Feels like it has been awhile since I have written and I guess that is because we have been so busy. The weeks seem to be passing by quite quickly now. The weather was quite wet for a few weeks and would rain most of the day but the weather has taken a turn for the better and now we have sunny blue skys with temperatures reaching +32 with a humidity of about 60%. I haven't experienced weather like this since university. You move from air conditioned location to air conditioned location to combat the heat but mostly you remain hot and sweaty. I am enjoying every minute of the nice weather but going to the pool and reading a book and socializing with the other women there.

Last weekend Dennis and I headed to Busan (we go there a lot as there are so many things to do) so that we could do some sightseeing and of course go to Costco. Costco was our first stop as we heard that if you get there at 10am the only people in the store are foreigners and it is a lot quieter and easier to get around the store. They were right, it was probably the most enjoyable shopping trip we have had there. The next stop was Haeundae beach, this is a huge beach in the city and is the world record holder for the most umbrellas on a beach at one time, I think the number was around 12,000 umbrellas. This was during the holidays in August so we didn't see that many but we did see a lot! Below is a picture of the beach

This past week I have been sick with a cold which really put a damper on the plans I had. I did go to sit by the pool in attempt to sweat out my cold, which didn't work all that well so I retreated to the airconditioned apartment to hibernate. As I was feeling much better Friday I had to get out of the house so I made plans to go with my friend Sheri for some shopping, lunch and a movie. We went to the best Indian restaurant in Ulsan (there are only two) for butter chicken (yum) and naan bread (double yum). We decided to see the new movie...Eclipse, no judgement please! All of the movie theatres here have about 15 showings of this a day which is pretty funny. Going to a movie here is very similar to going to one in North America with a couple differences. When you buy your ticket you get to pick your seat so you can be just on time and you know your seat will be safe, of course the english movies have Korean subtitles but you forget that they are there almost instantly, and instead of candy at the concession they have squid treats. At the movie we sat next to these two young girls who would giggle like crazy as soon as Edward or Jakob would come on the screen, it was very funny.

I was still feeling great after a great afternoon out that we went on a double date with our friends Chloe and Graham. Chloe and I both arrived in Korea around the same time and we both are excited to experience all that Korea has to offer so we get along great. We decided to head to the "Mushroom Restaurant" that everyone is always talking about. The restaurant does have mushroom dishes but mostly everyone calls it that because the building looks like a mushroom. Since I have no clue what the restaurant is called I called my friend Soon and she emailed me the name and location of the restaurant in Hangul so that I could direct the cab that way. So after a few drinks at the club we were on our way and actually made it to the right restaurant. When we walked in we were the only people there except for the cook and her husband who were watching a Korean soap. She helped us pick what we were going to eat and just sat and chatted away. This is the type of thing you can expect to get from most restaurants here. Some places will have english on the menu, some will have pictures and some will only have Korean so you need to rely on their unending kindness is picking something for you. Going to a new restaurant is Dennis and my favorite things to do as it is almost guaranteed to be tasty! We are constantly pleasantly surprised at how friendly the Koreans are and how helpful they are to the foreigners. Back to our dinner, we started with a potato pancake, which is a traditional dish here filled with onion, green onion, pepers and sometimes fish. We also had some Hite beer and of course soju. The main course was a duck stir fry which we made lettuce wraps with. It was amazing! One of the best things I have eaten here for sure!

This weekend we don't have much planned. Dennis will watch his Rider game on the internet like he does each weekend lately. We are going to Seoul next weekend so we want to save all our energy for that!

Keep the emails coming as we loving hearing from all of you and what you are up to.

Miss you all,

J

Work Life Part I: In the Office

I know a few people are pretty curious about what it is I'm actually out here doing for work, so I'll try to post some things now and then when something interesting happens or I get the chance to take some pictures of what's going on.

So far, it's been pretty darn quiet for us here.  Construction delays have resulted in our team having a bit of extra time to spend in the office helping out our Korean counterparts at Emerson Seoul, who are in the process of building and performing Factory Acceptance Tests on our equipment prior to it being shipped down to us at the project construction facility here in Ulsan.  While this sounds fine and dandy, and, well, it is actually pretty great to be sitting in air conditioned luxury while it's pouring rain and +33C, I have a feeling you may be getting the wrong impression of what an office means to me here.  Allow me to take you for a tour of the Emerson office on site.

Unfortunately I can't show many pictures of the construction yard since taking pictures of other companies' projects is frowned upon, but we're located in the far corner from the main entrance, close to where the majority of the buildings we'll be working on are being built.  The building on the right is Emerson Ulsan:



The yellow bump stop in that picture has been placed on a set of tracks that allow a movable shelter and gantry crane to keep the rain off whatever is currently under construction.  You can see this shelter here, the yellow cross member near the roof on the inside is the crane.



Those steel beams you see on the ground have since been welded together into a structure that supports a bunch of process equipment; tanks and piping and the like.

Inside our office is where all the magic happens.  Here's a shot from the conference room looking back towards the kitchenette.  My desk is the furthest back in this picture.  Take note of the Hello Kitty toaster.



And, well, that's it.  How exciting!  That's my life these days for 55 hours a week.  I'll post more about work once things pick up around here.

Shopping in Korea

So I went to the world largest department store in Busan today and topped it off with eating a delicious meal with my fiance and then wrote an email to some friends. I thought it would be best to copy the email to the blog as it describes the day perfectly and I will never be able to do it again as I am full of Soju and Hite beer!

Hey ladies!

Thought I would send you a quick note as I am a little bit tipsy on Soju and Hite beer (discovered I like a shot of soju in my beer). We went to some BBQ place tonight that had no english on the menu and no pictures and just told them to pick for us, it was delicious!!! If any of you come we have to do that because it is really fun and usually gets you some free beer because they are not used to having foreigners in the restaurant.

Today was one of the best days I have had in Korea. Some of my gal pals here Janette, Hayley, and Chloe (2 aussies and a kiwi) and their 3 little girls and one baby boy headed off to Busan! We grabbed a taxi at 8:20 and headed off to the train station. As you can imagine every cab ride is an adventure because you try your best to communicate where you want to go by 1. telling them in english where you want to go, best done in a loud voice and maybe some arm flapping, 2. in Korean, how your husband has told you how to say it, but of course you butcher it because you are an idiot foreigner, and 3. in the Hangul that your husband has written out for you. You must go through this dance each time as it is the best way to do it and really, the foreigner way. Maybe I will get better at it as the month fly by, keep posted.

So we got to the train station explained where we wanted to go by saying "Ulsan to B(P)usan to go shopping!" Originally thinking the train ride was going to cost us about 6000skw it was actually about 3000skw and we all go on the train for about 160000skw. Keep in mind that we have 3 strollers or "Prams" as the girls called them all day.

The train took about an hour where an older gentleman took a liking to me and Chloe and her little boy Henry. Chloe happily handed over her beautiful 7 month old boy (and seriously the best baby ever!) and he proceeded to hold him very nicely and insinuate that Chloe and I were lovers and Henry was our love child. He was a very "cheeky" guy and made joke the whole hour train ride to Busan.

Once in Busan and after fighting our way through the people trying to get on the train we got in a taxi to head to the worlds largest department store, the Shinsengae Centumcity Department Store, I didn't really know what to expect from this but believe me when we arrived it blew my expectations! This store had more luxury stores than I could ever imagine. This was very exciting but a little intimidating when you are not working and knowing your soon to be husband is paying your visa. As the floors went up there were cheaper stores and I spend some dough. There was a GAP and I could fit in that and I found some nice things at Lacoste. Now keep in mind I am a giant in Korea, if you weren't already thinking that and each time I brought something to try on to the store workers would look at me and then at the size of clothes I brought and then back at me and do a little eye roll and send me on my way. Some stuff, whoa...no good, other things, great! Yay! Things fit and I can go shopping again which is the greatest, I am sure Dennis does not think so!

We had a quick coffee at the ice rink which took about 30 minutes to make (not like NA starbucks) but it was still amazing! The girls had a quick colour in the colouring books and we had a quick chat and we were back to shopping. We spent lots of time shopping in the kids department, which is to be expected as we were with lots of kids and it gave me some time to shop for my new cousin coming in the fall (!!!!!!)

After a long day of shopping we headed to the basement to the best food court I have ever been too. So this is the best most fancy food court I have been to with lots of choices for amazing food and I had a burger and fries! Too good! This was great place to buy amazing wine, cheese, meats, and other things you can't get in Ulsan. I can't wait to bring Dennis so that we can go crazy on wine, cheese, and meat!

So all in all it was a great day finished off by going to some strange restaurant and then to a bar where we had soju and beer! In the bar they had a picture of pretty much everyone that has been to the bar, the bartender/ cook/ server made us make a heart around us with our arms.

I may just make this email a blog post! I am a little lazy with writing so I can kill two birds with one stone!

Miss you all lots and think about you always!!!

Love,

J

Well I hope you all enjoy and I hope this has enticed you to come visit!

Here is some more information on the department store if you are interested

http://community.guinnessworldrecords.com/_Largest-Department-Store/blog/411871/7691.html

Miss you all,

Love

-J

Bulguksa Temple at Gyeongju

As the rain decided to stay away this past Saturday, Jen and I decided to make use of my afternoon off and drive out to Gyeongju and check out Bulguksa Temple, one of the many historical sites in the area.  Construction of the temple began in 751 as a center of silla Buddhism and prayer for foreign protection for the company from foreign invasion.  The temple is a now a fairly major tourist destination and is usually very busy on weekends, however we lucked out since I think the threat of rain kept most people away this weekend.  As a result we got to see everything pretty unhindered by crowds, which was a very nice plus compared to when I came out here a few years ago.

This is the main gate to the temple.  You're not allowed up these steps anymore, but going around through a side door will get you in to the main courtyard area.  

Inside there are two pagodas, as well as monastery buildings, and a lecture hall of some sort which are still in use to this day by monks and Buddhists that come to pray at the temple.  

In one corner there are about a million little piles of stones, called stupa in Sanskrit, that faithful Buddhists (and Jen) construct in prayer.  It really is quite the sight, and they're on literally every flat surface you can find in the area designated for them.

So that was a brief tour of Bulguksa Temple.  Please come check out all of our pictures at the gallery here: http://picasaweb.google.com/dennis.blackwell/, and leave any questions or comments either there or as a comment to this blog entry.  

One month down...

Hello Everyone,

Well we have been in Ulsan for a whole month now and everything is going so well! Prior to coming here we both had thought it would take about a month to finally settle in and enjoy Ulsan. This a true testament to keeping your expectations low, as we have enjoyed ourselves here since day one. Both Dennis and I are very open to new things and love being out of our comfort zone. We have been lucky to have had some people forge the path prior to us getting here and have given us lots of help in getting settled. I mean we would have taken us a lot longer to figure out that we needed to use specific pink garbage bags for our garbage and that you can't turn left on a green light. Dennis has been such a great traveling companion as he is much more patient than I and always tries the food first to make sure it isn't too spicy for me, I am so lucky.

We have made a lot of great friends here and are looking forward to meeting more! Both of us have been lonely time to time because we miss our friends from home but there are some great people here to help us through that. It has been great being able to keep up with everyone from home via email, skype, phone, etc. Keep those emails coming and we will keep this blog going and it will be like we never left! D and I are so excited about the friends and family we are going to have come visit us and can't wait to show off everything here.

So I thought that since we have now been here for about a month I would post some pictures of around our apartment and our life here. So here we go...

First off here is our mountain Yompu (sp) that is in our backyard. I have been hiking here about 4-5 times a week, usually with my friends but now that school is out I have been going on my own or with Dennis, when he can.

Here is a picture on the trail. It really is the greatest place to go.

Every Wednesday on our street there is a market with fruits, veggies, and my fav a dumpling cart. It is much cheaper buying fruits from places like than from the grocery store. Little markets always have the fruit that is in season, right now we are eating apricots, peaches, and plums, YUM!

Now if you know Dennis and I one of our favorite foods is Pizza so of course we had to find a local pizza place which we did in "Pizza Bingo". Now keep in mind that Koreans love pizza but they don't like pizza like we like pizza. A very popular topping is potato and bulbogi beef and also there is pretty much always corn in the sauce. Pizza Bingo does a really good pepperoni and hawaiian though so we go there lots!

Pizza Bingo is located on Shiller Road which is the greatest street to live by there are lots of great shops including, little markets, pizza, junk stores, barbers, restaurants, bakeries, and coffee shops. It is right close to the foreigners compound so there is always a familiar face to be found. My favorite store is "dot com", this is a little junk store that I suppose is similar to a dollar store. It is so much fun to go in there and look at the millions of products they have there. I will buying lots of things there to bring home as gifts as it is pretty interesting.

The place that has been the most helpful in making living here much easier is the foreigners compound.

Now this picture doesn't do the compound justice as behind those gates is a pool, driving range, squash courts, a school, a bar, a great little restaurant and of course some really fun people. I have been pretty busy down at the compound participating in pilates, art classes, cooking class, parties, and of course just relaxing by the pool. I have made some great friends at the compound and usually end up there every day just to pop in and say hi.

This picture is of someone moving into an apartment across from us. This form of moving is very efficient but probably a little dangerous as the load is not tied down and in some cases is going up to the 30th floor!

Here are a couple pictures from our apartment. It is a great place with 2 guest rooms, so feel free to come visit and bring a friend ;)

Kitchen:

Living Room:

Master Bedroom:

Sun Room:

Alright I need to sign off so I hope you enjoy the pictures. I will write soon! We went to Bulguska Temple this past weekend and D took some great pictures so will write about that later this week.

Miss you all,

J