Field trip to a ship..

Sunday, bloody Sunday. Usually my Sundays involve... well, not much. Sleeping, relaxing, Korean languaging, and churching in the evening. Today was a learning experience, although now I feel more perplexed than educated. And you might be a tad bored (except for you familial engineers). So be it… I apologize.

Being that Mokpo has such a small foreigner population, I feel like I'm getting to know about 75% of the fellow foreigners here. Since Mokpo is a port city, there is a HUGE shipyard, the 8th largest in the world I was told. Putting two-and-two together... there are many many ship engineers who work for BP (the British Petroleum company, which I don’t really have to explain I’m sure) and other companies, who come here to 'build' ships. I've gotten to know quite a few of these engineering fellas and they come from all over... France, England, Denmark, Poland, Romania, South America, all over the US and more. Today, my friend Ann and I were (secretly, hush-hush) invited by 2 of the guys to go to the shipyard and check out a ship-building-in-progress. I don't even know where to begin. My brain kind of felt like a jar of pickled pig’s feet and scrambled eggs after seeing all of it and trying to understand what was being verbally thrown at me even in understandable engineering terms. So bear with me as I attempt to put this mental disaster of information into comprehensive literature for you.

First we had to suit up in white BP company overalls, hard hats, safety glasses, gloves, and steel-toed boots just to step foot inside. We looked ridiculously glamorous. So we then got in a car and drove further into the grounds. When we were driving in, my eyes were seeing the immense size of everything. It was pretty unbelievable. We were informed that Korea produces something like 85% of the ships in the world. Whether or not that's accurate... ehhh, I'm not positive. But it came from the horse’s mouth; a rather reliable source, this horse. And these ships aren't cruise ships, they're polar icebreakers and…well… not too sure exactly what else. I'm trying not to sound ignorant, they just didn't elaborate too much on the details. They're big. Huge. All parts of each ship are engineered, sized, welded, tailored, embroidered, baked, and sprinkled with sugar outside of the ship then assembled all together (I really lack accurate knowledge of what really goes on before assemblage, sorry). These guys said it's kind of like putting together a massive-sized puzzle, or playing with Lego’s. They're characters, these guys. Silly Englishmen. These ships are on the opposite spectrum of tiny. They're large enough to house an entire fleet of seafarers for months at a time, equipped with gyms, swimming pools, all necessities a person might need for a minimum of a 3-month stay. We went through all the various decks that house the different "vital organs." One gas tank, for instance, is the size of a warehouse and there are a total of 4 gas tanks on this guy, and this ship in particular is the first ship (supposedly) to be able to use natural gas as its fuel. I don’t know much about gas and fuels in this world, and I won't try to make it sound like I do, but I do know that natural gas has to go through processing before it can be used as a fuel. This ship has the ability to do this extensive processing of the gas and also recycle it, all within itself. Basically, they said this is a technological break-through in the use and burning of fuels. But a dear price to pay for such a revolution. Oh my. And my details stop here so as to preserve my integrity with my inexperienced knowledge and vocabulary on this subject.

All in all, this was an eventful and brain-jumbling day. Ann and I had a moment of comprehension together. She looked at me and asked part of a question and I finished it for her because I knew exactly what she was asking. All she said was: "Do you..." And there was a pause of deliberation. I finished her thought with: "feel stupid?!" And we almost fell over and out of our overalls, laughing so hard. She was a fine art major in college as well, and now she's a classically trained singer-turned-teacher. I'm an artist-turned-teacher. And I'm perfectly happy with my decisions. We both understand that it's not that we're "stupid" for not absorbing everything that was on display today, but there’s a lot to be understood about the functions of the left brain/ right brain line of reasoning. It's rocket science to me, quite frankly. God bless those who do it (wink*). Quadrilateral I was, now I warp like a smile (it's in a song, but it's exactly how I feel at the moment). Thanks for listening—visually.

Post Script:
I'm still enjoying school and all the kids. All is well there. I've had to start darting out of the kindie room at an extremely fast pace to avoid the daily maulings... and now they've started following me down the hallway. I turn around and chase them back into their room; they run, screaming. It's become a game. They love it, I love it (probably more than they do, ha-ha).

Cheers.