Coffee Talk

On Tuesday, there is a women's Bible study group in the morning at church. I have been asked, but have yet to (and probably won't) attend one. Afterwards, the ladies go out for coffee and sometimes other people join them who don't go to the Bible study. LeeAnna (the girl who lives in my building) goes to coffee. She has told me about it, but I haven't gone to one of those either.

Last week, I asked LeeAnna to lunch because we hadn't seen each other in awhile and I figured I should. We decided to go on Thursday. Well, she forgot that Lori (a lady who does go to church) was holding a coffee/dessert hour at her house in Sacheon (next town over) because she's moving at the end of the month and is trying to use up all her baking items. So we took a bus to the other side of Jinju, then hopped in a car and drove out to Lori's. This was at 10am mind you. I needed to be back around 2:30 so I assumed we'd have plenty of time.

Lori had lots of treats and it was nice eating "American" desserts because they taste like actual chocolate and not cocco powder. She also had lemon squares and blueberry coffee cake and fruit. It was very nice. The Korean contribution was frozen persimmon that you scoup out of the skin and eat like sherbert. It was ok, but not great. Lori also has the cutest little dog whose name is Maekju, which means beer. So I hung out with older ladies for like 3 hours. The funniest thing is that there are a few "foreigners" but mainly Korean, some who speak very decent English, other who barely speak English. So quite often you sit there with people speaking Korean around you while you're just staring at the wall or something. LeeAnna says it's like that all the time at coffee, but that usually there are enough English speakers that it doesn't matter. Luckily I was next to some English speaking people, so it didn't bother me at all.

And yes, what you see at the top left corner are cherry tomatoes because Koreans consider them fruit and actually put them in fruit salads.

The lady next to me is Mimi and she speaks decent English. She got cold because of the a/c and had to throw on a sweatshirt, so other than American food, it made me feel like home b/c it's something my mother would do.

When it got around 1:30, the ladies decided it was a good time for lunch because they needed something spicy after eating sweets. We drove to this little place in the middle of nowhere and got "black noodles" or ja ajang myeon which is like flour noodles with black bean sauce on them. I have made this at home. The place also gave us free dumplings. The ladies were shocked that I could use chopsticks to pick up a piece of corn and made me do it a few times and they found it hilarious. On the way out, I saw the cook making the noodles by throwing them in the air almost like making a pizza. I tried to video it, but didn't have time, so I will have to go again. It was pretty neat watching him though. Then on the car ride home, the question who was older came up and when I told them my age they were shocked as usual. Then they started speaking in rapid-fire Korean and we heard our names so we asked what they were talking about. Linda (the driver who speaks very good English) said that I have a cute "baby voice" so that is part of the reason they think I'm young. I asked, "You think I sound like a baby?" and they were like, no but a small child. So that's awesome, except not.

I ended up getting to school 45 minutes after I told them I needed to be there. Luckily I had told them I needed to be there about 30 minutes before I actually needed to be there, so I was basically on time. After school I met up with Dan, Cody, Liezle and Cindy and we had chicken salad with yogurt on it again. Afterwards, we went to a frozen yogurt place called Yofruito and debated on what to get, "nut nut yogurt fantasy" was high up on my list, but we ended up splitting the "Rainbow Family Yogurt Icecream" (although the close second was rainbow family yogurt sherbert). We still aren't sure why they add the rainbow because you pick the toppings and the yogurt is all white. It was good, so we really didn't care that much. Then I went home and fell asleep early because I had gotten up so early that morning (comparatively).

Kiwi, peaches, fruit cocktail, strawberry and chocolate sauce. Yum!

Foodie week

Last week was somewhat ruled by eating. I went out to lunch or dinner almost everyday. I've mentioned before that part of the reason I go out alot if because it's often cheaper to eat out than to cook. The other main reason is that other than bars, restaurants are one of the few places to sit and chat with people. So, here's what I did last week:

Monday - I was supposed to meet Liezle and Cindy for dinner, but Dan and Spencer tagged along and then we ran into 3 other guys. The place we wanted to try was closed, so we went to a chicken place and had the chicken salad with yogurt dressing. I'd had this before, but last time it also had frozen yogurt on top of it. They had run out of the frozen yogurt so we didn't get that, but it still tasted pretty good. Cindy and I split one and Dan and Spencer split one. The biys finished about 5 minutes before we did and tried to steal some, but we wouldn't let them.

Tuesday - I went to the doctor and got a hep A shot. It was an interesting experience because I told them I needed a shot and then sent me upstairs to a room. When I got there, the nurse was like, where pain? I said, no pain, shot and demonstrated on my arm. The doctor figured out what I needed and set up my next appointment too. Then I had to go to the injection room. It was pretty easy, but a little nerve racking because I totally could have been injected with something else and I'd have no idea about it. Oh well. After the doctor, Liezle and I had lunch at a coffee shop. We had chicken cibatta sandwiches. They were pretty good, but Koreans seriously love them some pickels - there were probably about 10 on my small sandwich. I also had lemon iced tea which tastes kind of like a Chik-fil-a Arnold Palmer - very tasty.

Wednesday - I had lunch with Jamie (pastor's wife) and Ilani (a girl who used to live under me, but is now staying with Jamie and Brandon - I will tell her story eventually, once everything is settled. Jamie and Brandon are awesome. They just had a baby and not only is Illani staying with them, but another woman (a Phillipino girl who was a mail order bride whose husband divorced her and only gave her $5000 for the rest of her life) and her little baby are also staying in their apartment). Jamie cooked chicken nachos and they were pretty good. She substituted lime powder for actual limes since you can't get them here in Korea. They also found that ranch dressing is a pretty decent substitute for sour cream. After lunch, Jamie, Ilani and I played "Ticket to Ride". I'd heard about this game, but this was the first time I'd actually played it. It was a pretty decent game. I think orur family would enjoy it as you can decide whether to get yourself points, or to screw other people over. Jamie and Brandon also have Catan (plus C&K and Seafarers), so another game night/day will have to come soon.

That night I had dinner by myself at the gimbap place because I was starving, but I was also meeting Cindy so we could watch the 11pm showing of Harry Potter. It was a bit weird because I usually don't notice people looking at me, or it's easier to not pay attention when someone else is with me. I could totally tell that everyone was watching me eat when I was by myself, so it was awkward. Afer dinner, I met up with Cindy to see the movie. She wanted to watch in 3D, which was ok because Korean 3D is pretty awesome. The problem is that all the Harry Potter movies are kind of dark. Add dark tinted glasses and parts were unwatchable. I had to actually lift them up sometimes to see what was happening. I will totally go again in 2D.

Thursday - I stayed at home and made pasta primavera - sort of. I used tri color rotini, a little mayo, salt & pepper and diced cucumber, orange tomatoes and red pepper. It was pretty good. I would cook more often if I didn't have to chop stuff up - and that includes the States too. Chopping is dumb.

Friday - I met Liezle and Hein (another South African who talks non-stop) for lunch. We were told it was a chicken teriayki place - fail. It was rice, cubed chicken (maybe cooked in a teriakyi sauce) and spices. It was good, but not what I was expecting. Liezle and I split one of those and then a chicken bibimbap which was very good. Mom, you would have liked this because you could add you own spice (or none at all). It was also served on really cute trays.

Chicken bibimbap. The rice is seperate too. They also served cold bean sprout soup, which was ok but a little oily. The green things on the bottom are these weird sweet pickles, next is honestly what I think are some kind of pig organ but are tasty and a little salty, next is the chili paste to spice up your rice and last is kimchi.

Teriakyi - Korean style. The side dishes are all the same except instead of pickles, I had onions that had been soaked in something. They were good, but too big of chunks.

Friday night a huge group of Jinju people were meeting up to get on a bus to go to Mudfest (a later post - will probably been next week b/c I have to get pictures developed first). I met Cindy, Dan, Spencer and a bunch of other people near the bus pick up at a place called Valance Burger. I'd been there before, but it's one of the few places to get American-ish food. Cindy and I split chili fries and I had a chicken sandwich.

Sunday (I skipped the weekend b/c that will be in the next post). After we got back from Mudfest, Cindy and I went to have dinner at a samgye tang place. What they do is take a small chicken and stuff it with rice, ginsing, Asian dates, garlic, scallions and persimmon and drop in it soup to cook. The meat is super tender and you have to pick out bones, which is a pain, but it's pretty good. This place is even better because they also add cinnamon sticks to the broth so the whole place smells good. And not like those gross cimnamon brooms at Christmas, but like apple cider and chicken. Koreans eat this on the hottest days of summer because they believe that eating hot foods in hot weather will cool you off. I'm not so sure about that, but it still tastes good.

It was very steamy and almost boiling still when I took the picture. I will go again and get other pictures that show more of the side dishes and how you eat them soup.

Kids essays part 4

I like to eat meet specially cow's meet. It is very yummy and meat juice comes out when I'm cheewing it.

"Harp time" yelled the referee (half time)

In the Olympics, I like the vopsaly the best because it is fast. (bobsled)

I don't have enouhg time so I bye bye can't write long esay :)

Fifty local musicians have, to coin a phrase, banded together to form the jazz umbrella

Not all computer games are harmful to youths but many people are addicted to games and they died.

If I am a singer I will earn a lot of money and give hope to Africa.

I want to say, "come here animals! I like you."

I know a scary mom very well because my mom always angry then my mother hit me use a baseball bat.

Problem: "Don't blame me if you're out of pocket money"
You: "Well then can I blame the Jews?"
"No, what are you talking about?"

I think my mom's laughing face is funny because it's like a witch's face.

My favorite game is fly toilet game. You make a tolet fly and you can earn money.

Typical Work Day

Today during my break, my boss came into the teachers' lounge and we had an approximation of the following conversation (please note that today is a Tuesday):

Boss: I got very drunk last night.
Me: Really?
B: Yes.
Me: Why? was it a friend's birthday or something?
B: No. A friend wanted to see me and we went out drinking.
Blah blah told him a little bit about Saturday
B: So what do you drink beer?
Me: Soju.
B: Soju! I can't drink soju.
Me: It's bad plain, but it's good in cocktails.
B: No. I had like 20 beers last night.
Me: 20 in one night! That's a lot. They weren't the big ones were they?
B: No. I think I'm still drunk.

Then we chatted about finals for awhile. It's conversations like those when I don't mind by break being interrupted.

Also, one of my kids was absent last week, and as I shared his classmates' work, I thought I should also share his. His name is Daniel, by the way, and I could totally fit him in my pocket. He also has blue glasses and a Beatles-esque bowl cut.

Please note that while this elk in not wearing a suit jacket (and I know, technically it was an antelope who was wearing the jacket), he is drinking milk and has a pet goldfish.

It's Potty Time

My mom wanted more posts, so you get this.

I've mentioned before how toilets here are different than ones in the US. There are squatters (Korean toilets) and regular (American toilets). There are other things you have to get used to here as well. Korean plumbing isn't the greatest, so people here throw tp into a trash can on the side of the toilet. Luckily I don't have to do that in my house, but that's because I live in a newer building. It's pretty gross. Also, it's a good idea to have tissues or something similar when traveling because lots of places, like bus stations, don't have tp at all. Then there are the ones where there is a giant roll of tp, but it's outside the stalls, close to where you walk in the door. And it's hard to describe the feeling of seeing the dispenser on your way out of the bathroom.

Just to add a touch of class to this post, here's a picture of a Korean toilet in a bar that I've been to more than once. This is a unisex bathroom. There is no outside door, so you literally walk up the stairs into this. The sink is on the floor under the pink towel. In all public (or restaurant) bathrooms, occasionally there is soap. Often it is nasty bar soap. Usually there is an actual towel for hand drying, sometimes you'll get paper towels and it makes me abnormally happy to get them.

I have hit more than 1 dude peeing with that door

This is one of the cleaner ones

Birthday bowling

The last few times I've talked with my mom she made the comments that I go out to eat alot and that she's worried I'm becoming an alcoholic. This post will not alleviate any of her fears. I've mentioned before that being here is a lot like college. It's very hard to get together with friends in homes (because we don't have them) or apartments (because most can fit a max of 4 people), so we end up going to bars. Plus, it's often cheaper to eat out here (especially for lunch) than it is to cook. Lunch often costs me less than $4.

So here's this weekend's story. Three of my friends had birthday's this week, so we decided to go to an island on the south coast and sit on a beach for the weekend. These plans fell through for 2 reasons - 1 because the place we wanted to stay is booked until mid-August and 2 - it rained like it was nobody's buisness. Instead, we decided to go bowling.

On Friday I went to Spencer's house (he lives in a castle converted into a kindergarden in the middle of nowhere) and he made us brinner using leftovers from his trip last weekend. A handful of other people were over and we just hung out and watched TV.

On Saturday I met up with Liezle and 2 friends for lunch and then we went and had coffee. 3 other friends met us there and we hung out for a bit. Then 5 of us went back to my place and played drinking games while another group went out to dinner. After they finished dinner we met them at the bowling alley. We bowled for a bit, then went to a bar and hung out. This is where the night ended for me, because I am actually shamed to say that I don't remember it. I won't go into all the details, and I didn't do anything too stupid or embarrassing and I'm fine, but let's just say I'll be taking it easy on the drinking for awhile, even though we'll still end up going to bars to hang out.

Here are a few pictures from the night.

I don't know why I am giving a 3 fingered peace sign, and neither does Kyle (or Rob)

Me and my bowling ball.

Check out my hair - stupid humidity makes it get all weird curly

Saw a girl with these shoes at the coffee shop. They were awesome. I'll bet people's minds get blown when she runs past them.

I forgot

I forgot to mention one of the best parts of last weekend. Jeff and I were watching youtube clips of prank calls using Judge Judy's voice when Jeff got totally Rickrolled. It was awesome.

Jeff's birthday weekend

On Friday, Liezle and I tried to see the musical fountain near my house. Last year it ran every night, but I guess water is short this year, so they only run it on weekends. We were told that it ran Friday and Saturday nights from 8-9. So I met Liezle at her school and we walked to the fountain. First of all, it was hotter than any day I've been in here so far. The day itself was nice, it was 8 pm at this point and next to the river, so we thought it might be a bit cooler - nope. It was so humid that by the time we were there (not quite a mile) we were both drenched in sweat. The weird part was that we passed 2 seperate groups of Koreans doing outdoor aerobics. There were tons of people walking and bike riding too, most in full on track suits - gloves included (at least the older people). We were pissed when we got to the fountain though because there was no music, no lights and no water. I later found out that it did run on Sunday night, so maybe next week.

On Saturday I got up a little before 5 so that I could meet Liezle and Vera at 5:30 so that we could ride a bus to Seoul. They were meeting their friend Carlie (who actually has the same b-day as Jeff, just a few years later) and I was meeting Jeff because he was planning to go kite boarding. After the 4 hour bus ride (where I couldn't sleep at all), we got to Seoul and had a few pieces of gimbap. Jeff met us there and drove us all to the park where he was meeting Typhoon - his instructor/rental guy. We walked around the park for awhile, but there was no wind, so the lesson was rescheduled for Tuesday. There were 2 people trying to windsurf, but basically they were just flapping their arms back and forth to move the sail. It was dumb. Liezle and Vera left at that point to meet some other South Africans at a bar. Jeff and I decided to go back to his house.

We actually ended up driving around for about an hour because we first tried to have lunch at chicken and beer - closed and then Brazilian bbq - closed. After that we ended up going to have lunch at the golf course where Jeff sometimes plays. It's on a military base (sort of), but I guess Koreans can play there too. It was nice seeing some English, although they still didn't have diet Coke in the fountain. After lunch we drove home and I took this 4 second video of Jeff sining before he tried to break my camera. Then we played the clapping game to Billie Jean - he did pretty well but lost it during "Wanna be starting something".

When we got home it was still humid outside so we decided to go bowling. We played like 6 games (I won one), while also playing cards and itouch scrabble. They didn't have pitchers which sucks, but they still had beer, so it was all good. After bowling we walked next door and had dinner at Alaskan mining company - the restaurant on post. Jeff had gourmet mac and cheese (it had bacon in it) with a side of mac and cheese and blew the waitress's mind. I had a patty melt and mashed potatoes and a salad. Then we went home and I fell asleep for a little while while Jeff watched Road House 2 and played words. Then we watched some episodes of It's Always Sunny and fell asleep to stories.

The only picture I took all weekend. It's the "Hollywood" sign of Pyeongtaek. Or as Jeff called it, worse picture ever right before he threw my walnut cake out the window.

It rained like crazy on Sunday and neither of us really wanted to do anything. Jeff made pancakes and bacon for brunch and I did a bunch of laundry. Then he went grocery shopping and I washed dishes. Then we watched more TV, played some Catan (techinally he played and I watched), played some words, and lots of Wii - he cheats at canoeing. I don't think we really did anything else on Sunday, but it's always fun to do nothing with someone else for a change.

We got up early again on Monday morning because Jeff had a tee time (if you read his email you know the story) for like 9:30. The bus to Daejeon didn't end up leaving until 9 and then the bus from there to Jinju leaves at 11, so I got home a little after 1. I fell asleep a few times on the bus to Jinju but the lady sitting next to me kept waking me up by accident when she would fall asleep on me or hit me with her purse.

I felt kind of bad because my 30th birthday was at least a fun weekend and Jeff's was a bit lame, but I tried and I hope he had at least some fun. I won't get to see him for at least a month because I've got the next few weekends planned already and then it's beach week, so I'm still glad I went up there to hang out.