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

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