Weaver's Big Adventure

Weaver Adventure Blog for Week of April 16, 2012

Obligatory Corporate Update:

As some of you know, my family and I are moving to Seoul, South Korea in June.  I have been assigned to work with Cook Medical Korea for a few years as Cook’s business there evolves and grows. 

Cook has been doing business in Korea for almost 30 years, but has always sold products through a distributor.  Currently we are in the middle of a transition to a direct sales model.  I am going there to help with this transition in any way I can while also building stronger connections between Korea and Bloomington, helping foster the Cook culture there, and learning about living and doing business in another part of the world.

Cue the Weaver Adventure Blog Post:

So our own transition is underway too.  This past week, the shippers came to our house to take the few items we decided to ship over.  As you can imagine, shipping stuff to the other side of the world is quite expensive, so we only shipped vital stuff – like deodorant, peanut butter, and some stuffed animals the kids wanted. 

Prior to shipping our stuff, we did some research on what to expect and even visited Seoul to check out how things work there.  Our online research and our in-person research taught us several important lessons:

1.     We are bigger than many/most/all Koreans.  This means buying clothes there will be a challenge, especially for me as I am not only large but a slave to fashion…

2.     We need to learn to read and speak Korean - quickly.  Most cabs, stores, groceries, restaurants, etc. are not English friendly.  The Korean people are incredibly friendly and welcoming, but English is not very common.  So far I can say “hello”, “thank you”, and…that’s it for now…If we don’t get up to speed soon, we will have to play menu roulette when we go out to eat.

3.     It is easier to take children to Korea than pets.  We have filled out twice as many forms for our two dogs (below) than we have our daughters (below), but at least their flights are cheaper. 

4.     Seoul is a very, very large city.  In the city proper are about 12 million people, and in the metro area there are 25 million.  Many of these people have cars, so rush hour can be pretty tangled, and lasts most of the day.

I’m sure there will be many more lessons and adventures.   I will share them with you from time to time, but that’s it for now.  Gotta go weigh my luggage to see if I can squeeze a few more jars of Jif in there…

Weaver

The Girls and Pam

Luna

Gizmo