So, I didn't follow-up the elections before and I apologize for that (to my three or four readers). But nothing is resolved yet. There was basically a tie between Labour and Liberal and they have been recounting ballots for weeks. As it stands, Labour has 73 and the Liberals have 72; to form a government, you need 76. There are three independents MPs left who can end this election conundrum but they need to form an alliance with one of the parties. And pretty much all of them need to side with one side.
So what we've got going on now is the two party leaders making some pretty sketchy deals trying to woo those independents. Recently, the fourth among them made a deal with Labour after Tony Abbott of the Liberals made a ridiculous offer of $1 billion to Hobart hospitals for his allegiance--which ultimately insulted the MP because he felt that was unreasonable and at the cost of the rest of Australia. It's also become apparent in the last week that the Liberals, who were reluctant to hand over their proposed budget to the MPs, have actually been campaigning saying they will bring the country out of debt without accounting for an $11 billion hole in their budget (probably allocated to remote independent constituent hospitals).
It's a zoo.
So what happens if the independents split evenly and neither party makes it to 76 seats? In that situation, the Governor General (the Queen's representative in Australia) steps in and with either decide the election herself (not likely) or call a new election. However, the Governor General has a conflict of interest since her daughter is married to one of the leading Liberal MPs.
That's leaves an election, right? Which means no MP can be sure of their seat. And means this election is going to take a long time to resolve.
Of course, the Independents could side with one or the other and just end it all. For a while that is. Because whoever the opposing party is of the new government would have enough MPs to carry out a vote of no confidence and send the government back to elections within 6 months. Both sides have said publicly that they will not do this but I don't believe them. Not even a little bit. This has become such an ugly election and they both want it so bad--someone will be challenged.
How does this effect me? Well, let me tell you! Until the election is settled and the MPs can take their seats, the government has stopped processing all visas. Ha! Just what I need, right? What's another 6 months of waiting to get on with my life?
I'm sick of elections.
Showing posts with label party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label party. Show all posts
Friday, September 3, 2010
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Life Down Under
Yesterday was Jeremy's first day back at work and I just find myself completely boggled how 5 days could go so fast! I imagine that's because we largely slept through them. After coming back from vacation and staying up ridiculously late, we both found it pretty easy to sleep in each day.
New Year's day we met up with some friends in North Sydney for a picnic on the harbour. It was really beautiful and the sunset was incredible with the city and the opera house sillouhetted against the orange and purple sky. Australia has the most magnificent sunsets but living in the city often makes it difficult to see one. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera on me--and I really do mean unfortunately. It was the perfect evening. We rode around the harbour on a ferry to get home under the most gorgeous sky. For the first time, Sydney felt like home.
Living here has been a bit difficult as it's really hard to meet people in Sydney. We've been introduced to several people and have even gone to a few parties but can't seem to find anyone we just click with. I don't want to force friendships but that's kind of what everything feels like. So far, all of the girls I've met have been shopoholics and that's all they talk about. I just can't relate. I have nothing to say when the girls I'm with start talking about their favorite stores or the lates sale. We don't have money to spend and even if we did, I wouldn't want to spend it because a) it's all over priced or b) it doesn't come in my size. I feel like I can't find any girls with any real intelligence. Doesn't anyone talk about books anymore? Religion? Philosophy? Education?
On Christmas Eve, we went to a party at the request of a friend who almost clicks. However, we had no idea it wasn't his party and we didn't know that it was just a close group of friends or a sit down dinner. So, when asked to bring a dish, I just picked up a frozen Sara Lee cheesecake from the store. When I gave it to the host she was a little surprised and I said, "Oh, I've been baking pumpkin pie all day and just couldn't take the heat anymore so I figured a simple dessert would be fine." I late found out that they were expecting (though it was never communicated to us) a main course dish like chicken or au gratin potatoes. I was just a bit mortified.
But more than that, no matter how hard we tried to engage the other people at the party in conversation, no one was really willing to talk with us. One guy was a photographer so I tried talking about cameras and publishing with him. Nothing. Two guys raced mountain bikes so Jeremy tried to talk bike stuff (he's really getting in to it) with them. Nothing. We tried to bring up the usual interesting and conversation-worthy facts about us like I'm and American and Jeremy traveled to Iran. Nothing. In fact, they didn't even know where Iran was. I felt like I had been knocking on a door for three hours with still no answer.
Later, once dinner was served, pretty much everyone stopped talking to us and carried on their own conversation full of inside jokes and friendly banter. We were completely left out of it. So I quietly asked J if he wanted to go home and we both agreed that once dinner was done we should leave and at least get some sleep--it was already 11:00 pm (we also didn't know it would be a late party). I was a little surprised when the host acted hurt that we were leaving soon as she hadn't made any effort at all during the night to talk with us. I felt a bit bad that we were leaving early after eating a dinner she had prepared so I insisted that they keep the cheesecake as well as the presents we brought for the Chinese auction. Her reaction was a short and quick, "Yep, that's fine, okay, have a good Christmas," and we were ushered out the door.
To say the least, it was a weird night. But this sort of thing has happened on a few occassions and I just hate feeling unwanted.
So, I've been trying to do something about it. I'm on the hunt for friends. Maybe this should be my tenth resolution: to find friends. I started with Gumtree (like Craigslist) on Monday. From there, I got hooked up with a photography group that is meeting on Saturday and will hopefully give me some artistic outlet with like minded people. I also placed an ad for starting a boardgame group which got several responses from other couples--maybe that'll be a good way to meet people? I also placed an ad for a swim buddy so I have someone to hold me accountable to my exercise plan but so far no one has responded. But it's a start.
Maybe a couple more friends will make Sydney start to feel like home.
New Year's day we met up with some friends in North Sydney for a picnic on the harbour. It was really beautiful and the sunset was incredible with the city and the opera house sillouhetted against the orange and purple sky. Australia has the most magnificent sunsets but living in the city often makes it difficult to see one. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera on me--and I really do mean unfortunately. It was the perfect evening. We rode around the harbour on a ferry to get home under the most gorgeous sky. For the first time, Sydney felt like home.
Living here has been a bit difficult as it's really hard to meet people in Sydney. We've been introduced to several people and have even gone to a few parties but can't seem to find anyone we just click with. I don't want to force friendships but that's kind of what everything feels like. So far, all of the girls I've met have been shopoholics and that's all they talk about. I just can't relate. I have nothing to say when the girls I'm with start talking about their favorite stores or the lates sale. We don't have money to spend and even if we did, I wouldn't want to spend it because a) it's all over priced or b) it doesn't come in my size. I feel like I can't find any girls with any real intelligence. Doesn't anyone talk about books anymore? Religion? Philosophy? Education?
On Christmas Eve, we went to a party at the request of a friend who almost clicks. However, we had no idea it wasn't his party and we didn't know that it was just a close group of friends or a sit down dinner. So, when asked to bring a dish, I just picked up a frozen Sara Lee cheesecake from the store. When I gave it to the host she was a little surprised and I said, "Oh, I've been baking pumpkin pie all day and just couldn't take the heat anymore so I figured a simple dessert would be fine." I late found out that they were expecting (though it was never communicated to us) a main course dish like chicken or au gratin potatoes. I was just a bit mortified.
But more than that, no matter how hard we tried to engage the other people at the party in conversation, no one was really willing to talk with us. One guy was a photographer so I tried talking about cameras and publishing with him. Nothing. Two guys raced mountain bikes so Jeremy tried to talk bike stuff (he's really getting in to it) with them. Nothing. We tried to bring up the usual interesting and conversation-worthy facts about us like I'm and American and Jeremy traveled to Iran. Nothing. In fact, they didn't even know where Iran was. I felt like I had been knocking on a door for three hours with still no answer.
Later, once dinner was served, pretty much everyone stopped talking to us and carried on their own conversation full of inside jokes and friendly banter. We were completely left out of it. So I quietly asked J if he wanted to go home and we both agreed that once dinner was done we should leave and at least get some sleep--it was already 11:00 pm (we also didn't know it would be a late party). I was a little surprised when the host acted hurt that we were leaving soon as she hadn't made any effort at all during the night to talk with us. I felt a bit bad that we were leaving early after eating a dinner she had prepared so I insisted that they keep the cheesecake as well as the presents we brought for the Chinese auction. Her reaction was a short and quick, "Yep, that's fine, okay, have a good Christmas," and we were ushered out the door.
To say the least, it was a weird night. But this sort of thing has happened on a few occassions and I just hate feeling unwanted.
So, I've been trying to do something about it. I'm on the hunt for friends. Maybe this should be my tenth resolution: to find friends. I started with Gumtree (like Craigslist) on Monday. From there, I got hooked up with a photography group that is meeting on Saturday and will hopefully give me some artistic outlet with like minded people. I also placed an ad for starting a boardgame group which got several responses from other couples--maybe that'll be a good way to meet people? I also placed an ad for a swim buddy so I have someone to hold me accountable to my exercise plan but so far no one has responded. But it's a start.
Maybe a couple more friends will make Sydney start to feel like home.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Exhausted
I don't have much energy to write this week. It was a busy, busy weekend as we had our house warming party (which went super well). We had about 10 people over in all; we drank wine, showed our travel photos, ate delicious appetizers made by your's truly (salmon, feta, basil, and grapes on a baguette slice--yum!), and really just enjoyed having friends over. Oh, and we also enjoyed having a SUPER clean house! Wow! One of those: "I had no idea all of this was under all of that!" kind of moments...
Among our 10 friend was a new couple of friends (Matt and Lisa) whom we met at a birthday party the weekend before. They were teachers in Japan a few years back so we hit it off right away talking about all our teaching experiences (Matt and Lisa met each other while teaching too). It really is so nice to have another couple to be friends with. I like all our single friends too but it's just nice in an unexplainable way.
The other cool thing about them is that Lisa works as a director for a local language college and wants me to do some photography for them! Apparently they are in great need of a new look for their school and publications so I may have some more stuff coming my way which is super exciting.
Other than that, I've just been busy working at Thomson Reuters again. Today I almost went nuts though trying to work with one of the website developers. It's really hard being in this position sometimes because I know zilch about web design/maintenance. I'm learning though and hopefully making myself an invaluable employee! I've been told that they want me there for atleast 4 weeks (which is good) but let's hope it's more. I think I like being there and it's nice working with/near Jeremy too.
Among our 10 friend was a new couple of friends (Matt and Lisa) whom we met at a birthday party the weekend before. They were teachers in Japan a few years back so we hit it off right away talking about all our teaching experiences (Matt and Lisa met each other while teaching too). It really is so nice to have another couple to be friends with. I like all our single friends too but it's just nice in an unexplainable way.
The other cool thing about them is that Lisa works as a director for a local language college and wants me to do some photography for them! Apparently they are in great need of a new look for their school and publications so I may have some more stuff coming my way which is super exciting.
Other than that, I've just been busy working at Thomson Reuters again. Today I almost went nuts though trying to work with one of the website developers. It's really hard being in this position sometimes because I know zilch about web design/maintenance. I'm learning though and hopefully making myself an invaluable employee! I've been told that they want me there for atleast 4 weeks (which is good) but let's hope it's more. I think I like being there and it's nice working with/near Jeremy too.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
A brief interlude
Bangkok is busy, seedy, crowded, but full of good food, and after getting our fill, we too headed out.
Khao San Road (Backpacker Street), Bangkok
Haven't got your Obama shirt yet? How cool is it that our president is pretty much an international rock star? I seriously passed this place a few hours before I took this photo and he had several more t-shirt designs that had sold out.
First post-Bangkok stop: Ko Pha Ngan, the Full Moon island. Known for it's outrageous parties over the last 20 or so years, Ko Pha Ngan is the "it" place of Southeast Asia. We were there a few days before the big festivities began but enjoyed ourselves none the less. In fact, I think coming in a few days before made it better because there were less drunk people to navigate around, things were far less crowded and bungalows were still available (and about 300 Baht cheaper).
He's got the greatest smile. :)
The beach was really nice and we spent quite a bit of time just sitting there doing nothing but reading books and sleeping. And the sunburns weren't too bad either. In the evenings, we'd fall asleep early or go out for a drink and watch the crazies jump through hoops of fire or do jump rope with a rope soaked in gasoline and lit on fire. Jeremy has been to the island before (about the same time last year) and did the jump rope thing back then; he wanted to do it again but after seeing a few guys get a flaming rope tossed on their back or the clothes catch on fire, I begged him not to. How that restaurant remained upright and not in a pile of smouldering embers remains a mystery...
We only stayed 3 days and then headed back to Bangkok on the train. That was a LONG journey. When we were about 80km from Bangkok, an accident occured on the tracks in front of us (perhaps a derailment?) which forced the train to sit on the tracks for 4 hours before they finally decided what to do with us. The solution was put everone on busses and take them to the train station in Bangkok. Of course it took a couple more hours to get the busses there after the decision was made (this is Asia, remember) and then another hour to fill them and decide where they were going, and then several more hours getting to Bangkok but avoiding the freeways. A nightmare. Our plan had been to get in early and catch the only train out to Pattaya to meet J's uncle but now we had to take a bus (which turned out to be a local bus and not a direct bus, so the ride to Pattaya became a 3.5 hour affair of stopping and going every 200 meters or so).
But we made it and have stayed two nights here in Pattaya with his uncle and his girlfriend. They are super nice and have treated us to luxuries we could only dream about: having a driver for the day, eating a three course meal, air conditioning, unlimited and FREE internet access. It's been good fun here. Yesterday, his uncle took us around Pattaya and showed us the tropical gardens (pretty cool) where we watched an elephant and Thai culture show, a large engraved Buddha in a hill side, and then took us downtown Pattaya last night to see the seedy side and get some pizza. (Pattaya is where Thailand's sex trade industry started back in the 70's when American GIs would come on leave from the war and look for some weekend lovin'.)
Jeremy walking on ants at the gardens.
I think this is the only photo I took within the gardens themselves, and it's not even of a plant. I should have taken more.
Cheeky elephant...
How cute are they? I LOVE elephants. Even though the show was a little like the circus, it seemed that all of their elephants were happy. And well fed. Holy cow! They get a lot of bananas from the tourists! I watched one elephant shove his trunk right into a sitting girl's lap and snatch up her ENTIRE bundle of bananas and swallow them in one gulp! She screamed but later laughed; it was too funny. :)
I can't say that Pattaya is a beautiful city or even has much to offer the casual tourist other than a few good restaurants, some fancy hotels and countless Thai girls willing to be your "girlfriend" for a price. Jeremy and I watched the whole thing with a curious disgust that lies somewhere between entertainment and a train wreck. I'll definitely write more on this later.
But for now, we're shipping out and heading to Ko Chang, another pristine island loaded with bamboo bungalows and hammocks in the palms. This place is significantly more low-key than Ko Pha Ngan, so much that J is calling it "Slow Chang." And it's a bit off the usual backpacker trail so maybe we'll get some cheap accomodation and a beach to ourselves. :) We'll be there for a week and then we're off to Cambodia! So if you don't hear from me for a while, just know that internet on the islands is expensive and hard to find and that we'll be in transit a lot over the next week. But good photos to surely follow. Happy Tuesday!
Khao San Road (Backpacker Street), Bangkok
Haven't got your Obama shirt yet? How cool is it that our president is pretty much an international rock star? I seriously passed this place a few hours before I took this photo and he had several more t-shirt designs that had sold out.
First post-Bangkok stop: Ko Pha Ngan, the Full Moon island. Known for it's outrageous parties over the last 20 or so years, Ko Pha Ngan is the "it" place of Southeast Asia. We were there a few days before the big festivities began but enjoyed ourselves none the less. In fact, I think coming in a few days before made it better because there were less drunk people to navigate around, things were far less crowded and bungalows were still available (and about 300 Baht cheaper).
He's got the greatest smile. :)
The beach was really nice and we spent quite a bit of time just sitting there doing nothing but reading books and sleeping. And the sunburns weren't too bad either. In the evenings, we'd fall asleep early or go out for a drink and watch the crazies jump through hoops of fire or do jump rope with a rope soaked in gasoline and lit on fire. Jeremy has been to the island before (about the same time last year) and did the jump rope thing back then; he wanted to do it again but after seeing a few guys get a flaming rope tossed on their back or the clothes catch on fire, I begged him not to. How that restaurant remained upright and not in a pile of smouldering embers remains a mystery...
We only stayed 3 days and then headed back to Bangkok on the train. That was a LONG journey. When we were about 80km from Bangkok, an accident occured on the tracks in front of us (perhaps a derailment?) which forced the train to sit on the tracks for 4 hours before they finally decided what to do with us. The solution was put everone on busses and take them to the train station in Bangkok. Of course it took a couple more hours to get the busses there after the decision was made (this is Asia, remember) and then another hour to fill them and decide where they were going, and then several more hours getting to Bangkok but avoiding the freeways. A nightmare. Our plan had been to get in early and catch the only train out to Pattaya to meet J's uncle but now we had to take a bus (which turned out to be a local bus and not a direct bus, so the ride to Pattaya became a 3.5 hour affair of stopping and going every 200 meters or so).
But we made it and have stayed two nights here in Pattaya with his uncle and his girlfriend. They are super nice and have treated us to luxuries we could only dream about: having a driver for the day, eating a three course meal, air conditioning, unlimited and FREE internet access. It's been good fun here. Yesterday, his uncle took us around Pattaya and showed us the tropical gardens (pretty cool) where we watched an elephant and Thai culture show, a large engraved Buddha in a hill side, and then took us downtown Pattaya last night to see the seedy side and get some pizza. (Pattaya is where Thailand's sex trade industry started back in the 70's when American GIs would come on leave from the war and look for some weekend lovin'.)
Jeremy walking on ants at the gardens.
I think this is the only photo I took within the gardens themselves, and it's not even of a plant. I should have taken more.
Cheeky elephant...
How cute are they? I LOVE elephants. Even though the show was a little like the circus, it seemed that all of their elephants were happy. And well fed. Holy cow! They get a lot of bananas from the tourists! I watched one elephant shove his trunk right into a sitting girl's lap and snatch up her ENTIRE bundle of bananas and swallow them in one gulp! She screamed but later laughed; it was too funny. :)
I can't say that Pattaya is a beautiful city or even has much to offer the casual tourist other than a few good restaurants, some fancy hotels and countless Thai girls willing to be your "girlfriend" for a price. Jeremy and I watched the whole thing with a curious disgust that lies somewhere between entertainment and a train wreck. I'll definitely write more on this later.
But for now, we're shipping out and heading to Ko Chang, another pristine island loaded with bamboo bungalows and hammocks in the palms. This place is significantly more low-key than Ko Pha Ngan, so much that J is calling it "Slow Chang." And it's a bit off the usual backpacker trail so maybe we'll get some cheap accomodation and a beach to ourselves. :) We'll be there for a week and then we're off to Cambodia! So if you don't hear from me for a while, just know that internet on the islands is expensive and hard to find and that we'll be in transit a lot over the next week. But good photos to surely follow. Happy Tuesday!
Friday, September 5, 2008
Last night in Incheon
Out at Wild Max for one last night of drinks with friends.
Here are (l-r): Megan, Heather, Lindsey, and Simon.
And Sonja looking cute as ever. :)
J and I.
Here are (l-r): Megan, Heather, Lindsey, and Simon.And Sonja looking cute as ever. :)
J and I.It was a really nice night out with friends. I'm sure going to miss these people. I met them all through Jeremy but they've always been so nice to me. I hope we meet again someday.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Recent Adventures
Live Octopus
Last night I went out for a farewell dinner with the language teachers from the girls school. The menu: sushi and live octopus. Koreans are well known for their appetite for live octopus. The stuff we had last night was cut up in small pieces (though they still moved) but many people eat whole baby octopus. There are consequences though: many people die every year from eating whole, live octopus because the octopus will unravel on it's way down, crawl it's way back up and bock air passage to your lungs. It's the one dish that will always fight back!
Anyhow, I gave it a try for the first time. It tasted like snot with the consistency of Ju-Ju Bees. Ick. Here's a video of my co-teacher Mrs. Shin trying live octopus for the first time too.
First Birthday
A couple weeks ago, Jeremy and I were invited to his co-worker's son's first birthday party (I mistakenly said earlier that it was the 100 day birthday--oops!). The first birthday is a big deal in Korea and this family, like so many others, rented a room at one of the numerous wedding halls in Korea. The party was held downstairs along with about 5 other first birthday parties in other rented rooms on the same floor. Each party shared food at a centrally located buffet 9which had GREAT food by the way!). The party was a little uneventful for the most part. You came in, ate, greeted the hosts, gave them your gifts, looked at baby pictures, and listened to the parents give a speech. The one big event--the part everyone goes for--is the futures game. In this game four items are placed before the child, each one representing a career, and the one the child picks up first is supposed to determine who/what he/she will be. The items are string to represent long life, a pencil to represent scholarly aptitude, a stethoscope to represent science, and money to represent wealth (obviously). All guests placed bets on what the child would choose before the ceremony began by placing their raffle ticket in a cup marked by each item. I chose the pencil and horray! The kid is going to be a scholar! The hosts later drew numbers from each cup and gave away prizes (which I didn't get any). It was pretty cool but the poor kid was really cranky because they kept changing his clothes throughout the party. One interesting side note: no cake was served. Strange. Birthdays just don't seem like birthdays without cake. There was one on the front table but no one ate it. I guess it was for show... Overall, I had a great time experiencing yet another fascinating aspect of Korean culture and meeting J's friends and co-workers for the first time. Good fun!
Taxi!
Last weekend Jeremy and I went out with some friends in Seoul for dinner and drinks to celebrate my recent acceptance to UQ. We all caught and shared a cab later back to Incheon and had what I'm sure will forever be my most memorable taxi ride. The first problem: it was raining like nuts and our driver was driving like nuts! With lots of standing water on the freeway, he was cruising at 150 km/h or 93.5 mi/h. Um, yeah. A little scary. The second problem: our driver didn't have GPS which is not a good sign in Korea (Koreans are terrible with directions and seem to need a GPS locator to find the bathroom in their own house!). We took the wrong exit in Incheon and had to stop another taxi driver to ask for directions. The third problem: on our way to Jeremy's house we got stuck in the Incheon red light district where our taxi driver was more than distracted--he was a few seconds short of picking up a prostitute! He slowed down to a near stop, oohing and ahhing at the scantily clad women walking up and down their brothel fronts. He even shouted hello to some of them! All of us were cracking up inside! I'm pretty sure he had never seen a hooker before and like most Koreans probably assumed this wasn't a problem in Korea. The fourth problem: we passed a group of gang members at one intersection and our driver was equally fascinated with them as he was with the hookers. This time he really did stop to say hello (the weird part was that despite his inability to communicate in English, he said this in English and not Korean). I was a little nervous--I remember running into some bad crowds in the U District a couple times... They paid us no heed though. The fifth problem: once he dropped off Jeremy and I, his next job was to drop of Lisa, Jeremy's newest co-worker. Lisa barely knows where she lives yet and doesn't have a cell phone. Jeremy and I didn't have the Korean skills to tell him where to take her. Oh, and this guy hardly had a clue where he was going or where he was. We ended up asking some other Koreans to tell him how to get to the nearest subway station to Lisa's house but even then each person in the small crowd that was forming had a different way of getting there. Talk about mass confusion!! Lisa doesn't have a cell phone so we never heard how her trip home went but I assume it went okay. If she hadn't shown up for work Monday morning I'm sure J would have said something!
Last night I went out for a farewell dinner with the language teachers from the girls school. The menu: sushi and live octopus. Koreans are well known for their appetite for live octopus. The stuff we had last night was cut up in small pieces (though they still moved) but many people eat whole baby octopus. There are consequences though: many people die every year from eating whole, live octopus because the octopus will unravel on it's way down, crawl it's way back up and bock air passage to your lungs. It's the one dish that will always fight back!
Anyhow, I gave it a try for the first time. It tasted like snot with the consistency of Ju-Ju Bees. Ick. Here's a video of my co-teacher Mrs. Shin trying live octopus for the first time too.
First Birthday
A couple weeks ago, Jeremy and I were invited to his co-worker's son's first birthday party (I mistakenly said earlier that it was the 100 day birthday--oops!). The first birthday is a big deal in Korea and this family, like so many others, rented a room at one of the numerous wedding halls in Korea. The party was held downstairs along with about 5 other first birthday parties in other rented rooms on the same floor. Each party shared food at a centrally located buffet 9which had GREAT food by the way!). The party was a little uneventful for the most part. You came in, ate, greeted the hosts, gave them your gifts, looked at baby pictures, and listened to the parents give a speech. The one big event--the part everyone goes for--is the futures game. In this game four items are placed before the child, each one representing a career, and the one the child picks up first is supposed to determine who/what he/she will be. The items are string to represent long life, a pencil to represent scholarly aptitude, a stethoscope to represent science, and money to represent wealth (obviously). All guests placed bets on what the child would choose before the ceremony began by placing their raffle ticket in a cup marked by each item. I chose the pencil and horray! The kid is going to be a scholar! The hosts later drew numbers from each cup and gave away prizes (which I didn't get any). It was pretty cool but the poor kid was really cranky because they kept changing his clothes throughout the party. One interesting side note: no cake was served. Strange. Birthdays just don't seem like birthdays without cake. There was one on the front table but no one ate it. I guess it was for show... Overall, I had a great time experiencing yet another fascinating aspect of Korean culture and meeting J's friends and co-workers for the first time. Good fun!
Taxi!
Last weekend Jeremy and I went out with some friends in Seoul for dinner and drinks to celebrate my recent acceptance to UQ. We all caught and shared a cab later back to Incheon and had what I'm sure will forever be my most memorable taxi ride. The first problem: it was raining like nuts and our driver was driving like nuts! With lots of standing water on the freeway, he was cruising at 150 km/h or 93.5 mi/h. Um, yeah. A little scary. The second problem: our driver didn't have GPS which is not a good sign in Korea (Koreans are terrible with directions and seem to need a GPS locator to find the bathroom in their own house!). We took the wrong exit in Incheon and had to stop another taxi driver to ask for directions. The third problem: on our way to Jeremy's house we got stuck in the Incheon red light district where our taxi driver was more than distracted--he was a few seconds short of picking up a prostitute! He slowed down to a near stop, oohing and ahhing at the scantily clad women walking up and down their brothel fronts. He even shouted hello to some of them! All of us were cracking up inside! I'm pretty sure he had never seen a hooker before and like most Koreans probably assumed this wasn't a problem in Korea. The fourth problem: we passed a group of gang members at one intersection and our driver was equally fascinated with them as he was with the hookers. This time he really did stop to say hello (the weird part was that despite his inability to communicate in English, he said this in English and not Korean). I was a little nervous--I remember running into some bad crowds in the U District a couple times... They paid us no heed though. The fifth problem: once he dropped off Jeremy and I, his next job was to drop of Lisa, Jeremy's newest co-worker. Lisa barely knows where she lives yet and doesn't have a cell phone. Jeremy and I didn't have the Korean skills to tell him where to take her. Oh, and this guy hardly had a clue where he was going or where he was. We ended up asking some other Koreans to tell him how to get to the nearest subway station to Lisa's house but even then each person in the small crowd that was forming had a different way of getting there. Talk about mass confusion!! Lisa doesn't have a cell phone so we never heard how her trip home went but I assume it went okay. If she hadn't shown up for work Monday morning I'm sure J would have said something!
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