You may be feeling drowsy.

May 24, 2024

After breakfast, we went to visit the friendly folks at the Tetra Tech Korea office. We brought lots of Texas edibles for the office and Texas shaped kitchen sponges. They have outgrown their office, so they’ll be moving next week. When we get back to town, we are going to go visit the new office.

Tetra Tech’s current office

After visiting, we picked up our rental car. We got a major upgrade to a very large sedan with all of the upgrades. It’s a perfect road trip car! We picked up our luggage and made our way out of Seoul very slowly the directions were complex, and our GPS reminded us frequently “Be careful not to take the wrong route.”

Both my Tetra Tech coworkers and Joel’s Korean coworker recommend we stop at the highway rest stops. They all said the food there is yummy. We were shocked at how elaborate the rest stops were. They each had a golf clothing store, and we saw a lot of golf driving ranges along the way. The bathrooms were clean and free, and the food/shopping atmosphere felt like a carnival. We decided it was Korean Buc-ees but everybody was dressed much nicer.

It was a good thing they had three joints because it was the only places we saw for fuel and snacks. The other oddity of our trip was warnings about drowsiness. There were official road signs with cartoon characters falling asleep, signs saying no to drowsiness, and even drowsiness centers to stop and nap at. Our GPS randomly broke the silence by announcing “You may be feeling drowsy.” At one of the rest stops, they had lists of anti-drowsiness medications, like aromatherapy lip balm and laced snacks by BTS. Jane finally did some research to learn that almost 23% of all accidents in Korea are due to drowsy drivers, more than drunk driving. If you’re wondering, nope Joel and I weren’t drowsy (although Jane did nap a couple of times). The radio stations were all either talking or playing ultra-soporific tunes; we blamed the radio for their traffic issues.

Once in Daegu, we came upon this gentlemen. He was in hospital pajamas and walking around with his IV. We figure somebody really ought to help him but that we weren’t qualified.

We arrived at the February Hotel in Daegu without incident, parked, and made our way to our room. I’ll skip our wacky room details until tomorrow. We will be here for a few days.

We had no idea where to eat, and normal mapping tools, even the Korean ones, were no help. We roamed up and down the streets packed with restaurants until we found one with a logo of a hand slapping a pig cheek. It was a BBQ restaurant that served only pork.

They cooked our BbQ at the table, but they issued us bibs so we wouldn’t get grease on our clothes. I don’t think I personally have ever enjoyed pork as much as I did here. We selected the cuts of pork belly and pork temples, washing it down with a local beer. For about $32, we got way too much food. Bargain.

After dinner, we roamed town until late. Nearly everything was open, including clothing and general goods stores. We found the tarot district where half of the businesses on the street were reading people’s fortunes with tarot cards. We did not imbibe in that either.

The English contest is heating up. A lot of great entries were made today.

Baskin Robbin’s branched out.

Photo opportunities abounded. There was a whole district of shops that were just rooms to take pictures of yourself in.

Jane loved this Butter store.

Some tarot shops on the tarot street.

Some of our favorite English.

Jane is considering getting herself one of these. We even saw a girl on the street wearing one.

There are a lot of foods we don’t recognize.

There were several shops selling fresh fruit coated in a thin veneer of jolly rancher style hard candy shell. Jane was a huge fan.

A friend from work told us not to miss these pancakes filled with cinnamon sugar. They were being sold in street stalls. It’s as delicious as it sounds.