	8 August 2000 Hi everyone, thought I’d try something new and embed photos in a Word document. Still looking for a low-bandwidth way to share my pictures with everyone. Well, here we are in Seoul eating at the well-known Japanese restaurant Gin Su Shi. It was empty at 5:30pm—we had finished our meeting early that day (Daewoo was very surprised, we usually keep them late). On my left is Choon Hwee, one of HP Singapore’s mechanical engineers, and across from him is Mr. Yoon, Daewoo’s Lead Firmware Engineer. An excellent engineer but his English is not so great, which you certainly can’t fault him for. Next to him is Jonathan, the General Manager of Daewoo Telecom Office Automation. The head honcho, chief translator & spin doctor, a diehard M.C.P., and tough negotiator. Continuing clockwise is Mr. Nam who is the 3^rd-in-command on the sales side (it goes Jonathan-Mr Bae-Mr Nam). He is definitely at the bottom of the totem pole. Mr Nam answers all the emails, and picks us up in the morning from the Ritz Carlton. He takes a tremendous amount of abuse from the others for being 27 and not married, whch is about the biggest crime you can commit in Korea. Turns out he has a girlfriend, whom he squires around in the company car (a very nice Daewoo Leganza) the night before he’s due to pick us up from the hotel, since he takes the car home the night before. He dares not breathe a word about her to his work pals. We told him his secret was safe with us.
This is a picture of my old high school friend, Brad, and his family. Brad is in the U.S. Army, stationed in Seoul. His wife is Korean, from Seoul, which is where they are living now. His two daughters are extremely charming, at 11 and 5 years old. Here they are eating noodles with ko chu jang (chili sauce). I find it easiest to learn a language thru food words. Sam jang. Spicy soybean chili sauce. Great with beef—a traditional accompaniment to Korean BBQ. They always have to bring more sam jang from the kitchen when I eat Korean BBQ. Yum! I brought some home with me and made some Korean BBQ for myself last night. Ko chu jang. I am spelling phonetically, so Korean speakers, forgive me. A different chili sauce, more of a pure chili flavor. Jo ko chu jang. Same chili sauce as above, but with vinegar. Looks deceptively like Ketchup. Served with sashimi. Just as powerful as wasabi. Den jang, another chili sauce that I haven’t tried yet.
	Brad said he’d take me up to the DMZ, the de-militarized zone between N and S Korea. He said there’s an island off S Korea where they have telescopes aimed at N Korea where there are some propaganda villages set up for tourists to look at. Brad recently returned from N Korea on a mission to dig up the remains of U.S. soldiers. N Korea has only allowed this since ’96. They brought back 12 soldiers which was quite a haul apparently. He said the trucks there still run on steam—not gas. He took out his map of the Seoul subway system and the N Koreans thought he was joking—no subway system could be so big. They were not allowed to take pictures except at designated times.
They brought in 25,000 bags of rice because of the current rice shortage. One of the bags of rice fell on the floor and the N Koreans immediately halted and swept up the rice, dirt, and all. Just for a few handfuls of rice, Brad said. He said the latest overtures between N and S Korea were hard to take seriously. The N Koreans have been basically lied to and kept in the dark for so long, they would have a hard time adjusting to the world outside their borders. This is a truck parked on the side of the road selling vegetables, in Brad’s neighborhood. Next week I’ll be in China (Tianjin), taking a look at Daewoo’s factory there. The last time HP went there, the hotel’s heating was broken—the rooms were either boiling hot or freezing cold, and the windows were locked and unopenable. Should make for an interesting report!