Seoul Searching

Truth or fiction?

2010-05-03T11:21:00.000-07:00

I had not thought about Korea too much in the last 6 months, but it was fascinating to read about this most recent article (written by a NYTimes reporter):

Life has been a roller coaster for Kim Yong-chul since he began talking about Samsung Electronics two and a half years ago. He has been celebrated by some as a whistle-blower, but in a culture that emphasizes workers’ loyalty to their employers, he has also been vilified as a traitor driven by personal grudges.

That was before Mr. Kim’s 474-page exposé, “Think Samsung,” hit stores in February.

The book makes sensational allegations of extensive corruption by Lee Kun-hee, the richest man in South Korea and the chairman of Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest technology company by revenue.

I won't post the whole article, but I do have a favorite quote: "We are seething with anger, but we are not going to sue him and make him a star again," said Kim Jun-shik, Samsung's senior vice president for corporate communications. "When you see a pile of excrement, you avoid it not because you fear it but because it's dirty."

An interesting set of issues. I still get a kick out of the president pardoning him. The president who came from the conglomerate world himself, and who had pardoned his former boss for embezzlement. That said, not that I am too proud of some of our American presidents...What can you do?

American cultural sensitivity

2010-02-01T12:26:00.000-08:00

So this moment amazed me (although perhaps it shouldn't have). We were eating at a nice Thai restaurant, and there was a Elephant god statue on a pedestal in the corner. Potentially this could have been purely decorational (although it was likely connected with religious sentiment, given the ethnicity of the wait-staff). Now I mention all of these things because I would expect that there is one thing that it was not: a coat rack. And yet, one of the diners placed her jacket on top the statue. Michelle debated going over and tell her that she would have 5 years of bad luck for doing that (ie she would have done it if i had not dissuaded her). We still had entertainment however when one of waitstaff noticed. She took the jacket to them and asked if it was alright if she brought it downstairs (ie where the coat rack is), and proceeded to bow several times to the statue. Just a "slight" bit of religious significance to the statue...

Old vs New Marketing

2010-01-21T10:48:00.001-08:00

It is interesting to read about Audi using the superbowl to promote its new cars. It makes you realize that as much as we have changed, a fundamental human point about simplicity is key. You reach the most consumers through TV, even if you reach many consumers that are not in your target audience. One TV commercial versus multiple tactics customized on different sites to different audiences. Most companies would prefer the easy way, and until we have more people working, then that won't change. Although ironically, targeting might make things cheaper in the end (including the increased headcount of managing that targeting...)

I love this statistic: And in Brandweek, Steve McClellan reports that a Nielsen survey finds 51% of viewers enjoy the Super Bowl more for the ads than the game. Given that the Patriots are gone already, I am likely in the majority!

9 worst cities

2010-01-20T15:13:00.000-08:00

This is fantastic. Seoul needs to seriously clean up its image:
(From the Lonely Planet)

Your 9 least favourite cities
1. Detroit, USA – Because of the crime, pollution and crumbling infrastructure.
2. Accra, Ghana – Ugly, chaotic, sprawling and completely indifferent to its waterfront location.
3. Seoul, South Korea – According to one traveller comment, ‘It’s an appallingly repetitive sprawl of freeways and Soviet-style concrete apartment buildings, horribly polluted, with no heart or spirit to it. So oppressively bland that the populace is driven to alcoholism.’
4. Los Angeles, USA – A highly contentious pick, placed here because of its ‘uncontrolled sprawl, pollution, appalling traffic and ugly freeways’, according to one traveller.

(Not sure how I feel about 2 US cities being in the top 4, but they are LA and Detroit...)

Why I hate AT&T

2009-12-11T11:13:00.000-08:00

I was on a mission this morning, buy an iphone (yes as trite as that is, I want a smartphone, and michelle is already on AT&T). A quick point, every business has silos, but as a customer, you don't want to see them. I called up from Michelle's phone and they could help me switch her plan (to family), but they could not sell iphones, or do anything with a GoPhone. The phone I wanted was online (and only online), but GoPhone you have to deal with in a store. So three different people who can't resolve anything, who pass me along each time.

This reminds me of when I was not allowed to port my number from AT&T to Cingular (remember when they were separate?) For some reason they said they could only do so many in a month.

So AT&T has a history of poor customer service. HOURS wasted, and i bet not even AT&T's CEO could fix this problem. And you wonder why they are getting killed with attrition. If it wasn't for iPhone, i wonder if they would even be #2 in the market...How do you take a famous brand like AT&T and ruin it with such customer service? Sigh...

Looking at T-Mobile now =)

New sites to keep track of

2009-12-07T11:03:00.000-08:00

Wow, this one is definitely interesting reading: http://fmylife.com
Too many stories of relationships gone wrong, dumb moves, etc. I wonder if I have a story to add on there? Likely, but if so, I doubt I would publicly proclaim it on my blog ;)

Too much rain

2009-10-25T14:10:00.000-07:00

So over the past few weeks there has been a lot of rain, much more than I would prefer since it makes bike rides unlikely (and I only have a few more weeks that I can ride!) Michelle and I went into NYC to see the play "After Miss Julie" which was an interesting show with Johnny Lee Miller and Siena Miller, definitely made you think, but it was amazing to hear so many people say that they did not like it afterward in the restroom!

We wandered around town after that, including searching for a new winter jacket for me at Century 21, and afterward we looked at a map to see where the Southstreet Seaport was, and Michelle commented that maybe we shouldn't be close to the curb. Good advice, we just needed to take it...An ambulance drove by full speed (no lights on, so TOTALLY unnecessary), and sent up a huge spray of water, soaking my legs, back, and even hitting Michelle's mouth. #$@#%

Then it was dinner with our friend Han from Korea, who was in town interviewing new candidates (insert different word here) for my old group ;) It was great to see him, and have a great meal at Dos Caminos. Love the guac that they make!

59 boxes

2009-10-23T10:22:00.000-07:00

Yup, 59 of them arrived on Monday, which meant approximately 2 days of trying to find a way to put everything into a 1 bedroom apartment. For a few things, when I saw how well some of my pens and pencils had been wrapped, I realized that maybe 59 boxes was too much. Somehow it all fits currently, even though the storage unit is packed to the gills. I will say that the move has been one of the most painless moves i could have imagined, but that should be the case if you are paying someone else to do it, right?

Debating closet space

2009-10-21T11:34:00.000-07:00

So I remember being worried about how I was going to move back from Korea after having approximately 6 closets there to Michelle and I sharing three now. According to my cousin's husband, this never changes. You can have 12 closets in the house, and the man will have 2 of them, but there will still be a debate if he should have that many...I need to get rid of some stuff I think ;)

Snow in mid-October?!?

2009-10-20T11:38:00.000-07:00

What a CRAZY weekend, after a delay on our drive to Boston due to the heat no longer working in Michelle's car, we headed to Boston for about 24 hours. And on the way back, BOY were we happy we had the heat fixed, as we drove in the snow for about 2 hours!

One of the other highlights included going to Kickass Cupcakes (where our wedding cupcakes were, a treat that I never had due to the craziness of the day, and likely the guests REALLY liking them!) The owner was really sweet and offered us any cupcakes we wanted for free!

Finally, we got into the Halloween spirit by carving a pumpkin at my cousin's house, in the shape of a pirate's face. It was crazy, she had a whole "pumpkin carving set" with different sized knives. It came out really cool, and I think Michelle and I need to look into having one down here!

Kilts: the day i lost faith in dry cleaning

2009-10-06T17:47:00.000-07:00

So my kilt got a bit of wearing a couple of weekends ago, and i decided maybe i should dry clean it (out of fear of moths that lost me at least one sweater and a jacket). The places in Chatham were going to charge me $15 and then $18.75 for dry cleaning a skirt. After coming from Korea, where EVERYTHING cost $3, I wasn't sitting well with either of these prices, especially after I looked inside the kilt and it is machine washable. Now I like that shirts cost less than $2 to launder and starch, but seriously, the mark-up on the actual dry cleaning is sick (although given that neither places had a grasp on English very well, they knew the fundamentals of business...Just won't be a business I will regularly be going to...) I digress, and happy to launder my kilt at home so i can have plenty more wearings!!

The little things at a wedding

2009-09-26T12:00:00.000-07:00

They say that no one knows the things that don't go as planned at a wedding. And that is amazingly true. My favorite moment was the realization as Michelle and I were walking back up the aisle after the ceremony, and I realized I had not told my brother about the music for post-ceremony. Thankfully the bagpiper my dad had gotten decided to start playing then. Whew...

It was an amazing day all told though, with so many friends and family, great weather, and so many cool events. We had a fireworks display that would rival any medium-sized town in the US, my nephew's rap performance, my uncle playing piano, and an armadillo cake thanks to Michelle's co-worker's extraordinary talents!

What happened with the pagoda

2009-09-25T11:50:00.000-07:00

Wow is all I can say on this one. For every delay that could have happened. First I lose weeks by trying to negotiate price (nothing doing, not even my soon to be mother-in-law calling!) Then the vendor takes his time actually building it. Then when we finally get it on the ship (a ship we were likely to miss), the ship is delayed leaving China and misses its connection in Korea (of all places, it had to connect through Korea?)

Finally the pagoda is almost there and it is flagged in customs, which means another 2-5 days (unclear how many exactly). It turned out to only be 2 days, but we could not pick it up until Friday, which was 8 days before the wedding. So we were going to have approximately 5 days to build it.

My father and I drive down there (which was an exceedingly long day for him, since the goal was to be there by 9 am). We get there, only to find we don't have the right papers (our shipper's fault), and when we do, we move back to find not one 10 cubic meter box, but 6, and the largest was significantly larger than our pickup truck. Uhmmm....

The guys in the warehouse are helping us call shippers, and we manage to find one that will deliver by the following day. We drive off with the three smallest boxes, and prayed that it would literally arrive the next day.

When we unpacked everything, we discovered not ceramic tiles (which is what we thought we had ordered), but fiberglass. And fiberglass everything. With no instructions of course. So I was out helping my dad and his two workers, including using the sawzall to cut off pieces to make it fit, and the backhoe to lift the heavier pieces up to the roof. It was finished the morning of the wedding.

(and yes, it looks amazing, but WOW what a trip to get it there!)

Adjusting to life back here

2009-09-05T11:48:00.000-07:00

It is strange to be back, some things are very easy, thinking about living in suburban NJ perhaps not as much, but in general the pace of life, the things that I am doing, all of that seem so different!

One amusing element. Wedding gifts are slowly coming in, and Michelle is SOOO happy to receive them, it is like Christmas every day here now (and next to impossible to prevent her from opening all of the boxes when they arrive!)

Talk about almost missing a flight

2009-08-26T11:37:00.000-07:00

My last two days were supposed to be relaxed, with only 1-2 things to deal with. It turned out to be ANYTHING but. I had lunch with a friend, had to run around to pay bills (before the movers could move things from my apartment). Finally, after not finding a person I was supposed to meet (they were giving me a check for some of my stuff I had sold), I hustled back to my apartment and headed to the airport.

Now I learned something at the airport, or several things, and not many of them were pleasant...The line on Asiana was SUPER long, and being Silver status on United does nothing for you (and they were really rude about it in fact, especially given that Korean Airlines does offer privileged boarding status for Silver members). When I finally got the front of the line, they would not accept my ticket, since my Alien Registration card had expired (I should have asked for a single entry after my previous flight in about 8 days earlier). I had to go to immigration, which had a line, and make it back in the span of about 15 minutes. At a dead sprint across the airport, I managed to get the stamp I needed (and give up my poor registration card), and ran back to the nearest counter. Made it, but just barely...Needless to say I won't be flying Asiana again at any point soon ;)

Busy last Sunday

2009-08-23T11:43:00.000-07:00

So I had several things to accomplish on my final weekend, starting with picking up a scroll that was going to be used for the wedding guest book (with the logo that Michelle's cousin drew). It was super cool to go there, he served us really good tea in this elaborate tea ceremony (he had three containers that the tea was transferred between!) The scroll itself was enormous, I have no idea where we will hang it, but all details for later).

Then it was back to the apartment to try and give some stuff to my friend Sunghee (who was the translator for the scroll and tea ceremony (she has been such an invaluable help over the past couple of years!). She walked out of the apartment with everything from a picture to a mammoth bag of toilet paper.

Then the day ended with my last basketball game, and I scored the last bucket, a reverse lay-up. At that point I needed to pull a Kostanza, “thank you, I’m outta here!” What a way to end!!

Bittersweet farewell

2009-08-23T11:36:00.000-07:00

It seems so strange to slowly move out, and realize that you have no idea if/when you will see some of these people again. I had an interesting moment though involving a going-away party. This is a poll I would love to ask a bunch of people. I know that in general for Koreans that the most senior person pays for everything, but for many going away parties, I feel like the foreigner pays. I wonder if that is because you are no longer part of the group, or if it is making the most of a situation. But I did appreciate all of the last minute lunches and what people did for me.

Blistering hot, beautiful palace

2009-08-19T05:53:00.000-07:00

Went to Changgyeonggung today, a palace with a 90 minute tour (a world heritage site, which I have heard means very little even though it sounds impressive). Very nice sights, cool buildings, some stuff overlooking lakes, and temples in a forest in the middle of Seoul. I can't believe it took me so long to get here, but glad I did! Just wish it hadn't been about 100 degrees and humid ;)

Meeting members of the new class, good people, and happy that they are starting on a new adventure (mine will be adventures, just different, and different location). Would be nice to overlap with them more, but perhaps better that the grumpy old guy leaves sooner ;) I remember two years ago pretty well, funny to hear it from their shoes though!

Short-term versus Long-term

2009-08-19T05:47:00.003-07:00

A question I have, even if I know the answer. Why is there such a focus on short-term here in Korea? (not that the US is much better, but still) Executive decisions are made on a quarterly basis with often too little regard for long-term sustainability (ie cutting marketing budgets if sales drop even a fraction). But the interesting one for me is a lack of understanding of ramifications. Granted this could be due to the military like focus and that everyone is a cog in a wheel (and therefore doesn't think of these consequences). But as I leave (on a sour note or two), it makes me wonder, there isn't much thought about former members being brand ambassadors, or potential partners, or even willing to work with Samsung in a different role (ie not Korea). I hope these things change, but perhaps this is just American idealism...

Why I don't like Korean negotiation

2009-08-19T05:47:00.001-07:00

So I had an issue with my contract, my return city was the wrong one. And I had mentioned it before, but made the mistake of mentioning it again, and I just have a feeling that they don't even look at the original contract (probably just a fixed budget, which is pretty high) to move people back home. But of course in traditional Korean style it is a point used against you (well, we helped you fix this portion). What is interesting is that you would expect to realize that others might know this ploy (and it sets a bad precedent, and maybe people more likely to not trust you later if they have heard about this example). But the other element that I wonder about (and i have heard too many times about Korean negotiation is that nothing is fixed - even if you have settled on points 1-4, when you get to point 5, the previous points might be brought up again). And you wonder why there is a bad reputation of Koreans in Asia involving negotiations...I digress, but I will say, it is not the way you want to end your time. But lesson learned I guess?

Half self-service

2009-08-12T16:43:00.000-07:00

What is this exactly? I am still not quite clear on what half-self service means. It was at one of the local hamburger restaurants. And the funniest thing? For having "self-service" the restaurant had a total of maybe 10 tables, and about 6 waiters. Something doesn't seem right with this math ;)

Too many 14 hour flights

2009-08-11T15:29:00.001-07:00

So over the span of a month (or less), I will have made 2.5 trips to the US...Which means FIVE 14 hour flights. It gets tiring to say the least. When you have watched 5 movies and you still have at least 4 hours to go, you know it is brutal...

Trips to NYC

2009-08-07T19:45:00.000-07:00

So a couple of trips to NYC, whirlwind ones lasting less than a week each. It has meant that my body has no idea which way is up. But it is nice to be back in the US, seeing Michelle (and the occasional friend). The current one is to meet with companies for the current project (we’ll see if I can get some wedding stuff done as well. But I finally had it with the work computer. The battery literally lasts 10 minutes. 10!?! And we make computers. Mine is about 5 years old, weighs maybe 10 lbs, and with no battery. So everything goes through personal email (because we don’t have webmail for security reasons). It AMAZES me, truly ;) And this was impressive. The business trip approval (outside of the fact that there are portions in Korean, even within the “English version” of the travel system), it took approximately 30 minutes to complete it. Productivity? Maybe next year ;)

Image Conscious Society

2009-08-03T19:44:00.000-07:00

With my cousin in town for a weekend, I did my best to show her around Seoul, from my favorite areas to the main tourist spots. We went out to Eden on Friday night, with my Ukrainian colleague, who had no problem dancing with his backpack on his chest and a pen in his pocket (gotta love someone who just doesn’t care!) But my cousin was highly amused by the dance floor (including a guy who could have been out of a model shoot, who was standing on the dance floor (not moving), with sunglasses, as a girl paid him a lot of attention. His movements were restricted to occasionally putting his arm around her. “Okay, so this is a slightly image conscious society” was the key take-away. This was fully confirmed when we went out shopping and Laura was looking at a dress and the owner came up and said “No. One size only” Yup, one size in most stores. (All of the anorexics of the world would be proud). We joked that when we went to the “plus size” area that this was where you could find a size 2 ;)

Overall the weekend was a lot of fun, we ate some great food, saw friends, had drinks at the Ritz (the Garden restaurant, which was beautiful), and got caught out in the rain. Sadly I had to leave before she did (a business trip to NYC), but one of her friends from Tucson came up from Busan to spend time with her. So in good hands in the end!

Hunting

2009-08-02T19:44:00.000-07:00

So apparently in Busan there is this term called “Hunting” where you have thousands of people on the beach at night (women in heels of course) trying to “meet” each other. Ah Korea, the land where men and women meet in typically awkward ways (blind dates, booking clubs where the women are forced to sit down at tables and guys pour them drinks, and now “hunting”).

This is a new low

2009-08-02T16:23:00.000-07:00

So I think one of the balances when you know you are leaving to try and find a balance between knowing that the company has little invested in you, and the hope that they will treat you well. I remember struggling with this before (for example, do you give someone a promotion on their way out if they are going to school, since it is little skin off your back, and it can create a lot of goodwill?)

I have perhaps fewer illusions in a Korean company, partially due to bigger difficulties in negotiations (and how often the excuse is used: "company policy" Now what is funny is that "company policy" is often selectively enforced, and often a local knows how to get around these policies, but I digress...) But the latest one I heard (thankfully not to me), was when a friend was dealing with an issue, and when something needed to be done (or should have been done), the response was "I don't want to stress out my baby" Wow. I am waiting to hear some priceless lines on my side. (Some of this stuff is so good you wish you had a video camera).

New model or new model?

2009-08-02T16:20:00.001-07:00

So when Samsung announces is largest lineup of new models in China (see link), you have to wonder, it is the phone or the women on display? Definitely a double meaning of the word model ;)

Back to the Chinese

2009-08-01T19:45:00.000-07:00

So on Saturday we went over to my friend Haes’ house for some drinks. What was meant to be a much more energetic night turned into a very lazy night, with literally 3 of the 5 people asleep while watching a documentary on Dubai (I am still not clear why it was chosen). But there was a crack made about one of their classmates marrying Chinese (with an apology thrown my way). I turned “none taken, after all, the odds are what, 1 in 5 that you will marry a Chinese?” Just think about that one for a second ;)

Dilbert couldn’t do this better

2009-07-30T19:47:00.000-07:00

We had a presentation last week where a portion was about drinking and the correct seats to sit in. And it was amazing. The words used, the descriptions, and the overall work implications. Dilbert truly could not have made it better. Even the morning TV-show (brainwashing) is amazing. How to make 1-page memos, how to not force people to drink, etc, people just wouldn’t believe it. I would LOVE to put some of these up on YouTube. They would definitely provide Samsung with more of a corporate face, just not sure if they would like the corporate face ;)

Oh, and this corporate tradition is awesome, a woman is allowed 1 day off a month for “woman problems” Isn’t that priceless? The men may have been allowed the same due to any concern over discrimination. But apparently you can string the 12 days a year together for a long vacation. “Wait, so does that mean women can have only one period per year and have it in Bali?” hmm. (and i just heard a new name for this: menstruation vacation).

It is official

2009-07-28T19:46:00.000-07:00

So Samsung is not renewing my contract. I know a large portion of this is because I don’t want to stay in Korea (that and maybe I have frustrated them too much). It is too bad though, I have had a great time in Korea and part of me is sad to leave. I will say that it is interesting the difference between Korea and the US. In the US, you never know where someone will end up. Potentially a colleague, or partner, etc. At Samsung you know that all of your Korean colleagues will stay in Korea at Samsung (with only 1-2 exceptions). So if you decide to leave, they have less inclination to be friendly to you. I think some of it is an overall group mentality, you are either in the group, or not. And if you are not in the group, then you just don’t matter as much. It can be frustrating, but you can’t easily change the way a society views each other.

The last work for the music phone

2009-07-28T11:27:00.000-07:00

Managing one last project, a deal with MTV. It was amusing to be on a call and hear really fast speaking at one point. Okay, the news seems to bad, and you are trying to gloss over things aren't you? Funny that both myself and the other person on the call could tell ;)

An expert with no power?

2009-07-25T11:26:00.000-07:00

At times I feel like I am an expert (or know what will happen), but even knowing the train wreck will happen doesn't mean you can do something about it if you don't control the emergency brakes. (outside of the fact the conductor speaks only korean ;)

Names that should not be heard

2009-07-23T19:43:00.000-07:00

So Koreans in general like to use their initials as their English name. Example? Hee Chong becomes HC. Now that works for the most part, but let me give you one example where it doesn’t ;) One of my colleagues friends goes by KY. If you don’t know what that means, a simple internet search would likely do ;)

The day that could have been better

2009-07-23T11:23:00.000-07:00

I had one of those days that definitely could have gone better. It started with general exhaustion, and I was not a happy camper (a day where you don't let the details go). So after feeling frustrated at work, I decided it was time for a long bike ride, which was great until about 2 miles out of town my back tire popped. And not a small leak that i could pump up every 1-2 miles. A leak that drained the tire immediately. So as I walked back to my apartment in my biking shoes (even tried walking in my socks since the biking shoes are so uncomfortable for walking, my mood was not exactly bright. But it was great to get an invitation to hang out with some friends that night. And the day ended well, with 4 guys singing karaoke at 1 am. Wait a minute...

A crazy muddy weekend

2009-07-20T19:48:00.000-07:00

So Friday we go out to the “Korean” version of Hooters. And this was much more like what you would expect Hooters to be in the US. Yes, they still had a dance, the women were prettier than the Korean Hooters (disclaimer, this is not my observation, it was from the colleagues I was with!) At one point it seemed that we were at a high school cheerleader practice, with all of these girls practicing their dance moves and giggling. We then went out afterwards, where my friend’s fiancée joined us, and she managed to completely miss a chair (she decided to sit down without checking to see if there actually was a chair). This was in a small room for 8 people, so it did not go unnoticed.

The next day was out to the mud festival. This year we decided to get hotel rooms, and try and make a night out of it. Which sort of happened. It poured rain, so we ended up staying in the restaurant for a while, drinking with random Koreans. Then off to a club that would not let in foreigners (yes, we get used to this), and then somewhere around 2 am, Gavin and I decided that it would be great to swim in the ocean. A smart idea given that we had been drinking? No. But fun? Tons. I took the waterproof camera out (and proceeded to get it filled with sand (it is not sandproof as my needing to fix it when I returned was evident). But a hell of an experience to catch waves and body surf at 2 am! We finished it off by walking onto the stage where bands had played earlier and mooning whoever was in sight. (Too much information? Just be glad you didn’t see it).

The overall day was a blast, although the weather was colder and windier than the previous year. So there were fewer people, and they shut down things like the mud wrestling pit, and the water slide. But we had plenty of fun, plenty of alcohol, and Gavin scared off as many people as possible by trying to hug them when he was covered in mud (although you should know better to walk through if you don’t have mud on!) We ended in the afternoon in the hot springs, a total blast, and MUCH warmer =)

Learning again about the ad world

2009-07-20T11:20:00.000-07:00

My current project involves social media, and it is fascinating to see what is happening in this space. Specifically you are seeing agencies starting to compete for areas in the value chain, the customer voice is getting stronger (and actually listened to!), and you have some of the same old issues from before. I like this:

Zappos account review is written about, and 170 agencies request to be part of the pitch process (even though 16 were already in the mix!)
http://www.ignitedusa.com/blog/Is30minutestoomuchtoask--894.html

While the company has a valid point, 16 agencies was already a lot. Maybe agencies should stop undercutting each other. But I can't disagree with the idea of opening up your own shop after working in the corporate world ;)

I love this site

2009-07-15T11:19:00.000-07:00

failblog.org (i LOVE this site, i could waste too many hours here ;)

What I miss and don't miss

2009-07-15T06:26:00.001-07:00

Okay, after a trip down to Suwon today, I definitely don't miss the bus. I mean I made the most of it once I had my ipod touch (I played Scrabble, getting two Bingos over the course of the last couple of days). But the 2 hours on the bus? Not missing that at all ;)

But it was great to see the old team members, and I miss most of them. I do wonder, what happens when you see something that you really disagree with? Like a picture of a famous ad executive in the UK, wearing a bad carpet from the 1970s (I mean seriously? if you are in advertising, and talking about 90% of the ads are rubbish, I would say 90% of that coat is rubbish). But it makes you wonder, can you tell someone that what they are wearing just doesn't work? Like golf pants to work? (or some variation thereof).

So I am always feeling mixed emotions in this place (ie Korea). At certain points it reminds me of my time in NYC, when the level of stress was just always a notch or two above what it should have been. And you wonder, did I realize need to lose all of that sleep? Did I need to react so strongly? It comes with the territory, and probably being in a long-distance relationship means that you only have so much patience (and for my sanity, it goes to Michelle!)

And a few asides: Long distance sucks. It really does, and wedding planning long distance? Even less fun. But it came up the idea of why fathers give into their daughters. I joked, "if i can't understand my wife, there is no way I would be able to understand my daughter..."

Biblical weather conditions

2009-07-14T06:38:00.000-07:00

There might as well be Niagara Falls over Seoul right now. The rain pouring down is amazing, just buckets of rain in addition to all of the wind, and the rain is practically pouring sideways (needless to say, not the best day to wear light colored pants!) Or to go to the acupuncturist for that matter! I also have learned where puddles form best in my apartment, one by an open window, and one by a closed window (huh?) Anyway, the weather is most certainly not dull now!

A quote I heard today (and wrinkles). "More lines than Grand Central" I like that one =) On a similar note, found a gray hair today, not overly wild about that. I wonder if Korea is similar to being the president (spend 4 years here and your hair will turn gray?) I am only partially kidding ;)

A weekend of missed times

2009-07-12T06:37:00.000-07:00

So a busy weekend, but one where I definitely had hoped to get more accomplished! I went out on Friday night for a bike ride, feeling the need to clear my head from all of the craziness. Now keep in mind I had hoped to purchase a new spare tube about 5 days ago for my bike, but things kept getting in the way. A good 4-5 km away from my house I went over a sharp corner and felt the back tire end up not quite right. Seriously? NOT tonight...Yup, I walked back the whole way in a pair of biking shoes (I took them off for a point in time to go easy on my shins, at the expense of other parts of my legs of course...) So that was an ominous start. Then out to meet friends for drinks, we ended up as a group singing karaoke until 2 am. Somewhere around 1:30 with 4 dudes (we were all that was left), we wondered if this was perhaps not quite right...

The next day I decided to be lazy and sleep in (quite enjoyed that). Of course it meant that I could not make it to acupuncture until quite late, meaning that a hike or most other day activities were shot. I did pick up sunglasses, my suits, and multiple other things, but errands are not always to be classified as "fun" I am happy with my suits and shirts though! They look great at least! Basketball with friends happened to be rained out (and the two of us that were there didn't have a basketball...oops).

That night was out to meet a friend, we had Italian, awkwardly enough what was sort of a romantic place (not cool for two friends from business school). But it was a good sign when the owner got on the phone to give me directions, and I heard an Italian accent. You know the food has to be decent then! Ended up after in Hongdae, with friends of Richard's. But you know when the people you meet are focused on "getting lucky"? Needless to say it wasn't exactly the scene I was looking for. Especially not when I tried to leave the bouncer seemed intent on making me "stay behind the line" as I was asking him where the exit was. Finally when I was behind the line the absolute asshole listened to me. It turned out to be over the line and right behind him. Seriously, if you are a bouncer, listen before judging. It takes 2 seconds. And all I know is that I won't be recommending that club after that...(It is above M2 in Hongdae ;)

I did not join a group down in Busan for the weekend, much as I would have enjoyed that. This was under the expectation of seeing a friend's football match, which unfortunately happened to be rained out. (As I said, a few misdecisions over the weekend!) But I did manage to finally clean my bike, and then brilliantly enough, go out for a ride (and get it totally dirty again as the stream by Yangjae was very flooded, so much so that after 1 kilometer I decided to ride along the road. It was quite impressive to see however, almost a class 3 rapids!

What did I learn out of the weekend? No idea. I am trying to make the most of my limited weekends (especially in the summertime, and given that I don't know how much time I will have left). I did find a store called "Joo Money" however. I NEED a picture =)

Why do people ask about wedding planning?

2009-07-07T11:18:00.000-07:00

For me it is like asking how getting my wisdom teeth pulled was.

What is it about men?

2009-07-07T06:20:00.000-07:00

We just don't do a very good job of keeping track of our eating. I had dinner at a friend's house, and was definitely filled up when I left. It was very cute that my friend's fiancee had me grab a whole set of food on my way out. She viewed his eating habits the same way Michelle views mine. "If I am not around, you are not eating enough good foot, especially fruits and vegetables!"

It was funny to walk into the house see a young girl (like 8 years old). Huh?? It took me more than a few seconds to realize that it was my friend's fiance's sister. Add to that a very young puppy, and the house was a bit crazy! He is in training to be a dad, even though he isn't even married yet!

Michelle's final trip to Korea

2009-07-06T11:28:00.000-07:00

At least for now, since we know I am headed back in less than 2 months! She definitely had a great time, we went to a former colleagues wedding (he is in Brazil now, but married a Korean, in Seoul with a traditional Korean ceremony). The ceremony looked amazing, although poor guy was dying since the costumes seemed to be made for winter-time, and it was anything but!

On the Friday Michelle came we went shopping (I took the day off), and we found a dress for her, bought more shirts/glasses/etc for me. We won another stuffed animal at the shooting game (I SWEAR though that they made the targets harder, since we barely won!)

Michelle had her moments of being a prankster, running down the hall and jumping near the neighbor's door to make the dog bark (I think the neighbors may have moved, since there wasn't any noise...Maybe from her behavior in the past ;)

Finally on Saturday evening I went to another wedding with colleagues (Michelle was exhausted). It marked one more in a line of weddings this summer, which is crazy!

Back to the same stuff

2009-07-05T11:17:00.000-07:00

I love watching the disconnects between the Korean staff and us. When we have projects that are voluntary but included in our "non-project evaluation" Huh? Doesn't that make it required? Yet the messages never seem to sink in, which is what is so funny about it...Granted I would not be laughing if i was about to start a 2 year contract here, but it takes time to understand the nuances and what really happens. And then time (or patience) to not take it personally (still working on that one of course ;) It has been amusing when they have the third email out about "not speaking loudly in the elevators" Apparently we are all children. As a result, I think we respond in kind ;)

Organizational Behavior

2009-07-04T11:15:00.000-07:00

It has slowly started to dawn on me how the hierarchy really works here. Anyone who is not a VP cannot make a decision here even for the smallest thing like a vacation day (which amazes me sometimes still). At times you realize that it literally is like the army, no private will decide anything (likely not even when they can pee ;)
‎‎
A meeting with the client, who has coffee with the one team member who did not join our kickoff meeting (also being the most senior person). but still, wouldn't information from our initial discussion have been important? (i ask this knowing that in korea it is not what you think they need, it is what they say they want). anything else may get you in trouble (even if it is legitimately what they need ;)

but the issue with not being a strong english speaker always amazes me. If you are head of an international division (or even manager level or higher in an international marketing group for example), shouldn't you speak English well?

Can we reprogram Korean TV?

2009-07-03T11:14:00.000-07:00

Seriously, what is it about death and crimes on korean tv? not one sitcom over here, but almost every CSI/NCIS/Criminal Minds/etc at night on the English channels. And that does not include some bad action movies that i end up watching. True, we are supposed to have super fast cable, or i should download things on iTunes, but laziness wins out, and i end up watching some bad shows. and it really doesn't help a good night's sleep when half of them involve murders. you would think i might learn ;)

The problem with bloggers

2009-07-01T06:21:00.000-07:00

...is that they can be #@$%. I made a mistake in addressing a blogger (for some reason screwing up his name). Now instead of ignoring my email, he choosing to respond not correcting my mistake, but being very rude to my company as a whole. Now as I had written a number of emails, but specifically personalized not just the name but the subject matter of each one, a flippant comment like that only frustrates someone. And the funny thing is that this behavior is encouraged as bloggers get more followers. I suppose it is fine that the world has some people with no class, but email and getting a following entitles people to assume that they can act this way. The real kicker is that I can't respond, because I am writing on behalf of my company, and the last thing I need is to get into PR trouble. But people take their jobs seriously, but also make mistakes.

So I am deleting the last portion of this rant, mainly because the update is that he ended up getting in touch with me later, and we have had several interesting dialogues since then. It does remind me about the impartiality of email and the challenges that it creates, but you do realize in the end that it is a person behind that address.

I don't think this was intended

2009-06-29T11:14:00.000-07:00

So I was awake (or had my eyes open) for a rare moment on the bus ride to suwon recently. And I noticed that across the street from our "compound" was a store called "Samsung City" Now anyone who has read my comment about Citibank in Korea would know why I started smirking when I saw this. Pronounced in Korean (which was right below), it is Samsung Shitty). And given my recent issues with laptops and my phone...

Friends leaving (2 sets of couples)

2009-06-29T06:24:00.000-07:00

So a few more folks leaving. It is funny, as I likely look at the end of my time in Korea, I am reminded by a bunch of the cool things that I have experienced here, the friends that I have made, and the general craziness. And to have a great apartment, and at least at times, a great lifestyle. (at least before I started commuting to Suwon ;) So over yesterday and today, I have two sets of friends leaving. One back to Dubai, and one to the US. I am happy for them, since a new world awaits afterwards, but it is strange to think about the next step on my side as well.

Crashing a Korean wedding

2009-06-28T06:23:00.000-07:00

So at some point in the coming week there will be a lot of confusion between a bride and groom. Because I went to a wedding this past weekend, carefully checking the invitation, but realizing it would be fairly awkward since i didn't know anyone there (other than the groom, and maybe one other person who never responded to my email!) About halfway through the wedding (awkwardly sitting at the table with a group of koreans I didn't know), I decided to look at the invite just ONE more time. The 28th...Wait, isn't that tomorrow? Who knew it was a Sunday wedding? Given that I had already given a small envelope of cash, I decided I needed to at least finish the meal (can you imagine me trying to go up and ask for my money back?) I decided it was worth the W30,000 I had paid for my story of sheer stupidity. I just wonder how the groom and bride will react. Who the hell is Angus Maclaurin!??!

So on Sunday I decided to go back, to the actual wedding. I stood near the corner to take things in (I did not feel overly comfortable sitting down after the previous day, and that whole "being the only white guy at a table filled with koreans who probably just want to hang out with each other and not make small talk with a foreigner." (as an FYI, i feel that more in korea than other asian countries, it is a little more insular here). What was super nice was the groom saw me standing there, and ended up guiding me over to a table of his friends, and the one person I knew, who is actually about to leave Samsung this week). So I had a great time meeting new folks, mainly Korean-Americans, and quite the peanut gallery ;)

The ceremony was almost a carbon copy of the previous day (exact same food btw), and it cracks me up to see how the scene unfolds. Apparently they delayed bringing out the food, which meant a more relaxed ceremony, and they played 3 whole songs (instead of the usual 1), so I joked that it was going to be a "long" Korean ceremony. Literally a full Korean ceremony seems to take 1 to 1.5 hours. I watched the couple come down from the ceiling on a platform, light a large candle, pour champagne on a tower of champagne glasses (that looked REALLY cool, especially with the gas or smoke-like effect when it was poured!) and cut the cake. All in a span of about 10 minutes!

We ended up staying longer than that and I learned from one of the friends visiting from the US about how a traditional Korean ceremony works. They changed dresses (this was the third dress she had worn, the wedding gown was so big that it could have been enough fabric for a small village, and was such a nightmare to move around in, you could tell walking down the aisle was not the easiest of all tasks!) So they both were in traditional Korean wedding attire, and there was a sort of "tea ceremony" with the different families. Of course in Korean style, they were drinking alcohol from the brass kettle ;) They had to catch dates that were thrown by the parents (signifying fertility and how many kids you would have), and he had to give his mother-in-law a piggyback ride (to show he was taking the burden off her in terms of caring for her daughter. I think James felt like he should have spent more time in the gym at this point, and the peanut gallery was likely not appreciated at this point ;) But at least they could blame things on having at least 2 full-fledged foreigners there. If this had been Koreans only, it might be been rude, instead of funny (although it was the Korean Americans that were making the most noise ;)

Samsung quality or not

2009-06-27T11:13:00.000-07:00

I remember my 2nd cellphone very well - actually my 2nd and 3rd phones, since the 2nd one had the notorious issue of faulty wiring between the base and the speaker (it was a clamshell design). Needless to say after those experiences, I switched from Samsung phones, sick of the quality issues (which many of my friends had). On the whole there has been a lot of talk about how the quality has improved, but it was not evident last weekend. Over the course of 1.5 days, my screen stopped turning on (unless I slid the phone shut). The screen being on when you slide is shut is okay, but not if you actually want to access your address book, see who called, etc. (After missing a phone call on Friday night, I had to call back, asking "who is this?" and hoping I was not dialing an international number). Needless to say, it was an easy (and fairly cheap fix), but the same thing happened to Michelle's phone, and the camera on mine was also broken (that was not going to be a cheap fix. $50+ for a 1.3 megapixels of crap? sorry). So needless to say, I am not happy with the Samsung quality again, and I won't even get started on the fact that my computer battery lasts all of 10 minutes.

What I do find interesting will be the iphone launch over here. The pricing on the phone is very low, and a number of foreigners I know intend to purchase the phone. If iPhone succeeds in breaking into this market, it might be one of the best things for Samsung (a much needed wake-up call). The technology here is amazing, but services and quality (not that Apple is any better on that one, Nokia is though), not so much...Interesting times in Seoul!

Headed back to GSG

2009-06-27T06:25:00.000-07:00

So last week it became official. I am headed back to GSG for the last 2 months of my current contract. I told a number of my team last week (including a bunch of them during my impromptu birthday celebration on Friday). It is tough to leave the team, as much of a hassle as it has been. I feel in some ways that I am just getting started, and learning more about how to do really drive things to the next level. But the personal side of life is important as well, and even my VP understands that ideally you want to live in the same continent as your partner!

Facebook means birthdays cannot be hidden

2009-06-26T06:36:00.000-07:00

So the trickles started early with 1-2 people wishing me a happy birthday. It is nice to get the attention of course, although I can definitely blame the Facebook wall for that ;) Funny though that no one on the teams knew about it. So at 4:30 pm I casually mentioned it to a co-worker, saying "I wonder if I should cause trouble for my team by telling them it is my birthday ;) He went into overdrive (which was amusing, since he had forgotten his jeans at home and was wearing gym pants (and therefore couldn't leave his desk. After an hour long conference call, I had an ice cream cake and a whole group of people to celebrate with. It was really great, although it was tough since when I gave my "speech" I had to tell the team that I am returning to my old group =( I like this team, and I have enjoyed the year + that I have been here!

I went out that night with some friends, we ended up taking over a local bar in the Karosookil area. Even out was my friend Han (who has a 9 month old baby, he was crazier than I was though, staying up until the sunrise...It ended up biting him however, since he arrived home to his wife handing him the baby. You want to try and take care of a baby after pulling an all-nighter? ;) He somehow managed a game of basketball with us in the afternoon, but Sunday was not so good a day for him...I had an awkward moment on Friday night when I saw someone I knew, and put my hand on their shoulder, only to realize it was NOT someone I knew. (This is the 2nd time this has happened, and it is amazingly awkward when they turn around).

On Saturday I had a few friends over (all in time to discover that the air conditioner in my living room no longer works! Update: apparently I did not open the window in my laundy room where the venting unit is, another of my "not so smart" moves this weekend) In came the second birthday cake (although it was amusing when I was giving directions, and the person on the other end thought they were talking with someone else "okay, i understand where the apartment is, can you come out since i have a cake for him?" "umm, do you realize who you are talking to?" an audible "shit" from the other end of the phone. ;)

The weekend was great, but I will say, 3 am both weekend nights = exhausted. My body doesn't recover well from that!

Amusing new phrase

2009-06-23T11:11:00.000-07:00

The other day a colleague told me about a phrase that goes something like: "pissing on your feet when you are in the snow and ice" The general meaning is that it may be a short-term solution to making your feet warmer, but in the long-run, it makes it worse (much less the fact you just peed on yourself). The ramifications of this phrase are broad, and how many business decisions are made thinking only about the short-term profit? (This is not one company specifically, or at least I choose not to comment on my current company, but it is worldwide). I guess humans and their companies like to piss on their feet too often ;)

Busy weekend, bad weather

2009-06-21T11:12:00.000-07:00

The weekend started a bit early, Thursday night to be exact. There was a Haas alumni dinner, with 41 people showing up, including one undergrad and classes ranging from 1987 to the new admits for this year. My class was out in full-force, with 8 of 11 joining. It was great to see this group, it had been since the poker night that we had all seen each other! I saw a few folks from previous years, colleagues from Samsung (including people I had never met but work right next to!)

Friday was quiet (necessarily so), and Saturday I was dismayed as the rain came down. But there was a silver lining to that cloud, I was able to see a bboy competition (one on one break dancing competition). I definitely felt about 10 years too old, and my ears were assaulted a few times by dog-whistle level screams for one of the Korean dancers. It was highly entertaining, one of Sunghee's friends actually breakdances, and was telling us more about how it is judged, what different hand movements mean, etc.

I also walked to a hotel called the "Imperial Palace" which was really interesting. My camera battery decided to go right in the middle of my tour around the hotel (which was a cool French Renaissance decor), so I ended up with fewer bboy pictures later unfortunately. That specifically meant no pictures of a female dancer with quite possibly the worst color dress (and combination of army boots) I had ever seen. But I have no doubt that floral patterned mumu will not leave my mind for a number of years.

That night was out to a friend's place and then a club. I broke out my "Foreigner" t-shirt, which always gets a bunch of laughs. One of my co-workers girlfriends practically yanked the jacket off my back to ensure that people could see my t-shirt.

Finally done!

2009-06-20T06:37:00.000-07:00

The TV commercial that took months (if not years) out of my life is finally almost done. Well it is finished, but now the goal is promoting it. And that takes more time and energy than I originally realized!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCqxSbGdzLY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRvXtqUpwtU

What is amazing though is that I started to reach out to people for the TV commercial, as a true grassroots marketing, and it is impressive the responses I get. (Not necessarily the PR stories that I want, but still, that people respond at alL!) And this includes some of these are famous people (Seth Godin), who I would not have thought would respond. Yes, you could say it helps that I work for Samsung, but it does remind you about the importance of a personal touch...

A light at the end of the tunnel

2009-06-15T11:10:00.000-07:00

It has almost been 2 years in Korea (hard to believe), and I finally am near the end of the promotion for the music phone. The downside is that we created something interesting, but it is never enough (at least not for what we wanted to do out of it!) It is hard to believe that my 2 years is almost done though, I am excited about what's next, but also scared since so much is up in the air! It has in some ways made it easier to be more relaxed and try to take things with a grain of salt. I am still not sure how people spent 10 years here though. Perhaps it would help if I was married to a Korean. But I think Michelle would have something to say about that!

Two weddings

2009-06-01T11:06:00.000-07:00

Two weddings on consecutive weekends, plus a whole set of work in the week in between. It was great to see friends and former colleagues, but it was a lot to fit in! Michelle and I realized that we can never look at a wedding in the same way again, as we were analyzing details, trying to figure out what we could easily do or not do...I did love being back in the US in some senses, like things like call waiting, voicemail (you know, for a country that is supposedly way ahead of the curve, Korea is in the stone ages for this one!) Was of course welcomed by the other parts of the US (unfriendly old ladies who wouldn't give me directions, thank you chatham NJ, HUGE portion sizes, etc). But i know how to deal with all of that, and it is in a language I can speak ;)

Athletic weekend

2009-05-09T11:04:00.000-07:00

It was a busy athletic weekend. I went biking with with kevin for the 2nd time, a 2 hour ride. I definitely was feeling a little out of shape by the end of it! Then the next day was basketball, which ended in quite a jammed finger (that is still an issue 3 weeks later!) And ended Sunday night with playing Rock Band at a friend's house. The goal was to be as loud as possible to annoy the neighbors (who had called to complain on previous occasions when the music wasn't very loud).

Trip to Borneo!

2009-05-03T11:05:00.000-07:00

Now this was a great little vacation from everything! Michelle came over to Korea and China, and we spent about 5 days in Borneo, exploring a variety of climates, foods, and underwater worlds! We arrived the first night and went off to a local market with a friend of a friend (who was our guide for a few days). We sampled a number of unique dishes, including a great chicken served out of bamboo. The next day we woke up to pouring rain (my heart dropped, since the weather forecast for our whole trip was rain - I had prayed it was wrong). Thankfully the rain lasted about 30 minutes and we went on to enjoy humid but beautiful weather! During breakfast we had birds (small birds like sparrows) flying around and occasionally landing on tables, adding a nice touch. We hired a car for the first day ($200 to drive us around for the day, which must have been a king's ransom in that country!) We drove out to the jungle area, with a range of activities for the day. Tea farms, swimming in the river with suction cup fishes (you bought food to hold in your hand, and these little Hoovers would suck it right out!) Once i gripped my hand tightly, and a fish gave me a massive hickey on my hand! Michelle had fun dropping food pellets as close to my mouth as possible, causing as close to a feeding frenzy as possible!

The afternoon we went to the jungle, including a canopy walk. It happened to be a national holiday, and we spent a good 40 minutes waiting in line to go on the canopy walk (so much so that we ended up missing our hot springs appointment. That and the fact our guide sent us in the wrong direction towards the canopy walk). It was amusing though, we had some people on the canopy walk who were not exactly what you would call comfortable with heights. Michelle did not help matters when casually talking about how the nets did not look safe (as we were 40 meters off the ground). Then, to end the day, we saw a Rafflesia flower, which is the largest flower in the world (it can be up to a meter in diameter. What is amazing is that they take 7-15 months to grow, and then they only bloom for a week!! As a result, they are fairly rare to see, but one of the locals found one on their property. It was well worth the $10 to go and see it!

The next day we wandered around Kinabalu National park, and hopped off to our next stop, an island resort. This was intentionally luxurious, we were on a house on stilts over the water. The resort had snorkel gear, a marine preserve, a spa, and an infinity pool! We made the most of all of the above and then some! What was amazing was that it was about a 15 minute boat ride from Kota Kinabalu (and even visible from it), but you felt miles away. We went swimming, collected shells, and settled down to a nice dinner of fresh fish. You know it is always a good sign when the menu changes based on what was recently caught! We sat by the sea and would continually hear splashing of fish, and at one point we saw a cloud of brown -- it turned out we watched a squid ink a would be predator!

The following day was a big water day, with scuba diving on the horizon. I was battling a cold (NOT a good idea to dive due to inner ear issues, but I decided to be reckless). Needless to say, my morning dive did not go well, and then in the afternoon Michelle almost ran out of oxygen! So it was a bit of an unnerving day, but we were able to see a bunch of marine life. Malaysia is known for some of the best dive sites in the world, and if we had more time, we would have gone to some of them! We happened to go to a beach where there were a number of Koreans. You knew that was the case when we saw a mother and her babies almost completed covered in hats and suits to protect themselves from the sun. (The even funnier part was seeing them in the same getup at the pool in our last day in Kota Kinabalu, after I had predicted to Michelle that they wouldn't stay in an eco-resort, but instead in KK at a resort like ours...) That night was a necessary calm night, and we both enjoyed a great massage. This was in contrast with dinnertime, where we saw some serious forces of brutality (crabs mating - it was hard to tell who was meaner, the men or the women!) We had another fantastic meal though, and went to sleep tired but happy.

2 am provided a scare however, with howling winds. The sun umbrella outside our door was thrown around, and our whole house seemed to shake. Knowing you are sleeping over the water does not help your sense of well-being, but they were well built! We woke up not fully refreshed, but determined to make the most of our last day at the resort. We went kayaking, snorkeling around the resort (Michelle saw a bunch of baracudas within a few meters of us). We took the kayak over to a nearby beach, and started to collect shells. Michelle found one she really liked, the only downside was that there was a hermit crab in it. She tried everything, from blowing on it to some small shaking, he refused to leave (even as she produced one that looked almost exactly the same). The whole scene was highly amusing, although I better hope she doesn't do the same to me at any point ;)

We went to the marine eco-center and planted coral, saw a snapping turtle (this bugger looked mean and like he wanted to climb out of the tank, and man he seemed close!) We picked up a peeing cucumber, saw some of the worlds largest clams, and learned about clownfish. (It is really cool that they are immune to sea anemones - the only animal that is like that - and they have a symbiotic relationship).

The last afternoon we wandered around Kota Kinabalu, seeing the local markets, stopping every 10 minutes for another of Michelle's favorite fruit. We gorged on salak fruit, coconut juice, and many others. The food overall was great in Malaysia, from a milky tea called Tea Tarik, a coffee that seemed mixed with Chai tea, and some really great beef. I could definitely live on this food! We went to Reflexology that night, according to the pressure points that hurt, almost every one of my internal organs and body parts are messed up ;) It was an amazing 1.5 hour reflexology and massage though, definitely worth it! Speaking of which, i need to make the most of the Thai massage places I found in Seoul a few weeks back. About $50 for 90 minutes! We returned to the hotel tired but happy. There was a festival going on in the hotel, and we wandered around, seeing ethnic clothing, dances, and tried a juice called "Noni juice" that tasted about as bad as it smelled. Supposedly good for you though ;)

Weekend in Shanghai

2009-04-25T11:06:00.000-07:00

Michelle had two weekends on this side of the world, and we made the most of them. We traveled to Shanghai for one of them. I was still caught up in the middle of a TV commercial - it was not ideal to talk on her phone in Shanghai to clear up issues. Once that phone call was over though, we had a great dinner with a business school classmate and his friend. Some great Balinese food! From there we explored the "artistic street" with all sorts of cute bars and shops (so interesting that we returned there the next day!)

The following day we continued to explore (fairly blind, since neither of us had a guidebook of China, having both left them at home). We returned to a place where we had been the previous year, and man where there about 10 times the number of people! I watched a Chinese older woman just push someone else out of the way. That was NOT well received by the foreigner. Michelle and I looked around for some wedding gifts and centerpieces. Watching her negotiate is always an experience, but she lost it at a certain point when they were trying to yank her around. While it was part of the gamesmanship, we were tired and finished with the game. We took plan B to have a friend in China look into it. We ended the night with a walk along the Bund, which looks beautiful at night with all of the lit up buildings! From there it was back to our hotel with a very large bathtub (definite ideas for a future house!)

We ended the trip with seeing a good friend from high school and his wife and not-so-little anymore baby boy. Tom-Tom seemed to love hanging out on my shoulder, I think it is because i had a super comfortable shirt (i wonder if parents end up wearing soft clothes so their kids like them more? :)

The return was a bit of an ominous sign. Michelle and I played on the ipod touch (which i was officially addicted to after about 4 days. Michelle and I had to have a rule of only 3 games of Scramble at a time on our vacation or we barely talked with each other). We became so engrossed in the game, we managed to miss our stop on the bus. And with very little English ability for the bus driver, that was interesting! The bus karma unfortunately continued for the next week. First I mistimed the bus in the morning, and waited for about 40 minutes for the next one, another day i had to take a cab to work since I was late, and for the first time ever I got on the wrong bus going home! (And that was not ideal, as I tried to politely ask random people next to me if the bus went to Seoul (or heaven forbid, the opposite direction). Thankfully it ended up in Seoul, but about 40 minutes late. That did not go over well for our dinner plans...

ATMs not open 24 hours, I never understood this!

2009-03-23T11:03:00.000-07:00

So there are a few 24 hour ATMs in Korea, but there are also a large number that close at night. Wasn't the purpose of an ATM to be open whenever? Sigh, i should stop trying to figure out Korea...

Half-Chinese

2009-03-21T11:02:00.000-07:00

I was invited by a friend of mine to Hot pot over the weekend, it was the Chinese crowd gathering. My friend Han said, "well you are half-Chinese" which I suppose is fairly true, even though it is the one language over here i don't speak (apologies to Cantonese and all of the southeast asian languages ;) The sign outside of the restaurant had a large fish and crab (michelle's and my signs, I had to get a picture!)

Anchovies and Almonds?

2009-03-20T10:57:00.000-07:00

Eww. Yes I saw this as a type of canned nuts at the local 7-11. Yikes! Speaking of amusing mixes of things however, I went out to dinner last Sunday with my friends Tom & Claire and friends of theirs from out of town, and we ate "Omurice" (which stands for omelet and rice). The Omurice came with an additional element, ranging from Cheeseburger (on top of the omelet mind you) to Tandoori Chicken.

Japan cannot hit Bong

2009-03-17T06:48:00.000-07:00

Quote from espn: Bong (2-0) held Japan hitless (I am totally taking this out of context!) No hits off the Bong for you!! On a related note, i have never seen people move in the office so quickly as when the World Baseball Classic of Japan and Korea was happening. WOW.

Fish market

2009-03-16T10:56:00.000-07:00

With Michelle here, we decided to visit the fish market in Seoul. It was quite a spectacle, with a whole warehouse of different types of fish, mussels, shrimp, etc. Michelle and I wandered with slight bewilderment of what to actually order. We ended up choosing some shrimp and a mussel that was about 6 inches long! The great thing is that you can then take your purchase to a restaurant one floor above, and they will cook it for you there. I definitely should have gone there earlier! Next time hopefully I will go with a local to tell me what to order, but we'll see...

Buying antiques

2009-03-16T10:54:00.000-07:00

So my parents gave us a really nice present of a Korean chest (or money to purchase an antique chest). Michelle and I went shopping when she was here to find a nice one. We ended up finding two, one not an antique, but a really cool step chest. The furniture here is really beautiful, solid wood with interesting designs. We have no idea how the two of us will combine all of our furniture when the time comes, but we will figure that out at some point!

Birthday party

2009-03-15T10:55:00.000-07:00

Michelle's birthday was during the middle of the week (terrible timing), but we made the most of it by celebrating the following weekend (she came out for 4 days, which was awesome, and thankfully it was covered by miles, the 3rd flight in 1.5 years that I have paid for by miles...) We had a whole group out (we took over a room in a restaurant called "Organic Noodle Bar"), 13 of us in total if i remember correctly, and she had two cakes (both excellent). Definitely a fun time!

Days 2-5: Laos

2009-01-27T22:01:00.000-08:00

The Kuang Si waterfalls near Luang Prabang were definitely one of the highlights. They had several layers of waterfalls and we wandered up above the falls, and then went swimming down below. I dove in (the depth was enough, although I was told that I probably wasn't very smart by doing that…Gavin redeemed me later by doing a backflop, and I have pictures to see the carnage in action…) I managed to also stub the daylights out of my toe, which definitely limit my mobility (still even back in Seoul). And for all of the dumb stuff I did, this happened while running up the stairs barefoot?!?

The next day (any nighttime activities from the previous night are censored) we took a 2.5 hour boat ride up the river to see the Pak Ou Caves. These caves have had old Buddhist statues in them for more than 5 centuries. There were hundreds of them, ranging from 2 centimeters tall to larger than life versions. We stopped by a whiskey village on the way there (part of the tour, although we decided to only have a small sip, it was too early to start that!) I also talked with a Buddhist monk on the way to the boat, who had a very cute dog, Toto. The monks were so friendly, it is such a different world to have someone talk with you without the usual pan-handling (yes, I have spent too much time in places that have jaded me perhaps). The English of many of the monks was surprisingly good! I wish I could speak any language (other than English) that well!

We saw a number of sights, from murals on temple walls, to kids selling birds in cages (so foreigners can release them, a very sustainable business model for them…) The food was excellent, and one of my favorite elements was the massages. The massages were anywhere between $5-10 for an hour, and similar to a Thai massage. Fantastic and much needed after our long days. I just needed more hours in a day to get more! All of us joked that we wanted to open a Samsung office in Luang Prabang. After all, it is the second biggest city in Laos (with 100,000 people to put that in perspective ;)

Each night from 5 to 10 pm, they have a night market that was great. Rows upon rows of scarves, tablecloths, shirts, and little trinkets. I made a beeline for the ATM, and proceeded to buy more paintings, scarves and random knick-knacks.

One of the things that surprised me was that the people here were so short. It makes me wonder if it was nutrition or genetics (or likely a certain combination of both). This led to some amusing comments, none of which I shall publish. Not that any of that mattered, the great thing about Laos was the friendliness of the people and the lack of a full-touristy feel. You can see the tourist elements of the area increasing, but it still retains a large portion of its charm. I can only imagine what it was like 20 years ago though!

The final day we just wandered around the town, hiked up the hill in the middle of the town and relaxed. It was far too short a visit, and I know that my compatriots are planning a return trip. The challenge is that it is not an easy place to get to! But there are plenty of more adventures to be had in Laos, and more unique sights to see. The only thing we need is more vacation time!

Next stop: Luang Prabang

2009-01-24T22:00:00.000-08:00

We opened with a bang in Laos. No one had bothered to actually print out the hotel name or address (oops). After a few miscues and "discussions" with the cab driver, we arrived at our hotel. It turned out to be next to two of the best bars in town (although the town takes about 20-30 minutes to walk across the main areas, so nothing was much more than a stone's throw away. Dinner included some great local food (water buffalo), and a bottle of absinthe (not a great idea). Gavin very quickly earned the reputation of instigating without typically finishing his drinks (the vodka shots a couple of days later was another example of this).

The next stop: bowling? Yes, I was in shock for a while about the idea of bowling in Laos, add to that the alcohol/fatigue/etc and I reached new levels of productivity in my game (66? I hadn't scored that low since Candlepin, and for those of you that know what that means, you will understand…Candlepin actually happened to be one of the few activities at night in Peterborough growing up, but that is another story).

Day 1: Hanoi

2009-01-23T22:00:00.000-08:00

The first night we spent in Hanoi, and toured around the city the next day for a few hours. I had heard great things about Hanoi, and I still love the energy and friendliness of the people. We stayed around the "Old Quarter" where there were a number of narrow streets representing different types of shops. We managed to find the painting street, and Gabriel and I bought some interesting paintings. I will need a lot of wall space that I currently don't have, but better to have options, right? (That only works in certain circumstances, do not take that out of context!)

We wandered around the lake, enjoyed some good local food, and just took in the craziness of some of the market streets and the bunches of mopeds. It was definitely calmer than Saigon, but not on the way to the airport. Our cab driver (I think the first female cab driver I ever had) turned around in the middle of a one-way street to get out of traffic. Needless to say, we decided that Hanoi was "too far" to visit on our return with our 5 hour layover back to Seoul. 2 hours to go 20 km (or so it felt) was just a little too much to ask!

Holiday season in Laos, doh!

2009-01-20T21:58:00.000-08:00

A realization about 5 days for the trip to Laos was that rooms were surprisingly hard to come by. A few phone calls, and we managed to find a hotel, but man that was close! As it was, we weren't exactly prompt on booking the tickets (there were a few culprits on this, partially our travel agent, and partially a lot of talk by some members of the group). Needless to say though, even with our lack of planning, we still managed to get all of the main details in order and to the airport. On for the fun part of the trip!

I swear i don't get the heat in my place. The one day the temperature seems right, i discover the window is open...And let me tell you, that window issue is getting worse, coming home (i turned the heat off, given that 5 days out of the country, why not save money, right? or perhaps also save natural resources, since saving money does not seem to be something I have done very well...)

There is snow on the ground in suwon, it is very interesting since there is really none in seoul. Was quite a wake up call to come back to the cold, it was around 85-90 degrees in Laos! After a few days of walking around with t-shirts and shorts, Seoul was a brutal shock. Add to that the red-eye (3.5 hour red-eye), and none of us have been in very good shape today!

The weekend turned into quite a boys weekend, with drinking every night, stories of trouble we all caused as trips (Gabriel won with his stories of flaming soccer balls, paintball guns, etc). We ended up each night at the local bowling alley (all bars closed at midnight, the dance club at 1 am, and then the bowling alley at 3 am). Needless to say, the group made the most of the nights (I called in early at 1 am, 2 am, and 12 am respectively). The last night was due to a desire to see the monks receive alms from the villagers at 6 am. That was not an easy wakeup, especially given that it was still dark!

We had a few airline issues (not finding a name in the system, not giving back the paper ticket to one of our party), and then the usual sorts of negotiations with tuk-tuk drivers. But somehow we ended up getting to where we needed to go, more or less intact. We almost didn't make a few with Gavin climbing on top of the tuk-tuk (this was far more amusing to us than the driver…)

A bike ride (i am crazy, and likely sick now)

2009-01-18T22:03:00.000-08:00

My weekends have been spent trying to accomplish a lot (and succeeding in about a quarter of what I set out to do). I saw an art show that one of my colleagues from GSG curated). The other weekend though I was set on going to the museum, and unfortunately I allowed myself to be sucked into some terrible TV shows. When I emerged from Cocoon Maclaurin at 4:30 pm, I realized it was surprisingly warm (aka the 40s likely). Time for a bike ride. Yes I am certifiably insane, but it was so nice to be working out outside! I may likely pay for that by being sick, but I enjoyed at least the first 30-40 minutes of the ride!

In general I am much lazier on the weekends, I wonder if I can blame this the daily commute to Suwon? I did go "bar hopping" with my friend's Tom and Claire (one of her good friends was in town) and we made it to a bar that played some old-school music videos (Soul Asylum's "Runaway Train", Billy Joel's "We didn't start the fire"). It was great you pick a song that you haven't heard in ages, and you request it. They have a surprisingly good selection!

I have been bouncing far too much between Seoul and Suwon recently. Meetings in the middle of the day, dentist appointments, and conference calls at 8 pm...It has been busy from that perspective, but it was nice to have drinks with my team on Wednesday. Our kick-off dinner for the new project consisted of Quizznos for dinner, an 8 pm conference call, and then a bunch of beers afterwards. Very nice, and the level of tame that was necessary! (you have to be careful of the team dinners in Korea!)

2.5 month old Mac computer, already broken?!?!

2009-01-18T22:02:00.000-08:00

I think that the title says it all. VERY frustrating. I lost my computer for 5 days (it had to happen on a weekend, to add insult to injury). Something with the hard-drive, which they claimed was scratched. Have you been using this on a corner or at any angle? Um, no, I am pretty sure I was sold a defective one....So was not very happy with Apple with this one, but it is back and running smoothly for now. Fingers crossed!

Unnecessary in the steam room

2009-01-17T22:04:00.000-08:00

Now i have friends that talk about Koreans being slightly rude with pushing in lines or spitting. But letting out gas in the steam room? That was a new low, and one that even caught me off guard...WOW

Lost skis

2008-12-30T22:05:00.000-08:00

Nothing like being reminded of the positive sides of humanity. I had just bought a new pair of skis (demo skis from last year), and we attempted to ski on the 30th. Needless to say, the wind was insane, and they ended up shutting down all but one lift on the mountain. A lost day, we headed back for a long lazy lunch. Unfortunately slightly too long, since when I came out to pack the car, my skis were missing. Yep, those 5 runs just got a lot more expensive, someone had stolen my skis =( I made the report, and afterwards another skier mentioned that she saw two men that seemed sketchy by the skis who took an orange pair of skis. Sigh. Hopefully one of these days Sunday River can put in security cameras, especially given that the cost of a lift ticket is up to $77 a day!

I have been in the process of trying to get a new pair of skis, unfortunately the eBay bidding had it in for me – I got outbid at lunch time, with 1 minute to go on the bidding =( One of these days I will find the right ones!

Death Hill

2008-12-29T22:07:00.000-08:00

After the lost day of skiing, we decided to walk down to "Death Hill" where the rest of the group was sledding. Needless to say, we did not anticipate well, given how cold it was, and requests for us to join (I was there to take pictures after all). We hopped on the toboggan twice, and the second time was a true near death experience! Michelle and I were launched out of the sled at breakneck speed – I ended up with a sprained ankle and Michelle with a tennis ball sized bruise, somehow my cousin Will and his girlfriend managed to stay on the sled. Needless to say, broken body parts and all, we had an exhilarating time!

Snow storm versus rain versus ice…can't win!

2008-12-26T22:08:00.000-08:00

The weather led to a large number of adventures, the first which I only saw the aftereffects of. There was a crazy ice storm in the middle of December that left my parents without power for 12 days! (I only encountered 2 days of that, and thankfully my father had brought up two generators, so we had "lights" wired by extension cords). The sheer number of poles down was unbelievable, trees in fragments, and utility workers from as far as Canada and South Carolina!

The next portion was the snow storm, which I was able to "enjoy" on my plane flight from Korea. It returned on the Sunday we were supposed to drive up to Boston for a family gathering. I say supposed to since we were stuck in Connecticut since the plows had done a less than competent job the previous night. We couldn't make it out of the driveway! We made the most of it by walking to Costco and watching movies. Frustrating, but at least we had power ;)

Finally mother nature confirmed to have it in for us by dumping plenty of days of rain on us, ensuring that the skiing would be solid ice. It was nice to still have a white Christmas though!

Lots of family time, new baby!

2008-12-24T22:07:00.000-08:00

It was fantastic to have 2 weeks back on the east coast, and have plenty of family time. It is tough to be so far away from friends and family for 2 years (at least business school I was near my sister and nephew and on the same continent!) So I enjoyed being at home, catching up with friends, having great food, and doing wedding planning with Michelle and my family. We did have several days when we were staying at a different place every night, but at least all places were home to one of the two of us!

And of course, the other great element was a new baby in the family! My cousin Nick has a new baby girl, she is adorable (and I saw her when she was less than a day old! (Before they had even chosen the name Eliza).

Plane crashes

2008-12-19T22:05:00.000-08:00

I think that I chose the absolute worst day of the year to travel back from Korea. I felt very lucky to have an open seat next to me on the 12 hour flight. What wasn't so lucky was my choice of books. I was reading Malcolm Gladwell's latest book, "Outliers" which happened to have a chapter on Korean Airlines plane crashes about 10 years ago. NOT helpful to my peace of mind as I was flying Korean Airlines! The landing then didn't help, as the first time the pilot had to pull up at the last minute due to turbulence. The Incredible Hulk might as well have been shaking our plane like a rag doll – at one point at least half of the plane screamed. A kid the row up from me lost his lunch, and one of my friends told me afterwards that it was the first time she had ever lost her lunch on a flight. A random side note, the airsickness bags on the flight were not that easy to use (you have to tear off the top, isn't the point to have this as easily accessible as possible?!?). After getting my bag ready, I spent the time breathing deeply and praying. Finally on the 3rd attempt we managed to land, and I can say I never applauded so hard for anything. Easily the worst conditions I had EVER landed in, and it took me 20 minutes to feel moderately normal and back on solid ground!

Holiday cheer

2008-12-15T22:15:00.000-08:00

Seeing Christmas lights up everywhere, we had Thanksgiving dinner at a friend's place (the food was amazing, including a turkey, pumpkin pie – the works!) Then I went to "8 Reindeer Monologues" a hysterical play that discusses whether or not Santa has actually been a good person or not. A riot.

The weekend included poker with friends as well, always a tough one, I had several bad hands but ended up doing well in the end. I always feel a touch guilty about taking someone's money (ie ending the game early for one person). It was a lot of fun though, minus the surprise phone call from Germany at 9:30 pm about our marketing plan. (A European calling late on a Friday night?!?! Or at least I would have thought he realized what time it was for me based on my previous email, but details…)

More fun work decisions

2008-12-08T22:17:00.000-08:00

So Samsung has been hit by the recession, at least to a degree. There are varying rumors about how many people will not have their contract renewed. (But apparently there is also a social contract with the government ensuring that Samsung will not fire a large number of people during a recession. The amusing element involves the various cost efficiencies they are imposing however. They now turn off the lights at lunch ("You must go to lunch now!"), at GSG they took away our coffee-maker, they took away the plastic cups in our coffee maker in Suwon (to put it in perspective, we have one of the cheapest coffee makers here, so I am not surprised that this one is still here.

The other amusing element involves the short-term focus of this place. A quote from a senior (very senior manager) to a friend of mine: "2 year plan is great, but what about my next 6 months?" Long-term plans?

Monday are Mondays, right? I nearly lost it today with a security guard (not a good idea). I found out the bus to Suwon was 30 minutes later than I expected. So I sat down to wait (next to a group waiting in line. A security guard came over to tell me that I need to get off the stone wall (or stand in front of it). I mean do people really have anything better to do? "Wait, this MIGHT reflect badly on Samsung, or annoy a senior exec, therefore..." again, wow.

Touring my parents around

2008-12-07T22:18:00.001-08:00

I had the weekend to show my parents around Seoul (this also ensured that I left the GSG holiday party after Round 1, instead of Round 2 or 3 (which would have been closer to 2 am I think). I showed them my favorite spots, from coffee shops, to furniture stores (they proceeded to buy up half of Seoul, including a set of doors weighing likely over 100 lbs, and will not go back to the US until I move back) We met up with friends for lunch and dinner on Sunday, took them to Dr Fish (my dad lasted 2 minutes, my mom put both arms and legs in to maximize her experience). On Sunday it was significantly colder, and I made as many stops into stores and also into coffee shops to keep us all warm. I don't mind the cold, but a significant oversight to not have brought my hat! Ah well, it is winter time, and Seoul is no San Francisco…It will definitely better prepare me for New Hampshire though (and my bedroom, the igloo ;) My parents were doing their best over here by opening the window each night though. Even with my heat almost off, they still wanted it colder…Amazing.

Tis the season for work events/dinners

2008-12-07T22:18:00.000-08:00

4 days in a row of eating/drinking for work...memories of my Ogilvy days...Two with businesses we are working with (ie Americans, plus one British guy, we liked him as well). One night was our team's dinner, and I was told that apparently I need to smile more (or ensure that my team has more fun). Yes, I am too serious, and and this is even more true after a Monday morning. God, I could use warmer weather ;)

Friday was the GSG holiday party, which my parents joined (and drew the name out of a hat for one of the prizes. I was told that since they didn't pick me, they obviously didn't love me ;) We had auctions, which included significant overbidding – thankfully there was no extra vacation day to bankrupt me this year ;) The theme was the 70s, and I pulled out my Halloween costume (Anchorman) from 2 years ago. Great time, and some very impressive creativity – one person could have been in the Royal Tannenbaums (Owen Wilson's character). We came in second for trivia, not bad given that my parents acknowledged early on that they would be no help.

Saturday we had a Harvard dinner at a great Italian place. It included an adorable 2 year old (apparently the most difficult of the bunch, so he was sent to Korea with his dad), a Yankee swap, and great food. Apparently it was mainly couples on a Saturday (when the events are on a weeknights you have more singles, but fewer parents/couples). All told it was great to meet some new people and keep my parents entertained (it was impressive, they stayed up late and had a great time, even though I kept them out with friends until 10 pm on several nights! In the US I have learned to not call them after 9:30 pm unless I want to hear a groggy voice. Must have been jet lag ;)

The "old man"

2008-12-06T22:16:00.000-08:00

I wanted to write a quick caveat. For all of the traveling that I actually do, on many weekends I am extremely lazy. Leaving the apartment only at 3 pm in the afternoon, watching bad movies on TV, etc. And funny enough, most of that does not involve getting details (ie wedding stuff, or my blog) done. It involves surfing ESPN, sitting on the couch, etc. But we need those days off, that re-charge time, or at least I seem to!

Weekend trip to China

2008-12-05T22:16:00.000-08:00

This has become almost the norm, the third time I have done a weekend in China. I went to Beijing and Xian with my parents and Michelle. I had two main things I wanted to see, the Terra Cotta warriors in Xi'an and the Summer Palace in Beijing. Neither one disappointed, and we had a great time learning about the history of China and surviving the cold. The only let-down was the Forbidden City, we were all exhausted and had not had enough lunch (ie almost none, and what we had had was due to me being a royal pain to Michelle earlier and her buying baked yams…) My parents seemed fairly disgusted by the size of the Forbidden city (okay great, more big ostentatious buildings). After the summer palace, it was harder to appreciate the Forbidden City, which surprised me. That said, it is still amazing, and on a warmer day with more food in our bellies…

Xi'an was really cool, it is amazing the sheer size everything. And to think that it had been hidden for centuries! 54 square kilometers, how do you hide that?!?! Apparently by killing everyone who worked on it (but they didn't consider him a nice Emperor, actually probably most of the rulers of China are people I would never want to meet, but must have been amazing people in one way shape or form!) Speaking of, it was interesting to read about one dynasty that buried the previous emperor (Ming dynasty I think) out of respect of tradition. That is totally different from a country like Egypt which defaced the previous pharaohs. Anyway, the Terra Cotta warriors were amazing, and so colorful in their time! Hard to believe that they have uncovered 600 pits (and really only excavated about 3 of them). They are waiting until they have the technology to really preserve them. So much history in this land, I definitely need to spend at least a year traveling around China! (of course I wouldn't mind learning Mandarin first though!)

Wedding planning, too many details

2008-11-20T22:13:00.000-08:00

I heard from my cousin (as a joke a few years ago) that you will be told by friends to just elope, the planning is a royal pain. You laugh and then half-way through realize that it WOULD have been a lot easier…My parents did not think that a trip to Vegas was funny by the way. I am starting to get a first-hand understanding of everything that is going into wedding planning however. Just setting up the website takes hours. And then you find out that they charge for the type of website…(it took me another couple of hours to get all of the information back down!)

Some great moments recently

2008-11-19T22:14:00.000-08:00

Two great quotes, one from work: "Come and find fruitful information that makes you exciting and sleepless!" And the other a company near my apartment "Reality World Consulting" Still trying to figure out what that means!

I had an old moment the other day. While waiting for the elevator, I looked down and realized that I had walked out of the apartment wearing two different shoes (this was definitely a first!)

Talk about a parallel to the military

2008-11-17T22:14:00.000-08:00

An overseas assignment requires you to be married, AND that you only come home once during your year abroad. Your family? Oh, you are not allowed to see them, and at the end of the year, they have to submit their passport to HR to ensure that they did not visit you. I mean seriously, what sort of power-trip do these people get? We want you to concentrate on work and not family. Oh, did i mention you are not even allowed to call your family? Wow. I wonder if skype has made that harder to track...You would probably need another computer though, since I am sure that there are people in HR tracking your online activities as well ;)

2 weeks of recruiting in the US

2008-11-16T22:10:00.000-08:00

For some reason (I am sure it was a good one, or that is what I will believe), I was chosen to do 2 weeks of recruiting in the US for new candidates. It was great to be back in that environment (although I did get tired of seeing the same two presentation concepts after more than 60 interviews!) We had fantastic food though, dim sum, tapas, fusion, etc. I saw friends in most cities, managed work back in Korea, and crashed out pretty exhausted each night.

The final day was great, I went to >play, a digital media conference at Berkeley. It was great to run into a number of old friends, and to hear about some new trends. Perhaps most amusing was hearing a VC talk about Samsung's mobile phone business going away in 3-4 years. When I went up to him afterwards he said "well, maybe I was a little harsh…"

Fun with reimbursement

2008-11-08T22:21:00.000-08:00

So I have two outstanding reimbursement items that I need to work out. The first was a cab ride from London. The receipt said, "minimum tax of 2 pounds", but the "total" came out to 11.25, which was 1.25 pounds in tax. Needless to say, the credit card charge was for 12.00, and Samsung wouldn't let that one by. So now, about 6 months later I get another flag in my email from the finance department. 6 months!??! The senior manager in the group said he would give me $25 in order to have people not work on this for me. The finance department really makes things easy as you can see (like needing apparently 3-4 levels of approval to get "overtime" pay, which is a problem when your department is judged based on how much overtime you have worked…Since obviously time in the office will make you a better marketer…)

Okay off that soap-box and on to another one. On the recruiting trip I was not allowed to use my "personal" Samsung credit card, I had to use my "Corporate" one (which believe it or not, has a MUCH smaller limit, I went over budget halfway through the trip). This doesn't happen with Electronics, only with my official company (the Professional Males…this is an old reference, I won't bother explaining). I booked my hotel on hotels.com, and therefore had no "official" hotel receipt. Needless to say, a call to the hotel (not helpful, they in general were rude, surprising of a Westin), and then my credit card will hopefully have solved all of this!...WOW is all I can say in the end…

Camera phone in market, sort of

2008-11-01T22:10:00.000-07:00

So we created a great commercial: http://youtube.com/watch?v=GwVq2Djiit0. The only downside was that in many of the markets, the phone was not actually ready. It was something due to challenges in production (and I have ideas as to why, but I don't want to get in trouble). Needless to say, there wasn't much to say, great camera, great research, tough break…At least I got to work on a cool commercial!

Trip to Nepal

2008-10-30T22:11:00.000-07:00

This trip was fantastic, and I am sure that I will not be able to do it justice. We toured around Katmandu for 2 days, took a flight to Everest, saw multiple temples, and then went on a 4 day trek in the foothills. The people were so friendly, the landscape beautiful, and Katmandu was utter chaos (okay, maybe the people weren't quite as friendly there, still though!) We experienced the "rustic" elements of the Inca trail again with no electricity one night, squatters (toilets), and this one was new: a no-cold water shower (talk about jumping around the shower to not get scalded to death!)

Highlights included meeting some great people (Lucas from Australia and Chris from the UK), playing cards and the game "Spoons" with about 10 of the guides until we were kicked out of the dining room because people needed to sleep, haggling for carpets (and getting the wrong-end of the deal), and seeing the Himalayas. On one of the last days we had breakfast in a Nepalese home (one of my great-aunt's friends, he and his wife and his brother were so kind!) and dinner with a friend of mine from high school who teaches over there. The country was great, and it definitely goes down as one of our favorite vacations!

Engaged!

2008-10-26T22:12:00.000-07:00

This is BIG news, very big news. I proposed to Michelle when I was in Nepal (she said yes, obviously!) The story itself was amusing, with a bit of a hiccup in terms of my proposal being interrupted, but it was beautiful, and a great end to the trip. She is happily wearing the ring now (I got this for her several weeks later, another small set of fiascos for that one), and we are looking at next September. Big changes ahead!

A week that could have been different

2008-10-10T19:36:00.000-07:00

Everyone here has been talking about the exchange rate, and I finally decided to transfer money as I saw my savings in Korea diminish each day. I think I may have managed to transfer out on the single worst day (the exchange rate got better by a lot the following day, groan). But it did raise a larger question involving why we are not paid in dollars (and I decided to be the bad guy and raise this point. That is a whole other fiasco, you can partially blame cultural differences on that one).

The week also ended with a crazy night of drinking with the heads of the global strategy group. I had to be escorted home by someone who was also completely hungover the next day. Needless to say, I barely moved from my couch until 1 pm the following day. Could have done without that!

Bike path near home

2008-10-10T19:22:00.001-07:00

Although it took me close to a year, I finally found a bike path near home. It also took me a year to fix the flat tire on my bike (I now have had to fix two flat tires in the past 2 weeks). Still, it has been great to get out during the cooler weather. I used to love biking up and down the West Side highway in NYC, and this is somewhat similar.

Adventures back in Seoul

2008-10-07T19:10:00.000-07:00

So back here, I went out for a 20 mile bike ride on Sunday, spent hours trying to figure out what was wrong with my computer (electrical smoke typically seems like a bad thing), and running around at work as usual. Outside of presentations to execs (this week and next), a broader role at work, and an upcoming vacation to Nepal (with Michelle), life is pretty quiet ;)

And a random newspaper line -- Apparently some tightrope walkers across the Han river in the middle of Seoul. It led to this great headline in the Washington Post: Skywalkers in Korea Cross Han Solo

International Film festival in Busan

2008-10-06T19:09:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I went to the film festival in Busan, with movies from all over the world. Super thanks to my friend Sunghee who set it up for all of us (there were six of us in total). I watched 4 movies, one about "selling out" while working for a large conglomerate in Malaysia (no comments about any parallels), a movie about Japanese Comfort women, a British comedy, and a great Finnish drama. It was a busy 3 days in terms of movies, but we also got to explore Busan. There is a great temple by the sea, and a famous fish market (had some great raw fish). We also wandered around the beach, saw a bunch of Korean movie stars (I had NO idea who they were, but it was cool none the less to hear reactions from people).

At the film festival I heard a word that I apparently should have learned on my SATs: avuncular. This was used by a Korean translator. Given that I am sure they know more Korean than I do, that means that they can speak both languages better than me. Sad state of a affairs. I need to improve my English (probably more likely than improving my Korean).

Finally, the most fun was wearing my t-shirt that says "Foreigner" in Korean. I got more giggles, looks, and even one request for a photo. What can I say? It was too much fun, and I had a smirk on most of the day.

Forced holiday equals HR brilliance

2008-10-01T19:08:00.000-07:00

This one is great. Apparently Samsung is looking into having a forced holiday around christmas-time. Since Koreans take very little in terms of holidays, this forces them to "relax" and more importantly, will save Samsung approximately $10 million dollars (otherwise Samsung would have to pay the employees for the unused vacation days). It just cracks me up, where have you ever heard of a company that says: "The office will be closed today, but you are losing one of your vacation days"? I wonder if the next step will be if national holidays are counted against vacation time...

Back in the Bay, briefly

2008-09-28T19:07:00.000-07:00

I managed to end my business trip in SF, which was great. I did learn a lesson the hard way, LA and SF are a lot more than 4 hours apart. (It might have helped if I had learned this earlier than the day before). A 5.5 hour drive, which began at 7:45 pm, and ended at 1:15 am. Ouch. I was highly tempted to stop at a Motel 6 on the way, several times! But it was great to get to my sisters and to wake up at 7 am the next morning (okay perhaps not the last part, but I did get to see my nephew before he went off to school!) It was great to see my sister and nephew, lunch, coffee and just hanging out. That night included seeing my business school roommate and his name baby boy Luca. Then it was off to dinner for my friend Rajiv's birthday party. The night included a nearby club, and then a nearby apartment, ending at 4 am (this was NOT ideal, but the guilt trip from my friend Seth summed it up: "come on, how often do we get to see you?") I didn't easily roll out of bed the next morning at 9, but I did manage a nice family breakfast and then off to the airport and a 12 hour flight home. A great stop-over in the bay, too short, but I will take what I can get!