The Culverhouse’s in Korea - Dec 2002
Seasons Greetings!
Do you remember this little day we had one year ago today!! Yes it’s our 1st wedding anniversary today so I’ve made an origami necklace for Lyra as year one is celebrated with paper!! Or so I thought, it seems times of changed and Lyra has much higher expectations!! We’ll see….
Well we’re approaching the end of a very exciting year; I think the last time we wrote was in August so a fair bit has happened since then.
The Korean Holiday of Chusok was in September, which is their Thanksgiving, when all families get together and pay their respects to their ancestors, and all the Expats leave the country! Ly and I went over to Hong Kong for a long weekend with a colleague and friend Ken. We spent a couple of days enjoying the sights, eating well and drinking heartily. Ken is a Dubliner and has to seek out the local Irish bar to sample the guiness so one of the nights was spent drowned in guiness and four leafed clovers while we watched the monsoon pass by outside!
Late September brought Mum & Dad C over for 3 WEEKS!! Which was great fun; I haven’t spent that long with my parents since I was about 18! But we had a great time, Lyra was the official tour guide and took them to all the sights in Seoul, the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone between North & South Korea for those wondering) and actually stepped across into North Korea. The trip took us into the Joint Security area which is the only place where North & South have met since 1953. It is an intensely forbidding place with a very violent history of events.
We also took the train down to Gyeongju which is the Ancient Capital of the Shilla Dynasty that ruled Korea around 2000 years ago. The old part of the town is like an open air museum centred around huge burial mounds of ancient Kings. Also near Gyeongju is Pulgaksa Temple, the oldest and most famous Buddist temple, this place is stunning but I think the enduring memory of this place will be the thousands (literally) of kids that were there, each and every one of them seemed desperate to say hello to the funny tall people and practice their English. It was a wonderful experience that I don’t think any of us will forget.
After all this Mum & Dad spent a week on their own in the mountains on the East Coast, which by the photos was one of their highlights. Another highlight was the night they came with us to a dinner party with some of our friends we’ve met here. Well as those of you who have been to dinner with us will know these affairs always start off very civilised with great food and pleasant conversation, but as the evening went on the conversation went into the gutter and beyond!! It’s fair to say that there were times when my poor Mum didn’t know what to think of these so called educated people!! I don’t think they’ll forget it in a hurry, and nor will our friends, it has been a talking point ever since, usually opening with ‘I can’t believe we discussed ………. In front of your parents!’
Still they left us in October, which gave us time to prepare for November’s Balls and Parties! Firstly there was the Melbourne cup Ball, complete with betting on fake races, it was a great night and we were hosts of our own table of guests which was fun. As usual the night drew to a close around 4am, but not to worry because next weekend it was a friend of our Cees’s birthday, so it was Friday night down his place standing out in the cold to admire his new patio heater and dancing the night away in his front room! This was swiftly followed by our very own Guy Fawkes Party, complete with fireworks (of the very dangerous Korean kind! Those Korean instructions were a bit tough to read!). We had about 40 guests, of which Lyra catered for all by herself with her infamous Chilli! The fireworks display was a little disjointed and became increasingly dangerous as we tried to work out what each one did…. Koreans have a liking for fireworks which you light in your hand, hold as long as you dare and then throw just in time for it to explode and shoot off into the sky / crowd/ embassy over the road!!
Amazingly nobody was injured and particularly for the boys it was great fun!! The evening progressed onto Table Football (new investment) and The Weakest Link and of course ended with a very bizarre game of Guesstures which ended with one broken vase, 2 spilt candles, and plenty of belly aches from laughing too hard!!
Then one week later it was the St Andrews Scottish Ball, which is an all nighter, including breakfast!! Lots of pomp and ceremony including the slaying of the Haggis, and a very amusing speech from the Dutch Ambassador who spent 20 minutes taking the p*ss out of the Scots to great applause from the English!!!! The music for the evening was supplied by a Scottish Kaylie band so it was jigging around a la Scotland…. Although we were upsetting the pro’s as we didn’t have a clue!!
Since then, Lyra disappeared off to England for 3 weeks to give me a chance to by her a Christmas present! And of course to see her Mum out who had been in hospital after partying too hard for too many years (she is Irish after all). Thankfully she’s on the mend and getting back to her usual self (watch out Heyford). I’m sure everyone will join us in saying, get well soon!!
Well for once we have no harrowing news about cats, it seems that Podgoss has finally learnt which gardens to avoid so our Gold members card at the vets will be expiring soon! They are all very settled in well now and have even started slaying the local birdlife. Lovely!
Work for me continues to be tough; we are close to the end of the construction period with handover due at the end of the year, hence why we are not coming home for Christmas. This experience has given me a wealth of learning’s about myself and how to handle difficult situations in a foreign culture, I could probably write a book on it! The Distribution Centre begins operations in January so no doubt there will be much more ‘fun’ to come next year! Although I have much more faith in our operations team than the contractors that have been building the DC. Time will tell!!
Christmas in Korea should be fun, Les (Lyra’s ‘little’ Brother) arrived at the weekend to spend Christmas and New Year with us, which is great. We’ve already won all his money in a game of cards so he’ll be out selling his body next week to pay for his trip home (so I guess we’re stuck with him now!).
Last night we went round some friends to introduce Les (eeek) and to enjoy some mince pies and lots of mulled wine in front of the log fire, not to mention the choir (at least 35 of them) that came along to sing to us (they didn’t sing little donkey though.) Christmas day itself will be spent with some friends of ours Helen & Roman. And new year will either be a party at ours or at Terri & Rogers, the details are still under negotiation!
There’s a good chance of Christmassy weather as it has already snowed twice and temperatures have got down as low as -12, which I promise you is bloody cccccold!
So next year will be another busy one, apart from my work, Lyra is starting an Interior Design course, and helping out at a voluntary group called FOCUS who are an expat assistance group in Seoul. Loose plans are afoot to visit China, Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, maybe a wedding in Bangkok, and just maybe the rugby world cup in Oz (if I manage to find enough holidays)!
So that just leaves us to say have a Very Merry Christmas, and a fabulous New Year, no doubt we will speak to many of you over the next week or so, but just make sure you have a good one!
Much love…
Dan & Lyra, the Mogs, and of course Les!!