2012.02.26 - Container

Container has landed !

Finally ..... we received our container after a long wait. Paula is of the opinion that was sailed here in a gondola by a very tired Venetian. I'm just happy it arrived, so I could get out on my bike again. And here I'm going to jump the events a little bit, to tell you that 15 minutes into my first ride, I damaged the rear derailleur and had to return home. Grrrr !

But back to the container. We were very pleased to sleep in our own bed again. The Korean beds are nothing to write home about, so I'll leave it at that and just mention that it's a little harder to get up in the morning now :-) Our sofa also arrived in the container, and as the one which comes with the apartment is hard as stone, both Paula and Peo quickly took ownership of this. Lots of clothes (although not as much as Paula had expected - something must have gone wrong in the packing), kitchen gear and my toys. Now we are ready for the next year and a half.

Paula is keeping herself busy with her painting classes - both oil on canvas and wood painting, cooking classes and fundraising bingo-sessions. The girls from the project get together at least once every week for lunch. Paula and Dawn both know Ulsan quite well and have taken it upon themselves to show the others a little around here in the beginning. I am being kept very busy at work and have far too many late days trying to catch up on the drawing approval.

Last Thursday I went with a few colleagues for Emergency First Aid training. I used to teach Medic First Aid but have not taught or refreshed it for over 10 years, so it was very good with a refresher. And it gave me a chance to see how the defibrillator works. And practice my bandaging !

We are sticking to our guns on the exercise front. Every second morning we get up one hour early and head for the gym. We have signed up for a 5 and 10km run in Busan in March and for the dragon race in April, so we have something to train towards. For the third Thursday straight we have also been bowling with Agnieszka, Michael, Bella and Tony. We are pretty pathetic (except Paula and Agnieszka, who both seem to be playing their best game), but I was pretty stoked when I managed to play three entire games last time throwing curve-balls the whole way through. I never thought I would learn that ..... it didn't help a bit though :-(

Last weekend we drove down to Busan with Trygve+family and Tommy+family. It is rather difficult to drive in this heavy traffic when there are two cars trying to follow you. I thought I did a pretty decent job, but when we arrived at Haeundae beach and I commented on Tommy's crazy swerving (in order to keep up) as seen in my rear view mirror, I found out that both cars behind me were shocked at my driving !! Hmm - let's wait until the end of the project and then we'll talk again. It's just a little getting used to !

So far we have had three accidents in the team. Rolf's girlfriend Saide broke her arm while on a Sunday hike (word of advice - never go hiking with Norwegians), Rune broke his hand when he fell during a training run (he has also signed up for the March run in Busan) and Chris had a Korean man breaking and entering while waiting for green light at an intersection ! A guy on a moped forgot to brake, ran straight into Chris' bumper and continued over the handlebar and through the rear window of the car ! It was a bit of a fright for the wife and kids, who were sitting on the back seat. The kids wanted to go straight back to Scotland and I think that Kristin is reconsidering the whole driving in Korea thing ....

This weekend we relaxed at home. My colleagues drove up to High1 ski resort, but I wasn't willing to spend the whole weekend in a car (almost - it's 5 hours each way), so I went for the bike ride instead. Then shopping for running shoes for Paula and back for home-cooked dinner with Pietro. And some home-baking in-between.

Sunday .... Gym and then to Jujeon Beach for lunch. I never thought I would say this, but we actually chose to go for Korean food. Something which would never have happened up until now, but I guess that we are slowly being Koreanized !!! we have for the last four years wondered what was hiding behind the strange exterior of one of the houses facing the beach. So today we went in and were well fed in an equally strange interior.

From there we continued to the Turkish Training Ground for a walk in the hills behind the soccer field. it was a little chilly but not biting cold as the last few weeks. We are really looking forward to some warmer temperatures ....

After this web update we are off to the movies. The Descendents.