When bringing furniture into a new apartment, should the movers use the stairs,

the elevator

or this contraption?

If you said they can bring every Stockdale possession in through the window except for the piano, come to Seoul and grab a tote bag!

No matter how cute they look in the catalog, if your school is considering a uniform, skip these:

Also, the kids whose backpack isn’t in line, he can quit now.  His lack of detail has been noted in his permanent record.

If the big little Stockdale can beat Mrs. Stockdale in a swimming race, can this lady

beat these guys in a bike race?

Sometimes the things the Stockdales see and do fit into a nice, neat, describable box.   And then, there is the ‘Cat Cafe’.

We met a Korean-American family that lives in our building.  They have a daughter the middle little Stockdale’s age and another daughter slightly younger than the crazy little Stockdale.  They’re super nice and have really gone out of their way to help us get acquainted with Seoul.  In order to really bring us up to speed on the Korea thing, they asked us to go to the ‘Cat Cafe’ with them.

Because I really can’t describe this place, let me just show you pictures and you can fill in all the blanks.  All I’ll say is that it costs 8,000 KRW ( that is metric for $8 USD ) to get in and you get a drink as part of your admission.

( click to embiggen )

Also, yes this place is for real – http://www.tomscat.com/ .

And, the other dad that was with us wore an extra shirt that he took off because he was hot and a cat peed on it.

And, there is a dog cafe, but we were warned it was ‘dark’ and ‘not as clean’ as the ‘Cat Cafe’.

And, yes they do eat dogs in Korea, but it is OK, because they are raised on farms like cattle.

What are these crazy boxes attempting to imprison the little Stockdales?

Yesterday, was Chuseok Day.   Chuseok is Korean for Thanksgiving.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuseok

Just like the American Thanksgiving, Chuseok Day is about spending time with various relatives you may or may not like.  Since the Stockdales don’t have any various relatives in Korea to like or not to like, we went to a baseball game.

There are eight teams in the KBO ( that’s metric for Major League Baseball ).  Three of these teams are located in Seoul.  They are the LG Twins, the Nexen Heroes, and the Doosan Bears.  After no research whatsoever, we decided to be Doosan Bears fans.  Doosan is one of the big Korean conglomerates (like Hyundai and Samsung) that dominate the business world here.  They probably make heavy machinery, paper towels, baby formula, computer chips, and office furniture.  They are probably also exploring investments in car washes and the launch of telecommunications satellite infrastructure.  It seemed like as good a choice as any.

The quality of baseball in Korea isn’t necessarily up to American professional standards.  Not saying it’s bad baseball.  However, a reasonably good NCAA Division 1 team could dominate the baseball world here.  That said, Korean baseball was actually a lot more fun to watch than American baseball.  Here’s why:

First, the crowd is split.  If you are rooting for the home team, you sit on the first base side of the stadium.

If you are rooting for the away team, you sit on the third base side.

Second, instead of quietly sitting in your seats till something happens, each team has cheerleaders that lead various chants in Korean while their team is batting.

If you believe this chanting only occurs occasionally, you would be wrong.  They do this for EVERY single batter during EVERY single inning.  They are  just as loud and excited during the first inning when the Doosan Bears had a chance, as they were during the eighth inning when the Bears were losing by five runs.  In fact, the big little Stockdale summed it up well when she quipped ( that’s metric for said ), ‘At least they’re not as bad as the Bengals.’  Having lived in Cincinnati and Kansas City has taught the Stockdales not to be that optimistic when it comes to local sports franchises.  The Doosan Bears are close to last in the league.

Third and probably the best part of Korean baseball.  Without a doubt it was 2500 KRW beers and 9000 KRW tickets.  1000 KRW = $1 USD, so it was $9 to get in and beers were basically free.

Korea has a Kostco.  In fact, there are eight Costcos in Corea.

The craziest part about Kostco in Corea is that it is almost identical to the Costco back in the US.  The main difference is that our Corean Kostco only has about half ( that’s metric for 50% ) the items the US Costco has.  So, if you just randomly go through an American Kostco and say YES and NO to items, that is what ends up here.  Don’t give ANY thought to what goes to Korea, just randomly pick.

Because of this, there really isn’t much entertaining to tell about the Korean Costco, except that there wasn’t this much WD40 in the entire country of Singapore combined,

the American Kostcos don’t sell salted dried fish,

and Christmas is right around the corner.

First, thank you Singapore!

Second, hello Korea!

Third and most important, thank goodness the little Stockdales are back in school.

Lots of stuff has occurred over the last few weeks that I need to write about.  Just haven’t had much time.  It was 22 days from when Mrs. Stockdale said pack your bags, until we touched down in Seoul.

With the tote bag supply in Singapore depleted, it seems like a good time for Mrs. Stockdale to once again uproot the little Stockdales and I from our happy easy convenient fun life in the warm equatorial sunshine, just like she ripped away our happy easy convenient fun life on the golf course, and just like she stole our happy easy convenient fun life on the cul-de-sac .  The next happy easy convenient fun life that will be torn from our hearts is Seoul, Korea.  (I think it’s left of Japan.)

We got the official word last Tuesday and we’ll be out of Singapore by the end of August.

Thankfully she has a good track record of us moving from one happy easy convenient fun life to another.  Perhaps, this will be the same.  Or, it could be a complete and total disaster and scar the little Stockdales for life.  One or the other.

Please allow me to introduce Kim Jong-Il my new wacky neighbor to the north:

I’m sure the Kims (or is it the Ils? or is it the Jongs?)  and the Stockdales will get along swimmingly.  Regardless, I envision plenty of cookouts with the Dear Leader in the DMZ, bike riding with the little ones, and popping over to borrow some sugar or highly enriched uranium.  I can already smell the brats and the love.

The middle little Stockdales wants a new t-shirt and she wants it MAO!!!