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Published: November 13th 2008
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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 of contact to do stuff like help deal with our client (Hyundai), deal with contract issues, help with equipment installation issues, and whatever else they ask me to do. As I was slowly preparing to leave, many people have asked me to keep them updated on my experience as I go, so I thought this would be the best way to do that.
I flew out on Nov. 9. The flights went through Seattle, Tokyo, and arrived in Pusan, South Korea. By the end of it, I was in transit for about 26 hours. Luckily for me, NOV has
Seattle Airport
I liked the decorations hanging from the ceiling. It's a nice airport. And those windows are somehow held together by cables! And engineering marvel! a policy that for any flight over "x" amount of hours qualifies for business class. I thought that all airplane food was horrible. It turns out you just need to be in the right section... 😉 The best part was the ample leg room. I was really impressed when the attendant came over and asked, "Would you like some champagne, Mr. Kennedy?" I was pretty spoiled. I didn't get a chance to see anything besides airport in Tokyo or Seattle, unfortunately. The airports here were very easy to navigate. English is posted on most signs, so my preconceived fears of getting lost were invalidated. Pusan was gorgeous from the air. It was a really clear night when we landed, and Korea is very hilly and mountainous. The buildings are all kind of tucked away at the feet of treed hills, and there were obviously millions of bright lights. Once in the airport, my relocation guy, Martin, was waiting with a sign with my name on it. The drive from Pusan to Ulsan took about an hour, even though by North American standards, it was quite a small distance on the map. It's very congested here, in general.
My boss
Leg room!!
I couldn't touch the wall if I wanted to! out here, Chris Manshack, with the help of Martin and his company, have done an awesome job making sure any transitions have gone smoothly. They had a phone ready for me at the airport, they dropped me off a car (Hyundai Avante), took me to look at apartments, and did countless other little things. My first day here consisted of a long breakfast to just chat and catch up, then we went to check out the office and meet our excellent admin assistant, Geuk Y. In the afternoon Martin and his boss, John, brought Chris and me to look at my three choices of apartments. They were all really nice, but the one I ended up choosing is beautiful. It's large, modern, and has an ocean view. It's even called "Happyland Apartments"! How can you not love it?? :P I'm very impressed with everything they've set up for me.
I've spent my free time mainly just exploring Ulsan by foot. Everything in my area is basically adjascent to a main road that runs up the coast. It's constantly busy. You need to be careful because it's common to see full sized motorcycles zipping down the sidewalks and things like
Toilet computer?
This is the small computer on my hotel toilet that controls the strength and fashion of the water spraying on my bum. So far I have selected "none". that. They're really into neon signs. A little tacky maybe, but fun. The effort put into sidewalks, trees, flowers, parks, etc is really impressive. There's a nature reserve nearby, as well as a very decent beach (although it's a little cold for that at this point). This city caters to foreigners quite well. There are a good number of western employees like me, and the markets and restaurants around here reflect it. Most people I've met speak good enough English to understand. People are very honest here. For example, at the end of each month I write down what my gas meter says in my house and that's what they charge me. I've heard that you could throw your credit card down in the parking lot and some stranger will hand deliver it to you within a day or so. I don't plan on testing that theory, but it's a nice thought. 😊
I'm trying to make a point of taking better pictures, but you'll have to deal with these sparse little things for now. 😊 If anyone needs to contact me or has any questions, let me know at michael.kennedy@nov.com. My MSN is adeadmoose@hotmail.com. Phone number is 82-10-3803-6642.
Control Panel Clock?
It took me a while to figure out that my whole hotel room was controlled by my alarm clock... Ahn-say-oh!
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Barb Engels
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Wow!!!
What a wonderful adventure is in store for you Mike. When can we come and visit you??? What a wonderful way to keep in contact with you. You took some great pictures. Love Auntie Barb