Another Update from the Peninsula (Feb 28)

This post is for the last two weeks

But, here is the scoop.  People here in Geoje say that it hardly rains here and never snows.  And then one morning I come out of our apartments and see this crazy white stuff all over the cars.  Needless to say, now that the snow has melted and gone away, we have had a lot of rain.  Hmmm. . . I wonder what else "never" happens on the island. . .

With all of the snow a good majority of us thought that it would be fun to go skiing.  There is a resort about 2 hours north of us called Moojoo (모조) and we have a bus that leaves from Okpo and goes straight there.  So a group of 7 of us decided to go for a cheap price of about $65; this included our bus fare, our rentals, and our lift pass.  So it was great.  

As for the snow, it wasn't anything to write home about (which, I guess I am doing right now).  I would rate the slopes about the same as Sundance, with less snow and fewer black diamond runs.  In fact, I didn't see a single mogul the entire time.  The runs near the bottom were just a train wreck of humanity, so it made it fun to carve around people.

Sadly, they did discriminate against snowboarders at one lift, and of course it was the lift with no line.  All of my co-workers hopped onto that lift and I went back to the other mountain where I was allowed to ski.

The views from the mountian were pretty spectacular.  And at the very top of one mountain was a Pagoda.  That was just cool.

The plants under the snow just didn't seem like they should even be there.

I am the boarder if you were wondering :)

I guess you are probably all wondering how work is going.  Well, as of today (Feb 28) we began cutting steel.  There was a ceremony at the shop with all of the DSME and ExxonMobil personnel on the project.  The ceremony started with managers from both companies lighting separate candles which is a symbol of luck.  Then, we had a small little talk by the DSME manager, a safety talk from our project manager, and then a Korean prayer asking for luck and safety on the project.  Once this was all accomplished, our project manager pushed the button to start the computer controlled steel cutting machine.  There is also a tradition of cutting and eating a rice cake.  The project managers cut into it together (kind of like a wedding cake), tak a bite and then throw some of the rice cake onto the steel being cut; again, this is for luck.  The festivities were at an end and the rest of the participants ate some rice cake (for luck).

I must say that I grabbed way to large of a piece of the rice cake. It is pretty much taking rice, compressing it together so it is one cohesive piece and there you have it.  It is dense, flavorless, and covered in some red bean flakes.  It wasn't horrible, just didn't have any flavor.

So the adventure begins today.  This time next year we will have constructed over 10,000 tons of steel and finishing up the modules.