A Toy Story.

I've had this Tweety doll for nearly 22 years now (I'm almost 23) and I bring it with me whenever I travel for long periods of time. A few weeks ago, I left it on my bed and housekeeping accidentally took it to the laundry room along with my sheets and blankets. I called the front desk and reported the missing doll. A few days later, I get a phone call from the front desk:

"Hello?"

"Hi. Did you call few days ago about missing doll?"

"YES!"

"Is it a duck?"

"Uh, it's a bird. A yellow bird."

"Yes, duck! We found it. We will bring it now to your room."

Saved!

Since then, I have carefully moved Tweety from my bed to my living room sofa every morning, but yesterday morning I forgot to do so and Tweety is missing yet again!

Parag offered to send me a new Tweety doll (thanks, friend!), but it's not really Tweety that I'm attached to. In fact, I'm afraid of birds because of a traumatic chicken experience that I had while living in the sticks of Korea as a kid.

I'm attached to the fact that Tweety is so old that my mom has to handwash it because it would probably fall apart in the washing machine. I'm attached to the fact that I still have no idea whether I should call Tweety a "he" or "she." I'm attached to the fact that Tweety is the same as always, minus the drool that it was covered in once upon a time.

On that note, I really want to watch Toy Story 3 in 3D.  Too bad I can't find a theater in Seoul that is playing it...

July 1, 2010:
Tweety has been found!
=)

More Pictures!

Click photos to enlarge.

On June 15th, we got to ring this giant bell in the middle of Seoul at noon. They usually ring it on New Year's Eve, and only ~2% of people in Korea have had the opportunity to ring this bell. Pretty awesome! The guide told us to make a wish while ringing the bell. I made four.

My happy team - Andreas, Chris and Mattia.

Words of wisdom from Andreas - "May you break many bells in your life."  He's sticking his tongue out in this picture! Haha. He totally wants to break that bell.

My turn! My turn!

President Lee Myung Bak

Yvo de Boer

Professor Heller - Okay, so Tom's speech came with a powerpoint that was controlled by someone in the back of the room. However, Tom decided to skip around a bit...
The Korean guy in the back had no idea that he was on the wrong slide for a while, so I ran to the back to help him. Unfortunately, Tom had skipped like 6 slides and when I kept going back and forth searching for the correct slide, (which everyone in the room could see me doing) the tech guy yelled at me and was like, "do you have any idea what you're doing?!"
Mattia came and saved me. Just reaffirms my love for economists. Haha.

Lord Nicholas Stern

Professor Ekins

Secretary Kim Sang Hyup - so funny! I'm pretty sure he's pretending to be a pimp in this picture.

Andreas (behind me) is 6'4".  How silly of me to think that I would have to bend my knees a bit in order to not cover his face!

East Asia Climate Forum/GGGI Launch!

East Asia Climate Forum was pretty cool. Keynote speakers included President Lee, former Prime Minister Han Seung Soo, Ban Ki Moon, Lord Nicholas Stern, Thomas Heller, and Yvo de Boer.

Secretary Kim Sang Hyup, Andreas Merkl and Thomas Heller get ready to break the bell!

Mattia Romani, our economist, and (half of) Chris Stori, my Jedi Master.

Andreas enjoying some wine.

The man who escaped death, Eric Beinhocker! (His plane to Seoul had to make an emergency landing and all the tires blew off! He still managed to make it to the Board Meeting on time, of course.)

Younghoon Kang, our liaison to the Blue House, is soon to be married and leaving for MIT Sloan. "Esther, the only way you can escape is if you get married, or die."  TRUTH.

From left to right: Yoo Yeon Chul, Chris Stori, Jang Won, Jung Tae Yong. Chris looks super happy!

Prime Minister Han Seung Soo on far right. (I see Chris in the background. Hehe.)
One of the highlights of my week: PM Han told my team that I was "very small, but very good." Haha. YEAH, POWER TO THE LITTLE PEOPLE!

Soy exhausted from all of the preparation and events, but it was a good week.

=)