sunset

After work today, I went to the Kyobo Bookstore near Jamsil Station. I had to pick out some books for a couple of my classes at LCC. When I finished, I decided to walk home. It is a bit of a walk, but nothing to strenuous, taking just under an hour. This is a little stream that I had to cross.The two large white buildings on the right are the Asan Hospital. Beyond that is the Olympic expressway along the Han river. On the left, the construction has been going on for quite a while. You can see those same cranes in the pics on the post of when I went to the Olympic Park in April.

Some Arab Humor

Abul 3abed goes to war found on The Arabist

Olmert was sitting in his office wondering how to invade Lebanon when his telephone rang.
“Hallo, Mr. Olmert!” a heavily accented voice said. “This is Abul Abed, down at the tea house in Beirut! I am callin` to tell ya dat we are officially declaring war on you, yes you!”
“Well” Olmert replied, “This is indeed important news! How big is your army?”
“Right now,” said Abul Abed, after a moments calculation “there is myself, my cousin Mustafa, me next-door-neighbor Abou khaled, and the whole team from the tea house. That makes eight!”
Olmert paused. “I must tell you Abul Abed, that I have one million men in my army waiting to move on my command.”
“Holy jeez,” said Abul Abed. “I`ll have to call ya back!”
Sure enough, the next day, Abul Abed called again. “Mr. Olmert, the war is still on! We have managed to acquire some infantry equipment!”
“And what equipment would that be Abul Abed?”, Olmert asked. “Well sir, we have two Mercedes 180, and a truck.”
Olmert sighed. “I must tell you Abul Abed, that I have 16,000 tanks and 14,000 armoured personnel carriers. Also I`ve increased my army to one and a half million since we last spoke.”
“Ya lateef“, said A Abul Abed, “I`ll be getting back to ya.”
Sure enough, Abul Abed rang again the next day. “Mr. Olmert , the war is still on! We have managed to get ourselves airborne! We modified a helicopter with a couple of shotguns in the cockpit, and four more neighbors have joined us as well!”
Olmert was silent for a minute then cleared his throat. “I must tell you Abul Abed that I have 10,000 bombers and 20,000 fighter planes. My military complex is surrounded by laser-guided, surface-to-air missile sites. And since we last spoke, I`ve increased my army to TWO MILLION!”
“Lah lah lah lah,” said Abul Abed, “I`ll have to call you back.”
Sure enough, Abul Abed called again the next day. “Mr. Olmert I am sorry to have to tell you dat we have had to call off this war.”
“I`m sorry to hear that” said Olmert. “Why the sudden change of heart?”
“Ya khayi, ” said Abul Abed, “we`ve all sat ourselves down and had a long chat, and come to realize that there is no way we can feed two million prisoners.”

Mapping Happiness

the article that goes with the map...

a bit more than just a prank if you ask me!!!

Guys Pranked While Relaxing in Sauna
sooooooooooooooooooo funny... but...
jaw dropping!!! I couldn't imagine.

ANTS!

Argh!!! I keep finding these stupid little ants everywhere. EVERYWHERE!!! They are even on my computer desk. The other day I was sitting here typing away and noticed one going up my arm. ugh. I have no idea where they are coming in, as I can't find any place. I have watched the window and the door, but there are never any there. Just in misc. places all over. I don't see them in my kitchen, either, which would be where I would think they would be... as I don't always wash my dishes right away. In my kitchen it is little flies that I see. Also, there are always one or two ants around Tokki's cage. I can squish them... then a few minutes later, there are a couple more. I have no idea where they are coming from. They are sooooooooooooo annoying!!!
I have seen the odd one in my bedroom, too. Sometimes, if I kill a fly or what ever, and don't pick it up, when I go back later, there is a little writhing mass of ants on it, with many wandering around aimlessly. One day there was a huge mass of ants under my bed on some unknown thing. Ugh. I squished them all and vacuumed under my bed, and spent a while sitting watching to see if more ants would appear. I didn't sleep well that night.
I have little Raid bait thingys stuck everywhere, but they don't seem to be doing their job.

JinMao Tower... the Hyatt Hotel's Atrium.

Looking down:

Looking up:

the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai

I mentioned the JinMao tower in Shanghai Day 1, and will get back to it in Shanghai Day 6 when I get to it.
The JinMao Tower is the 5th tallest building in the world (actually the 4th height as the Petronas Towers are identical, and so tied at 2nd). From Forbes.com:

The buildings observatory and highest floor is the 88th.
The Grand Hyatt Hotel is from the 54th to the 87th floor. It is the world's highest hotel above ground level. The Hotel has the tallest atrium in the world, going 33 floors up. I didn't particularly appreciate the view down the atrium from the 88th floor (being that I'm afraid of heights and you have to lean over to see down the atrium). Looking up from the bar on the 55th floor wasn't so bad. It also supposedly has the world's longest laundry chute, at 420 vertical meters (Lonely Planet Guide)
There are 61 elevators in the building. Thinking about it, I can understand the need. For example, there are 2 elevators from the ground floor to the hotel lobby on the 54th floor. From there, you have the hotel elevators, and the 2 elevators to the 3 floors of restaurants. There are also the 2 elevators to the 88th floor. Every bunch of floors must have elevators to the group and then elevators within that set of floors. I couldn't imagine the entire building relying on one set of elevators. That would be a very long wait!!
The top of the tower is supposed to be able to sway up to 75 centimeters in case of a storm!!!! I could not imagine how that would feel to be standing on the 88th floor when that happens. Ugh.

A day at the pool. :)

Yesterday I got up early to meet a few of my friends from work. We went to the Tower Hotel swimming pool. We went early in order to get a good place to sit, and to avoid lines. We were there by around 9am. The Tower Hotel is down the 'mountain' a bit from Seoul/Namsan Tower.
The pool is basically just a big outside swimming pool with no deep end. I think it is all the same depth, about neck deep for me. There is a kiddy pool to one side. Entry was 28000 won.

It seems a bit strange to me, the way they do things here in Korea. First of all, to get into any swimming pool, you have to wear a swimming cap. It is supposed to help keep the filters clean. I went to Lotte Mart the night before to get one. I guess it isn't so bad. I only had to spend around $3. They give me a headache, though. I don't like things that are tight around my head. I never could wear headbands. The other thing I found strange was that every 30 minutes/hour, the lifeguards blew their whistles 3 times and everyone had to get out of the pool. Then after 5/10 minutes, everyone could get back in. What is the point of that? Then at just after 1:00, everyone had to get out and couldn't get back in for over 30 minutes or so. The lifeguard's lunch break?

The set up of the pool is a bit strange. The changerooms are up above, as are the bathrooms. Up there, you wear your shoes, but you have to take them off on the pool level. The showers are on the pool level, but there are no changerooms attached to them... just a room with cold showers around the walls. Some women were in there showering and then changing near the doors, getting everything that people have set down to keep dry, wet in the process. With such a small crowded room, it just creates a big confusion.

We had a great spot on under the water slide, next to the pool. Because we were there early, we managed to borrow a mat from the lifeguards to sit on... thanks SeoYeon (Giraffe class teacher/piano teacher) for asking them. Yes everyone loves you. :P We also rented 2 beach chairs until 1pm, as they were quite expensive to rent. It was a great day for the pool. Sunny and hot. Kelly (Korean English teacher) spent the entire morning sleeping in the sun, working on her tan. She loves her tanning oil. Hepburn (Hippo class teacher) spent the entire morning sleeping in the shade. She said she doesn't like the sun, or something like that. Hepburn doesn't speak much English. She is so cute, though.

Hepburn, Me, SeoYeon.Kelly and I.

We went on the slide a couple of times. It is just a simple waterslide, with 6 lanes. You have to pay to go on them... 500 won a person (about 50 cents). I had to be careful, as my swim suit that fit me a few months ago is a bit loose. No serious mishaps, though.
My shoulders and back are slightly burnt. Not too bad, though. It's surprising how much just sitting around a pool can wear you out. I was so tired by the time I got home.

it's very interesting what can be done to a photo.

Looking around on the net, I found the Worth1000 photoshop site. Check out some of the photos. Check out the Mamsects and Ismals. I love Caterpillar by Penbender and zebra+worm=worbra by warior11, among others.
Take a look through the different galleries. I really enjoyed a lot of the pictures.
Animal Crossbreeds is a cool gallery where you'll find fropigs and cabbits.

Shanghai Taxi Regulations... glad I read them.

From the posted regulations in some of the taxis in Shanghai:

The passenger is entitled to refuse payment under any of the following circumstances where the driver:
1. smokes in the car, uses a cellular phone wislt driving, spits or litters out of the car.
2. abuses the passenger, behaves rudely and does not use the polite expressions of the taxi company (For example: good morning/Afternoon/evening, thanks/thank you, goodbye/bye-bye.)
3. does not wear the uniform of the taxi company.
4. does not accept the taxi card of voucher
5. fails to comply with the passenger's request on the Air-conditioning or the sound system.

I'm not sure if the regulations are for all taxi companies, or just for that company, but I found them very interesting. Especially since my second last day in Shanghai, a taxi driver tried to scam me. He wasn't wearing a uniform, and was trying to sell me handbags and watches, like many of the people that approached me on the street with photo cards. Every other taxi driver that I had, was wearing all white, or some sort of suit. Many of them even had white gloves on. I was going the exact opposite route that I had taken that morning, and noticed that the meter started going up at a very fast rate, right from the beginning. By the time I was back at the hotel, the meter read more than twice as much as I had paid that morning. (I only paid the basic fare of 11 Yuan that morning). The meter had to have been tampered with to have done that. I asked him about the total, he motioned that to go the other direction it was a shorter distance, as the way we had just had to take was a round about way. I'm not stupid. Even a round about way would not have more than doubled the distance gone. I showed him my map and said that he was wrong. I said I was not stupid and was not going to pay that much. I showed him the reciept from my morning taxi. He just laughed and said okay.
Maybe some people never think twice about what the meter says. That taxi didn't have the regulations posted, as it was a different cab company, but it came to mind during the ride, and made me pay attention.
I tried to tell someone in the hotel about it, trying to report it, but they just shrugged their shoulders.