first impressions

My early impressions of Korea, and Taegu are of a time warp where most of
the country is in the 50's. The fancy Korean Air service is great if you are in
prestige class. The darn seats have about 20 positions you can get in,
including laying flat so you can sleep. That would have been wonderful!
Economy is pretty much the same as everywhere. I did think the distance
between your seat and the one in front of you was smaller than usual. Plus
there was some strange box under all seats that prevented you from putting
your carry on bags under the seat unless they were very small.
The overhead bins were small too and would handle one or two items
then be filled up. The flight attendants are so cute. They look like a cross
between 1950 styles or the Jetsons. Each done up immaculately with
the cutest little bow thing in their hair. They are very small people so
when they passed out snacks it was a cracker with about 1/3 cup water
or orange juice. No soda pop for most of the journey. You get a sip of
water about every 5 hours. I'm guessing they don't want people to get
up and use the potty's? It worked, but everyone was dehydrated. I got
stuck with an inside seat which was a bummer because I can't sleep on
a plane. At one point my whole row had leaned forward on toward their
knees to sleep. they looked like they were bowing. Oh yes, the bowing
thing is cool! When they did the usual safety thing, they would bow first.
If you thanked them for the sip of water,they would bow then too.
Everyone does it here. So polite.

Gwyndolyn is delightful. She was so happy to see me last night.
She hugged my arm, played with my hair, talked non stop and told
me she loved me about a hundred times. She has started out calling
me Mommy which is a no no with me. She has a wonderful Mommy
and I'm not her. I remind her that and she smiles and says "but I like
you too" and "I didn't say Mommy I said Nonny". Yeah, right. She has
gotten much taller than she was before and has filled out some. Her eyes
remain bright blue and look even bigger now that she wears glasses
full time. She is far sighted so they are like magnifying glasses for
close up. oh, at the airport when I was clearning immigration you have
to fill out these forms. I stopped off at a kiosk to get mine done and they
have several pairs of glasses on chains for you to wear if you are
having trouble seeing! I thought that was neat.

Taegu at night was a big surprise. I did not realize how huge the city is.
Bright Bright lights everywhere. It reminded me of a spread out Times
Square! Lots of colorful lights that we don't use as much. Purples, reds
and blues. The store's are smaller too and quite plentiful. It will be
interesting to see what it looks like in the day time. Everything looked
clean and neat at night. Karen was driving with Gary as co-pilot and I'm
sure I will never borrow the car here as the roads are crazy! Gary is a
tough co-pilot, often barking confilicting orders in one sentence. We
always seemed to be in the wrong lane and getting moved over is hard
cause there was a lot of traffic. A good deal of the signs are in English
and Korean. The Korean letters are neat, like art work. Chinese is too,
but theirs is sharp ends and corners where everything Korean is softer
and rounder. There is a mountain directly behind us that looks very steep.
On top of it is an arch that is all lit up at night. Not with lights pointed at it,
but it is lights and VERY bright.

This house is all on one level. My knees are grateful for that. All of the
country I've seen so far is hilly, mountainous areas so I'm sure my knees
are going to be screaming at me most of the time I'm here. :) But oh the
things I will see. I don't think we will eat out as much. The bimbopbio
stuff they were serving on the plane looked kind of radical to me. I'm not
into cooked spinach at all. I am going to try a lot of dishes though. Seems
silly to me not to try them. It's all so different and unique. I wonder how to
say "no fish please"? There are some things I won't try and fish, especially
raw is out of the question.

Lola, my little hound from hell is quite cute. She was delighted to see me
and climbed all over me. She did manage to lick my mouth which is totally
gross so I went to brush my teeth. I used Garys German toothpaste and it
looked like Karen's make up and tasted like it too. I brought my own but
haven't unpacked yet. Took me long enough to find my toothbrush after
getting dog kissed, I wasn't waiting any longer! Winslow is cute enough,
but has a lot of character flaws. Aside from pooing and peeing in the
house, he barks at everything, is food aggressive, people aggressive
and a dominant dog. He needs to be taken down a few notches in his
estimation. I used Cesar's technique about claiming the window last
night and he responded very well. I don't let him jump on me, he has
to be invited.I think I have dominated him from the first meeting so he is
okay with me.



Off to nap and read a bit.
emily