Week 7

This next story may require a bit of background to understand. Click here. The pen, or maybe the pipette, is mightier than the sword. Microbes of unique Korean origin named Dokdonella koreensis, Dokdonia donghaensis, Virgibacillus dokdonensis, Maribacter dokdonensis, and Marinomonas dokdonensis were found in... Dokdo 독도. And they were apparently internationally authorized. If Japanese scientists now call these bacteria "dokdonella" etc, maybe Korea wins the dispute over the islands?

This past week, I went to a great conference in Daejon where the director of my institute spoke about our work on nanoparticles- Recent Issues on Nanostructured Materials: Biomedical Applications and Toxicity. We rode to Daejon 대전 on the KTX high speed train. It took longer to take the subway 35km from Incheon to Seoul Station (where we picked up KTX), than it took to go more than 140km from Seoul to Daejon 대전! We spent the morning with our colleagues at KIT, had an excellent lunch at a traditional, semi-rural restaurant where they make everything including the kimchi and sauces from scratch. They served excellent tasting 동동주 which is a filtered wine made from rice. We had a really nice dinner after the symposium with some of the presenters and the Korean government delegation who attended the lectures. We ate lots of raw fish including live octopus tentacles.


I went to lunch last Friday with the Expo 2009 PR Team at an elegant Korean beef restaurant 대도식탕 here in Incheon. I normally avoid beef but this was incredibly good. In between savory bites I discovered the NY Times did not contact them about the story the Times ran in their Real Estate section, mentioned in last week's blog. I suspect Gale is focusing on finding immediate investors in their project and the expo is too far away for them to think about. The Times did appear to get information from the Korean national government for statistics (unless that also came from Gale PR) but probably did not dive down to Incheon government sponsored groups like the Expo committee. There are all kinds of opportunities to get involved folks!

Surprising to me, I've seen at least two instances of random Judaism here in Korea in less than two months. One was a small menorah displayed with other western style objects in a kimbop shop. I did not ask but I bet they had no idea what it was other than a token of western influence. The other was a star of david pizza topping design displayed in an advertisement. Hopefully it the pizza doesn't have pork sausage topping!


I attended the first class of a 10 week beginning Korean course at the prestigious Yonsei Language Institute at Yonsei University this past week but have to drop due to too many trips out of Korea in the next couple months. I'll miss too many of the weekly classes to participate. As in my Incheon language class, it was an international cast. I was the only US citizen there. Luckily, it will be offered again in several months. I'm eligible for tuition reimbursement if I pass the course through a special government program for foreign high tech workers. Let me know if you want more information...

I'll be heading off to Beijing for more than a week on Feb 2. Maybe all of Asia has a five day holiday from work, Feb 6-10. I'll see my buddy Storm and his wife LiYun for a couple days before they head home deeper into China. I'll guard their apartment while they're gone. The three of us had a great time at The Real Great Wall when I visited last May. Everyone travels home for the lunar new year holiday and I'll stay in Beijing, avoiding travel except for city buses, taxis and of course... the bicycle! I'm getting into Beijing right before the mad rush and staying until just after the smoke clears. It should be relaxing and I'm looking forward to witnessing the fireworks display... both the approved and forbidden ones.

Week 6

Songdo 송도 was featured in the NY Times Real Estate section December 30, 2007 and I just saw it this past week.

It compares the development of the section of Incheon 인천 where I live and work to a design produced by a SimCity video game, which is not totally inaccurate. The article was written strictly from the perspective of Gale, the developers of the huge project I discussed earlier in this blog. My biggest concern about the article is it makes it sound like no one lives or works here yet and that is obviously not the case. I write this blog from 송도! I suspect the NY Times did not contact the PR teams for IFEZ or the 인천 2009 World City Expo. I'll be having lunch with one or more of them later this week and will find out more.

Speaking of meeting people, I encountered a group of Pakistani men at E-mart on Sunday night and had a great conversation in English. There are lots of foreign workers in the factories of South Incheon 남동구 including, Filipinos, Pakistanis, Vietnamese, Chinese, Malaysians, Indonesians and perhaps others. Where we met at E-mart is close to where many of these workers live, which is also near my home. I asked the Pakistani men if they liked Korean food and the answer was a definite "no". They make their own meals at home because the only Pakistani restaurant is in Seoul Itaewon 이태원. I guess I need to take these guys out for 딹갈비 sometime and show them what they've been missing. One effort I will campaign for is government support to establish international food shops here in 송도 국재 Songdo International City. Right now, there's only Korean, Japanese and one Chinese restaurant here in 송도 국재. If the Korean government wants Incheon 인천 to compete with Shanghai, we need this to be a truly international place to include people and food.

Last Saturday night, 병길 and I went to Incheon Chinatown 인천 차이나타운 to a place called Won Bo 원보 and had several dishes including mandu 만두 that was the closest thing I've had to authentic Shanghai dumplings, outside of Shanghai. This is only my second trip to 인천 차이나타운 and I need to go more often.

After dinner, we went to a bar one of our coworkers had taken me to before. The previous visit, my coworker bought the drinks. This time I was buying. When you walk into the bar, the female bartenders come over, sit and have a beer with you. It turns out, the customer is buying them drinks! I did not realize this the time before and the bartenders do not ask the buyer permission. They just start cracking open beers they may or may not even finish. You are essentially paying to have a conversation with the female bartenders. I now know this is a common Korean custom.

My Korean language school at Talk House began last week and it's great! Our small class of foreigners is international: folks from New Zealand, Canada, UK, US, Japan and China. I'm the most junior arrival in Korea in the class, but thanks to previous Korean study in California I'm keeping up.

An interesting fact I've recently learned about 인천 is that the neighborhood Bupyeong 부병 has the only large-scale automobile-producing plant in the Seoul area, and produces the Daewoo, Matiz, Labo and Damas cars. Matiz cars are notable because they are so small, they almost look like golf carts!
This plant in 부병 also houses the company’s head office, as well as the GM Daewoo design and development center.

A less interesting fact that is a bit upsetting is that China has raised the cost of US visas to $13o!
Koreans pay about $40 I think and that was about how much it cost when I went to China last year.

A final note for this post: it may sound strange but bananas taste better in Korea than in the US. They tend to have more banana flavor. Even big bananas taste like the baby banana variety.

Week 5

I'm having a lot of fun at work with varied responsibilities. I'm working long hours, trying new things and learning a lot. I'm editing and helping draft ISO standards related to nanoparticle studies as well as building our company quality system and optimizing the documentation system. I'm also leading our marketing strategy for overseas clients. We debut at a trade show in Seattle called ToxExpo in a few months and are preparing our marketing material and booth design. Scroll down to Korea Environment and Merchandise Testing Institute to find our profile for the event.

Working in Korea has been fun in other ways too. When we had the company ceremony for closing the work of 2007 in the dining hall at Seoul HQ, we toasted with beer! Of course this was not a beer guzzling affair, it was about the gesture. Beer drinking on company premises was strictly verboten at my company in the US. The next day of work, the opening work day of 2008, they hired a Korean comedy show writer to give a speech. I sat all the way in the back row but with my being the only foreigner, my height and distinctive hairless-do, I was an obvious target. I couldn't understand much but it was hilarious anyway. Everyone laughed, including me, and all had a memorable time.

As a foreigner, I find I'm alternatively put on a pedestal or treated with skepticism and mistrust. Generally, I'm treated very well and many restaurants, bars and such love when I show up to add a bit of international color to their establishment. For example, when I joined a small health club in my apartment complex this weekend, the proprietor spent the whole time with me as my personal trainer. And he's already got my workout schedule going forward planned out for me. The funny thing was his English is about as bad as my Korean! But when it comes to bank accounts, cell phones and credit cards, I'm assumed a high risk pain in the ass. This problem is a definite business opportunity as the Korean government is very much wooing foreign investors and businesses to target areas such as Songdo 송도. And to set-up shop, foreigners need these basic services. For the record, I now have a bank account, cell phone and should have my credit card in about a week. But the cell phone and credit card did not come easily and required intervention by my company to establish.

Now that I've been here more than one month, I'm starting to appreciate some of the challenges of living here. Because I love Korean food, that aspect has not been difficult. But coming from the San Francisco Bay Area where I was spoiled by high quality, relatively low price coffee, beer and bread. I have not been able to duplicate those items here in Korea.

Coffee: Starbucks seems to be the only game in town for the full bodied espresso coffee I like to drink. And that goes for about $25/pound in Seoul so I've settled for lesser quality McNulty espresso for about $10/pound. And we have no Starbucks in Incheon anyways. Many Koreans prefer getting coffee at a large cafe chain called "The Coffee Bean", which I presume is because the coffee served is not as strong and bitter as what is served at Starbucks. The amazing thing to me about going out for fresh brewed espresso style coffee after a meal in Korea is that coffee will cost nearly as much as the meal. That said, most restaurants will serve you instant coffee loaded with creamer and sugar for free.

Beer: If I had to wager, I'd think most Koreans prefer lager to ale. I have found no ales. Hite has a brand called "Black Beer" which is malty and dark. It's maybe kind of like Negra Modelo and okay for my taste. A bar that serves cheap beer in Inchwon will run about $3.50 per pint. Typical price for beer in a bar is more like $5-6. Soju on the other hand is very affordable and excellent quality.

Bread: I'm not a huge bread eater but the omnipresent chain western style bakeries do not have bread that interests me. Their breads do not have the high gluten content I prefer and tend to be made with bleached flour. They have a crumbly texture. I finally found a relatively dense, whole wheat bread that I like at HomeEver called 호밀. And it's only about $1 per loaf.

I still have not found oats or oatmeal though... there are numerous grains in the Korean diet including barley, various types of rice, wheat and others I don't know yet, but oat is not one of them. I found pre-made granola at both E-mart and Costco but they are pricey and not my preference. I want to make my own granola but need to find oats...

Surprisingly, wine is not a problem. Wine is imported here from around the world and I saw a selection of $7 South African red wines I may try. I don't recall seeing South African wine back in the Bay Area. Most wine here seems to come from Australia and France. There's also California wine, Chilean and Argentinian. California wines go for about twice as much here. Earlier this week, I found a bottle of French Merlot at E-Mart for about $4... and it was good. Surprisingly absent are Chinese wines which I found to be pretty good when I visited China last May. Maybe this is another business opportunity...

I am a big fan of what may best be called as unusual music. I get bored listening to music very quickly and like variety and non-standard approach to songwriting. Pop music usually bores me very quickly. The music I've encountered on TV and on my coworkers car stereos is quite varied. Most Korean pop sounds like the same stuff you hear in the states and in all the same genres. One of the funniest things I saw on TV was a Korean boy band doing a choreographed Boys2Men style R&B ballad performed with big grins. Not my style but corny and funny nonetheless. Some Korean pop music sounds a lot like the "banda" music of Mexico with accordions and an old world European aspect to it. There's serious art music on network TV on a routine basis in additional to classical music performances. I have heard abrasive jazz, punk, metal or noise music yet though. As I've stated before on this blog, Korean broadcast TV is probably more interesting than what's available in the US. I about lost my mind trying to understand what was happening while watching Fellini's Satyricon in Italian with Korean subtitles.

I have logged on to my favorite radio station, KALX, and enjoy listening to them on the web in the morning as I prepare for work. They stream MP3s and other formats.

Here's a photo of me and a couple coworkers goofing around in one of the cool photo booth businesses in Incheon 인천. You select a backdrop, costume accessories and graphics to go with your photos.