Shaolin Temple Strikes Back

We were in a cosmetics store this afternoon when an elderly Buddhist monk enters in full uniform, tapping his wooden percussion instrument of some descripton in an obvious ploy for attention.

It seems a donation is in order, and an assistant snatches a quick glance over at a superior to seek some unseen approval. What looks like 1,000 won (about 54 pence) is handed over and the chants a few times and before pottering off, still chanting for effect. This I can understand.

This I can not understand. Later in the evening back at the apartment, the intercom rings followed by a knock at the door. My wife picks up the handset and asks who it is.

The exact response comes: "Let me in. I've come from the temple with some virtuous words of advice."

He was sent on his way with the assurance that we didn't need them. It was a little odd even for Korea, usually people who are preaching are a little more polite than demanding to be let in, and that was his tone.

There are some very strange people here doing some very strange things.

The Time Machine

I came to Korea with an 18-month old Dell Inspiron 9300 notebook which had some top-end specifications, but unfortunately it's CPU wasn't one of them. For three months I've struggled on with trading but recently its speed has grown slower as I've begun to run a few more things so it's cost me money. It was time to start trawling through Hacker and PCDaq to find a replacement.

Navigating Korean websites is no easy task when you can't speak the language, and it's an activity only made more frustrating by the inability to fully access some sites using the Firefox browser - there's really no choice but to switch to Internet Explorer for the duration. It's interesting that considering that 99% of computers here are apparently Windows-based PCs, it isn't common to find Windows bundled with new computers, whereas in the UK, it's almost impossible to find a new PC without it. It seems that Koreans find 'other ways' of putting Windows on their new machines.

While it was possible to buy a copy of English-Windows from Hacker (who got the eventual order) to go with the new computer, it was significantly more expensive than buying Korean-Windows so I'm taking the plunge and going native. This may prove to be a reckless move - I certainly won't understand the endless error messages Windows generates - but perhaps it will spur on my language studies out of necessity. While I've long since purchased a Korean keyboard to plug into my laptop, switching between English and Korean remains a somewhat fiddly affair, so that should be another bonus point in my language switch.

The usual flurry of text messages followed our ordering of the computer, and despatch is scheduled for tomorrow because we ordered it late afternoon.