New Pictures for Your Viewing Pleasure

Well, here we are at the end of August already.  I can't believe how quickly the time is flying by here!  Work has picked up a bit in recent weeks so I've been moderately busy during the days, which is a welcome change.  Since Jen's been on vacation I've had a pretty full schedule during the week between taking care of the dog and work; I've been getting up at 4 am every day to make sure I have enough time to take Arnold out for a decent walk in the mornings before I abandon him for 12 hours while I'm working. This has made the days fly by since Jen's been gone (thank goodness it's almost over).  Speaking of Arnold, and as a convenient segue into my next paragraph, here's a picture of him doing what he does best:

Anyway, considering my birthday is coming up I figured I would treat myself to a new camera lens.  After a lot of deliberation I ended up picking up a Canon EF 50mm f1.4.  Ten days of not-so-patiently waiting and mashing the refresh button on the FedEx tracking page as fast as it would load later, it finally showed up today so I took it for a test drive this afternoon and took some pictures at Daewangam Songnim.  

Daewangam Songnim is basically just a scenic rocky area on the edge of the ocean near Ilsan Beach(y).  It's a very popular tourist area and today it was packed, but after fighting my way through the throngs of self-portrait-while-making-the-peace-sign tourists, I managed to snap a few pictures.  As always, you can check out all of the pictures Jen and I have uploaded here:  http://picasaweb.google.com/dennis.blackwell/, and I welcome you all to leave comments there as well.

On that note, I'll wrap this post up and say goodbye for now!

Visitors and Vietnam

I think I have just completed my longest/ busiest week in Korea. Last Friday Dennis' friend Mike arrived in Ulsan after working in Sackland Island for a month. We were both so excited to have our first visitor that we had a hard time sleeping on Thursday night. Mike arrived Friday afternoon so before Dennis got home I gave him a quick walking tour of our neighborhood. D's work had a team building dinner that night so Mike came along and we all stuffed ourselves full of bbq, Hite, and Soju. After dinner we bar hopped to several places and decided it was time to head home. That Saturday we wanted to give Mike the full Korean experience so we headed off to Tongdosa to see a temple and then off to Old Downtown to check out some of the shops. We were all very tired from the long day and the night before we went home in the afternoon to relax at the apartment. Once we were all showered and recharged we headed out for "Shabu Shabu" (sp) for dinner, which is where you are served thin slices of beef and vegetables which you cook in the pot of boiling broth in the middle of the table. After you have finished the meat and veggies, you can move on to the noodle course and then the Korean rice (rice, seaweed, and egg). Full of dinner we headed to the beach to drink some beers and set off fireworks on the beach. It was such a great visit with Mike and we were sad to see him go but fortunately we had more visitors coming our way that week. We sure appreciated having him change his travel plans to come to Ulsan to visit us.

I was expecting the Gorman family to arrive on Monday August 16th but because of some mistakes on their travel planning they were actually going to be arriving on Tuesday August 17th. On the morning of the 17th there was some serious weather in the Ulsan area and their flight was canceled out of Seoul so they decided to get on a flight to Busan. So I hopped in the car and drove the distance to Busan to get them. It was a very long day but we were very happy to have them safely with us in Ulsan. They have all been troopers here (especially Kieran) and are dealing with jet lag very well. Since they were only in Ulsan for a short time we crammed a whole lot into one day! We started with a trip to California beach (local water park), then off to Gyeongju for sightseeing, then to the Bulguksa temple, then old downtown, and ended the day with Sushi in new downtown. The next day we were scheduled to leave for Vietnam for a 2 week holiday together so we had to finish packing as the cab was coming at 6:30am to get us.

After the drive to Busan, flight to Saigon, flight to Da Nang and a cab ride to Hoi An the Gorman clan (well some of us) have made it to the Golden Sands Reort in Hoi An, Vietnam. The resort is beautiful and very comfortable! Unfortunately it is pouring rain out right now, which is actually alright because it gives us a chance to relax and recover from the traveling. Our plan today is to head into the old town and go to the tailors and get some clothes made. There is a beautiful spa in the resort and Patti and I plan on take full advantage of that! We have our first massage today and that is to be followed in the following days with more massage, pedicures, and facials!

So as you can see why I am considering this the busiest week I have had! I have enjoyed every minute of it and look forward to the next 2 weeks which I know will be very busy too. I will keep you updated as I can.

Miss you all
-J

The visitors are a coming!

I decided I better write something this week as I won't be able to for the next three weeks most likely. Tomorrow D's friend Mike from work is coming to visit us for the weekend. He has been working in Russia and is connecting through Seoul, so he booked the flight to come to Ulsan. We are both excited to see a familiar face here and I know D is excited about getting to go out and have some beers with a friend. Then after a whirl wind weekend with Mike my family (dad, Patti, and Kieran) will be flying in Monday morning. They will be in Korea for a few days and then we are all flying (except Dennis) to Vietnam for 2 weeks with a few days in Seoul at the end. I am so excited to see my family here! It is going to be great to show them what our life is like here and our favorite things to do in Ulsan. I will try to write while I am away but there are no guarantees as our schedule is pretty packed while in 'Nam. I will for sure write a large update when I come back. D might write about how terrible it is here without me, ha!

I think it is important to note that I am writing this entry on August 12, 2010, exactly 366 days before D and I say I do on August 13, 2011. To celebrate this occasion and the fact that we aren't going to have each other alone for the next 3 weeks we decided to go out for dinner. We picked a Japanese restaurant close to our apartment that we have been meaning to try. The food was delicious and we talked about the year ahead of us, our upcoming wedding, and what the future held for us. I have been working on some of the planning while I am here and have some of the big ticket items all taken care of, dress, photographer, and venue! The rest will just have to fall into place over the next year. I truly feel like a very lucky lady to have such a loving fiance and such a great life.

This past week was nothing to special and I did my usual activities, hiking, running, painting, seeing friends, and exploring. There was a tropical storm warning this week and on Wednesday the weather was pretty hairy and Dennis was sent home from work early. It was nice to have him home during the day although there is not much you can do with the day when it is storming outside, so we did some internet shopping.

I thought about our life back Calgary a lot this week and how much I miss many aspects of it. While Ulsan is a great city and we are enjoying the experiences here, it just can't compare to our "normal" life. We really miss the social aspect of our life in Calgary and being able to get out with friends and just hang out. Good news though is that I will be coming home likely at the end of November for a quick visit (Aritzia look out). I can't wait to re-connect with everyone in Calgary and Vancouver.

Well it is late here so I better sign off. We miss you all so send us emails and let us know what is going on in your individual lives.

J

A weekend in Seoul

It is a rainy morning here in Ulsan with a little dog curled up on my lap so what better time to write about our recent trip to Seoul this past weekend. This trip was made possible by the fact that Dennis didn't have to work Saturday, we have great friends who took Arnold, and I was dying to get out of Ulsan for a little adventure!

We flew out of Ulsan on Friday night and after a short 40 minute flight we arrived is Seoul. Thanks to Dennis' handy Seoul Metro Iphone app we found our hotel in no time. By the time we had checked in, cleaned up a bit and were ready to go it was around 9pm. Now I know many of you know me very well but for those who don't when I get hungry I get cranky. So by 9pm I was very hungry and very cranky. After the hotel told us that there was no sushi restaurants close to the hotel we decided to hit the pavement and find our dinner. Most restaurants looked open but upon further inspection they didn't open till 10, which just wouldn't do. After walking around for what felt like forever Dennis spotted a "Tuna and Sake" restaurant and we ran across the road dodging traffic to get in! We decided on the set menu for 2, some warm sake, and a Guiness for me. Now each time I go for sushi anywhere in the world I compare it Hana sushi back in Calgary Alberta (yes land locked Calgary), Dennis can testify that this was the first time I have said "ok this sushi is better than Hana", and was it every amazing! We started with raw beef which we cooked on a mini coal bbq brought to the table, then a thinly cut octopus course, sashimi, sushi, tempura and of course miso soup. After a couple of beers and cups of sake, and me back to my normal lovely self we decided to head back to the hotel to rest up for the next couple days of exploring Seoul.

The next morning I woke up very early as I was so excited to get the day started, Dennis was less excited to be woken up by me. Dennis bought a couple cinnamon buns from "Paris Baguette", I made us some instand coffee and we had breakfast in bed. We took the hotel shuttle to the Namdaemun market in Downtown Seoul. I really didn't know what to expect but knew the market was huge! As we arrive pretty early we got to be there as the little kiosks started to open, within a hour the market was full of people. The market mostly sold knockoff bags, luggage, party supplies, food, shoes, and lots of jewelry stores. We had a great time walking around looking at everything and of course doing some people watching. Dennis suggested that we take a look at the underground shopping centre. Downtown Seoul is full of underground shopping as that is how travel across streets as you can't do it above ground with all the traffic. After looking around for a bit we decided to head up above ground again and at the top of the stairs Dennis fell and sprained his ankle! He claimed he was fine and that we should continue on with our sightseeing. Here is a picture of the market:

This is the underground market:

After a quick coffee and survey of the damage Dennis did to his ankle (it was getting bigger by the second) we were off again to Myeong-dong for some shopping. Myeong-dong is still in downtown and is where all the young people and tourists like to go shopping. There are many recognizable labels there including Zara, H&M, Forever 21, Lacoste, GAP, etc and they all have american sizes!!! After walking all over we decided it was time for lunch. We decided on a western favorite of ours...California Pizza Kitchen! While Dennis was in Texas he had bought many of their frozen pizzas and we decided that it would be nice to have a little slice of home. We throughly stuffed ourselves on pizza and mojitos and we were on our way again.

Our next stop was to Insa-dong which is the art and antiques district.

Insa-dong is full of art galleries, antique shops, souvenir shops, and tea shops. This area was so beautiful and I love stopping in as many stores as I could. This area is full of tourists as it is the perfect place to find a little gift to bring home. I know that when we come back to Seoul we will be going back to this street. Also anyone travelling to Seoul must go here!

So after many many hours of walking on a sprained ankle Dennis had had enough and we headed back to the hotel for a rest before dinner. Lonely Planet suggested a great bbq restaurant so we decided to see if we could find it. A ride on the metro with one transfer later we found ourselves in a very strange area where no restaurants were open, no one in the streets, and it was just kind of creepy all around. After searching and searching we finally found our restaurant.

This bbq restaurant specializes in smoked black pig. The chef would smoke the pig in the oven outside and then bring it inside for us to finish cooking on our bbq in the centre of the table. We have eaten at many a bbq here and none have done pork this well. The restaurant was similar to most bbq restaurants here in that they bring you many side dishes to eat with the meat. It is also customary to order lots of beer and soju. Soju is essentially watered down vodka and can give you one heck of a hangover! I have started to pour my soju into my beer rather than shooting it, which does not help on the hangover front.

The next morning we did breakfast in bed again and headed out to see the palace of Changdeokgung. As Dennis ankle has swollen to three times the size we took the metro to the palace.

After walking around and taking many pictures we decided it would be best to go eat lunch and head back to the hotel. We had planned to take the train home from Seoul but we decided that since we were so exhausted from walking around so much that sitting on a train for 4 hours would be terrible. D made the executive decision to cancel the train tickets and buy plane tickets. It cost us about $0.40 to cancel the train tickets and another $30.00 to buy plane tickets and we would be home in 40 minutes.

We had a great weekend but were happy to come home to our life here in Ulsan and of course our Arnold. We look forward to our next trip to Seoul and hopefully we both will be healthy for that trip.

Both of us are thinking about all of you regularly and miss you lots. Please keep us updated with what is going on in your lives.

miss you all,

J