Ken had told me before that several times a day at the shipyard, music comes on and everyone gets up to stretch. I thought it was a pretty good idea.
The other day at Tesco (the grocery store), I witnessed it for myself. I was in the meat area of the store when everyone came from behind their respective counters and started doing movements to the music. I don't know if there is a certain rhyme or reason to the motions or if the music was telling them what to do, but they all seemed to be doing pretty much the same motions. I was dying to take a picture but I was afraid they would either think it was strange or they might be offended. After all, I was standing in amongst all of them. I looked around to see if any of the other customers were joining in, but I didn't notice anyone else but the employees taking part. I was relieved to see that since I didn't know if I was supposed to join in. After all, I didn't know all the hand motions. Ha! Ha!
Incidentally, some of the music sounded like "The Hokey Pokey".
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
some sort of BBQ
Saturday night we went to a restaurant that serves Korean BBQ. There are various restaurants that serve it with different items like ribs, pork and chicken. However, this restaurant served thin slices of marinated beef - bulgogi.
Ken invited 2 other couples to come with us. Mike and Wendy are from Maine. He is taking a sabbatical from teaching to work on this project and Wendy is a nurse. They have been here since August. Norman and Brenda arrived in Okpo the day after us. I have met them before - they are from the Houston area. We had reservations, so the table was all ready for us when we arrived. It was a long table with 2 little fire pits cut into it. And there were lots of little dishes with some sort of items in them (mostly unrecognizable).
I could have chosen to eat octopus, some sort of mussels, kimchi, some sort of pureed items, etc. But I mainly stuck with some shredded cabbage in some sort of sauce, some sort of vegetable pancake and the green salad. The server comes and puts the meat, along with mushrooms and cloves of garlice, on the grill. She periodically returns to either take it off the grill and put it on your plate or to add more meat. You are supposed to take the meat, along with other condiments, put it in the lettuce leaves, wrap it up and dip it in sauce. It really is quite good. And it was fun.
I also sampled soju, which I really didn't care for. I later read that is a popular drink in Korea. It is inexpensive and quite potent. It is mostly made from sweet potatoes, which explains why I didn't like it!
Ken invited 2 other couples to come with us. Mike and Wendy are from Maine. He is taking a sabbatical from teaching to work on this project and Wendy is a nurse. They have been here since August. Norman and Brenda arrived in Okpo the day after us. I have met them before - they are from the Houston area. We had reservations, so the table was all ready for us when we arrived. It was a long table with 2 little fire pits cut into it. And there were lots of little dishes with some sort of items in them (mostly unrecognizable).
I could have chosen to eat octopus, some sort of mussels, kimchi, some sort of pureed items, etc. But I mainly stuck with some shredded cabbage in some sort of sauce, some sort of vegetable pancake and the green salad. The server comes and puts the meat, along with mushrooms and cloves of garlice, on the grill. She periodically returns to either take it off the grill and put it on your plate or to add more meat. You are supposed to take the meat, along with other condiments, put it in the lettuce leaves, wrap it up and dip it in sauce. It really is quite good. And it was fun.
I also sampled soju, which I really didn't care for. I later read that is a popular drink in Korea. It is inexpensive and quite potent. It is mostly made from sweet potatoes, which explains why I didn't like it!
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
big weekend
My first Saturday here was quite eventful (considering my days so far have consisted of unpacking, walking, foraging for food and preparing it)! On Saturday morning, Ken and I went over to Goysomething which is the town next to us about 10 minutes away. They also have a shipyard there - the Samsung Shipyard. The town is larger than Okpo and has a Tesco there. Now, I remember Tesco from my Aberdeen days so I guess it is somehow related.
Ken said he had heard that we should get there before 10 a.m. since it can get very crowded. So we headed out (in a car, for once) after stopping at Dunkin Donuts for a doughnut to go. It is easy to find the building since it is on the main road but we had a little difficulty in understanding where to park so we parked in an open lot behind the building and walked around to the front entrance. The building is 4 stories and the top 3 house items like clothes, jewelry, appliances, etc. The bottom floor is the grocery part.
When we walked in, there was a greeter (just like WalMart, but a younger greeter with a sash on, not a vest, that bowed to you). I think we were one of the first ones to get there. We were in the store for 2 1/2 hours looking at everything and trying to fiqure out what some things where. And there is always someone there to help you. Right after you put some potatoes in a plastic bag, someone appears, takes it from you, weighs it and puts a sticker on it. They have mostly vegetables that I can recognize but also alot that I don't know. We stuck with bananas, potatoes, mushrooms, lettuce (they actually have iceberg here), tomatoes, onions and oranges.
The meat selection is not as plentiful as we know it. I did pick up a package of boneless chicken breast that cost alot for 6 small breasts. Pork is plentiful here and I also got some thin sliced kind of boneless pork chops. The ground beef is from Australia and is very lean. The rest of the beef is very expensive even though they do eat beef here.
I was hoping to find some frozen vegetables, but to no avail. I guess they just shop fresh. You do encounter some American food items at all of the grocery stores, some more expensive than others - like peanut butter, microwave popcorn, mustard, etc. They also have items that look like the packaging from the U.S. - like Ritz crackers, Oreos, some chips. However, not everything tastes the same. I bought some tomato juice that said it was Del Monte and it was awful. So I guess it will be trial and error with buying food.
When we finally left with our full basket, we realized that we didn't know how to get it to our car. So we trucked up to the floor we came in on to go out the front door. By that time, the floor was open and people were shopping. We realized that no one had a grocery cart. No sooner than Ken had said "I feel funny walking around with a grocery cart, no one else has one" , than a lady stopped us from going out the front door! So we made our way to the parking garage that we were supposed to park in and Ken went and got the car and picked me up in the garage. Quite the morning.
Ken said he had heard that we should get there before 10 a.m. since it can get very crowded. So we headed out (in a car, for once) after stopping at Dunkin Donuts for a doughnut to go. It is easy to find the building since it is on the main road but we had a little difficulty in understanding where to park so we parked in an open lot behind the building and walked around to the front entrance. The building is 4 stories and the top 3 house items like clothes, jewelry, appliances, etc. The bottom floor is the grocery part.
When we walked in, there was a greeter (just like WalMart, but a younger greeter with a sash on, not a vest, that bowed to you). I think we were one of the first ones to get there. We were in the store for 2 1/2 hours looking at everything and trying to fiqure out what some things where. And there is always someone there to help you. Right after you put some potatoes in a plastic bag, someone appears, takes it from you, weighs it and puts a sticker on it. They have mostly vegetables that I can recognize but also alot that I don't know. We stuck with bananas, potatoes, mushrooms, lettuce (they actually have iceberg here), tomatoes, onions and oranges.
The meat selection is not as plentiful as we know it. I did pick up a package of boneless chicken breast that cost alot for 6 small breasts. Pork is plentiful here and I also got some thin sliced kind of boneless pork chops. The ground beef is from Australia and is very lean. The rest of the beef is very expensive even though they do eat beef here.
I was hoping to find some frozen vegetables, but to no avail. I guess they just shop fresh. You do encounter some American food items at all of the grocery stores, some more expensive than others - like peanut butter, microwave popcorn, mustard, etc. They also have items that look like the packaging from the U.S. - like Ritz crackers, Oreos, some chips. However, not everything tastes the same. I bought some tomato juice that said it was Del Monte and it was awful. So I guess it will be trial and error with buying food.
When we finally left with our full basket, we realized that we didn't know how to get it to our car. So we trucked up to the floor we came in on to go out the front door. By that time, the floor was open and people were shopping. We realized that no one had a grocery cart. No sooner than Ken had said "I feel funny walking around with a grocery cart, no one else has one" , than a lady stopped us from going out the front door! So we made our way to the parking garage that we were supposed to park in and Ken went and got the car and picked me up in the garage. Quite the morning.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
shopping around
Well, the fog from all the travel has finally lifted and I feel more like myself. Since I have been here I have had Domino's Pizza (which was very good), almost finished a book, gone to the grocery store with Ken (examined everything), made spaghetti (from a jar of Classico that cost almost $5), and about died walking up the hills around here.
Everywhere you go (which you mainly walk) you encounter a hill somewhere. I have come to realize that whenever you walk down a hill, you eventually have to walk up that hill sometime or other. Okpo is not that large, I think it is around 30,000 people. But alot of the buildings are highrise apartments, so it sort of has a bigger city feel. We are nestled in a cove of sorts with mountains all around. Not Rockie Mountain kind of mountains, but mountains no less. In fact, our apartment is nestled on the side of one. So anytime I go somewhere, my last trek is upwards. Surely it will get easier over time!
Photo#1 going downhill from our apartment
Photo #2 going uphill - we are on the corner
Photo #3 our building is the middle brown one
Everywhere you go (which you mainly walk) you encounter a hill somewhere. I have come to realize that whenever you walk down a hill, you eventually have to walk up that hill sometime or other. Okpo is not that large, I think it is around 30,000 people. But alot of the buildings are highrise apartments, so it sort of has a bigger city feel. We are nestled in a cove of sorts with mountains all around. Not Rockie Mountain kind of mountains, but mountains no less. In fact, our apartment is nestled on the side of one. So anytime I go somewhere, my last trek is upwards. Surely it will get easier over time!
Photo#1 going downhill from our apartment
Photo #2 going uphill - we are on the corner
Photo #3 our building is the middle brown one
Friday, January 12, 2007
here we are!
After months of telling people I was moving to Korea, the day actually arrived. Ken and I arrived at the Houston airport with 4 pieces of overweight luggage to check, along with four more pieces of carry on luggage. Everything went smoothly and we went to the Continental lounge to wait for our flight. I usually don't have all of these niceties, but since Ken travels so much we have access. He checked his email while I drank coffee and mentally prepared myself for the long flight to Japan.
The flight ended up not being as awful as I would have thought. I was in business/first class with Ken and it is like night and day from coach. The seats almost fold out flat so that you can lie down. I did sleep some, in between food service and watching a movie - "Little Miss Sunshine". At one point I could see snow covered mountains in Alaska.
Our flight was late in arriving to Narita Airport in Japan, so we had just enough time to get to our flight. Ken got stopped as we were getting onto the airplane for searching, which he wasn't too pleased with. They even put some things under some kind of light! They barely searched my bags and asked if I had any liquids. I said no except for some eye and nose drops. However, while I was standing there waiting for Ken another guard noticed I had a bottle of water sticking out of my backpack. I forgot Ken had stuck it there when we got off the plane. I was a bit embarressed.
We had just been served breakfast on our last flight and then we were served dinner on this flight to Pusan. I was starting to feel nauseated from all the travel, lack of sleep, etc. I was also hoping to see the skyline of Tokyo when we took off but I guess I was on the wrong side of the plane. The airport is a ways from Tokyo center. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narita_International_Airport
After getting our bags and going through customs, we were met by a driver and the agent for Ken's company. He is Korean and the one who helps them with apartments, cars, etc. He had a huge bouquet of flowers for me. Considering that I was feeling quite awful at that time, I hope I looked halfway decent. We got into a van with another man from the states (Gary - he was on the flight from Tokyo with us) and took the 2 hour drive to our apartment in Okpo. It was nighttime, but my first impression was the abundance of highrise apartments everywhere. I guess since there isn't much flat land, they have to build upwards when they can!
Our apartment is nice and clean and we quickly went to sleep with no difficulty after essentially being up for over 24 hours.
The flight ended up not being as awful as I would have thought. I was in business/first class with Ken and it is like night and day from coach. The seats almost fold out flat so that you can lie down. I did sleep some, in between food service and watching a movie - "Little Miss Sunshine". At one point I could see snow covered mountains in Alaska.
Our flight was late in arriving to Narita Airport in Japan, so we had just enough time to get to our flight. Ken got stopped as we were getting onto the airplane for searching, which he wasn't too pleased with. They even put some things under some kind of light! They barely searched my bags and asked if I had any liquids. I said no except for some eye and nose drops. However, while I was standing there waiting for Ken another guard noticed I had a bottle of water sticking out of my backpack. I forgot Ken had stuck it there when we got off the plane. I was a bit embarressed.
We had just been served breakfast on our last flight and then we were served dinner on this flight to Pusan. I was starting to feel nauseated from all the travel, lack of sleep, etc. I was also hoping to see the skyline of Tokyo when we took off but I guess I was on the wrong side of the plane. The airport is a ways from Tokyo center. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narita_International_Airport
After getting our bags and going through customs, we were met by a driver and the agent for Ken's company. He is Korean and the one who helps them with apartments, cars, etc. He had a huge bouquet of flowers for me. Considering that I was feeling quite awful at that time, I hope I looked halfway decent. We got into a van with another man from the states (Gary - he was on the flight from Tokyo with us) and took the 2 hour drive to our apartment in Okpo. It was nighttime, but my first impression was the abundance of highrise apartments everywhere. I guess since there isn't much flat land, they have to build upwards when they can!
Our apartment is nice and clean and we quickly went to sleep with no difficulty after essentially being up for over 24 hours.
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