The Month Mark

We have made it through a month now, only 11 months to go!
I can't believe how fast it has gone by. Time is so very fleeting. Sooner than you think, we'll be on our way back home! We have found out that we are staying put until November. There are not any apartments in the city open until then. Which is fine with us because where we live right now is very nice and accommodating.

The Korean culture has a reason for pretty much everything they do! Especially when it comes to cuisine. Even if something doesn't taste very appetizing to them, they eat it just because it is healthy. In convenient stores and gas stations you can buy Aloe Vera juice or straight up Vitamin C juice! In the US, I've heard that Aloe Vera juice is a hard to come by unless you go to a specialty/organic store. Our friend Chris was joking the other day that everything in Korean food is meant to help you live until you are 175!

When we were going to go out for Grant's birthday. Our Korean teacher friends wanted to go to a pizza place called: Mr. Pizza. Well when we got there, they wanted to go somewhere else because they had already had a lot of bread that day! Therefore, we went to a Korean barbecue place instead. How many people in America would actually take that into consideration? I probably wouldn't have until now. I love bread and would probably have wanted more bread for dinner. Living here is teaching me a different way to live and eat. The Korean teachers tease me that I need to eat more meat and less sweets. Probably true. We had some Jasmine tea, the other day, from a Chinese restaurant here. It was so tasty! Also, Grant tried a chicken foot at his birthday celebration. I couldn't do it! I'm a huge texture person, and I knew that the foot was not going to make it down my throat without a violent fight with my taste buds. Grant thought it was ok. Bianca and Ashley, two of the Korean teachers, were eating it because one they enjoyed the taste and also they told us it was good for you skin, it gives you extra collagen. Even though it's really good for your skin, I have to draw the line somewhere.

Spas over here are a huge deal in the Korean culture. Some spas you can even sleep at, weird, huh? Apparently they have a ton of different sauna choices, massages, baths, and even facials. I love getting facials, and they are pretty cheap comparatively. I guess I'll have to try one eventually ( : In addition, going to the doctor over here is dirt cheap! You pay about $10 or even less to go to the doctor is this is without insurance(this would have been nice to know when we were both sick). From what we've heard, Koreans go to the doctor right away when they get sick to either get medicine or a shot. Antibiotics are very inexpensive over here as well.

Grant's birthday was a blast. First we went to a Korean barbecue place and had delicious barbecue, not at all like a Texas barbecue. Basically they have two grills at your table and you wait for your meat to be finished cooking. Koreans are huge on side dishes. Grant's and my favorite Korean style is where they have large leaves(sometimes bamboo leaves or seaweed) and you wrap the meat inside and put stuff some of the side dishes on top and wrap it up and voala! After the Korean barbecue, we went to another restaurant where we had some tasty cake with fruit on top! At the restaurant, they had this congratulatory song in English, instead of a birthday song, it was quite humorous because everybody in the restaurant was singing and clapping. Grant looks like he is about to crack up in this picture to the right. Their cakes over here are very light and a little bit less sweet than our cakes. They make their cakes with buttermilk, I think.

For Grant's actual birthday, I had previously had some things planned that we were going to do, but he was still sick so we decided to rest and watch the rest of season one of 24. And of course, we had some more cake, this time it was chocolate! Behind Grant is Camp Humphrey, it kind of looks like a prison from this point of view. It was a very relaxing birthday.

We finally made our first meal here! It has been hard to find things at the grocery store that we can either read or distinguish what it is. For our first meal, I made some spaghetti with some toast and pears. I know what a big meal, right? It was very simple. The sauce was extremely different. It had a sweet tomatoey taste to it.
The next day, Grant made some french toast. It was yummy. We can't wait to make some Jop Chae. Jop Chae has the clear noodles with vegetables in it. However, we need somebody to help us find all of the items we need to make it. This is very random, it was so cool the other day we bought about 15 apples in a bag for $2! What a deal!

We are now just running into some big cultural no-no's. While I was teaching a few weeks ago, the curriculum was talking about using the dialog: "Come on." Well in the US, we use our hand to often signal someone to come on and that is what I was showing my students as I was saying the words. My kindergarteners all started giggling, I didn't think much of it because they laugh about the most random things anyway. However, after class one of the Korean teachers came up to me and told me that when you signal come on and wave your hand a certain way it is of the gravest insults to Koreans. To them it basically means like you are motioning or calling a dog to come here. So, I definitely won't be using that gesture anymore. By the way, eating dog over here is a rarity. Only older generations eat dog. Most Koreans have dogs as their pets. There is a pet shop on almost every other street.

The kids here are so funny. Last Tuesday, one of my students, out of the blue, asked me if I like to eat "Mad Cow Meat." I tried to explain to her that not all cows from the US have mad cow disease, but I'm not sure she understood what I said. It just struck me as funny. A lot of Koreans are deathly afraid of our meat. There is only one place, that we know of, that uses our meat in their food.

We have been trying a lot of new places to eat. We found the most wonderful Indian restaurant. Their herbs and spices are just tantalizing, and their nan bread is just mouth-watering! We are going to try and go there at least once a week. If anybody ever comes to visit us, we are definitely going to have treat them to this restaurant. Also, we got a taste of home when we got to go to PIZZA HUT! To me, the pizza here at Pizza Hut is much better than back home. We split the three cheese pizza with herbs and spices. We both LOVED it! The crust was made with wheat. They also had a very large salad bar. I love salads and a lot of places around here don't have salads, so it was definitely a treat!

Grant is having a blast with his Warcraft 3 game, thank to the Boatwrights for sending it to him on his birthday! He is definitely enthralled by it. I'm having a fabulous time exploring creative possibilities. I feel as if art awakens my heart and soul! I love it so much. Here is one of my photoshop creations. Grant gave me a very wonderful gift when he gave me photoshop as a wedding gift! I am also having a blast taking pictures of all sorts of things in Korea! I need to get back into sketching, I miss it dearly. I already have a project in mind that I am creating for Grant! Should be fun! I was so excited the other day when I found a little art shop with a few art supplies! Now I only need to find a place that prints out pictures...

We have made some very endearing and real friends here! Next Friday, we have a holiday so I'm going to go shopping in Chan with some of the girls from work! I'm so excited. Also, next Saturday we are going with Chris and Jewa, our amazing friends from church, to Seoul to see some sights and visit the 2nd largest church in Korea! I think we are going to stay at The Dragon hotel in Seoul on Saturday night. I can't wait! We haven't been to Seoul yet, and I've been itching to go!

Of course we still miss everyone, but we are adjusting well!
Until next time...

Sa Rang Hae Yo(I love you in Korean)!



A beautiful tree at our park close by! The weather is changing fast. We are both loving the change of weather, especially Grant! The leaves are also starting to change.














This is our American influence over here by the base! There are a lot of adult clubs and strip joints by the base ONLY, all in the name of entertaining the military base.