Captured North Korean Submarine
The Famous Korean Turtle Ship
Lions and Tigers and Cannons Oh My!
Turtle Ship Toilets... Hopefully you don't have rough seas when nature calls!
Friday, June 15, 2012
Tour of Changwon and the ROK Navy Base
As a part of our "Welcome Aboard" INDOC we had the pleasure of being bored to death for the morning inside a classroom on base and then driven around to see some things in the area. Here are some pictures of our adventures and our tour that day.
Gas Masks and Zombie Apocalypse
So I know that everyone's first thoughts about us moving to South Korea were something like, "Is it safe?" "Is there any chance that if North Korea gets a little extra crazy that you will have to be evacuated?" "What will you do if something happens?"
On a serious note, the military has a comprehensive disaster / attack plan that would get us / (Me) out of Korea in the case of a North Korean attack or natural disaster. Dave has a military issued flack jacket, and protective clothing in addition to a gas mask and I was issued a gas mask too. Because the gas masks issued to civilians are a little complicated to put on, and you don't want to be trying to figure the things out in the event of a biological or chemical attack, Dave kindly got me a practice one.
I plan to wear it in the event of a Zombie Apocalypse as well.
I am sure you can see why.
Any way, really, we are quite safe, and there really is nothing to worry about, especially after North Korea demonstrated that they are unable to launch a missile successfully. :)
On a serious note, the military has a comprehensive disaster / attack plan that would get us / (Me) out of Korea in the case of a North Korean attack or natural disaster. Dave has a military issued flack jacket, and protective clothing in addition to a gas mask and I was issued a gas mask too. Because the gas masks issued to civilians are a little complicated to put on, and you don't want to be trying to figure the things out in the event of a biological or chemical attack, Dave kindly got me a practice one.
I plan to wear it in the event of a Zombie Apocalypse as well.
I am sure you can see why.
Any way, really, we are quite safe, and there really is nothing to worry about, especially after North Korea demonstrated that they are unable to launch a missile successfully. :)
The Shitty Seven
I had to share this with you because, well, it was funny.
Back in April Dave and I took a taxi to a major shopping mall in the city of Changwon. We kept asking the taxi driver to take us to the City Seven mall but he didn't understand. We got our our Korean dictionary and said "Shopping Mall" and he still didn't understand. Only after our taxi driver called another Korean taxi driver did he figure out where we wanted him to take us. He then said, "Shitty Seven?" and we said "Yes, City Seven." Whereupon he corrected us, "No, Shitty Seven, not City Seven." So, we said, "Okay, please take us to the Shitty Seven."
At the "Shitty Seven" shopping mall we were expecting to see a nifty, Korean shopping mall with a variety of stores. What we found was an indoor / outdoor shopping mall that architecturally was very interesting but the stores were very strange.
Things to know about Korea / Koreans:
1. They have very small living quarters, so there are not as many stores designed to help people fill their homes.
2. Koreans are really, REALLY into outdoor apparel. For example, it is completely normal to see people walking around downtown in really expensive, brightly colored clothing designed for hiking. Apparently it's not really about doing the hiking that is important here in Korea, but looking like you are ready to climb a mountain at any given moment.
3. Clothing is tiny here. I told Dave that I aspire to fit into a Korean size large by the time we leave Korea.
4. Clothing and shoes are very expensive here, especially if it is made by an American company such as Nike, Adidas, Puma, etc. All of which are super popular here.
So, back to the mall...
In this mall, there were a few restaurants (most of them were Korean restaurants), a nice looking wine bar (which either is ungodly expensive, or serves terrible terrible wine, because wine is really expensive here even at the grocery store), and about 25 stores selling outdoor apparel and hiking gear. I kept getting confused as to which stores we had seen because they all sold the SAME THINGS!!!!! There were a few women's boutiques which sold tiny women's clothing, a few more stores that sold either Nike or Adidas clothing, a lingerie store which sold underwear with a built in butt pad for the ladies lacking in that area, and bras that were so small you might be able to put a hard boiled egg in each cup. And that was pretty much it. The mall is really nifty looking, and I will go back to eat at one of the nicer, though expensive restaurants, but I don't think I will be doing much shopping there.
Here are a few pictures from the "Shitty Seven" shopping mall.
Back in April Dave and I took a taxi to a major shopping mall in the city of Changwon. We kept asking the taxi driver to take us to the City Seven mall but he didn't understand. We got our our Korean dictionary and said "Shopping Mall" and he still didn't understand. Only after our taxi driver called another Korean taxi driver did he figure out where we wanted him to take us. He then said, "Shitty Seven?" and we said "Yes, City Seven." Whereupon he corrected us, "No, Shitty Seven, not City Seven." So, we said, "Okay, please take us to the Shitty Seven."
At the "Shitty Seven" shopping mall we were expecting to see a nifty, Korean shopping mall with a variety of stores. What we found was an indoor / outdoor shopping mall that architecturally was very interesting but the stores were very strange.
Things to know about Korea / Koreans:
1. They have very small living quarters, so there are not as many stores designed to help people fill their homes.
2. Koreans are really, REALLY into outdoor apparel. For example, it is completely normal to see people walking around downtown in really expensive, brightly colored clothing designed for hiking. Apparently it's not really about doing the hiking that is important here in Korea, but looking like you are ready to climb a mountain at any given moment.
3. Clothing is tiny here. I told Dave that I aspire to fit into a Korean size large by the time we leave Korea.
4. Clothing and shoes are very expensive here, especially if it is made by an American company such as Nike, Adidas, Puma, etc. All of which are super popular here.
So, back to the mall...
In this mall, there were a few restaurants (most of them were Korean restaurants), a nice looking wine bar (which either is ungodly expensive, or serves terrible terrible wine, because wine is really expensive here even at the grocery store), and about 25 stores selling outdoor apparel and hiking gear. I kept getting confused as to which stores we had seen because they all sold the SAME THINGS!!!!! There were a few women's boutiques which sold tiny women's clothing, a few more stores that sold either Nike or Adidas clothing, a lingerie store which sold underwear with a built in butt pad for the ladies lacking in that area, and bras that were so small you might be able to put a hard boiled egg in each cup. And that was pretty much it. The mall is really nifty looking, and I will go back to eat at one of the nicer, though expensive restaurants, but I don't think I will be doing much shopping there.
Here are a few pictures from the "Shitty Seven" shopping mall.
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