just a saturday swim in the sea

Last Saturday, Ken and I bundled up and headed to Deokpo Beach to experience the 4th Geojedo International Penguin Swimming Festival.



We arrived around 11:00, just in time for the festivities to begin. It was cold, but there was a crowd of people
waiting to watch the swimmers rush into the cold water, including a few people from Ken's project. I have no idea what the water temperature was, but the air temperature averages 31 degrees in January, so you can be assured the water is cold.
We were quite impressed with the efforts put forth by the community to make us feel welcomed. People were passing out festival itineraries written in English and most of the announcements on the stage were translated into English (by Brenda, no less - remember she went with me to China).



They also had a food booth that served complimentary muffins, coffee and Ramen noodles. I think the other booths were serving some sort of fish dish. I guess they thought we wouldn't care for it, which is probably true in my case.

The preshow included some singers, dancers, bands and break dancers. After the announcements and introductions of dignitaries, the contestants began to get prepared for their descent into the water. Coats and clothes were shed - I did see a few people in wetsuits, but the majority just had on swim trunks and sometimes a shirt (with a swimsuit - not just a shirt - I wanted to clarify that). It wasn't only the Koreans that took part, there was a nice showing of foreigners, including one young man that Ken works with. A few women participated in the venture - we saw a couple of women that work at the Foreigner's Club take the plunge! I used to teach swimming lessons in the summer in Virginia. I dreaded making that morning plunge into the water for the first class because the water was always so cold. Did I mention that it was summer? I can't imagine how running into frigid water would feel. Anyway, prior to the actual dive into the water, an announcer guided everyone though the regulatory Korean calisthenics.
Then the race was on, with was a mad dash into the water by all. Some people darted right back out of the sea, while a few made it up to their knees.
However, most of the contestants swam out to the waiting boat and collected their wrist band (which later could be exchanged for a medal). It was fun watching the various people make their way out of the water - most of them were red from the cold.

When the race was over, they then moved over to an area of water that was roped off with some fishing nets. Apparently there were fish in the nets that were let loose. Everyone was catching fish with their hands. And these weren't small fish!! I am very upset to report that my camera had been acting up and chose that occasion to not allow me to take any pictures of this part of the fun. I noticed that they had a booth were you could take your fish and get it cleaned. Maybe some of those fish were put into the fish stew they were serving???

The festivities were directed back onto the stage area, where there was a drawing for prizes, belly dancing and a hilarious Korean version of the gong show. It was all in Korean but we were able to get the gist of what was going on. They also had activities on the beach for children that included standing on blocks of ice and racing with flippers on your feet. We were starting to get a bit cold, so we ended our day there.
We had a blast and will definitely put it on our calendar to do next year. Maybe I will even swim in the competition. (Do you really believe that?)

here we are part two

We arrived back in Korea January 15th. Ken had been back in Texas for three weeks for the holidays and I had been in Texas for three months.


Things are pretty much the same as when I left - with a few changes.



I was greeted once again by T.Y. (the agent) with a huge bouquet of flowers.






The employees were exercising to "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands" at the grocery store.



Flower pots lining the streets had ornamental kale planted in them for winter instead of the flowers that were there when I left.




A block of cheese is now 14 U.S. dollars.


The apartments around us, as well as the Foreigner's Club, have a new coat of paint.


Our bed is still as hard as when we left it....it might actually be harder.


I still was winded walking up the hill to the apartment, but I didn't worry that I would have a heart attack like I did a year ago.

(It is still steeper than it looks though!)


We still surf the channels on the TV looking for something to watch.

We ordered fried chicken from McMurray's and they delivered it to us on a scooter the first night we were back.


I was happy to return. To return to life with my husband, to return to my painting classes, to return to my friends (however, a few have moved on sadly), and to return to everything that living in a foreign country offers. After living here for a year, leaving and returning again, I can clearly see everything that I need to take advantage of while living here. As a mentioned in an earlier post, my life is simple here. I have time to do alot of the things that I don't unnecessarily make time for while in the United States. Wish me luck in all my endeavors - I will be sharing them with you as time goes on.

kim in korea........sometimes

I know I have been negligent in writing the past three months.

However,I haven't been in Korea since October.

When Ken was assigned this project, we had just moved to another house in Texas. Our thought was that we would stay in this house forever when we bought it. It had all the criteria we thought we were looking for - it was on a golf course, it had a swimming pool and it was a location that was conducive for Ken's work until he retired.

Ken usually works on projects that are for only a few months at a time, but this project in Korea was scheduled to be around 3 years. Our daughter had just graduated from college and was returning to Houston to job hunt. After living in the house for a year, we came to conclusion that it really and truly wasn't the house for us. We absolutely loved alot of the features of the house - all the covered patios and balcony, the pool, the transom windows, the hardwood floors, the curving staircase with the wrought iron banister - to name a few. However, the floor plan really wasn't something that was great for us. I think that a one story house will be of prime importance in our list of musts next time. Anyway, we put it on the market and sold it to the first person who looked at it on the first day of it being listed. This all happened more quickly than we had anticipated, so we were at a loss of what to do at that time. We decided to rent a 2 bedroom apartment with a 2 car garage in which our daughter would live and we would be there whenever we were in town.

Well, it didn't take long before we realized that this really wasn't a great answer to our housing dilemma. First of all, we should have put a whole lot more things in storage and a whole lot less in the apartment. Whenever I visited, I felt like I was always shifting things around and making piles of stuff in our bedroom. Secondly, we felt like we were intruding on our daughter and the life she was trying to create for herself out of college. Last, but not least, we still spent alot of time while we were home at our parents' house. Both of our parents live within 30 minutes of each other in the northern part of Texas - a 5 1/2 drive from Houston.

The answer came when the elderly man that lived next to my parents passed away. It took awhile for me to come around (Ken was more set on this than me), but we ended up buying the house.
I finally realized that our daughter has a new life of her own and that when we came home, visiting our parents was more important and fun.
Anyway, to try to cut this saga short, we bought the house and I went back to get it a little more presentable. It was built in the 1970's, with the prerequisite popcorn ceiling, wood paneling, and gold and brown tubs and toilets.
So I spent most of the fall getting the house ready for us to live in whenever we were home. My father, who is a builder, helped me sooooo much. I really enjoyed some of the projects, like wallpaper, that we took on together and it was great to get to work with him in this way.

Ken and I have always wanted to build a house someday and this definitely was an eye opener into all the decisions that have to be made. I really don't care about windows or doors but those decisions have to be made. Paint color is more difficult than you think - do you know how many shades of white there are? The absolute most difficult part is getting painters, plumbers, counter top installers, etc. to actually arrive at your house and actually do the work. All those TV shows I have watched on HGTV and TLC on flipping houses came alive for me at that point.

It finally came to a close. There are definitely more things to be done, but we can comfortably live there whenever we go home. I don't have piles of stuff everywhere - I actually have empty drawers and cabinets. We elected to not take everything out of storage and move it there because we had a ready supply of furniture from my parents. My mother closed her gift and home accessory store the year before and there was a wealth of items she had kept because she couldn't bear to part with them. The only large items I had to purchase was a sofa, a couple of chairs and a mattress. I used her cast offs (if you could call them that) and then picked up a few odd items from antique stores in town. For those that don't know me well, I would like to interject a few comments. I am someone who loves to decorate her home. I pore over home magazines and my first stop in a store is the home decor area. I have a definite style to my previous homes. However, everything was in storage. It really was a freeing experience to move into a home with nothing. It makes you realize how much "stuff" you carry around in your life and how little you really need. It was so much fun. I used entirely different colors than my usual repertoire. I went with greens, blues and some brown.


I hated being away for so long but I would do it again in a heartbeat. I don't know how long we will keep the home but we feel it is a good investment nevertheless. All I know is that on Christmas Eve, we had our daughter, both sets of our parents and my sister and her husband (who, incidentally, live across the street!) over for dinner. It was such a wonderful evening. I didn't have my usual Christmas dishes, I had a small tabletop Christmas tree and we sat at 2 separate tables to eat with mismatched place mats and dishes.

But we had everything.

made in china

The shipyard was pretty much closed down last week due to the Chuseok holiday, so most of the employees of the project chose to take a break and go somewhere. Ken and I went to Shenzhen, China with another couple (Norman and Brenda) and a single man (Martin).


The actual reason for the trip was to play golf - alot of golf. And the other actual reason for the trip was to go shopping - alot of shopping.
I wonder if you can guess which 3 people played golf and which 2 people went shopping!


We actually stayed at a place outside of Shenzhen called Mission Hills Golf Resort. Ken and Martin had heard great compliments of the place from another golfer. There are 216 holes of golf. There are even lighted courses that can be played at night. I apologize to everyone that would like to know more on the golf courses, but this is MY blog. I went shopping, not golfing!!!

After a harried trip to the Busan airport (it was foggy and there was a huge traffic jam) early Wednesday morning, we arrived at the Hong Kong airport around noon. We had a driver scheduled to pick us up at the airport. It took everyone some time to figure out how to fit 3 sets of golf clubs, luggage and 5 people into the van but we were soon on our way to Shenzhen. After a drive through Hong Kong, immigration and Shenzhen, we finally made it to our destination.
The guys were so excited that they decided to fit 9 holes of golf in before dark and the girls were so excited that they decided to fit a couple hours of shopping before they got too tired. (I guess you have guessed who golfed and who shopped!!) Brenda and I were a little disappointed about how long the taxi ride was back and forth to Shenzhen (45 minutes to 1 hour each way) but that didn't stop us from going in each day. I think that we had read that it was 20 miles away but I guess we didn't count on the unbelievable traffic.

I need to comment on Shenzhen and the traffic at this point. Shenzhen was quite different from Shanghai and Hong Kong. It definitely wasn't as cosmopolitan or pretty. Alot of the goods come from the Shenzhen area, so it is supposedly less expensive to shop here than Hong Kong and Shanghai. A couple of times we were traveling after dark in the cab and I could see some of the building that looked like warehouses with the lights on. I had visions of all these Chinese workers making so many of the products we use daily that say "Made in China". When you see things like this, it really makes you realize how different our everyday lives are and how very, very fortunate we are. Pause for thought.

Well, we think the Korean traffic rules are bad - they have nothing on the Chinese. Sometimes I would just sit in the back seat and close my eyes. It wasn't that the taxis went real fast - they couldn't due to the snarl of traffic. It was mainly the lack of any road rules, even on the freeway. If you had a three laned road, there wouldn't be just three vehicles lined up in each lane. Oh no, you could have 3 cars, one big truck, one SUV and maybe a couple of bicycles. Or you could have one bus, 2 small cars, one big truck and a motorcyle. Or you could have 4 cars, one bus and maybe someone walking in the road. I hope you get the idea. Here is a picture of someone just walking around the traffic. And everyone just honks at each other all the time.

Back to the important business of shopping. After reading up on the internet, Brenda and I first decided to go to Louha shopping center. After going there, we ended up shopping there for 2 more days. It was a huge place with 5 floors of endless stalls of everything from tailors and fabric to handbags, shoes, Chinese objects, clothing and jewelry. Of course, they had tons of knock-offs. You would sometimes be in a shop and they would hustle to put everything away in bags because they heard someone was coming. You could get knock-offs of everything, even Hello Kitty items. I guess if you can knock-off Chanel, Hello Kitty is a breeze.

They also had tea shops that sold a myriad of loose tea








and also hard blocks of tea.













We were also invited to sample some of the tea - the picture is of Brenda sampling some jasmine tea.












We managed to fit in Kentucky Fried Chicken one day
and a Ramen noodle restaurant that I think is a chain. We had some tasty Japanese fried rice and dumplings there.




The last day, wanting to try a new area, Brenda and I head to Dongmen market area. This area had alot of open air shopping but you could also go into some of the buildings and they would have several floors of shops. There were also street vendors selling food of all sorts. People would just be lining the streets eating bowls of noodles and other things on sticks that I wasn't too sure what they were. I wanted to take a picture of something someone was eating on a stick that looked like a fried scorpion but I didn't want to be rude. So instead I settled for these small birds that looked like they were fried whole and then skewered through the head. If we had more time, I would have liked to observe someone digging into that....or maybe not.
The first building we headed into was 8 floors. The bottom five floors were filled with stalls that were decorated quite trendy considering where they were located. I am sure that this was "the place" for the young girls to shop. There were manequins everywhere that were dressed in clothing and funky wigs. There were also endless "salons" that did makeup, nails and hair. Sometimes they even spilled out into the hallway.
We were constantly asked if we wanted a manicure and they would show you their brightly painted and jeweled acrylic nails. I passed.

We also found another building that had Chinese handiwork and souvenirs. You could purchase carvings, jade, paintings, incense, etc. But one of my favorite finds was the last place we went. The bottom floor had different shops that housed art supplies and paintings. I found a wonderful one that will look great in our house in Mineral Wells.


The next floor was the musical instrument floor.
There were drums, violins and a type of stringed instrument that they were actually playing in the shop. It reminded me of the instrument I have seen in Korea, but the music was much more pretty.



The top floor had an assortment of shops selling dried items. I say items because I don't really know what they were used for. I am guessing that they might be used in some medicinal capacity or something. There were mushrooms, dried lizards of some kind
and some legs of an animal (maybe a deer or something).




It was a nice end to the day because we felt we saw some of the "real" places, not just the regular tourist spots. Unlike other places, we saw no westerners.


After another discussion on fitting 3 sets of golf clubs, luggage and 5 peoples into the van,
we headed back Sunday morning to the Hong Kong airport to Seoul to Busan and then the drive home to Okpo.


Ken had to make a last trip to Burger King in the Hong Kong airport to celebrate the wonderful time we had.

flowers, fruit, friends and Chuseok

We have another Korean holiday coming up next week. Chuseok (everyone seems to pronounce it chew sock, so I guess that is correct)is held on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. Apparently in ancient times, they worshipped and held festivals under the full moon. Presently, this holiday is a "thanksgiving" of sorts where they visit ancestral grave sites and observe the rites of clearing the grave site and offering food and drink to their ancestors.

Anyway, it also seems to be another occasion to give gifts. This week, we have received kiwis, oranges, cakes and wine from different Korean businesses such as the agent and the management company that we rent from.


I have a book called CultureShock! It discusses various customs and cultural differences, as well as everyday living in Korea. I have pretty much read it all but I still look up things I can't remember from time to time. I know that the Korean people feel that good business relationships are built upon strong personal relationships. One Korean man explained to Ken and I one time that the friends he made when he was younger are his friends for life. And they spend alot of time, money and effort on these friendships because sometimes these relationships are a key factor to their success in business. Anyway, I looked up the passage on gift giving in the workplace and it stated that not only do the gifts show respect and appreciation, but they also serve in getting someone to think more kindly of you. It went on to say that that these gifts are commonly given during important Korean holidays and that if you receive such a gift, it is important that you reciprocate. I wonder if Ken knows that. Better check.

Speaking of gifts, I received a few of my own yesterday. I had a morning coffee for the women and wives of the project at our apartment. I had been wanting to do this for some time and finally got around to setting a date and sending invitations. It was nice because not only the wives attended, but the four women that work in the office (one works for the company, the other three were hired to work on site here) were able to come. By the way, look at the beautiful orchid they brought me.
I also received more flowers and fruit. It happened to be a box of grapes and I cleaned and put some out. I then learned something new - they don't eat the skins of the grapes. They put the grape in their mouth and then spit out the skin and seeds. You are left with a plate of grape skins that they say are too sour to eat.

Anyway, I think that the coffee (or tea party, as some called it) was a success. I plan on doing it again sometime. We all are different ages, nationalities and with different backgrounds and interests, but we are all here for the same reason. So if we can make a few more friends along the way, so much the better.

oh, my goodness......i'm famous!

The other afternoon I went strolling around Okpo. I usually will get out in the afternoon when it is cooler but I really haven't done that since I have returned since it has been so warm. After all the rain we have been having, it was nice to walk around town.

While walking, I met up with two friends of mine and we went into a little shop that sells Korean chests, pottery and souvenirs. As we entered the store, 2 other expatriate women were leaving. One of them turned to me and said, "I think I have met you before." I didn't recognize her and we both started to try to figure out where she might have met me. All the sudden she exclaimed, "You're Kim in Korea!" I immediately became very flustered and somewhat embarressed. It turns out that she moved here 2 months ago from Brazil. She had gone online to try to get some information on Okpo and came across my blog. I was trying to remember what pictures of myself I had posted when she said, "you are in it too!", to one of my friends. Then I realized that she was referring to one of the photos on a recent blog about our visit to the Geoje Art Center. I then had to explain everything to my friends, who aren't as up-to-date as me on the blogworld. (I am just being facetious, of course.)

I started all of this for myself and family members, but it was sort of flattering to meet someone that took time to read my blog. I am sure I will come across her again on the streets of Okpo. It was really nice to meet her and she let me take her picture............!

kim's grill (or is it mr. kim's grill?)

Since coming to Korea, I have had to shift my way of cooking somewhat. I don't necessarily mean the kind of food (however, that has changed drastically) but the way I prepare food. I do have a gas cook top and an extremely small oven (with only one small rack that a 9x13 inch pan can hardly fit on). But coming from Texas, we used the outside gas grill year round. Alot of times I would just put some chicken, burgers, pork chops, etc. on the grill and then just round out the meal with salad or vegetables and potatoes or rice. Of course, sometimes on the weekends we would get fancier and Ken would grill fish or steaks, but I usually did it myself during the week. After selling the house and living with Bailey temporarily, I had discovered the George Foreman grill. It was a small one, so I usually had to cook the meat in increments but I liked cooking with it nonetheless.

While in Korea, Ken and I have been on the lookout for one here but to no avail. We do have a small outside charcoal grill but it is not as convenient or quick as a gas grill. Last week we were scanning the channels for something to watch on TV and somehow stopped on one of the channels that was advertising a "George Foreman type grill" - but I think it was Mr. Kim or Mr. Park or Mr. Lee selling it instead of George! Like in the U.S.,you will find shopping channels on TV, which is where we found this. Most of them concentrate on food or cooking. Have a gander at some of them.

Anyway,we quickly wrote the phone number down and Ken asked the secretary at the office to call and order us one. It wasn't too bad for here ($45) and it arrived the other day. We were thrilled and I will be trying it out tonight. I'll let you know how it goes. You probably wonder why we just didn't bring one from the states. Well, the electricity is different here and we would need a transformer to convert a U.S. plug to run anything with a heating element. We do have a transformer but it is a small one to run a mixer, etc. I bought my blow dryer here.

More on scanning the TV channels...! We have some sort of cable and satellite TV here. After awhile you get to know which stations will have English speaking shows on them, but that doesn't mean they will always be in English or what time they will be on. We have 2 channels that usually have movies on them but lately we have noticed Desperate Housewives on one of them (I think it is a season or two behind). We also have a couple of channels were you can chance upon shows such as CSI, Prison Break, House, Ripley's Believe it or Not or Numbers. There is a BBC channel that sometimes has funny British shows and we do watch alot of Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. There is also a "chick channel" (Ken never usually watches it) that you might catch Bravo shows such as Project Runway, Next Top Model, Ambush Makeover, etc. Luckily for Ken, there are several channels with sports. Sometimes you can catch American baseball and almost always golf but it is commentated in Korean. They especially like the LPGA because there are alot of top women golfers that are Korean. Of course, there is CNN and BBC News. The problem with TV here is that you never know when things will start. When you come to a channel, there will be something in Korean at the bottom of the screen with a time frame on it (for example, 7:50-8:40). You may watch an entire program with no commercials or sometimes there might be a couple. Mainly the commercials are before or after the program, so it is hard to judge when something will begin or end. Their commercials are usually very short but numerous. Hope you enjoy some of them!! (By the way, I didn't tape these but I have seen all of these on TV. This person was able to video them better than me.)

Now if Ken and I could only agree on the remote control! He will start to look for something to watch and stop on a channel and watch it for awhile regardless how long ago it started. In other words, he will stop to watch something that has already been on for an hour. I think we should quickly go though all the channels to see what is on and what time it starts. Then we should decide what to watch. What do you think??