Another Friday, another yoja.  Allow me to introduce Ms. Lee Chae Yeon.

And here she is performing her hit single “Two of Us” .

Had some nice weekend weather.  Took advantage with a 3 hour bicycle ride along the Hangang Saturday and on Sunday afternoon made the journey across Seoul and then hiked up to see Dosonsa Buddhist temple.  Let’s go to the photos:

I don’t often ride the buses here in Seoul, but I did on Sunday.  And here’s a photo of the bus stop in Itaewon to prove it.

An Itaewon street scene

“where is that damn bus anyway?”

oh, here it comes…

There ain’t nothing wrong with riding the bus by the way.  They are clean and relatively comfortable.  And sometimes not crowded…

But as it turns out this bus wasn’t going to where I wanted to be, so it was off the bus and onto the subway…

Ok, I think this train is right…

Maps are quick to note “you are here” but rarely shed much light on where you are going…

Not many travelers joining me on the platform…

Fellow riders…

Transferred to another bus and an hour later was on the streets of Uidong…

Old style house…

Bukhansan Park attracts lots of hikers traversing the numerous trails…

…but I followed the road that followed the stream flowing down from the mountain on which the temple sits…

…where I observed some of the last blossoms of my last spring in Korea…

After a walk/climb that tired me out more than I care to admit, I reached the temple gate…

I’m not a Buddhist so I can’t tell you much about these idols…

But it was a fine day to be out and about enjoying them..

Nice overlook of Seoul from the temple grounds…

Buddha’s birthday is May 21 and his follower’s have purchased traditional lanterns to hang on the temple grounds.  I’m thinking you write a wish for blessings to hang with the lantern or something like that.

Some of the detail on a temple building…

The man of the hour.  You can see the discoloration on Buddha’s belly.  See folks stick their thumb in the navel and rotate the hand counter clockwise and receive Buddha’s blessing.  It was probably a good thing that I kept my shirt on to avoid any possible confusion…

And so ends another fine Sunday adventure in Korea…

Hey, I know I’m late with this week’s Yoja.  What can I say, the weather turned nice and I’ve been outside doing stuff.  So, don’t blame me, blame Ms. Park Eun Ji.

That’s right, our yoja this time is a working girl….as in a television weather reporter.

To be honest, I can’t understand much of what she says.

But I love the way she says it.

I had the honor of attending the wedding ceremony of a great couple, Alastair Tarbett and Juri Jeon.  I’ll let the pictures tell the story…

As Joe Walsh REO Speedwagon (thanks Nomad) said, “you can tune a piano but you can’t tuna fish”.  We did however enjoy tasty morsels from this one after the ceremony.

Some of the guests hanging around outside on the deck.  The wedding took place on a floating wedding hall docked alongside the Han River.

Alastair’s parents flew in from Glasgow, Scotland for the big event.  Another big event, the Iceland volcano, almost prevented them from getting here, but they persevered through various trials and tribulations and made it to the “church” on time.

This trio regaled us with fine music…

Jee Yuen poses with the parents of the groom…

One of the more handsome guests in attendance…

Alastair awaits his cue…

The bride is escorted up the aisle by her soon to be father-in-law.

Ain’t she sweet?

I’m not sure what is going through Alistair’s head as he makes his way up the aisle…

The traditional bow before the vows…

They both said “I do”.  Well, technically Juri said “nea” which we all understood to be “yes”.

A kiss for the bride…

…a bow to the parents…

…and a demonstration of strength as required by Korean custom…

The cutting of the cake which symbolizes the joining of the two families…

I’ll be attending Margaret and Matt’s wedding in June…

The Orrico family minus Dan who had TDY in Hawaii…

Jim Dewey looking dapper as usual…

Even all the ducks were in a row… (ahem).

The newly married Alistair demonstrating his ability to multitask.

Juri and Jee Yuen.

The bride shows off her sexy shoes…

Alan’s kilt was a real chick magnet.  I’m thinking I should celebrate my Scottish heritage and get one too….

So the wedding party moved from the Han river to Dolce Vita…

…and of course a dart tournament broke out…

…and a good time was had by all…

Congratulations to Alastair and Juri!

Back from vacation and time to renew the feature that at least one reader missed.  I proudly present the Yoja of the Week, Ms. Park Jung-Ah.

What’s not to like?

And especially for my Canadian readers here she is playing hockey and singing! (not at the same time.  and probably only pretending to play hockey. but then, I wouldn’t know the difference.  hockey wasn’t that big when I was growing up in Southern Cal…)

There is just something wrong with the lyrics that go with this video.  I mean, I don’t even see a cat.

But the girl can dance…

One of the nicest things about living in the D.C. area was the bicycle trails along the Potomac river.  Well, we’ve got ’em in Seoul too.  Not as scenic, but pleasant enough in an urban kind of way.

Anyway, seeing as how I’m working on living a healthier lifestyle and given the fact that I’m growing bored with my “walks” on the treadmill, I decided to reintroduce myself to the joys of bicycling.  It’s been probably ten years since I last rode, but it’s something you don’t forget, er, like riding a bike.  Sunday morning was a fine day in the Land of the Morning Calm, so I hit the trail…

So, I purchased this fine bicycle on base for $422.  You might notice the bike rack on my car behind me.  I barely have the courage to drive on the streets of Seoul, ain’t no way I’m riding a bike on the road.  But once you get to the riverside, it’s all cool.

Jee Yuen came along on her tiny one speed bike.  The lack of gears meant she had to work a hell of a lot harder than I did.  She was whupped pretty good after a 3 hour ride…

Signs of Spring were in evidence as the Gaenalee (Forsythia) was in full blossom…

…and leaves were sprouting on the trees.

Across the river is the National Assembly Building.  The cherry blossoms weren’t in evidence yet, but any day now the streets of Yeouido will be lined in pink…

Hey, it beats competing with buses and taxis.

The church on a rock.  Heh, maybe it’s St. Peter’s…

A river crossing…

Sunday morning soccer…

Archers.

Taking time to smell the flowers…

…and watching the horses graze.

Lunchee in a bag.  Dried squid. Yum!

A rest stop along the bike road…

And actually, this is where I leave you for now.

So, we kinda sorta arranged a blind date between nephew Justin and the yochin’s daughter Sohee.  Her English is only slightly better than Justin’s Korean skills, but they managed it pretty well I think.  Let’s tag along on their “date”, shall we?

The evening started at Dolce Vita with Sohee whippin’ Justin’s behind on the pool table.  Er, not literally of course.  She won the game while Justin’s balls were still on the table.  Um, figuratively speaking.  She sank the 8-ball first and won the game.  That’s what happened.

So, we headed out to Don Valley for some Korean barbecue.

Been pretty much a regular there these past 5+ years so the wait staff always caters to our every desire.  Food and beverage wise anyway.

Galbi (marinated pork) and mushroom was our entree of choice.

Grilled right at the table Korean-style.

with the requisite side dishes of course

You can almost smell that Korean goodness, can’t you?

And Justin sez it all tastes as good as it looks.

Appetites satisfied it was off to the noraebang…

Searchin’ for the perfect tune…

Singin’ is serious business for Justin…

Sohee has the voice of an angel…

…and momma ain’t bad either.

The ceiling in our singing room was out of this world… (ahem).

I’m old enough to remember when we had to “follow the bouncing ball” at sing-a-longs.

Having exhausted our voices it was time for some country music at the Grand Ole Opry…

The tackiest honky tonk in Itaewon.  I love this place…

Not sure what this is about, making plans for a future get together without the old farts along perhaps?

The Opry tradition at midnight is to play “God Bless the USA”  and as you can see many in the audience stand and sing along.

Anyway, it was a fun night out on the town with the young folks…

This week our yoja is Lee Na Young.

She’s a popular actress here in Korea.

Still looking good at 31 (relatively old by Korean standards).

She finished 3rd in a “hottest celebrity” ranking at a blog called Galbijim.  (In an odd coincindence, Galbijim’s #1 and #2 were previously featured in the Yoja of the Week series.)

And you might enjoy watching her perform is this cute commercial. 

…of Spring!  What’s up with that Al?

Anyway, as they are wont to do this time of year, the storm brought humongous snowflakes…I’d reckon them to be the size of silver dollars, if any of you out still remember silver dollars…

They snowflakes looked like this from the back balcony:

In other news, I took my nephew Justin (an exchange student at Yonsei University) to see Nanta.  You know, expose him to real authentic Korean culture and all.  Always an enjoyable show…

That would be Justin…

The stage is set….

The audience murmurs in anticipation….

…and photography is not allowed during the show….sorry about that.

So, yesterday caught a little break in the weather and took a stroll along the Han riverside…

Much of Saturday’s yellow dust had dissipated…

…and the bicyclists took full advantage…

…as I walked along the Seven Bridges Road.   Er, well kinda sorta.

Youngdonggyo (one of many Hangang crossings).  Gyo=Bridge.  Gang=River.  The Gyo, we’ll build it now, it may take a lot of time….

I do believe this is the International signage meaning “Oh Shit!”  Or judging from the eyes, don’t take drugs and work in high places.  Or something like that…

After spending an hour and a half on my river hike, I decided to save these steps leading to a little park for another day….

So instead I hopped the #110 bus back to Itaewon and a late lunch at 3 Alley Pub.  And I was reminded why I rarely go there anymore.  Food is fine, but.  See I order a Miller Lite and a menu.  They both arrive.  The waitress ask if I’m paying now.  I say, well I’m gonna order me up some lunchee.  She asks for a credit card.  I say forget it and give her a cash for the beer.  She brings my change.  I order my lunch (wings and goulash).  She asks me to pay in advance, so I do.  She brings the change.  I order another beer and so on…

I guess Albert has a reason for this policy, but I hate it and so I’m pretty sure I’ve spent my last money in his establishment…

And thus ends another chapter in the life and times of LTG.

This week I am happy to present my favorite Sassy Girl, Jeon Ji Hyun.  I’ve actually featured her most famous movie appearance in a blog post, remember?  Here’s a great clip from that film.

She’s a woman of many moods as well…

Elegant Ji Hyun.

Enticing Ji Hyun.

Inviting Ji Hyun.

Innocent Ji Hyun.

Talented as well as she demonstrates in this commercial.

And also naughty, as there is apparently some scandal concerning these (NSFW) photos.

And that’s just about all there is to see here folks.  Move along now.

Just in one of those lulls where there isn’t much of anything worth saying.  Heh, I’m sure that will pass soon enough.

Takin’ the nephew to see Nanta tomorrow night, so there’s that. It’s a great show, here’s a taste.

I asked for and was granted my release from the Rubbies.  So, I’m without a dart team for the first time in a long time.  No controversy or drama, just not enjoying playing when I can’t throw well enough to help the team.  A Division has gotten very cutthroat this year and that has sucked the joy right out of the game for me.

Still not smokin’ and still exercising on a regular basis.  The weight is slowly coming off.  Very slowly.

Got pissed off at work this week for the first time in LONG time.  Some smart ass O-4 yanking my chain.  Well, I should be above takin’ the bait from a field grade, but I had a chat with his boss to make sure we were trackin’, then I gave the Major a call to express my displeasure directly.  He didn’t really back down, I’ll give him that.  I came right up to the edge of acting unprofessionally, then regained control and ended the call on a relatively positive note.  This is Korea, we’ll call it an armistice.

Tom and Yuli were by over the weekend and he walked me through reformatting the iPod.  So, I’m back up to where I was, 17,000+ files.

Finished up season 3 of Dexter and I’m still enjoying the hell out of it.  Highly recommended.

And welcome to Jeff, a new reader here at LTG.  Glad you’re here, but as the regulars could tell you–Prepare to be disappointed!
And I think I will stop here, having proven my point about having nothing of note to say.

OK, once again I have braved the archives here at LTG looking for some golden nuggets to share as the “best” of the year.  Man, it was a journey through some pretty pathetic drivel, but these two tied for least worst of 2006:

Stupid is as Stupid does  recounts the sad tale of some firsts for me in Korea–my first blackout, my first ambulance ride, and my first stitches.

A Clean Well-Lighted Place  I think nicely captures the quiet desperation of the mundane life I was living as my second year in Korea came to an end.

And this picture from that same time period reflects my emotional state of being.  2007 brought some changes good and bad, but my outlook was definitely more positive.

Finally, I call Greetings Earthlings! the best of my photo-essays from 2006.  Partly because for some reason my server dropped most of the photographs from my posts back then.  Anyway, I have photos of Namdaemun Gate and the marketplace, vintage Dolce Vita shots, pics from a Busan trip, and also the DMZ tour.

Stay tuned for 2007 once I get around to wading through the muck and mire of my so-called life…

The beautiful Korean woman for this week is singer, model, actress Park Soo Jin.

Not too shabby, eh?

She was a member of the popular K-pop group “Sugar”.  You can watch her perform with Sugar here.

And Ms. Park also does lots of commercials.  I couldn’t decide if I liked this one or this one best.  Heh, it’s all good, right?

So, yesterday I take my winter coat to the dry cleaners in preparation for putting it away until next winter.

And of course, I wake up to snowfall this morning.  Appears to be 3+ inches of thick wet snow on the ground and it is still coming down.

Ah well.

Actually,  when I dropped the coat off I wondered when I might ever have the occasion to wear it again.  I don’t expect to have much need for any of my winter clothes there.  Or my suits for that matter…

…as a dinner meat option here in Korea.  The photo above is a joke of course, but the real photos of dog slaughter are not so pleasant to look at.

Anyway, I don’t eat dog meat.  Some Koreans do and it is culturally acceptable for them to do so.  I would not want a Korean judging me for liking tacos and so I cut them the same slack.  Ask a Korean has a fantastic post up about the whole man eats dog phenomonom here in the Land of the Morning Calm.  Have a read, it is rather fascinating.

For those of you watching at home, here’s what’s been going on:

I had some dinner guests, Tom and Yuli who you will recall introduced me to Bali.  Tom is also the captain of my dart team.

This is the aftermath of what was my standard grilled rib-eye steak dinner.

The highlight of Tom’s visit was that he set me up with this keen system that allows me to watch content I’ve downloaded from the internet in the comfort of my living room on the big screen TV.  It is really awesome!

“Let’s see, this wire plugs in here, and then…”

So, I’ve been looking for good quality entertainment on the internet (hey, there’s more than porn there, who knew?).  I’ve managed to watch “The Blind Side” (which I found to be quite excellent by the way) and an old favorite “The Prince of Tides”.  But where I’ve really be spending my time is on watching the Showtime series “Dexter”.   Just finished season one and I am hooked.  Great show.

So dear readers, I need your help.  I know how to search for visual entertainment, but I’m not at all sure what to search for.  I mean, Tom suggested I try “Dexter” which I had otherwise never heard of.  So, what else is out there I should be watching.  Leave your suggestions in the comments.  Thank you very much.

Last weekend my blog buddy Jenn of I’ve Got 2 Shoes fame came up from Ulsan for a taste of big city life.  I fear she may have been a little disappointed because other than dinner and a short bar hop on Saturday night, I couldn’t motivate my sorry ass to get out of the house much.  Well, we did the usual base tour.  Anyway, she said she enjoyed chillin’ here at the LTG abode and she’s always welcome to sample the mellow life in Seoul.

Friday night we had the going away dart tourney for Chris Hayes at Dolce Vita.  Yep, I came out of semi-retirement for the event.  And yep, my game is still crap.

Chris is returning to the USA after 12 years in Korea.  He has a new job and is excited about heading home and starting his new life.  He’ll be missed here of course.  Monday nights will be a tad quieter, that’s for sure.

Rex, CH, Ace, and Lucky…

Chris brought a couple of newbies out with him…

Alistair brought his pretty wife Juri and her pink darts.  She’s actually getting to be a pretty good darter.  She and her partner Ace took a second place at the tourney.

Jim an Chris figuring out the brackets…

Ron, Doug and Lonnie talk it over…

My theory is if you aren’t throwing well, drink more!

Juri and Jee Yeun agree that there is nothing more exciting than Friday night darts at Dolce Vita!

Anyway, it was a pretty good night all in all.  When didn’t have many of the boys from the UK with us, I guess because they were resting up for their mate Ciaran’s wedding on Saturday.  I had the honor of attending the event and it was well done.

The understandably happy Ciaran with his lovely bride Eun Jin.

Ciaran is a very nice young lad from Wales and I wish him and Eun Jin much happiness in the future.

So, today I’ve been playing with my iPod (I somehow managed to delete my library and I’m slowly rebuilding).  Got a pot of chili cooking and my nephew Justin will be joining me later this evening.

And that brings y’all right up to the minute in my thrilling life….

So, I finally got around to getting an iPod.  Hey, I wanted to be sure it wasn’t just a passing fad, ok?  Anyway, my pal Tom shared his song library with me and they now reside on said iPod.  Over 22,000 of them.

So, just now I’m getting ready to climb on the treadmill and I sat the iPod on shuffle.  And what song do you think came up first?

Long Time Gone.  I figured that odd coincidence was worthy of a blog.

So, I suppose to answer my question, the odds of that happening are one in over 22,000.

Is my life amazing or what?

I do so want to be popular.

This week our beautiful Korean woman is someone I think you’ll recognize.  She’s been appearing in quite a few advertisements, and I expect will be seeing her in many more….

Yep, it’s Korea’s “Golden” girl Kim Yu-Na.

And in addition to product endorsements, I understand she’s a pretty good skater.

She really is quite impressive on the ice.

And these days, everyone in Korea is talking about her.  My Korean staff schedules their lunch for when she is competing in the Olympics.

So I really don’t think there is a more deserving Yoja this week than sweet Ms. Kim.