Our Typical Day

Usually our day begins with the sunrise over the East Sea, and the ring of an alarm clock at 6:30 AM.

 This is followed by a quick trip to the gym, or thirty minutes more of snoozing, our pick. After a nice de-sweat/wake-up shower, we don our prestigious and glorious uniforms in preparation for an unknown day. This uniform includes HHI issued steel-toed boots, HHI issued pants, HHI issued shirt, HHI issued hardhat, HHI issued safety glasses, HHI issued gloves and HHI issued earplugs. Interestingly, we have only one uniform for five working days in a week.  If our ability to smell was not cauterized by the food, we might be experiencing proximity problems. As it is, weekly laundry is sufficient.  

Most of us have outfitted ourselves with cereal or other sustenance for breakfast, though the dorm cafeteria does occasionally offer appetizing breakfast fare. Today I ate some of Dan’s leftover pizza for breakfast, as a Michigander had likely stolen mine. We then board an HHI bus specifically for us, and are promptly delivered to the HHI main gate. The women and men in our group live in dormitories that are separated by quite a distance, so the women meet the bus at the gate. We are given a cordial greeting from Mr. Jeong, and then bussed to whatever department we are scheduled to visit. During the day we experience four major categories of event. Lecturing, which can be quite interesting depending on the topic, language ability of the speaker and time of day. Break time, which can be quite interesting depending on length, quality of coffee provided and whether or not one wins the euchre game. Lunch, which is ALWAYS interesting due to the new foods, familiar foods, and interaction with the average HHI employee. And lastly, the shop tour. Shop tours are the real meat of this experience. It is here that we really understand what is taught in the lectures and also the scale of shipbuilding. Until one has stood on an engine larger than a duplex and costing more than an entire duplex development, the importance of “design decisions” goes underappreciated. At 5 P.M. we are back on the bus enroute to the dorm. At this point we are free to schedule the rest of our evening. Outings thus far have included the grocery store, department store, pool, karaoke (or “chair 2 H” in Korean characters), bar, club, beach and lastly no where.  Weekday evenings can be quite lively, but usually end by midnight due to the early rise and the full day ahead of us.  As for dinner, dorm food is always available, but pizza miraculously seems to appear in our stomachs on a regular basis. Some things are universal.