Neil Robinson's blog

Hypocaust - don't give the Romans the credit!

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It's been ages since I last posted on my blog, five months in fact, and it's about time I did something about it!

Before I post anything new, I've actually got to put up some pictures from my last trip to Korea in early March.

Apart from the snowboarding trip that I've talked about below, I also had some spare time in Seoul, so I decided to go the the Folk Museum, which is located in the 경복궁 (Gyeongbok Palace).

The palace is really pretty, with many big buildings that have all be restored to a fantastic condition.

Seoul is such a modern and fast growing city though that the enevitable modern buildings enter the backdrop in some pictures like these below.

This is a picture taken in the Folk museum showing a primitive Korean underfloor heating system.

Even today, most properties in Korea are heated by underfloor systems, though I imagine that these are hot air or electric types these days.

Most of the domestic buildings in the Gyeongbuk Palace are heated in a similar way to this reconstruction - by hot air from an open fire, drawn under the floor and out through the walls and chimneys on the rooftops. In some cases, as shown here, the fire used for heating, can also be used for cooking.

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When I was reading about this, I couldn't help but notice that this heating system is remarkably similar to the Roman system called Hypocaust. The Korean system is called 온돌 (On-Dol), so the names are not even remotely similar, but further research suggests that maybe the Koreans were first, with the first finds dating to around 1000 BC!

The Wikipedia entry on On-Dol can be found here.

I wish I had taken some more photos inside the Folk Museum. For me the most interesting section is that of modern history, which shows the development of Korea from the end of the last century 'Opening Of Ports' time, to today. I am awestruck at the speed that the country has changed. Especially when you consider the times of Japanese occupation, and civil war.

Shown below is an example of the rapid introduction of western culture and products to Korea. The Beatles had truly become a worldwide sensation at this time with records on sale even in Korea.

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Korea will always be for me a country that I never tire of reading about. I'm so pleased that due to recent career changes, I will have the opportunity to live there for a few years, even though I believe that the rate of change has now slowed considerably since these early days.

1st Season, 4th Trip, 3rd Continent!

About 6 months ago, my brother asked me if I'd be interested in going on a Snowboarding holiday with him and a load of friends. The plan was for 12 of us to go, though this later grew to a group of 14.

Initially I wasn't too keen on the idea, although I've always been tempted by winter sports, I'd always thought it was too expensive, and that sun was a million times better than snow right?

Anyway, somehow, Graeme managed to convince me, and I made the commitment to go with him in January of this year.

I didn't want to be the only guy that couldn't already board, so I booked up some lessons on the indoor snow slope in Milton Keynes to learn the basics.

Almost as soon as I'd started, I was loving it! I would urge anyone that's toying with the idea of going to jump right in with both feet - I garauntee you won't be disappointed. It's not even that difficult to learn, I recon it probably takes around 3 days of practice to get to the point where you're not falling over every thirty seconds, but it suddenly just clicks and you're away.

I'm lucky that with work I have to travel around a fair bit, and it wasn't long before an opportunity arose, and I was able to hit the slopes of Cervinia in Italy with an old friend. It was only a couple of days, but great experience of a real mountain slope, rather than the short, almost synthetic snow in Milton Keynes. I posted about this trip around that time, so look further down the page to see that.

Following that, I got the chance again to go in Las Vegas, while on a trip to CES - the most important Consumer Electronics show on the calendar. This was only for 1 day, but yet more experience and, don't forget continent No. 2!

Then it was the trip with my brother and other friends. This trip was great and deserves a post of it's own, but I just haven't had chance to write one as yet. I might get round to it... sometime; never.

Following in from this trip, I was really hoping to be able to make it to a 4th trip, in Korea, the 3rd Continent in my 1st season.

As my trip to Korea was very late in their winter season, I didn't think it would be possible, but it all turned out great and here are a couple of photos to prove it. On the left is my colleague and friend 이기동 (Kidong Lee), he was kind enough to organise the trip. It's me on the right, in case you couldn't work it out!

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As you can see from the photos, Korean Ski resorts are not quite the same as European ones. Korea doesn't have such high mountains, the one that I'm stood on here is just ~1400m high. Despite this, the views are great and the snow is very good, all in all, it was much much better than I expected.

 

Joining Kidong and I was also another colleage and friend 백선필 (Seonpill Baik) and his son 백보성 (Bosung Baik). Seonpill has been on many business trips recently, so it was quite a surprise that he was able to come with us, his lovely wife 김신정 (Shinjung Kim) was left at home looking after their young daughter. I felt very bad that she wasn't able to come along, and hadn't seen how good at skiing her son had become so I took this video for her to see. I think you'll agree, he's pretty impressive.

More Korean Curios

Since my last post, which was only after my first on this trip to Korea, I've find some more unusual Korean things to tell you about.

Before I start talking about these interesting things, I'd like to talk about something that I'm fairly proud of. On the second day of this trip, I had a plan to visit LG's TV factory for some meetings. This factory is located in a town called 구미 (Gumi), around 3 hours train ride south of Seoul. The night before my trip, I learnt that I would have to make my way to Gumi from the guest house and back... alone. This involved getting the subway to 서울역 (Seoul Station), which was easy. But also involved buying a train ticket for the 새마울 train, selecting the right platform and then getting a taxi to the factory once I arrived. I had no problems, but I was a little worried about it as my Korean is still very weak.

As a slight side note, I've had to quit my Korean language course for this year, something that I'm really disappointed about. Unfortunately I am having so many business trips these days that I'm only able to attend half of the lessons on the course, and I'm falling behind. I do plan to re-take year 2 when it starts again in September, as I really do enjoy learning. This trip to Korea has left me with an even greater desire to continue, so I really hope I can.

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Onto the unusual Korean things then... First up are Electronic Toilet Seats. I'd forgotten about these, probably because I'm staying in a Guest House rather than a hotel, but I do remember them being pretty popular on my previous visits. This particular toilet seat I found in a restaurant in Gumi, and it's typical of the electronic seats that I've seen.

Now, I'm all for heated toilet seats, there's nothing worse than sitting your butt down and doing the whole sit down, jump up, sit down, jump up routine until the seat's just about warm enough to bear. These toilet seats however take things a couple of steps further, just take a look at the control panel!

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As a foreigner that can read a little Korean, I have an advantage over many, but playing with those buttons can cause one hell of a shock to the unsuspecting! The basic functions are simply a wash and blow dry, but you're also provided with adjustments for temperature, pressure, motion, pulsing actions, a whole manner of things. I've played with these toilet seats a couple of times, but always finished with a wet bum that is impossible to dry with toilet paper. It is a bit of fun for sure, but I find it hard to see how these have become so popular and successful.

 

Perhaps less unusual, but still very cultural is the popular Korean style of cooking that involves the use of a barbeque in the centre of the table. Marinated meat is brought out of the kitchen and simply cooked in front of you. It's a very friendly affair, and the food is also very tasty. This is very typical of a meal that I will be having after a day of meetings. Although these photos were not taken during my visit to Gumi, I did have a very similar meal there.

After a meal similar to this in 평택 (Pyoungtaek), where I had been meeting the AV products engineers, I went to a Karaoke bar. I'm not going to go into details about this, as I hate singing, but I will say that I did find out that I can sing Elton John songs better than I thought.

Following the Karaoke, it was suggested that we go to a more traditional establishment from song food and yet more drinking. I was warned before hand that this was not a quality establishment, but I wasn't expecting this...

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Take a closer look at this, as it may not be obvious at first what you're looking at. It's called 닭발 (Dack-Bal). It's literal translation will give it away - Chicken Foot!

Korean Oddities

I'm off to Korea again, and this is the first post of perhaps a couple that I'll do.

For those that don't know, I work for LG Electronics, which is of course a Korean company. I actually work for one of the departments in HQ, rather than LG UK, so I have to travel to Korea fairly often.

I always look forward to going to Korea for various reasons. It's a good chance to practice the Korean that I've learnt each time; but one of the best things about a trip to Korea is the unusual things that you can buy and see here.

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First up is the guest house where I'm staying. Now, in England, I'm not sure if we have guest houses, and if we do, I don't think I've ever stayed in one. I was therefore a little aprehensive when I was told that I should stay in the 호암교수회관, which is a guest house close to Seoul's National University, 서울대학교. I'd stayed at LG's learning centre before, and the accomodation there was pretty different, so I was expecting something similar here.

Actually, it was all a bit of a let down. The guest house was pretty much the same as a hotel. I've been told it's cheaper, though I've not paid yet, so I don't know how much cheaper it is, but the room is very spacious and the internet is free. In my opinion it's probably better than the hotel I normally stay in when I visit Korea.

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Korean bathrooms are a little different from English ones. They're basically wet rooms, with a drain in the floor. I like this idea, except that because of this, there is rarely a shower curtain, and the whole room is flooded by the time you've finished, and you get wet feet when you come back in to do your hair. To overcome this issue, there is always a pair of jelly sandles provided for you to walk across the floor. I personally find these to be some of the most uncomfortable footwear I have ever experienced, and instead choose to go barefoot and dry every time I go back into the bathroom.

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In the desk drawer I found what I initially thought was a strip of three condoms, but there was a strange plastic device next to it, and I thought these might be linked. I asked some colleagues the next day and this is apparantly some kind of incence burner that gets rid of mosquitoes that can be a problem in the summer. I was pretty wrong with the condom guess then...

 

 

 

 I am a bit of a junk food fan, I love my crisps, and to some extent I love sweets too, especially banana ones. In Korea they sell delicious Banana Milkshake, I pretty much make this my staple breakfast drink during my stays, but this involves taking a trip to a local supermarket on the first evening. This is always full of new things to try, I usually find a new thing each visit and this time was no exception.

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First up are the 'Cream Puffs' which are basically very soft bread, filled with vanilla custard. I've tried these before and they're very tasty. Oddly though, each shop only ever seems to have one pack of these, they're sometimes a little bit hard to come by. Don't make the mistake of getting the Red Bean Puffs instead, I've tried these, and though still nice, they're nothing compared to the cream ones.

Next, I found a bar of chocolate filled with Banana cream, this was pretty tasty, but I've saved the best for last....

바나나 킥 (Banana Kik). The easiest way for me to describe this is Banana flavour Wotsits, or Banana flavour Cheetos puffs if you're not English. I know it sounds odd, but honestly, this may be the tastiest junk food I've tried in a long while. An awesome combination of Banana sweets and Crisps. Could it get any better than that!

Finally, last night, after a meal with some colleagues, a few of us went to a bar, where we were served a local snack, very popular when you're drinking beer I'm told - 오징어, or dried squid. There are not many foods that look quite a disgusting as this, and believe me it doesn't smell that good either. I have tried this before, just the once, and I don't intend to try it again. I really didn't like it, but if you're in Korea, I guess you should give it a go, you can buy it almost anywhere it's so popular.

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This food was actually mentioned in my Korean lesson a couple of weeks ago, and my classmates didn't believe it. I've promised to bring one back for them; hope I don't forget!