Visiting Ruth

We headed over to Daejeon this past weekend to visit Rob's cousin, Ruth. Daejeon is the 5th largest city in South Korea (I think). Ruth is teaching English Literature at Woosong University and it playing a Korean musical instruments (that I still can't spell) and taking voice lessons from a famous Korean Opera singer --- so, imagine her disgust when we all go to Noribang (Karaoke). ha ha....

Anyhow, Daejeon was really cool and it was great to see family!!!! I have some cute pictures and unfortunately, Rob took video (with audio) while I was singing. Yikes. Don't worry, I won't share that with anyone!

Here we are just wandering around Daejeon where there is a free concert going on outside. Can you find Rob???????? Even the famous Korean singers / groups come and perform out here.

A quick stop at Wa Bar. Lots of international beers, and an open air layout. A great people watching location. It was funny because almost everywhere we went, someone was yelling "professor" because they have Ruth as a professor!

I'm fairly certain that Ruth - the opera singer --- does NOT want to re-live this night... Rob and Allison with a microphone.

And an even bigger nightmare....Allison tries to sing along with Ruth. HA!

After Noribang, we stopped by THE best bar we have been to in Korea yet. It was called "Ethnic" and I'm sad to even pass these pictures along because the flash on the camera ruined the ambiance. This place used candles for about 90% of it's lighting and then a few, very low colored lights from the ceiling. They served flavored Soju, which we think was nicely blended with fruit juice and ice. This night we tried the Peach Soju and it was delicious.

Rob and Ruth putting on their best "Korean" pose on the street.

We were a little tired after the night of Noribang and flavored Soju, so on Saturday we went to a DVD room. This is a room that seats 4. The screen was about 6 ft. x 6ft. tall. There is a large selection of DVDs ( including pornography) that you can watch. We skipped the porn and went for the movie "Perfume", which was demented enough. Interesting movie. It was a nice, relaxing time at the DVD room. Ruth did promise that they wipe the seating down with cleaner between each use, so hopefully it was as clean as it looked.

Enjoying a potato on the street with one of the guys that also teaches at the University.

Saturday night we are back at Ethnic because we just love the place. Once again, the flash of the camera ruins the experience. This night we tried the Pineapple Soju.

Ummmmmm.....

That is most of the trip. It was great to see Ruth and get out of Geoje Island for a weekend. We hung out with Ruth's friends and they suggested that there was nothing to do in Daejeon. Little do they know the life in Okpo... Talk about nothing to do!!!!

Well, it's about 10pm here, so we are signing off.

More updates later!!!!

China

China was a blast. It was a guided tour, so everything was very fast...wake up call, breakfast, pack, get on the bus, show up at first place, tour it, get on bus, next stop, tour, lunch, bus, tour, dinner, check in to hotel, wake up call next morning... you get the drift. We were worn out by the end of the trip. But bargaining with street vendors was SO fun... The group we travelled with were all expats living in Seoul. The Korean tour guide was the ex-assistant mayor of Seoul and he spoke perfect English and was a lot of fun. Here is the shutterfly link to see the pictures. I took tons (over 400), so I am separating them by city. We went to Beijing, Xian and Shanghai.
Anyhow, back in Geoje. The weather is GORGEOUS today (Saturday), so we are about to take a hike and then BBQ on the rooftop tonight. There's a guy in town from Seoul selling furniture, so we'll probably try to bargain tomorrow as he packs up and there's a better chance for discounts because he doesn't want to drag it all back to Seoul !

We hope everyone is doing well !

Beijing Pictures:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8IcOWbJm3bsTw

Xian Pictures:
share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8IcOWbJm3bsUO

Shanghai Pictures:
share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8IcOWbJm3bsUs

Typhoon WIPHA

As if one weren't enough...Typhoon WIPHA is going to blast through the East coast of China approximately 1 day before we leave for China! Hope it doesn't do any real damage.
http://tsr.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/

Typhoon Nari came through last night and wasn't bad at all. Got some nice winds (not enough to blow us off the rooftop during our quick visit). Some tree branches and trash blown about, and the wind whislted by the building and shook the windows, but that was it!

Waiting for the Typhoon

It's starting to rain and I went out in search of butter, but the 2 nearest stores don't have it, so I gave up. Since I'm locked in the apartment I'll upload a few more pictures from the last week. We played softball against the departing Chevron project and they whooped us. We had a few Brits who were asking what to wear and how to play...I didn't take them too seriously, which was a big mistake. It took me 2 innings to convince one of them in OUTFIELD to WEAR A GLOVE... frustrating. Agbami (the other team) hit straight to him every time and they scored quite a few runs off of that. Others didn't know to touch the base when they were runners or to stand on the base after catching the ball to get an out. Lesson Learned -- cultural differences are not only with the Koreans!! :) But we had a blast playing and I'll get pictures of the game later. Here were the post game pictures when the two teams went out for ribs afterwards.

Rob needed to go out into the fab yard the other day and long sleeves are required. Unfortunately, he didn't have any readily available, so he borrowed Bomi's jacket!!! It was a tight squeeze, but it served it's purpose for a quick visit to the yard. Here's Rob & Bomi while he wears her jacket.
Mitch was also heading out and borrowed on of the other girls' jackets!!!!
Friday night we had dinner with some folks that are here with Transocean building a drill ship. I love this group.... a couple of younger folks and we can't talk about OUR project team when we're with them. Our group has a tendency to continually talk about work after work. With this group, it's a different project, so there's no work talk. It's great!
Sharmaine and I.
Here, Sharmaine is explaining the signs we see for "Box Sets" on the street. Apparently, it's a karaoke room with a girl for about $120 -- for an hour, I believe. But, if you pay more...well, you know....

It's nice to get the real story from a Korean who knows what is going on!

After dinner, the boys played poker. Rob won about $20.

That's all I've got for now. I'll post pictures of the storm later!!! The big part should hit around midnight tonight.

Typhoon Preparation

Well, we are buckling down for Typhoon Nari. It's currently a Category 2 (I think) and it should pass almost right over us. It may be down to a Cat 1 or Tropical Storm by the time it comes, but it should still be a neat display of wind and rain. We will take some pictures. Here's the bay right now (2pm on Sunday). By tomorrow morning, the Typhoon should come through. What makes it even more exciting is that I can't go into work until we get a phone call saying it's okay - so I get to sleep in. :)

BBQ on the Beach

We had a beach BBQ this past weekend as our monthly teambuilding. The kids got in the water and the rest of us relaxed. Well, I didn't get to relax, as I am the "Deputy Business Services Coordinator", so I had to plan everything, take pictures, lead the games and not drink in case someone needed a ride home. However, I think everyone else had a good time, even the kiddos. Here were some action shots during our day. :) The ladies at the office helped me think of some games -- I was not previously familiar with Chicken Fighting. As you will see below, the object of chicken fighting is to stay on one leg and knock down the other team. The last team standing wins! It was hilarious!!!!!!

The start of the 3-legged race. I handed over the camera so I could participate in this one. Here we are before the start.

And here we are about 5 seconds after the start. Luckily, our boss is in the background since he and his wife didn't even make it for more than about 3 seconds! We beat someone!! yeah!!!
Here is 1/2 of the winning horsehoes team. We drew names from a hat and paired people up. Rob and another guy won the tournament. We had to change the rules and play to 5 for the Korean ladies...it was a loooong game. They need some more practice. I think we actually called the game at 3 points.

Hanging in the shade and having some GREAT BBQ. We were all very surprised at how good it was!!!
Andy is cooking up the chicken, shrimp and sausage. Branden was on the other grill with the beef, which was delicious!

The late crowd.

The beautiful sky around sunset. We taught everyone the way of the Austinites and clapped at sunset.

I would've added more commentary, but it's Monday night and we are worn out. Time to hit the sack. Oh yes, and I huge thanks to Beast and Amanda for Skyping us at 1 or 1:40 am this morning!!!! Just remember, revenge sucks!!! I think I had crazy dreams after that because I rushed out of bed thinking it was an emergency of some sort. You guys are in trouble!!! :)

Going to the Doctor Overseas

I haven't been feeling well this week. Started with body pains and now I practically feel like I have the flu. So, I broke down and decided to go to the doctor today. Luckily, one of the secretaries also needed to go, so we headed over to Daewoo Hospital together. You don't find "general practicioners" around here - you just go to the hospital when you are sick. I only put this post on here for one reason - to gross you out, so don't look below if you don't want to see it. :)

I saw the doctor and told him my symptoms and based on my internet research, I was a little scared about a kidney infection. He also thought I might be pregnant, so he suggested a test for that. The secretary and I start laughing because another secretary just found out she is pregnant, so we were saying "no way" and I said "I can't be!". The doctor then proceeds to ask if I am married. I ask YoonJoo (who is with me) "what did he say?", because his English was not so great and YoonJoo says "he asked if you are ready?". And I'm thinking ready for what??? Is he about to pull my pants down or something?? Finally, I repeated "Am I married?" he nods. I say "yes". He must've thought I was a Russian hooker in town and was scared that I was pregnant and probably didn't know the father. It was a rather odd question to me, but then again, I'm in Korea.
I left this doctor to go upstairs to provide a urine sample. I walk in the door of the small, non-ventilated room and what do I see (and smell). Yes, folks, it's the urine samples. But they don't do it like the USA. Here is the first thing I see right when I walk in the room. Luckily people were speaking loudly enough that you couldn't hear the camera click sound that my cell phone made when I took this picture.

Anyone want some lemonade??? or orange juice????
The secretary and I are DYING LAUGHING. How disgusting!! And she's even Korean. The gentlemen prints out my barcode with information, sticks it on the side of a small dixie cup and then DRAWS a line with a ball point pen to show me how much he needs. HA!!!!!!! I then walk down the hall, around the corner to the women's restroom to provide my sample. I fill 'er up and then walk back down the hallway past everyone while holding my pee in a dixie cup. Good thing I didn't get thirsty and forget what I was carrying.

So, I went back later this afternoon to receive my diagnosis. He pulls up the computer screen to something that shows "pregnancy test = negative". My secretary and I clap and let a sigh of relief -- which must have been very traumatic for the doctor, who then asked "What were you doing to do if it was positive?" I then felt bad and said I wouldn't "do" anything, but I just wasn't planning on having a baby in Korea.

That's about all of my story, I thought it was funny. Disgusting urine samples and a doctor who thought I had no baby-daddy and would've gotten rid of it. No kids yet, but did get some antibiotics. Hopefully no trips anytime soon to the urine culture lab!!!!! Makes you almost appreciate the extremely long waits at the US doctor's office.