Passport Renewal In South Korea! (For Americans!)

I just go a new passport.  It's hard to believe it's already been ten years since my last one, which I got shortly before I moved to South Korea.  Given the state of affairs in the world today, it's not an exaggeration to say that a fresh passport with a new ten-year life span means everything to me.  And while the information available here for the US embassy in Seoul is mostly good, here are a few suggestions to make the whole process easier:

1)  You will have to make an appointment through the embassy website (above).  However, I was two hours early for mine (after taking the bullet train to Seoul from Daegu).  I approached the officer behind the glass and he told me to come back in an hour.  I came back and he let me in an hour before my "official" time.  The point being, maybe I just got lucky but if you're early go ahead and get in line and maybe you'll get waved in.

2)  Speaking of which, the map available through the website is a mess.  The US embassy is located right next to the big statue of King Sejong in Gwanghwamun.  The map suggests you go to something called the "American Center" but I'd suggest grabbing a cab and, logically, telling them to take you to the US embassy ("mi-guk-dae-sa-gwan").  My cabbie had no idea what "American Center" was, but US embassy?  No problem.

3)  The embassy itself is a surprisingly nondescript building, but with a bunch of South Korean police officers out front.  Obviously, you can't go in through the main gate.  But facing the gate, turn right, walk to the first intersection, then turn left.  About half a block and to your left is the window that gets you in.  This is where you'll want to have the print-out confirming your timed reservation.  Like I said, I got lucky and was waved in early.  Your mileage may vary.

4)  They'll take your cellphone and ask you to turn it off.  I left my beloved iPad back in Daegu, because they only allow one electronic device to be checked in.  Could I have gotten lucky on this one as well?  I have no idea.  They didn't search my bag but I imagine they wouldn't be pleased if I'd tried to sneak it in.

5)  Apparently they accept US bank or credit cards for payment (110 bucks, ouch) but I paid cash.  In general, I always keep four or five hundred US dollars in my apartment at all times.  I'm rather gangster like that.  Bug-out cash, basically.

6)  Be prepared to write your Korean address in Korean.

7)  This is because they've adopted a delivery service, which is awesome in that you won't have to go back to Seoul.  I was told the delivery would take two to three weeks.

8)  In fact, having gone to the embassy on a Monday, I received my brand new passport on the Wednesday morning of the next week (nine days).

9)  Strangely for Korea, you'll have to pay an extra 10,000 won to the delivery guy.  I'm not sure what was going on there, but I was just relieved to be set for another decade of travel.

10)  As for timing, the embassy suggests you do all of this six months before your current passport is set to expire.  My expiration was coming June 2018, so I took care of all this in February.  The process is mostly painless, so there's no reason not to renew as early as possible.

11)  South Korean passport photos are a different size than American ones.  The application sheet you fill out has a cut-out pattern that you can show to your photo studio person, and they should figure it out (two by two inches, which is 51 by 51 millimeters).  There was a photo booth in the lobby of the passport services office but there's no reason to not get a professional job done in a country with photo studios on every block.  A set of passport photos cost me 15,000 won.

And that's about it.  The only hang-up when my number was called is that I had to take care of number six above.  You hand over your old passport and all your paperwork, then they sort of package it all for you and send you to a cashier's window to pay.  Done and done.

I'm willing to bet with a nine-day turnaround the processing took place entirely in country.  Given the number of Americans in South Korea that's not too surprising.

The NRA Is A Terrorist Organization II

There's a word for schools with armed teachers. It's called "prison."

— "Stable Genius" James (@wetcasements) February 25, 2018

The NRA Is A Terrorist Organization

Have you ever been angry at your kid or younger brother or sister because they're being an ass (as all kids will be, sometimes)? Now multiply that by 30 or 40 as in, a classroom full of kids acting like asses. (Speaking as a teacher, this also happens sometimes.)

Now imagine that this teacher has a gun and is having a bad day.

The point being, teaching can be really stressful. Classroom management is difficult. Throwing firearms into the mix is absolutely the dumbest "solution" to the problem of school gun violence, even by Trump-standards.

Black Panther was… (spoilers)

perfectly enjoyable but I don’t quite get the THIS IS THE BEST SUPER-HERO FILM EVAR thing.

The set and costume design was dope.  The atmosphere of Wakanda and the Afro-futuristic technology was cool.  The moral set-up (stay hidden or help the world?) was interesting.

But the ending just ruined a lot of it for me.  All of a sudden all the Wakandans are murdering each other and I wasn’t quite sure why….

This Is Where We Are, This Is Who They Are

For once it seems like we may have a little bit of light shining on the otherwise horrific and depressing situation with guns and mass shootings in America.  A group of high school-aged survivors have decided they've had enough, and they aren't going to be silent about it.

And on cue, Republican media goes after them.

Pyeongchang? Pyeongnot!

So for Korean Lunar New Year this past Thursday though Sunday (Year of the Dog!) I went up to Seoul.  My plan was to travel to the Pyeongchang Olympics for two days, Friday and Saturday, then come home Sunday.

Well, I bought my event tickets in advance (a hockey game and aerial skiing, which were on the cheaper end of the price spectrum) with no problems.  But I waited on booking train or bus tickets.

Huge, awful mistake.

There was very little available to get me to Pyeongchang in the early afternoon (which, on a good day, is a three hour car-ride from Seoul).  Forget about getting there in the morning, i.e., on time for my tickets.  And there was literally nothing guaranteed to get me back from Pyeongchang.

So at best I could take a standing-only train ticket or a bus ticket, miss my event anyways, then worry about whether or not I could get back to Seoul.

Of course, I should have just coughed up the money for a hotel room in Pyeongchang itself but I didn't think it would be such a saga getting to and from Seoul.  And I figured spending a little time in the city I used to live in might be worth it as well.

Alas, I hanged out in Itaewon eating lots of non-Korean food and reading and taking the Seoul subway I used to ride nearly every day when I first came here.

I was truly disappointed at first, but then decided to just roll with it.  At night I went to shitty foreigner bars and watched the Olympics on TV.

I won the gold medal for rolling with it.  And I admit, I miss Seoul sometimes, especially when it comes to food options.

The Truth Hurts

It genuinely sucks that we won't be able to watch the U.S. compete in the next World Cup.  Nothing new there.  But what is new is U.S. men's team member Geoff Cameron unloading on U.S. soccer, and in particular disgraced coach Bruce Arena:

"I wasn’t an academy kid. I worked construction with my dad in the summers to make money. I didn’t turn pro until I was 22, and I didn’t go overseas to play in the Premier League until I was 25. So maybe I’m not the guy you’d expect to be saying this, but it needs to be shouted from the mountaintops: The powers that be in U.S. Soccer have created a poisonous divide between the MLS players and the so-called 'European' players, and until that culture is torn down, the USMNT will continue to slide backwards. With U.S. Soccer’s presidential election coming up this weekend, and the coaching vacancy yet to be filled, this issue needs to be addressed right now. It’s time to learn from our mistakes — as players, coaches and as an organization. It’s time to look forward and get to the heart of the matter.

Our best young players need to be playing in the top European leagues. Period. It shouldn’t be looked at as a negative thing. It should be a huge source of pride to send a 20-year-old American kid to play in the Bundesliga or the Premier League. Even better if they came up in MLS for a few years.

Why is it seen as a negative for America to 'lose' a player who goes to play abroad? Brazilians don’t think this way when Neymar goes to Barcelona. The Dutch don’t think this way when their Ajax academy kids go to Chelsea or Bayern. Why don’t we go the other way entirely? U.S. Soccer should take out ads with pictures of all the players, past and present, who have made a huge impact on the world stage."

Putting Arena back in place was, literally, a step backwards.  Klinsmann wasn't perfect, but I honestly believe we would have qualified pretty easily if he hadn't been sacked.  Woulda, could, shoulda -- but finishing in the round of 16 on 2014 was nothing to sneeze at either.

And sorry, but while M.L.S. has shown notable financial success, it's not the way forward for a national team looking to move up to the consistency level of, let's say, Mexico, Nigeria, or Switzerland, at least.

Olympic Opening Ceremony Hot-Tweet

Mike Pence's mind right now: white country, shithole country, white country, shithole country... #OpeningCeremony

— "Stable Genius" James (@wetcasements) February 9, 2018

There Is No "Bloody Nose"

A good long-ish read on how disastrous a US pre-preemptive attack on North Korea would be.  One of the biggest problems is that the US fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between China and Pyongyang (short version: it's a relation of convenience, not a military alliance):

"'China would have to fight its way into North Korea,' Mastro told me in an interview. 'For the North Koreans, enemy No. 1 is obviously the United States, but enemy No. 2 is China. They understand they’d have to potentially fight both countries.'

Things would get really complicated, and really dangerous, once Chinese troops made their way to the nuclear facilities. The Pentagon has spent years practicing how to send US special operations forces into North Korea to seize Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons if there were signs that Kim’s government was collapsing. The problem is that Chinese troops would almost certainly be sent into North Korea at the same time, and with the same goal, as the US forces.

Mastro notes that Chinese troops would only need to advance 60 miles into North Korea to take control of all of the country’s highest-priority nuclear sites and two-thirds of its highest-priority missile sites. Given that enormous geographic advantage, Beijing’s troops would almost certainly arrive before the US ones do."

The notion that Kim Jong-un would passively "absorb" a US first strike is stupid and absurd.  Seoul will be devastated, and within a few days you'd be looking at US and Chinese ground forces coming into direct contact.

That isn't a "limited strike," it's World War III, and the Russians aren't going to sit on their asses and watch this play out either.

I Am OK With Literally Everything Being Political Now

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha pic.twitter.com/OsI49iL9EG

— God (@TheTweetOfGod) February 5, 2018

It took a Trump-loving franchise to get me to root for the Eagles and I feel fine about it.

Important ESL-related Discussion Post

motherfucker it's _pants_ not _trousers_ #ESL #ESLthuglife #USAUSAUSA

— "Stable Genius" James (@wetcasements) February 1, 2018