my job description

Since I moved here in January, all I have talked about is my daily life and my views and experiences of living in Korea. And about some travels. Granted, that is my life right now and is how I pretty much view things on a day to day basis. But there is another part of my life that is extremely important to me also. That other part of my life here in Korea is my husband. He has been working on projects in various countries for years and has been doing it alone.
None of the other overseas projects have been as long term as this one, but I am really appreciating what all he deals with on a day to day basis - not only with work but with dealing with living alone in a foreign country for several months at a time. So I am very thankful that I can be here, not only with him, but also for him. I know it sounds cliche, but he works very hard and it is nice for him to be able to come home to someone else. Not to mention that I am enjoying being with my husband.

My "duties" so far in Korea as the "Project Manager's Wife" have mainly been social, as in going out to eat and hosting a couple of meals at our apartment. But I have now added another task in my job description - Pushing the Button at the Steel Cutting Ceremony. The shipyard always holds these ceremonies prior to the actual start of building the ship. It is held in one of the huge hangars they have where they actually cut the steel. I promise I will have Ken take me around the shipyard some weekend so that you can hopefully get the full scope of what goes on there. For someone like me (not engineerically minded - by the way, I know that is not a word but it seems to fit), it boggles my mind how all these parts are brought together to make a huge ship.

Back to the steel cutting ceremony - they held it at noon on February 27th. They do it noon so that all the workers are at lunch and it isn't too noisy. All the employees from Ken's office that are here attended, along with the shipyard employees and other contractors with the project. Our trusty agent, T.Y. was even there. We all were required to wear standard safety attire - hard hat, safety goggles, and steel toes boots. I wasn't excluded from this.
There were some introductions, a prayer and lighting of candles by Ken and a DSME VP that symbolized the commitment by each to this project. I guess the Transocean employees were not sent an email by Ken to stand at attention and in straight lines like the DSME employees - ha!ha! Ken then made an excellent short speech
and then we were called up to push the button. The button actually started the machine that made the first cut of steel for the ship. Afterwards, there was the cutting of the ceremonial rice cake and many photos all around.

Ken and a few other employeest hen went to a beautiful luncheon at the Admiral Hotel in Okpo. Ken and I were flanked by Mr. Kims. Kim is a common last name for Koreans. They actually were wondering if my place card had a typo on it because my first name is Kim!
Later that night we attended a bulgogi dinner with all employees on the project. I guess there was only one job requirement I didn't have to perform that day....... cooking.