Another week in Seoul

As with all big moves, as the weeks past the more accustomed you become to the environment around you. My week at work was full of new experiences, challenges, and thankfully a feeling of relaxation! Now if my boss read that he would think my feet are up on the table, but what I really mean is that the stress of the new job has subsided and I can now begin to do the job that is expected of me.

But the way business is done, the way issues are resolved, and even more so, the expectations people have is so different here. Now I mean this in a good way for the most part! For example, communication must be done in a certain way. You might have a brilliant idea, but your idea must be passed from top down. This way all the managers keep their respect as being part of the decision.

Anyway my week was filled with regular meals in the hotel, walks through the COEX mall, a night out to see my mate Tony perform, and finally I finished up the weekend with a huge Friday night.

Friday night deserves a paragraph of comment as it was my first real "Korean Night Out". It was the farewell for one of the front desk staff who was immigrating to the US. Very nice guy, well liked by the team, so you know even before the night began it was going to be big. I was warned about my first night out by the other expats in the hotel to look out for "SOJU" Now Soju is the local drink of sin, and has been know to also be use for embalming, and tastes somewhere between whiskey and vodka in my alcoholic connoisseur opinion.

So anyway we head out on the town and all meet up at a Korean BBQ House. There is about 30 of us, spread over three large tables sitting on the floor, and for the next two hours we ate and drank ourselves into a different world! It was a lot of fun, though really I did not like the taste of Soju, but what the heck! The BBQ was awesome and I will make sure I do that a few more times! So anyway, we then finished up, lots a few weary travelers outside, and moved on to a Kareoke joint about a km away! Private room, tons of beer, and music loader than a ACDC concert! This lasted about two more hours, and finally after drinking the bar out of beer, we left to find our next area of entertainment. As it happened only the hard and desperate survive and I was standing there with 4 and 1/4 people. So your asking a 1/4 of a person! Well one guys had definantly left this world and it was fair to say he was a 1/4 of a person left. So to save more pain we found a sashimi bar to eat, and after a hour or so, we hauled ourselves into taxis and parted ways! What a night!

As you can imagine, Saturday was a day of rest for me, nursing a cruel headache, and trying to drink as much water as I could. The rest of the weekend was spent doing a little work, as well as getting out onto the subway for the first time and visiting a place called Techno Mart. If you want electronics here, that is the place to go! I have never seen anything like it!

One last story which I promised myself I would write. Sunday lunch I spent in one of our restaurants. Nothing amazing right! Well as I was sitting there I noticed all the tables full with couples, young, and looking very serious. Forgetting my food, I was almost stunned to realize what was unfolding around me. It was dating, and not just your normal dating. What Icould see was these old ladies, say in their 60's / 70's sitting a man down, then a few minutes later brining a well dressed lady over and sitting her down. All the men were dressed p also in coat and tie, so it was a real hoot. Anyway to cut a long story short I finished up and then spoke to one of the staff. She explained that the Grand InterContinental is very famous for this. These older ladies are like matchmakers. They set up the dates and if the couple do get married, sometimes they are paid up to $10,000! I am not joking! I am blood serious! They said throughout the day there would be at least 20 to 30 couples introduced! So I thought that was an interesting story.

Well that's all for now! Appreciate your feedback ok!