Preparations

When I quit my job drawing house plans 9 months ago and went back to accounting so that I could "be more flexible" for my husband's career, we were planning a trip to Europe.  And when we returned home from that trip in April, I thought that the idea of an overseas assignment sounded pretty amazing.  Of course, I was thinking Germany, Amsterdam, France.  Something like that.  Maybe even Italy.  Our company doesn't have a plant or even any offices that I'm aware of in Italy, but a girl can dream, right?  I never even considered Asia.  And definitely not South Korea.  Who the heck would want to go to South Korea?

Apparently us...  Because it was a little over two months ago that we arrived in South Korea for the first time to find a place to live for a year.  I was excited and nervous and not entirely sure what to expect.  I certainly didn't expect to be left in Seoul for two days, but thankfully there was another Albemarle wife there, too, and we did just fine.  Besides, the jet lag really is as bad as they say, so I slept a lot those first couple days.

Actually, in a lot of ways, it was much better than I expected.  The 14-hour flight was really nice.  I fully endorse Korean Air.  The seats were comfortable, and the service was fantastic.  But I digress - which, to be fair, I should warn you I'll do quite frequently here.  So if you plan to follow us over the next year on our little adventure to Yeosu, just expect it.  But I'm sure most of you already did.  I call it chasing rabbits.  We'll call this rabbit #1.

Anyway, the city of Seoul was very interesting.  Ancient-looking Buddhist temples that are actually younger than I am (and, Caitlin, if you say that's because I'm old, I promise I'll find a way to smack you from Korea...love you... ok, sorry, rabbit #2) set between massive sky scrapers with all the presence of NYC - an awesome, touristy shopping district where you can find almost any Korean souvenir imaginable - the largest shopping mall in Korea with American restaurants and waitstaff that speak English - the beautiful and comfortable Intercontinental Hotel, connected underground to said mall and the Trade Tower, which holds our company's offices.  I could get spoiled by Seoul.

"ancient" Buddhist temple - built in the 80's or 90's, I think

Jason and Tiffany at On the Border

And no, for everyone who believes that there is nothing in South Korea but Seoul, we're not going to be anywhere near the capital city.  We will be living in Yeosu, a little port town on the southern coast.  Yeosu, according to its city website, has a population of about 300,000 people and includes over 300 islands, some inhabited.  It's a beautiful city with views of the South Sea (or East China Sea), islands, and low, tree-covered mountains.  It really is a gorgeous setting.  Plus, it's about as far from North Korea as you can get and still be in Korea.  And, no, Josh, we will not bring you back a military android from the DMZ. I don't even want to think about trying to get back through customs with that.

One thing, however, that I did not find as good as I had expected was the food.  In fact, I HATE the food.  I try not to be too picky (at least when it comes to food), and I tried really hard to have an open mind.  I really did.  But everything has this pervasive, lingering flavor that I think comes from so many of the vegetables being fermented, which, in my opinion, is pretty much just a fancy way to say "rotting."  And I'm sorry - when I chew meat, I like the bite to get smaller, not just roll around in my mouth unaltered, which pretty much cuts out about 50% of the food around here, minimum.  And I swear I was going to try to eat a mussel in the soup - until I couldn't get the tuft of hair that was attached to it to come off.  Because I pretty much draw the line at funky hair growths on my food.  I like my pets furry, not my dinner.

But it's not all bad.  There's bulgogi, which is "Korean BBQ" or cooked, sliced beef.  They serve it with lettuce and other various leaves (and I do mean various because I'm pretty sure one of them was growing on a bush outside our hotel) and about a  million little dishes of pickled, fermented, chopped or sliced stuff.  I really do feel bad for whomever has to wash the dishes at these places.  And it's not exactly like beef in the States, but beggars can't be choosers, you know.  If you look in the pic above and to the right, that's the beef cooking on the table in front of Blake under that interesting, heat lamp-like object.

Also, there was a little waffle place connected to our hotel lobby.  There's no syrup, but with fruit they're pretty good.  And we saw a Pizza Hut and a McDonald's in town.  The McNuggets tasted just like home!

And the apartments are really nice - much better than I expected.  And more technologically advanced than anything I've ever seen in the States, except in a movie.  I'm pretty sure I'll never figure out what all the buttons are for, especially considering they're all labeled in Korean.

But obviously we can't eat out everyday, and the handful of western-style restaurants will get old - fast.  So we asked Jimi, the girl from the relocation company in Korea, to take us to the grocery store.  I'll give you a tour of the grocery store one of these days, but let's just say it wasn't pretty.

Thankfully, though, I'm a planner.  And Blake and I can be very resourceful when we have to be.  So we went to WalMart and Sam's.  And then back to WalMart.  And then back to WalMart again.  And a couple more times.  Basically, we pretty much compiled a one-year supply of everything we could think of that we were told we could ship, including canned goods, cat food, toiletries, dog food, toilet paper, cat litter, and various dry goods.

Now we're just praying it all makes it to Yeosu duty-free.  And soon!

  I'm bound and determined to be positive about this year.  But I'll be more positive when my Hamburger Helper gets here.