Zofona > Zofona Seoul > Stories: English and Dutch > Our Korea stories > May 15: 2004

May 15: 2004

Dutch television and Gyros, May 15, 2004
Since yesterday evening we can (finally) receive Dutch television. Just like in Kazakhstan, we now receive BVN television. On their website www.bvn.nl you can find more information. For people who are interested in receiving it, just send us an email and we will explain you how to get it.

So Yde could stay up late because we were busy with laying cables and configuring the dish. The first person I saw was Mr. Max van der Stoel. Normally not interesting, we would choose another channel. Now we looked at it as if it was a miracle. Every evening at 7.30 pm, we can watch the Dutch news channel on TV instead of through the internet. In addition, Yde can watch the Dutch sesame street and other children’s programs.

This week I could also see the Korean work attitude. On Monday evening, I was waiting for Christina just outside the office and I was looking at an old coffee shop, which they were reconstructing. Lots of people drilling, sawing, painting. I briefly wondered what they were going to build there. The next day during lunch, I was on the way to a restaurant with some colleagues and I was astonished. In one night, they transformed it into a Gyros restaurant. After lunch, I was still amazed so we talked to the owner who could speak some English. Meanwhile in the background an electrician was finalizing some cable work for the grill. He proudly told us that this restaurant would open at 3 pm!!
My colleagues and I could hardly believe it so we went back at 4 to take a look. It already opened and they were selling kebab, at least they said they did. The meat was actually not ready yet. There were even some girls in front of the restaurant distributing flyers and yelling in a microphone. Just crazy, the paint was still wet and the silicon kit for the windows was soft but hey, business is business! Two days later the restaurant closed again. The paper on the door said in Korean “closed for construction”. We now guess they just wanted to open at the deadline at all costs. Now they are probably working out logistics or they wait for the paint to dry a little bit more. At least we already had lunch there (limited choice, they could only sell one item from the menu card, hahaha).

Christina even got bigger last week, for more weeks to the calculated day of birth.

Jitze, Christina and Yde