Korea, Day 3

Poor Sharon (my translator), having to put up with my constant "how do you say ____?"

Korea is sometimes referred to as "Land of the Morning Calm". And it is. The mornings are so peaceful. I'm sure that being up in the mountains has a lot to do with it. The white of the snow, the slight flog, and the trees combine to make some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. And it's quiet! So very quiet around here. Calm is a good way to describe it.

I haven't had a chance to photograph as much as I would like. We're working on a lot of things and by the time I think to grab the camera for a walk, it's already dark and very cold. I thought about taking pictures each morning, as the shuttles take us to the venues, but leaning out the window of a speeding van, in -1C weather, on a windy road will most likely not make for the best pictures.

But, take my word for it. It's absolutely beautiful country here. Some of you know that Ventura (CA) is one of the very few places where I always feel like I'm home when I'm there. I did expect to experience a similar feeling here but, it's not the same. So far, Korea doesn't feel like "home" to me. Though, I do feel that I could live here and be pretty happy. Almost as if it would be "natural" for me to live here. It's a difficult feeling to describe and, it may be premature to attempt to describe it.

I did get out to the Alpine venue. There are some slight hiccups with logistics setup (i.e. one of the snowplows took out a power line). Mike dragged me along, if anything for moral support, as Alpine is one of the more difficult setups we have and the hiccups add to our stress levels. It was beautiful on the mountain but I'm so thankful I'm not stationed there. (I took some pics of the setup, and posted to Flickr).

I also secured a constant internet connection for my own computer back in the IT room, so now I'm connected like I thought I would be. I feel much better now. Prior to this trip, I purchased a floor model Sony Vaio (for cheap) so that I can run GMS on my own machine (GMS does not work on Mac OSX). Though I was skeptical about buying another computer, I'm glad I did. Having my own standalone database allows me to do a lot of troubleshooting without tying up the main server.

The food is getting increasingly westernized. This morning's breakfast? Fried eggs, toast, bacon and hash browns. There was white kimchi and rice, too. I got a hold of the Korean style lunch today, which made up for the breakfast. Dinner was buffet, and mostly westernized food. Though, they had kimchi jiggae (kimchi soup) which was excellent. I can't wait to get to Seoul for some proper Korean food.