Interesting Hairstyle

Korean girls have very nice facial figures, high check bones and blemishless skin. Young girls like to have the straight-line fringe, cute. What puzzles me is that young guys also have the same hairstyle. Is it easier to maintain? It is not too bad on Korean guys though.

The other interersting hairstyle that is ubiquitous is the curly, black, ear-lope length hairstyle in middle-age women. You can see those everywhere, in the TV documentary of tofu making (the tofu factory owner has it), the street vendors, and the women shopping in the department store. Strangely, I cannot work out how Korean women pick the same hairstyle to wear when reaching certain age.

Small Things in Life (4)

Pebbles can be so pretty.
________________________________
I went home from ski hill, exhausted and smelly, I decided to do my laundry tonight. After showering, I was carefully arranging my clothes, jeans inside out, nylons and bras into the washnet, etc. I then challenged the all-Korean wash machine, had pre-wash, spin, drying time set, I proudly pushed the start button. I sat back, relaxed, let technology does the job for me.

A couple hours later, when I went to fetch the dried and warm clothes from the wash machine, I realised I forgot to put the detergent into the drawer before starting the whole cycle.

It's all Coming Back to Me

I met with CK, the tour guide, from the DMZ tour the day before. His name stands for "Crazy Korean". 45 of the age, 15 of the behavior, he has various instructor licenses, scuba diving, sky diving, skiing, snowboarding, water skiing, etc. Overly energetic and totally hyperactive. Talking nonstop, within a day, we all have learnt that he has 90 something old grand parents, his father smokes for 50 years yet still goes hiking 5 times a week. His family are all VERY healthy, his family owns a land to grow Ginseng (he took 2 capsules before breakfast) and a family burial ground. He has many interests, likes to meet people from different country, loves his jobs so much (he is representing his country and so on). His plans for career advancement, starting a travel agent in Hawaii... He is good, I only hope he can talk a bit less. This is also giving me some inside of Korean's mentality.

Thinking I have nothing else to do the next day (Monday would be the shut-down date), so I asked if I can join the skiing tour the next day. And there is a space! And the bus is coming by to pick me up! And they can rent me ski pants and jackets! Everything looked so perfect, I woke up the next day 6 am preparing for my trip to the ski hills.

I sold my old-fashion straight skis in London, that was very good quality but hard to control. I got the shaped skis in the rental, no complaints, I wasn't too sure if I still remember how to ski after 4 years of idling. I started with the bunny slopes, after 2 runs, I got too bored and went on to the bigger hills.

It is all coming back. Carving, shifting the weights, left and right, using both edges, left and right. Taking on a bit of speed yet still in control. I smiled as skiing down the hill (because it is really fun), drawing curves on the snow, feeling as if I was dancing on the slope. A good skiing day, the snow condition is perfect (it snowed occasionally). I will certainly enjoy more if I have a better outfit (I looked like a granny with the rental ski jackets... um, that bothers me) and ski goggles.

I seemed to be the only one who is skiing alone, ate my lunch alone, had my coffee break alone. The annoying thing is that doesn't bother me at all.

Trip to DMZ

Sorry no pictures, no one is allowed to take pictures in DMZ or inside the tunnel.
_____________________________________

I wasn't really into visiting a war zone or anything, but I had nothing planned for this long long weekend (Koreans celebrate Chinese New Year, we had Monday and Tuesday off). It was snowing like crazy in the morning. Before we left, one of the IBM colleagues went back to his room to fetch his passport while 7 of us, including the driver) were all waiting in the van. 5 minutes passed, 10 minutes passed, 15 minutes passed. I started to give cynical comments about how this guy is putting on make up and powder his nose. Trying to push other IBM guys to him a call but he has no mobile phone. I was furious and was telling the driver we should simply leave without him. He finally turned up before I took any further action. Of course, I didn't give him a break. I said "you have wasted everyone's time, you should buy everyone a drink". Though that's only a 15 minute delay and the heavy snow slowed down everyone anyways, I am still angry at this guy. I cannot stand people who are not capable of making swift decision and cleanly executing them. If I am leading the trip, I would certainly abandon him without a second thought.

The De-Military Zone between north and south korea was the most heavily armed borders in the world. If you have heard all these crazy things North Koreans have tried, you would have understood why it is necessary. North Koreans are nuts! 10 year mandatory military service for men and 7 years for women. Any sane pepole would become dumb/insane/crazy after this long brainwashed. North Korean soldiers instigated fights in joint security area (even throwing an axe and killed 2 American solders at the spot), shot people if standing in their shooting range, etc. They really think Kim Yong II is the savior of the world and all they have done can be exempted by the name of protecting the greatest country in the world, North Korea, and the greatest leader, Kim? Bloody barbarians. The most amusing part is Kim has made himself a lot of statuses, one of them can be seen from DMZ (in a good day), several story high, painted in GOLD! I bursted out laughing when our tour guide told us this fact.

North Koreans dug tunnel through the border to south after the 1953 cease fire agreement. When being caught, North Koreans said "Oh, we were about to mine coal and took the wrong turn". It is such a lame execuse, you cannot deal with people like that. We walked through the tunnel, which was blocked with 3 barricades between north and south, Oh well, how can you trust the north? Perhaps they have dug a tunnel beneath this tunnel with political dissindent's labor.

The Danger of Revolving Door

I love rock climbing
__________________________

I was late again this morning, waking up with my Taiwanese mobile phone alarm which is one hour ahead of Seoul time. I didn't realise I was one hour late until 8:30. Rushing into the bank, putting my badge against the sensor waiting for the revolving door to move. When it did, I only found out that the string of my badge was hooked to the emergency stop button outside. It took me a fraction of second to realise I had to let go my badge because I was pushed into the building by the revolving door.

It was all so comical, I cannot stop laughing and asked for help from the guy who witnessed this whole thing while going out through the very same revolving door on the other side. He got my badge back to me.

Afterwards I think I could have gone out myself to retrieve my hanging badge because we only need to activate the door from outside. I guess I was too amused to think clearly.

Really Like Taipei

We can see the "beware of the falling rocks, do not linger" signs everywhere we walked in Taroko. However, everyone is still strolling underneath the rocks, taking pictures. I think this is the national park's attempt to shed responsiblity if anyone is got injured.
______________________________________

Maybe my Taipei folks would be very upset because I said Seoul is really like Taipei (I have no idea where this anti-Korean sentiment's coming about). Nevertheless, I have to say Seoul is very untidy and no-attention-details just like Taipei.

One thing very obvious is the lady's room. In other countries, used toilet papers are disposed into the toilet bowl. There is a small senitary bin that we can used to dispose napkins (some painfully clean places provides a small paper bag so you can wrap the used before disposing it). However, in Seoul, an open disposal box is placed right next to the toilet. By looking at the shapes of used toilet papers, your brain is filled with the vivid images of how people use them.

This is just very strange, why is it everyone doesn't dispose the supposingly water soluable toilet paper into the bowl? Oh, maybe they have bad experience with clogged toilets so that everyone was trained to use the bin. But, would it be so hard to provide a bin with a cover? It was not really fun to sit on a toilet right next to the filled-up basket (imagine the small space in each toilet stall, there is no place to hide).

Another funny thing is about the man's room. I can constantly heard that loud, cleaning throat sounds coming out of the man's room. Man, this is very much like Beijing. Is it because people live in North have bad throat all the time?

Trapped in Service Apartment this Weekend

The migration rehearsal didn't go well on Friday evening (London morning), I was called to stand-by for any emergency issue for the weekend. Without working mobile phone, I was kept hostage by my computer. Anyhow, it wasn't too bad, I enjoy staying home alone. I meticulously cleaned and ironed my clothes, cooked some food and drank beer while checking emails and skype responding managers (god knows why I have so many managers). Reading blocks and chatting with friends. Asking for permission to go out for a few-hour walk on both Saturday and Sunday (sound like I am on parole and asking permissio from my parole officer to go to places, ha ha ha).

It wasn't too bad at all. It is very much like the protagonist in Murakami Haruki's Norwegian Wood. Putting every-day life things in orderly manner is actually very satisfactory. I even feel the beauty and peace when properly organizing my life.

The only thing really puzzled me is that when I woke up on Sunday (worked very late the night before), my nightstand on the other side of my bed was knocked over and the telephone set (which was on my nightstand) was lying on the floor. I must be very tired so that that noise didn't wake me at all. Did I flip and turn so much to knock over the nightstand?

Put Beijing and Taipei Together and Divided by 2

I would like to keep a record of my Wakame-chan hair style because I swear I am not going to have any haircut until June. This is my service apartment in Seoul. Brand new building, however, everything reminds me of my apartment in Beijing.
_________________________________

(Beijing+Taipei)/2 is how I feel about Seoul. The dry chill weather is so much like Beijing. The modern buildings facade the old, running-down low-rise buildings (that's where we had the delicious pork BBQ with IBM Korean folks). I took the subway to the grocery shops, and was amazed by the similarity of Beijing subway. I mean, The ticket office is never located in the convenient location, you would have to walk all the way to the other end of the hall to get your ticket because the ticket vending machine doesn't accept notes. Even the ticket sales' face and attitude were like those in Beijing. People are nice if you first show your friendliness (my way is to smile like an innocent idiot before I use my body language). Nevertheless, people are lazy to put on the welcoming face, however, there is no need to do so because there is no demand! Wow, this is so Beijing. No wonder there are so many Koreans in Beijing,

You can feel the dramatic difference in people's manner comparing to Tokyo. I was pushed away in a crowded supermarket a few times, which is never possible in Tokyo (Tokyo people would stand aside quietly until you realise your stupidness to block their way). In Seoul, people are more direct and blunt (again, just like Beijing).

I have no problem with those, I just haven't learnt how to push people away yet (I guess I never will, I hate to have physical contact with people, perhaps this is what I subconciously try to do exactly the opposite to what my father likes to do). Korean girls are all pretty with elegant facial features. However, they eat standing up in the street vendor, or pick up the snacks from a paper bags while walking on the street. I love that, I start to understand why people in other country mistake me for Koreans from time to time. Another interesting thing to note is that quite a few taxi drivers or shop assistants think I am Japanese.

However, I think Seoul is more refined than emerging Beijing. Somehow it is trying to be very culture (you can see the government's effort by requiring every major building to have some sort of art work display in the open space). Although Koreans are trying to deny their every tie with Chinese root, you can still see a few Chinese character signs. However, I can feel the ambience is very Taipei. I mean, this is an city with a well-establish middle class, who are trying very hard to pursuit a better life.

The Benefit of Living Alone

Emily's wedding, she is sooooo pretty
____________________________

Just heard from mom that the influenza virus has jump from my sister-in-law to my nephew, my brother. They are taking turns to falling ill. My mom was busy sending people to emergency, hasn't gone home for 3 days.

I think if we will be all better off if living alone.

Roaming in Seoul

Arriving in Seoul a couple days ago, it is bitterly cold just like Canada. Thank god it doesn't snow that much. It is like -10 Celcius. With wind, it feels like -40. There is no chance of getting around by recognizing Chinese characters, Hangku is everywhere. If you don't know the phonetic symbols, there is no way to pronounce it. My survival technique is to print out the maps of my service apartment, work, Canadian ambassy, and take cab everywhere I go.

Impossible to decipher the menu, I am currently living of the mercy of convenience store foods. Things might turn better next week, I want to eat bulgogi with beer.

Wakame-Chan

I had a ultimate haircut in Taipei. The hairdresser is very different from the stereotype hairdresser. He looks like an artist, choby with long curly hair, at least 4 or 5 rings on fingers and more rings on his ears. Cigarette hanging on the corner of his mouth, glass wearing. I really want to tell him that the hairstyle doesn't suit him very much. But he is really professional, he has at least 4 types of different thining scissors. He is a hairdressing class lecturer. I trusted him with my head.

I wanted to have the funky upside-down V shape, such that the hair on the side of my head is longer than those in the back. I think his execution is perfect, but somehow when I returned to Japan, my friend was looking at me and said "you look like Wakame-chan if looking from behind".

Predictably Irrational

Just finish reading another very interesting work, by a behavioral economist at MIT, discussing how people make decision. It is focusing on the irrational part of our decision making. Why we overeat, marry too early, driving too fast. There seems to be a reason behind every action we do (weighting the benefit over damage all the time).

We are actually very predictable, we are falling into the perceptual trap again and again. We cut off the coupon to save a penny when buying toilet paper, but waste huge amount money to buy alcohol. Belows are those interesting points Dan Ariel has discussed

How price of items is determined by a class of MIT students. Dan asked them to use the last 2 digit of their social security number as the price of the item, the prices were displayed. Later, the items were sold to the class in an auction, the prices of those items were positively correlated to the random numbers generated at the first place. We remember the first answer to a question. Anchor prices are determined in a very strange way, strangely, people are willing to pay for that. Another interesting point he brought up is that we value things we possess higher but not those we dont possess.

People are miopic, take placebo effect for example. We feel better when taking placebo and thinking that's real medication. Our bodies react to the white coat (despite the fact doctors spent 7 years in medical school, 75% of the healing comes from the way they dress??)

If given the chance to cheat and allow them never be caught, people cheat to the level they feel comfortable. For example, soft drinks were stolen but not money if left in the fridge without label. Or people change the incentive date on the option because it doesn't feel like stealing.

Late Fee

I was told that, in Taiwan, you will get fined if having the wedding registration too late, for example, the registration clerk would give you a nasty look to pregnant girl and say "Why coming so late? You have to pay the fine NTD 250".

Taroko National Park (3)

We climbed for 2 hours in rain for this....
______________________________

Those hikes we have done were not demanding enough, cousins are feeling they have not got any proper workout when hiking with me. We went for a challenge hike (level 2) in the afternoon. It started to drizzle, not downfalling, but we set out for the mountain. The first 2 km was almost like steadily climbing stairs, elevation from 550m to 1180m. Jen is starting to slow down and I was secretly relieved. The rain got heavier once we got into the clouds, we put on the raincoat and continued.

When coming back to the taxi we hired, I really sympathize with the driver because we really smelled not very good with rain, stinky with sweat and mud on the shoes. Worse of all, we all fell sleep in the car, it would complete the picture if any one of us snore.

Taroko National Park (2)

Do remember to bring a flashlight with you if you ever go
________________________________

We lodged in Michelle's for the night (thank you soooo much). Jen claimed the bed, Sandy and I shared the futon on the floor. I have become a better sleeper, no damange was reported. Farewell Michelle in the morning, we started our quest of hiking again.

We hiked for 2 easy route to see the most famous scenaries in Taroko, which is the largest marble gorge in the world. The river cutting down/through the mountains like hot knife running through butter, we were all overwhelmed by the few thousand meter high cliffs while walking through the narrow path, carved out from one side of the wall. We then went to the BaiYang trail, a 5K easy hike. However, we were not expecting these many tunnels. The darkness was so absolute, there is no single streak of light that could lead us out of this couple hundred meter long tunnels. I think that's because the rocky walls absorb lights. This was when I regret about those Chinese thomb thief stories I read about.

Jen was the fearless one. We queued in one line and Jen leaded. She was holding the railing with her right hand while waving her left hand in front, yelling at the same time "anyone there?" because that's the only one railing in the dark, someone like us without flashlight might come into our direction. However, I dare not to express my fear of getting a reply. But the scene is quite funny, we all cracked up. Sandy came up with the idea of how bats navigate in dark, by sonic wave response. She started to make the "Mwa mwa mwa mwa" sounds, which we all fallowed. However, the rocky interior absorbs sound waves as well, we cannot even hear the echo. I think if anyone who set foot into the cave then would be really really scared.

Taroko National Park (1)

Picture from Sakatong trail, way too easy for 3 energetic bunnies.
___________________________

My new year vacation in Taipei started with a 2 day hike in Taroko notional park in Taiwan with my cousins, Sandy and Jennifer. I first went to Taichung to kidnap those 2 from Auntie Feng (the price I had to pay is to play valley ball for the whole afternoon wearing Auntie Feng's running shoes).

We determined to do it in the cheapo grad student style, driving Sandy's temperamental second-hand car (she likes to take a rest when starting up, the cure is to pop up the engine hook and bang heavily on the engine, if it is not too hot. After a couple minutes, she will miraculously resurrect). Since the only route to HuaLian is the windy, narrow, truck-filled seaside road, we abandoned the idea of driving to our hike, but taking the train. After arriving in HuaLian, we took the local bus to Taroko park, started our first hike and planned for our trip tomorrow.

The local bus took almost an hour to cover the 30 minute taxi ride (we knew, because we took the taxi back later). Meanwhile, grandmom came up with grocery shoppings and so on. It was really too painful. We hiked the nice and easy 10K route the first day, walking along the small stream, which was filled by huge marble stones in different colour and carved by the water stream in various shapes. The weather wasn't great but still enjoyable. We finished the hike and went back to HuaLian for nice beer and small dishes in a local beer garden (taxi driver's recommandation). It was so nice to see my cousin Jen again, she has grown into a serious scentist. Sandy is the more street-smart one, I think she is surviving well in Taiwan after a year though her Chinese is still not very fluent.