home sweet row house

I have promised my mother to show her some pictures of our apartment for some time. We actually have a fairly large place - around 1800 square feet. I just know I was so thankful that it felt clean when I arrived. I will always remember how dirty our kitchen in France was when we first moved in. Ken said that all the flooring was new and everything freshly painted. Apparently the row houses are 30 years old or so - some personnel from Ken's office actually lived here in the 1980's. I think that there have been some problems lately with some of the apartments but we have been fine here.

I am just going to concentrate on the living/dining area right now. This picture shows our living area. Sorry for the poor quality on some of the pictures. We kind of have a mishmash of furniture that doesn't all match too great but it is functional for our needs - meaning Ken and I each have a couch to lounge on while watching TV. FYI - can you see the green thing outside the window that is hanging down from the ceiling? That is my clothesline.
As you can see, I brought a few things over to decorate somewhat. However, I didn't really have anything that matched the huge light fixture over the coffee table! Luckily the coffee table is there because anyone could bump their head on this monstrosity. I also like how the ornateness (is that a word? it didn't come up on spellcheck!)of the fixture blends so well with the modern floor lamp in the corner! The big blue thing is our air conditioner which I have not experienced, so I don't know how to work it yet. The heat in the lower floor comes from radiators that go along the entire back wall. There isn't really a thermostat for the heat, you just turn a dial to tell how often you want the heat to come on. How long it stays on is beyond me - maybe Ken knows. I just know that if I am cold, I turn the dial all the wall to the right. The upper floor has heat in the flooring.

While I am talking about heat, I want to show you a picture of the downstairs powder room. However, you can see that you could also do more than powder your nose because there is a shower setup on the wall. The entire wall and floor is tiled with a drain actually in the floor. You also step down into the room. I have always wondered if you can turn the room into a steam room by having the radiator and water at the same time. It seems like the water on the hot radiator might possibly produce some steam. I guess you could also take a shower while sitting on the commode if you wanted to - to save time or something.




The dining area is fine. We can seat 8 people at the table which is nice. By the way, do like the forsythia on the dining table? I passed by some bushes that I thought needed pruning (and I can't believe it, I actually had my pruning shears in the car for some reason - ha!ha!).
One thing that is really nice are the double windows we have. It is not like they are double paned - there are actually two sets of windows to open. I'm sure it keeps the noise out. We have 2 sliding glass doors upstairs and they are the same.

i am woman hear me roar

I have been meaning to talk about driving in Korea for some time now. Ken tried to tell me about it but I think you just have to experience it for yourself. However, I will try to describe some of the observations I have made since I stared driving in Korea.

First and foremost is the fact that you need to be on the defensive ALL the time. There are rules to be followed while driving but it seems like most Koreans break them ALL the time. And they seem oblivious to the fact.

I have seen a taxi try to pass a car in the middle of an intersection.

I think that the Koreans don't know that they have blinkers on their cars - they NEVER use them. However, they just LOVE their horns. You can hesitate a millisecond after a light turns green and they are already honking. Ken seems to have embraced the horn in a big way - he honks all the time now. I think it is mainly in frustration over their driving.

Even though they are honking at you to go, you need to always make sure someone isn't running the light. You will NEVER be the last car to run the red light, there will always be one or two cars behind you. I have also seen people run red lights - I am not talking about running a light, I am talking about sitting at the light and then deciding it is okay to go even though the light is still red.

U-Turns are big. It doesn't matter where you are, it seems to be okay. We saw a tour bus make a U-Turn in the middle of a busy city street in Busan. Sure it takes awhile and people are honking for you to get out of the way, but that doesn't seem to matter to them. They wanted/needed to make a U-Turn, so they did.

Parking doesn't seem to have any rules either. Apparently it is okay to park facing the wrong direction. It is okay to make a 2 lane street into a 1 lane street by parking cars on either side. And parking on sidewalks and in the middle of the road is okay too. Even on the major roads people just pull over and park wherever they want.

Nonetheless, I think I had the ultimate driving experience on Wednesday. I had taken Ken back to work after lunch so that I could have the car and go grocery shopping. On the way, I decided to stop by this little shop that we had gone to before. I was going straight down one of those little narrow streets where people are parking on either side. You just have to pull over once in awhile if you can to let people get through. People usually are polite and use common sense. You get the picture.

Well, I am halfway down a block and this black car is headed for me. I have no place to pull over and he decides to speed up and come straight for me. When we are bumper to bumper, we both stop and look at each other. He is a Korean man in his 30-40's with a dress shirt and tie on. Looking at the situation, I felt it made more sense for him to back up. He actually had a little space to pull over in. I would have to back up 2 or 3 car lengths into an intersection. So we just stared at each other a minute. Incredulously, I put my hand up and motioned for him to back up. He promptly put his hand up and motioned for ME to back up. I don't know why I did this but I shook my head NO and just stared at him. While we were having this stare off, a car came up behind me and honked a couple of times. STILL he didn't move. Then a big truck came up behind the car, so I now have 2 (or more - I couldn't see behind the truck) cars behind me. He had NO ONE behind him but yet he sat there. There was no way I could back up. My thoughts at that time where that I hoped he needed to get back to work and would move; my only activity that afternoon was going to the grocery store....I had the time to wait him out. After much honking, the driver of the truck finally got out and started walking up to us. I guess when he saw me he understood why I hadn't gotten out to confront the other driver. He went to the black car, said a few words and helped the driver back up. As I drove by, I resisted the urge to look at the driver and give him a gloating smile........
but I did start humming the Helen Reddy song,
"I am woman, hear me roar"

spring has sprung

It is gradually turning from winter into spring here in Okpo.






Trees are budding and some are blossoming. And they have started planting flowers in the containers around town that did hold ornamental cabbage in the winter time.


I don't know what some of the trees are. I have tried looking up some of them on the internet but so far I haven't had too much luck. There are some that look like cherry blossoms but I don't know if they are.












There are also some trees that have either white or purple blooms on them. The trees have no leaves and the flowers look like a lotus like flower.


I do remember forsythia from my days in France. If you know, let me in on what the others are.

pizza & pickles

We have 2 pizza places in Okpo - that I know of. They are both on the main road. There is a Mr. Pizza where you can eat in or have delivery and then we have a Domino's Pizza that is just for delivery. I had only been here a couple of days when we had pizza delivered from Domino's. In my first days of nausea when I got here, it tasted really good. Apparently Ken has their number saved on his phone and called them frequently before I got here. He has the call down pat....

large
mushrooms
olives
pepperoni
no drink
row house four one

The call rarely varies - he pauses between each of ingredients and sometimes they already know where to deliver (I guess it is saved on their computer or something). It really doesn't take too long and it always comes good and hot. I guess this is a good place to tell about our doorbell. We have 2 of these, one upstairs and one down. When the doorbell rings, the screen comes on and you can see and talk to the guy. Our place is so small, I have never talked on it, I just go to the door.
You can also push the top button and look out and see what is happening at your front door if you want (nothing to speak of usually).
When I arrived in January, Ken already had a stash of coupons from Domino's in one of the kitchen drawers. They are all in Korean but we deciphered the part of it that says 14 coupons equals 7,000 won (or a pizza worth that). Since we had 24 of these things, we decided to try and use it on our pizza. Our pizza usually costs 18,000 won so we ended up using 20 of our coupons. But we got a free pizza! For some reason we were quite excited - more so that we figured out how to do something in Korean than the free pizza.



One more little thing about the pizza delivery. It always comes with these little containers of sweet pickles, garlic dipping sauce and hot sauce. I get the sauces, but the pickles?

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.

great day, bad hair

Shopping Day Number Two started out very foggy and somewhat misty. I had been keeping an eye on the weather forecast before we went and it had been calling for a good chance of rain every day we were there. So far we had pretty much lucked out.

We skipped the huge breakfast and took a cab to another marketplace on the east side of town. Ken had stayed in this area before and wanted to go to this place. He said it was a little bit more upscale (if you can call it that!) than the other one we went to. It definitely was quieter than the one the day before. We shopped there for a couple of hours and ended up with a variety of things. I decided I liked the quality of the purses better at the place we had been previously, so we took a cab back there and spent another couple of hours.

It was midday by now, so we returned to the hotel to dump our things since we wanted to head out to to the Old Town section again. I am surprised Ken wanted to be seen with me because my hair seemed to be growing by the moment. It reminded me of a Friends episode where Monica's hair got frizzier and frizzier through the show until she looked like Diana Ross (they were on some tropical island). I tamed it down some even though I knew it wouldn't help. I guess recently coloring it and also needing a haircut wasn't working out with the humidity of the day. Before we left, we made reservations to eat at the hotel again. Everything I read said that Shanghai has wonderful restaurants but we decided we just wanted to keep that area easy. Maybe another time.

On the way to Old Town, we passed shop after shop with ribbon, buttons and lace. Another street seemed to specialize in evening wear - quite pretty. We wandered down the marketplace stalls for awhile. They were selling alot of red paper lanterns and paper items to celebrate the Festival of the Lanterns and the Chinese New Year. I bought some interesting postcards and a clock that intrigued me.

The streets were getting more and more crowded. We bought tickets to go into the area that had all the lanterns. The pictures I made just do not do it justice. there were lanterns of all shapes and colors everywhere lining the pedestrian streets.
My travel book says that the Lantern Festival is on the 15th day after Chinese New Year on the first full moon. People parade through the town with paper lanterns, while parks and temples display more elaborate and fanciful lanterns, all accompanied by fireworks. It says that it isn't celebrated as much anymore except for around the Old Town Bazaar, which is where we were. I found one shop that interested me that had Chinese paper cutouts. These were cutouts of tissue thin paper that were either all red or in bright colors. There were numerous scenes - I wish I had bought more. Ken asked me what I was going to do with them - I don't know at this point but I am sure I will find alot of uses.
We then turned the corner and came to a large tree in the middle of the square that was covered with red banners with Chinese writing on them. On one end was a coin and people were tossing them up into the tree. We bought one of them but didn't throw it because I wanted to save it for a souvenir. The young girl we bought it from said that the one we bought was for family. Others had to do with fortune, health, etc.


We then rounded another corner and came to a large pond with a stone bridge running across it.
In the water were various scenes set up.
I don't know what they represented partially because we were nearly crushed to death walking across the bridge to look at them. It really got a little scary at times - you couldn't even walk, you were just moved by the crowd. Ken was in front of me, he turned around once in awhile with a look on his face like he was going to hit someone if they didn't quit pushing him. Even some of the Chinese had looks of "I can't believe this" on their faces. Very dangerous. However, you would have thought my hair would have scared some of them away so they would let me through.

We were exhausted and in bed when the fireworks began - you could see them out our window. What a wonderful end to our trip!!

more walking in Shanghai

Our first full day in Shanghai ended with a whole lot of walking. After a brief rest at the hotel, we headed out to The Bund. This is basically an area that lines the Huangpu River. You can walk on a promenade along the river. It is interesting that you can look across the river to the east and see all these modern high rise buildings.
However, along the Bund are beautiful buildings that reminded me of Europe again. My trusty travel book says that these were built in the early 1900's when the city was opened up to trade. This area was the main shipping, trading and financial district for the new colonists (British and other western nations). It is especially beautiful at nighttime with all the lights on the buildings and boats.
From there we wandered over to the Nanshi District, the old Chinese city. At one time, this area had a wall around it and most foreigners didn't venture in. It definitely looks more like China than anywhere else we have been. Granted, we have mainly been here for the shopping, not alot of sightseeing, so this was a nice way to get some of the local flavor into our trip. I am sure alot of tourists come to this area.

We also found out that they were celebrating the Festival of the Lanterns in this area. However, our legs were starting to give out so we decided to definitely return tomorrow evening for more of this area. We did do a little bit of looking and shopping. I bought some little needleworks of peasant paintings. There were children everywhere with little toys that lit up - mainly pigs since it is the Year of the Pig. It was funny, every time I tried to take a picture of a child - his mother or father would run up and want to be in the picture!

lady, lady

After several cups of coffee and a huge breakfast in the hotel, we headed by taxi to our first shopping destination, the Shanghai FengXiang Clothing Gift Plaza. I felt like Mama, Shannon and I used to feel when we would walk into the Dallas Market Center on the first day of the gift show (which was excited). I was armed with a little notebook that I had taped pictures of purses and such to show them what I was looking for. This is partly because Bailey had emailed me a wish list (that ended in saying "I don't have to have any of these" and "I will pay you back"!) and because I really didn't know what to look for in fake designer handbags.

The night before, we had been approached by people with little laminated pieces of paper with pictures of watches, purses, etc. on it. We just said no thanks and they would go for someone else. I was not prepared for the bombardment we received when we went into this place. It didn't help that we were one of the first ones to probably walk in that morning. The place was basically 3 stories high with a maze of stalls that opened onto the aisles. Except for the 2nd floor (which was mainly pearl jewelry), they carried everything from jeans, CDs & DVDs, sunglasses, shoes, scarfs, belts, clothing, coats, etc. You get the picture. Since I really didn't know what to look for with the pearls (I will next time), we mainly honed in on the fake stuff. It took me awhile to get into the swing of things. The constant "laydee, laydee, watch, laydee, Rolex, Louis Vuitton, laydee" was quite distracting. And I also found that if you actually picked something up to look at it, or even point at it, they were trying to put it in a bag like you were going to buy it. And if you didn't act like you were looking at something in particular, they were continually pointing stuff out for you to look at.

My saving grace through all of this was Ken. It took me a couple of hours, but we turned into a well oiled machine. I would pick something out and then hand it over to Ken. He does alot of negotiating with his job and I decided that he is the world's best bargain negotiator. I didn't have to do a thing. Since their English isn't perfect and probably because they don't want to miss out on a cent, they all are armed with big calculators that you and they can type prices on. Which makes it easier on everyone. Speaking of prices, it also took me awhile to get used to the Chinese money. But I finally got into the swing of just dividing a price by 8 to get dollars, which was kind of nice after dealing with all the zeros you have with Korean money, i.e. 10,000 Korean won is approximately 10 USD. After 4 hours (yes, but I could have gone longer)we left with handbags, jewelry, wallets, sunglasses, golf shoes and an overcoat for Ken.

Since we had a large breakfast, we really weren't too hungry until we went by a place called Taco Bell Grande. It really isn't Taco Bell, but a Mexican restaurant of sorts. We decided to pop in for something to drink and something small to eat. I am sure everyone now thinks that we only eat at fast food joints. We did the same thing when we lived in Europe. I just think that when you actually live in a foreign country (not just visit), a little taste of home when you can find it is tasty at times. We do have a new Quizno's, a Domino's and a Dunkin Donuts in Okpo but no hamburgers or Mexican food as we know it. Anyway, we split some quesidillas and rested our feet. When we first walked in, we were greeted with "hola" by young girls in Mexican attire. I couldn't resist when we left to take a picture of them with Ken.
We said adios and headed back to the hotel for a little regrouping for the rest of the evening. I also need to say goodbye for now, since Ken and I have to go out to dinner with some people from Houston.

ferries, planes, trains and taxis

I have been so busy the past couple of weeks and have neglected to write down all the fun things I have been doing.....like going to Shanghai, China!! I really don't know where to start but here goes, this might be a long one or I just might do several little segments.

Ken and I took the 9am ferry to Busan on Thursday, March 1st. It had to be one of the roughest rides I have had yet - I kept my eyes closed most of the way so that I wouldn't see the ferry go up and down and side to side. It had been quite windy the day before - I could see whitecaps in the harbor from my apartment. T.Y., the ever present (thankfully) agent was at the ferry to pick us up. I don't think I commented on this before, but it is funny - he always drives his car down onto the dock to pick us up. You feel important being whisked off the ferry right into a waiting car. Ha!Ha!

My memory of the airport at Busan was a sleepy one from 2 months previous. We walked into a maze of people and lines. Our flight was at 12:40 and we had plenty of time but I was starting to wonder when we got in line for security check. Come to find out - it was the first day of this airport screening liquids. So they were very intent on making sure everyone had their liquids in baggies. This was slowing everything up big time. It turns out it didn't matter because our flight left about 45 minutes late. While we were waiting, I "chatted" with a Korean woman and her son that were heading to London for him to spend 3 months there studying English. She said her husband would meet them there - he had been working in Dubai. She said he travels alot and has been in 50 countries. Which sparked Ken to list all the countries he has been in. I think it was 36 or something, if you counted being in an airport as being in the country!

The flight to Shanghai is only 1 1/2 hours. We found out that you can't escape kimchi. Our lunch had a little packet of it - I though about saving it to take a picture but didn't want to risk it breaking and everything I had smelling like garlic and such. I also felt alittle weird taking a picture of it on the plane.

After arriving, we headed for the Maglev (magnetic levitation) train that would take us toward town. I read somewhere that this train was finished in 2003 and cost Shanghai at least 1 billion dollars to build. It only goes 20 miles at this time and you have to catch a cab to go the rest of the way. Ken had taken it before and wanted to show me just how fast the thing goes.

The taxi then took us to the Westin Shanghai at the Bund Center. This turned out to be a great place to stay because of the central location to what we wanted to do. It was great for me too, because we had a suite with sliding pocket doors that closed off the bedroom. That way, I wasn't constantly woken up at 4am or so with Ken roaming around, as we all know he does!

It had been a full day so far but we were ready to explore. We walked up 5 blocks and turned left to go down the Nanjing Lu Pedestrian Mall, basically a pedestrian only (if you don't count bikes and scooters) street with restaurants and stores.
Before I continue, I forgot to talk about the architecture of the city. Even when we were on the outskirts of the city, I told Ken that the houses reminded me more of Europe than what I would picture China to look like. And except for the tall skyscrapers, alot of the older buildings looked that way also. I guess if I had read other chapters in my Shanghai guidebook besides "Shopping A to Z", I would have realized more history of the city and some of its earlier inhabitants were French, British and American. More about architecture later.

Anyway, Ken was dying for an American hamburger since he didn't get one at the Busan McDonald's last weekend, so of course that ended up being our first meal in Shanghai.
In case you are wondering, he ate 2 Big Mac's, fries and a drink. So ended our first day in China.