Summer in Seoul

Hello -

Another update from Seoul... Well things on the beef trade are still being negotiated, as Korean officials are in the U.S. and are trying to renegotiate the deal. The Korean people do not want renegotiation, they want the whole deal to be scrapped, and for the officials to start from scratch. More rallies are planned; and unfortunately for U.S. beef the rallies are for completely unrelated things. For example, it is nearly the 6th anniversary of an Army vehicle hitting and killing two girls, the transportation folks are upset at the high price of fuel, and other civic demonstrations - so the rallies will continue for now. On an upnote (or I am making it that way), many of the Korean people and business owners are getting frustrated at the continuance of the rallies. Some businesses are suffering due to a lack of people/traffic, and those who commute are sick of the road blocks; so perhaps after these next couple of weeks the rallies will stop - keep your fingers crossed.

So the other day, my co-workers and I usually go to lunch together everyday, we went to a tofu place. I am not much of a tofu person, but while in Korea do as the Koreans do. So anyways, out comes this bubbling pot of a tofu soup, and it smells pretty good; well there is a basket of eggs on the table, and everyone gets one - even me. They crack the egg - yes raw - and put it into the soup, then stir quickly. I am not sure why, but I do hope that the soup was so hot, it cooked it. I do have to say the soup was pretty tasty. Nothing else weird to report in the food department. I have had Chinese (Korean style) a couple of times and there is no fried egg roll or soy sauce to spread over things - more of a bean paste (which is quite tasty).

Well plans for the weekend... my lost suitcase should be here within the next day - so welcome me back to the world of Internet access and make-up! Also I guess my hotel has a service that takes you to a grocery store so you can shop. Now I want to know why the heck didn't anyone tell me that a week ago? I mean cooking for myself in my own room would be better than eating out everyday; it is fun at first, then it gets pretty old eating by yourself all the time. But that is one good thing about eating alone, on my "bucket list" I had dine alone at a nice restaurant - and I have done that on this trip!

This weekend I hope to visit the DMZ between N. and S. Korea and maybe go see a play - nonverbal only - so no language barrier.

Hope all is well. Take care and keep in touch.