I need holes!!!

Last we left I was about to board my 747 for a what turned out to be a horribly uncomfortable jaunt across the sea to...Seoul South Korea. This was really just a brief layover but I tried to make the most it. Won't bore you with the details...ended up meeting with a guy named Peter who is a German currently resideing in New Zealand and we decided to take a tour to the 'small' town near the airport (and by small I mean 3 million people). We boarded our short bus and make our way across the longest bridge in Asia (21 km) to the Heungnuynsa Temple in Incheon, after a stop for gas.

This is a very cool Buddhist Temple from the early 1300's that still serves as an important palce of worship today - particularily if you don't want your kids to end up asking "do you want fries, or I guess in this case rice, with that?".Parents who care at all about their children will visit the temple while their children are taking a final University prepardness test (maybe something like the US SAT's) and perform a ritual. After wishing with a lantern, candle and flag offerings, they will kneel in front of Buddha and bow 30,000 times (about 4 hrs) all the time wishing that their children get into a good Unversity and thus do not end up like losers.

There were several other interesting tidbits of knowledge that out guide Kim Sam Yong had about the temple...after a while it was all a blur. I do however recall being facinated that Kim Sam Yong preferred to be called Nicole, this was the Western name that she picked for herself, so the tourists could pronounce it easier - and she freely admits to being a huge Nicole Kidman fan.

With still a few hours to spare before my next flight I decided to take advantage of Incheon Airport (best airport in the world 5 years running) layover activities. This is how I ended up makinkg this sad little desk at Korean Arts and Crafts. In all honesty is was a very simple project; glue the table together, paint it, glue on the handles - the 5 y.o. next to me seemed to have mastered it. I think maybe I try too hard. I ended up with too much glue and I was misisng a leg. The painting part was a disaster as well. The pinicle of humiliating came when a Korean employee of the center came over and tried to help my sad desk. She held it up to her cohorts who promptly covered their mouths in a fit of giggles. Determined not to be outdone by a 5 y.o, I finished. Now I have a unevenlypainted warped desk that I will lug around 3 weeks on principle.

I wanted to write this while I had some time to spare but I realized that my battery was getting low - no worries as an airport as reknowned as Incheon as outlets available for use. I inquired as to the location of the charging center at the information desk. As i don't know a lick of Korean, I generally just try several different English words for what I am looking for..."where can I find an outlet, plug-in, electrcity...". I was met with another blank stare. Knowing that my charade ability is not up to par I pulled out my cord and showed her what I meant. Ahhh "holes" she replied. Holes!?!? This lady seriously got her Enlish from a Seinfeld episode (the one where George tries to by the Frogger machine from a pizzeria. So blame her for this poorly written blog entry. I did trek all the way to the end of the councourse but there are in fact, no holes.

Battery dying, energy depleted (both the computer and me). About to board another plane for the next 6 hours of my life. Could someone please invent teleporting? Oh and make holes more accessible worldwide.