Trip Report Part 3!

So even though I left on Monday am and left on Saturday am, we really only had three days to get things done because when you fly to Korea you fly into tomorrow and leave early in the am and get there at night the following day Korean time. When you fly back you are flying into yesterday so you leave Korea at 7am and get home to Houston at noon. Only a 5 hour trip! (yeah right!)
Wed we were picked up by Mr Robert Cho. He works for Hochang, the company Jeff will be working with over there. He insisted on taking us around and helping us in our housing search. Mr Robert is a total character. He is really funny and animated and wants to do anything and everything for you but he apparently waaaaay overestimates the capabilities of the jet-lagged mind because he immediately started giving us words for things in Korean that we should know and by the 10th new word I had pretty much lost them all. One of the words he taught us that became the word of the trip is 'wegugin' which means foreigner. For Jeff and I the rest of the trip it was "man you're such a wegugin" and "Whatever, you're the biggest wegugin EVER" and if one of us was attempting to eat something with chopsticks and dropped it the other would roll their eyes and mutter "wegugin" under their breath.
The great thing about being in the back seat is that I was able to record most of the Korean lesson on my ipod so I could cram later.

Here is a shot of Mr Robert, two guys from Hyundai, and Jeff at the Bangeodong apartments which is the first place we visited. These are apartments that Hyundai provides for wegugin like us and they are really nice but about 5 miles from the wegugin hak-yo or foreign school. So we liked these apts but since I won't have a car and I have to go to the school three times a day to drop the kids off, then pick up Teddy, then pick up Sasha we thought that would be kind of a nightmare. Then we looked at apartments in the foreigners compound which is right where the school is. These were definitely convenient, but really old and funky and small. The biggest one was 3 bedrooms and featured amenities like stained sky-blue carpeting and 5 kinds of wood stain in one room. So after the first round of housing search our options were nice but too far, or close but too funky. That gave us lots to think about. Next we met Hugh Dyson, the British Headmaster of the Wegugin Hak-yo (see you guys already know some Korean!) where Sasha and Teddy will go and he was really nice and the school is great! We will actually have to catch up academically. I couldn't believe what the Kindergartners were doing! Actually Sasha is in the Stage one class which is 5 and 6 year olds and the equivalent of our Kindergarten and Teddy is in the Kindy class which is like our 3/4 pre-school year. So he goes 9-12 and Sasha will go 9-3. Quite a change for both of them.

This is Teddy's little School: The early years center is off at it's own location and it's a really sweet little program. I think Teddy will really like going to school everyday for a shorter time.

Next Robert had gotten permission for us to enter Hyundai Heavy Industries (which is literally the size of Bend) The man who began it started as a bicycle rice delivery guy and is responsible for building like half of modern day Korea so he's a national hero. We saw a movie about the complex which is about the size of Bend, OR and then walked through an exhibit hall about how it all had started and how the guy did it all which was actually pretty fascinating. You can't take a picture of the Hyundai complex unless you did it from an airplane. It just goes on FOREVER!

Then we drove all around the complex. At this point it was like 3 in the afternoon and I was jet-lagged and really needed a cup of coffee and we were in the Man-World of cranes and dry-docks and I just kept muttering "wow", "how fascinating" and "incredible!" I must have done a great job fakin' it though because Jeff later said "man, you were really interested in the Hyundai complex" and I just looked and him in amazement and then threw my hand in air, channeled my inner John Lovtiz and yelled "ACTING!" This little scene would be repeated over the course of the trip....
On the way back to the hotel Mr. Robert decided to give us a quiz of all the Korean he taught us in the am. I was brain-dead, but salvaged the moment by going "hmm let me think.... I know I remember....." to stall for time while I quickly looked up the word on the Korean dictonary on my iPod and then nailed it. He now thinks I am a genius and Jeff did too until I told him about my cheating. Shouldn't have said anything....
We went back and ate dinner at the hotel at this massive buffet (part of which was kind of like a 'Fear Factor' challenge) and then went out for a beer and then I finally collapsed at 9pm. I was sure I was done for the night, but the first night 3 am curse got me and I found myself wide awake and reading for about an hour.
The next day we got up and went to a massive traditional market in the middle of the city. There were huge, open-sided buildings, one for veggies, one for fruit, one for spices and various other things and one for fish and seafood.

Life with Stoli moment:
So I really wanted to take a lot more pictures of this market, especially the fish part when Jeff started getting all " I don't think you should take pictures" and "Geez, didn't you already get a picture of that" so finally I was like "What's the deal?" long story short, Jeff is a very calm poised individual who likes to lay low, blend in and not make a fuss (yet he married me?!) and he didn't want people to think we were wegugins. Seriously. Wow, wouldn't want anyone to think I was a wegugin, because 5'9" blond haired me blends in SO WELL with the South Koreans. I almost blew my cover! Whew, better put that camera away eh? With any luck they'll take me for a local just out for a stroll....

But although he was huffing in irritation by the end of it, I did get a few pictures in each section FOR YOU ladies and gents because you are worth it. Here is the section where they were selling whatever, spices, dried fish,bowls of salt....

Seafood section: Some of it was dead and on ice but a lot of it was in big tanks or tubs still alive and you could pick it and then they would I guess fillet it for you or whatever. There were also cooking stalls at the ends of each section where you could bring something and people would cook it right up for you. I would love to do this but I don't speak Korean and would probably end up doing it wrong and looking like a dang wegugin.

More fish and seafood. The place was HUGE!

We spent the day with 2 guys named Neil. One talked, one didn't. They were from a company called "Stop Korea" (??) that helps with relocation. They first took us to the Sante Ville apartment complex. This is a massive, complex that is only 3 years old. It's really apartment complexy and very urban and not at all "me" but, it is right next to the hyundai complex with an 8 minute walk to the foreign school and the unit we looked at was large and modern. About 2,000 sq feet, with 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms which is HUGE by Korean standards. I will send picts after it becomes home, but for now it's just a bunch of empty rooms but I did take a picture of the Kitchen and the other thing that is kind of neat about Korean apts. They have these big sunroom/flowerplanting areas off of each room in the apartment. This is the longest one and runs the width of the Master Bedroom, living room, and what will be the playroom. The other rooms also have them but they are just accessible from that one room. They are fully enclosed with sliding glass doors or windows so the space can be screened in area, or open balcony or almost a greenhouse space. This lets a lot of natural light in and really increases the living area.


Then Neil and silent Neil took us for coffee and we climbed a hill to a park next to Ulsan Beach. This little crescent beach is the only natural coastline section that hasn't been "Hyundized" but you can still see Hyundai in all directions.


My favorite thing about Neil #1 is that if you asked him anything he immediately responded "sure, no problem" so I started getting more interesting with my questions:
Neil what about Jeff's car?
"that's no problem, We will take care of it."
Neil how do we get phones?
"It's no problem, I get for you."
"Neil can we have whatever furniture we want?"
"sure, no problem"
"Neil how about pets, can we bring our cats?"
"sure, no problem"

We said good-bye to the 2 Neils because we were ready to explore on our own for a while. They wanted to follow us around and be there with the van if we needed them but we convinced them that we would be fine on our own and we had their business cards if we got arrested so they finally took off. The rest of the day we cracked each other up trying to come up with increasingly ridiculous questions for Neil. If one of us came up with the query, the other person had to respond with their best Neil impression:
Neil can our family apply to be in the Korean space program?
"sure, no problem"
Neil how about getting us some plutonium so we can build our own Nuclear device?
"absolutely, it's no problem"
We went to the HomePlus supermarket. This store was just like U.S. mega store with groceries, a level for homegoods and a level for clothes, furniture ect. We wandered around just to try to get a feel for what shopping will be like and I am happy to say it will be relatively easy. I am sure I will have my "thought this was yogurt but it's actually cream cheese" moments as all the packaging is in Hangul, but we'll figure it out. There were some interesting things we found at the store though. For example they had Post and Kellog's cereals but no Cheerios, and this cereal comes with Free Socks! (which make total sense....)

We like chips and trail mix, they like dried fish. And I hear they eat this of their own free will. I am even starting to believe it because this dried fish is everywhere:

We walked all over the dong-gu area (our new neighborhood) and then took a cab back to the Lotte Hotel. Drank some Soju then went out to eat and then took in a movie before hitting the sack.
The next day Mr. Robert had us picked up and brought out to Hochang HQ because he and Mr U.K. Kim wanted to take Jeff and I to this awesome traditional Korean restaurant in the mountains.

This is what Korean dwellings used to look like before everyone moved into high-rise apartments. What a shame.



This was the main entrance and you can see that everyone takes off their shoes. Each table is in it's own little room with sliding panels so it's very private and nice. Most of the other patrons were eating Korean style at a low table and sitting on cushions but they had a western style table brought in for the wegugin. I was kind of bummed and would have liked to sit on the floor but I was wearing a skirt so it was probably all for the best. Wouldn't want the head of Hochang to accidently see my drawers, you know?

The meal was pretty cool. It came in 3 courses and each course had about 1,000 little dishes to try. Each dish had exactly 4 bite-sized servings so you get one bite of everything. That's fine because if you don't like it you're done with it in one bite, and to tell you the truth there is nothing amazingly delicious about Korean food. It's not nasty either, but I was never tempted to ask "Man, can we ask the kitchen to send out more of THAT?". Jeff describes it well, "it inspires you to eat just enough to make the hunger pains go away, and after that there's really no point". The meal was a fun experience though and there were many interesting tastes in there. Some we may even grow to like.

After that they took us down to the bottom floor to a tea room for a traditional Korean tea ceremony. It was neat. the table was awesome and the room had earthen walls with log ends sticking out. Why can't we find an apartment like that?

Mr U.K. Kim had to go back to work, but Mr. Robert then took us to a traditional Buddist temple up in the hills. It was really beautiful. Here is the main gate:

The day was beautiful and the fall colors were at their peak for South Korea, so it was a beautiful walk up the road from the gate to the temple.

This temple only has female monks. Here we are with one of them that wanted to pose with us. She was tiny. I gotta start remembering to suck in my gut for pictures...

Cool stuff:

My favorite thing about the temple was the the roof supports were painted with exquisite detail. I couldn't stop looking at it. It was absolutely amazing. Here it is close up:

And farther out so you can see the detail:

Here is one of the monks inside bowing in front of a statue. I was really hoping her cell phone would ring so I could see what would happen:

This is one of the structures that has been restored but not yet painted with all that artwork. I think it's just as beautiful:


After the temple we headed back into Ulsan city and went out for Italian food. Walked around at night and then turned in early since we had to get up at 3:45 to catch a taxi to Pusan to fly out in the am.
So that was our trip. We got a ton of questions answered and figured a lot of things out. We are going to have a fun and challenging year over there. I think we will enjoy it and also enjoy coming home at the end of it but rest assured that we will be just fine, I will be able to cook and buy everything that I cook and buy now, and it will just be a great experience. Sasha's 2 greatest wishes are to live in an apartment building and share a room with her brother and Teddy doesn't care as long as Sasha's around so from the kid's perspective, all their wishes are coming true!