Soju

No trip to Korea would be complete without a little soju. Soju is a type of alcohol that is usually made of rice but can be made of any type of starch (barley, potato, etc). It tastes quite a bit like vodka. It can be mixed with juice for flavor, drank straight as a shot, or made into the infamous "soju bomb". The soju bomb is a pint of beer with a shot of soju floated in it. It's much like a boilermaker. (I have a picture of one being made last night but I need to obtain permission before I post it).

Soju is between 20-40 proof and is truly a part of the Korean culture. Business men often go out to the bars after work to get drunk on soju. Really. Getting drunk is the goal. The contrast between their daytime persona of proper and reserved and their nighttime persona of, well, not is astounding.

Traditionally, corporate Korea has been reserved for men so the soju escapades were usually no big deal. However, the recent admission of women into the higher ranks is creating some interesting problems. The attache yesterday told us about a lawsuit in 2007 where a female executive was pushed into going to the bars with the males and then the males were "forgetting to show proper respect" (I think we can read between the lines there) so she sued them. And won! It was very shocking.

I wonder how the soju culture will change as women executives become more prevalent.

Sunday's agenda

We will be having lunch today at Samcheonggak - here are some more pictures. It looks very cool!

After that we will tour the City Square and Cheong-gye-cheon Stream Park. I hope my new camera behaves. These look like some very photogenic areas.

On a side note, I had breakfast in the hotel and ate the best pineapple ever. It makes pineapple in the States taste like plastic. A Korean business man was seated next to me and he promptly struck up a conversation. And gave me his card. I had read that everyone gives tons of business cards but I thought they meant in formal settings. I brought a very small stack of mine so I think I had better ration them out for our meetings.

Jump

One of first items on our itinerary is to attend Jump - "a cultural performance". Okay, that doesn't tell me much. Here's a better description:

With the preparatory period of 3 years and 7 months, the musical JUMP is a non –verbal performance based on Taekwondo, a traditional Korean martial art, JUMP that will make the audience laugh and applaud throughout the show. This performance was given a favorable reception as it earned the top box office award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2005.

Sounds... interesting.