Botanical Gardens

Today we went to the botanical gardens, compliments of one of our Contractors (check off one tourist attraction from the list). We took a ferry to an island that we had seen while driving around trying to find a beach yesterday (more on that later). Apparently, the island used to be owned by the Korean government and then some rich guy bought it and it is open for tourist to visit the botanical gardens. You'll notice the geography of the land around here, it is very much like Hawaii. The ferry ride over.
The sculpture greeting you when you enter the gardens.
The cactus garden was much prettier in person. The picture didn't come out too well.

Hey, I know them!

The hydrangeas are gorgeous and they are all over the place. If I had a real patio, I would try to grow some.

Part of lunch. A pork sausage type of substance on a stick. It was actually pretty good.

I call this the Kama Sutra garden.

June Festivities

The Okpo Commemorate Victory Festival (or something like that) is taking place this weekend, so we went to check out the parade, food and music. We could see them setting up the stage and tents from our apartment, as the festival takes place on the soccer fields right by the bay. The pictures are not in chronological order, but I'm too lazy right now to take the time and move them around, so here you go! This is one of the "safe" carnival rides. The wheel spins and jumps up and down so people fly a few inches off of their seat and just hold onto the rails to stay in place. Very safe, I'm sure.

Here's the ride that you don't even have to offload from the bed of the truck!

We had a quick bite to eat after being kindly harassed by the guy working the tent. We have been eating what we thought was tofu for weeks now, and I found out today that it's really just fish mashed up and then pressed into pieces that look like tofu. Yuck. Oh well. We are also enjoying our warm beer, as no one seems to have ice. Oh well again...We'll take what we can get!

Not tofu, but fish pieces...

The obsessive tent worker that made us eat. You wouldn't want to see how they cleaned the bowl that we ate the soup from. He rinsed it in a bucket of dirty water under the table.

Rob and I at the festival. Our apartment is the one on the right that is cutoff in the picture. We have seen and heard the festival for the last 3 days. The entertainment is on all the time and we can hear the drums all day in our apartment.

I was in the middle of talking or eating when he snapped this, but I was enjoying crab on a stick, covered with some type of batter (fish paste for all I know). It was actually pretty good, unlike the soup that Rob had. I lost my appetite after trying the soup. ick.

This was on the way to the fields. All of the local boats had their flags out for the festival.

My favorite "float" from the parade. A man in a cage being pulled by a cow.

More parade pictures.

She is playing a giant shell on the right! pretty cool.

The stage at the festival.

After the festival, we visited our favorite girl Gina at Monkey Business. She is so sweet...and she told us where to eat bulgogi for less than 78,000 Won!

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!

Fresh Seafood Anyone?

Okay, I love this street and I finally had my camera on me when we went by today. It has so much sea life just sitting in buckets! Guess I should've gotten a shot showing the little stores and the buckets (sometimes an actual tank) outside on the street. The locals sit in chairs and tables outdoors on the dock and eat this stuff fresh. Don't get me wrong, I love sushi, BUT something about seeing it live and having it not prepared in pretty sushi form just disgusts me.

Here are the squid. I think they are the cutest of the creatures.

A variety of marine life.No comment on the looks of the creatures below, but I don't think I'm going to try eating one anytime soon.
Some little piney things.

More fishies, including a halibut. They also have lots of small halibut in some other buckets.

Crabs...

Sunday's Hike

Today, I went hiking again and we did a smaller mountain, but walked further out from town, so it was about a 3-hour trip in all. I'll just post some pictures. Below are some homes and rice fields.

Along all of the hiking trails are exercise areas. Someone has an action shot of me hula-hooping.

A view from the trail. You can barely see it, but there is a green patch behind the gazebo lookout. This is an asphalt area with exercise equipment. You see the DSME shipyard in the background.

The lookout point.

The fish hanging in the lookout point, which is a blessing or good luck.
Part of the trail. The steps are not found on Guksabong. This trail was more of a beginner's level.
A view of the town from the new walkway along the bay. Our apartment is the building in the center of the picture (kind of white with tan on the top few floors). We are on the 5th floor with a view of the bay.