Death of a comic shop.

This past Saturday, June 26, 2005, All Star Comics and Games of Mishawaka, Indiana, closed it’s doors from the last time.

All Star has become a fixture in our life in South Bend. Comic geeks that we are, the selection of a local comic shop was one of the early agenda items when Amy moved here. At the time, it was All Star Comics and Cards, owned by John – and older (than us, by maybe a generation) baseball enthusiast and run with help from Darrin and Brian (comic and game enthusiasts much closer to our own age). Brian and Darrin have shown us excellent customer service from day one. They managed to learn our names before we got theirs. This was not a singular occurrence. I brought a friend in (to corrupt him by introducing him to the world of Mage Knight products). Darrin and Brian greeted him by name on his second visit. When we had been visiting weekly for only a few months, they, started setting aside books for us that they figured we would want. These were books that we never asked for, never mentioned, and often didn’t even know about. And their instincts were almost always right on target.

About three and a half years ago, John decided that, because of some health concerns it was time to retire. Faced with the choice of entering the ‘real world’ or taking their slacker comic-shop-guy employment to the next level, Darrin and Brian took over the reigns. In early January, 2002, All Star Comics and Games opened under new management in a new (better) location.

Over the past three plus years, our relationship has outstripped retailer/customer. We’ve become friends. Our weekly trips to the comic shop have turned more often into hour long visits (ended usually by one of our desires to put food in our belly). We are really going to miss seeing the guys on a weekly basis.

Sadly, with a mediocre economy, rising product pricing, a game market that bottomed out and no doubt numerous other unknown or unacknowledged causes, business has been struggling for the last year or so. And the guys have had to accept that the time has come to move onto other ventures.

We took some time Saturday night to help them box up what was left of the store (another shop is buying up the remaining stock) and say so long to a good run. We hung out a while, talking about the past, present, and future of the comic industry, the gaming industry, and the industry of our lives.

In memory of All Star, in vain hopes of maybe sparking someone’s interest in the comic book art form and storytelling medium, and inspired a bit by my good friend Curt’s movie reviews at http://curtflix.blogspot.com, I will be starting a second blog, devoted to comic reviews, both of individual books and the medium as a whole. Hopefully I will post to it with more regularity than I do here.

Please visit it (my first post should be up before July 1 hits) at www.comicbookreview.blogspot.com. And if you see a review that interests you, support your local comic shop. Before the go the way of Drive-In Theaters and Soda Fountains.

Gross Anatomy, Medieval Knights, Exploding Chocolate and Baby Doves

We went into Chicago this weekend. So much to share, I'm going with the simple tick off the list method of presentation:

1. Gross Anatomy
Since we were goign to be in Chicago anyway, I suggested we leave early and take in the BodyWorlds exhibit at the Museum of Scince and Industry. BodyWorlds is truely fascinating. If you live near Chicago or Cleveland, I'd highly suggest seeing it... as long as your level of intellectual curiosity outweighs your gross-out factor.

In short, this exhibit of the human body consists of a number of specimens that have been perfectyl preserved through "plastination". So ou get to be witness to a number of real human cadavers, posed in normal, everyday poses, stripped of skin and cross section of muscle, bone,organ, etc. cut away. Some exhibits where whole, some in pieces, some consisted of everything striped away but the arteries (truely amazing).

See some glimpes of the exhibit and get more info at: http://www.msichicago.org/bodyworlds/index.html or http://www.bodyworlds.com/en/pages/home.asp

2. Chocolate (exploding)
Of course no trip to DT Chicago is complete wiht a very expensive visit to Vosges Haut Chocolat - www.vosgeschocolate.com

Vosges produced exotic, wonderously unique chocolate (at exotic, wonderously perilous prices). It turns out that, said Chocolates, when left in a very hot car on a hot summer day, melt just like ordinary chocolates might. except for the green olive oil chocolates, which exploded.

3. Medieval Knights
The impetus of our trip was to see Medieval Knights, for which we had free tickets (Christmas Gift from Mom). It was worth goign to see, but certainly not something to repeat wihtout younglings.Riding stunts and mediocre fight choreography andhammy acting. And decent food messily ate without silverware.

4. A great Ikea
Our hotel was within sight of an Ikea and, having never been to an Ikea, we explored. Fun place, lots of creative, idea provoking, cheap stylish stuff that would likely fall apart in three years. Good thing there isn't one closer, or we'd spend way too much money before learning our lesson.

5. Daddy-o
Drove the extra hour to make a surprise visit to Amy's dad for father's day. Went out for Ice cream (he already had eaten lunch... we could have gotten there in time to take him to lunch, had it not been for the wonderous black hole of Ikea).

6. Coo-Currr-ou
I could have as easily started as ended wiht this. Before leaving Saturday moring on this trip, we discovered that November and February, our Doves, had hatched a baby dove (or at least a breathing pile of sticky feathers). We had decided to name it (appropriately) "June". Upon our return, we found The-Dove- that-would-be-June had a sibling, and since we can't name them both June, we'll likely go with Amy's suggestion of Saturday and Sunday.

Hopefully next weekend won't be as exciting, because the weekend following we have to drive 7 hours to west Virginia for a wedding, so we'll need the break.

My grandparents just turned 50.

That's jointly, not individually. Meaning their 50th wedding anniversary.

We headed up to my parents house for their big celebration weekend before last (yeah, i'm slow blogging it up - sue me). Wanted to head up Friday night, but I had a freelance job that I needeed to wrap up before I left, and by the time I did... I just didn't feel like starting off on a 3 hour drive at quarter to nine pm.


Even though the party didn't start until 2:00, it was important to me that we get their early and help out. My mother was stuck doing the bulk of the work, dispite having three siblings. Some of this is because the party was at her house, and she lives closest to their parents so she ends up shouldering these types of things just out of proximity. Part of it is because some of her siblings prioritize things differently that do we (work-trumps-all, a behavior handed down from grandpa's obsessive genepool and by his example of the 50's macho work ethic- which I think was instilled largely by his parents having grown up during the depression, but this could be a whole other blog).

The party was a huge success. I'm sure at least 80 people showed up. It was great seeing many relatives (and, well, not so great seeing some others, but I suppose that is the way with extended family).

I'm told that Grandpa was doing better than he has recently, which is a bit sad. He has been battling brain cancer, and it is becoming apparent that, dispite his initial string recovery, he's not winning the battle. He barely had the strength to walk into the house, and often times seemed unaware of what was going on around him (which I suppose, really, isn't all that unlike him) and who was talking to him (rarely did he have the strength to put more than two words together in response). The whole event was just too overwhelming for him.

Also exiting and new for the day - uncle Keith (one of the offspring of the couple of honor referred to above) with his new wife. This is a story in itself, which someday I may come back to. For now, I will sum up and let your imaginations wander with this: Nearly no one was told about the wedding beforehand (by Keith). No one knew that, in the past year, he traveled to the Phillipeans to meet his new wife four times. His new wife, Shirley, is younger than his youngest son, Keith, 48, has about 30 years on her. And she speaks english...more or less. There was a much more dramatic way of presenting this information, but I'm tired of typing this and sharing this particular anticdote.

Anyway, after the party was over, we lit up a bonfire and had a bit too much to drink with mom and rex, their neighbors, and Aunt Cindy and Uncle Jeff (who traveled all the way from Korea to be here - OK, partially to start house hunting and what-not. Their moving back timeline has accellerated; Cindy is now in the country for good, Jeff will be wrapping things up over the next couple months).

And there's almost as much news about last weekend...which will probably make its way on here either wihtin the next hour, or a week from now.

Adventures in Tanning

Tony and I got free certificates to our local tanning franchise. Tony would like to be tan while I have come to embrace my pallor. My ancestry is primarily German with a spicing of English and Irish from Mom's family so I do not come by dark skin naturally. Even when I spent large chunks of time outside in the pool or on horseback or running around as a wild child I never really got dark, just a plesant golden color after the burns peeled away. My brother tans beautifully, though. Anyway, the though of exposing myself to UV rays in a can has never appealed. However, this was free. How could I take advantage of the freeness while maintaining my ability to be snotty about tanning? Magic Tan, of course. Magic Tan is the spray on, sugar -based (DSA, I think?) product that our local chain offers.

So, one Wednesday I made my way to one of the franchises near our house. Sadly, this particular branch did not have Magic Tan available. No problem, there's another close by. It was raining, however, and if you get wet from rain, showers or sweat within the first 5 to 7 hours after your spray you rinse part of it away and get blotchy. No Magic Tan for me that day. I went back a couple of weeks later on a beautiful, sunny Saturday after getting my hair cut. After watching the informational video I rubbed on my accelerator lotion, put on my shower cap and stepped into the booth. The spray only lasts for 8 seconds, but I managed to choose the wrong time to get my breath, so got a bit of spray in my nose. I got through the other 3 sprays without mishap (of course, I wasn't facing the spray). I stepped out of the booth, patted off the excess spray and returned home to not do any chores for the next 5 hours.

It worked pretty well. I had quite dramatic tan lines and only a moderate amount of splotchiness which was the fault of my poor standing still technique. Also my fault was the tan line across my forehead. The video told me to put the shower cap along my hairline, but I went into surgeon mode and pulled it down. I'm almost back to my normal paleness, but I may do it again. Tony likes the tan lines.

Speaking of Tony, he chose the UV-in-a-can option. The first time he went, he was pretty careful about his exposure because he does tend to burn. I noticed maybe a little tan, but mostly he had a lot more freckles. The second time he went he actually did have a tan line on his leg. He chose the superfancy expensive option the second time and stayed in beyond the recommended time. He had to sign a waver to do this. He didn 't burn, though. Hopefully he'll share more about his experience in the can.

Haiku 2

This was for us both,
but lately I haven't found
time or want to blg.

I've had things to say;
mundane adventures to share
sans motivation.

New friends have returned.
One sings once more, the other
funks up our e-mail.

-tp

I Choose Haiku

Ahem ...

Patiently Colfax
And Bob wait for the screen to
tear. Free them outside.

The doves sit watching
In case the kitties should choose
To eat the two eggs.

Meanwhile Tony cooks
Cuban chicken for dinner
Fridays are good days.

What would you like to read about?

OK friends, strangers and loyal readers. We haven't got much lined up that's as exciting as going to Korea, so we will be reverting to the previous level of mundanity. My question to you is this: Would you like to hear about anything besides what streams through our conscious minds? Let me know if you'd like more scar stories, more about the weather, more about the pets. I can probably provide some bad poetry if you're interested. I reserve the right to not blog about work. I'm just curious about your thoughts.

By the way, it's sunny, the cats are fine, the birds are sitting on an egg and I had a nice chunk scratched out of my right ringfinger tip yesterday that should scar fantastically.

It's good to have family

Last night Tony's grandparents and cousin stopped by on their way to North Dakota via several other states. It was so good to see them. It was even better to wake up to people in the house. I've never shared the early mornings of my day off with anyone (unless Tony is sick) because I like staying in bed until eight if at all posssible. It was really nice. I picked up some donuts and muffins, made coffee and chatted with Grandma and Simon until Grandpa woke up. It was nice hearing Grandpa settling in to sleep last night. We were all a little worried when there was a crash followed by Grandpa's voice, "Did I break it?" Fortunately Grandpa didn't break himself. He's a lot more fragile than I'm used to thinking of him being. It was just good to see all of them. Their next family related stop is with Seth and Amanda in Missouri. Simon's doing the driving and their taking it nice and slow. I'm looking forward to hearing their stories and seeing their pictures at their 50th anniversary party in June.

Belated final day in Korea

I realized after reading Megan's blog about her trip to Portugal with Guy, Alana and Steve that we neglected to describe our last day in Korea. In a way, we tied up loose ends. There were a few places that we wanted to revisit and we had hopes of seeing a play, Nanta, that is Stomp with cooking. We had evening plans for dinner, drinks and nam-ba with the Cootes, but the day was all ours. So, we boarded the trusty subway and headed for the city. Our first stop was the toy market in Dongdaemun. Tony has a great need to buy Gundam figures and it seemed to be the place to look. We wandered alleys, getting half-lost and enjoying the mysterious twists, turns and smells. Eventually we did find the appropriate shop and Tony purchased toys to his heart's content. We then made our happy way to Namdaemun (the market we had failed to find earlier in the week).

There are some mall type structures in Namdaemun. We avoided these and somehow found ourselves in the costume jewelry and housewares market. The housewares market extends underground. it's an overwhelming place for two reasons: 1. The overwhelming amount of stuff. Especially fragile stuff that a misplaced elbow could send crashing to floor and 2. The overwhelming amount of humanity squeezed into the little tiny aisles. You have no choice but to be jostled and no option but to jostle back if you want to escape. Also, it was very very warm. Not my favorite experience, but it was a good experience to have. I may be less likely to panic in dressing rooms at clothing stores now. Tony was disappointed in Namdaemun because he was on a quest for amethysts. There were amethysts in Itaewan (which we did buy) and in Insadong, but he wanted to pick up one for a friend. Sadly, Namdemun had lots of jade and lots of fake whatever-gem-you-want, but no amethysts. Tony was starting to feel a bit unwell, so we decided to head to Nanta.

We had 2 options to get to Nanta: the friendly subway or a cab. We chose the cab, being very careful to select the silver /grey one (these start charging at 1600 wan) as opposed to the black one (these are high status cabs and start charging at 4000 wan). We wandered through a cobblestoned neighborhood and got to the nanta theatre, ready to buy our 25000 wan seats. Except that all of the seat were sold out with the exception of the 50000 and 60000 wan seats. So we changed our plan. We went a big bookstore near the palace and then returned home. Tony was visibly unwell at this point, so Nanta did us a favor by being too expensive. Tony slept for a couple of hours and was refreshed for the evening of merriment. The plan was to keep us up extra late so that we'd sleep on the plane.

Refreshed and feeling healthy again, the six of us walked a few blocks and down a level to a charming little French restaurant. Yes, I know, heresy to eat non-Korean food on our last night. However, most of the Cootes have lived in Seoul for 18 months and Yugi has lived there her whole life. They like a break from Korean food. It was excellent. The company and conversation were too. Afterwards we wandered to a local bar for drinks and bar food. Sometimes it takes lubrication to sing in semipublic. We had a wonderful pineapple drink and lots of yummy Korean versions of beernuts and bar food. Then it was time to sing. We sang a lot. We probably sang quite loudly, but we had our own little room so no-one else had to hear us. We sang enthusiastically. We sang until my throat hurt. Did we sing well? Occasionally. Did it matter? Not really. We retired happy and sleepy except for those who chose to go to what I like to call the "naked all night sauna". You can get naked haircuts there, too. Tony declined the invitation. I wasn't allowed. Sadly, we did not get to say goodbye to Jeff and Ian the next morning.

Snow

Gaah! It's snowing again!! I'm going back to bed for the rest of the weekend. With a book full of photos of tropical places.

Jetlag

We did arrive home safely and we're almost readjusted to our own time. Tony did not sleep well on the plane back. I slept OK for plane sleep (Dramamine knocks me pretty flat). My very kind parents picked us up from O'Hare and drove us their house. Tony went to bed. I woke him up about 3 hours later for dinner. We both stayed awake until about 10:30 before giving up completely. I made it out of bed twelve and a half hours later. Tony woke up about 4:00am, puttered around for a bit and went back to sleep until noon. We were planning on driving back home around the time that we finished breakfast. Good thing we came back on Saturday. On Sunday night we stayed up until about ten. Tony woke up at 3:00 am. I woke up at 3:30 and got up at 4:00, fed the critters, had coffee and ate breakfast. I was bored by about 5:15, so I went back to bed until the alarm went off at 6:45. I can't speak for Tony, but I was cranky all day long, those poor people I work with. Tony was in bed when I got home at 7:30 last night. He was pretty much awake from 10:00 until 5:00 this morning. He was so happy when the alarm went off this morning exclaiming, "I slept!". Then he hit snooze for a while. I also benefitted from the snoozing. At this moment we are both awake, Tony has gone for a run and there is hope that our regular sleeping patterns will return.

Korea - Day 6 Preparations for Home

It's after 2am. Our throats are numb from nam-ba (Korean karaoke, where you pay by the hour for a private room and sing your heart out with friends and family). Jeff and Ian have gone across the road for sauna. We have to leave for the airport at 8:15 so we'll see you all on the other side of the International Date Line. Don't expect coherent posts for a few days :)

Korea - Day 5 Celebrities for No Good Reason

Since we'd spent Wednesday exploring Korea's current political reality, we decided to look into its past yesterday. After a semi-lazy morning we once again boarded the subway for Gyeongbokgung Palace. On the way there I gave up my seat to an older woman. I was immediately surrounded by a cheerful crowd of middle aged Korean women. They were going en masse to meet friends at Han mountain for the day. At the end there would be twenty of them visiting together. They were very sweet and Tony and I were watched with a great deal of approval until they disembarked. So far we haven't run into any angry people on the subway. I fact, everyone either ignores us or is very happy to see us. Then again, we give up our seats to older people if they let us.

Gyeongbokgung is actually a palace complex. It was originally built in 1395 as the government center for the Joseon dynasty. The Joseons were in control here until 1910. I think that's an amazingly good run, but when I see dates that start with 13s and 14s I tend to expect buildings to be moldering away. I suspect it's an American thing. The current buildings aren't actually 610 years old, though. Most of them were destroyed when the Japanese invaded Korea in 1592 and then rebuilt in 1868.

History out of the way, the complex is just beautiful. The biggest impact for me was turning off a busy, loud Seoul street and looking through the first gate (Gwanghwamun) at the beautiful, two story building backed by mountains that I assumed was the palace. The contrast was breathtaking. It wasn't the palace, just the second gate (Heungryemun), but it was still lovely. We enjoyed roaming the grounds and gardens, occasionally being accosted by happy school children. The National Folk Museum is on the same grounds, so we learned a bit about the prehistory and early history of Korea. We also stopped at one of the Kimchi Information Systems to learn more about kimchi. The Kimchi Information Systems are quite impressive, standing computer kiosks which speak three different languages and tell all anyone needs to know about kimchi. We had a snack of Korean sweets, but were humgry enough to leave the complex at this point.

On our way out not only were we greeted by the school children, but a few were surreptitiously taking pictures of us with their camera phones. Pint-sized paparazzi. I wonder if their parents are upset that they were more impressed by the wandering Americans than their national history. Some of the braver kids actually asked our permission to take pictures. On the way out the first gate, three boys asked if they could take my picture. I said OK and asked if they wanted to stand with me. Instantly the rest of their class appeared, cameras in hand. A few cameras were passed back and forth and I think that one of the boys traded out with his friends. As overwhelming as it was, they were very polite about it and swarmed off again pretty quickly. The high-school aged students were mostly too cool to be impressed by us. A group of three girls did make a point of calling Tony pencil boy. He realized, after hearing one of them call me beaupipul that were actually saying handsome boy. I like pencil boy. After all, he draws and has a pencil with him at all times. Very insightful Korean girls.

I was a bit kimchied out, or at least my digestive tract was feeling that way, so we looked for more westernized food. We found Mr. Pizza. Mr. Pizza claims to be "Made for women," but Tony joined me anyway. Sweet potato pizza is wonderful! Basically it's a stuffed-crust pizza topped with potato, mushrooms (Tony picked these out), bacon, corn, onion, crumbled tortilla chips and cheddar cheese. Instead of being stuffed with cheese, the crust is stuffed with sweet potato. Yummy good! Apparently this is very popular in Korea as well, so I didn't feel too bad for whining about no more kimchi.

Bellies full and happy, we wandered back down to Insadong (I love Insadong) and shopped. I almost bought a $20.00 ink stone, but Tony caught that the price was in yen, not wan, before I did. I did buy lots of lovely things (they take credit cards in Insadong) and Tony got to haggle a little. Satisfied, we returned to our friend the subway orange line for our hour trip home. The subway was busier on the way back, so our celebrity status left us. Once again, we were just oddly complected bodies taking up valuable standing or sitting space just like all the normally complected bodies. Yugi was making diner, so we stopped and bought a cake as a contribution. It was supposed to be a chocolate cream cake. It was a blueberry cream cake. It was still yummy. Yugi's Chopche and seafood pancakes were great. I might be brave enough to try oysters at home. I definately like squid. Anyung hiseo.

Korea - Day 4 - Tony vs. The North Korean Army

We almost missed out tour of the Demilitarized Zone (AKA DMZ, Pan Mun Jom, Joint Security Area, JSA). We had ben instructed (or so we thought) to meet our tour guids in a hotel lobby. Rather, what apparently was said was "in the B-1 room". We even saw a tour guide looking person and Amy went to ask if her group was going to the demilitarized zone. Amy came back to me and said, "nope, she said they were not. They are going to Pan Mun Jon." Which struck me as odd, because that's kind of like saying "we are not going to the District of Columbia, we are going to Washington DC."
Thankfully, my nervousness grew enough for me to go back, find the tour guide (just barely) and we got it straightened out.

The drive was about an hour by bus, during which we picked up more history on the Korean War than either of us had learned in school (or after having lived in Korea).

There are very strict rules for visiting the DMZ. One must be dressed properly. No Nothing low cut, revealing, or sloppy. No blue jeans (they are considered a symbol of America, and are thus offensive, to the North Koreans). Out passports were checked twice. In some parts of the tour, no personal articles were allowed except camera (no video) and binoculars - and even those were only allowed to be used in designated areas. Through the more sensitive part - the actual boundary of the separation, where meetings between the two nations take place, and North Korea is literaly a stones throw away, we were instructed to remain as a group, two single file lines, and to not under any circumstance smile, wave, make eye contact with or gesture in any way towards the North Korean gaurds.

Of course we saw no North Korean gaurds. And the differences between South Korean and North Korean gaurds was not emphasized. So the whole tour group was rather stiff while our Army presenter, Fernandez, was cracking jokes.

We were brought right to the center og the DMZ, the building in which the the countrys (and US, and other involved countries) met. There were South Korean guards standing at intimidating TeakWonDo ready pose inside and outside the building. The line of demarkation ran though the building - it was slipt in half. After an explaination of the layout, we were invited to step into North Korea. And wouldn't you know it, I was first in line. We were also allowed to take pictures (surprisingly) within this building. And with the guards. Here is Amy, 2 feet inside North Korea, standing slightly nervously next to a South Korean Gaurd (who is stradling the boundry).


Next we were taken back out of the building, and, facing North Korea, given a rundown of the surrounding buildings. Three buildings straddling the boarder (painted light teal) were designated as South Korean/UN buildings. Three (much more stylishly in silver blocks) were North Korean. One of the NK buildings was designated the rec room, though there was not a opiece of work out equipment inside. From this room, dubbed by the US and SK guards as "the Monkey Room", NK gaurds occasionally loked out the windows, shouted obscenities and made rude and threatening gestures when they knew a group was gathered in the spot we were currently in. We were again allowed (!!) to take pictures from within the small area we were standing, and asked if we had any questions first.

And then I became "that guy". I casually pointed to the silver building to the right and asked, "that was the monkey house, right?" Fernadez responded, very difinitively, "yes sir, and PLEASE DO NOT POINT." I pretty much kept my head down and held my hands together for the rest of the tour. Here is a picture of the Monkey room (forground) and a North Korean watch post, in which a North Korean guard was watching, rifle at the ready no doubt, even as I pointed in its direction and took this shot.



We were then taken to an observation point in which we were surrounded by North Korea on three sides. From here we could see (among other things) "Propaganda Village". so named by the SK's because, during the war, they had loud speakers constantly tempting anyone South Korea's nearby "Freedom Village" (no propaganda in the naming conventions in South Korea, nosiree) to come over to wonderful, welcomong North Korea, far superior to the South. Freedom Vilage is still a functioning village, pop. about 200, all of whom live there rent and tax free (as incentive to live so ridiculously close the the border. Propaganda village is unihabited, but boasts a much taller, larger flag the Freedom Vilage (the North has a thing for making sure they appear bigger and stronger than the south in every way).


Fllowing the tour, we returned to Seoul and treked up to the Seoul Tower (think Seattle Space Needle) to reach the highest point in the city. Sadly, it is closed for repairs for the next 7 months. We did get some shot of the city scape from the hill, though. This is, perhaps, 1/8 of the view. It extends like this in every direction.


And finally, todays wacky english bastardization... better than home made, its handmade.

Day 3 - Peanut Buttered Roast Squid

On Tuesday we had the first of our exciting adventures somewhat outside of Seoul. Cindy drove us south to the Korean Folk Village. The KFV was interesting. I was looking forward to seeing some open, green space, but the paths were all well swept earth. In fact, we were able to observe the sweeping process. The sweeper was not willing to pose for photos. While exploring and learning about the past of Korea we made a few discoveries.

1. Korean children travel in large, color coded packs and have a cry remarkably like, "Hello, hello, hello, hi, how are you, hello, hi." Occasionally this is punctuated with a cheerful, "F**k you," as they practice new words.

2. These same children are very bold about crossing rivers on stepping stones, but far more timid about crossing on narrow wooden bridges. If an adult American crosses the narrow wooden bridge the children will fall back in awe and applaud. This actually only happens if the adult American is female.


3. Mushroom pancakes are actually omelets and are very good.

4. Sausage soup contains tasty bits that are best left unidentified just in case they are entrails.

5. Wicker brides were an important part of a Korean man's life and as such could not be passed on to future generations.

6. The best unexpected flavor ever is peanut buttered roast squid. It is crisp and sweet and buttery and chewy and comes out of a cool little machine and you can choose body meat or leg meat and ... They eat it at the movies here instead of popcorn. Seriously. It really is good.

Sadly, our afternoon did not fare nearly so well. We planned on heading to Namdaemun market, but our directions lead us instead to Dogdaemun market. Not so big a deal. We were also short on cash so were hoping to find a money exchange or one of the many ATMs that took American cards (so we were told). We had neglected to bring our passports, so the money exchange didn't happen. We tried 2 ATMs in Dogdaemun and both of us were informed by both of them that our cards no longer worked. Frustrated and huffy, we walked through the wholesale toy market to calm down before heading home. The wholesale toy market was cool. Tony especially liked the Bricks (pirated legos).

On the way home we messed up one subway transfer, but caught it before we were carried too far out of our way. We also tried 2 more ATMs with no results. This was getting to be a problem as we needed 57000 wan each for today's trip to Panmujong. Cash. Not $57 American (the rough equivalent). Ian came to our rescue and Cindy played banker for us as well. As long as we don't go too crazy we should be fine. Just be warned if you're ever in Korea: American debit cards work in the ATM machines, with plain old American ATM cards you're SOL.

We came home to a magnificent pasta dinner courtesy of Cindy. This morning we had to get up and on the subway early to catch our tour. More on that tomorrow.

Korea - Day 2 - Shop smart. Shop EMart.

Took a trip with aunt Cindy to the grocery store in the morning. Yes, we came halfway around the world to partake in Grocery shopping. Honestly. We both enjoy experiencing the differences culture through the everyday experiences of that culture.

But first we went to a small, local (not 50 feet from the apartment), proper market to get some fish and veggies. Not much different from what a fish and produce market set up in a parking garage might be here. A wide variety of fish. And eel, squid, skatefish and other unusual varieties.

When I lived here 20 years ago, the idea of a supermarket was pretty... foreign. You bought your food at the street markets or from the small (like 7-11 size small) local grocers. Now, supermarkets, department stores, and supercenters ala Walmart (and, FYI, they have a Walmart here) are everywhere. One of the more prominent stores, EMart, was our destination.

The EMart was four stories. Each floor carried different items. Houswares on 1. Clothes on 2. Health and beauty on 3. And Grocery on 4. Or something like that. We skipped past 1 and 2.

At first glance, it wasn't that different. Lighting felt a little...whiter. Ailes weren't as tall. Little things. Had a good time looking at all the peculiar products and packaging. Even more intriguing was noticing the ratios of what was available. For example, Canned Vegitables. Cindy was happily surprised to find canned vegetables other than corn. This was the first time they had canned peas and baked beans. A quarter of an aisle of dried squid. Two aisles of rice. And a 2 foot by 2 foot selection of canned vegetables.

Just like home, they have free samples on the ends of aisles. Just like home, most are handed out by quiet, pleasent older women. And then there's the meat and store prepared foods section. They bring the old school open outdoor market feeling indoors - shooting, I assume, "I've got some really good beef over here" and "Kimchee. I'm makin' Kimchee. Come get your Kimchee", loud enough to be heard throught most of the store. And theres several of them, all in the same corner. All trying to out-carnival-barker one another.

Oh, and I don't recommend acorn gelatin. Can't really say it's bad, because it's mostly flavorless. Jello (fine, gelatin) should have some flavor. Without it, it's kinda gross.

Curious foods purchased, sampled and, for your vicarious pleasure, reviewed:

Emotion Chocolates: Standard individually wrapped milk chocolate wafers. With pop rocks mixed in. Brilliant.

Milkus: "New feeling of soda beverage," says the tagline. There were a few varieties of Milkus in the soda aisle. All looked a bit like really watered down milk. Bought the one that, from it's package coloring, suggested it was citrus flavor. I was right. Tasted like the remenants of an ice cream float made with Squirt, but still fizzy and crisp. Pretty good.

Little pink box of cookies with chocolate centers. Predictable. No big.

Sansachus: Sweet, rose flavored wine. "Sansa is a fruit bearing, broad leafed, plant belonging to the rose species. Red and a pleasant scent. Good for treating weak stomachs, backaches, and cut (sic)" Very cheap. Very good. Will be bringing some home.

Sweet Dew Tea: A green tea with an aromatic, sweet finish. Even
I liked it.

A note on the later two. They are considered "Well Being" or as the Koreans pronounce, "well bing". This is the trendy health kick buzz word floating around Korea right now. Pretty much every Korean food ends up being considered well bing, and foreign foods (ei, western culture foods) seem suspiciously to lack this very important status.

Returned to Iteawon in the afternoon. Traveled down the allyway to where I used to live. Things have really changed. There are bulidings where streets used to be and streets where building used to be. What were once quiet streets lined with residences have become cluttered streets lines with mom and pop greasy spoons (chopsticks), cleaners, and the like. Dissapointing.
Our apartment complex was the tall, cream colored buliding in the background, right of center.


Made a few small gift purchases, picked up my pimpin' purple housecoat, and returned home.

And just for kicks, I've started taking pictures of fun, mangled english. Enjoy.

Korea - Day 1 Kimchee and Crowds

Sundays are busy days in Seoul. Most Koreans work 6 days a week and so Sundays are the day to relax. For us it was time to explore with Cindy, Jeff, Ian and Yugi and learn the subway system. We started with a walk through the neighborhood to the subway staton. Everything that is needed can be reached easily by walking, including Steve's vet. (Steve is Ian and Yugi's little terrier cross. He's a cutie!) We enjoyed kimchee mondu, which is basically a kimchee (spicy cabbage) potsticker.

The subway system here is very similar to the Tube in London. It's a little unnerving seeing the signs in a different alphabet, but there are Roman characters beneath so I've no need to panic. We were very fortunate and were able to find seats on both trains to Insadong. Insadong is an artisan/art market street. Ian used to work near it. On the way from the subway station to Insadong we stopped in the park where Korean independence from Japan was declared. Yugi, a lifelong resident of Seoul, had never been there before - "too many old people". I loved Insadong. It was full of pottery and beautifully carved ink stones and brushes. Plus, it has The Old Tea Shop. In the travel guides The Old Tea Shop is said to be home to free flying birds, a chameleon and a resident monkey. Only the finches were present when we stopped in, but they were very beautiful to see and hear. I had five senses tea, a bright pink, chilled concoction that did have elements of sweet, salty, sour and bitter. I must still be sleepy because I can't remember the fifth. Tony had cinnamon punch, which he quite enjoyed. None of us had bird poop in our tea which we all quite enjoyed.

Cindy and Jeff took a bus home and Ian, Yugi, Tony and I grabbed a cab to Itaewon. Itaewon is close to the U.S. military base, so it's "America Town". Tony lived close to Itaewon when he was ten. Things have changed since Tony was ten. At one point he asked Ian, "So, how much farther to Itaewon?" Ian replied, "We've been there for the past two blocks." One thing that has only chaged slightly is the bookstore that Tony visited as a kid. We found it in a new building a few yards from where it had originally been. With Yugi's help, Tony not only confirmed that it was the same bookstore, but that he remembered the owner, Mr. Chu. I took a picture of Tony and Mr. Chu and we got to meet Mr. Chu's daughter, Michelle, who teaches piano lessons. I think it turned Tony's day around to know that something hadn't changed (not much anyway).

We stopped for a snack at Gecko's Garden in Itaewon. While there we ran into Ian's friend William. William is from Ireland and he also teaches English. Interestingly, all of the expatriate English teachers we have met so far are men and all of them are dating (or in Ian's case married to) Korean women. We decided to take the bus home after a good time hanging out with William and his girlfriend.

The subway may be slow, but it is much simpler than the bus system. To start with, it stops where it is supposed to. Both Ian and Yugi asked the busdriver if he stopped at Sunae station. He said yes both times and then drove well past Sunae. So, we had to catch a cab to get the rest of the way home. We did make it home eventually and had a nice dinner at a Japanese restaurant in the neighborhood. Jet lag hasn't been too bad for us. Tony crashed at about eleven, but he was up this morning at four. I was up at five. According to Cindy and Ian, this is very normal. It was odd that I slept through until seven-thirty yesterday.

Ian and Jeff have already left for work. Cindy and Yugi don't work until this afternoon. Today Yugi is going to give us insider tips on where to go and we'll probably explore the neighborhood and maybe some other markets. Hopefully we'll go on a tour of the demilitarized zone tomorrow.

Korea - Day 1/2

We have arrived.

It is Sunday morning here, and we are about to venture out on our first mini-adventure in Seoul - a trip to Insa-Dong (arts/crafts area) and Iteawon (sort of an Americanized version of Korea in Korea - it's near the army base, and where I lived so many years ago.

The flight was smooth and not as trudgerous as we'd expect for its length. We arrived last night at 8-ish local time, talked some and slept like fat babies.

More later.

Anticipation

Just a few more days until we leave for Korea! This time next week we will be there! It's going to be great just to get out of South Bend for a while, but even better to leave the entire continent behind! I dragged our spring clothes out of the basement and we've dusted the cobwebs off of our suitcases. Our flight leaves from O'Hare on Friday afternoon. The plan is to have my car packed and ready to go on Wednesday night. That way we can leave as soon as I'm done with work on Thursday. We'll stay Thursday night at my parents' in Illinois and be off on Friday. Soooooo exciting!! I can't wait to go to the tea room with the chameleon and monkey and birds. Real bibimbop! Cherry blossoms! Hopefully no snow!

Pudding Pops and Brussel Sprouts: a Cullinary Review

Of late I've been bemoaning the abscence of Pudding Pops. Ah Pudding Pops, those creamy frozen treats from our youth and the reference point of every bad Cosby impression. I find it dissapointing that such a unique, brand backed product would shrivel up an dissapear from the market. Everytime we went to the store, every grocery store, I'd search up and down the frozen food aisle. But to no availe. Not even a no-name brand knock-off.

Until last week.

What glorious sight should i see in my grocers freezer but the familiar "Jello Pudding Pops" logo. Now produced not under their own power, but co-branded under the "Popsicle" brand. Popsicle(TM) is one of those brandless brands. They make all those frozen ice-creamy things sold by ice cream trucks. Items that you probably think of as being beholden to no one brand. Like Fudgesicle(TM) and Cremesicle(TM).

Sadly, whether it be me or the recipe, I find the new pudding pops less satisfactory. The shape has changed. Once a flat wedge with rounded top, it is now cyclindrical in shape. i prefered the former. It allowed these wonderful sheets of ice to develop around the pop - sliding off as you licked. Loved that.

They also seem to be softer, not as initially sturdy (though maybe this is a difference in freezer settings).

And finally, the consistance is a little chalky. Especially on the vanilla. The chocolate is creamier, but Amy notes it tastes pretty much like a fudgsicle (which isn't really a bad thing, in my book ).

Onthe topic of more helathy, but still not entirely satisfying food, I made brussel sprouts for Easter Dinner. This was, surprisingly, the first stime either Amy or myself have had brussel sprouts. What we learned from this cullinary expedition into the unknown is that, regardless what the recipe may say, brussel sprouts do not cook well by sauteing. Flavor: not bad. Texture: not even resembling cooked. Next time, I'm a-broilin'

But the roasted pear and walnut salad, carrot and apricot julliene, and cherry pecan stuffed pork loin were mighty tasty indeed.