On Frozen Won

On Frozen Won – My time in Korea

So the Korean money is the Won. A Dollar will get you 1200 won so you feel really rich when you handle their money. The down side is that when you hear that lunch is 12,000 Won, you feel faint for a second. Now the second part of the title is that it is REALLY cold here. I am talking about North Pole cold and as a native of Texas I simply was not prepared for this weather.

The first thing I notice is that these people CAN’T drive. I got into a cab for the 40 minute ride to the hotel from the airport and let me tell you that I thought the time of my departure from this world had arrived. My cab driver, who I refer to as Mario Andretti, started off by swerving at another cab driver standing close to the curb because he didn’t like him. Then Mario sped through traffic running two red lights getting onto the expressway. From my observation it seems that the traffic signs and lights are more like guidelines…. “For reference only”. As we turned onto the expressway there were people (walking) crossing the road with the light that said “OK to walk”. Well whoever put that light up has never met Mario! It was NOT OK to walk as he wove through them and honked as he gestured with a minimum of fingers, if you understand. I informed him that I was not in a real hurry …thinking that might prolong my life. “Yes Sir, No Problem Sir” he said as he accelerated even faster onto the freeway. I literally didn’t have the nerve to look at the dash to see how fast we were going, but it was the equivalent of 85 -90 MPH at least. He passed cars across all lanes, and even used the shoulder of the road to go around one car ( a real thrill ) I must mention however that most of the cars were not only driving the same way, but some were passing us ! It was like the INDY 500 on acid. I decided right there to practice praying….don’t know if that’s how I made it but I think so. All I could think about was that at some point I would have to take a taxi back to the airport. Yikes !

Who taught these people how to drive?

I came here because the company in Japan uses an aircraft company in Korea to produce detail parts for the frames being built in Japan. I came here because the frames must hit a certain date and that means that the Korean details could not be late. So off I go again , deeper into this than ever…so while I won’t mention company names, here is what we have. A big company in Seattle orders airplane parts from my company in Dallas who orders frames from a company in Japan who orders details for those frames from a company in Korea. Confused yet? It did get worse as I had to go to a small shop that the Korean company uses to paint the details. I just love this business! Ever wonder why airplanes cost so much? Overall Korea was a nice place, kind of like New Mexico with cities tucked around mountains…..except the cities all have millions of people. This current assignment is so much fun for a 30 year aircraft guy like me. Getting to travel all around and visit with other people from other countries that have been in the same industry, just in another country, well it’s just awesome. Truly the aircraft business is the same across all cultures.

MT. FUJI

It is beginning to get wild here now. The project we are working is really in full swing. We are making this company work 7 days a week, so we are coming in to support each day as well. So Sunday before last was a day where I and my two local employees decided to take the afternoon off. We decided to drive to Mt. Fuji as we do have a car. It is about a 90 minute drive and we stopped along the way to eat dinner. As we ate we noticed some clouds coming in and were disappointed that we would not be able to see it clearly. As we were finished eating we noticed that the clouds were lifting a bit and so we quickly paid and made a mad dash to the car. We then drove the rest of the way ( 20 mins ) and arrived about 30 mins prior to sunset. Of course we didn’t drive up to it; however there was a nice spot with a parking lot and lots of room to look. It’s not like you had to be right next to it to see it. I will simply tell you that I think it was the most incredible thing I have ever seen. Clearly Madeline Murray O’Hare never saw Mt. Fuji! Anyone who could look at this and still be an atheist needs a swift kick. It was awesome because the sun was going down and while we stood there until it got dark we saw the sky around the mountain turning orange. The orange sky around this 14,000 ft elevation mountain half covered in snow was simply awesome. Now as we stood there we all realized that we drove to this spot from the office without going by the hotel and none of the three of us had our cameras. Then we all reach for the trusty cell phones, which of course have a camera…..whoops, wait …..we all have prepaid phones and not all prepaid phones have cameras. Well none of ours did. So here we are in Japan, with more cameras per capita than any where else in the world, and we three dummies are without cameras. We had a seriously good laugh out of that. But I will tell you that I am now almost glad we didn’t as I will never forget that image in my mind. There was a small city at the base of the mountain, with a huge lake to one side and this mammoth mountain towering over everything. Half way up reaching all the way to the top was snow covering it. As it got dark the snow actually kind of lit up the mountain itself. Nobody talked much, we just stood there looking. I thought to myself how awesome creations of God are, and how lucky I was to be there at that moment, even without a camera. Take that Madeline!!!