Black Monday II

Stock market when George W. Bush took over the economy from Bill Clinton in 2001: 10,587.59

Stock market on Monday, September 29, 2008, near the end of his disastrous presidency: 10,365.45

More numbers.  WaPo autopsy.

Unhyungung (Unhyun Palace)

A much smaller and (in relative terms) newer palace than Gyeongbokgung, Unhyungung is worth seeing because you’ll pretty much have it to yourself, especially on a rainy day.  Here are the parade grounds just inside the entrance.  My boss had never been to it, and it reminded me of growing up in DC.  There are probably a hundred great “tourist” things I’ve never done there (the White House comes to mind) that most people would think me crazy for missing.  The fact that this palace is a small one makes for a really intimate, quiet spot near the bustle of Insadong.

Gyeongbokgung (Gyeongbok Royal Palace)

These are gargoyle-monkeys atop a building at Gyeongbok Royal Palace in central Seoul.  It was a fairly rainy day two weekends ago when I saw it with two co-workers and a friend from another hagwon.  The whole place took on a somewhat foreboding atmosphere, but we figured we’d see other palaces on sunnier days.  Gyeongbokgung is the largest of the “big five” palaces in Seoul, sprawling out over multiple buildings, parade grounds, and a gorgeous man-made pond (practically a lake).

Here’s a more expansive view from the outside:

“I Can Eat 50 Eggs”

R.I.P. Paul Newman.  From one Kenyon Lord to another, enjoy the hell out of heaven.

Horrors of Engrish

As the weather turns cooler, it was a great day to get out into Seoul and do some sight-seeing.  Later I met up with some co-workers for another round of shopping for them and people-watching for me at Dongdaemun market, the largest in all of Korea.  I made sure to check out the Pungmul flea market as well, which is a sub-section of Dongdaemun where people hawk their old stuff.  Koreans tend to love new and shiny things (other than trucks and delivery scooters, you won’t see cars older than five years on the streets here) so it was a definite change of pace to see Korean “junk,” so to speak.

Disturbing cheapo toys as well:

BTW, there’s a NSFW moment of horrible, offensive Engrish below the fold.

“Douchenozzle”

“The Great Schlep” is my future wife Sarah Silverman’s statement about getting older Jewish Floridians to vote Obama.  So NSWF it isn’t funny.  But really, it’s painfully funny.

Please vote in November, even if you’re abroad!

Tom Hanks Was Nominated For His Third Oscar in 1996

Came in tonight around 1 after a hard-fought loss at trivia night at an ex-pat bar.  Grabbed some gimbap from a Mini-Stop on the way home.  Sat down to email and read the news, put Itunes on “Party Shuffle.”

Pavement’s “Haircut” came on.  Korea-Career-Korea-Career indeed.

It had to happen sooner or later.  It was a delightfully un-ironic moment.

Hongdae

Pick-up musicians in Hongdae, one of the wilder uni districts in Seoul.  There are plenty of bars and clubs, but the most fun I had a few weekends ago was hanging out in a park watching people play music and buying bottles of take-out beer from a local convenience store like everyone else.  The weather is starting to turn here in Seoul, and I should probably do another swing through Hongdae before it gets too cold.  Not this weekend though, since I’m exhausted.  Probably just brews and trivia night at a local ex-pat bar.

A Month

I’m finishing up my fourth week of teaching, and I’m tired in that particular way only teaching can leave you feeling drained, more mental than physical although still plenty of the latter.  We did our first round of monthly testing (“assessment” is the preferred professional term, but it’s also a silly one) and my students are all over the map in terms of skill level.

Too Rich

Let me get this straight: McCain is afraid of debating Obama Friday night, so he “suspends” his campaign in order to be all maverick-y and go to Washington and wrastle the Wall Street meltdown all by his lonesome?  By working on a Federal hand-out to the banking and securities industry that will be more than a trillion dollars of our tax money? (If you haven’t heard, the 700 billion figure was entirely made up.)  Because the only way to solve the crisis caused by Wall Street is to bail out the very firms and avaricious idiots who started the problems in the first place, with help from champion de-regulators like McCain himself, who for the past three decades has done his damnedest to make sure that banks and IB houses and insurance companies could do whatever the hell they wanted, when they wanted, and how they wanted, knowing that if they ever screwed up too badly their buddies like McCain would work their wizardry to bail their sorry asses out with largesse drawn from the paychecks of every single working American?

America, with no amount of hyperbole I say unto you: You have lost your collective f’ing mind.  Come November, we’ll see if you manage to regain any of it.  Right about now, I’m thinking it’s a coin toss.

Update: Looks like our Chinese overlords have finally decided to stop buying up our bad and/or ridiculously dangerous debt.  What’s the Chinese character for “Nelson Muntz going ‘Ha-Ha!’”?