The day after my HAIL gig, I got on a plane to go wander around Hong Kong for a few days. Lunar New Year is a three day holiday in Korea, so I wanted to take advantage of the time. My friend Kye-Ok came with me, too. Hong Kong is a really progressive city. They call it the International City, and it really is. I was pleasantly surprised with how easy it is to get around and communicate with people (much simpler than Ulsan). There's a LOT to see, I'm sure I could have spent many more days there with new [View Full Entry]

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Last weekend was the first gig with HAIL (my new band that I mentioned in the last entry). It went really well, and was so much fun. We played at the Ulsan Foreigner's Compound bar, where a lot of ex-pats and English teachers live, etc. It is a very small little place and we managed to pack probably 50-60 people inside. We split the show up into two sets and also did a little encore at the end, replaying some songs (since we only know 15 or so at this point). It ended up lasting from 9 till about 12:30, I [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everyone. I've stockpiled a bunch of pictures that I've been meaning to put up for a while. It's been a while since the last update... Hmm, what have I been doing? I've been travelling around a bit locally. I visited Gyeongju ("key-ONG-joo"), which is a natural park with a lot of old Buddhist temples and such. It's very nice and low-key, mostly untouched by big tourism, with the exception of a few souvenir stands. My friend Kye-Ok ("kay-OH") showed me around there. She works at the shipyard, as well, for Transocean as a document controller. She is one of my [View Full Entry]

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So there's not really a huge amount to report for this entry. I have been continuing to get used to the area and mainly just settling into life. Everything is relatively easy, except for communicating with people in shops and places. People at work all speak English, but going out for food, etc can be frustrating. I hope to learn Korean as I go, but it's very different. I get by now by pointing at things on menus, or calling Martin to translate for me. My shipment of things from Canada has not arrived, but I got word that it is [View Full Entry]

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After months of waiting for my visa documents, relocation details, and human resources changes, I finally made it to Korea! For those of you who don't know, I recently accepted a position with the Rig Solutions Project Management team with my company (National Oilwell Varco). I am working at the Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard in the city of Ulsan (pop. = 1 million or so), where NOV is supplying all the equipment for an offshore drilling ship. My work agreement is for a period of about two years. My title is a Project Engineer and I'm here as a local point [View Full Entry]

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