I Knew I Should Laugh, But Wanted to Cry!

So, as the holidays approach we all know that life gets busy! It's been so fun to shop for Christmas gifts, decorate the house, and most of all . . . PACK for home!

Christmas baking has proven to be a little more difficult this year - for several reasons. One - the ingredients. I start by looking for it in the grocery store. The problem I have there is most everything is in Korean - so I look at the packaging, sound out the Korean word if I can, and guess! There are a few baking shops with American products - the problem there is usually the price.

Problem #2 - Baking tools. I brought a few things with me (some of my favorite Pampered Chef.) But what I didn't think about was that Korea isn't into big desserts, so everything is TINY. I have a regular size muffin pan, and a regular baking sheet. 13 x 9's = don't exist. Bread pans = I have the mini ones. I have a pie plate, a 9 x 9 square pan, and can get round ones. Bundt and springform pans = out of the question! (unless you want the individual size.)

So, in the midst of finishing a semester and preparing for the holidays the schedule has been a bit hectic - typical this time of year. In my lack of planning I realized at 10 o clock the other night I hadn't made the promised sugar cookies Cory was going to take to his class. So I acted quickly and began to mix up a batch that I had successfully tried the week before.

Grabbing my mini-cookie cutters I was prepared to come through with sugar cookies after all. After fighting a bit w/the dough (that is supposed to chill overnight) I put in the first batch. The dough didn't taste quite right, but I thought maybe I had bought the wrong flour in my latest guessing game at the grocery store.

When the first pan was done I asked Cory's opinion. They were sweet - but had some unrecognizable "flair". Yes, it seems that my cookies contained GARLIC POWDER!

So, here's my excuse. The vanilla here is a powder, not a liquid. And so in the spice rack there are 4+ powders that are white. The bottoms are labeled, but apparently I didn't check it when I pulled it off the shelf. And so, rather than send the kids garlic sugar cookies (which they very well might have loved) I trashed the dough and Cory had to go buy something at the store. (And they don't sell sugar cookies, or any Christmas cookies here, for that matter.)

The next day, I laughed.

We Did IT!!!

WORLD'S GREATEST COFFEE!! Ok, not really, but it's a funny line anyway. We are pretty pumped tonight, because we took a huge step into becoming Koreans! Check it out!

That's right boys, we ordered pizza!! OVER THE PHONE!!! It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. They just asked for my address and I tried to tell them with my thickest Korean accent. (it's pretty easy, just add an "uh" sound after every consonant and finish every sentence with "yo" or "mida" and you're good to go.)

I am so glad that you could celebrate this moment with us! If you'd like to send congratulatory cards or gifts, you can mail them Dominos-uh, Big-uh Brick-uh Building-uh, Ilsandong-Gu, South-uh Korea-mida. They'll know where to find me-yo.

I Miss My Dryer!

How many of you line-dry your clothes? I have never done this in my life, with the exception of camping trips, but that's way different.

Anyhow, I've discovered over the last few months that a dryer does way more than dry your clothes. If you don't believe me, go for a month without drying your clothes and see where you find lint on your body!

It's not just the softer fabric that comes out of the dryer, or that the clothes are SOOOO warm when they come out (making you feel nice and toasty), or the fewer wrinkles that can keep the iron in the closet for weeks on end, or even the fact that the dryer can return your clothes to their original size. I think the biggest thing that gets into my crawl about line-drying clothes is the thing that gets into my crawl! LINT! It's just uncomfortable! I'm not sure about my wife, but I've never had so much in my life! :)

Now, before you start thinking this is a negative post, let me tell you it's not. I'm not complaining about not having a dryer, I'm simply looking forward to the time when we can dry our clothes with a sweet drying machine! It will be awesome. I will definitely never take a dryer for granted again.

November Pics

Here are a few of our latest pictures for you to enjoy!

I Just Can't Help Myself!

The last two days here have been so cold! This morning when I went to work it was 22 degrees! I was just sitting here e-mailing a friend that I don't know WHAT we're going to do when it gets really cold. And then, it happened!



Cory was minding his own business watching Kansas City play football. (They are going to lose, but he doesn't know that yet.) And out our huge 10 foot high window I saw . . . SNOW! Huge flakes! I let out a large gasp (which usually scares him because he thinks something is wrong) and ran to the window! We don't have the most scenic view - but I just had to share these pics!

Bloggin' Hash

What the heck is bloggin' hash? It's a bit like Northland's "Mrs. Kimbrough's Casserole." There are some good ingredients, some nasty ingredients, and some "so-so" ingredients. Throw them all together and you get something that looks like a decent breakfast, but you're not sure if you should love it or vomit. (No offense Mrs. K.) By the way, most people hated it, but I kinda liked it. Anyhow, let's get down to business. I'll give you several snippits and pics today with stories about each of them.

1. Two weeks ago I lost my wallet. What was inside? My DL, Alien Registration Card, Credit Card, ATM card, LG discount card, Social Security Card, countless business cards, 35000 Won, some receipts, and various member cards (Delta, Blockbuster, Continental, etc.). What does this mean? I don't know. I was pretty upset about the whole thing. I had that duct tape wallet for almost two years! It was quality!!
It's not like I left it somewhere, it just fell out of my pocket while I was riding a bike to meet Jen. Five minutes later, I walked back to the place where it fell out and found only a few business cards and the most important thing, my Hunter's Safety Card. The wallet was gone. At least I'll be able to hunt when I go home. :) I've been able to replace most things without too much loss. The Driver's License and Social Security Card will prove to be a hassle, I think.

2. This weekend while I was out with Jen, I left my water bottle setting on the shelf of some store. I don't know where I left it, but it's no longer my bottle.

3. A few weeks ago Jen and I tried to go to an English service at a church we had already visited. This particular service was in a different area of the church. Although we found the church perfectly, we couldn't find the room that the service was in. Since it was already 45 min. into the service, we decided we should probably just leave. We ended up doing some Christmas shopping after we got coffee and sat beside the Chunggi Chun River for a bit. See picture.

4. Koreans hate this number, it rhymes with death.

5. While we were out that day, we did some Christmas shopping for our parents (successfully, I might add). As we were walking around I saw this guy and thought this was really funny. He's wearing chaps!
Now, before you jump on my case, let me tell you that I didn't realize that he was most likely homeless until after I took this picture. I felt so bad for him. If I could have given him my pants without embarrassing my wife, I would have. There is a surprisingly large number of homeless people in Seoul. Most of them CHOOSE not to work, but some don't have a choice. I wonder what we can do for them.

What number are we on? 6. That same day of shopping we saw this! The long arm of Bojo reaches halfway around the world. We stopped in the biggest bookstore I've seen in Korea and found these books. They had a whole shelf full of them. Go figure.

7. Don't worry, we're almost finished. This past weekend we went hiking up in Bukhansan National Park. It's beautiful AND close by. It took us 30 min. to get there and four hours to hike around in it. We barely scratched the surface! We climbed and climbed, and then we climbed down. It's beautiful up there. Here are a few pictures of our trip.

Well, that's about all I have for you. Oh wait, there's one more thing. I was looking around for my phone last night. (There's always a sinking feeling in my gut when I do that.) Anyhow, the search ended when I pulled the phone out of my cargo pants which were still in the washing machine. (My gut sank even lower.) I let it set out all night, put in my spare battery this morning, and called Jen's phone just to make sure it worked. What a relief. Three blunders in two weeks would be unforgivable. Let's keep it at two.

If you have any fun ideas to do inside on a butt-cold weekend, let me know. Today was below freezing most of the day. We would like to stay in when possible in conditions like these. Let me know what you do when it's cold.

Happy Pepero Day!

I know, I know . . . we haven't updated the blog in so long! Ok, maybe it's only been 2 weeks, but it seems like a long time ago! So, where do we begin?

In America on November 11 we celebrate Veteran's Day, a day to honor and remember those who have fought for our freedom. Here in South Korea they celebrate quite a different holiday.

Apparently, because the date can be written 11/11 some middle school girls in Korea sometime in the early 90's were reminded of 4 sticks of Pepero. They exchanged the snack hoping that they would be as tall and slender as a stick of Pepero. In reality, most people believe that the company who produces this cookie stick dipped in chocolate created the holiday as a marketing ploy. Either way, I've decided I like the stuff!

It's celebrated mostly by young people and couples. Cory and I both received gifts of Pepero from some students, and I bought him a few boxes myself. While researching Pepero Day I also found that the custom here in Korea on Valentine's Day is for the woman to give to the man - not vice versa. Cory was quite happy. This will be the 2nd Valentine's Day in a row he has gotten out of it - claiming he doesn't know what to buy!

In general, we are both doing well. We both get cold quite often - our schools haven't turned on the heat yet. We are both keeping busy with classes and I still feel like I'm scrounging around to come up with flavorful American foods. Unfortunately we won't have much of a Thanksgiving celebration this year. The holiday is not recognized in Korea and most of the traditional things we eat aren't accessible. So - maybe meatloaf this year!