Pop Up Bowl

Yesterday I received a care package from my family. Inside were necessities and niceties. Deodorant, Easy Mac, Dunkin Donuts Coffee, and stickers for my students. However, one item combined practicality and extravagance, completely catching me off guard.

I'm speaking about Orville Redenbacher's hottest popcorn variety. Since my childhood I have not found a more satisfying late night snack then a bowl of popcorn. Feels light and healthy but when done correctly is covered in synthetic buttery taste. Needless to say I was delighted when the care package was topped off with 8 or so bags of snacking glory.

They do have popcorn here in Korea. Most mom and pop corner stores even have the microwavable bags, but wow are they behind in their popcorn technology. No flavor, no synthetic butter, no jumbo kernels! So, while Korea puts all their best and brightest into electronics, automobiles, and terrible pop music, snacking falls by the wayside.

Then along comes Mr. Orville Redenbacher. The Prince of Popping Corn. Bowtie and suspenders just doing the damn thing. Redenbacher says "The game need changin."

Boom!

A microwavable bag that when finished, rips open at the top, to reveal one less dish in your kitchen sink. Honestly ingenius. I tried just ripping open one end of bags before, but after covering your arm to elbow in butter grease the only humanly decent way to snack is pouring it into a bowl. Now there's no bowl. No looking in the cupboard or pantry, wasting precious popcorn time. Orville wanted you to be snacking on his delicious popping corn as fast and easy as possible. Mission accomplished Mr. Redenbacher.

Pop Up Bowl, check.

DMZ

The main attraction of South Korea is the DMZ. If anyone tells you different they are a liar and shant be trusted. Despite the high profile tourist recognition, most of my friends who have been teaching/living here fail to see it. Not I said the cat.

I went to the DMZ this past weekend with Steph. A brief introduction about the DMZ, here. We left the Lotte Hotel in Seoul at 11:30 and drove NW along the Han River. About halfway along the river loses it's parks and recreation areas and adopts high chain link fences and razor wire. A few km down outposts are stationed every so and so distance, with soldiers and their automatic weaponry. I was not expecting a militaristic atmosphere so soon.

After we had lunch we continued and passed through a touristy area showcasing the Freedom Bridge and other less notables. We re-boarded the bus and finally came upon checkpoint Alpha. A ROK soldier scanned the bus and permitted us through. The bus crawled forward and swerved between steel barricades set up to deter North Korean tanks and tourists with motion sickness.

Once through our bus idled outside the main gate, waiting for a soldier to escort us the rest of the way. After about 10-15 minutes a Sgt. Lt. or someone with the last name Guerrera walked down the aisle and checked our passports. No threats were found on board so we proceeded. Through more razor wire fences and mine fields to reach Panmunjom and the JSA.

We were strictly told no pictures at this point and to line up in 2 rows. It was the scariest field trip I've been on. We were led into and through a building with ROK guards sternly frozen behind clenched fists and Ray Ban aviators. The air was humming with intensity. Up a stair case and out to the famed border with North Korea.

I immediately noticed the North Korean soldier across from us. Binoculars to his eyes and like our ROK soldiers, immovable. Guerrera pointed out the different buildings in front of us and we were then free to snap pictures. Finished we headed into T-2, a building where talks/negotiations between the two parties are held. Once inside we were free to walk into "North Korea." The building was situated half in South and half in North. Seeing as how we rented the room for the day we were able to roam around while being careful not to bump into any of the ROK soldiers on guard for our protection.

The tour ended shortly after and we finished up our trip to the DMZ. It was as intense as I'v heard and I'm glad Steph and I were able to experience and learn a little about the on-going sibling rivalry of these two nations.


DMZ, check.

Embarrassed I haven't kept this blog going through the most adventurous and exciting period of my life. Korea offers a new and often bizarre experience every day and they need to be chronicled in daily, witty Thomas Tryouts.

Kia Tigers

"It sounds like thunder." Confusion to panic then relief to thunder. It was surreal walking into this 1920's major league stadium. Everything molded together with weathered, dingy concrete. At the top of the steps, upon climbing into view of the field and it's over capacity crowd of some 14,000, I was dreaming. Like the first time I went to the Vet and climbed all that concrete to see my first professional baseball game.

Don't get me wrong, the level of play is not comparable to the MLB but games back home aren't nearly as fun. Korean fans are devoted in a way that Jimmy Buffet fans are devoted. Buffet is not the best musical performer, but his concerts have an uncontrollable fun-ness to them that many would say is the best thing about being a "parrot-head."

I want to be called Kia Tiger-head.

Every game is byob. Vendors outside hawk everything from fried chicken to dried squid. Rice wine to cases of cheap beer. And you can bring in as much as you can carry. Now maybe this is my old age talking but it's surprisingly nice that given such little restriction, people can behave themselves and not be total assholes. The family environment is maintained and everybody still has a good time.

We sat in perhaps the worse seats, on the aisle steps in left center field, but I could not have been happier. We had children to our left shouting the scripted chants for every player in the lineup and grand-fathers swaying atop grey pillars sharing soju with passerby's. It didn't hurt that there was a convenience store in dead center that sold 6 packs for $10, ice cream, peanuts, and anything else. It was unbelievable.

I miss Phillies games big time, especially now that it's summer, but when I was at this game I became a kid of wide-eyed and care free splendor. Albeit with two 6-packs under his little kiddy arms.



Korean Baseball, check.

Full Body Scan

My expectations were low to begin with. I wasn't expecting fireworks or applause, but some sort of fanfare would have been nice. The full body scans have been a hot topic of late so I suffered a bit of a let down on my flight from Philadelphia to Orlando. No "Mr. Thomas! I see someone is still in beach bikini shape." High fives? Nope. Not even an intrigued eyebrow raise.

Maybe I should've been asked to be patted down? I didn't do 36 sit-ups in the handicap stall to have my abs go unnoticed by TSA. I mean it was either the washboard stomach or offering them two tickets to the gun show. Which they would happily trade me for two tickets to the jail show.

Full Body Scan, check.

Go to Court

As mentioned in a previous posting of mine, my place of employment had a little run in with some good for nothing, sticky handed bandits! There I said it. They had stolen some products from the arena and seemingly gotten away with it. Well they ended up catching the two dummys and being able to correctly identify one of the perps, the Philadelphia Police Dept. felt that I would be a tremendous asset in the court room. After receiving a subpoena a few weeks back, the day came where I was to arrive at Municipal Court on 13th and Filbert, September 16th 2010.

Arriving at 8:30 AM, I was informed that I would probably be waiting for the majority of the day so I should come prepared. I brought Steve Martin's biography, a newspaper, and my iPod. I didn't use any of it because they ushered all of us in right away. There we all waited for about a half hour. Not sure what for, but I think it was to be polite and wait for every odd creature in Philadelphia to come into courtroom 1002.

When I sat down there were pretty normal looking people already there. A quiet librarian looking women, about 40 years old doing a sudoku puzzle. An old, black lady who repeatedly asked her neighbor what time it was. A guy with one arm. A gingered tough guy cop with his shirt tucked into his jeans. A Muslim woman. A Jewish man. A Mexican. A really fat guy. A trannie with hairier legs than me...and me. Marky Mark and the Funny Bunch were all here to determine how long this monster should be locked up for stealing soda from us.

But that's a story for another day because they dismissed us for some reason and said that we would be receiving another subpoena in a few weeks. I look forward to the reunion and hopefully doing more than just sitting in a courtroom with a racially, ethnically, sexually, and religiously diverse group. And a Mexican.

Go to court...check.

Mann Music Center

I consider myself to be a pretty well traveled Philadelphia concert goer. I've been to scores of live music events over my little lifetime so it was exciting to finally visit one that I'd never been to. The Mann Music Center is in West Philly, near the Zoo, and usually boasts some more classical, less popular artists during the season. Not entirely sure if that's accurate but that's what I thought and I only really noticed the likes of Arcade Fire and MGMT gracing the stage this past summer.

I saw the latter a few weekends ago with Steph and her roommate and boyfriend. I was sick and wasn't really in a concert-going mood but threw back a few beers and started to feel alright. The closest relative to the Mann would have to be the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden. Trade the paved parking lot for the grassy fields at the Mann and they're pretty similar. Expensive beers, expensive seating, and lawn seats for the degenerates.

We had seats about 1/3 of the way up and off to the left side of the stage. The sound was good and there weren't too many drunk idiots around to interfere with my listening pleasure. Luckily it wasn't a hot night or it may have been a little more uncomfortable. Unlike the SBC, the Mann is open on the sides of the seated area, giving it a nice outdoorsy feel.

As for the show itself, it was alright. Obviously Congratulations isn't the pop-radio album that Oracular Spectacular was, so the majority of the concert wasn't suitable for drunken sing-a-longs. However they did a nice job of mixing the old with the new and the slow with the up-tempo tracks. The venue itself I wouldn't have chosen for these guys, a smaller one would've been more suitable, but when you had the success that they did with "Kids" and "Electric Feel" you're going to need a bigger venue.

Fun night overall, would recommend the Mann for future concerts (I heard Arcade Fire was amazing there), would not recommend being sick and going though.

Mann Music Center, check.