Entry for April 26th

Finally touched down in Incheon International Airport. Nice to be back on terra firma! Incheon has one nice looking airport. I think it was built less than 5 years ago primarily to wow visitors to the 2002 World Cup. It's very clean and ultra modern with many automated walk ways, bioinformatic security sensors, 45 inch plasma TVs at every gate and free wireless internet. Incheon clearly blows away and outclasses decaying old airports like LAX.

My aunt (my mother's sister) and uncle picked us up from the airport and drove us to their home on the outskirts of Seoul. My first impression of Korea was just how similar it was to America. Cars in Korea, like cars in the US, have the steering wheel on the left side and all the highways and roads have a similar layout to ones stateside.

However, that is where similarities end. First I noticed it with the billboard signs. There was clearly a lack of, how shall I say, "diversity" number of companies sponsoring the signs. Korea, like many other countries in East Asia, is dominated by conglomerates. The most well known conglomerates are Hyundai, Samsung and LG and are well know stateside for their cars and consumer electronic products. In Korea these companies own anything from credit companies to shipyards. Imagine a nation not with specific companies offering specific products and services, a la Microsoft or Hilton Hotel, and instead has a lot of General Electrics, which has a finger in practically every industry.

Sideways traffic lights or is it that our lights are the ones that are a little skewed?

My aunt's home was built in the 1930's and survived the Korean War. It is in a traditional Korean house with no central cooling and heating. The rooms are arranged in a corridor manner which surround a court yard. I'll explain the rationle for this later.

My aunt loves flowers and I took a picture of the pride of the garden:

After breakfast and lunch at my aunt's house my uncle took me to my hotel, The Lotte World Hotel in Chamshil-Dong. I don't know much about hotels, but the Lotte looked five star to me, reminiscent of the Bonaventure Hotel in Downtown LA when it was first built.

After checking in I took a cab ride to visit my friend Jimmy who was also from Southern California and a fellow USC alumni. He was also in LA to visit relatives and for business purposes. Since we would both be in Korea for two week, Jimmy the last two weeks of the month of April and myself the last week of April and the first week of May, our schedules crossed paths, we had planned to meet at the overlapping week (the last week of April) and explore some of the much fabled nightlife of Seoul as two young, single and swinging Korean American men.

Jimmy was staying at a hotel that is even more swankier then Lotte and is certainly 5 star: the Grand Intercontinental Hotel in Kangnam, the commerical and financial center of Seoul.

Unfortunately, our meeting confirmed some issues Jimmy was hinting on a week a few days before my flight. Apparently, Jimmy's aunt had an accident and was injured. He had come along with his dad and it would insensitive to the family if he went out late at nights. We decided to just hang out that night and half a few drinks. I just got to Seoul early that morning and I was in no shape for a full and active night out. Fortunately, Jimmy had given me sufficent warning before my flight where I was able to made arrangements with some other friends in Seoul... =)