Bechamel in Marseille

It’s cold….and raining….

But Brussels is incredibly adorable. The metro/tram/train/bus system is a complete fucking mess though.

Here is my update on Arles

I had been begging the boyfriend to take me here, supposedly one of the most beautiful cities in the South of France…

Well…. with the exception of the dead bulls

We came during the Feries du Riz, which translated means “killing bulls to applauding crowds and eat paella afterwards” or “Rice Fesitval”

The area around Arles is known for their rice and salt. Well, it’s from the Camargue Delta, which is 1 hour south of Arles.

The Roman colisseum

The famous rice

Our breakfast of roasted chicken and tomatoes, with fried potatoes… absolutley amazing…

We also took a tour of the once biggest open air market in Europe. And it was long…… about 10 blocks. Didn’t really buy anything, but was a pleasure to walk through.

Random Museum in a old cathedral

The hospital where Van Gogh stayed for a year to recuperate. The room no longer exists, so don’t bother paying to go to the museum.

General direction of where his room was.

US

And now… the main event….. the bullfight!

The beginning

The first bull

They had 3 matadors, with one of them on the horse. He got awesomely thrown off his horse at one point and the bull rammed him! I was cheering…. for the bull….which defeats the purpose, I know.

Killing of the bull

The final stab

While this is something I cannot truly understand, having not been around this culture, it’s something I can somewhat appreciate. The history and culture surrounding this and it’s amazing how the matadors are absolutely fearless. But I think this will be the first and last bullfight for me.

All around Arles where pans of paella being cooked

So this is what we ate

IFA… what is IFA and what was I doing there? IFA is the European version of the CES (Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas). So essentially I was surrounded by tech geeks for about a week and a half. My company does the daily over there, so it was an intense week of 14 hour work days filled with much alcohol…. ah I miss it already!

SO, with the 14 hour work days, I didnt have much time to see Berlin, but I did sneak in these shots

Checkpoint Charlie

Part of the wall

Our offices

Probably one of the best looking TVs I saw at the IFA show (Sharp XS1 series), although Sony had a super super slim plasma TV (which I didn’t get a picture of… argh)

Ugh, puts my flat screen to SHAME

(These are all Sharp)

A church which was not remolded to remind Germans of the war

And some of my collegues at the last night party…. Yes, a bit hammeded

Right after the Munich/Korea trip, Alex and I went to go visit his father in Morocco. We spend a wonderful week there staying at his house in El-Jadida on the Atlantic side, about 2 hours south of Casablanca, the haven for thousands of Moroccans fleeing the hot summers.

Of course, and we were right next to the beach……

Which was crowded with every inch of the sand covered with people and umbrellas and the smell of kebabs everywhere

Alex’s father also took us to the more remote places of Morocco, including this beach near Oualidia where people gather red kelp to sell at the markets

And with thousands of tomato farms

And one enterprising Dung beetle

This photo almost got us killed as the men in the truck did not appreciate the flash and started to shout at us waving their pitchforks

Luckily, they turned off at the next stop

Of course, we came for the pleasure of eating oysters and crab

El Jadida has an old Portuguese fort which was beautiful

We also visited Marrakesh… and honestly I longed for El Jadida once I was there. It was incredibly hot and crowded with tourists. But I’m glad to say that I did at least visit it.

The infamous Souk of Marrakesh (An open air market)

Now the Souk is an experience in itself as thousands of people try to grab you and pull you into their shops, where they then proceed to rip you off… ok I am still a bit bitter that we paid 25 euros (!!!) for a stinking lamp…….

I also had Tajine for the first time… this is a chicken version

An amazing sweets place

The largest garden there

On the road to Essaouira, another seaside city

Then back to El Jadida where Alex and I stumbled onto an empty (!) beach

Whoo hoo update!

Been running around for the past months but after the dust has settled, I feel like I can finally all of you with some interesting materials….

First up, my trip to Munich. I went there for IFA Preview (Like the CES show, but in Europe) and it was gorgeous. Well, the parts I saw from my hotel to the convention……

(Taken from the top of the Mandarin Oriental)

Honestly, the most fascinating thing for me was late night German television.(NSFW)

This is a late night game show where watchers call in to play some sort of bingo… My only thoughts are…why are her breasts shown two times??

Then onto a flight to Korea. Why Korea? Apparently, my usefulness as being Korean was attractive to my boss as he promptly shipped me off to help do interviews with the presidents of Samsung and LG. Honestly, very few things impress me, but meeting the President of Samsung is going to be a highlight of 2008 for me. Not only was he ever so kind, that guy has the entire floor on the 49th floor! It’s absolutely amazing the number of women secretaries who run about him offering coffee, etc to us…

Before Seoul, we had a 4 hour layover in Dubai….and at 1 AM, this beautiful sight greeted me…

The duty-free shoppping in Dubai is eye popping. I managed to blow a big chunk of my government tax refund here…but oh so worth it….

No shortage of Tang here people…..

BTW, I made it my mission to eat while I was in Korea. I am still struggling with the weight gain….

But look at what I ate!

Nakgee bulbogi (Octopus korean bbq) This was incredible

A 6 course traditional korean meal (courtesy of Samsung….!) I ate things here that I would have never eaten before….and the dduk (rice cake) was amazing

In Samsung’s luxury car….

Also finally had Dunkin’ Donuts… and my first iced coffee in a year!

And company lunch at Samsung

Appetizer

Salad

CLAM CHOWDER. I thought it was just a LA Koreatown thing… but apparently Koreans in Korea love it too

Ladie and gentlemen, quite possibly the most tender piece of beef I have EVER eaten. And it wasn’t even Kobe beef! Australian steak…. ugh…

And finally, a Korean dinner at a Japanese/Korean fusion restaurant. (Also courtesy of Samsung)

Abalone and Sea Cucmber

Neurongi (Kind of like Chinese sizzling soup but with Korean rice)

Tempura (I inhaled this)

More fried goodies…

Sashmi…. ughhh this was incredible

This was korean yogurt pork. Don’t laugh, but this was soo good. The pork was soft with an incredible layer of fat…

Some salad and soba noodles, which I kept on requesting…

And finally, live octopus. My editor-in-chief, who is Australian, once told me he could eat anything… then he met his match! For me, it tasted like octopus.. just a bit more active

Live Octopus from Jooree Cho on Vimeo.

Here is a video of the suckers

Going to interviews with all these Presidents was interesting for me…. and I also got spanked on my Korean more than once. People would speak Korean to me, I would respond, then they would continue in English. Which is why I noted to myself to practice some Korean!