Yellow Wind

Here in Korea there is a phenomenon called "Yellow Wind". It normally happens at this time of year and is, basically, dust being carried here from the Gobi Desert in China. This past Saturday there was a heavy concentration of dust in the air. We live quite close to Namsan Tower and we couldn't even see the tower because of all the dust. When I went to my car it was completely coated. You could barely even tell that my car is green! This was the highest dust levels recorded since 2002. Here is a chart showing the dust level here in Seoul. See the band between 300 and 500? That's the band level for hazardous levels. As you can see, we were quite literally off the chart. Over 2300. Far, far above the hazardous range. Anyway, this dust is bad news. It causes a lot of problems such as asthma and eye infections. I saw a report that said that because of the increasing industrialization of China that there are a lot of heavy metals and dioxin in the dust. Dioxin is a carcinogen. Great. My lungs are so black, I just know it.

Driving in Korea

I didn't write this. I ripped it off a friend's blog. I'm not sure where she got it. The sad part is that it is not a joke!! They really do drive like this and it is absolutely maddening and scary at times.

Street Survival in Seoul or Becoming a Road Scholar by Curtis Desjardins

For our world-traveling friends, I'd like to write this helpful Public Service Announcement in travel safety:
After living in Korea for the past two years, I've noticed a marked difference in the driving habits of rural and urban drivers, where urban is defined as :in Seoul or Pusan". We unmanly girly drivers of the Western world could probably handle the lackadaisical rural driving, but to truly excel in in urban Korea you must "be in the Zone"; a survival state-of-mind if I ever saw one. And why not? Korea only has the largest number of auto fatalities per capita in the world, so you'd better be in a survival state-of-mind. With that in mind, I've culled the following driving tips into this one, short, easy to read compendium of driving survival on the streets of Seoul.

Tips for the Motorcycle/Scooter Driver:

- It is important to wear protective clothing. T-shirts, shorts and open-toed sandals are considered appropriate.

- Ride against traffic whenever possible.

If you are not riding in the street, ride on the sidewalks like you darn well own them (pedestrians must make way for YOU; you have the "I'm a motorized vehicle and you're not" rule of right-of-way on your side.

- When leaving the sidewalk to ride on the streets (against traffic), make sure your rocket out from between two parked cars.

- If there are no parked cars in your vicinity, it is perfectly acceptable to run pedestrians down at the nearest crosswalk.

- Overload the back of your scooter with a heavy, unwieldy package
- and ride one-handed
- while carrying a huge box of take-out food in the other hand
- with your two-year-old daughter standing in front of you, holding onto the speedometer for balance
- and don't give her a helmet.

- During times of heavy traffic (read: at all times) weave in and out of stationary and slow-moving cars. Removal of any pesky side mirrors getting in your way is expected.


Tips for the Average Driver:

- First of all, don't let those scooter drivers get away with any of the cheap tricks outlined above. Your car outweighs them by 20 times, so don't take any of their crap.

- Change lanes at every opportunity. Don't bother with shoulder checks, that's what mirrors are for (blind spot? never heard of it).

- Use mirrors for reversing as well.

- No parking spaces? Bah. Double park

- Still no parking spaces? Bah. Triple park.

- Still no parking spaces? Bah. Run over pedestrians on the sidewalk and park over their cooling carcasses (it's their own fault for getting in your way; after all, you DO have the car).

- U-turn at every given opportunity
- during rush-hour gridlock
- with the widest turn radius you can manage
- use the sidewalks if you have to.

- Keep a callular phone in your left had at all times, supergluing it if necessary.

- Never use your brakes - it shows weakness. Just lay on the horn and accelerate around the problem.

- Those lines on the road? Just very loose guidelines - a "two lane" highway cane easily fit three, even four, abreast).

- Crosswalks? Just pretty road decorations.

- Always pass slower cars on the left, even if doing so will bring you over the yellow divider.

- One way streets are one way for everyone but you.

- Red light, schmed light, just go whenever you darn well feel like it.

- If you become lost (with Korea's lack or roadsigns and street names this is not a possibility, but an eventuality) stop in the middle of the road and gawk around until you decide that: yes, you are, in fact, lost
- ...then flag down another motorist to ask for directions and block the remaining lane
- ...and ignore the honking masses behind you as they shouldn't be in such a hurry anyway. Don't they know "speed kills"?

- Never wear a seatbelt. Windshields will stop you most of the time.

Holy Cow! It's the First Lady!!

I can't believe I finally posted something after all these months and forgot to include the most exciting thing that happened. Back in November Korea hosted the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference which was a pretty big deal and leaders from all over the world came, including the United States. Anyway, the White House Communications Agency requested support from our office and I got to go down to Pusan to help out. It was a lot of long hours and hard work, but it was very exciting to get a behind the scenes view of what is involved in a Presidential overseas trip. It is really something. I got to see the motorcade when they arrived at the hotel. The President's limousine peeled off and went to the back of the hotel and pulled into the garage. I was hoping to see him, but I was at the wrong angle because he got out on the opposite side of the car than we were expecting. I saw Mrs. Bush get out, but by the time we realised the President was getting out on the other side and re-positioned ourselves all we saw was his back as he walked down the hall to the elevator. If I had known, I would have asked Kendrick to arrange for me to get a photo with the President because they did that for all the embassy marines who provided security. I didn't know to ask though, so I didn't get to see him at all. But...on the day they left I was sitting there at the Westin Chosun eating breakfast on the executive level with a fellow warrant from the White House Security Office when I glanced over to my right and there was the First Lady sitting opposite from me at the next table down! She was not even five feet away from me. I hadn't even noticed when she came in. I'm sure my eyes practically fell out onto the table, I was so astounded. Of course I shamelessly eavesdropped on her conversation, and kept peeking at her out of the corner of my eye. Cliff says I should have gone up to and talked to her, but that just isn't done. You have to act completely normal and not like a rabid groupie. Besides, the people who work there really do see them all the time so it's not a big deal. Luckily, the Secret Service guys were behind me and couldn't see that I wasn't wearing a trip pin. Kendrick had to run down and get me one from the Marine guards before they noticed or they probably would have tackled me. Anyway, she just sat there and drank her coffee and talked about her schedule with the lady she was with (probably her assistant - I don't know). I joke that I directly influenced the First Lady because I was eating salmon and after a bit she got up and got some off the buffet too. I don't know if she actually noticed me eating it or not, but who is to say otherwise? That's my story and I'm sticking to it!! Ha ha. I think she is a lovely lady and I have always admired her, so it was awfully exciting for me. After they left, we had to go through the rooms and make sure things weren't left behind and the Presidential Suite was gorgeous. I think it had been completely renovated for President Bush's visit and they named it after him. Anyway, I kept hinting that I was available if they ever needed more help, so I hope I get to go on another trip. This was actually the second one I helped out on. The last time was a couple of years ago in Singapore and they were only there for about 12 hours so I didn't even get a glimpse of anybody really important. This trip was much more rewarding in that aspect. I also got some souvenirs with the Presidential Seal on them which is pretty cool.

Hello All,
The Purkey family has been busy as usual. We were busy in the fall and winter doing fund raising for the Girls Scout trip to Japan for the Winter Conference. The more we raised, the less we had to come out of pocket for expenses. Allissa did coat check at some holiday balls and I baked a lot for the bake sales. We also did gift wrapping just before Christmas. Note to self: NEVER volunteer for four consecutive hours again!! The PX donated these HUGE rolls of wrapping paper and between lifting them up and down and staying bent over a table my back was killing me within a half hour. There were so many people doing their last minute Christmas shopping that there was almost no rest periods at all. The upside was that Allissa and I earned aboout $250 for her trip on that one event. So, with all the other fundraising we did, she had about $470 towards her trip. She went on her trip in February and had a very good time. They stayed an extra two days past the conference and went to Disneyland Tokyo. Luckily, the trip was over a federal holiday so she didn't miss TOO much school. She's been doing pretty well in school and has been on the honor roll every nine weeks so far.
I got to go TDY to the States back in January. It worked out perfectly because my friend Cheryl was having her youngest son's dedication ceremony while I was there. I didn't let her know I was going to be there beforehand because I wanted to surprise her. I ended up spending lots of time with them and it was a great visit. The Toscano children are all so adorable!! I had so much fun playing with them. It took Isabella a little while to warm up to me because I left for Korea right after she was born so she doesn't know me very well. After I played with her one day, she kept telling me I wasn't "coocoo in the head". Apparently being coocoo in the head is her gravest insult, so I guess she liked me a lot at that point. Nick and I played swordfighting quite a bit and also slew dinosaurs for dinner and protected our cave from invaders - he is very imaginative. Alexandra has grown so much and is very sweet and helpful. Vincent is a sweetheart too - he was very cuddly and I enjoyed getting to hold him and feed him. I also got to visit with some of my other friends there although not as many or as much as I would have liked. I left wishing for more time and that we still lived there.
The biggest news we have is that Cliff and his dad have reconnected. It turns out that he has a sister and two brothers and a stepmother. We are all really excited about it and are going to go meet everyone this summer. Allissa has gotten to talk to her grandfather on the phone a bit and she is looking forward to getting to know him.
Other than that, there is not too much going on. I've just been pretty busy with work and stuff. The weather is warming up and we've had a couple of days in the 60s which is really nice. I hope everyone is doing well.