more to come), and some follow here (as the OAF let me take her small camera on the condition that I take pics of everyone she misses):
  

Katherine plays with the creepy "stick to anything and stretch to anything" pig. I brought this as a gift, and since it was made in China, playing with it has probably taken 5 years off of all our lives.

The great unifier ponders the many uses of kamcha (sorry, no Korean keyboard here in the Empire)

The JFLO chilluns attempt to cadge free drinks.

The lovely JAE clowns for the camera

One more of the great re-unifier...

A fun time (I think) was had by all.

The next day was off to Texas and the Parental Units....

Meanwhile, back in the States...

The flight was.. well, an international flight. Got to the airport and immediately spotted the tour of 35 Korean kids who were getting on the same flight as I was.

This is never good.

Got on the plane and was sitting next to a guy about my age who had been in Korea for a week (his first time) and we had a grand time swapping stories of eating the inedible, Korean drinking, and trading cultural animadversions. The Korean kid behind me looked like an innocent little girl, but as soon as I turned my back she turned into Pele, Maradonna and Beckham indulging in an open-goal kicking contest. I didn't sleep on the plane.

The public transport hookup from SFO to SJ was good. The main things I noticed in the US were the lack of spitting, the amazingly clean air (no smog or bad smells), and the vast amount of space among and between buildings. Korea is without property setbacks and space between buildings (unless it is a vacancy or wreck), and parking lots are pretty rare. I walked around and shopped for clothes.

I also went to a couple of my old hangouts and found them without charm. I ate at a Mexican place I used to frequent, and couldn't clean the plate the way I used to. The old bar just seemed cruddy and dank, so I did more walking about and watching TV in English.

As I type it's 5 am (hello jetlag) and the lobby of the hotel is empty. I see MAF and the BKF today for greasy burgers, and will consider that the "official" start of my vacation in the heart of the empire..

Incheon Airport

Has a wonderful free computer lounge - a macbook even. This makes up for the fact that the ticket I purchased on KTX, far ahead of the holiday rush, was mysteriously for a train that no longer existed. It had to be traded for a later train and it cost an extra 2,500 won as well (so there went my profits from the 48 pounds of coins!).

It seemed that most people had done their Seollol traveling on Friday, so the train, subway, and the subway-train to Incheon were pretty empty. It's a cold day, so those heated seats were particularly welcome. 10 hours of flight, and then I'll be back down in the US of A. Strangely, I'm not as excited about that as I thought I would be. I'm dying to see all the peoples I haven't seen, but the idea of, say, San Jose, doesn't move me that much. ;-)

A nice dude on the last train noticed that I was about to get off at the wrong station (the English announcements, oddly, were one station out of sync - I've never heard of that before) and scooted over to tell me that I was about to get off at Gyeyong station and be in the middle of nowhere. The reputation Koreans have with some expatriates for not being helpful seems completely undeserved to me. Any time I've needed help, and times like this when I didn't even realize it, there always seems to be a helpful citizen about...

Off to see if they'll sell a brother a beer in this airport.

UPDATE:

As the picture suggests, they will....

What is 48 pounds of Korean coins worth?

I discovered the answer.

Since I arrived in Korea I have been saving my loose coins in plastic water bottles with the tops cut off.

Last night I poured 2.3 bottles worth of coins into some plastic bags, and put them in my backpack. The straps groaned at the weight, so I put the whole thing on the scale to see what it weighed - 48 pounds.

This morning, the backpack seemed on the verge of snapping somewhere (or was that me?), so I took a cab to the KB bank, which has a coin counting machine (a rare thing in Korea). I don't have a bank card with KB, but the 아저씨 at the bank was quite helpful, pulling out his own bank card (or a card the bank gave him for this purpose) and getting the machine running. He was a bit bemused when I pulled out the massive double-bag of coins, but was quite a good sport about it. I fed the machine for about 10 minutes and then it stopped.

I had filled it up as full as it could get! The 아저씨 had to go get someone to open the back of the machine and emtpy its contents. While this process was going on, some poor Korean kid with a baggie full of change showed up. He took one look at my bin full of coins, and the bag of coins still remaining on the top of the machine, smiled ruefully and walked on out of the bank.

The machine went back on line and I finished pouring my coins in.

The haul?

nearly 450,000.00 won.

Of course, since the won knows I am going to the United States it has been tanking ferociously against the dollar. Consequently my haul will convert to about $2.38 in US currency ;-(.

Still, now I know what 48 pounds of coins are worth.

Stars, Stripes. Tubes...

Oh man.. it's a Negro!

And I'm sitting up in a PC Bang at something like 2 am to make sure I see the sonofabitch get sworn in.

No way I thought this would happen in my life.

Of course the close PC bang was mysteriously closed and I had to hike to near Solbridgeey to find a PC Bang..

I think it will be worth it... ;-)

My first set of classes are in and they are..

BPU2 has given me...

Two English Listening Classes for majors
Discussion & Presentation English
British and American Regional Studies

and the possibility of two more conversation classes. Which I actually think I want, since that would pump me up to nearly 18 hours, which would be a butload (to use the vernacular English for which I am so well known) or overtime and I'm all about the Sejongs (that would be "the Benjamins" in Korea).

The listening classes should be a snap.. I have the syllabus done already and all the content lined up. Discusssion and Presentation English means basically "Speech." And the last is a culture class which I think I can make quite interesting.

Already sounds way more interesting than most of what I've done at BPU1