We are still alive

Work has been so insanely busy that I haven't been able to make myself update the blog by getting back on the computer at night. And Rob sure as heck doesn't help with the blog, so my apologies to all.

Anyhow, we're still alive and kickin. Another couple and another guy (his wife if coming in September) that are our age showed up, so we've been hanging out with them. Here's my only latest non-hiking picture. :)

This is the group, including a few of the gals from the office, before our terrible team-building dinner. The most boring dinner of a lifetime, arranged by yours truly. Next time is bowling and then dinner - something a little more engaging. But, here was the pre-party.

We leave tomorrow morning at 7am to go to Thailand (Koh Samui) for a week. No cell phones, no laptops - looking forward to it!! Will send pictures afterwards. Love to all.

Office Staff

We interviewed for our office staff a few weeks ago and some of them are finally onboard!!! Yeah! Here's a few pictures of our ladies on the project. It's SO wonderful to finally have someone who can call maintenance or order office supplies in Korean! It sure was hard to get things done at the office when everyone that came by could either barely speak English or none at all. And, Rob and I took the ferry to Pusan last weekend, so one of the girls wrote out all of our destinations in Korean, so we could communicate with the taxi driver. Taxi's are so incredibly cheap, which I don't understand since we calculated gas to be something like $6.87 a gallon here, or 1554 Korean Won per Liter, maybe - can't recall exactly, but I know it cost me over $90 to fill my tank on Friday. Ugh. Anyhow, a 15 minute taxi ride in Pusan was about $5.50. Not too bad. Unfortunately, the cost for both of us to take the ferry to/from Pusan was a total of about $80.
Back to the story, the ladies being in the office is so helpful. Here was our welcome lunch at the Geoje Island Hotel Sky Lounge. Here is YoonJoo and HyunSun.

And then Ziun and YoonJoo. These three are already working in our office.

These ladies in the next picture have worked for multiple Chevron projects over the last years. We are hoping to pick them up in October, when another Chevron project departs Okpo.

The group picture. No comment on the giant beast that is the blonde in this picture. Rough pic for me. LOL.

Last Weeks Hike

Yes, we are still alive. I've been slacking on the blog because it has been extremely busy at work, so I haven't wanted to get back on the computer once I'm home. We're trying to plan a vacation and we haven't even had the energy to do our research after we get home! Anyhow, you guessed it, we went hiking again last week. What else is there to do here? Answer, not too much. We went to the Waterfalls. It was nice. Nothing huge, but a neat change. Here's a picture on our drive to the hiking site. I love this picture, it's just so peaceful.

We found the trail (after taking many wrong turns in the car to get there). Now, how many engineers does it take to figure out which of the 3 routes leads to the waterfalls. Kind of hard to read a map in Korean.

After a little time, we made it to the top of the falls - yes, we went the backwards route, which was actually better because there's a short paved hike from a public parking lot to the bottom of the falls, so there were many people and families taking that short hike.

Then, we made it around to the bottom. Here we are at the falls.

The Koreans are very in touch with nature and the bodies & senses. My point being is that you see things like exercise equipment outdoors at a park by hiking trails - or the giant hula hoops and other exercise areas half way up a mountain. Below are stones that you can walk on with or without shoes to "massage" your feet (looks a little painful to me). They have these insets at other exercise areas and the sections differ between smaller stones and large flat ones, etc. to provide different senses.

Here are little wooden platforms hidden in the woods by the stream that runs from the waterfalls. Families will come here and have picnics.

Since the falls were a local spot that you could park and walk up a paved trail, this place actually had some facilities....even if you can see the face and legs of whomever is using them. Here's Rob saying hello!

And, finally...I had to do it... Here is my buddy along the trail. Yes, I love mammals, reptiles and amphibians. :)

I promise to post something besides hiking soon!!!!!!!!!!!!

Life at the Apartment

This is all Rob does. He is a "Pro Bowler" on the Wii already and everytime we have a spare minute, he's on there. This is what I see every night:

Finding a beach

Saturday morning we woke up to a gorgeous day outside. It was clear for the first time since I've been here. There is usually a haze or it's cloudy and drizzly. We decided to check out the beach, since there are a few around the island. We decided to go to the pebble beach and sand beach that are about 40 minutes away. There are closer ones, but I was told these are the better beaches. So, we packed up the beach towels, chairs, etc. to go get a tan. Here we are with our matching Sonata's in the garage before we left. Parking in our spaces is not an easy task. (Luckily I don't have to do it anymore since Rob is here and he drives everywhere). It's not a great picture since it is dark in the garage and I had to set the camera on another car to take the shot. :) But, there are our matching cars.

Here is one of the beaches we stopped at. There were only a few people there and they were digging in the sand for something. I figure it had to be for some type of live and edible creature (ever seen the Dirty Jobs episode where Mike Rowe digs in the sand for some type of giant sea worm?). We noticed everyone had on log sleeves and pants while on the beach. Turns out the gorgeous and clear day was due to the high winds and cool weather. We were freezing and the wind was so strong we got a load of sand blown into the car as soon as we opened the door!! Here is the first beach we stopped at.

We made our way to another beach and stayed there for under 5 minutes, as the sand blasting was a nice exfoliation, but was very painful. Some other families were also out there trying to enjoy the day, but everyone packed up after just a couple of minutes. The pictures below are of the beautiful scenery as we made our way to/from the beach(es).

I had to stop for a restroom break and this nice little path was at one of the scenic stops. I figured this was probably cleaner than the restroom across the way. Rob decided he must get a picture, so I've blocked the giant white rear-end that you don't want to see. :)

The beaches were nice and we'll be back soon - just not on a chilly and windy day!!!!

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!