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