Korea went through a two month drought in May and June, and finally the heavens poured open on the last day in June. It's been raining every other day since then.
So I thought nothing of it when I looked at my Weather Channel app and saw heavy rains in the forecast, until my friend messaged me and told me that a typhoon was forecasted to hit Seoul today. I get 'typhoon' and 'monsoon' mixed up, so just groaned thinking that the rain would never stop. Then I Google News-ed 'korea typhoon' to get an estimate of how long the rain was going to last, and found out that typhoon was the regional equivalent of 'hurricane.' It had a cute name: Typhoon Khanun.
Now hurricanes I am familiar with, especially after all the coverage from Hurricane Katrina and working on post-Katrina regulations. The Koreans were freaking out and the U.S. Embassy even sent out an alert yesterday. I immediately went to the store and bought some bottled waters and used this opportunity to try out some of the canned Korean food. Yes, of course I also bought Spam! The eye of the storm was supposed to hit early this morning, and it was...forgettable. I just heard a lot of rain overnight (it helped me fall asleep) and there was no evident damage, except for the usual bad drivers during the morning commute. Let's just say that people freaked out more about a 50 mph decreasing storm than a North Korean test rocket launch. Me thinks that we have conflicting prorities.
Speaking of derecho and hurricanes, I attended the 1st Annual International Disaster Management Conference in Seoul. Kind of like the World IT Show, the attendees were 99% Korean.
They had a German govie talk about his country's emergency management methods, and a Korean professor from Texas A&M who did a presentation on "System & Plan on Disaster Management Policy in the United States." I thought it was pretty comprehensive and thorough EXCEPT for when he mentioned NIMS and said that it is used for mutual aid and assistance agreements. Oh l'horreur! The Koreans in attendance were only interested in the pictures from Hurricane Katrina where the civilians were protecting their property. They were very perplexed that civilians were allowed to have guns.
They live in a densely populated penninsula (more like an island since they can't directly access Asia because of North Korea) and don't understand the concept that in the U.S., people live miles apart from each other in parts of the country and a man's got to protect his family.
Speaking of disasters, I spent an hour trying to order pizza for the office this evening. I first was on the Pizza Hut Korea website and the payment system was such a disaster that I couldn't get them to process my order. The problem is that the optimum browser for Korean websites is Internet Explorer. Need I say more? So I called the local Pizza Hut to take the order, but they said that they only accepted orders from the official delivery hotline. So I called the official delivery hotline to take my order, but they said that they couldn't give internet discounts. When I told them that the internet ordering wasn't working, I had to call the Pizza Hut Online Customer Service line. She couldn't walk me through the payment option, so I lost my cool and said, "I just want to order a damn pizza! Are you trying to run a business? Why won't you just let me order and pay for a damn pizza?" I think the lady got it, and she processed my order, discount and all. But Jess, how was the pizza? Damn delicious! How can something called "Cheesy Bites Cheese King Pizza" ever be disappointing?
So I thought nothing of it when I looked at my Weather Channel app and saw heavy rains in the forecast, until my friend messaged me and told me that a typhoon was forecasted to hit Seoul today. I get 'typhoon' and 'monsoon' mixed up, so just groaned thinking that the rain would never stop. Then I Google News-ed 'korea typhoon' to get an estimate of how long the rain was going to last, and found out that typhoon was the regional equivalent of 'hurricane.' It had a cute name: Typhoon Khanun.
Now hurricanes I am familiar with, especially after all the coverage from Hurricane Katrina and working on post-Katrina regulations. The Koreans were freaking out and the U.S. Embassy even sent out an alert yesterday. I immediately went to the store and bought some bottled waters and used this opportunity to try out some of the canned Korean food. Yes, of course I also bought Spam! The eye of the storm was supposed to hit early this morning, and it was...forgettable. I just heard a lot of rain overnight (it helped me fall asleep) and there was no evident damage, except for the usual bad drivers during the morning commute. Let's just say that people freaked out more about a 50 mph decreasing storm than a North Korean test rocket launch. Me thinks that we have conflicting prorities.
Speaking of derecho and hurricanes, I attended the 1st Annual International Disaster Management Conference in Seoul. Kind of like the World IT Show, the attendees were 99% Korean.
They had a German govie talk about his country's emergency management methods, and a Korean professor from Texas A&M who did a presentation on "System & Plan on Disaster Management Policy in the United States." I thought it was pretty comprehensive and thorough EXCEPT for when he mentioned NIMS and said that it is used for mutual aid and assistance agreements. Oh l'horreur! The Koreans in attendance were only interested in the pictures from Hurricane Katrina where the civilians were protecting their property. They were very perplexed that civilians were allowed to have guns.
They live in a densely populated penninsula (more like an island since they can't directly access Asia because of North Korea) and don't understand the concept that in the U.S., people live miles apart from each other in parts of the country and a man's got to protect his family.
Speaking of disasters, I spent an hour trying to order pizza for the office this evening. I first was on the Pizza Hut Korea website and the payment system was such a disaster that I couldn't get them to process my order. The problem is that the optimum browser for Korean websites is Internet Explorer. Need I say more? So I called the local Pizza Hut to take the order, but they said that they only accepted orders from the official delivery hotline. So I called the official delivery hotline to take my order, but they said that they couldn't give internet discounts. When I told them that the internet ordering wasn't working, I had to call the Pizza Hut Online Customer Service line. She couldn't walk me through the payment option, so I lost my cool and said, "I just want to order a damn pizza! Are you trying to run a business? Why won't you just let me order and pay for a damn pizza?" I think the lady got it, and she processed my order, discount and all. But Jess, how was the pizza? Damn delicious! How can something called "Cheesy Bites Cheese King Pizza" ever be disappointing?
OMG yum. why don't they sell this in the US?!
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