Robbie Is Here!

Robbie finally made it to town. I rode with the driver to Busan to pick him up from the airport on Sunday evening. He landed at 8:30 pm and we got "home" by 11pm. One of the first things he "said" was really just a weird look that said "what is up with your hair?". So I'll go into the story about my hair cut. We have a lead secretary that has worked many years with the Chevron projects in Okpo. She is assisting us right now, but is still full time on another project that will finish in a few months. I told her I needed a hair cut (and highlight), so she offered to take me after work. We walked into a relatively nice little salon where only one guy seemed to be working, although there were about 10 chairs for customers. No appointment needed. I sat down and Enny helped translate what I needed. A trim all around and trim up my bangs a bit. So, he proceeds to start cutting (no hair wash here) and then we get to the bangs. We show him how short and he cuts a STRAIGHT line across my forehead. Holy smokes, I am starting to sweat. I can't imagine what this will look like. In Houston, they actually "Shape" your hair, so the bangs transition nicely to the rest of your hair. I'm just about done with the cut and the takes the scissors and THINS my hair. For those of you that know me well, you know that I barely have any hair as it is, THINNING would be my worst nightmare. At this point, I almost have a heart attack in the chair. I get out of there for the cheap price of 13,000 won (about 20% of what I paid in Houston, and about 20% of the quality!). I'm still waiting on my bangs to recover. They are short, straight and do not even curl with the roller brush. I'm praying they grow out soon. Regarding the highlights. No one knows what I'm talking about. They ask "what color do you want your hair to be". Well, I want my roots to be the same color as my hair! I think they do the all-over hair coloring, but not highlights. I will either have to go to the big city (Busan) or manage off of a do it at home kit, which I was smart enough to bring from Houston in case this happened. God forbid I get caught with my roots showing!

Back to the airport.... Rob's first look at me was this question of "what happened to your hair". Geez, nice to see you, too, sweetheart! We worked on Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday night was a project dinner and we went to the Crab Restaurant about a block from our apartment. And guess what we ate? Yes, it was Crab. And it was fantastic!!!! King crab from Russia. We will be taking any visitors to this place!

Yesterday, was memorial day in Korea, so we had the day off from work. I took Rob on his first hike. We did Guksabong (again). 464 meters above sea level. Pictures attached. It's a two-hour roundtrip from our apartment, up the mountain and back home. Our legs were jelly at the end of the hike. This is the observation deck about half way up. I would've hated to carry the lumber and steel up the mountain to make the observation deck.

Here is Robbie contemplating life at 464 meters above sea level. Or maybe he's just contemplating how much water weight we lost sweating to get up there.

The marker at the top of the mountain. No clue what is says, except the 464 meters (in white).

After the hike, we showered up and took a trip to Home Plus. This is the big grocery store 15 minutes down the road. We needed an alarm clock (since I was still using a stop watch) and some other items. Rob HATED this place. It is a complete zoo and it's always busy. I think we'll avoid it unless necessary. I'm worried this may be the only place to find decent ground meat and chicken. But we can buy most everything else and the smaller, local marts. After purchasing our groceries (and knowing that you must self pack them into boxes and carry them to your car), we get upstairs and pack the boxes. They are a little heavier than ideal. We hit the button for the elevator and the it comes by, but is full of people. My arms are already getting tired of holding the box. We decide to take the stairs, with boxes in our arms. We are once again dripping in sweat as we make it to the level with our car. I get into the garage and literally can't carry my boxes any further. Rob has to go drop his box at the car and come back from mine. My arms are now jello. We hate this shopping place!!!!!!!!!

After returning home, we decide we are too tired to cook, so we wandered around town and thought it would be fun and try to eat korean (this would be the first time alone, usually it's with business groups and someone knows what they are ordering). We go to a place that I went for a business dinner and the lady tries to explain to us that the 25,000 won (about $26) meal is served for three people. So we're thinking that we are pigs anyhow, so a serving for 3 will be great, and what a great price! We'll bring everyone here, this is cheap! After dinner we go to pay the bill and it's 78,000 won!!!!! $84 !!!!!!!! lesson learned --- She meant that it's a minimum order of 3 servings. We are such idiots. Anyhow, live and learn. We will be eating at home all this week. Here is a picture of the bulgogi cooking at your table. The waitress flips the meat and cooks it for you, pulling the pieces that are done to the edge of the tray for you to grab and eat. All of the side dishes are standard with most meals. There are onions, what we think were yams, some potatos, snails in the shell (towards the top left of the picture), spicey vegetables, etc.

Here's a picture from under the table. The chairs had no legs. Luckily we were seated at a table which had an extra hole under the table so we had leg room. Usually, you are seated on the floor, with or without chair or cushion.

Well, that's all for now. It's almost lunch time, so we'll head home for a sandwich, especially since I forgot the backup tapes for the office server. We ate on Tuesday at the DSME cafeteria, which is free. We had whatever meat they were serving and some rice. I wasn't a fan of the soup, it looked like dirty water run over cabbage. The meal was HOT. Everything here does tend to be spicey. On Rob's first day in the office, I took him to the Indian restaurant for lunch, which I am addicted to. It is also very hot/spicey, but the meal is fantastic and I have been craving it since the first time I've had it. I guess it's just something different than kimchi!

Will write more later!