Korea (Mar 13)

You may wonder on occasion: "I wonder what I should eat tonight?" or "What is on TV?" and even "What does Jason do on the weekends in Korea?"  All 3 really come to mind for me (except I don't think in the 3rd person).

As for dinner, it just depends.  I made a casserole the other day and that has been delicious throughout the week.  Another staple are ramen noodle bowls, etc.  It is like I am back in college (minus the hot dogs).  But most of the time I just eat a large lunch and try to have a small dinner.  At lunch, often times we will have meetings that will bring food in for us.  Other times we fend for ourselves, which leaves us only 2 options.  One, we can go eat in the cafeterias onsite that serve local Korean fare.  This has actually been pretty good and also a good way to discover Korean food.  I actually enjoy Kimchi and pickled radishes.  Our other option is to go into town and buy some lunch.  The most frequented restraunts include: Turkish House, Dheli (Indian food), and Thai Smile.  All delicious.

As for what is on TV, I just finished watching the last season of Lost.  I actually brought over the last season on DVD, so I wasn't really watching TV.  If I am watching Korean TV, I have CNN, BBC, History, Discovery, National Geographic, and the Korean StarCraft Channel :)  (Yes, I said StarCraft.  I may not understand the announcers, but it fun to critique their strategies.  I hope you are all laughing at me right now).  Those are my "go to" channels.  I also have  Slinbox back in the states that has broken recently and it is going to take a long time for it to get fixed.  So I used to watch U.S. TV, but that is on hold.  Some of you may be thinking "Watch Hulu."  Alas, Hulu is blocked in Korea.  Yet others thing, "Get an IP blocker" and I say, "I tried and it didn't work for me."  Oh well.  I will continue to work with Slingbox.

As for what I do on the weekends, we have discovered Screen Golf.  Golf here in Korea is a very expensive sport and time consuming.  Imagine at least a $200 green fee, tipping the mandatory caddy, and very strict Out of Bounds rules that make most people add 10-20 strokes onto a comparable game in the states.  Or, you can pay $20, have a private room, eat, lounge, and play in air conditioned (or heated) rooms for only about 3 hours.  Screen golf is what I have done the last 2 weeks.  It has been pretty fun.  It could ruin my real golf game if I played too often.  For example, when you chip, even if the screen tells you 40 yards, you may only hit it 10 feet while in the room, but the computer calculates your hit as 40 yards.

But the sensation is still fun.

Ryen, one of my co-workers, is in a sand trap.  You will notice that the platform that he is hitting from is actually tilted to the left to simulate the sort of slope that he is on.

This is me teeing off.

The game is not easy to get the hang of, but my first round I shot a 95.  Not too bad.  You can see I had a lot of pars.  This last weekend I shot a 105 (no picture, no evidence), but it had the best score on one hole I have ever recorded, digital or otherwise.  I had an Eagle on a par 4.  I holed in from 160 yds out on my second shot.  Glorious!

So, that is the answer to your 3 most frequent questions.  Maybe you aren't always thinking about me, but now you can worry even less.

Below I leave you with a video.  I want to say, that most of my tee shots are pretty good.  But of course, the hole that I decide to film myself, I hit it fat.  Enjoy and feel free to laugh :)

P.S.  I am alright here in Korea, despite the earthquake in Japan.  I personally didn't feel any movement here in Korea.  And there were no effects from the tsunami, as the islands of Japan shielded the peninsula.