Something about this love hotel makes me wan to buy an ipod.  I hope Apple doesn’t find this picture and sue them.

I wish I had a better picture of all the dancing girls also on the sign – they really add to it.  It’s really a shame that there is probably isn’t anyone in Busan who gets this ad.

Back home, I used to LOVE grocery shopping.  I would buy whatever my little heart desired; chicken, beef, ice cream, pies, condiments (oh do I ever love condiments), fruits, vegetables and cheese.  WHATEVER I WANTED.

Grocery shopping has now become the most depressing part of my life.  Yesterday as Rob, Nick and I wandered around one of the big chain grocery stores here in Istanbul a tear came to my eye.  Since we have not received a paycheque since we’ve arrived in Istanbul we have to stretch our money as far as possible.  We have been eating pasta for nearly every meal since it was about $3 for 5KG.  Every time one of us wanted something, we had to ask ourselves ‘will it go with pasta?’ and ‘is it dirt cheap?’  Before we hit the checkout counter we actually had to empty out the basket and split everything into two piles.  One pile of stuff that we actually needed and was reasonable and stuff that we would like to have but can do without.  I don’t think I’ve EVER done that in my entire life.

The cheese is SO expensive here.  When I finally get paid, I’m going to spend my entire paycheque on cheese and eat cheese until I go into a cheese coma.  On the bright side, they have these delicious cookies here called Tuktu that are super cheap.  Our diet so far has consisted of cookies and pasta; healthy(?) and nutritious(?)!

To my family and friends back home, I hope someone is willing to spend $75 to ship us a few boxes of mac n cheese.

Apparently this is a game kids play in Korea where they act like a pile of bodies and then take a picture.  More pictures and a slightly longer explanation here (colors mag).

Looks like the extremely impassioned politics in Korea are not just limited to the street.  Check out this video of members of Seoul’s Nation Assembly brawling.

Here is an expert from a comment that tries to put the whole thing into context.  I have no idea if its true, but I sure hope so.

“Basically, this is just a Korean version of filibuster, nothing more.

The conservative coalition has a clear majority that so-called "progressives" are pretty much powerless nowadays… but

The ultimate power that the minority party has is to lock up the parliament and prevent any law from getting passed until the end of the session. This is supposed to force compromise between the ruling party and the minority party, just like what a filibuster would do in the US senate.

However, rather than forming a compromise among the parties, what usually happens is a brawl… or more like zergling rush.

While the minority parties’ members try to block the entrance to the parliament, the ruling majority will try to storm into the chamber, break the barricade, and read the proposal and pass the law in a short time.

But does it end once they break the barricade? Nope. This is when the majority becomes defensive and the minority becomes offensive.

Here, the minority would be able to prevent the law from getting passed if they can steal the gavel from the speaker’s podium. That’s why you get second battle inside the chambers once the barricade is broken….

It’s always fun to watch these.. And after each brawl, some media outlets will show the battle maps and each parties’ strategic notes and explain where the turning point in the battle was.

a black belt in any martial arts is recommended, though not required, for politicians here.”

Once again for emphasis: “the minority would be able to prevent the law from getting passed if they can steal the gavel from the speaker’s podium“.

Update:

This appears to be one of the media complied “battle maps”.

Awesome.

One of the first things we have to do each time we hit the ground in a new country is try to re-establish connections with the world. The two most critical components of that are getting reliable internet access and local cellphones. In Seoul, the cellphones were the easy part, and while we never really did figure out the ‘reliable’ thing, the wireless in the guest house served us reasonably well. Istanbul has been much more of a clusterfuck.

We’d hoped that upon moving into our new flat we’d find a plethora of open wireless access points, but to our dismay we only see a handful of weak signals from locked networks. Through a series of gestures, grunts, some really awful German on my part and some equally bad English on our landlords part, we concluded that:

1. We don’t have internet.
2. If we had internet it would be DSL; Having DSL set up requires a Turkish passport.
3. We don’t have a Turkish passport.
4. There may or may not need to be some cables run somewhere, or there is now or will be wireless in the building?
5. Someone will come Tuesday Wednesday Saturday and set up DSL. have us sign papers? give us a pin code?? send us on a quest to slay a dragon??!

If that wasn’t bad enough, mobile phones in Turkey are also rediculiously complex.
(more…)

Here’s a shot of the Hagia Sofia. It’s pretty amazing looking from the outside. We’re waiting until we have jobs to go inside.

It’s interesting being a new country where very few people speak English and the simplest tasks become the hardest.  Here are some examples:

1)  After an entire afternoon of walking around we FINALLY found toilet paper, we can now wipe our butts.

2) Signing a lease is scary when you can’t read the contract.

3) Getting a cell phone here is a wicked pain in the ass because you need to register your phone with the government.

4) Back home, you drop off your resume and if someone is interested they’ll call you back.  In Istanbul, we’ve been told to visit potential employers every 2-3 days to see if they have an open position for us.

5) Taking a cab without being taken for a ride.

6) Ordering swirl cones at McDonalds can take up to 10 minutes of pointing and gesturing.

On the flip side, things that are easier in Istanbul than back home:

1) Girls are easier to pick up.  Telling a girl that there are four quarters in a dollar is a viable pick up line.

This is what it’s like to put money on an apartment in Istanbul without understanding a word your landlord says, nor a word of the contract. Life is about risk, right?

I don’t remember where I found this.  Just that it was a page from a widely circulated (thanks internet) manual on life that was published in Korea.