I once was lost but now I'm found...

I'm back. After 12 days at sea working three different shifts (6AM-6 PM, Noon-midnight, 6PM-6AM) I am now back on shore and returning to my regularly scheduled 7-6 workday. I have discovered a few things about working offshore. If the internet is severely hampered (it was) and the entertainment system is not functional (it is directv, which they won't get until the Gulf) there isn't anything to do other than work. Not necessarily the best way to spend a couple of weeks, but I did learn a lot about being on a drillship. I also met a lot of people with interesting job titles like toolpusher, deckpusher, roustabout, roughneck, and camp boss. Not exactly manager and director, but there is a hierarchy none the less. On the drill floor, the tool pusher is in charge, the Drillers work for him, the Assistant drillers work for them, then the derrick hand, and finally the roughnecks. The toolpusher reports to the OIM, who reports to the rig manager (who is on-shore). There were about an even number of our operations personnel (all from the South, except for the bastard mechanic who was a Penn State fan and ruined the game for me) and personnel from the shipyard on-board. While pretty much every one I met was new to me, the names were very familiar for the Koreans. Mr. Kim and Mr. Lee, were there, as well as Mr. Park and Mr. Jeoung. Actually, many of them were there. It is impossible to have a meeting in Korea without at least one Mr. Lee and one Mr. Kim there, usually multiples. A typical meeting involving five Koreans will have a total of three Mr. Kim or LEe (two of one, one of the other) one Mr. Park or Jeoung, and a wild card (maybe a third Lee!). I had a meeting today with four Koreans in it, the attendees were D.H. Ryu, C.S. Kim, Y.H. Lee, and C.Y. Kim. Two Kims and a Lee. PAr for the course. They all go by initials as well, as no one (possibly including their families) can pronounce their first names. It gets really fun when you get into reporting structures and three levels of management are all named Lee or Kim, so T.G. Kim needs to check with Y.K Kim who then calls D.G. Kim. If you are ever in a meeting here without a Kim or Lee, you have somehow left Korea and need to find out where you actually are now. Anyway, on to the previously mentioned photos that would not load on my 56K connection on the Inspiration.

Picture of my morning commute to work from

my bike. Tough to see all the people in front of me but they are there...

Various views of the shipyard, including the 3600 ton (7.2 million pound) crane...

the pediatrician

the day finally came when i had to take one of the kids to the doctor and on this occasion it was Addison. she has had a very runny nose lately and isn't sleeping well so i decided to make sure there was no underlying infection. luckily i have friends who have children here because rick's company had suggested i take the kids to the foreigners clinic down the street. the foreigner's clinic is not that foreign to me because when rick and i first came, we got sick and i went there for medical attention.
the clinic is nestled in between stores, bars, restaurants and the like on the main road out of town which some people call 14. it literally reads "the foreigner's clinic" so you really cant miss it. i was instructed to get there at 10 am when they open or i would wait all day. the clinic is connected to a small hospital of some sort that is on the top floor of (of course) a high rise building. i know this is because people come in and out of the elevator that is located inside the clinic hooked to iv poles and just stroll around. they go walking down the street, talking on cell phones, shopping, etc... we have even been told not to be surprised when you go into a bar and there are people with the iv poles in there. rick always says "its something i cant get used to, the sight of the people with the poles" . it makes it look like some sort of disaster has occurred and medical care is just all over the place. I'm not sure the thought process that goes along with it, is it "i have time on lunch, i think i could use an IV today, alittle pick me up.."
anyway, i was told that they spoke American at the clinic and the care was good. when i went, i had Ethan and Addison with me and basically wouldn't let Ethan touch anything and kept the shade on Addison's stroller covered. it didn't look like a clinic, they did not speak English and it was packed with people who were sick standing way too close to each other. i started thinking about how different people have different ideas of what makes medical care good. is it good because it is fast. is it good because it is cheap? my idea of good medical care is way more complex than that but i decided to stick it out anyway, i was pretty sick and we were already there.
when we were called into a little examination type room by a young Korean girl who had a hard time pronouncing my name, it looked like something from the 50's and it was clear that OSHA regulations were not followed here. no gloves, no hand washing and I'm pretty sure all of the instruments were used back to back on patients. the doctor sat behind a desk and you are more or less presented to him. this is Lynn Walker, then some talk in Korean with a motion to sit down on an office type chair. the doctor was not a happy looking man, spoke very little English asked me a few questions then had the assistant take my temperature. that was my good medical care. he said something like " no antibiotics or antivirals. pills and a shot". to which i replied "no shot" and he said "OK" and they directed me out. i paid at the desk with a credit card (we had gotten there the day before so i had no money or how to convert yet) and walked out with a Korean prescription for who knows what and was pointed past the iv pole patients on the street to a bldg 2 doors down (next to "the love house" bar) which i understood to possibly be a small pharmacy. Fortunately , the pharmacist was a happy Korean man who spoke and wrote some English. he explained that for 5 dollars i had received some Tylenol, an antihistamine and a vitamin to be taken for 3 days conveniently packaged in little bags by day (which i cant read). i took them, stayed sick and basically had to wait for the illness to run its course. so ,needless to say, very pleased that i didn't have to take Addison to the grumpy Korean doctor in the dirty clinic.

the pediatrician's office, on the other hand, was a happy place, well equip with kids toys, very organized and like walking into a huge birthday party because of the amount of children there and the noise. it was so loud i felt overstimulated. Addison was absolutely delighted. she loves loud kids (wonder why) and thought this was great even though her nose was running and she looked flushed. the nursing assistant spoke alittle English and was good at getting the answers she needed by having me point to things. you don't really realize how a language barrier can effect your care until you actually come across it. like your birth date. i wrote out 4-6-09 for Addison and they did not understand it. they put their month/day/year in a different order so they didn't know what i meant. she just pulled out a calendar and I pointed. much more efficient. Made me think of all the times at work i have done therapy on non English speaking patients. she also let me know when i would be called since pronouncing Addison in Korean may or may not be decipherable to me so that was helpful. i liked the pediatrician. he had a smile on his face the whole time and had small delicate hands like a woman. he used hand santitizer and cleaned his equipment. he was very gentle with Addison and she liked him too even when he took out this medieval looking torture instrument to examine her ears with. he said she had a common cold, ears were clear, little cough but prescribed some medicine to help her sleep so she would get better. i felt relieved but had figured it was probably the case. the main reason i took her was to get some experience with the doctor on a non urgent basis so if i needed him in the future i would be prepared. i left happy and the nurse gave me a card so Addison's chart would be easy for them to find. all and all, a good experience. makes me worry less about the future.

when we left i took the presciption to the pharmacy with the English speaking pharmacist but he said he didn't have what i needed and instructed me to a pharmacy that would. i was disappointed because i feel comfortable with him but being a little pharmacy, i can see how he might not carry everything. so i went to the big pharmacy and discovered that no one there speaks any English at all. i waited awhile for the script and when i got it, the pharmacist struggled to explain to me but couldn't. he kept showing me this little spoon and saying 5 ccs, no 2.5 ccs 3 times. he had given me 2 bottles of different colored liquids and 6 packets of some white powder. same, same but different right? i left feeling dazed and felt i had wasted my time because i didn't know what it was. rick was convinced that we could translate the script using the iPhone. ever since he came home, Addison has been sleeping with us because she's sick. she likes to poke her daddy and pull on his nose while he sleeps. needless to say, rick is looking for her to get better for many reasons.

Problems with translation: Korean letters are symbols and are very complicated because they don't just read left to right, they also stack on top of each other ,which we found out while trying to translate. There's rick and i ,laying on our stomachs on the bed trying to translate what we are suppose to give our daughter. this is what we came up. "edisue" means Addison. we are suppose to give edisue something in the morning, afternoon and night. not much else is written. what could it be? the liquid, the powder, which liquid, who knows? i had to the break the news to rick that edisue was not taking the cocaine looking powder medicine mixed with the red and yellow liquid without alot more explaination.

so after dropping Ethan off at school, i visited my friend the English speaking pharmacist. he is my most important go to man right now, the man who can help keep the kids healthy. i brought him the goods in a plastic baggie and said "i don't know what this is or how to use it, its for the baby, can you help me?" he explained to me that they were suppose to write the prescription name and dosage on the bag for me and he didn't know what they gave me. the pharmacy number was on the bag so he called them and had them look it up on the computer. he had a hard time telling me what the white powder was but said the yellow is an antihistamine to dry up the runny nose, the red is cough medicine (although she has no cough) after alot of struggling, the basic idea of what the powder is is that it is for the small intestine to promote a healthy digestive tract due to possible bacteria stemming from the cold in her nose. its like activia in powder form i guess. go figure huh? anyway, the powder and cough medicine were put aside and i am researching whether or not the antihistamine would be a good idea or not. before i left, i thanked the pharmacist profusely which made him smile and laugh (all Korean men smile and laugh at me, i am very funny here) and he said, this is hard for you, taking care of your kids in Korea? i just thought, you have no idea.

so I'm keeping busy. not necessarily by choice, but it seems to be passing time. Addison cut not one but 2 teeth (yeah!!!) and Ethan informed me that when he grows up he is going to marry Addison so they can live together. very innocent thought but scary since we will probably be moving south....(sorry to all my southern friends:))

Tomorrow is a big day for all the house moms in okpo because a Starbucks is opening. its such a big deal plans were being made all morning to go there directly from school drop off tomorrow a.m., which I'm alittle confused about because nothing opens in okpo before 10am, i mean nothing. with rick still lost at sea, we have been forced to explore with the car without him which is an experience within itself. i am not very good with directions and don't pay too much attention to where I'm going unless i have to. luckily, rick is good with directions and for assistance with my current situation, so is Ethan. the only problem with Ethan is that he isn't always consistent with his accuracy on telling right from left so our recent trip to the exercise park went like this. "ethan, do you think you can help mommy get to the park." "i know how to get there mom, daddy showed me" so I'm driving along and I'm trying to concentrate on where I'm going. side note probably not mentioned before that will make more sense as to why its hard to get places besides my topographical orientation problem. the streets have names that are like 50 letters long and make no sense with sometimes more than one name on it, not consistent with anything. so everyone has nicknames for the streets but not every group of people use the same name. so if i am talking to one group i may say "is it on tree street?" and they may say yes, or they may say "whats tree street?". most people know where dunkin donuts and baskin Robbins are so alot of times you will receive directions from there. rick and i have our own name for streets so if he tells me where to go i understand. when we first arrived and would walk or drive around rick would quiz me and say "where are we" or "which street is that". the ladies i know don't call the streets by the same name so i have a hard time with their directions. they will say things like "belly dancing is across from the shoes store", and i dont know where the shoe store is so... anyway, this is why it was difficult for me to get the park because you look up at the street names and it tells you nothing. sometimes you can remember landmarks but they are written in Korean and everything is bold and busy looking and it all honestly looks the same. they are trying to be so eye catching with all the colors and lights that you just tune it out because it is so overstimulating. if someone put up a plain white sign with black writing it would be in such contrast to its surroundings that everyone would probably notice it.

so we are driving down ski slope (called this for obvious reason due to its steepness) and i know i need to turn soon but i don't know for sure which way. Ethan's in the back going "turn left" and I'm going "i think its right" and he's going "this way mommy" (which i cant see him because he's in the back seat and pointing) cars are riding up on me, i could be heading for a one way street for all i know, Addison is grunting in the backseat (she grunts, i think, because she thinks this is talking. very unlady- like i know but when you look at her when she's doing it, she beams this beautiful smile at you that you cant help but love) and i decide to go right, which is the correct way, and Ethan says "see mommy, i told you i knew where it was" . by the time i get anywhere i feel like i need a drink.

with Halloween next week i have been helping out with party plans at the school and making gift bags for the kids. i decided i was suddenly really crafty after reading an easy to do article on the Internet and now spend way too much time gluing things together. there is alittle party at the school outside (still in the 70's here) and then trick or treating up at the row houses. the row houses are built into the side of a mountain and are duplexes connected to each other in rows. they have very small backyards which make them desirable to alot of people but are much older and smaller than the high rise apts all over okpo. we go back and forth as to whether or not we want to live in one, currently we think it might be a good idea. we are on a waiting list for one so we don't know if the option will even be there but we have reason to believe it might come up in December. we went to a BBQ a couple of weeks ago at one of the houses and i got a chance to take a look at the inside. they are smaller than our apt but they are not as old looking as i thought. i definitely had a more homey feel than you get in the apts, which of course is appealing to me. the pros that i noticed were: separate dryer (not all have this but many do) which would significantly cut down on my laundry time, backyard with a grill (room for blow up pool for kids), ceiling fans (absolute addiction of me and rick), alot of kids live there (good and bad), free gym at the admiral hotel, park in walking distance, very close to the foreigners club (serves American/British dinners (dont order a hamburger)and has a bar and kids play room. hosts fun things like Mexican night and trivia parties. we go about once a week) and bakery(which is called an epicurean or something which i always think is a hair salon) , close to school. cons: smaller and older, up on a hill making stroller questionable, farther from the shipyard meaning rick might be taking the car, we have to move, and I'm sure there are more but nothing immediate comes to mind. we are leaving to come home DEC 12th until Jan 2nd so the timing might be hard too. i don't know, it changes from day to day with me.

i have decided to take a class here during the week if it is okay to bring Addison(which i heard it is). the class is belly dancing and a few of the woman here already go. my goal is to start this next week and make it there at least once a week. i here it is a great workout so i guess we will see.

rick is now working 6pm-6am on the ship and looking forward to coming back. he should be home by Halloween but we are not sure. talking to him (which is getting harder and harder with poor reception) is interesting with his vocabulary consisting of alot more profanities than i remember. something about those off shore guys...

next week i am volunteering at Ethan's school in his classroom cafe to teach the children to make grilled cheese and possibly read a Halloween book. tonight as i talked to rick on the phone i managed to wear the baby in the Bjorn until she fell asleep, make Pb&j (remembering to cut into a heart shape), pack a lunch, put away dishes and dodge Ethan who was riding around me with his bike. i even made sure i sat down with e and taught him how to make the letter n for noisy nick of letter land and read books. over all i am holding my own, just not sure how long it will last.

so plans for next week: Halloween bag assembly with friends on Monday, belly dancing on Tuesday, volunteer at school on Wednesday, obsess over row house versus no row house on Thurs, Halloween party and rick's return on Friday and plan for a weekend away with family to replace the one we missed soon. keep it busy to prevent loss of sanity....

Still no sign of the Lido deck

or the disco, pool bar, or casino after five days here. But there is a pool, however it is a moon pool and if you end up in there you become the subject of a safety investigation. After 5 days here I can tell you it feels like 5 years. This is groundhogs day. Every day looks exactly the same as the one before. 6 AM meeting, breakfast, work on rig floor, lunch, more work, dinner, 6 PM meeting, a little more work, hit the gym, surf the net (more like paddle boat the net), bed. Rinse, lather, repeat. There is a gym on the ship (some free weights, some cardio equipment, nothing special), a cinema (not functional yet), game and hobby rooms (also not functional, being used by the catering staff to sleep in), and of course the galley (serving 4 meals a day, on the 12's and 6's!). Other than that the house portion of the ship (where we are at when not on the rig floor) contains cabins (2 per room, private bath) offices, the bridge, and the helideck. Nothing too exciting here either, 7 stories, lots of stairs, signs labeling everything including lights (ML-005-1303D is the one in front of me) and power outlets (ML-005-1526A). If it is on the ship, it has a sign with a number attached to it or above it. This is also not like a regular ship (other then the obvious 220 foot drilling derrick in the middle of it). It is heavily ballasted and dynamically positioned so it never moves. I mean the thing does not rock, sway, bob, or any other adjective you can come up with to describe motion. It also really never moves. Your view never changes from day to day, it is like being parked in the ocean. Kinda weird but you get used to it after a while. For everyone who thought living closer to work or even sleeping in the office occasionally, BAD IDEA!! You do not want to live where you work, it means you are always at work. They can page you at any time for any reason. You have no excuse to ever be late (I got caught in traffic coming up the flight of stairs from my cabin to the conference room doesn't work), and you really never go home. There is no beer on board either (except for Flite, the NA version of Hite (Crisp and Fresh!)) since you are always at work. The food is decent in a dormitory way, I wouldn't feel great if I paid for it but since it is free it will suffice. It is American food as well so that is kind of a treat in the respect that I haven't had it in a while. Anything fresh is from Korea, but they still make American meals out of it (mexican day, pizza, fried chicken, real hot dogs!) so it is not just like home but close. The people from Transocean on board are the drilling crew from the States who will work the rig once it gets back to the Gulf of Mexico next year. They are predominately from the south, Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, "in between Louisiana and Alabama, Mississippi- God's country". I have therefore acquired not one but two new nicknames, Detroit (obvious), and Dodge (from my previous engineering life). Also every time something doesn't work on the rig floor they refer to it as a Dodge as well ("must be a dodge"), apparently Dodge doesn't have the best quality rep in the business (it may not be because of me though, because another guy told me a story about a ship where they had a piece of equipment that always broke down so they referred to it as the dodge truck, like "dammit, the dodge truck is broke again" over the radio). Also, I have discovered that the big three are Ford, Chevy, and Dodge, since the only vehicles that matter are trucks. At least it is better than being referred to as Wisconsin (happened to Lynn) and having people ask you about the Steelers ("I thought you were from Pittsburgh")...

Lost at Sea

I am currently serving a 1-3 week stint out here, at least potentially. I have no idea really. One of the guys who rode out to the ship with me had this bit of advice "the first thing I do when I go the ship is figure out what I need to do to get off the sip and go home. Then that becomes my top priority". Me: "I have no idea what I need to do to go home". Him: "you have a problem then". Therein lies the question of how long I will actually be here. So if you were tuning in for this weeks episode of "The Walker family goes to Busan for the Fireworks", you will now be treated to the mini-series "Tricky at sea" (my wife loves it when Rick refers to himself in the third person, especially when Rick refers to himself as Tricky). Anyway, I have only been here for about 36 hours, of which 28 have been working and 5 have been sleeping, so there will be more of this to come as I get settled in and find my way around here. What I do have though is a little photo recap of life at the shipyard which I was going to share a few days ago before I got the call from my boss to head out for this baptism by fire. Anyway, on to the photos. OK, I have given the photos exactly 1 hour and 8 minutes to upload, still no dice. That post will have to wait until I return from sea. Which brings me to the internet issue. First off, no access to the fantasy football site (blocked by firewall). Secondly, the internet is UNBELIEVABLY SLOW. It has been described by everyone exactly the same way (which is the absolute truth as well). Imagine your home internet, then invite 250 people over to split the bandwith with you, as well as an entire phone system. LAN, wireless, doesn't matter. G-mail takes 10 minutes to load, and skype dropped my call 4 times in 2 minutes. It wouldn't surprise me if this post didn't go through until Saturday actually...

12 things i like about korea

so rick left today to do sea trials where he will be gone for an uncertain amount of time out on a ship learning yet another new skill. we found out about this on tuesday, which was ironic because on bad attitude monday we sat up and talked about how this weekend we were going to get out of okpo for some fireworks in Pusan and go to costco in the city. we felt that might make the "bad attitude" go away. so change of plans. i am alittle freaked out about being in korea with the kids alone and rick out on some ship and i don't know when he's coming back but i also have made alot of friends here who go thru this all the time and are available to help as needed. rick on the other hand is about to truly get his korean adventure. i tried very hard not to say things like " are you freaked out? what do you think about all this, do you know what you are suppose to do?" but I'm a talker and it came out anyway...so before i list the 12 things i like about korea, I'd like to say I'm always very impressed by rick's ability to go with the flow and do new things. 6 months ago i would not of thought my car engineering husband would be going out to sea, but hey, off he went. he will do great...

12 things i like about korea:

1. sticky rice- we have a rice cooker and we all love sticky rice. goes good with all meals and is pretty healthy. it tastes nothing like rice back home, much, much better.
2. our water cooler- it gives hot and cold water so you never need to boil anything. much quicker when making oatmeal and bottles.
3. the ocean- especially at night. you look out your window and there it is, it really is beautiful. we went to a beach last weekend for a bbq and i stopped and watched Ethan running in and out with the mountains in the background and thought, this is amazing.

4. no crime. very safe here. when we first came, i remember exactly how i felt leaving the apt alone with the kids for the first time.I was so afraid and had no idea what was going on. i didn't want Ethan to be afraid so i acted like i wasn't but we didn't go far. now, i walked home from ladies night out at midnight alone and thought absolutely nothing of it.
5. the different cultures-okpo is this huge melting pot of cultures due to the shipyards and everyone pretty much coming from everywhere else. yes there are alot of Koreans but there are alot of people from Scotland, Ireland, new Zealand, Australia, the states, England, Norway, Sweden, etc... all of the mom's i know are from different places. i love to here their accents and notice how their children dress. my favorite accent right now is the Scottish one. it sounds lovely. rick says that when the Scottish men get to drinking, you have no idea what they are saying...
6. back to the culture thing, my child is becoming more aware of different cultures and places. we talk alot about where we are from and where others are from. his 2 favorite friends at school are from Australia and Germany. i volunteer sometimes at his school and when i went last week they had all made different flags of their countries, held them up and stated what they were. it was amazing to see all the different places and their flags. Ethan held his American flag up and said "Michigan" when asked what country it was. we will have to work on that...
7. paved sidewalks- all of the sidewalks are pavers. really nice to look at, however due to the extreme sloping of the streets, not always flat and difficult to walk on.
8. no tipping-this is initially uncomfortable but you get used to it. you don't tip, its not expected or wanted. i took ethan for a haircut yesterday and i was really bothered by not tipping.
9. mini marts- they are everywhere and are usually open 24 hours and carry a wide variety of groceries including eggs, bread, veggies, fruits and so on. better yet, we have one in our bldg so you can just run downstairs and get something if you run out.
10. korean bbq-still love this and think it is very cool to sit on the floor and grill your own food.
11. chopstick usage is everywhere-when i set the table for dinner i now include chopsticks and yes, Ethan can now use them to eat (Addison not so much)...

12. our Korean agent- this is someone who helps you in your apt with things like getting water, changing light bulbs and setting up the Internet. his name is JB but we call him everything but JB. this is because when we first came rick told me that Korean people go by their last names, which is not true. so, when i looked at JB's card, his last name is jeung so i started calling him something that sounded like "john". i constantly used his name when talking to him and referring to him, ethan called him john and when i had to phone him, no one i spoke with had any idea who "john" was. so i asked him and he told me his name is JB. i felt pretty stupid, so as a payback to rick for misleading me, i changed JB's name every time i talked about him, like "RT came over today to fix the dishwasher" or "do you think JR could tell us where to get the red bags?" i did it so much that rick had no idea what his name was for the longest time. silly, i know, but it became a big joke between me and rick until rick really needed to contact him and didn't know his real name to do it. so, that is over now, but i still really like LQ. he thinks i am really funny, speaks limited english and is bewildered by Ethan's behaviour and Addison's toys. whenever i ask him how he is doing is says "not so good" but i don't know why because he is smiling...
so tomorrow i am off to make baby food with the other moms and to kill time until rick returns. i am going to attempt not to have any adventures while he is gone...

bad attitude monday

how long things take to occur has always been an odd interest of mine. i am fascinated by the idea that you know something will happen, you just are not always sure of when. sometimes it is exciting (like waiting to have a baby) sometimes it is not (like now). in the spirit of that thought, this is the "we are all homesick now" blog which in no way should be taken to be a bashing of Korea or anything Korean and is a direct result of the reality of our situation kicking in...nothing is wrong and yes, this too will fade...it is after all still a great adventure.

12 things i hate about Korea:
1. no garage disposals. gross, dirty and irritating. i just want to grind things up and make them go away, i don't want to think about it. i know it is a good thing, these little red bags, but i dislike them too.
2. no drive thru anything. i am not a fast food fan but sometimes you just need to drive thru and get the kids McDonald's or for me Starbucks. shouldn't really matter though because we only have one car and since i cant drive without becoming irritated with the lack of oh i don't know any street signs to follow, i might as well just walk.
3. which leads to the constant sloping of streets and complete lack of accessibility for strollers, not to mention the delivery guys on scooters who drive on the sidewalk and come very, very close to hitting you all the time. its very noisy too with way too much traffic and not enough parking places.
4. no drive thrus should mean everyone who goes to Korea gets thin right? no, everyone will tell you its the opposite, which i am finding to be true. you find places like Paris baguette (my Korean panera bread) and dunkin donuts. i have never in my life even liked donuts but there i was on Sunday with ethan looking out the window drinking a coolata eating a donut like it was no big thing until the scale tormented me Monday morning. i have even been heard saying "i don't know why i am gaining weight" which is totally ridiculous. (by the way thanks for sending the chocolate mom).
5. FYI- Koreans are not the small short people everyone thinks they are. most are of average size, even taller than average alot of the time which is why it makes no sense that the stores only seem to cater to smaller women. i have yet to find this out first hand, but according to the other American expat women who are not large women, the store employees will say to you when you are looking for something "no large-ie" to let you know they do not carry anything in your size. rick likes to joke about this when we are out but i tell you what, this will not be a good day if it comes.
6. i don't really want a maid but it comes with the apartment and she is making me very paranoid by constantly looking irritated and trying to explain things to me in korean ( she speaks zero English).i believe the lesson i needed to learn today was how to place a rag on a mop. not sure if she thinks i dont clean when she's not there or if she's just sharing her cleaning knowledge with me. today i gave her chocolate so she would quit doing this and it seemed to work. maybe i can just fatten up all the Korean women and i will never have to dread the "no largie" incident that looms in the distance.
7. rick bikes to work and eats Korean food everyday for lunch so he is now winning the weight loss bet that has been ongoing for some time. should be happy for him but i am in a negative place and want to suggest we go to baskin robbins for dinner...
8. I've noticed that in addition to my hair constantly looking like crap because we live on the ocean and i don't know how to deal with it,and the extra pounds thing with my comfort food obsession that my skin is all messed up and breaking out too. speaking to one of the expat Americans about it today, she simply said "oh, yeah, we all go thru it, its like being a teenager again, don't know why" . great. loved my teenage years...
9. math. i hate math. maybe this is why i married rick because he loves math and will do it for me. i don't want to constantly convert dollars to won, kilometers to miles, Celsius to Fahrenheit, its never ending. make a mistake and i will end up spending 100 dollars on some cheap toy for Ethan.
10. one bathroom. went out with the ladies for a girls night out, accidentally spent 80 dollars (math!!!!) on a bottle of bad wine and had to share the bathroom with men all night because many bathrooms are set up this way. OK, i go to the bathroom alot when i drink. after awhile, i would see the same guys talking on their cell phones in the bathroom we were sharing over and over again. they were very helpful when the paper towels would run out or you needed soap...how wrong is that. worse than that, there is also a shower in the bathroom you share. who uses this? its called privacy, sometimes i need that.
11. combo washer and dryer-what a really bad idea. how tired am i of constantly washing clothes that never dry and i end of having to hang all over the laundry room so they can be "crisp" when you wear them. did i mention i have a baby? and a messy 4 year old? also, the little song it plays at the end was at first quaint, now just a reminder that its time to do more laundry.
12. sling box tv. sometimes a good thing, often irrating with constant lags and skips just when you are getting into something.

and last, certainly not least and probably the catalyst of this all is my family is not here. normally i would drink a glass of wine with my mom and complain about these types of things until we laughed and it all went away. she would give me advice on how to make it better or more often than not, she would just listen, know it meant nothing and go on like i never said a word about any of this. she would not feel i wasn't adjusting well or that i was depressed, she would know i am just blowing off steam, very therapeutic for me and life would go on to the next adventure. miss you mom...
now, i don't know what will help rick. he is attempting to drink soju (sweet potato vodka) for luck while watching the lions play in the other room. rick has not had a team win in 2 weeks. i guess all i can say is "go lions" and i cant believe I'm saying this but i even miss the constant flying of sports flags in front of our house, although I'm not sure the neighbors probably do...

The joy of trash

Well, we have been here a month now and we FINALLY think we have the trash system figured out, at least well enough for us to get by. They recycle all kinds of things here (paper products, glass, plastic, metal, food scraps) in addition to the regular garbage. There is a four page manual on how to do the trash here (no lie, four pages, Al has seen it) and it took a month to figure out how to make it all work correctly. in the basement of our building are recycling bins for glass (pop in glass bottles!), plastic, cans, and cardboard and paper products. There is a guy who it appears is his full time job to continually sort and bundle the recyclables in the basement parking garage. He has a chair sitting there and everything, but you only see him like once a week but the stuff is constantly done. In addition, there are trash bins for red bag trash outside of the garage near the entrance. What is red bag trash you ask? good question. It is basically regular garbage you accumulate, the only caveat being you have to put it in this red bag. The red bags are like plastic shopping bags (in fact, some stores will pack your groceries in them as well) that come in 3 sizes (which we just found out about a week ago). You MUST use these bags for your garbage as we found out the hard way. The first time the cleaning lady came to the apartment (she comes with the place, I didn't hire her, and she doesn't speak any English) she threw a fit at Lynn and had to call the rental agency liaison over to the place because she refused to take out our garbage because it was in a white plastic bag. We just began using our grocery bags because that is what we had, but that apparently is unacceptable. Our agency guy ran out and got us a bunch of 20L bags to use (typical grocery bag size) so we would not have a repeat of this ugly incident. We then set out to find where to buy the mysterious red bags, thinking you should be able to buy trash bags somewhere, like hefty bags in red or something. They DO NOT sell any trash bags on Geoje island. The red bags are available behind the counter and you have to ask for them and you buy them individually. They just have rolls of them and they give you what you ask for. We also discovered that they make 50L bags as well, which actually fits the trash can so we are not just setting a bag under the sink to fill with crap. They also have no disposals here, they have a mesh basket in the drain to catch your food scraps. Some people use small trash cans to gather the scraps which they eventually recycle somehow. Expats typically do not do this, as having a small trash can of food under the sink leads to all sorts of flies and bugs and the like, as exhibited by the food bins in the MiniStop, which when you open them flies come out by the dozen. It is not a pleasant experience, without even getting to the smell involved. Speaking of the MiniStop, there are a TON of convenience stores around Korea. They all have American names as well. MiniStop, Family Mart, GS 25, 7-11 (yes, 7-11 but no slurpies). The amusing thing is when they translate the names to Korean, they do it directly. So Family mart is not the Korean words for family and mart, but actually family mart. So when you hear them talk about it, you hear a bunch of words you don't understand, then family mart, then more Korean. It is like a persons name. These places are open 24/7, and have the basic necessities like back in the states. The convenience food (hot dogs, mini burritos, etc.) are completely unrecognizable and have sticks through them, like squid on a stick or something. I am afraid to actually try any of it at this point. They are very trusting of people as well. Ethan and I were at the ministop looking for more red bags and the guy was out. He actually left the store and drove to the other ministop for five minutes and returned while leaving us in the store completely unattended. We could have taken everything including the cash register before he got back. I cannot imagine a guy leaving 7-11 wide open and unattended for 5 minutes with customers there, but there is virtually no crime here (other than traffic violations by the thousands)...

Three English phrases you hear at the shipyard

There are three main phrases that Korean supervisors/engineers/management know and use on a regular basis. Every time you discuss doing something with them you will hear at least one of the three, sometimes even used together. The big three are as follows:
"It is very difficult": Pretty much just like it sounds, it basically is used if you mention doing something and they don't want to do it. It is a first reaction type comment before thinking anything through in an attempt to avoid having to do the task at all. This one is easily overcome with a little persistence.
"Oh no, impossible": This one is used after thinking about a task that needs to be done and determining that they REALLY don't want to do it. My personal favorite for a few reasons. First off, NOTHING is impossible, difficult may be, highly unlikely, sure, but impossible? I don't buy that one. Secondly, I have heard it used for tasks ranging from hanging a 50 ton piece of equipment and keeping it perfectly vertical to drilling and tapping a hole in a steel plate. So apparently impossible knows no size or complexity limitations either. I have to hand it to the guys at the shipyard, I have seen the make the "impossible" happen on a daily basis here...
"Same same, but different": Also a good one. This is a catch-all they use to describe a task that is similar to another task to exhibit how they plan to do it or that they understand it. The caveat here though is the wide range of "same same". I have seen it used to describe hanging an identical piece of equipment 40 feet away (good usage), gives you a sense of comfort knowing they understand what to do. I have also seen it used in reference to hanging a piece of equipment that is a tenth of the weight, completely different in functionality and mounting, and not even applicable in our case. But they still trot out "same same, but different". Here the different is obvious, but the "same same", not so much. This is the scary usage that does not give you a warm fuzzy feeling. A good analogy for it is that they will use it for a turkey sub at quiznos and a ham sub at quiznos. same same, but different. This I understand. The problem is they will also use it for a turkey sub at quiznos and a 8 passenger Kia minivan. Same same, but different. That is the scary part, as the different is clear but the same same, not so much. Same same because they are both not naturally occurring in nature? They both are in Korea? You can drive the van to Quizno's? Needless to say, this one provides the most head scratching and is also the most frequently used since it can apparently refer to pretty much anything...

i'm afraid of heights, but i love the mountains...

so yesterday being chu-seak, we decided to go to a memorial park where they have a museum to get alittle history. so we hopped in the car and headed on our way. i dont remember directions very well but rick always does. rick and i work that way, his weaknesses are my strengths and vice versa, so i did not question if we were going the right way. we started winding up this very narrow road quickly, very steep, not a road i remember from our tour with his friend. as we are going along, i realize we are going the wrong way on a one way road, only wide enough for 1 car and we are now up high in the mountains, no way to turn around and when i say it was steep, i mean steep, steeper than i have ever been. now, i dont think i have ever been called a drama queen, nor do i think i am typically a person who over reacts to situations, but that was about to change. normally, i would say nothing, or not too much about the situation and let it play out, but i have this completely unreasonable fear of falling off the side of a highway/road that i have had for the past couple of years and rick did know about but i'm not sure if anyone else does. i began saying things like, "oh my god, slow down, oh my god, were going to fall!! were going the wrong way" all the time feeling seriously sick to my stomach until finally rick said,"i know and you have to stop because you dont want to get me freaked out, its not a good idea right now!!!" ethan is in the back going "why ya freaked out mom over and over and maybe i was going to hyperventilate. i could not work out in my head how i could possibly survive, save us, nothing...it was crazy. if a car had come, it would have been bad. koreans drive really fast and we would not have been able to stop or see them coming, it was just too much of a winding road and too steep. some how, rick turned us around on this narrow road, i did not, could not watch. i was very upset.

so we finally found the road to the memorial park, but could not go because it was closed due to the holiday. we decided to go to the exercise machine park instead. it was a beautiful day, about 78 degrees, an acceptable amt of people at the park, and yes they were working out while the kids played, and we found this very cool little gazebo there to hike to. it was up on a mountain with a beautiful view and below it led down to a different area in the park where ethan could ride his bike and we could relax.

here are some pics:

more pics

our living room. normally we have a big rug in here but its getting cleaned. its really quite nice. we have a sling box so we get all of our tv from home, i still watch the today show, greys anatomy, dancing with the stars and rick still watches games, just at different times. so far no worries that someone will accidentally tell rick who won a game at work but hey, you never know....the couch, as ugly as it is, is extremely comfortable. it used to have fringe all along the bottom but in an attempt to get a leather couch like some of the other apts have, i commented that i was worried about the fringe with the baby crawling and sticking things in her mouth (which was also true). i thought, hey they will just bring a new couch right? nope, 2 korean men and their little tools came and removed all of the fringe along the bottom of the furniture. they looked very proud when they were done. my plot was foiled....

our kitchen. pretty functional with all its gadgets.

our room. we had to bring memory foam mattress toppers because koreans like their beds very hard. it helps but it is still not like a mattress at home. most days i wake up with a sore back but i believe i will eventually get used to it, or go home, which ever happens first...

more pics from korea

the cutting board/dishtowel sterilizer. 3 settings: 30mins, 60 mins, 90 mins. i dont know the difference so i choose the middle of the road at 60 mins....

the kimchi refrigerator. one of 3 in the apt. this smells like cabbage if you open it. guess thats why there is a seperate fridge.....

i thought i could share some apt pics and the story behind them...

this is ethan's room and the view from his room. if you look up on the mountain, you see OKPOLAND which was an amusement park that got shut down apparently after a number of fatalities. no one i have talked to knows why it hasn't been torn down yet, but it is definitely not in business. spooky...