Weekly News and Events

October 18th, 2007

Greetings from Korea!

I made it here ok, in fact, the plane ride here really wasn't that bad. Korean Air has a computer in the back of everyone's seat that has a directory with lots of movies, music and video games. So the plane ride was basically, watch a movie...take a nap...watch a movie...eat...then take another nap. I landed and met Jay Chang (the general manager of Links Fitness Korea), he picked me up and took me to the new office. I'll send pictures once I get my camera charged. Anyway, he walked me in and we (Greg Rose and I) got started testing the new 3D system on two guys. One who owns 2 banks and another one who plays on the Korean PGA Tour. After that, we went out to dinner and drinks. Again...I love the food here. Anyway, I didn't get to bed until about 12:15 pm (here). I think I was awake for about 45 hours with about 2 naps. I can safely say that it will take me a while to get used to it, but the people are really funny and touchy-feely-nice. I was told I look like Brad Pitt by the owner (Mr. Mins). I can't promise an email everyday, but my current timeline is get really tired about 8pm and wake up around 5am. That should give me some time for this stuff.

Good Luck and keep me posted,

Tyler

October 21st, 2007

Clubgolfers,

So I’m in my condo now. It is a cross between the Jetson's and Ikea. It is in a brand new building north of the Han River. It is in old town Seoul, which is totally different than work. Work is on a street nicer than Rodeo Drive or 5th Avenue....they have a 4 story coach building. Lamborguini (sorry for the spelling Ryan) Mazarrati...its nuts. Back to the apt, the apt is crazy. It has so many people in it that there is a supermarket, gym, and hair salon in the basement. Cool huh, run downstairs to get groceries and a hair cut. They only thing that we haven't figured out on the remote is the hot water. So I’ve taken 2 cold showers but they'll get that fixed soon.

Tonight is the big grand opening and a team of 20 is working in the demo center to get things up and running. It’ll be crazy tonight. 250 Korean celebs, models, moviestars and business owners all talking about golf. Jay, you would love it here, in prime time TV...they have 5 different regular golf shows. At least one on network TV.

I miss everyone...but not too much, I mean this is Korea!

Golf fitness is getting ready to boom!

Tyler

November 1st, 2007

Here we go, first and foremost, here is a link to where I think pictures will be going.

http://tylerferrell.shutterfly.com/action/

Secondly, here is an article form a Korean newspaper.

http://golfi.hankooki.com/lpage/news/200710/gl2007102217021773920.htm

Thirdly, here is a little update:

The first week has been quite a culture shock. I went from living across the street from my job where I worked only the hours that I wanted and spending all of my free time playing golf or disc golf to living 30 minutes by subway and working from when I wake up until after dinner with not much time for hobbies. The role that I have begun to fill is not exactly what I signed on for, but a great experience nonetheless. Last Monday we had our big grand opening. Links Fitness Korea (from here on known as LFK) spent over 80 thousand dollars on the 200 some people that came. Most were movie stars or very wealthy businessmen classed into a group that the Seoulites call "VIP's." My role that night was to explain 3D to the waves of people passing by. My translator and I would put on a show demonstrating the 3D on a local KLPGA golfer every 20 minutes or so or as the room filled. Since that night, which I learned was purely a ceremonial grand opening, I have spent my time training my two Korean understudies and helping put together procedures and manuals. The business model is slowly taking shape. We are going to be charging 3,000 for a VIP diagnostic. This entails a 2D swing analysis, a 3D analysis, a comprehensive physical exam, a putting evaluation and a force plate evaluation. Then a second appointment is scheduled for the results. The official opening is still yet to be determined, but at the rate we're going, I can't imagine that it will be later than mid November.

The work ethic structure here is different than I imagined. They have a saying here that all business deals are made at night. I believe that. Our owners and CEO have gone out every night since I have been here. They roll into work a little later than everyone else and go into an office to recap the last. The little worker bees however appear to work 24 hours a day. Every building has someone who is in charge of keeping it clean and at least 2 or 3 persons in charge of parking cars. The same people have been at our building every time I have come and gone. I read that in this country our job is either a 24 hour a day lifestyle or you are a businessman that the others all cater to. Even with the class differences, everyone appears very polite and civil. But enough about my boring work life, lets get to the culture differences that keep life interesting and my emails hopefully entertaining.

The Subway: First of all, the subway cars are about the same size as our metro, and they have trains that arrive at each stop every 2:50. There are little green feet on the sides of the tracks to tell you where the train will stop so that you can form a line to get on. Not that these matter as you'll see later. There are about 7 lines going in every different direction and at different depths of the earth. My ears haven't popped yet, but when I walk to the orange line I expect to see animals that have evolved with no pigment (no Shayan joke here). With all these trains, and all these lines, I have still yet to be able to sit down on a train. They are crowded all the time. And the etiquette in DC of letting those off before you get on didn't originate in Seoul. When the doors open it is literally a free for all getting on and off the train. It is just part of the way of life to push and be pushed. I have never been out muscled by so many people over the age of 75 in my life.

The Starleague: I'm sure that some of you already know this, but in high school I played a video game called Starcraft. It has a cult following here. In fact, there are two different channels on cable TV that provide 24 hour coverage and analysis from the Starleague. Yes, you could make a living here playing for the Terran, Protos, or Zerg team in the Starleague.

Ok, I know this took half of your work day for some of you, so I’ll stop here and save the rest for the next update. If there is anything you'd like to know, let me know and I’ll do my best to include it next time.

Tyler

November 11th, 2007

Welcome back,

The good news is that no one returned the email asking to be taken off the list. The bad news is that just about every question I got from people had to deal with food. So this edition will be build almost entirely around food. If you check the pictures, you can see that I have added captions not only to the new pictures, but also to the batch from the first email. ENJOY.

http://tylerferrell.shutterfly.com/?a=1&emid=sharshar&linkid=link5

Now before I get into food, I promised one person that I would include my new favorite song. It is the ring tone of Jay (my coworker) and I hear it 50 times a day. Here is the music video from Youtube.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=57GPGTOwSPE

Now, on to food.

A lot of people were wondering how my diet was holding up. It's been better. There is a lot of local meat at most meals. Unfortunately, I have yet to find comparably vegetables offered with lunch. Most dishes are served with rice or noodles, which I as a Fast Oxidizer...blah blah... you know my soapbox. As far as for my diet, the food here is better than the food back home. But back home I eat at home at least 2/3rds of the time and am able to stick to the diet for the most part. If I ate out at every meal back home, my diet and balance would suffer just as quickly, if not more so. So I need to start cooking more here, but the problem with that, is because of my location (imagine rodeo drive) the closest supermarket is 40 minutes away. Yes really, about 40 minutes away. It is at the bottom of an E-mart, which is like a super Wal-mart. We've gone to the store once, but I under estimated my food consumption. Next time I go I will be more prepared and then I should at least be able to eat a good breakfast. If I really get on my game, I will bring vegetables with me to have with the lunches we order, but that may be stretching it. I will have you know that I brought 3 boxes of my trusted Cocochia bars and have had about one per day. The Korean diet is somewhat backward with proportions...as are a lot of American diets. They eat little to no breakfast and a HUGE dinner as you've seen in my pictures. The snacks help balance a little bit.

I'll have to bring more when I come back in December because organic snacks here are "pissa” Expensive. I paid almost 10 bucks for a jar of organic peanut butter. But it's damn good with my fresh apples.

Ok enough about what I can't do, lets talk about what's really good here.

I've taken a few pictures of my favorite lunches. We get them delivered almost everyday. In fact, we get EVERYTHING delivered. Most stores include free delivery with anything. We have received McDonalds, a USB cable, these awesome box lunches (see pics) Velcro, free weights and electrical tape. In fact, those bright orange shirts you see us wearing in every picture? No it's not because it's Halloween, those are actually some of our colors. And we had those made and delivered in a span of 6 hours from the time of order. I kid you not...6 hours. Man, back to food.

I had a fun experience the other day that I'm sure is common, just not to me. I was having a delicious lunch at one of the 100,000 hole in the wall restaurants around here. We were having a broiled mackerel I think, but one of those medium sized fish. Well toward the end of the meal I realized that I had a little fish bone stuck in the back of my throat...keep in mind that this was 2 days before I received my foreign health insurance. Anyway, I was flipping out because I could hear it impacting my breathing...not really enough to affect it, just enough to keep me aware of it. I went back to the office and they sent me to the local 7-11. I thought maybe clinic, but 7-11 is better here. We bought bread and peanut butter (non organic) and even though I was full from my delicious lunch, I ate dry bread and peanut butter until I was OVER stuffed. It was then that they decided that the bone had been dislodged and I was fine. They decided??? Apparently they were right. If you've never had this experience then let me explain. The bone scratches the back of your throat and even though it is gone, because the throat is scared you still feel like it is there. For two days I told them about this crazy herb I did some internet research on that was supposed to dissolve stuck fish bones. They were very polite in putting up with the ignorant American and relieved when I confirmed what they already knew 2 days later when i said, "I think the bone is gone."

Fear Factor Preparation - Like I said before, there are two kinds of meals here. There are regular meals that include beef, pork, chicken, cooked seafood, raw seafood in the form of sushi and noodles, fried rice, kimchi etc. Then there are FEAR FACTOR MEALS. Fear factor meals include organs like Liver, Stomach, Esophagus which are all by the way a little rubbery but very tasty and apparently high quality protein. This is from my nutritional advisor, not my crazy Korean guides. Then there is stuff like live tiny octopus that sort of grabs at you as you eat it...so I’m told. I watched Sam eat it, but couldn't do it. I did however try Blood Soup. Exhale. Never again will I eat blood soup, but it was an experience that I’m kinda glad I had. If you don't like seafood, then a lot of the other things would be "fear factor meals" as we've named them, but luckily I really like muscles squid and some other random sea critters. Raw Sea Cucumber is a delicacy (which is another way of saying Expensive Fear Factor). Either way...Fear is not a factor in Korea.

Typical Restaurant eating. Most restaurants will have at most 1 chef. The reason is that when you order food, usually they turn on the gas stove at your table and you cook your own food. Or rather, the youngest/girl at the table cooks your food. Then everyone eats off of the community stove. The meat is usually fresh and sweet. Korean BBQ is one of my favorites here. Marinated beef or pork that we wrap in lettuce with some sweet sauce. I ate it the first 10 days that I was here. Then I learned that it was one of the more expensive dishes. And they have slowly weaned me off of the VIP treatment. You must be a hawk at the table if you are one of the younger diners. Your goal is to spy any empty shot glass, beer glass, or water cup and fill it up promptly. Two hands must be used. The off hand can either support the bottom or the pouring arm. When new drinks are poured a toast usually follows! When you are toasting, your goal is to lower your glass lower than the person you are cheering. This is a sign of respect, which means that you have to continue doing it until you are old and no longer need respect. My boss never lowers his glass. If you notice, when you pour, you drink, when it is empty, you pour. This is a viscous cycle that usually results in a few bottles of SuJu being consumed as an appetizer and a few more at dinner.

Fast Food: In addition to the standard mom and pop restaurant one can also find chains if they look hard enough. I have seen McDonalds (everywhere), KFC, Pizza Hut (everywhere), Dominos, Hooters (which I don't know how it survives because they have a restaurant called Bikini Bar where the waitresses wear well bikini's), Subway, Quiznos, Outback Steakhouse (not fast food I know), TGI Fridays, Cold Stone, Baskin Robins, Dunkin Doughnuts, Krispy Kreme. Basically, we are polluting them with our....

Ok, now I know I'm in Korea, but did I just see Jamie Fox on the County Music Awards??? He was singing with Rascal Flatts??? Wholy, what have I missed...?

So that's about it for food, I’ll take more requests for next time...So far I have distant secondary requests for politics, culture, technology...OH

Enjoy the latest installment and keep the feedback coming. These emails are my only outlet of using complete sentences right now and I want to stay sharp.

Tyler

Keep checking for updates.