Thankfully We Have Internet

I'm not sure how big of a news story this is in the US, but there is a huge telecommunications outage here in Asia. Thankfully it did not reach us here in Ulsan but Seoul and other northern parts of Korea were impacted.

I guess there were several earthquakes near Taiwan which impacted undersea telecommunications cables. Yesterday on the news they were saying that up to 2/3 of all telecommunications (including land lines, cell phones, cable, and internet) for Taiwan, Hong Kong, parts of China, Japan and Korea were affected. Businesses were scrambling and as I am sure you can imagine there was a lot of chaos. Here's an article today from CNN World talking about the outage and how it is being repaired.

As I said, luckily this didn't impact us otherwise there could have been problems at Jeff's refinery and I would have had no source of entertainment all day!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! We are still here in Korea, but it has been fun to celebrate in a different country! We did our best to improvise and give ourselve as normal a Christmas as possible. We put up stockings (using my scrapbooking supplies), a tree (thanks to a handy lamp and Jeff's dirty laundry), and even had presents to put under the tree (thanks to local retailers)




As you can see we have 2007 calendars from Mr. Pizza (our favorite pizza place) and the Lotte Penninsula (where we eat breakfast everyday), a hand towel from Kaja (our liquor store), and finally a Baskin Robbins cooler which contains the following cake, compliments of Mr. Ko, the man in charge of the refinery here in Korea:

Even though Christians comprise only about 30% of the population here, Christmas is a national holiday in Korea. We have noticed that the celebration is really not all that different than it is in the US. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about Christmas in Korea:

South Korea recognizes Christmas as a public holiday. Non-Christian Koreans otherwise go about their daily routine on December 25 but may engage in some holiday customs such as gift-giving, sending Christmas cards, and setting up decorated trees in their homes; children, especially, appear to have embraced Santa Claus, whom they call Santa Haraboji (Grandfather Santa) in Korean, Local radio stations play holiday music on Christmas Day and a few days before, while television stations are known to air Christmas films and cartoon specials popular in the Western countries. In addition, increasing numbers of stores and buildings are displaying Christmas decorations.

As in the West, Christian churches in Korea hold Christmas pageants and conduct special services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Young people especially enjoy the fellowship these observances provide; after the Christmas Eve services, for example, they go caroling to the homes of older church members, where they are usually treated to hot drinks and snacks.
South Korea is the only East Asian country to recognize Christmas as a public holiday.

Finally, Jeff and I decided to take a Christmas picture to commemorate our first married Christmas, so here it is:

Korean Christmas Decorations

The Lotte Corporation is definitely in the Christmas spirit! We love all of their Christmas decorations so much we thought we would share some pictures with you:

Christmas Tree in the Lotte Plaza

Decorations at the base of the Lotte Plaza Christmas Tree

Decorations at the base of the Lotte Plaza Christmas Tree

Decorations at the base of the Lotte Plaza Christmas Tree

Scene in the Lobby of the Lotte Hotel

Christmas Tree in the Lobby of the Lotte Hotel

Lights outside of the Lotte Hotel

Doha Asian Games

Most of you know that Jeff was in Doha, Qatar from October to April last year, and he flew me out for New Year's. Down on the Corniche (the main city walkway/park area) there was the Doha Asian Games mascot, Orry the Oryx, with a countdown until the 2006 Asian games. Check out that crazy Oryx:

Here is a picture of some real Oryx, if you care, courtesy of our visit to the Doha zoo.

When we arrived in Korea, there were commercials galore for the Games. Well the Doha Asian Games have finally arrived. I am guessing the coverage in the US is non-existent since before I went to Doha I didn't even know the Asian Games existed. You would be interested to know that the Asian Games are the second largest organized sporting event outside of the Summer Olympics.

What's cool about the Asian games are all the sports I never knew existed. Take Kabaddi, which is an Indian game that seems like an organized game of group tag. A sport that is popular with Koreans is Soft Tennis. Basically its tennis with a lighter racquet and ball, in which longer rallies and enjoyment ensue. There's a martial arts competition, called Wushu. It looks pretty cool. You will be suprised to know that Chess and Cue Sports (billiards, snooker, carom, and pool) qualify as sporting events in the Asian Games. Of course, the Koreans kick ass in Taekwondo, they invented it.

Because of heavy news coverage, we have learned to support some Korean athletes. There is this baby faced swimmer who won some medals. He seems cool. Since we cannot understand Korean, we don't know his name or his demeanor, but whatever. Godspeed little doodle.

-Mia (with help from Jeff)

The Bulgogi Experience

Jeff and I have not eaten a lot of traditional Korean food (generally, its really spicy and heavy in the seafood department - not really our favorites). However, we found one dish that we love. Its called Bulgogi, and its basically a Korean Barbecue. They bring out a big platter of meat marinated and covered in sea salt that you cook on a small coal grill in the middle of the table. They also bring out a ton of other side dishes with it (sauces, vegetables, leafs for wraps, etc.) so that the table is completely covered with small dishes of random food.

We have now had bulgogi three times. The first two times we had bulgogi it was with Jeff's Korean co-workers and was at an upscale restaurant where we sat on the floor in our own private little cubicle. It was extremely helpful to have Koreans there with us because they ordered everything and explained to us exactly what was in all of the smaller dishes and how we should eat it all.

We felt we had the hang of things after our second time eating bulgogi, so a few nights ago Jeff, Lewis and I decided to try bulgogi on our own. We knew the restaurant we went to the first two times was very expensive, so we thought we would try a less expensive place. Lewis looked up the word for beef before we left so we figured that if they didn't speak a word of English "beef" would get our point across.

We arrived at the restaurant and sat at a little table with blue plastic stools. The waitress came up and gave us an ordering card . . . all in Korean of course. Lewis said what he thought was the word for beef, but our waitress was not at all getting it. She kept saying a whole lot of stuff in Korean and we just sort of sat there and laughed because we had absolutely no clue what she was saying. This went on for seriously two minutes. Finally she said something that sounded like what Lewis said, so we thought she had it. Well I guess she didn't, because then she went to try and find someone who worked at the restaurant who could speak English. She was gone for a while and clearly couldn't find anyone. Finally she asked aa table of Korean guys next to us if they spoke English, and one came over. Thank goodness the waitress wanted to confirm what she though we said because the Korean man told us she thought we wanted long fish! He was able to convey to her that we wanted three orders of beef and we thought we were on our way!

Our waitress brought out the meat and all of the fixings. She placed the meat on the grill for us and sort of showed us how to cook it. We just sort of nodded because we knew how to eat everything. She left and we started to eat. About two minutes later a woman that seemed like a manager of the restaurant came over and started managing our grill for us. We kind of looked at her as if to say "we know what we are doing, this isn't necessary," but the message was not getting through to her. As Lewis said, apparently we must have looked like dumb Americans who needed help. Basically, she stood there for the rest of our meal and kept instructing us on how to eat the food. While it would have been helpful if we had never had bulgogi, we just found it to be hilarously awkward. After the meal we quickly paid, left, and laughed the entire way home!

Cabin Fever Part Two

So I guess Jeff's cabin fever is contageous, because this is what I spent my day doing today:

Yes, those are paper snowflakes (I had to show them by day and by night). I guess I was just sad we missed the big snow storm at home :)

12 Scenic Areas of Ulsan

Despite the fact that the visa office seems to think Ulsan has no tourist attractions (and lets face it, this really is primarily an industrial city), Ulsan has what it calls "The 12 Scenic Areas of Ulsan." There are countless pamphlets and brochures promoting these areas, and they are highlighted on every single map of the city. Jeff had some shorter days at work this weekend, so on Saturday we decided to try and check out some of these scenic areas. There are about four or five of these areas in the mountains to the west of Ulsan, so we decided to head out that way and see as many as we could before the sun went down.

It took about a half hour to get out there. Once in the right area, we followed the brown tourism signs pointing us to the 12 scenic areas. Suddenly the road narrowed and went from paved to gravel. We thought it was odd, but there were no tourism signs pointing us in another direction, so we just kept going straight. Then out of nowhere this little gravel road pretty much just ended. We took out our map and tried to figure out the route we had taken (the streets are not named on the map and there are few if any street signs, so we literally were thinking "okay we drove about two minutes and the road curved left, then there was a street on the right," etc.). We decided that we were most likely at some random park, so we turned the car around and tried to head back to the last place we remembered seeing a tourism sign. It continued like this for about another hour. We would follow the tourism signs, but they would literally just take you to a dead end. After about our 10th examination of the map we realized that two of the places we were trying to reach didn't even have roads to get to them! There were just hiking trails, which according to the map would take us about two hours to get to. We decided enough was enough and called it a day. We were disappointed that we were unable to find these elusive scenic areas, but on the way back we pulled over and took a few random pictures:

On late Sunday afternoon Lewis (another UOP employee who was in Ulsan during our first week here, left, and came back again this week), Jeff and I decided to check out one of the scenic areas closer to the hotel called the Daewangam Songnim Pine Forest. After our Saturday excursion I was not optimistic about heading out there, but we actually found the place with no problems and it far exceeded our expectations! It was a beautiful pine forest with a lighthouse and all of these gorgeous rock formations in the water. The day was perfectly clear, and we were there at sunset, so we got some incredible pictures like these:

We posted the pictures we have on our Yahoo page, but since the batteries in my camera died, we will make sure to get Lewis' pictures and post those soon too.

Why Its Good to be an American in Korea

There are people all over the streets here (especially at night) who are constantly handing out flyers for different things (for anyone who has been to Las Vegas, its similar to the guys with the flyers for the strip clubs). The lights can be pretty long, so if you are stopped at a crosswalk you could have many people pestering you. The best part about being an American: they COMPLETELY ignore you! Its great, people all around us can get constantly pestered, and we are totally ignored :) I love it!

Ulsan is Not a Tourist Mecca

This week I learned that the people of Korea do not think that Ulsan is a tourism hot-spot. When Jeff and I first came to Ulsan, we thought we would only be here about two weeks, so I got the standard 30 day tourist visa, which was just a stamp on my passport when I arrived (Jeff already has a 5 year work visa from his last trip here in the spring). Since the project has been delayed, I had to fly to Seoul this week to extend my visa beyond the 30 days. Thankfully UOP has an office in Seoul and I was met by Lynn, the Executive Assistant, who turned out to be my lifesaver!

My flight was supposed to leave from the Ulsan airport (which literally has two gates and flies only to Seoul and Jeju) at 8:40. We boarded and we on the runway when the pilot discovered a problem with the engine. So we ended up sitting on the runway for an hour while mechanics repaired the plane. Luckily they were ablet o take care of it, and we took off an hour late. Lynn was meeting me at the airport, so I hoped she would see that the flight was delayed. It turns out that the Seoul airport didn't indicate the flight was delayed until five minutes after we were supposed to arrive!

Immediately Lynn rushed me to the bus stop to catch the hour long bus into Seoul's central city. While on the bus she informed me that we had to hope to get to the office before noon, because otherwise the employees would be unwilling to help us until 1:00 (I guess offices are open during the lunch hour, but the employees just won't help you). This wouldn't be a problem, but I had a 2:30 flight back, and the last bus to the airport that would get me there in time left at 1:10. After a tense bus ride, we arrived at the Visa office at 11:58. This is where Lynn became my hero. I just sort of stood there while she and the visa officer argued back and forth, not having a clue what was going on. I was given a form, filed it out, then Lynn and the visa officer argued more in Korean. Finally she grabbed me and we walked away without my visa. I then asked her what that was all about, and here's what she told me:

Lynn told them what I needed and they said come back after lunch. Lynn turned into a little pit bull and said no, give us the form now its before noon. They gave her the form, and when she turned it back in they immediately said no, they would not extend my visa. The reason: there is no tourism in Ulsan and there's no reason for someone to stay there more than 30 days! Ouch, I guess these guys don't work for tourism board! I put ont he form that I was not here for tourism, but because of my husband's employment, but apparently that didn't matter. Anyways, Lynn had them look up Jeff's information to confirm the story and argued my way into a 60-day extension! The visa guy must have felt offended or something because he said he would do it, but we had to pick up the passport after lunch at 1:00. That was good enough for me! So after a quick lunch, I picked up my passport with a new visa stamp, made the bus back to the airport and made my flight home!

As you can tell, it was a rushed day, so I didn't get a chance to take too many pictures, but here are a few:

Some cool building downtown

Olympic Stadium

This is Building 63, called so because it's 63 stories high and one of the tallest in Korea

The Donald is everywhere!

Scary Drivers

Drivers here can be a little crazy (like Chicago cabbie crazy). What's scarier than the way they drive is the way they park. Walking around, you notice cars parked where ever there is space. The sidewalks here are very wide, easily wide enough for a car to drive (and park) on, so you often see cars parked on the sidewalk directly outside a store's door (very convienient I guess!). Many of the sidewalks have small barriers or columns to try and prevent cars from entering, but they don't always seem to help. The other day, I was walking around the city when a car came barreling down the sidewalk right at me. I was ready to jump into a building when the car made a sudden turn, jumped the curb and drove away on the street. I guess that's one way to get around the barriers!


Yesterday Jeff and I found another way to get around the barriers. We left the hotel room for some ice cream next door and came across the following sight:

I guess if they are in your way, you just drive right through them! While the damage to the sidewalk is bad, we couldn't help but wonder what that car must look like!

Cabin Fever

It's been rainy and gloomy here for the past few days, so outside of work Jeff and I really haven't left the hotel much. Well unfortunately I think that has lead to cabin fever for Jeff. On each of the past two days I have gone to the bathroom and have come out to find the following:

A grown man making forts out of hotel furniture has got to be a sign of cabin fever!

Random Cultural Observations from Korea

So Jeff and I keep making random observations about Korean culture, none of which are interesting enough for their own blog, so we decided to compile them all into one random blog.

1. No one wears sunglasses (except for celebrities we see on TV), even when its really, really sunny! My theory was that no one has light eyes, so they aren't as sensitive to the sun, but Jeff disagrees since he has dark eyes and wears them.

2. The fashion here is a little bit stuck in the 80's. A lot of really bright colors, slouchy boots with tiny heels worn over jeans, huge oversized shirts tied at the waist with a belt with leggings underneath, brightly colored knee high socks with non-matching shoes and a short skirt (that may or may not match the shoes and knee socks), and the list could go on and on. Jeff and I have tried to take some pictures, but we have yet to find a stealth way to do it. We came close at McDonalds, but a little girl got in our way! If we are able to get some good pictures, we will definitely post them.

3. No one wears sandals or open-toed shoes of any type. Its interesting because as an American I love my dressy sandals instead of my pumps, but I feel odd wearing them. Thankfully I thought to bring pumps so I have something normal to wear to client dinners!

4. The portion sizes are way smaller here. This isn't surprising at all, and its actually refreshing, except for when it comes to Starbucks. I enjoy stopping by Starbucks once or twice a week (I have found its a great place to work on wedding thank you cards), but I always leave feeling unsatisfied. They don't have a Venti (large in the US) here, so a Grande (medium in the US) is as good as it gets!

5. All school children, even those at public schools, wear uniforms. They are very formal, with skirts, blouses and jackets for the girls and pants, ties and jackets for the boys.

6. There are no bums on the streets here, except the halflings . . . and we're not talking about Hobbits.

7. Instead of planting flowers in pots along the road, they plant cabbage. I'm not kidding you, they use the different colors to make patterns like you would use flowers! It's completely hilarious. Here are some pictures we snapped on the street:

8. Men often carry their wife/girlfriend/sister/mother's purse when shopping and walking around.

9. Kids love to open their car windows and proudly yell "Hi" or "Hello" to Jeff and I when we are walking down the street.

10. They drive on the right side of the street, but for some reason they walk on the left side of the sidewalk. It makes no sense!

A Touch of Milwaukee in Korea

This is just a random quick post. We were watching CNN World the other night and they were talking about someone being shot while buying a new Play Station 3. I was only half paying attention, but I looked up at the screen to see the WISN 12 logo on the bottom (for those of you who aren't from Milwaukee, WISN 12 is the local ABC station). I got really excited and yelled to Jeff that Milwaukee news was on! It was funny to see local Milwaukee news footage all the way over in Korea!

It's Raining

So we get only 3.5 English channels out here. CNN World, BBC News, CNBC and a channel called OCN which shows American movies half the time. This, of course, leads us to channel-surfing random Korean television. This is a story about this channel-surfing.

So watching Korean Music Videos, Mia and I keep seeing this one guy who reminds us of a Korean version of Usher or Justin Timberlake. The video shows him in the rain in some war torn area wearing army fatigues, a black wife beater and dog tags. He has attractive, though strikingly similar, male and female back-up dancers shaking their things where else but in the background. The culminating moment occurs after his Usher-esque dance solo when he bends over and then lifts up his wife-beater to expose his right nipple (put's Janet Jackson to shame, take that JT).

Through all the boy bands and other Korean pop-stars, Mia and I have a hard time recognizing who's who, but once the trademark nipple appears a lightbulb goes off. How can you forget something as strange as male nipple (and only the right one, like ooooooh ... he just showed me his right nipple, if I scream loud enough maybe he'll show me lefty).

So after seeing him again on this live concert, we decided to figure out who he was. It was difficult, since we can't read Korean. A google search of "korean nipple singer" yielded few leads, however "korean popstar" led us to this guy named Rain, who I had read about earlier on AsianFanatics.net. Could this be the nipple-baring teen heartthrob our curiosity/boredom has led us to?

This article, Jan. 27, 2006 by the International Herald Tribune (NYTimes abroad, I believe), said Rain was going to play Madison Square Garden this past October and take American teenagers by storm (apparently Pokemon and Baliwood have proven America is ready for, shall I say, the Asian "Monsoon" ... and Jeff gets the corny joke award). So basically, to finish up this pointless post, the identity match was confirmed when the article spoke about Rain's trademark "chest baring." So you guys have to let us know if this Rain fellow is topping the charts (or did the "monsoon" turn out to be a "light drizzle" ... ok, Mia has just banned Jeff from making jokes).