A Performer in Our Midst

Weaver Adventure Blog for Week of July 10, 2012

Performer in Our Midst

One of the advantages our Korean business has is the relatively small geography of the country.  We can get everyone together for a meeting or dinner with ease because the farthest anyone needs to travel takes around three hours.  And only a few employees live that far away.  The bulk of our team here lives within 45 minutes of the office.  So, as we are rapidly expanding and want to build community and foster a strong culture with the new people, we meet once a month in a nearby conference center to discuss themes central to Cook culture. 

After our June meeting, one of the reps from our Endoscopy division, Kwang-Seok Choe, suggested we include a little entertainment into the agenda for the next meeting.  I assumed he was volunteering, so the next thing he knew he was to perform three songs at the July meeting.  He plays the guitar and sings. 

And has for a long time.  He has been playing for 16 years.  And loves it!  As he puts it, “In my life the music makes me feel happy and alive.  The most important thing is to play for others to try to share my happiness with them.”

Kwang-Seok chose three songs for the event.  These were all covers of famous songs from the radio, but he has written over 100 original songs and performs in Seoul about once a month at venues that host acoustic nights and open-mic opportunities.  It is truly a passion. 

And it showed.   Everyone really enjoyed hearing Kwang-Seok, who has only been with Cook for five months, and we also got a glimpse of what makes him fit into Cook so well – after the first song, his beloved guitar amp, which has been with him since his first lesson, died.  So what did he do?  Finished the set “unplugged”!  It was a great performance, and added a fun new facet to our monthly meetings.  We’ll anticipate an encore!  Check out the clip below.  (They are the same clip.  Not sure why there are two.)

Thank you, Kwang-Seok!

Until next time.

Weaver

Getting Parking Lessons

Weaver Adventure Blog for Week of June 25, 2012

So I got a parking ticket. Maybe the second one in my life.  Or third.  Anyway, another fine – 30.00 or so.  32,000 Won.   So enough is enough, says I.  I decided to enlist the aid of Yong-Kwan Kim – one of my colleagues here in Korea.  Yong-Kwan Kim, or YK as he is sometimes called, offered to help me learn to park here some time ago, and I should have taken him up on his offer at the time, but I didn’t.  Another lesson learned…

YK works with the business units and the customers and hospitals where we do business to seek process efficiencies and to develop creative solutions to problems that come up regarding supply chain, contracts, pricing, etc.  I figure if he can help optimize those complex relationships, then surely he can help reduce my anxiety about where to PARK.  Not to mention, save me some money by reducing the number of tickets and tow charges I get!

So he and I wandered around the blocks surrounding the office building where we work, and he explained the situation.  What follows is a short video compilation of YK’s advice, guidance, and philosophy on parking in Seoul.  Check it out. 

Sage advice!  Thanks Yong-Kwan!  I guess time will tell if after this tutorial I can master the gentle art of parking in Seoul.  If not, I may just have to stop driving.  It might be cheaper to take the bus and cabs everywhere, because in addition to the parking lot cameras, Seoul has hundreds of speed cameras that take a picture of your car as you speed past and just send you a ticket.  It’s enough to cause a fair amount of vehicular paranoia.  I’ll keep you posted.

Until next time.

Weaver

Mass Transit!

Weaver Adventure Blog for Week of June 18, 2012

Embracing Mass Transit

So as promised, today I really did leave the car parked and walk around the corner to my friendly neighborhood bus stop. I had done my homework and knew I wanted “Trunk Bus 153”.  These “Trunk” buses are somewhere between a local bus with many stops, and an express bus with very few stops.  I was told this Bus 153 would take me within a block of the office. I knew it would be blue. 

 I had the Seoul Bus App launched on my Iphone. 

 I had arranged for a special ATM card that doubles as a transit card (T-Money card) and allows the bus fare to just come directly from my bank account.  It was in my pocket.  I had my computer bag, and was, of course, fashionably dressed. 

I envisioned a bit of a wait, and even entertained the idea of popping in the coffee shop 20 feet (3m) from the stop.  (There is a 1:1 coffee shop:citizen ratio in Seoul, but more on that another time.) Good thing I didn’t, because as I approached the stop, so did Trunk Bus 153 – my bus to work!  I hopped on behind 5 or 6 other people, waved my T-Money card by the sensor (which beeped a welcome), and squeezed onto the bus.

I say squeezed because the bus was pretty full.   Or so I thought.  With each stop a few people would get off, and a dozen would get on.  I lucked into a seat during one of these exchanges, and watched as the bus continued to fill to absolute maximum.  It was interesting to see how everyone behaved in what I am discovering is the norm in Seoul.  People were courteous, relaxed, and flexible – moving a little this way and that to allow people on and off.  Pretty much everyone was using a smart phone to watch, listen, read, or write something.  It is a very smartphone based community.  I was mostly just watching others and noting what was going on around me.

While the bus is very tidy and free of litter, graffiti, etc., it can get really packed with people during peak times.  My advice to others with little experience using mass transit who might be thinking of starting a daily bus or subway commute in a large city is to read through this list of phobias.  If you have one, or any combination of them, seek professional help prior to boarding.  The list is not exhaustive:

Aphenphosmphobia

Amaxophobia

Anthropophobia

Bromidrosiphobia

Bacillophobia

Bacteriophobia

Cenophobia

Claustrophobia

Cleithrophobia

Demophobia

Genuphobia

Misophobia

Phronemophobia

Scopophobia

Tachophobia

Fortunately, I don’t suffer (much) from any of these, so my commute on the bus to work was an unmitigated success.  I left the apartment at 8:22.25 and arrived at the office at 9:00.13 (see below).  So it took about 10 minutes longer than driving in a car, but ecologically, sociologically, psychologically, logistically, and practically, it all worked out.  Now to get back home….

Until next time.

Weaver

Just Landed

Weaver Adventure Blog for Week of June 11, 2012

We Made It!

Final Feast at Feast

First of all, thank you all for your comments and words of encouragement leading up to our travel day.  I really appreciate them.  Keep ‘em coming, and if you wonder about anything Weaver Adventure related you want me to write about, let me know.

So, after many long days in the final push to actually leave Bloomington, we locked the door last Sunday and took off. 

Urban Assault Vehicle

Our monster rental car  was packed pretty tightly, but all of our luggage and the dogs’ carriers fit inside with room to spare for the four of us.   Our drive to Detroit was uneventful, if you ignore our carbon footprint, and we checked into the airport hotel and tried to get some sleep before our flight Monday.

The flight was, surprisingly, a piece of cake.  After all that hand-wringing about the dogs, they slept in their little crates and made nary a peep the whole way.  One of the flight attendants was a rabid lover of dogs and helped us get them settled and brought them ice cubes from time to time as recommended by people who travel frequently with pets.  The kids watched movies and stayed awake for most of the flight, which was only 12.5 hours instead of the 14 I had experienced in the past. 

Our Apartment Building

Once in the terminal in Korea, the dog importation process was also very simple – a couple of forms to sign and we were through.  The ride we had arranged was waiting for us, and we arrived at our apartment building at 5:00 p.m.  Jangled, to be sure, but happy that all had gone so smoothly.

This past week we have been unpacking, finding the critical stores in the neighborhood (see below), and trying to get over our jet lag.  

The dogs were really out of it and slept for the better part of two days. When they did get up, they just staggered around looking dazed.  They might say the same about us in their blog if they had one.  

Luna Dazed

Gizmo Crashed

The kids and we are still waking up at 5:00 a.m., but that will pass over the next week or so. 

All in all, we are doing very well.

This week I plan to start taking the bus to work.  That will be a little bit of an adventure as I have never really used public transportation with any consistency.  I will let you know how it goes.

Until next time.

Weaver

Ice Cream Shop

Bread and Pastry Shop

Haven't Actually Been Here Yet

Tick Tock

Weaver Adventure Blog for Week of May 23, 2012

The Adventure Heats Up

Korean Won

So our one-way flights are ten days away.  Lots of last minute things are on our to-do lists.  However, in general, we are in good shape.

For those of you who were losing sleep over it, I did, finally, get my Alien Registration Card.  I was a bit surprised at how monochromatic the ARC card is as the money in Korea is quite colorful.  However, immigration law is filled with grey areas so perhaps this is a testament to that fact.  Dunno, just glad to have it.

Dog Carriers

Speaking of our flights, we are planning to fly out of Detroit so it is just one hop.  Delta has a flight direct to Seoul from Detroit.  It’s a scenic flight up and over the continental US, Alaska, Russia, China and finally into South Korea.  Takes about 14 hours.  Our plan is to carry the dogs on the plane in little carriers and put them under the seats in front of us.  While I have some pretty significant misgivings about this plan, it seems better than shipping them as cargo and having them in the belly of the plane.  Time will tell, but I have 35 free drink coupons to distribute to those around us if this backfires horribly, and another 35 for myself.

Pak Mail

In move-related news, while much of the world’s communication has become electronic, we still get a lot of mail.  So we had to figure out what to do with all of our mail while we’re gone.  As luck would have it, we found a place in Bloomington that will rent us a mailbox and as often as we like will box up our mail and send it to us.  They will even weed out the catalogs and other items we don’t want.  However, I imagine it will only take Hammacher-Schlemmer about  48 hours to get our Korean address and start sending their catalogs to us there. 

One Day's Mail

We have been spending quite of bit of time saying goodbye to family and friends.  It is a strange sort of goodbye as it is not permanent.  If we were on a 30-year space voyage or something it would be quite different.  But it will be tough to not hug parents and friends for what might be a year.  We will be back at least once a year, but I imagine around the holidays and other important events emotions will run a little higher.  But we will persevere with Facetime and Skype and the occasional visit from our more intrepid relatives and friends.

Might be a little gap in the blog as we actually get settled, but expect a full report in early June with tales of our travel and first few nights as a family in a new country.  Now where did I put those drink tickets…?

Until next time.

Weaver

Driving

Weaver Adventure Blog for Week of May 7, 2012

The Adventure Continues

  

Started doing some driving this week in Seoul.  Talk about the adventure continuing!

Firstly, the people who invented satellite navigation should win a Nobel prize.  I have never had a “satnav” until now, relying on maps and my wife’s inherent sense of direction to get where I needed to go.  However, in a city of this magnitude and complexity, these electronic gadgets are absolutely essential.  If the satellites ever go offline, well, I don’t know what will happen; some kind of zombie apocalypse I imagine.

Secondly, the driving rules are pretty straightforward.  Thankfully, the British never really visited Korea until the 1950’s, so car layout and road rules are similar to the US, where I have done most of my driving.  But the parking rules…well, I missed that memo.  I had possession of a car for a little less than one hour in Seoul before it was towed away.  I’ve been driving for almost 30 years, and this was a first, so before you judge me too harshly, let me explain.

I drove to our apartment to meet the landlord and get the keys.  You’ll recall that was a goal for the week.  So, since to be early is to be on time, I got there 15 minutes early and parked in a spot on the street where many other cars were parked.  A sign nearby with a car icon on it was blue, not red, and it seemed like a great spot.  I walked around the neighborhood for a few minutes and then came back, met the landlord and went in.

During the tour of the place, I glanced out the window (we are on the third floor) and watched in disbelief as a tow truck was just finishing hooking up my car.  By the time I got out to the street, it was gone.  In its place was an orange sticker on the curb, and although it was all in Korean, I was pretty sure it said, “We towed your car.”   The landlord was very helpful and we drove to the impound yard which was just a short ways away and got the car back.  Relative to a tow charge in the US, it was even pretty cheap – 47,000 Won – about 45 US dollars.  

So of what infraction was I guilty?  Turns out the parking spots along that street are assigned to certain houses.  Written on the pavement are numbers that correspond to the houses.  I did not know this – my bad.

The other thing I didn’t know, but would not have helped me much due to my Korean language deficiency, is that in Seoul, EVERY car has a sticker or card in the front window with the owner’s telephone number on it.  Instead of automatically getting a ticket, or getting towed, you will get a call and you can go move your car!  It’s a very friendly, pragmatic practice.  As a result, people park with some creativity knowing they will probably not get a ticket or inconvenience others too badly.  Pretty cool.  Anyway, a great lesson learned, and a great value at only 47,000 Won. 

Until next time.

Weaver

Blessed SatNav

Secret Parking Codes

Friendly Parking Sign

Phone Number in Car Window

My rental car