Happy 4th of July

Hello all--

Hope the 4th of July was great, and if you were able to see fireworks, that they were explosive. We had Friday off at my office too. So on Friday I went to Itewon, which is where some of the military bases are, it is the Americanized part of Seoul. There was nothing special there, I had some ice cream and left. I also watched the movie "Hancock", and I really enjoyed it. It was in English, with Korean subtitles. The weird thing, when you buy a ticket, you get an assigned seat. It is strange to see a theater with lots of room with the people all sitting right next to each other, or walking over each other to get to their seat when there are plenty of others they can sit in. I do not why they do this, maybe so they can accommodate large groups of people, and guarantee they can all sit together. On Saturday I went to the Seoul Tower. After riding the sub there I thought I would be ambitious and walk there, but it is more hilly than San Francisco, so I got a cab. It would have been dang near impossible to get there from where I was at. The cab took me as far as he could, then I walked the rest of the way. Of course when I got to the top it started to rain, so it seemed like a good time to get inside and get to the top. An elevator took us almost to the top, the very top is reserved for people who are going to eat a meal up there. It was overcast and the view wasn't that great, but it was still pretty amazing. There are thousands of locks on the chain link fence at the bottom, I think they are good luck for couples. On the way down I took a cable car, much better than walking. Next I wandered around town and finally decided to go to the Olympic Stadium. It is huge and pretty amazing. Inside of it they have put in a big grocery store, and a 6 screen movie complex. There is also a large buffet room for weddings and such. By this time I was wore out, and damp from sweating in the humidity and the rain. So I thought another movie sounded good, so I watched "Wanted". It was alright, but probably a better renter. I went home through Insadong (a shopping street) and bought a couple of things. Sunday I slept in and did laundry, went out for a little walk; and called it a day.

The protesters were out and about Saturday night. The police estimate 50,000 people and the organizers say 500,000; who knows what the real truth is. But since there are religious organizations involved, there were no violent clashes at all!! They were drumming and making a lot of noise right outside my hotel, after about 20 minutes they moved on - thank God. I don't think I could have handled that racket all night. The good news was there was a pro-beef rally this weekend also. About 300 people rallied to say they want US beef back. While not even close to 50,000 ish people; at least they now feel safe and confident enough to come out and say they want US beef back. Who knows what will happen this week with beef. If any more was able to get through quarantine inspections, more may start appearing in the stores.

Have a great week!!