Grinds my Gears

Yes I ripped it off of Family Guy, but whatever. Koreans are rather interesting sometimes so I figured that I'd list a few more interesting differences and similarities that I've found.

1. You have to have an outfit for whatever activity you're doing. In the US if you're going fishing, or running, or playing sports, or hiking, you can wear pretty much the exact same thing for each activity. In Korea you need to have hiking clothes, fishing clothes, running clothes (including the really short shorts...), etc. I continue to find this odd and wasteful and I also end up standing out every time that I go running.

2. I have yet to figure out Korean Style and I don't think that I ever will. I've tried, I've seen a lot of people, and I still just don't get how it works, why they wear what they do, or anything.

3. Driving in Korea has been interesting to say the least. Many things are different from the US such as:

• You cannot make a left turn on a green light, you must have a green arrow.
• Speed is enforced by speed camera in most places. However there are signs telling you where the camera's are at. Police do not sit in their cars with radar guns.
• Turn signals are usually used, however they indicate that someone is moving not that they are looking to move.
• Pedestrians do not always have the right of way and will jay-walk at a random times. I've seen people walking through a tunnel in a car lane instead of walking over or around it... You just have to know where they are going to do it.
• The easiest way to explain driving is that you need to be an offensive driver as opposed to a defensive one. You have to decide where you're going to go, point your car in that direction, and go, don't hesitate, don't think, and let the other drivers worry about themselves. This works surprisingly well and there are far fewer accidents than you'd think that there would be. It could be because you know that everyone's going to be aggressive as opposed to the US where it's 50/50 aggressive/passive drivers.
  
• Ecobox Speeders. Many Koreans buy very small fuel efficient cars yet drive them like maniacs. They will drive up to an intersection and then most likely shut the car off (to save gas), however when the light turns green they'll fire it back up and then jam the gas and race to the next intersection. Effectively wasting any fuel that they saved by shutting the car off at the last light

4. Basketball. I was able to catch the season opener for the local Changwon team (one of 10 pro teams in Korea) and I have to say that I was throughly unimpressed by the "game". Each team is allowed to have two foreign players so they usually go for some 6'10" American who could play in the NBA Developmental League (D-League). So I was watching the game and I'd estimate that about 90% of the points were scored by the 4 foreign players between the two teams. It was really sad actually. Are Koreans just that bad or do they just want the Americans to carry their team?

• Sidenote: The refs were apaulingly awful in the game too. In the two quarters that I watched I saw probably 20 or more traveling, over the back, charging, blocking, and double dribble fouls that were either not called or called incorrectly. There weren't hardly any fouls called on the offensive player ... ever. I think that I saw one traveling called and that was it.
• Sidenote II: I also saw the biggest flop of my life. Two guys chase a rebound into the corner and both stop the one by the paint with the ball. Both are clearly standing, no movement for half a second at least. The guy with the ball then dives out of bounds (untouched) and gets a foul called on the defensive player ... who hadn't moved an inch. Seriously one of the worst calls I've ever seen in my life.
• Sidenote III: I'd rate the talent level at about Division II or Division III basketball (Pitt is Division I). Something that if I worked at it, I could probably make the team (on the bench, but still). Sorry Korea, not impressed, at all.
  

5. While out running Sunday I saw several groups of kids playing organized soccer on one of the fields. I thought that this was pretty cool and it was neat to see that it was set up and run almost the same as it is in the US.

6. They like to eat pickles with their pizza. No it's not in one restaurant, it's all of them. Still don't understand this one, they're not in the pizza, but on the side. It makes for an interesting flavor combination in your mouth.

• They also like some really odd flavor combinations on their pizza. I tend to stick to the "New York Style" which is basically a supreme pizza. Some of the others include: Sweet Potato, Several Curry based pizzas, various seafood pizza's, and many use mushrooms as the feature and not meat... yea. I would kill for a good pepperoni pizza like I can get 2 blocks from my apartment in the US.

7. Value Meals, Combination Platters/Meals, and anything else like that is called a Set. That took a while to figure out actually. "Hi, I'd like the Big Mac Set, please" Usually comes with a Coke, even if you don't ask for it.

Well I think that I hit a good number of things in this one. I'll try to think of some more interesting topics as my time here is coming to a close. As always if you have any questions, comments, etc, post a comment/send me an email and I'll try to get to it as soon as possible.

“Blog” meet Bryan, Bryan this is “Blog”

So it’s been a while since I’ve updated. 43 days in fact, hmm that is quite a while actually, so I’m doubting that anyone still even follows this (read: I've been a little too lazy lately). Either way this is going to be an update of the last month plus of activities. It’s probably going to be long, so sorry for that up front (it’d be shorter if I updated more…)

The beginning of September was rather uneventful actually. I wasn’t doing too much, work was kind of slow, and I was mostly getting ready to travel back to the US to visit people. Korea wise not too much was going on either, the weather was still really hot (but cooling) so I really didn’t want to travel much either. 95 and humid, eeeh no thanks.

Near the end (the 18th) I came back to the US to visit family, friends, apartments, etc. It was a great trip and when I was back I realized that I was missing the US a lot more than I was letting myself believe. Things just made more sense, it was nice to hold conversations with people in non-broken English, and it was just nice to be around people that I knew.

The first weekend was my parent’s surprise 25th wedding anniversary party. I hope that they were surprised (it seemed like they were) and I’m glad that I was able to make it back for that. Despite the slightly jetlagged state that I was in. The rest of the week was fun too, I got to see my grandparents a lot as well as a few friends from high school (thanks for making the trip up to McKean). All in all it was a good week and the first real vacation that I’ve had since I started working.

I also went out looking for cars with my dad one day. I figure that this spring I’ll get something a bit newer. I’m currently looking at two models the Nissan 370z (probably non-sport package) and the Hyundai Genesis Coupe (2.0T). No the Koreans didn’t convert me to their cars, it just looks good and I really want to see how a manual, 4 cylinder drives (they only had an automatic, 6 cylinder in Erie). So votes, opinion, recommendations anyone? Going for the sportier, rear wheel drive type of car and these two seem like the best bang for your buck.

Friday (9/25) and Monday/Tuesday (28,29) I went into work for a few hours to check out the new offices in Cranberry. I’ve gotta say they are really nice, pretty convenient to navigate, and much better than the old ones out in Monroeville. However, they could do with a few changes. Having nameplates on the end of the rows would be good, making the numbers above the cubicles (hanging from the ceiling) larger, and putting some kind of name plate holder at the end of the rows (instead of a sheet of paper) would be great improvements. The facilities (cafeteria, gym, grounds) look great even with the construction going on. Apparently we’re adding a 4th building to the complex too. I have to say that it felt kind of empty though…. Maybe that will change once we get more fully moved in.

Saturday (26th) I participated in the “Crawl for Cancer” with a group of friends. It was a really great time and hopefully we can put a team together for next year too. Maybe a sort of college/roommate/friends reunion or something. Plus you’re helping out a great cause. The rest of the week in Pittsburgh was pretty calm, hung out with the roommates and people still around, picked up the new season of top gear and episodes of house (Korea is 2 seasons behind…), and took a few more days off.

For the next weekend I went down to New Orleans to visit my friend Frances and to check out the city and Tulane. I had a lot of fun on that trip and I’m really glad that I went down. I’ll definitely have to make my back to that city at some point and time, there is just so much there to see and experience (and taste, the food was awesome). Maybe I’ll head back for Mardi Gras or when it gets all cold in Pittsburgh.

After New Orleans I packed everything back up and caught a plane back Korea. The flights were alright (despite leaving New Orleans 30 minutes late and almost missing the Detroit => Tokyo flight) and the jetlag from this trip was really minimal, always a plus. I’ve found that I have an easier time traveling West than I do East and I have no idea why this is. I think that it helps that I arrive into Korea (my apartment or hotel) around 11pm so you can just go to bed. Usually you get into the US around 5 or 6pm and want to sleep, but really can’t. It’s almost like you need to fly for a longer period of time or something… I’m getting back into the US at 2:30 on November 23rd, so we’ll see how that goes.

Work since I’ve gotten back has been hectic to say the least. We got two new customers over here the week I got back (one Chinese, one Korean-American for a US company) so we are working with them now. Our Chinese customers seem to have forgotten how to speak English and our Korean-American customer is a little too knowledgeable and wants a lot from us… Also work has picked up a bit and someone’s on vacation, so we’re swamped only begins to explain what’s going on. It’s funny; there either isn’t a lot going on or everything, no steady stream of work.

Good news / Bad news: not that much has change in Korea since I left. It's really seems like it's about the same as when I left. I realize that I wasn't gone for that long (2.5 weeks) so not much could have happened, but it still "feels" the same, which is odd. Even though I'm living here, it still doesn't feel like home. Pittsburgh had that feeling, even when I moved there for freshman year of college. Maybe that's what's been missing in Korea. The weather has cooled off a bit here. It's about 70 during the day and 45-50 at night, almost perfect weather. The trees are also starting to change color. It hasn't been as dramatic as in the US (only a few trees here and there) but I'm keeping hope that the mountains will become ablaze with color soon.

And this ends this crazy long update. I’ll try to post more frequently for the last 5-6 weeks that I am in Korea and I will see you all around Thanksgiving.

Fishing in the Yellow / West Sea

Last weekend I went out on a fishing trip Brian Wiscombe (WEC resident) and a two guys from Doosan. We left from Changwon around 10pm Saturday night to make the drive up to a port by Taean.

It took about 4 hours to drive there, and that was with rather empty roads (since it was late and all). Once we got into town we had breakfast at a local place (soup / rice) and then slept for a few hours till we could check in with the boating office. Around 4am we checked in, got any extra equipment that we had forgotten / needed (poles, hooks, bait, ponchos, etc) and then moved all of our stuff onto the boat. Around 5am we left the harbor and traveled out to the first fishing spot, a trip that took about 3 hours. We started fishing / battling the rain around 8am and kept fishing around 6pm that night. After that we came back to the harbor, packed up our gear and fish and made the trek home. All in all a really long, kind of cold / rainy day, but we ended up catching a lot of fish (as you'll see in the pictures) so it was a pretty good time.

Also I found out that I do get a bit seasick, mostly when we were at low idle and the boat was really kicking around. I was ok traveling out (except for when we throttled down b/c of waves) and fishing for the morning, but it really hit me in the afternoon. I'm not sure what all it was (the long day, the waves, maybe not eating enough, or a combination of everything) but I was really sick / tired all afternoon so I mostly slept.

We ended up catching 20-25 fish on the day (between the 4 of us). I caught 3-4 in the morning and then another one during lunch, but that was it. One of the Doosan guys with us also got a little sick and he sat most all of the day out (he did catch a fish though). Most of the fish were 12ish inches but Brian caught the biggest one on the boat probably around 16-18". You can see in the pictures below and then take a guess if you like.

We were mostly fishing off the bottom of the Sea about 30-50m down (100-170 ft), so we had extra weighting on the lines and we also used two hooks with different bait at different heights. Most all of the fish that I caught was off of the lower hook / bait. You can see that a few guys were able to catch two fish at once (first picture in the album below) because of the two hooks. The boat was pretty good sized (you'll see in the pictures) and had space for 22 fishers at once.

These pictures are from the boating company itself, a rather neat service that they provide. The deckhand was running around snapping pictures as we hauled fish in, so he had a pretty busy day. It should be pretty easy to pick out Brian and I since we're the only Americans, Mr. Kim (also with us) is in the third picture and then about 7 more... he had a pretty good day. We guessed that the average person caught 4-5 fish, but that might not have been the case.

And these pictures are what Brian and I took throughout the day. I've added more comments on each of those pictures too, so be sure to check them out.

Slacking off

Well it appears that I've been a bit lazy in updating this blog during this month. I'll try to remedy it in the coming weeks.

First things first I'll be back in the US from September 19th through the 29th visiting a combination of Erie/McKean, Pittsburgh, and New Orleans. It should be a lot of fun and I'm excited to get to see everyone. Its hard to believe that I've been away for over 3 months already or that I'm over half way done. If you're going to be in any of those places let me know so that I can be sure to come visit.

Work has been a little hectic lately (and probably the reason for the lack of posts). Our residents from China rotated again (every three months) so we have new guys in here which means ... they need broken in. They're getting there, but its going to take some time. It's also harder because our last residents spoke English very well and these guys aren't quite as good. Mr. Chen was also a lot of fun because he was around my age (26) and we could relate on a lot of things.

We've also had a few visitors from our US customers too, so we've been showing them around setting them at ease about the area / company and generally working a lot with them. Which can make for some pretty long hectic days.

Life outside of work has been pretty good too. I haven't been doing too much on the weekends, just tooling around the city taking it easy. I think that I'll travel more once I get back from this break because the weather will be less hot and/or rainy than it currently is. I'm also expecting fall to be very good with all the mountains and trees everywhere, so I'll try to take a lot of pictures to share with everyone.

Photo Blog - Masan

Here is the last batch of photos from my week off. I traveled out to Masan (near by city) to take in the sights there and to try to get a feel for that city.

Masan is about 16 Km (10 miles) from Changwon, center to center. Masan is about 1/3rd the size of Changwon (pop. 200,000) and is a significantly older city than Changwon. It does have the feel of older Korea and that is also represented well in the architecture and structure of the buildings. Most are 3-5 stories tall and there aren't many of the apartment complexes that you see in Changwon (though they are building a lot). The town has a more "country" feel compared to Changwon's "urban" sort of feel. I can only imagine what Seoul (pop 20 million) and Busan (pop 7 million) are like, however I feel one word would be "cramped" ...

http://s621.photobucket.com/albums/tt294/brown-pitt/Photo%20Blog%20-%20Masan/

I traveled to Masan mostly by public transportation and I have to say that its a lot better than what I've experienced in the US. The buses were on time and most of the bus stops had a computer screen in them telling you what the next bus was and how long it would take to get to you. I know that would be convenient in Pittsburgh (save playing the "well maybe something will come along" game). The only major downfall that I found with the public transport was that the buses were all manual transmission; while they are great for fuel economy, you also get shift shock (especially first to second) coupled with people standing. Lets just say that people get thrown about a bit so you really need to pay attention.

Photo blog - Changwon City

Today's lot of pictures (from earlier in the week....) are taken around the city and some of the areas that I visit when I am not in my apartment or the City 7. I'll try to upload the pictures from my trip to Masan later tonight or tomorrow.

http://s621.photobucket.com/albums/tt294/brown-pitt/Photo%20Blog%20-%20Changwon/

Picture Blog - Day 1

So I'm onto my week off and I really don't feel like traveling much (I've been running around a lot these last two months) so I figured that I would do a picture blog sort of thing to give everyone a better idea of what I see in and around my life and apartment. I'm planning on featuring my apartment, the city and places that I go around it, work (I need to stop in a for a few days anyways), and maybe a nearby city or two. This is all rather informal but I will try my best to update each day.

I've also uploaded comments to each of the pictures to try to describe them and/or help you get a sense of the navigation so you can put it all together. As always feel free to contact me (whatever method you prefer) for more information about anything.

Day one is my apartment and the shops in the City 7 complex.
http://s621.photobucket.com/albums/tt294/brown-pitt/Photo%20Blog%20-%20Apartment/

SF Photos and comments

Follow the link below to get to the pictures and my comments on each picture. There's about 50 pictures total. If you want to know more about any of them shoot me an email or post a comment.

http://s621.photobucket.com/albums/tt294/brown-pitt/San%20Francisco%20Trip/

so I forgot last week...

Wow an update, crazy right? Photos from SF this afternoon (Korean time), I promise.

So the week after I got back has been hectic to say the least. I was at work a lot (10ish) hour days though the middle of the week, I got all of my stuff from customs (finally), and pretty much crashed this weekend. The week was a bit busier because one of the residents is out of the office getting his VISA so there's just two of us to cover the same workload. Also I built and gave a presentation to several of the Doosan managers on one of Westinghouse's practices, so that ate up a lot of time. The presentation went over pretty well, I had about 45 minutes worth of material and spent most of it as a Q&A / town hall type of session. I thought that it was pretty well received and that I was able to convey the message that Westinghouse would have wanted me to.

Life outside of work was rather busy too. I did get all of my stuff set up around the apartment, which is nice, and I made a few trips to the grocery store to fill in the gaps (things that I thought I had packed, things I was missing like hangers). So that was rather hectic too, which lead to me crashing this weekend. I mostly slept and played video games (mario kart wii) so it was nice to just chill out and not have to worry about much.

I got my first round of bills too. Its interesting getting them here because: 1. they are entirely in Korean, 2. they are really colorful. Its quite the contrast to the US bills which are only in black and white. Most of the bills had charts and graphs (in Korean) but I could get the idea of what they all were saying even without reading them. Since I got this round of bills I thought that it would be a good idea to break down the prices of a few things, to compare them to the US prices. I'm going to use $1 = 1250 Korean Won because it normally hovers around that (between 1220 and 1320 while I've been here).

Apartment (19th floor, new building, short lease) - 2.5 million Won per month ($2,000)
Apartment management fees and utilities (one person, AC set around 75F, lights usually off)- 250,000 Won ($200)
Electric - 83,000 Won ($66.40)
Cable / Internet - 51,000 Won ($40.8)

Rental Car (long term lease, 2 door, technically a "sports car"...) - 790,000 Won ($632)
My last tank of gas (44L or 12 Gal) - 75,000 Won ($60)

McDonalds Big Mac Meal - 5900 Won ($4.72) [only 3000 Won 11am-2pm, just saying]
Frozen US Beef (about 3-4 servings for me)- 9000 Won ($7.2)
0.5L of Gatorade (16.7 oz) - 960 Won ($0.77)
Hite Draft (Korean beer)- 3000 Won ($2.4) [surprisingly more than Pittsburgh]

I'll add a few more as I think of them.

Visit to San Francisco

So (as promised) here is the giant update for everything that took place when I went to get my VISA. It was a great week and I really wish that it could have lasted longer, especially since it was raining when I got back to Korea...

Wednesday:
Flew from Korea back to the states. The flight out left at 8am Korean time and I got in at 10am Pacific time ... the same day (with a 6 hour layover in Japan). Crossed a few timezones... I didn't do a whole lot Weds: Visited the Korean Consulate to drop my stuff off, meandered around the city some, and worked to get adjusted to that timezone. Thankfully Denny's is open 24 hours because I swung down to grab food around 1am that night. I really wanted an omlette.

Thursday:
Slept in (which was awesome) and checked out the shopping area near my hotel. There was a ton of stuff: shops, markets, etc around so there was a lot to do. I had a few things that I wanted to pick up, and I was able to find them with little problem. Thursday night I met up with Frances (met via craigslist) to go to a Giants' game. It was a good game, we had a great time and really got along, and AT&T was a beautiful park (on par with PNC park, in Pittsburgh) and looked even better from our seats. After the game we checked out the carnival that they had going on next to the stadium.

Friday:
Checked out parts of downtown, some scenery and the piers (mostly Pier 39, well known shopping center) with Frances. We contemplated going to the game, but decided to continue going down the Warf until we got to Ghirardelli square. Only later that night did we realize that Sanchez (3-8, and just back up from the minors) threw a no-hitter and we had missed it. I took several pictures and all of them should be loaded up sometime this weekend. I'll probably put them into Photobucket again and try to comment on each picture. Its just easier than posting here.

Saturday/Sunday:
Traveled down to Phoenix to meet up with Amanda to see her since I was so close (relative to PGH or Korea). It had been quite a while since we hung out so it was great to get to meet up and see how she was doing. I also got to meet a lot of cool Teach for America (TFA) teachers too. It was really interesting to get a "behind the scenes" look at all of the work that they do, even if in the end it reaffirmed my decision to not be a teacher. I just don't know if I could put that kind of time and effort into creating lessons and figuring out what to teach, and how to teach it. However, I still think that I could teach a high school science, but I would be a lot better suited to teaching some kind of collegiate level math (calculus) or science (physics or chem). Maybe someday in the future, I've still got a lot of time to do different things in my life.

Monday/Tuesday:
Flew back into San Francisco, did a little more shopping, picked up my VISA, watched parts of the home run derby and all star game. Also visited Berkley, parts of Cal's campus, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Golden Gate Bridge park. Pretty packed two days, but it was a lot of fun and I have a lot of great memories from the cities. Same as above, look for more comments in the photos because it will be easier to explain there.

Wednesday/Thursday:
Checked out of the hotel and flew back to Korea. Left the SF airport at 1:30pm Wednesday got into Korea at 9pm Thursday... timezones again.

All in all it was a great trip. I really liked San Francisco a lot more than I thought that I would. I was expecting to see the city and take in a few sights while I was there, but I honestly really loved the city and the people that were in it. Everything was always very interesting and varied which made it a good experience. It has its own kind of personality and charm (much like Pittsburgh) so I really could see myself living there at some point and time.

The weather during the trip was great SF was about 65-70 during the day and 50 at night (sunny every day), Arizona was up to 118 during the day and down around 90 at night. They say that its a dry heat, but it still feels really hot all the time. In my opinion, Phoenix was a great place to visit (and much larger than I was thinking it would be) but I don't know if I could live there, its just too warm for me.

If you want to know more about any part of the trip shoot me an email and I'll fill you in, or add another blog post.

getting the VISA

Just wanted to let everyone know that I got into San Francisco without any problems and am working to get my VISA taken care of. I'll provide a better update (wrap-up, pictures, etc) next week or when I get back to Korea and have more reliable internet access for my computer (the phone works fine, but that's a lot of typing on a phone keyboard...)

Observations about Korea (version ?)

I thought that I'd post a few of the many observations that I have made while in Korea. Its going to be a bit of a brain dump, so we'll see what all makes it into the final posting.

1. I've noticed that besides being a lot taller than most Koreans I'm also a lot bigger in general. Some of the males in the society are starting to get taller but they aren't filled out at all (pretty thin/wiry). Now I realize that I'm not the biggest guy ever, but it is an odd feeling to walk down the street and #1 be able to see everything / over everyone and #2 see that I'm about twice as wide as a lot of people (especially the women). I feel that I occupy a significantly greater volume (you know, like water displacement sort of test) than most Koreans.
2. The beds are rather hard. If you're in a hotel they are alright, but otherwise they like their beds extremely firm. Some nights it really feels that I'm sleeping on a board. I may need to look for some kind of egg carton or something to pick up while in San Fran and take back with me on the plane.
3. They don't carpet their floors. Most every place that I've been in has hardwood floors. (random I know)
4. had a few comments about the cars here, but realized that I have enough for another post... look for it in the future
   
5. All of the food is either "good for health" or "good for longevity" or "good for the brain" or something. Its funny to listen to them talk about it. They'll say that its good for something, but not be able to back it up... or end up saying that its traditional and that's why they eat it.
   
6. Honestly they will eat most anything. Sometimes you look at it and you think to yourself "... those are just weeds covered in red pepper." Also they cover most everything in hot sauce or red pepper. Just an FYI if you ever travel here and order food. Make sure that you ask for the toned down version, unless you really, really like the hot stuff.
7. I'm still working out why (or the reasons why) Koreans dress the way that they do ... look for that one later too
8. The Korean Won is an interesting currency. The current conversion rate is about 1250 Won for every US dollar. The interesting bit is that the largest bill is the 10,000 Won and if you do the math, that's about $8.00 US dollars. The easiest way to describe would be to say that the largest bill in the US is the $10. Thankfully there is a 50,000 Won coming in July, however we'll have to wait and see how fast they circulate.
9. Prices in Korea are similar to the US for a lot of things. Most goods here are cheaper and most services (taxi, etc) are a lot cheaper than the US. Cars, computers, petroleum, and housing however is much higher than in the US. My apartment would cost about $2400 a month (granted this is inflated due to the short lease), my rental car is about $620 a month, and petroleum is about $4.60 a gallon. If these things weren't paid for by the company, it would be rather hard to be living here, especially at those prices.
   

Hmm, I seem to have run out of things for now. If you have something else that you'd want to know about ask me or throw a comment on this post and I'll try my best to address it. I'm sure that I left a lot of things out.

Update (version ?)

hmm, it appears that I can't keep to a MWF kind of schedule (I'm too lazy or something) so updates will be infrequent. I seem to keep updating on sunday, maybe that will work best. I'll aim for two at a time or something.

A quick update on me. I've been pretty good so far, no major incidents or international crisis to speak of. This week (July 8-18) I'll be out of the country in San Francisco acquiring a VISA, so that I can come back to Korea and collect all of my belongings (which are being held hostage at Korean Customs). I'm coming all the way back to the US because I really didn't feel comfortable surrendering my passport in another country (Japan, China, etc). I just think that the security of being in the US without it will be better. Anywhoo, plane tickets are booked and all now, so I'll be there then. That also means that my US cell will be back on (and in cell mode ... it probably misses the 3G signal), so feel free to call/text me while I'm there.

The tentative plan is to take in a few Giants games (9th and 10th at least) and then go from there. Maybe some time on the beach and probably a lot of American food (even if it destroys my internal systems since I'm not as used to it now). Other than that the trip is kind of open ended, not too sure what I'll do or end up. Ideas or suggestions are more than welcome :)

Physically, I'm in about the same shape as when I left. Maybe 10-15lbs lighter, but I had the weight to lose (poor diet before I left...). I've also been working out 3-5 times a week, so I wouldn't doubt that is contributing too. There is a track near my house so I've been there a few times and playing basketball for a few hours on other days. Running here is actually a bit harder than in the States.

The big difference is that it is pretty warm most days (30 deg C = 84 deg F) which isn't bad, but the humidity is always pretty high. Its just a product of the season (so I'm told) and Changwon being near the coast. We have had a few really warm days (33 deg C and up) but it hasn't gotten too bad yet. Supposedly its warmer (and more humid) after the rainy season in August. Sigh, we'll just have to see how it goes. Well that's about it for this post, be sure to read the other one for today too.

Basketball

You may be surprised to find out that basketball is pretty popular in Korea. Granted its not on the same level as soccer, baseball, or golf, but its up there. There are a few differences in the style and play of the game though.

Style is different because they treat it much more like a team sport. So more passing and a greater focus on fundamentals than the sheer athletic ability seen in the American game. They will also take longer and make the extra pass if it can set up a better shot.

Play is a bit different too, like I said they focus more on dribbling, so their shooting (and finishing around the rim) isn't all that great. This forces them into jump shots which hinders their ability to get rebounds. In many ways the play the complete opposite of my strengths, which is good I suppose. I've been trying to play their game their way, to make myself a better, more balanced player and its been going well so far.

The good is that they try pretty hard most all the time, the bad however is that the talent really isn't there. I'm not saying that I'm good, by any means, but I haven't lost a game of one-on-one here yet. I've played a lot of different ages (high school through adults) and varieties of courts (mostly paved and dirt outdoor courts) and I really haven't had a problem yet. I know that you're thinking "well duh, you can just back them into the paint and shoot layups all day" but I've been avoiding doing that. I've been trying to beat people off of dribbles and on jump shots, and its been working pretty well. Its hard to describe, because I may not be faster than they are, but I'm faster on the court. I'm able to see the shot or rebound before they are, allowing me to get there first. I would guess that that came from not playing as much as Americans do as kids. Perhaps they're better in the baseball and soccer. We'll find out whenever my baseball glove shows up (its stuck in customs).

Wheels in Korea

I forgot that I had taken these pictures, but this is the car that I'm driving while I'm here. Its called Hyundai Tuscani, but its basically the Hyundai Tiburon that was released in the United States for a few years. My version (pics below) looks about the same as the car at the link, except that its grey. I was thinking that it would look more like the Tiburon that was released in the states, however it's a bit different styling. The lines are a little bit longer but that reflects many of the styling changes that have taken place since that model was released. Look at how the Ford Focus has changed over the years... 2001 ... 2008 .... 2010 (thankfully they got rid of that goofy chrome grill...)


I've learned that its considered the "Korean sports car" since buying it, even if it really isn't all that sporty.... The vehicle has the 2.7L V6 engine, which puts out about 170 horsepower, which wouldn't be too bad, except for the car's weight and the automatic transmission. Because of these it's 0-60 time is about the same (8 seconds) as my ZX2 in the states.

The car is pretty nice though. Its got all of the creature comforts though: power sunroof, 6-disk cd changer in the dash, radio/cd controls on the wheels, AC (that you can set to a temp), etc. All of the things that my car in the states doesn't have. Overall its a good car, but I doubt that I would buy one with my own money. If the interior of the new Hyundai Genesis Coupe is anything similar to this I will probably take it for a test drive whenever I look for a new car. I have a bit more respect for Hyundai vehicles than I did when I came over, but not much more.

Driving in Korea isn't too bad either. They drive on the same side of the road as us. The biggest change is that they are more aggressive behind the wheel. They will tailgate and beep at you if you're in their way. And a turning signal means they are turning, not they are looking to turn, so you have to be ready for that. If you don't use it, they will assume you're going straight too, so watch for that. They do follow many of the same laws though. The biggest differences are that they will run red lights if no one is around and you cannot make a left turn on a green light, you have to have a green arrow to go.

They really don't speed though, maybe a few km/hr over, but not a lot. Definitely nothing like the United States. They are probably more aggressive because of there really aren't that many traffic cops on the roads. They work mostly in crosswalks making sure that its safe for pedestrians. They monitor speeding with cameras, which are most everywhere. However if you have an in-car GPS (like most people do) it will ding to let you know where the camera's are, so you can pop the brakes and not get ticketed. I don't know why they mark them, but they do.

Other than the car, nothing too much to report. My VISA process is still a mess, but hopefully that can get sorted out this week and I will know what's going on with it. I'll try to update that whenever I know more information.

Update and VISA

So I found out yesterday that the paperwork for my VISA just arrived at the law firm that is going to handle it for me. I'm mildly perturbed that it took this long for it to get there, especially since it was issued 4/21, I didn't receive or get to sign it until 5/28, and it just got there 6/15... Someone in HR is really doing a bang up job. Anyways ...

I got a call from the law firm telling me that now I have to apply for a VISA issuance number (VICN) and once I have that number I have to leave the country and visit a Korean Embassy in some other country to "apply" for my VISA. This really wouldn't be that big of an issue and I would probably do it around when my passport runs out (90 days) except that my VISA is tied to everything relating to this trip. eg. my pay scale, moving stipend, and all of the items that I tried to move here. I'm not as worried about the financial end of it, but all of my shipped items are currently tied up in customs, and stuck there until I get my VISA passed through. So I'm stuck living out of two suitcases and anything else that I bought up to this point. Slightly annoying...

More so annoying that this one person, who could have passed my paperwork through to me to sign (say by the end of april) and then gotten it out to the law firm (say by the first week of may) could have prevented all of these problems. Annoying, frustrating, and just tired of this international BS.... At least I get to take a trip somewhere on Uncle George Westinghouse now that they messed up. I'm currently trying to work out a trip to San Francisco or Hawaii as a "halfway point" instead of coming home. Oh well, more ariline miles too... I may be around 100,000 by the end of the year now...

Costco ... in Korea?

Yep, there is actually a Costco in Korea. Its about an hour and a half away from where I live and its strangely similar to the ones that are in the US. I've included a few pictures below so that you can see, assuming you've been in a US one. It was a good trip, I spent about 100,000 Korean Won ($80 USD) getting food stuffs. They had a lot of american foods that you can't find in other places (like bacon) so it seemed like a good idea to stock up while I was here. The people that I went with ended up spending about 400,000 Won, but they got some other items (printer, household goods, etc) and will be here a lot longer than I will be.


Also interesting, Costco sells beer. I didn't know that it did this, however I live in PA where you have to go to "special government operated facilities" to buy it. I snagged a picture of a few of their classier imports. I still have a hard time seeing Budweiser as an import beer....


Lastly there is a food court too, same as the US ones. The food is actually exactly the same as the US based ones too (we got a 16" pizza). You can kind of see "ads" for the items in the back right side of the picture. The only difference was that the menu's were in Korean first and English second. It was nice to go there, but it felt like it was a "bizarro world" sort of effect. Everything was similar, but just that little bit off.

workity, work, work

Not too much has been going on besides work. I've been out on about 4 surveillances now so I am starting to get a feel for how they work and what all I need to look for. Especially for the Mechanical Tests (seems to be what I'll be doing most of the time). The tests themselves are pretty straight forward (Tensile, Drop Weight, and Impact) which is good. The guys in the lab are total professionals too, they know exactly what they're doing, how to do it, and what the code and Doosan requires of them for the test. That has helped make those observations easier. The only downside is that they don't speak English ... at all. So if I have questions I have to get someone who can translate to ask for me.

I have found that you can still have debates without fully understanding each other. We have had a few questions and issues about the way that something has been measured. So there has been a bit of a debate about geometry going on. I've found it really interesting how much you can communicate through math that you can't verbalize. It could be that we're engineers talking with engineers about numbers, but there's something that's kind of cool about it. That project has taken up a lot of the rest of my time this week too.

Life outside of work has been alright. I've mostly been sleeping and playing games on my iPod Touch (used to be an iPhone, you know when I could get cell service). I've also gotten a Korean cell phone, started working towards arranging language lessons, should have/get a car tomorrow, and am mostly set up at Doosan. Its all starting to come together, it just took about 2 weeks to get everything sorted out. The only thing that I'm waiting on is my official work Visa. I'm able to work in the country for 90 days without one, but I need it for all of my work benefits to kick in.

For anyone's who's wondering a PNC account will work in Korea (which is awesome) but the ATM charge is about $3.50 per withdrawal. Not too bad for pulling money out a few thousand miles away. I'm also up to 35,000 frequent flyer miles too.... I should have about 75,000 by the time that I get back home in November (you collect about 12000 miles each way). Maybe I'll take a few trips around the states when I get back.

moved in and busy

First off let me apoligize for the severe lack of updates over the last week. For all two or three of you that still check my blog, your patience is incredible. I'm going to make a more conscious effort to update this blog on a more regular basis. I'm hoping to do one status update each week and then one to two interesting observation type updates. That's the plan anyways, so we'll see how it goes.

Since the last update, I've moved into my apartment and been to work for three days now. Work has been good so far. I'm still getting accustomed to the work that I'll be doing and the layout of the facility, but I hope to have it all sorted out by the end of this coming week. Doosan Heavy is a very large facility employing a few thousand people in the Changwon area. I'll be working primarily in the nuclear shop, which is the smallest shop in the plant. The other good thing about working in there is that most of the employees speak (or understand) english.

Friday I worked a pretty late day (8pm) because I went out to visit one of Doosan's sub-suppliers for our project. This sub-supplier is performing some drilling and cleaning activities for a few of the components in the steam generator. It was a very interesting and educating trip, despite the long hours. The sub-supplier was located in Pusan which is the second largest city in Korea. Its located about 40 minutes to the northwest of Changwon. We didn't really get to see a lot of the city, but maybe next time.

Below are a few pictures of my apartment, in its current state:

In it to win it

So I'm back in Korea for the long haul now. I got into the hotel around 10pm Monday night after leaving Pittsburgh around 9am Sunday morning... such a long trip. This trip felt longer than the one last time too. I'm not sure if its because I knew what I was in for this time, I didn't sleep as much, or I went PIT-Atlanta-Seoul-Pusan instead of PIT-Detroit-Tokyo-Pusan. The main benefit of the first trip is that I felt like I was going the right direction the whole time.

As you can see above I flew into Seoul first, so I had to go through customs there before flying onto Pusan. Customs wasn't too bad, it was pretty well organized and easy to get through. The harder part was finding where to check-in to my next flight. I'm sure that the Seoul airport is well laid out and easy to navigate, if you know the language, but I found myself running around a lot trying to find the right counter and security checkpoints. If I didn't have three hours there it would have been pretty close. On the whole it was a nice airport, but I think that I will take the Northwest flights in the future. Especially on the return trip, since Japan doesn't seem to be worried about swine flu coming from South Korea (no reported cases yet).

Yesterday (tuesday) I spent all day moving into my new apartment and getting that sorted out. Most everything had been moved in before I got there and the landlord/relator had arranged for everything to be turned on and hooked up for me. That was a great help, less things for me to worry about. When I was moving in I noticed one of the cabinets was broken, but that should be taken care of sometime this week.

I also picked up most of the stuff that I will need to live in the appartment yesterday, however I missed a few things so its looking like I'll go back today or tomorrow to pick them up. Thankfully the Lotte Mart (walmart type store) is connected to my building, so its easy to get everything and get it up to my appartment. Especially since I don't have a car yet. That should be next week sometime.

I am realizing that I need to have a cell phone right away though. It seems like most all Koreans carry at least one and that is their primary mode of contact (vs email), so I may have to get on that tonight too.

I haven't been too jet lagged from this trip, however I did sleep from about 4-10:30pm yesterday. I guess that I was more tired than I thought that I was. Hopefully I can stay awake as long as possible today and try to reset my sleep schedule to a more normal time. If not there's always staying awake and talking to people in the interwebz at 4am. Pictures of the apartment will be up sometime after I have more stuff in it. Its pretty bare right now, so maybe by the end of the week or so.

Last week

Well here it is, my last week in the states before I take off for Korea. It's an interesting mix of feelings: excited to go, sad to leave everyone and everything here, wanting to explore the new place, and that part of me that just wants to be there already and not have all this stress from packing and getting ready to go.

I packed up most of my things last night and plan to finish tonight. The moving company is coming tomorrow afternoon to pick everything up and get the air-freight under way. They said that it takes about 18 days for stuff to get there, so the sooner they can start the better. That just means that I need to know exactly what will fit into my suitcase before they come, so that I can get everything there ... I probably also need another power adapter too. I'll have to get one this week or weekend.

I had cultural awareness training for two weeks last week. The training was excellent as I was able to show how much I already knew about Korean culture and I was able to learn about 3x more. During the training I got to hear from three different speakers (i know sounds boring) and they were all excellent. One is a political science professor and Korean national who walked me through a lot of the culture, history, economics, and US relations associated with South Korea. This was great as he presented a ton of information that I hadn't heard before or information that I had heard of, but wasn't sure if it was true. The second presenter was one of Westinghouse's former correspondents for pacific rim activities. He had a ton of interesting and helpful business type information which would have taken me the whole residency to learn. The final presenter was someone who currently lives in the Changwon area. She was closer to my age and able to tell me things to do and places to go in the area, which will be great for weekends and such. She also showed me the website for the city which has a ton of cool stuff.

Over the weekend I got to meet up with a bunch of the family to say hello and goodbye before I fly out this Sunday. The plan is to get into Korea June 1st, move into my apartment June 2nd, and start work June 3rd. So that is the tentative plan, lets see if it holds up. I'll try to be back for an update before I fly out of the country.

Alive still (somehow)

So its been a pretty hectic week back in the states. I think that I have finally gotten back around to normal Eastern Standard Time, which is a good thing. If only I was able to have enough time in the day to take care of everything else now...

I'm getting to the point that I have most everything ready to go. All that is left is packing up the stuff that I am taking, packing up the stuff that will sit in my room, and saying goodbye to everyone. For those that don't know already my flight leaves Sunday May 31st and I am hoping to start work sometime around June 3rd. That is the plan right now, but who knows what could actually happen. Hopefully it all goes to task like last time.

Other than getting ready, not too much else has been going on. I'm trying to stay as low stress as possible otherwise this whole thing might start getting to me. I'm really excited to be traveling and to get a chance to work in another country, but at the same time I am sad to see my life in the states being left behind. I realize that it is only 6 months and I am probably being overly dramatic, but I think that I will really miss it here. I have become rather attached to living in Pittsburgh over the last 5 years, so this trip may be good for me, and teach me how to re-adjust again, so that I don't become stale.

If you want to meet up sometime before I go, please send me a text, email, or leave a comment. I'll be in Erie Saturday and Sunday and then back in Pittsburgh until I leave on the 31st. Thanks for following my blog, even through the sporadic updates :)

double bonus !!

Two posts in one day. Crazy I know.

So I have 1000 Korean Won (KRW) for the first person (by posting in the comments) to tell me what this building is used for. (clicking on the image should make it less fuzzy, its pretty solid quality on my computer)

1. It is a really neat way to do something that we do here in America.
2. The activity that goes on in the building is popular in America, however not quite as popular as in Korea. In my short time in Korea I have seen at least 5 buildings like this (granted they kind of stand out)



and go =>

Jet-lag sucks

So I have returned to states. The flights were good, but it's looking like I've brought a cold with me. Hopefully it clears up soon as jet-lag is making sleeping hard enough on its own. Its a really interesting feeling, I'm really tired, yet not able to sleep for more than 4 or 5 hours at a time. Maybe I'll nap more today and reboot myself by tomorrow... hopefully.

Apologies for not updating recently, that last week of work before flying out was pretty jam packed. Monday I was in meetings all day and pretty much crashed afterwords. Tuesday I was out in the nuclear shop all day, watching stuff get built (which was cool). Tuesday night the supplier took us out again and craziness ensued again. I'm not going to post the details, but if you want to know get a hold of me. Wednesday was more work / recovery from tues night and packing to head home.

I thought that I'd upload a picture of the shop so that you can get an idea of the sheer size of the stuff that we are making. The two guys in the picture are about 5'10"(178cm) and 6'2" (188cm) to give you a reference. The picture was taken with my phone again. I'm still surprised at the quality that its capable of. I will probably keep using it for pictures throughout the trip.


The flights weren't too bad just really long. I couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep on the trans-pacific flight either and I think that's part of what has me in zombie mode right now. I'm thinking that its harder to come back than to go there. Anyone agree with me?

Hongdo Island and Southern Korea

Over the weekend we took a trip to visit Hongo Island and drive throughout southern Korea. It was an amazing trip that offered ample photo opportunity.

The Hondgo Islands are located just off of the southern tip of South Korea. There are several islands in the system, however the one that we visited is called Hongdosipkyeong. It was bought by a couple and converted into a botanical garden. The island was later converted into a tourist destination, and is quite popular. It was rather crowded there, even if my pictures do not represent that.

We also visited a dinosaur museum that was in the area. It was interesting, the museum was good however they also have all of these sedimentary rocks around the museum. Their claim is that some of the pot-marks in the rocks are actually dinosaur prints... I'm not too sure if I'm sold on it.

I started a photobucket site to collect my pictures in and I've included the link below. Feel free to post any comments about the pictures and I'll do my best to respond to them. Many of the pictures turned out incredible, especially since they were taken with my iPhone.

http://s621.photobucket.com/albums/tt294/brown-pitt/Hongdo%20Island%20and%20Southern%20Korea/

Oh yea, duh I have a camera

So lots of pictures to post from my new apartment in this one. Barring any major incident (landlord getting cold feet or something) this is the place that I will be living in. The relator has ensured me that this place should go through so feel confident posting pictures saying that this is the place I'll be living in. I’ll be living in the City 7 complex in Changwon. The apartment is 1903 (19th floor, number 3) in building 102 (there are 4 buildings 101-104). Rent will be about $2.5 million Won per month, which equates to about $1850 USD. This cost covers everything except for electricity (we weren’t able to negotiate it into the contract).

Obviously I didn’t take this one, but it gives you an idea of the skyline. The hotel is on the left with the City 7 Apartment buildings on the right. This picture shows three of the four buildings. I took a few panoramic shots later that show all of the buildings.

Pictures of the kitchen and the master bedroom. As you can see the apartment is unfurnished, but the realtor has ensured me that everything would be in place before my move in date of June first. (I plan on taking pictures once stuff is in the place too). The apartment is unfurnished because they are still completing construction on a lot of the rooms. This complex just opened up for public use a few weeks ago, so I will be one of the first tenants to live in this building. (you can click on the pictures to make them bigger)

Side, by side pictures (of sorts) taken from the living room. I like these pictures like this because you can see the vast difference that exists in Korea. The well developed cities bordering the inhabitable mountains. The country is very different from American in that it is almost entirely cities. There really aren’t any rural areas, because they are so landlocked. The road in the picture on the left has 8 lanes (for reference).

Observations II: Technology

I initially chose this title to be ironic about the time difference (since Korea is 13 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time), but the united states is definitely lagging behind in this department. Its not that Koreans have things that we have never heard of, they just have better access to everything that is available.

For example, I haven't been in a car yet that doesn't have GPS mapping. Most everyone that I have run into also has a cell phone (or two depending on work). Many of the housing complexes are less than 5 years old. So they also have all of the newest and greatest things. Its not that they have 1-million inch LCD TVs, but they have all of the little things that make life easier. For example, apartments don't have heating ducts; they pipe the hot water through the floor and allow the heat to radiate into the apartment. Also each apartment building has a camera near the door and each apartment has an LCD built into the wall. So when someone comes to your apartment and they ask to be buzzed in, you can see them. This control is also connected to other parts of the building, handles the security features, most anything else that you can think of. Its really incredible.

Its not that they are doing incredible new things, they are just doing all of the cool little things that makes life easier. Roads are wide enough to handle traffic, roads don't have potholes all over the place (most are blacktop), your GPS will notify you when you come up on speed cameras or if you're speeding (it dings). Its just the little things.

Cars are much smaller than in the states too. This is to be expected because of the area, but the larger cars feel much bigger. We spent most of the day driving around in what would be called a mid sized car in America (think Ford Taurus) and while it was comfortable and had a lot of space in it, you could tell that it was difficult to manuver and it struggled in some of the parking garages. I'm sure that I'll continue to expand on this, being a tech nerd and all.

Observations I: Changwon City

This is the city that I am currently in and should be staying in during the course of my residency (I'll update once the lease has been signed). The city is very impressive in itself, especially since it did not exist before 1956. Not that it was a town or something smaller; it was flat land, nothing at all. During this time the government officials saw the need for a centralized capital city for the forming providence and as such, Changwon was established.

Once this happened, they went into the planning stages for the city. Instead of just going at the city they put a lot of thought and effort into the city's need and purpose. Besides being the capital, Changwon is one of the premiere manufacturing cities in Korea. This is because of how the city is designed as much as the drive of the people that live in it.

The city was designed to be split in half, part residential and part industrial. One main road (4-lane road) splits the town in two, providing the border between the two halves. This design makes the city very drivable, and very livable as you don't have some major manufacturing company working out of your backyard.

Just being around the city, you can see the planning that went into making this city, as well as the rest of the surrounding areas. Everything feels to have been done with a purpose, with a definite goal in mind. This is also true about the residential side of the city. Most of the population lives in large apartment buildings similar to what I will be in. Each building houses hundreds of people, and there can be up to 20 buildings in any given park. This creates a significant population density in these areas, however this has been planned for. Parking is typically below the buildings, electric lines are underground, bike lanes are provided. Most anything that you could think of has been thought of and sorted out. It is a very odd sensation, Changwon has nearly twice the population of Pittsburgh, yet it feels much, much smaller.

The area that I am currently in is called City-7. It is a very modern and Americanized part of the country because many of the shops have english words and english speaking persons working in the shops. City-7 is a complex with a 3 story shopping mall and apartment complex. So it has most anything that I could need. I will probably cover this further in a later blog post. I'm thinking about covering a specific topic of interest in each post as well as the general day-to-day activities going on in my life. I hope that will provide a good view of my experiences, as well as the Korean people and culture.

Website: http://eng.changwon.go.kr/home/home.jsp

Welcome to Korea

So I've finally made it to Korea, it really doesn't seem like I'm here, but I am. Getting here wasn't too bad, the flights were all on time and didn't run into too many issues. However the flight into Japan was grounded to investigate everyone's "health status." ie they're wayyy too worried about the swine flu. We were stuck on the plan for about another hour after we landed, as they went through everyone's history etc. It was a bit annoying and a lot of the passengers agreed that they were making too big of a deal out of this. They even went through scanning everyone's body temperature looking for people with fevers. One guy in the front row of the plane registered a high temp, so all of the people around him had to wait as the rest of us got off.

Business class for the trans-pacific flight was pretty awesome. The seats were really comfortable and the food was pretty good too. I'm glad that the company is picking up the tab for that one.

The hotel that we are in is really amazing. It just opened 4 months ago and it really shows. They've put in almost anything that you can think of which is great. Hopefully that will translate into me being more rested / ready for the weeks ahead, but we'll see. The hotel, however, only offers a LAN connection and no wi-fi (I also don't have a router), so I'm not going to be able to get onto Skype, unless I can at the office. I may have to go find some place with free wi-fi so that I can call. More on that as it develops.

Initial impressions: Koreans are very outgoing and friendly. Everyone that I've ran into today has been great and has spoken english very well. However there is a lot less printed English than I was expecting (signs, etc). That may change depending on the area that I am in, but an international data plan so that I can have gps may be a necessity. I'm at the shop for work all day tomorrow so that should be a good experience.

Ready to fly?

So its Sunday already and I'm flying out tomorrow morning. I knew that this was coming, but I can't say that I expected it to be here this quickly.

I finished moving across the house, for the time being anyways. Most everything's sorted out and in the room, which is good enough for now. I might change some things around throughout the day or when I get back, but at least its done for now.

Most of the details for this trip have been sorted out, so it should be good to. The hotel looks like it'll be pretty awesome (pictures coming when I arrive) and it will be good to get to see how Doosan works and what all they do. They are a pretty large manufacturing company making components for all different sorts of industries. I'll try to take some pictures or get more information about how they work. So stay tuned for those.

So the flight path is Pittsburgh => Detroit => Tokyo => Busan, South Korea for those who are interested. We're scheduled to get into Korea around 9pm, their time (8am EST). Packing wise I'm pretty good to go. I've gotten most everything together already, now its just making it all fit into the suitcases. I'm trying to take some extra stuff too, with the hope that I can leave it in Korea until I go back at the end of the month. I get something like 300 lbs of shipping, but if I don't need to use it, it would make things easier.

Away we go

Well it looks like I've got this thing up and running. So what to write about for the first post... I guess that I'll expand the details (on the right).

This upcoming weekend will be hectic, I'm moving out of my room and into another one as well as packing for my first trip to South Korea. I'm not too worried about the move, it'll be annoying more than anything else. Never really liked moving and that is probably why I'm staying at the same place for another year. Packing for the trip should be ok too. I feel like I've figured out most everything that I'll need to go. And if I forget it on this trip, I'll know for the next one.

For this trip I'm going with Rich (one of the guys at work) who has been to our supplier a few times before. That has helped to ease a lot of my concerns. He said that we'd spend the first few days going around the shop and the city so that I get a chance to familiarize myself with the new surroundings. Apparently the supplier is rather large and they work for several companies (ie not all the stuff there is ours), so I'll need to know where our parts/equipment are.

On this trip I'll also get to meet the residents that are there. The lead resident, Brian, has been there for about 8 years now. I guess that he really likes what he's doing, 8 years just seems like a really long time to me ... heck 6 months feels like a really long time.

During this trip I'm also supposed to be picking out housing for the long-term residency. Apparently we have an agency that works there and takes care of all of the details (locating the place, security deposit, etc). All I have to do is just go with the guy and pick something out. I'm not really all that picky about where I'll be living, however furnished and Wi-fi would be nice. Close to work would be good too, however their public transit is supposed to be better than ours.

Also I'll be without cell phone for the trip. I'm taking it along as I can use it for Wi-fi, but I won't be able to receive or make calls or send text messages. So if you need to get a hold of me the best options are:

Email brown.pitt@gmail.com (or google chat)
AIM last rurouni 323
Skype brown.pitt

I'm going to try to leave Skype and Gmail up and running most of the time, so contacting be would be best through any method really. Just don’t call. Its $2.29/minute to call Korea which is insane.

I’m not too sure what else to write, but if have a question get a hold of me or put it in the comments and I’ll answer it.