N. and I have returned triumphantly from Korea. Some of you may not have been clear on why we were going in the first place. To clear things up: My college friend Rick teaches English there, and also the cartoon I work on is actually animated at Rough Draft Studios. So I visited Rick and toured the studio. Rough Draft was freaking awesome as not only do they do Kids Next Door, but also pretty much every other American cartoon for the past 11 years, including but not limited to the Simpsons since season 3 (when it got good), Futurama, Spongebob, Samurai Jack, the Clone Wars, the Maxx (if anyone remembers that), newer stuff like Danny Phantom, Camp Lazlo, Juniper Lee, and Disney TV shows, too. I guess I didn't see anything about Foster's, Clerks the Animated Series, or Powerpuff Girls, but those are the only things I can think of besides Zim or Dora the Explora that weren't represented somehow at Rough Draft.
I finally have my pictures from the trip online, although I haven't finished entering funny captions for them.
You'll notice some of the pictures of the bathroom in the hotel/motel thingy we stayed at. It turns out the shower "is" the bathroom in many traditional Korean homes and also in our hotel room. Also Koreans tend to sleep on the floor, which is heated, so our room had a very hard low bed with an electric blanket as a mattress pad. All in all, it wasn't the shabbiest motel I'd ever stayed in, and at $30 a night, $35 on weekends, I couldn't really complain. N. liked the utilitarian room very much.
Here are some advantages to having the shower "be" the bathroom:
- You don't have to "color inside the lines" while showering. (N.'s suggestion.)
- You could potentially use the toilet simultaneously. (A coworker's suggestion.)
- Easy to clean toilet overflows.
- Easy for washing pets.
- Mildew grows everywhere!
- If you throw up all over the bathroom, it doesn't really matter.
- Easy to clean up after murders.
I know some of you octopuses are all very curious about Yumi, and KDC is not a reliable source of information. Yumi is very nice, and very pretty, and basically Rick has totally lucked out. Her spoken English is really great, but me and N. are basically impossible to understand since I mumble and speak really fast while N. speaks slowly but uses big words. Between the two of us it's pretty hopeless. One example: At the gaming cafe N. was asked to explain how to play Settlers of Catan, and started off with:
"Settlers of Cataan is a game of resource allocation."
N.'s instruction was immediately vetoed in favor of a native Korean speaking cafe worker. However, Yumi quit after less than one round anyway. I was reminded of the tragic game of Settler's at a BBQ at Maggie's once. When will we ever learn not to play Settlers with non-fluent English speakers? There are easier games, people!
A few more quick facts about Korea:
- Kimchee is free with every meal.
- There is no separate "breakfast". Lunch, dinner, and breakfast are the same set of foods, which include kimchee.
- Even McDonalds does not serve breakfast there!
- Coffee vending machines on every corner and in every subway stations. Cheap, decent coffee!
- Korea has a 500 year history of kimchee production and storage.
- Koreans have seperate kimchee refrigerators.
- Did I mention the kimchee?
- I loved the shabu shabu but it didn't love me.
- No garbage cans seem to exist in the subway stations or indeed, on the street, so I threw up into a plastic bag.
Anyway, here are the best-of pictures. Note that we flew OVER SIBERIA!!!
