Skip to main content
Can you smelll-l-l-l-l-l- what the ROK is cookin'?

Man, Korea stinks...and when I say stink, I mean funky. Since I stepped off the plane my olfactory senses have been assaulted with no mercy. Apparently a hot commodity in Korea is feces. When I did my initial site recon where my company will be, I noted that on the port-o-lets there was a sign that said, "Do not waste waste." No, they were not being redundant, they were simply letting us know that feces of all sorts, human, cow, pig, dog, or whatever is used as fertilizer.

Anybody that knows me, knows what a keen sense of smell I have, consequently it makes me particularly sensitive to lets say....umm...pungent odors. I was taken to a restaurant by a gentleman by the name of Young Gap You who is a DOD contractor. Young was raised in the states, is an American Citizen, but has been living back in Korea for the last 5 years for work reasons. Anyway, we went to a restaurant, which was really cool by the way. It was just like you would imagine, or like you have seen on TV. You take off your shoes at the door and sit on the floor on cushions to eat. The food was beef, rice, broth, gravy, and Kimchi. The food was good, but for some reason there was an odd smell to the place. Actually, it wasn't the place, as everything in the building was immaculate, but it was the smell of "manure" outside that seemed to permeate every square inch of the restaurant. After we ate, I learned that it is not customary to tip people in Korea after they serve you.

Well, that is all I have time to write right now, but I will try and find a net connection when we get to the training site. Ten more days before I prepare to head home..... TDY Blues.

Comments

JMS said…
You sure the smell was manure? In several foreign countries the poeple don't wear deodorant. Their body respond normally to elements.
Anonymous said…
Koreans are very clean, a lot of people where expensive italian clothes. It's the most wired country in the world and in the past 20 years the GDP has grown tremendously.

Popular posts from this blog

Being an Officer...a Black one.....is sometimes hard. [Howard Rollins from "A Soldier's Story"] Sometimes being an Officer is difficult....not because of hard tasks, short timelines, or all of the worries involved in the care of your Soldier's, but the aura of professionalism and objectivity that you must display at all times. There have been many times that I have wanted to make a comment, yell, cuss at someone, or otherwise let my personal feelings be known about a subject, but unfortunately I could not because of my position. Let me tell you about two incidents that bothered me in particular. I was in Dallas Ft. Worth airport waiting to catch a flight on the last leg of my TDY trip to help a returning unit at Ft. Sill. As I went to my gate, I saw 4 Sailors in their black uniforms gathered at the gate...one was large and white, the other three were black. There was very little room, and many of them were standing intermingled with civilian airline passengers
One day and one half... I just woke up in my hotel room after a night of fun and good times with my wife at 4th Street Live. I glanced out the window, and realized that I was facing the sullen reality that I have today and tomorrow on leave, and that Tuesday means the end of my contact with my family for a great while. I have approached this time on leave with the solid intent of not concentrating on how much time I had left, but rather the quality of the time that I was using. Somehow, it just didn't work like I thought that it would. I have noted that these past two weeks have flown by, much quicker than any other two weeks that I have experienced in my life. If deployment were to go like this, the time wouldn't seem so unbearable. But, nonetheless I suppose that I need to get myself prepared for the inevitable. The reality is that my oldest son Devon who just finished the seventh grade will be starting his Freshman year of High School once I get back. Robbie who just
The Thought Police: a necessary function for our safety? Please take a look at this video and tell me what you think. When I saw this, obviously I was shocked, but even more than that, I started trying to frame my thoughts into the context of what I do for a living. Obviously in this country people have a right to express their opinion on everything that goes on. I am happy we don't live in a police state where so many things are censored and forbidden. However, I don't think that we should overlook people like this, the "Miami 7", or any other nutcases out there that are Anti-American. I don't believe that the United States has done everything properly over the years, but I do believe in the inherent "goodness" in America as a whole. So, should we kick the doors in of these people and haul them off to some austere prison complex for creating such a hateful and radical video? Certainly not, but I do think that they should be watched very closely, and