Monday, December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas

My Christmas Eve special complete with hangover solution....which was free with the whiskey. 



And here is how I ring in the big day....T-15mins. Cigar is crunchy and overpriced but I've been chewing on it for a few hours and its smokable. Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!

Monday, December 17, 2012

Good news / Bad news

The good news is that I think i'm losing weight.  The bad news is that I have no idea why.....oh yeah, it could be the 4-a-day's in the RR from all the spicy Korean food, or the sauna bus rides to and from work, or the 1/2 mile walk in a huge jacket from the bus to my desk.  I will say that, to this point, it has nothing to do with the gym.  Hoping to change that soon.

In an effort to catch up on posting pictures I've been taking, here are a few:



So here's day 1 trying to sort out all my monopoly money.  Before you ask if i cleaned out the bank to come here, the conversion is about 1,200 Won = $1.   I'm really not sure why they don't just drop the 3 zero's.  So, guess what people are getting for their birthday next year!?!?  ha!



Home Plus is pretty much the Wal-Mart of Korea (and Lotte, but I haven't been there).  If you look closely, you'll see about 5 floors.  It's HUGE and has about everything you need to live here.  I'll try to get a picture inside this zoo because it's pretty wild!

Inside Home plus is this little gem.  It's ALMOST like a McDonalds.  They have a really good shrimp burger and a spicy chicken sandwich that is ACTUALLY spicy!!!  They pull out the English menu when I go here. it's funny.


One think about Korea is that they have places named the same as in the States, but are JUST a little different.  I can actually count on this Pizza Hut to come through on the pepperoni, but a personal size pizza is around 16,000 Won.  I prefer Pizza School!

One more for today

This is how I look every morning going to work.  And YES, it's that damn cold here.  Just for inventory's sake...I have on a Large jacket w/ hood, scarf, Braves hat, beenie, and thick gloves. Try walking over a mile every day in this getup.



Monday, December 10, 2012

Korea - What the hell did I get myself into?!

Just to catch up....
So it was bad enough that I took the job at Samsung knowing that I'd have to leave to Korea for 6 weeks, but It got kinda real when my boss told me that the plans changed and I'll be going for 3 months.  I was conveniently told at 5pm on Friday, which only gave me the weekend to stew and figure out how to tell Vickie.

Anyway, fast forward to the Korea.  The "plan" from our fearless leader was to all meet at baggage claim and take the shuttle bus from Incheon Intl Airport to Suwon (about $100 cab ride otherwise).  I got off the plane, straight to the passport line, straight to baggage claim...and NOBODY was there.  Didn't know at the time, but they were out on the second curb waiting for the shuttle while I frantically run up and down the curb and inside of the building hauling all my bags.  It wouldn't have been such a big deal except that I was in a completely foreign country for the first time with absolutely no way to communicate with people who were trying to help me.  I finally found a taxi to get me to the hotel, which of course cost over $100 because of tolls and the fact that I looked like a helpless idiot at the time.  

So I get to the hotel and guess who is checking in...."ahhh, there you are.  where were you? You missed the bus"  This is what our "leader" says to me.  I managed to keep from putting my hands around his neck enough to let him know that leaving me at the airport in a foreign country was "not cool".  He apologized and promised me dinner...which still hasn't happened.

The icing???  Well, we were told the previous week that our shuttle would leave at 7:15am every morning.  Well, there was an announcement made...on the bus...that the Monday shuttle would be at 6:30am to accommodate a VP who was going to speak to us first thing...ya know..the whole first impression thing?!  So I wake up around 6:30, get down to breakfast and nobody is there!  I rush  down to the front desk and they tell me that I missed the bus and need to take a taxi to work ($25).  So I haven't even worked a minute and i'm down almost $150 on cab fare.

So much for my 'great experience' getting off to a smooth start....but that's just the beginning...

Howdy!

So we're finally getting around to doing this, but the quick and dirty is that we want to sort of document the good, the bad, and the ugly of our lives and put it out there for our friends and family to keep up with us.   Vickie may have another take on it... :)