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.

Michael Jackson Ribs

Did you know Michael Jackson had a restaurant in Korea??? Well, at least the expats think he does. We were told about "Michael Jackson Ribs" by another Chevron person who has spent a wonderful 2 years in Okpo. We decided to check it out last Saturday and see what all the fuss is about. Obviously, they serve ribs here. The nickname Michael Jackson Ribs came about because the restaurant provides a glove for you to eat with. I never could figure out if this was because of the temperature or the level of "spicey". I think the answer is both. Here is our crew:

Tom - on rotation, so he goes home every 6 weeks to see the family

Mitch - His wife is coming over in September

Dale - His wife is coming over in Sept or Oct

Lindsay - Here with her husband, who was in Houston with Rob on a business trip

Allison - Here with her husband, who was in Houston with Lindsay's Husband.

As you can see, all of the lonely people gather together each weekend just to get each other out of the apartment for dinner, hiking, etc.

Now...the owner of the restaurant comes to our table and mumbles off some Korean at 100 miles per hour. we all look at her confused and say "Ribs?". Finally she says "Regular, Spicey or Salty". Every man begins with "I'll take spicey". But she cuts in and says "Spicey is veeery spicey". So we start to rethink the situation. Maybe she knows what she is talking about??? These Koreans don't play around with the level of spice - this stuff gets HOT. Luckily, we find someone at the next table over (small town) that we know from another project. I ask him -- what do you order? He says half regular and half spicey -- and this came from a table of all men. So we decide on 3 regular and 2 spicey orders. Then, the gloves come out. We get a bucket with gloves and the guys think they are funny, of course. Here, the ribs have been laid out to cook on our little coal pit in the middle of the table. "Korea Style"

Lindsay and I give them a thumbs up... Can we get these with every meal??

Yum, these were great! All gone now... check out the abundant amount of side dishes. I wasn't doing so well with the metal chopsticks this night. Talk about frustration. Typical side dishes include: kimchi (rotten...I mean...fermented cabbage), a bowl of onions, a bowl of garlic pieces, a bowl of skinny green beans easily mistaken for St. Augustine grass, a bowl of seaweed, a bowl of green jalapeno shaped peppers that turned out to be hot this night. Most of the time, the peppers are not hot and you dip them in chili paste. Unfortunately for Dale and Mitch --- they learned the hard way that some actually are hot like a jalapeno!

And, finally, this little joint is a piece of outdoors brought inside. Check out the flooring! Rocks!

The best part was that we fed 5 people ribs and had numerous cold beverages and the bill was under $50. We will be returning soon!

Teambuilding In Korea

Now, there isn't much to do around here. Especially for a large group of people. So, we decided to go bowling as a team building a few weeks ago. Too bad the finger holes in the USA are often too small for me - these were tiny -- and they were only about one inch deep, so you couldn't even get most of your finger in there. I don't know what that was about. At least it gave us an excuse for our poor scores. That, and the fact that after they repaird the ball return, there was oil everyone, which had the ball sliding all over the lane. Q-U-A-L-I-T-Y.

Now, the bowling alley was in the next town, which meant an estimated 15 minute drive. We wouldn't want anyone to have a beer and drive home, so we hired the bus for the 15 minute drive. Luckily, the bus comes complete with cordless microphone for our entertainment!

Tom belted out a nice tune or two....which was then completed ruined by another co-worker who sang to the tune of "walking in a winter wonderland", while singing the words "why is korea so darn hot"...or something like that. He was HILARIOUS.

When you go bowling in South Korea - there is no food or beer at the alley. Therefore, you carry your own cooler to the bowling lanes! Sometimes, I'm glad I'm not a guy.

Of course, you can't bowl all night -- or maybe the Teambuilding coordinator (yours truly) should have booked the lanes for a longer time, because we had a lot of fun. Below is the after-party crew. And, yes, I work with all those skinny, cute girls every day. Talk about depressing!! These Korean chicks have some serious style - they wouldn't be caught dead wearing the boring stuff that I wear. They are always very fashionable. Of course, when you wear a size 1, anything looks hot on you. In fact, just because I work with them, I was bound and determined to start trying to look just a little bit cuter, more fashionable, more accesorized everyday...and then I woke up to the alarm for another dreaded day at work and decided to forget about it. :)

Next up for teambuilding is going to be a Beach BBQ next Saturday. We will even have all the required activities... Horeshoes, 3-legged races and Gumoshin throwing. I probably have the word wrong, but apparently you hang your shoe off of your foot. Someone counts to 3, and you throw your shoe (directly off of your foot) as far as you can!! I'm sure only the most talented person will win this one. I will have to think up an appropriate prize for the winner. Any cheesy suggestions for this, or other competitions are appreciated.