Welcome to Korea!

Hello All! First of all, I know I owe a LOT of you a personal email, and that many have been anxiously awaiting a Blog update. We get our stuff next Wed, so after that I should be able to communicate back in my comfort zone again. I have my little Ipod touch which is OK for shooting off a few lines, but not for a long email and only if I am in a wireless hotspot (almost never) and Jeff has needed his computer for work all week so I have been incommunicado as they say. He is home this weekend though, so I will be able to get in a few updates 'cuz man, I have a ton to tell you....

The flights. Where to begin? Our first flight was 14 hours from Houston to Tokyo. FOUR. TEEN. HOURS. Ninth circle of Hell my friends. Teddy had a massive RPI 2 hours into it. An RPI for those of you without children or lucky enough to have kids with iron stomachs is a Random Puking Incident. This is where a perfectly healthy child ralphs all over themselves and others due to motion or because "something just didn't sit right". Our kids have them all the time. So Ted got some juice and Christmas candy as the flight took off and then topped it all off with an in-flight meal to make sure the mess was huge and up it all came with no warning ALL OVER HIM. This is why they don't allow knives on airplanes. Jeff was actually looking for an implement to end his life with. So I busted out the back-up clothes, washed him up with those hot, steamy towels and got the steward to swap out his seat cushion. Good as new almost.
Did I mention that we flew COACH? Yep, my fav company ever decided to recind their travel policy in November after we had already agreed to the move. Nice one. Thanks a lot, I appreciate that. Teddy's RPI actually helped us in the long run however because the plane was packed but I told the steward that I needed to put him to bed and was there an extra seat for Jeff somewhere else? Once you kid pukes ladies and gents, airline people pretty much live in fear that it will happen again and they will do ANYTHING you ask if you insinuate that it will help avoid another RPI. So with me across the aisle and Jeff sitting a few rows up, I was able to get the kids down for a nap. Not ideal, but better than nothing right?

The rest of the flight passed without incident but it was LOOOONG. Long as in 6 hours into it you realize you are not even half way done. Long as in you could watch the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy and still have time to twiddle your thumbs and be bored.
Got to Tokyo and were really excited to have almost 3 hours to stretch and unwind and run around before our 2 hour flight to Busan. Didn't happen. In Japan they have this awesome policy that if you have to switch terminals you should go thru security again. Not a small undertaking with 4 huge winter coats, 2 zoobie pet creatures, 4 backpacks, a ski sled, a fiddle and an American Girl Doll. Then we waited in the longest interterminal bus mob in history (I said mob, not line - apparantly the Japanese can't stand in line either...) then once we got to the other terminal we still had to take a little train to get to our gate so long story short we spent the entire time in Tokyo standing in line and stressing.
2nd flight was relatively short and only sucked because Sasha had her RPI so we had to change her and clean up and at this point I was like Really?!? REALLY??!?!

Flying into Busan though is definitely the way to go. We went thru customs and immigration incredibly fast and all 9 bags plus 2 car seats were right there for us. I called the international customs office and they said they were closing and that we could pick up the cats in the am so I asked him to feed and water them and make sure they were inside and he said OK.
We had a whole crew waiting for us, Mr Robert was there - He is our self-appointed guardian to the point that I was actually surprised that he didn't pick us up in Houston or Tokyo. Kidding. He did however come to get us on a holiday on his own time. He also gave the guys from Stop Korea the business. Neal told me later that he called him up and gave him the third degree alternating between "Are you sure it's handled, everything has to be perfect, do I need to do inspections?" to "You don't have do anything for Mr. Jeff, he is the most impressive foreigner."
Let's not get carried away there Mr. Robert - we need LOTS of help...
Drove in our motorcade (thank God so many came to get us - our stuff didn't even fit in 2 cars!) and dropped most of it in the apartment since It would never all fit in the hotel room. Checked in at the hotel and collapsed until Teddy woke everyone up at 3 am with the announcement "I'm done sleeping now!"

We went to Breakfast, looked around the Hotel and then went over to check out the new digs. Our apartment is great, more about it in another entry. Here's the kids at the Hotel: Then I met a new guy - "Iron" from Stop Korea (these folks also warrant their own blog entry...stay tuned!) Who took me BACK to Busan to get the cats. It took us just under 3 hours and lots of walking here for this stamp and paying a fee to this guy to get a slip of paper and then taking the slip to another office in a different building ect. But we were able to get Mitzi and Max and bring them home. Not bad for a Saturday on a holiday weekend I thought. Thank God for Iron, I would have been completely helpless on my own. NO ONE here speaks English.
So got the cats home, set them up with food, litter ect and then gave them both a bath since they had to sit in their kennels overnight. Here is Mitzio, pissed off but clean:
I made it back to the apartment at around 2 to find that Jeff had made the truly interesting decision that the kids did not require a nap that day. After an epic day of travel and getting up at 3 am. Hmm... OK. So when we went to the Home Plus store an hour later Teddy went into shut-down mode. This is his sleep state where not even picking him up and shaking him will wake him up. It's like moving a 35 pound pliable mannekin around. We put our jackets down and plopped him in the cart
The whole food shopping thing is a whole nother topic. I'm not ready to talk about it yet and I may need you all to hold me. We are still on the company meal ticket and have been eating out so I haven't needed to cook yet. Wed our stuff comes and we have to move so I can probably milk this until Thurs eve at which time I may have to suck it up and cook something. Which means shopping for that something. See, now I have to take a break and go rock in a dark corner...
On Sunday we went walking and explored a little park between the Hyundai Hotel and the Hyundai Department store. It's small but beautiful. The kids love taking the different paths.

It has been cold enough this week that the pond is frozen over! Sunday was nice though. Not so cold that walking around was miserable.

Here is a view from our Hotel window of that little park. The big building on the other side is the Hyundai department store.

This is a little stream that runs from the top of the park all the way down to the little pond. The kids love it.

On Sunday we went to the grocery floor of the department store (can't talk about it) and tried to get lunch. NOTHING here is normal or easily recognized. OK they have Udon noodles here, but mixed with what?!? So we got some experimental lunch. Pointed to things that looked OK and edible. Teddy loves food on a stick and his meal was kind of the Korean equivalent of a corn dog, so he was pretty happy. The kids have been AMAZING. Trying new things, embracing the process, open minded. I feel undeserving of such great little companions in adventure. They tried baby octopus!

This dish was actually doughy tube shaped things in a spicy bean paste. Not bad, not tasty, just really, really weird. Koreans are into gooey, gelatinous textures and femented food. ?????? I don't get it. And to be honest, I'm not sure I want to get it.

We walked from the hotel back to our apartment. The side streets are full of street vendors selling everything from sweet cakes to housewares to smelts. Here is a vendor with a tank of live ones that he will bread and fry for you right there on the spot. In case you are walking and get a hankering for a handful of crunchy little whole fish? Everywhere you look is a little reminder that you are "not in Kansas anymore".

So that's all for now. Coming up: School and work, our apartment, the guys from Stop Korea, Americans vs Everyone else in the world, and a trip to Costco (dear Lord, let them have pretzels!)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

So many people have asked me: "Just how do you actually MOVE to South Korea? What's THAT process like?"

Well, today you get a little taste of the madness folks. First of all, if you had come to our house in the early weeks of November you would have seen little green post it notes like these all over the walls. This helped us prepare for moving stage one - the South Korea shipment.

Moving Stage two is when they come after Christmas and put all our loose housewares into storage, leaving just the large furniture items to stage the home and Moving Stage three is if and only if the house EVER sells, they come back for the large furniture pieces. Thankfully, I will not be here for Stage 3. 2 rounds of moving really is enough for me.

So the movers came on Monday, Nov 16th and packed up all the things on the post-it notes which we had cleaned and arranged into piles in each room. It was quite a process.

We are taking things like favorite kid furniture, toys, bedding, pictures, bikes, ect. They allowed us a 40 ft shipping container (the contents of which you would NEVER be able to fit into a Korean apt) and we filled about half of a 20 ft shipping container, which is still a ton of stuff.Here is a shot of our container which will be loaded on a ship and then begin it's long journey across the Pacific Ocean. They gave us a value of US$40,000 for all of our crap and it's a good thing the movers are not the same guys that will be on the ship because I would have been tempted to bribe them to just shove the thing off the boat as soon as they reached open ocean. $40,000!?! I mean come on!
I did however ask the movers how they felt about getting rid of the "Lloyd Triestino" on the side and spraypainting "Team Stolasz" on instead. I even told them I would make the stencil. They were NOT down with that. The problem with our country Ladies and Gentlemen is that no one goes the extra mile in their job anymore.
So the house does feel a bit empty, but we still have everything we need so not to worry....

As soon as the Korea shipment left, we started gearing up for the holidays. Teddy and Sasha both celebrated with Thanksgiving feasts at their school. Here is a shot of Teddy and Luca with the rest of the Manatee class at their feast. It must have been great because I was unable to get either one of them to stop eating long enough to take a picture:

So the next week was full of trying to remember to bring juice boxes to school one day and chicken nuggets the next. This sounds like an easy challenge, but I have a confession to make: my brain has gone to mush. Usually my mind works like a super computer - I mean I never write anything down, and It's just all there. I wake up in the am and think "What today?" and the line of code goes "Wednesday. Library book day. Sasha to school, Teddy not, you're driving carpool, make lunches, visit post office, send B-day letter to Smitty, and lecture tonight is Coastal Processes - don't forget to email your power point slides to yourself..." But in the last 6 weeks my mind has started to fail me. I wake up in the am and just think "duuuuh what day is it?" I come out of any shopping mall and stand there like a moron realizing that I have just no idea where the damn car is. None! This doesn't happen to me! Jeff's take on it is that now I should understand what he has to deal with all the time and maybe I will be a little more compassionate when he takes the wrong exit or forgets where the car is instead of looking at him with pity and going "REALLY?!?"

I have not lost a child yet and I also have not showed up to teach my class with nothing (both things I fear greatly) but I do have to say that I flaked on Library book day like 3 straight weeks in a row. Somebody send me a Tuesday night email reminder please!

Here is Sasha, my little ham with the Marlin class having her feast a few days later:

Me and my 2 wonderful kiddos. I thank God for them everyday. I am also humbled by their abilities to think mental circles around me in my weakened condition. This does not bode well for their teenaged years....

Sasha wanted pictures with her favorite boys. Here is this year's crush:

And last year's crush:

Man, seems like only yesterday she was 3 and refused to admit that there were ANY boys at all in her class. Here is Teddy and one of his good buddies Nick. Poor Ted. It's his first year of school and he finally has his own friends and is being invited to his own Birthday parties and I am just yanking the rug out from under him in 2 more weeks.
The other holiday stuff is also keeping us busy. We went to Old Town Spring so Sasha could play with her Suzuki group and we met Santa. Santa and his lady friend liked Monty so much that THEY asked for a picture with my dog. Love the way Monty is looking at the camera like "yeah, it's pretty much like this wherever I go. I put up with it..." Hopefully Grammy and Poppy duck will keep him well-groomed and give him plenty of new opportunities to mingle with "his public" in NC. Many of you have asked if we are taking Monty to SK. They EAT dog there folks. Monty would be the like a South Korean wedding feast. Are you kidding me? He is staying state-side with his grandparents.
Here is the diva playing in the Christmas Violin whatever it was. She's such a rock-star....

We also took a break this week with school being out and went to the zoo with Uncle Will, Auntie Andreea and Luca. It was probably our last visit to the zoo and most of our favorite animals were out and about so that was really fun.
So that's all for now. It looks like we will be here through the holidays and then we will be flying to SK on the 31st of Dec, arriving on Jan 1st (good thing it's not Y2K year eh Mom and Dad?) So we will say Happy New Year on the plane as we cross the international date line if we can figure out when that is. We got a really empty flight because most people don't want to be flying for New Years but being parents of small children who have no life anyway we decided to jump at the opportunity of a semi-empty flight. Maybe we can run down the aisles with streamers or something.....

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!