Mobile phone/Dr. Kim's sister

Tuesday, December 26th

The only exciting news is that I have a Korean mobile phone. Don't ask me how much it is because Dr. Kim purchased it and when I am done using it the phone will become a company phone. Part of the reason for this is because it is difficult for foreigners to purchase a phone and sign up for service. Also, being a guest is the other reason that he paid for it. The phone I received is not exactly what we ordered, but I received a white (instead of black) Cyon LG slider phone (LG-KV2400 to be exact). It has a lot of extra functions and accessories like 2 batteries, separate charger for spare battery, 1.3 Mp camera, DJing music function, MP3 player (512 Mb memory), music composer, FIMM (allows of watching TV, music, film, sports), Karaoke, portable disk storage, Bluetooth, Flashlight, K-merce (I think that you can store money on the phone and pay for certain things), Seoul subway map (unfortunately only in Hangul), and some other features. Yes, Korean mobile phones are more advanced than US phones. I am not exactly sure what channels or programs, but I know that you can watch TV on demand or during certain times of the day probably mostly correlated to commuting times.


December 27th

For lunch, Dr. Kim took me to meet Mrs. Kim, his elder sister, and Kim Eunhye, niece. From previous conversations, Dr. Kim let me know some of his previous family life. Some of it is good and some not so good, so I won't go into great detail. His elder sister is actually a half sister because Dr. Kim's father's first wife passed away of "illness" and his father remarried. Dr. Kim has a good relationship with his sister, but his father does not. Dr. Kim, Mrs. Kim (Kim's or other surnames of the same family lineage don't marry, but Mrs. Kim married from a different line of Kim's), Kim Eunhye, and I ate a restaurant in Kwangju. It is about 40 min. drive from the office and it is outside of Seoul city limits. We ate a very nice restaurant and had Korean hot pot. On the table were two boiling pots with plates of vegetables and meat. We added our food to the pots and ate when it was cooked. It was a nice meal and I listened to their conversation even though I didn't understand any of it. Mrs. Kim can speak some English, so she mentioned that she had traveled to NYC, LA, and Minneapolis.

Kim Eunhye was a typical Korean college girl. She was too shy and nervous to speak much English. Kim Eunhye just finished her university degree in teaching, specifically mathematics for middle/high school. Just recently, she took the national exam for teachers. The top teachers will get job offers in the public school system. There are usually hundreds if not thousands of people taking the exam for each teaching position available.

After lunch, Dr. Kim drove Mrs. Kim and Kim Eunhye home. We accompanied them upstairs for some tea. They live on the 14th floor of 15 floor high rise building with multiple units on each floor. The family's apartment has 3 bedrooms, 2 bath, living room, and kitchen. It is only 6 years old and quite modern. One unique item that the Kims and many other Koreans have is a kimchi refrigerator. I guess they are fanatical about the storage of a key item of food.

(Sorry, still no photos)