I hate parents who brag about their brats!

One thing I absolutely hate is when people write in a blog and spew vomitous verbiage about how wonderful their snotty little smelly kids are. I hate it! Ohhhh, my daughta is sew pretty, they snort down their noses. Gag, choke, sputem. Phlegm! As if her nose doesn't look like one big wart and aren't her eyes crossed? Hey lady, I got better hair on my back than she has on her head. And oh yeah, I hate it when they say, "Oh my little girl, she is the smartest person ever born." Throw up! She ain't all that! You're lucky if she can match her shoes when she dresses. "Oh special day! They're both white sneakers!" And when they really suck at something like exponentiation or algebrethication, or stuff, they always make lame excuses. "That teacher doesn't like my princess just because she farts whenever she has to do work on the board. Its not fair. Beans are part of our culture." The coach didn't like my angel. She missed the audition because we were stuck in the drive-thru lane at MacDonalds. My food-sucking hole of off-spring needs to eat french fries. Its a medical necessity." Listening to it all the time makes me physically sick. And then we blog it, post it on facebook, twitter it and spam it. Get over it all ready. They are lying little evil monsters. All they will ever do is get your hopes up like they would actually amount to something and then they shove their fat little hands down your throat squeeze their greasy little fingers around your barely beating heart and rip it from your chest. Then as your vision goes grey and gradually black, the last thing you see is their smilling little face as they say, "Oh, I forgot to tell you I need money for a mandatory field trip or I will have to repeat the 8th grade again and it will be all your fault!" Arrrrgh!

FYI: Tonight was Katy's athletics award ceremony and she recieved two awards - MVP of the volleyball team (she was the captain of the team too) and also the top female student athlete of the year for the entire school.Is that phlegm on your shirt?

I made it home yesterday. It was either Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, but don't ask me what time it was or is. It's dark outside. How's this for confusing. I took off at 8:20 in the morning and arrived in Miami at 8:30 in the evening of supposedly the same day. I flew for 24 hours in between. I think it is time for a new watch.

Oh, yeah, Andrew was discharged from the hospital. So now we will probably not ever hear from him again. But he is good. A couple of follow-up appointments are scheduled but are just routine to check on liver function.

Good night. Good morning?

Employment Op for Debbie

Here is an elementary school I pass by walking from the subway to the hospital (about a thousand miles). Doesn't it look exactly like an elementary school? If you miss Andrew, Debbie, I heard they are hiring!

Seouleung

On the way to the hospital to see Andrew this morning I stopped off at a memorial park I pass by every day. I hoped that since its Sunday I would be able to sneak in without having to buy a ticket. No such luck. They nailed me for 1,000 wan (85 cents). Oh well, it was another beautiful extremely well maintained park. I suppose it was worth it.

It amazes me how much care and maintenance goes into everything. The gardens and walkways were immaculate. The first photo shows the 'palace' where the workers preparing the site for the entombment of King Seongjung and his queen lived. The inset shows the inside of the building, constructed about 650 years ago. They would have replaced it by now but are still paying on the negative amortizing mortgage.About 100 feet above the workers 'palace' is the actual burial mound with ol' King Seounjung himself. The very large guardian statues are a symbol of his great wealth. Apparently his reign was a prosperous one for Korea. I wouldn't know about that, but it wasn't so properous for poor Seongjung who died at the sprightly age of 37 years! He had 3 wives and an unknown number of consorts - hmmmm, wonder what he died from?

Andrew Had Stones

From what I have been able to piece together so far Andrew had very big stones. Gigantic stones. He doesn't any more. Now he doesn't have any stones at all. They removed them. Poor kid will now have to go through life without any stones. Here is a picture of one of them.

One More Procedure Then Anyung Heekaseyo

We were hoping to be discharged tomorrow but the doctor came by and told us that Andrew still has stents to drain his liver. These apparently have to come out endoscopically. So another couple days here. Hurray! Besides, its raining out and Andrew couldn't take me sight seeing anyway.

Thanks for Angel Prayers

I wanted to thank everyone who prayed for an angel to come look after Andrew. You did a tremendous job. Today I was lucky to get to meet Andrew's angel - Sohee. She is every bit as sweet as she looks.

Got in trouble with the original picture because it doesn't begin to do justice to Sohee (although Andrew never looked better, unfortunately). So here is the only alternative they could come up with. Better???

World Peace

Yesterday, before we finally received a visit from the Doctor, I wandered just east of the hospital to the Olympic Park. It was a beautiful peaceful park surrounding many of the venues from the '88 Games.

This is a picture of the World Peace Gate at one of the main entrances to the park. The way I see it we need about 6 billion people to walk through this gate. I clipped this explanation of the paintings from a Korean website:

The Paintings of Four Spirits
With straights and curves as the basic lines, blue and red (symbolic of Korea's flag, Daeguk) were used as the main colors to represent the concept of Um and Yang (yin/yang), the Oriental symbols representing the two opposites of the universe, as well as the spirit of creativity. Choojag (a spirit shaped as a red phoenix that guards the south), Hyunmoo (a spirit shaped as a black turtle that guards the north), Bakho (a spirit shaped as a white tiger that guards the west), and Cheongrong (a spirit shaped as a blue dragon that guards the east) are the four spirits appearing in the mural paintings of Koguryo era mounds. The images of their ascension to heaven signifies life against the body and freedom against spirit, in addition to the dauntlessness and strength of the Korean people. This visionary expression serves to ensure the balance between the ceiling and the rest of the gate. The strong coloring represents both the Danch'eong color of Korea's ancient buildings and the dignity, splendor, and grandeur of this memorial gate.

As I wandered through the park I found small garden areas where I could sit and reflect. Here are a couple more views.

The first is a seating area along the pathway with a very cool breeze and amazingly quite in the middle of this city of 10 million. The second is from the site of the ancient Fortress Mong Chon that looked out over the City in a defensive position high above. The haziness is from yellow sand blowing over from the Gobi Desert in China. Andrew's hospital is on the left of the cluster of buildings in the center of the picture.

Andrew's surgery, removal of his gall bladder, is scheduled for his morning at 8:00AM. That is Thursday night, 7:00PM Miami time. Please keep him in your prayers at that time. He is more than a little nervous.

Thank you all!

Anyung Haseo!

I have made a very important discovery. I have discovered why Asians are shorter than westerners! (Although Koreans are the tallest of the Asian nationalities - but don't let any facts get in the way of my story.) They live all stacked up on top of each other. So if you are unlucky enough to live on any of the lower levels, you will get all squished down. Simple.

This is picture of a housing development that seems fairly typical all around Seoul. There must be at least a couple of hundred of these buildings in this one development. (Don't come home drunk!) I count thirty stories in each building. According to wikipedia Seoul has a population of over 10 million people. There are over 44,000 people per square mile living in the City - an area approximately similar to Miami-Dade County. The buildings around the area where I took this picture all seem fairly new. This is Songpa Gu (Gu means district) and this area is where the Olympic village was when Seoul hosted the Summer Olympics in 1988. To the left of where I stood to take this picture is Olympic Park (Haven't been there yet - plan to today) and to my right about a mile away are all of the sporting venues that were built for the games. This development is on my walk from the subway station to the Asan Medical Center where Andrew is.

I might take a subway further out into the City later today to check out some ancient Korean sights, so, stay tuned, tomorrow, or yesterday, or whenever.

Love to all form beautiful, crowded Seoul! Hey, who farted?

PS: I was watching one of the Enlish braodcasts on TV - like the Discovery Channel, and there was a story about how the Chinese were actually the first to sail across the Pacific Ocean to discover America. Who knew?

Anyung Haseo!

I thought that I had better start with an entry about Andrew. Yes, he's the sick one in the hospital, the reason for my trip. Here is a picture of him, labeled with his name in Korean (He said they spelled it wrong). He is teaching me how to say hello in Korean (see greeting above). I am looking forward to meeting some of his friends tonight.

Speaking of tonight, I have no idea what time it is or what day it is. What I know is that I boarded a plane in Miami on Monday morning at 6:30 AM. I flew over Anchorage Alaska. Anchorage? Since when isn't the shortest distance between two points a straight line? Get a map. Anchorage?

The sun never went down. Daylight all the way. But, when I arrived in Seoul it was Tuesday night! I've been robbed! So don't ask me the day or time. The only consolation I have is that (and i have done the math myself so it must be right) I will arrive home in Miami a few hours before I leave Seoul. I did the math myself.

If I ever figure out when I am I will share some more of the goings on from Seoul.

Thank you for reading.

Kamsa Hamnida.