Impressions 3

2013-01-18T03:35:51.830Z

QL 18, Chi Linh District, Hai Duong province, Vietnam

In Vietnam the average death rate due to car related accidents is an astounding 10000 per year. Its astounding that its so low. The most harrowing situation was on the highway. A tour bus passing a dump truck. We were coming the other direction. Its a two lane highway. Lets do the math 2 cars+1car=3cars-2lanes=?

The answer is a change of pants. Vietnamese drivers have nerves of steel. We passed on a very narrow shoulder bordered by some significant rubble and a steep irrigation ditch. Pray I make it back alive tonight.

Well as you are still reading I apparently made it back in one piece. Either that or my ghost wanted to warn you. Either way you benefit fron my experience and wisdom.

So we visited a village on the water complete with 3 classroom school in Halong Bay. The community has a really great system where the men collect money for rides on the boats and the women row the boats while the men wait on the docks chilling. I see nothing wrong with this picture :p.

Despite the fact that it was quite foggy and a little bit chilly out there

The day
at Halong Bay
was well worth the pay
and now I must hit the hay.
By: Author unknown

Must be gorgeous on a clear sunset!

Impressions 2

2013-01-17T15:57:09.748Z

89 Hàng Mã, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi, Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum. He wanted to be cremated.

Another day another absolutely exhausted Brett. There is so much I would like to say. My experience in Hanoi is truly amazing. Any hard core fans of Top Gear know about the episode where the three hosts went to Vietnam and rode mopeds there. Well after seeing rush hour there Ive gotta say that the hosts really had balls. If anyone want to talk about crazy la drivers or chicago drivers or whatever city is your choice it cant hold a candle to Hanoi. That said riding a bike in Hanoi is amazing. And so is my friend Minhs mothers food.

Temple of Literature. First University of Vietnam in 1070!

Railroad tracks with homes

Hanoi is an amazing city, and I found myself walking all over it, wanting to explore every little nook and cranny. In fact, I did walk all over the city. No surprises, I got lost. Not once. Not even twice. But thrice I stood bewildered, looking at my map wondering where I went wrong. Please don't misunderstand, its not that I got lost because of Hanoi's streets. Thankfully, Vietnam uses the roman alphabet so every street can be read and understood. Its not because I can't read maps, because I can, rather well. But rather, I have a short memory for which way I am supposed to go and tend to follow my feet more than the map, a rather ragged, wrinkled rolled up piece of paper in my hand, forgotten more often than not. So I followed my feet... for 14 miles. On my journey, I got to see such sights as President Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum and home, the Temple of Literature, the train station, the Old Quarter, Turtle Temple, West Lake and the nearby Botanical Gardens, and Hang Gai, the famous street for silk. After reading my guide book, I expected there to be so much silk it was hanging from the balconies. It wasn't. Nonetheless a great street to visit and very fun city to check out.




Impressions 1

2013-01-16T16:04:08.541Z

53 Hàng Cót, Hàng Mã, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi, Vietnam

It is a grand adventure I have begun. Of course that could be said of all our lives but i speak of one adventure that sadly has a very definitive beginning and end. I am now in a dirt cheap hostel attempting to blog on my phone so forgive the brevity. I arrived after a delayed flight from bangkok that I almost missed because I passed out of exhaustion while waiting for the plane. I have only gotten to see what I could from the overpriced taxi. How can I put it the traffic... Its incredible. Tomorrow I must get some pictures of the things drivers have to put up with here. For now must sleep.
 Sweet dreams hope no bed bugs bite.


Parking In Hanoi...No joke!



Hand made Pasta

Recently, I have really been wanting to do some nice cooking. Something that I have never tried before. Something... ambitious. So a few weeks ago, when I learned that my parent's-in-law were coming to our home for dinner, I decided, that was the chance I had been waiting for.

 

I had already perfected a spicy arrabbiatta sauce. It had the perfect level of spiciness and aroma with the tomato sauce. So, all I had to do was attempt to make handmade pasta for the first time.  While I thought that the flour would be hard to acquire, but as it turns out, many different kinds of flour can be used. The difference of the flour comes out in the taste, texture, and springyness of the resulting pasta.

 

After having searched thoroughly online, and observing more than a few youtube videos, it seems that most everyone who makes their own pasta uses a pasta machine. I did not. No problem, you can roll it out by hand. It takes a bit more of rolling, and after having done so, I suspect the only problem with rolling by hand is that it takes a bit more time and therefore, it lost a bit too much moisture after constantly folding the pasta over on itself. However, it was really quite relaxing and stress relieving to constantly fold that dough over.

 

Unfortunately, I do not have the entire process documented in photographs, as I would have liked, but working with flour for the first time, I couldn't take pictures at first.  Which is really a shame because for anyone who doesn't know how pasta is made, I was quite surprised about the beginning. The only ingredients necessary are eggs whisked and flour on a table in the form of a volcano to pour the egg into. Then you just slowly mix the flour into the egg mixture and once the consistency is right, roll it out. Then roll it out again. And roll it out one more time. And again. Again. Again. And again, just to be sure. By the end of the rolling, it should have a silky smooth sheen and texture. After that, all that is needed is to cut the noodles to the desired thickness. Now, because I didn't add any salt to the mixture of eggs and flour, when boiling, it is advised to put a bountiful amount of salt into the boiling water, almost to the point of it being as saline as sea water. I did almost that, and after about a minute and a half of boiling the noodles, it came out almost perfect. I was shocked by the ease of it. It was quite satisfactory.

 

The long and winding path

I find myself at a crossroads. I have a choice to make. Or rather, I have a choice that was made for me, and I have the choice to follow that decision. It has been plowed and sowed for me. It promises to have lots of fruit after a very long and very tiresome season. But I fear the fruit will be sour, hollow inside, or somehow tainted. There must be something I am not seeing, so while I feel uneasy about this path laid out for me, I will begin upon it, trustingly.

Our company, that just a year ago I was so happy to have succeeded on entering, and so thankful for giving me the opportunity to work in Korea, has now filed for protection from bankruptcy. What this means is that the months of delayed/no salary have ended. The company will no longer be badgered by creditors for payments, and the priority of payments will shift so that current employees will get paid first. Good for employees in the short term. Yet I choose to leave. There are many reasons for this, and I must remind myself of them constantly, lest my constitution waiver.

My new home is one of the blue blooded creatures of chaebol corporations in Korea. Chaebol are basically familys so rich and powerful that they have managed to diversify their corporations and practically taken over the government. Where I might be sent to, I don't know. How much I will get paid, I don't know. How much overtime I will have to work, I don't know. How much I can see my family, I don't know. Cross my fingers, everything will go well.

Ah, yes, if you are unaware of the comment about blue blooded, I will be joining Samsung Construction and Engineering, one of the largest construction companies in Korea.

On the plus side, I now find myself with some free down time before my education starts. After going through an orientation for a day, one of the most frequently asked questions was how to prepare for entering the company. All of the employees answered to go on a vacation. Hmmm, vacation. If you had roughly a month of free time, but little money, where might you go on a vacation? To be honest, I do not yet know the answer to that. That shall be for next time.

American Wedding

Today, the writing bug has finally over taken me. I have a very high hill to climb, and I have been dreading it. But I feel I can no longer procrastinate. I am not quite sure how I want this new form of communication to develop, but it cannot start to develop without writing, so here goes.

I had in fact meant to write this oh such a very long time ago. It was even written in email form before being foolishly deleted in a misfortunate circumstance of misunderstanding on a bouncing bus. But enough with excuses.

For startings, lets get the biggest thing out of the way. Its been a long time in coming, and I apologize for the tardiness, but I would like to thank everyone who was able to come in body, mind, or soul to my wedding back in the states. I know it was very short notice, making it impossible for some to come, but I appreciate the thought anyways. And for those who weren't invited or perhaps weren't even aware of it, well, I owe you a big apology, but with only two weeks of planning, I had little time to contact people. As a brief summary... I present you this picture.

Our Wedding in Wisconsin

Now, I am not sure if nobody noticed or they were just too kind to say anything. Who am I kidding... everyone would have loved to point out my mistake. Can you spot the gaff in the picture? A hint... jeans with sneakers, khakis with loafers, dress pants with...

As I look at the original picture now, blown up full size on my screen, I realize once again the fashion crime I committed. Not to say I am a fashionista, but on my wedding day. Ay yai yai!

I am going to make this one short and sweet, so I will leave you with some rather random things I have experienced recently.

While walking down the sidewalk one day with my co workers, Mario, who is from Spain, and Nurzhanat, who is from Khazakstan, I attempted to cross the road. Nurzhanat commented to me, "Shouldn't we cross at the zebra crossing?"
I'm thinking, "I'm sorry, the what? Did I hear that right?"
The zebra crossing? Turns out, Nurzhanat is not the only one to use that expression. Apparently in Spain, they say the same thing, in spanish. And Nurzhanat, who has lived in Khazak and Singapore, informed me that both of those countries, in their native languages, calls the cross walk a zebra crossing. So, if you are out on the savannas of Africa and you see zebras crossing a shallow, what would one call it? Have you ever heard anyone call it anything other then pedestrian crossing? What was the most colorful description you heard for that? I'd love to hear some of them.

For next time, I'd like to talk a little about voting in Korea and the Samsung Interview process.
Until next time, stay healthy, stay warm, and if you are in the New York area, stay Dry! Anyone for a swim in a subway tunnel?

About this blog

As I sat on the bus one day, writing my quasi-monthly email to family and friends back home in the States, I very foolishly pushed the button to clear the draft emails from my email folder. When the pop-up menu asked me again, "Are you sure?" I once again, very foolishly pushed yes. It wasn't that I actually wanted to delete it, I just wanted to exit that email, and clearly things went wrong. Unfortunately, I had written quite a lot in that email, things that I cannot bring back to life. But it got me thinking, wouldn't it be more efficient if I used a blog format rather than an email? After all, people rarely directly respond to my emails, and this way I do not have to constantly bombard people (cause I write SO often) with emails. Plus, it might be kind of fun to write in the blog format, so here I am.

However, please allow me to clarify my purposes here. They are threefold. First, it is a method to keep friends and family updated to my status while away from home. Second, it offers a sounding board for social issues and ideas that I ponder from time to time. Thirdly, it is a bulletin board of things going on here in South Korea, whether it is a cultural clash, pop culture, food, etc.

Now, for those of you who don't know, I go by the name of Brett. Here in South Korea, I go by Go Brett (고브렛). The reason for the "Go" is also threefold. First, I needed a Korean surname in order for others to pronounce and write it easily (I have since discovered that they are only more confused by the fact that I would have a Korean surname, go figure). Thanks to my lovely wife, I've been here for five years now, and sorry Mom, its still looking like I'll be here longer than you'd like.

I hope that this blog can provide all with some entertainment, some perspective on various current topics, and some insight on life in South Korea. Of course, if you look hard enough there are plenty of blogs offering insight into life in South Korea as a foreigner. Most of the blogs tend to bash Korean culture before really making an effort to understand it, but there are a few, including my favorite, liminality.org, that not only offers enlightenment into Korean culture, but does so in an intellectual and yet playful way.

I may on occasion go off on tangents seemingly quite random, delving into architecture, cultural quirks, social issues, etc. Please indulge me in this, and if you cannot, well... you know what to do.

Lastly, I welcome comments, suggestions, discussion, and questions. All of which are not necessarily in their order of preference or importance. Let's learn and grow together!