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my quiet little sis

This picture was taken sometimes in the early 80's during a family trip to Mount Desert Island, Maine to visit our 'Grandmother and Grandfather' Harlow (they were actually our great uncle's in laws but acted just as and asked to be called grandparents). They had a 16th century house in Pretty Marsh on the quiet side of the island. The plot overlooked a beautiful coastal marsh that was filled with enough sea life to keep kids entertained for hours.

People have always commented that Mary is a quiet girl. One evening, we were digging for clams next to the little bridge that crosses the marsh's outlet channel. The tide had just gone out and the mud was pretty mucky. While my dad and I were concentrating on collecting the night's meal, I realized after a while that we hadn't heard my sister in a while. Since it was getting dark, I looked up and couldn't see much. I turned on a flashlight and scanned the muckfield between us and the shore. I called out her name and heard an answer from where I expected her knees to be. She had sunk into the muck and happened not to mention to us that she was buried up to her hips. It took us 20-30 minutes to dig her out. Needless to say, we didn't get to collect many clams that night, though the ones we did get were tasty.

In 1997, my parents and sister came out to visit during my senior year at the University of Michigan. It was their last night in town and Mary was going to hang out with me. We decided to take her to an all-you-can-eat dessert buffet on the top floor of the Dearborn Hilton. After gorging on sugar, it was time to throw down some beers at Bill & Ed's. Mary requested some wine coolers. That was an embarrassing purchase. My beerman almost had a stroke laughing at me. Of course, I couldn't tell him it was for my underage sister. I think she had two of those coolers that night. My roommate Kurt was out of town, so Mary crashed in his room. The parents came by fairly early the next morning to head home. Mary looked a bit grizzly the next morning, but didn't say she had any problems. After they took off, I noticed a funky smell. A little later, someone else noticed the smell. I went into Kurt's room to discover my sister had puked in his bed and had just pulled the sheets over the mess. Of course, not saying anything. I later found out that she is lactose intolerant and never said anything to us while we were gorging on cheesecake and such in the dessert room. Kurt never forgave me. He actually ended up throwing that mattress away and getting an old one that was stored in the basement.

It reminded me of when we were little kids. Back then, we were tossed in the bathtub together. We were playing in the tub, and I was moving toward the faucet to make a tidal wave for my duckie. Mary said, "don't go over there". Not understanding what she meant, I proceeded to the faucet and noticed something strange. I thought it was a playskool toy that had sunk to the bottom. However, I soon discovered that my quiet little sister took a quiet little dump in the deep end of the tub.

When I was still working in the lab, I used to head to Sal's Bar in Dunmore on Wednesdays with the 2nd shift. Sal loved us as we were some of the very few bar patrons of legal drinking age. Sal's was a favorite of the underage college crowd, especially on Wednesdays. It was '98, and we were throwing down some cold boys when I spied my sister and her gang of international students at the bar. I think she was 19 and a student at Marywood after returning from a year in Brazil. It was a bit of an epiphany catching your little sister out at a bar, but soon afterwards, we were all at a table toasting to the Cheng family booze prowess. One of my colleagues, Jackie, came back from a bathroom break ranting about the f&c#*ng a$&h01* who puked all over the women's bathroom. She continued to rave about how the puke covered the whole floor and somehow coated the walls, sink, and toilet. Apparently, it was a horror to behold, as the horkification of the pisser was the singular topic for quite some time. As the conversation progressed, I realized that Mary had become increasingly quiet and even more green-faced. At that moment, it became clear to me that this evil vomitress was indeed my quiet little sis sitting next to me. A bit later, Sal came to me for a 'sit down' about my sister. Sal is a guy that would easily fit in to a Sopranos episode. I reassured him that I 'meant him no disrespect' and would make sure my sister didn't get into any more trouble. This is the point at which I said "you are no Cheng" and officially disowned her. Heh, I guess it didn't stick.... but the vomit on Jackie's shoes did...

Meet the couple

I reckon it might be good to give a little background on why the heck I'm heading to Korea.

My sister has been living in Korea for the past two and a half years working as an English teacher. Her trials and tribulations can be found on her weblog.

I guess her experience there has been mixed. She has lived in Brazil, Japan, and Taiwan previously and has quite a bit of experience integrating into other cultures. However, I think she has found much of the Korean culture incompatible with her core sensitivities. I speak mostly of her experience at work where students expect to be hit with sticks and where the administration and other teachers can be harshly direct and sometimes cruel. From what I understand, she's pretty much ready to get the heck out of the country. For me, this might be the last good opportunity to see Korea for some time.

The groom, Johnson (Jong Su Choo), is an immensely cordial fellow. I've only had the chance to meet him twice. He and my sister met at Marywood University. I really don't know many details of this time period, as I was in graduate school in Baltimore. He currently is a sales engineer for LG in the vacuum division, recently promoted from the ranks of their engineering sweatshops. I believe his family runs a restaurant in Busan. I do know his cousin is Cleavland Indians right fielder Shin-Soo Choo. The picture here was taken last summer at The Brown Annual Shindig with my buddy Scooter. This was Johnson's first fish. He was pretty stoked.

The wedding will be a traditional ceremony on 5/26. I think the service will be in Korean/Konglish and English. See the announcement below.

doing my homework

This is what I know about Korea:

1. The animation for The Simpsons is done in South Korean sweatshops.
   
2. There is a pissing match between Japan and Korea over the naming of the Sea of Japan/East Sea.
3. In the original Age of Empires, the Choson was a pretty strong civ with a strong infantry and good first-strike abilities. I also dug the turtle boats.
   
4. Most Americans' impressions of Korea are derived from what they saw on M*A*S*H (which were mostly Japanese actors)
   
   
5. I believe that kimchi is a big deal in Korea.
6. There are some kickass Korean films that pop up occasionally on Sundance and IFC.
7. I also heard that the Interweb made its way to the peninsula. Since Senator Ted Stevens (R - Alaska) says that the Interweb is a 'series of tubes', can't I just take one of those tubes to Korea instead of enduring some Indiana Jones Style flight full of chickens and coughing peasants? Oh, yeah - I'd probably clog the tubes. That's make Sen. Stevens and his Hulk Tie angry. No wonder we need to do away with Net Neutrality.
   
   
   

the plan

For some reason, prepping for international travel always turns into a giant hassle. For the past two weeks, I've been trying to get my affairs in order so that the universe doesn't disintegrate while I'm away. Living alone, I have to make sure certain bills are paid so that there is still hot water and lights when I get back. I'm trying to time that last mowing of the lawn so that there is not a jungle and angry neighbors. The same is true for the company. I'm trying to make sure we don't miss the health insurance payment and our customers don't have any major emergencies while I'm gone. Still, the gremlins have been working against me. Our 'favorite' customer, The EvilOne, has been casting her dark magic, placing insane demands on me when she knows I'm busy as all get out. Random dark events have also been hitting the customers. I'm sure this madness will continue until I'm 36,000 ft in the air. Sometimes, you just have to Face the Wang.

Anyway, one of my checklist items was to post my general travel itinerary:

5/19/2007 1:55pm - Depart JFK on Korean Air flight 82 (link will work on day of flight)
.... 15 hrs and 7,000 miles later...
5/20/2007 5:30pm - Arrive Seoul
5/20/2007 8:05pm - Depart Seoul on Korean Air flight1405
5/20/2007 9:05pm - Arrive Busan

5/20-5/21 Take care of pre-wedding crap in Busan

5/21-5/24 Goof off in Changwon

5/24-5/27 Back to Busan for wedding

5/26 - The Wedding

5/27-6/2 More goofing off in Changwon

6/2/2007 4:45pm - Depart Busan on Korean Air flight 1406
6/2/2007 5:45pm - Arrive Seoul
6/2/2007 7:30pm - Depart Seoul on Korean Air flight 85
6/2/2007 8:40pm - Arrive JFK

During the Goofing off periods, I'm hoping to explore a big mountain range to the west and a series of islands to the south. With all things 'wedding', you can never predict how things will go. We'll have to see...

blmapping sucks

I want to try to put maps on this log. The big problem is that Google Maps, for some unknown reason, does not have any map detail for Korea. What the hell is up with that? It seems that Microsoft's Virtual Earth does offer some Korean detail. The problem is that it seems that none of the mapping APIs have a good way of placing interactive maps in a post. I can do it w/ a ton of manual coding. I guess if I had more time I could write something to handle this, but time is something I don't have.

I guess I'll have to limit my maps to static ones for now. Here's a high-level view of South Korea. I'll be spending my time in the greater Busan area. The actual wedding will be in Busan, but I think we'll be based in Changwon for the bulk of the trip. From what I understand, Changwon isn't terribly exciting from a tourist standpoint. To paraphrase Lonely Planet: Korea, Changwon exists to serve as a bureaucratic and industrial center; there is nothing of interest for tourists. Normally, I take these warnings with little note, but when Lonely Planet says there is nothing interesting, I am a bit concerned.

Yes, I am now tainted with 'blogginess'

My sister is getting hitched in Busan, Korea on May 26th. So, the family is heading to the land of Chosŏn for the grand event. My brother is the only other member of the family to have spent any time in Korea. So, I'm expecting this to be an interesting adventure.

I've done some cool travel in the past, but it often ends up poorly documented, usually in the form of a massive stack of photos that are stashed away and not shared. I've tried journals and logs. The best thing I've done is collect myriad restaurant cards. Sometimes, I deal some out solitaire-style and recall meals past.

Still, I feel I can do more to record and share my travel adventures. So, I'm taking the leap and going to attempt to try this web logging format. (Yeah, I still am not cool with the Blog term)

So, let's see what happens. The best thing that if this sucks worse than they added Frankie to the A-Team, there is always a delete button.