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30 September 2003 (Tuesday)
The maids are here. That's right, I said the maids are here. The Beverly Hills apartments are "serviced apartments." They come each Tuesday and I wonder if they're disappointed or glad that I do my own laundry. I'm not at a point where I want a couple of Korean ladies checking out Craig's skivvies and my unmentionables. Maybe that will change, ask me about it in a year from now. We don't have any cleaning supplies (can't identify what's what at the grocery store, either) except for a vacuum, Tide I sent from home, and dish soap; so I'd rather have the maids focus on the floors, the kitchen, and bathrooms than folding our clothes!
29 September 2003 (Monday)
Dunkin' Donuts in Daegu... maybe Brian will come to visit now? 9/27/2003 |
Occasionally, throughout the day, I'll hear someone speaking over a loudspeaker from a vehicle down the hill from our apartment. I've also seen this in town but can't figure out what they're talking about or why (obviously they're speaking Korean, but even when I saw the truck, there didn't seem to be any advertising on it or anything like that to hint at what they're broadcasting).
This weekend we went back up to Daegu to actually find Costco. We went to the Lotte Department store and to Carrefour first. At these stores (and at the Wal-Mart in Masan & Home Plus in Daegu), there is someone that "directs" you where to park which is fine, but they go a little over the top. There will be someone standing at the entrance to the parking garage or lot and they will wave their arms around every which way so it's not like they're really directing you, but flagging you down. They'll smile and give you a deep bow and once you're in the garage sometimes they'll have another person with a microphone and they'll welcome you to the store (I'm guessing!). Both men and women do these jobs and they are dressed really well. Sometime I'll have to bring the Nikon with us to take a (silent) movie of this whole procedure.
We did find Costco (we got a good map at the information booth outside of the Lotte Department store--in the area to buy tickets for the train in Daegu Station) and got several good bulk products, one of those being a 3 lb bag of shredded cheddar cheese. We'll see how long that lasts us! Hopefully we're done with the big shopping spree trips for a while though.
Craig has Friday off (for National Foundation Day, "in memory of Tan-gun, the legendary first Korean who was born in 2333 BC" (Lonely Planet: Korea) and we're thinking of going out to see some temples and do some other touristy stuff--should be fun!
26 September 2003 (Friday)
Out on my own yesterday (rented a Hyundai Avante XD which is the same as an Elantra in the US), I stopped at a couple of stores to do some shopping. The first store had household items/kitchenware, etc. I purchased a couple of things and as I was getting the money out of my wallet to pay, the cashier leaned over the counter and started pulling off the hairs on my shirt (that had fallen from my head)! Very strange.
In the afternoon, Craig and I went to the Daewoo hospital to get our second Hepatitis B shots. The hospital was an interesting experience that I can't really describe. We were moved from one waiting area to another, talked to the doctor, back to the first waiting room, paid for our shots, waited by the "Injections" room, got our shots, and left. The hospital was pretty busy with both people in street-clothes and people in hospital gowns everywhere. And there were benches all along the walls in all of the halls everywhere we went. [Note: Craig wanted me to write that we got "noc'ed" up instead of what I wrote above, meaning we got our inoculations. I thought that this might give false hope to our mothers with the verbal pun "knocked up."] We will go back to get our last Hepatitis A & B shots in February.
After our shots, I went to the "the Import Lady" and got all sorts of fabulous American foods. Vanilla extract & cream of tartar, flour tortillas, spices, etc.
24 September 2003 (Wednesday)
The apartment manager, Mr. Kim, took me to get a cell phone today. Tonight at 5 PM, Avis is supposed to drop off my rental car. Now I will be able to get out of the house on my own!
More exciting than all of this is that Sharon is thinking of coming out to visit us next summer!
22 September 2003 (Monday)
We went to the immigration office today to get fingerprinted which was actually a non-event. Just a lot of ink on our hands when we were done.
20 September 2003 (Saturday)
We can't decide if we should get the new 15" PowerBook or this puppy-shaped PC. (Sorry, Craig, we probably won't be getting either.) 9/20/2003 |
We explored Okpo and Gohyeon by foot a little today. Here are some photos of one of the streets in Okpo where you can buy food (although we have been buying our food from the grocery store, it's interesting to see these vendors and to try to identify the food they are selling).
We stopped and bought these, but avoided these. The "fish" we bought were a deep-fried dough with a sweet bean-paste inside. I thought that they were pretty tasty and would buy them again. I will try to find out what they are and why they look like fish.
We also passed a PC Bang ("bang" means "room") and a photography studio with a traditional "One Hundred Day Celebration" photo of a young boy showing off his prized "pepper." (According to Culture Shock: Korea, "when a boy is born, the family would traditionally hang a string of red peppers outside the door--charcoal and straw were hung for a girl.")
18 September 2003 (Thursday)
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It's our 4th anniversary today (Craig gave me flowers and the woman at the flower shop tied a little rose into the ribbon that held the flowers together) and we decided to celebrate by going out for bulgogi tonight. It was delicious! The restaurant we were at was a traditional-style restaurant where you take off your shoes before you enter the dining room and sit on the floor in front of a low table to eat.
The meal came out on a dozen or more little dishes all filled with something different. Someone came out to put the sirloin on the charcoal grill in front of us and turned the meat over occasionally. This was also the first meal that I ate with chopsticks (my chopstick-handling needs a lot of improvement--the waitress brought out a fork for me because she could see I was struggling, but I did not use it!).
We also got our shipment of stuff from home today so I will spend Friday organizing. It's too bad that we'll have to move to another apartment because we'll just have to do it all over again!
17 September 2003 (Wednesday)
Domino's Pizza with packets of pickles, parmesan, and sauce. 9/17/2003 |
I went to Coffee Morning today at the Foreigner's club with Erica. A lot of the expat wives go there to socialize and find out about what's going on during the upcoming week. I will need to get a car soon so I can get out and do stuff, but there is a ladies-only Taekwondo class Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; a Korean painting class; and Korean Language classes. There are other classes, too, but those were the ones that caught my attention first.
16 September 2003 (Tuesday)
We got our power back at 4 PM today! Yipee! Now we can cook food and take hot showers! Oh yeah, and watch TV, too. We get cable & satellite but the pickings are still pretty slim as far as English-language stations go...
15 September 2003 (Monday)
Me between two Matizs by the Okpo Ferry Terminal. September 2003 |
Still no power (they're estimating tonight sometime). Craig went to work today so I had to plan my time well to not get overly bored. I read my Lonely Planet: Korea book about the history of Korea and read some about North Korea; studied the alphabet for a while; and got to eat real food (as opposed to the junk we've been eating from the convenience store since Saturday since we have no way to prepare food w/o electricity) for lunch as Erica stopped by and said that she, Patsy & Brenda were making fajitas at Patsy's (just across the way from me). Yum!
We are going to Erica & Joel's tonight for spaghetti. We'll need to find a way to cook food without power before the next power outage happens. We'll also need to get a cooler to be more prepared. (Although it would really be great if this isn't a regularly occurring thing!)
I am looking into getting a Daewoo Matiz--once we get electricity, I'll do some research online. They're super cute and perfect for the small streets & small parking spaces although they may be underpowered.
14 September 2003 (Sunday)
A bent power pole in Gohyeon. 9/14/03 |
Still without electricity (although we have running (cold) water in our apartment), boredom has set in. We drove up to look at Okpo bay again to see if any of the ships had moved and if we could see any damage more clearly.
We also drove into Gohyeon to see the Samsung yard and drive around the town a bit. There seemed to be quite a few good shops as we drove by--mostly clothes on the streets we were on but a kitchen store and other household supplies as well. (Things I'll check out on my own when I get a car.)
13 September 2003 (Saturday)
Welcome to Beverly Hills--our apartment's sign was blown down the street. 9/13/03
We drove around today and saw the damage caused by Maemi in Okpo and Okpo bay, and around the island. [View images of Maemi's damage.]
We drove up the northern part of the island and onto Chelcheondo which has a nice bridge from Geoje (we're told that it is because a former president's family home is on this island).
Luckily we were able to get some nonperishable "food" (I have this in quotes because we're eating potato chips and other junk) at the convenience store and some candles and a flashlight at the dollar store.
Since we are still without power, and those families in the Row Houses have it, we went to dinner at Jeff & Nancy's tonight. Craig was not able to get over the novelty of hanging out with Bill's dog, Baxter.
12 September 2003 (Friday)
Today we went to Wal*Mart & Lotte Mart in Masan to stock up on some basics. Traffic was bad and it was raining intermittently throughout the day--some parts of the road had a lot of water. Joel & Erica have been great showing us around and telling us about things to do in the area.
When we got back it was raining but not too bad. We made dinner (Craig made too much rice in our new rice cooker) and washed dishes. As the evening wore on, it got more and more windy outside. We brought the outdoor chair, rug, and broom in to the bathroom as they were being thrown about the terrace and we were afraid they'd come crashing into one of the windows.
After a while we lost electricity and went into the bedroom by the front door that has a window that doesn't face into the harbor and is more protected by the stairs that come down to our apartment. Although the wind was really blowing and it was really scary, I think jet lag helped us fall asleep before the storm died down.
11 September 2003 (Thursday)
Some fishing boats near Dojangpo. |
Yesterday we drove around part of the island as Craig only worked for half of the day. The island is beautiful--we stopped at a couple of beaches and towns. Craig wants to join a family fishing club but I think Taekwondo sounds more fun. We hope to drive around some more today. [Images from our drive on the island.]
Typhoon Maemi is heading our way and should be over S. Korea in 48 hours. You can track this typhoon by going to www.wunderground.com and then clicking on "tropical storms" from the left-hand navigation bar, then clicking on the links below "Western Pacific Storm Advisories." It's raining very lightly today.
10 September 2003 (Wednesday)
We arrived in Okpo yesterday without much hassle. The Asiana flight from Seoul to Jinju was pretty easy after our long day of traveling the day before. (Our flight from Tokyo to Seoul was delayed 4 hours for a mechanical so we didn't get to our hotel in Seoul until about 1:30 or 2 AM that night.) Our hotel in Seoul was wonderful--it's too bad we didn't get to stay there longer. [Images from Westin Choson, Seoul.]
We were told that a domestic flight in Korea is "like taking the bus" by the front desk clerk at the Westin so we didn't need to be at Gimpo that much before our flight. We went early anyway and everything was fine. It was a one hour flight (gate-to-gate) from Seoul, Gimpo to Jinju. [Images from Gimpo Airport in Seoul.]
The "VAN" was there waiting for us when we landed and the driver gave us our first taste of Korean driving. When Craig took driving lessons at Mini Rates in high school, they told him that "space makes lanes"--that's exactly how the Koreans drive so Craig will be in his element. The countryside was pretty and we saw a lot of farmland. Geoje island is beautiful (what we've seen so far, anyway!) and it's really nice to finally be here after so many months of waiting! [Images from the VAN.]
Our apartments are located on a hillside (and I'll be thankful to be driving an automatic and not a standard when we get my car) so we can see other apartments, Okpo, and Okpo bay from here (see photo above). The apartment we're in now is not the apartment we'll stay in the entire time. They're fixing something in our apartment and we're living in a slightly bigger one until then (no estimate on when we'll move into our apartment). We also don't know when our stuff is arriving yet so I don't think we'll feel settled in for a little while.
This week is Chuseok ("Korean Thanksgiving") which is (according to Lonely Planet: Korea) South Korea's biggest holiday. I guess most Koreans will travel to their family homes this week and we were told that most stores and shops would be closed through Sunday. Chuseok is celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth moon and that happens to be September 11 this year.
8 September 2003 (Monday)
We're waiting in the Northwest Airlines lounge for our flight to Seoul which leaves in about two hours. We only slept for about 2 hours on the flight here from Houston and although it's 2 AM in Houston, the daylight here (it's 4 PM in Tokyo) seems to be keeping the fatigue away. Maybe we'll sleep on the flight to Seoul--shouldn't be a problem (sleep) once we get to the hotel in Seoul tonight.
My most exciting moment on the plane was when the flight path monitor showed that we were about to fly over Greeley, CO! They were serving our dinner just at the moment I saw that (and I didn't have my camera out--shame on me!), so I almost knocked my steak onto the floor to get that photo (had to hand the camera to Craig to take it as I tried to get back into my seat). Anyway, the flight was REALLY long and we were glad to get off of the plane (not sure how soon we can watch another movie--yes, EVEN CRAIG SAID "I NEVER WANT TO WATCH ANOTHER MOVIE AGAIN")! Too bad we still have two more flights to take...
The next most exciting moments were when the flight attendant asked if we were in college (we are so youthful!) and then when she realized we were married, asked if we were on our honeymoon...ahh to be young and in love, it's such a magical time!
7 September 2003 (Sunday)
I'll add more after we get settled in Korea, but since we've got internet access in the Northwest lounge at the Tokyo airport, I'm posting some photos from our trip so far. You'll see Craig in the Continental lounge in Houston, that we flew over Greeley, CO, some photos of Alaska from the air, on the plane, and in the Northwest Airlines lounge here in Tokyo... more to come soon (after I'm reunited with my "baby"--my PowerMac)!
2 September 2003 (Tuesday)
The movers come to pack up my computer (and everything else!) tomorrow morning which means two things:
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