Executive summary: The Nano Korea ended on Friday and today Sunday I set up the booth for tomorrow’s exhibition at the COMS 2007 in Melbourne.  I am still alive.  I am tired. 

Details, in semi-random order:

– A lady dressed in traditional Korean garb walked around passing out free books on Korean heroes.  I read the one on Admiral Yi Sun-sin on the flight from Incheon to Singapore and found it interesting, as long as I ignored the hagiographic writing style.  To me, it detracts from Yi’s undeniable achievements to have the book close with “…even the Heavens were moved by his noble spirit of loyalty, and he attained the legendary record of 23 consecutive victories.  He raised up fruit from the barren earth.  Indeed, he created everything from nothing.  To Koreans, he is not a hero, but a holy hero.  He is Admiral Yi Sun-sin.” 

– The word the people were using in Bukhansan national park which I rendered “uncle” is “ajeosshi.”  It does mean uncle, or mister. 

– Nae ileum eun Stücklin Stephan imnida.  I have learned my first Korean sentence. 

– The days after my last entry the lady with the deep look did nothing of the sort.  Maybe I was imagining things. 

– On Thursday, after the show, my distributor’s car battery had died.  He’d left the light on, but in his defense I hasten to add that his car has no alarm to signal this to him.  He called his “insurance,” which I suppose is something like a triple A association, called hicar.  In 5-10 minutes a guy had come in a jeep and started the car with jumper cables.  A parking lot orderly also ran up and berated my distributor for not leaving his contact details on the dashboard, which made it impossible for him to be notified.  Apparently, that’s common custom in Korea – I’ve even seen one car with a number permanently suspended from the windshield. 

– The same day, I went to the post office to mail postcards.  The hotel staff had told me to turn left at the next intersection and walk 150-200 meters, and there the post office would be.  It closed at 18:00 and I left at about five till, because I’d just arrived.  Those 150-200 meters stretched considerably longer, by my later estimate about factor three.  I only arrived at the post office at 18:05 and the gates were down, but I could still see inside.  I stood in front of the glass door, trying to find a sing displaying opening hours, when an employee opened the door from inside and spoke to me.  “Closed,” she said. 
“I know,” I replied, “but when does the post office open tomorrow morning?” 
“Nine o’clock.” 
Rats, that was when the show started.  I would have to hurry after the show – no, we were taking down the booth on Friday, and there was no way we’d be done before six. 
“What do you need?” she asked. 
“Stamps for these postcards.  They are all international.”
She looked at them, walked off, and soon returned with the stamps.  “3500 won.” 
We made the whole transaction through the bars, and I started laying out my postcards on a low wall outside the building and licking stamps.  Then a lady came running up and demanded to be let in.  For some reason, they let her in.  Then, another employee came outside and brought me a glue stick.  I said I was fine licking the stamps, but she just left the glue stick.  She hesitated on her way back in, then told me to come inside.  So I finished the job inside with a glue stick and the ladies stamped them all right there. 
I counted 880 steps on the way back, switching between English and German just for fun.  I tried Japanese but couldn’t keep up with my walking pace.  If the distance was really 200 meters, I’d be taking 25cm long steps – shorter than my shoes. 

– Friday, I had lunch at the Italian restaurant in the exhibition center.  Thursday I’d had a sandwich, which wasn’t too delightful, and Wednesday I’d tried the Freshness Burger place again, where I waited about 15-20 minutes because the clerk forgot my order.  I was number 22, and the numbers pinged on the display – 18 … 19 … 21 … 23 … 25 … 26 … 24 … 28 … 29 … 31 …  The Italian place was worth the extra price. 

– A Swiss friend I know from my studies came by and we chatted about Japan and Korea.  He’s a researcher with Samsung, where he went after his Ph.D.  Before that, he’d been in Japan on the same program as I had, my senpai, so to speak.  It was nice to talk Swiss German. 

– We took down the booth in just about an hour, even faster than I had expected.  What’s more, I think we made no mistakes, which is encouraging because I wasn’t always in total control and my distributor tends to work faster than I want to.  The car’s battery was ok, and we drove a tortuous road with a view of Bukhansan to a Korean barbecue restaurant where we’d been before.  On the way back, my hunch that it would have been possible to drive a straight shot proved correct, and I found out he’d wanted to go to another restaurant but he’d gotten a bit lost and the traffic in the direction he wanted to go was heavy enough to make him change his mind.  I didn’t express my surprise at getting lost despite having a GPS system on his dashboard, but I guess a GPS is only useful when it’s being used. 

– On Saturday we went through the exhibition leads at our distributor’s office to make sure we can follow them up.  The customer management system I had rented to scan badges turned out to be all in Korean, which means the notes I made in it will be worth a lot to me as the only legible pieces of information. 

– On the way to the airport I fell asleep in the car, which often happens to me in Korea.  I was jerked awake by the speed bump just before the airport parking, where we descended to level two.  In a dead corner of the lot stood three office chairs with wheels around a white plastic bucket, unoccupied.  We maneuvered the unwieldy cart with my luggage through several elevators and down most of the terminal to the Singapore Airlines desk.  There I found out that apparently my frequent flyer card doesn’t give me additional luggage on Singapore Airlines flights, but because I return through the USA the girl at check-in allowed my luggage on the piece concept for the USA.  I wasn’t even really allowed to check in at the business check-in with my card, something which usually works with other Star alliance airlines.  I’m really starting to wonder how allied these alliance allies really are.  They sure could use some uniformity in accepting cards. 

– I left the Tim Willocks book in the transit lounge with a bookcrossing note and instead bought “Prey” by Michael Crichton and “Bridget Jones’s Diary” by Helen Fielding.  I would have bought Harry Potter but they only started at volume three or four.  I still don’t understand what prompted the following jacket note for “The Religion:” 
“Seldom have I read a book which more deserves the term ‘revelatory.’  Mr. Willocks’s stunning dramatization of the power of Islam in 1565 will give everyone a new perspective on the headlines from Iraq.”  — Thomas Fleming, New York Times bestselling author
What is revelatory?  That Islam was once more powerful than today?  That we should revert to Crusade-style slaughtering?  That Islam is still in that stage?  That there is a shortage of blowflies in CNN footage? 
“Prey” reads a lot faster.  I have already finished its 500 pages.  Maybe it has larger print, but I think the main difference to “The Religion” lies elsewhere.  Willocks’s historical data is probably correct, but it tends to bog down the narrative.  I caught Crichton goofs in a number of his science explanations – he’s explaining nanotechnology and I’ve naturally developed some idea of the subject – but he doesn’t ever let the science do any more than aid suspension of disbelief as he moves the plot along.  And even though he also uses those silly “Day 6 – 9:32 a.m.” headers for his chapters, he also has the courtesy to give relative time references in the text every now and then.  (On that note, if those headers really are all the rage, maybe I should use them for my blog.  It would save me time thinking up a title.) 

– On the first flight to Singapore I watched “Hot Fuzz.”  Now that is a funny movie, on many levels. 

– The captain announced the temperature in Melbourne as 6°C.  I think it wasn’t as bad once I had gotten through the whole customs and immigration ordeal, but I’m really glad I brought at least one jacket. 

– I rested a bit after the Skybus dropped me off at my hotel, the Crossley, another Australian hotel with outrageous internet rates, then walked over to the Sofitel to set up the booth.  I was early, and after finding the two packages that had been shipped there for me went for lunch instead.  On the way back, I peeked in Harry Buck’s out of curiosity over a beautiful tie in the display.  It cost 345 Australian dollars.  I can’t imagine ever paying that much for a tie, which can be so easily destroyed. 

– In two hours I’d set up the booth, but the registration counter still wasn’t ready, so I went back to the Crossley for a nap.  I had to fight my way through the crowd milling about in front of the entrance to the Phantom of the Opera.  I noticed that the women in particular had changed to a larger and ampler size compared to Korea. 

– Around five o’clock I walked back to the Sofitel, shaved and in a suit and tie.  I registered, got the ticket I needed, and milled about waiting for the bus to take us to the reception at the Government House.  This house is the seat of the governor of Victoria, who represents Queen Elizabeth II in this State.  From the outside it looks like a cross between a Spanish mission church and neoclassical architecture.  Inside, gold paint on turquoise and the little throne at the end of the hall lend the room a regal look.  All the mouldings and paintings look like transplanted England with not a hint of Australia.  After a speech by the governor, the minister of innovation, and the chair of the conference, we got to look at some other rooms which continued in a similar color scheme, eggshell and gold, although the turquoise made way for more sober colors, mostly shades of green.  I didn’t dare use the men’s room for fear of setting off an alarm and silently congratulated myself on choosing a dehydrating alcoholic beverage for my first drink.  From the trays of the insistent servers I tried a number of nibblies, including kangaroo meat, but the bite wasn’t large enough to give me a good idea of the taste. 

– I asked one of the crown employees about a tall building in the CBD, and he told me it was the tallest, the Eureka tower, named after the Eureka rebellion when the gold miners rebelled against some claim tax the government had come up with.  The miners won that bloody dispute - I fancy it being similar in spirit to the Boston tea party, with more casualties.