World's Biggest Claw Machine

Random things for your consideration.

We have a new favorite Korean food and it is actually a dessert. It is called hodduk and it is a little rice flour fried pastry thingy that is stuffed with smalls nuts and brown sugar. The brown sugar gets all melty carmelizy and it is yum factor ten. It is a real treat in a country with very few dessert options. Seriously, fruit for dessert? C'mon now... don't insult me like that.

Here is the woman frying those bad boys up.

Then she passes them to the stuffer lady.

Then stuffer lady stuffs 'em and hands one to me for about .60 cents!

There is all kinds of Konglish here, but this sign for a coffee shop was pretty good. Delicious love making... Alright!

Mustaches are funny.

In a land where nearly everyone lives in a apartment (no matter what socio-economic class) they have a different way of moving. Of course, elevators are more convenient than stairs, but these zooming platforms are more convenient than elevators.

That's all for now.

Epic Singing Room Night

So, one night we went out to dinner with Uncle Miwon, his wife, AS, JB, JA, and JA's son (John). I know that is a lot of initials, but I promise those are easier to remember than their real names or the Korean titles (according to how you're related to them) that you're supposed to call them. Somehow we got bamboozled into going to the noraebong (singing room) afterward. I do NOT sing in front of people... I truly believe I'm somewhat tone deaf. I'm even embarrassed in front of Scott. But, none of that mattered to these people. They wouldn't take no for an answer, so we went and we sang. It was a night to remember.

Here is a small sampling of what went on that night. I apologize in advance for the times you can hear me singing.

JA singing.

Uncle Miwon singing.

JB, AS, and JA thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Now, for the good stuff...








The whole crew.

It was one of those nights that even as you're experiencing it you reflect on and know that you'll never forget.

What a chewy Chuseok it was.

Wowy wow wow. Time for a post. Let's get right to it.

Korea has a holiday a bit like Thanksgiving (only it is in September) and it is called Chuseok (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuseok). Traditionally, everyone goes home to their families and eats a big meal. Much to my relief there is absolutely no pressure to watch any American football and it would be really inconvenient to even try. Unfortunately, the all day X-Files marathon is also unavailable.

We didn't get an invite from Scott's family until about two days before and by then it was "too late" to join in the family festivities because we'd already decided to go to Namhae Island with our dear friends Missy and Clint. And yes, that was one big run-on sentence.

We stayed at a new pension (hotel plus a kitchen and minus a bed kind of place). The owners didn't speak much English, but they were very friendly. In fact, I think they felt sort of bad for these foreigners with no family to spend Chuseok with. This is the rice cake and rice wine they gave us upon arrival.

After we got settled in we had the seriously ingenious idea of walking to the beach and going for a midnight swim. We didn't bring our bathing suits or anything else useful. And it was fantastic.

The next day we drove/walked/hiked in the rain to a temple. There is supposedly a great view from the top, but as you can see the misty-rainy weather didn't really allow for that. We had fun anyway.

All in favor of Scott using this photo on the jacket of his first philosophy book say Ai.
Ai.

Slippy stairs.

If you've been paying any attention at all, you'll remember that kiwi tree parking lot I mentioned in a previous post. Well, here it is again, but this time I had to see if the kiwis were ripe. They weren't.

Our second day in Namhae was sunny and beautiful.

So, we spent the day at the beach. There was hardly anyone else around and it was great. At one point we rented these tiny (crappy) ATVs and rode them around. What a hoot.

These flowers were really orange and there were a lot of them.

The next morning we got up really early and drove home (because I had to work that afternoon).

Tired smiles!

Before Missy and Clint headed out we drove/walked/hike up a mountain outside of our town. The view was better than I anticipated. Also, notice my shirt. It says MONEY IS BLOOD and I thought that was funny. And that isn't sweat on Scott's shirt - it is a really subtle Rorschach inkblot test. What do you see?

Real Rorschach inkblot card.

Caught again!

Us, our friends, and our friendly local pagoda.

Bye Missy and Clint! Thanks for spending Chuseok with us! See you again soon!

Stop calling that a sandwich.

My work provides food fairly regularly for us teachers (usually during mid-terms and finals when the Korean teachers are working extra hard). About once a week one of these shows up on my desk:

Yes, this may appear to be a sandwich, and even may technically qualify as one, but I assure you, it is not a sandwich. Let me describe what we have here: slice of white bread (comparable to Wonder Bread), slice of Kraft cheese, scrambled egg (in the shape of a square, with CORN kernels mixed in), shredded cabbage, sweet pickles, a slice of ham, and another slice of bread. Served hot. As you can see, I've taken out the ham and eaten half the sandwich. I will not be making this mistake again.

I want to be perfectly clear here. This. Is. Not. A. Sandwich.

Riding bikes.

Scott and I both have bikes that we sometimes ride around. This ride was especially enjoyable because we rode through the country side a bit and it was beautiful. The only downsides were sweating like crazy (it wasn't really that hot, but it was so humid) and riding past our first dog "farm." Now, currently, I'm a meat eater and before seeing (and smelling) this dog farm I thought I might like to try eating dog while here in Korea. Logically, it seemed no different from eating a cow or pig... they are all just animals and if I'm going to eat one, I didn't know why I wouldn't eat another. Well, now I can't try dog. It was like a big long chicken coop, only full of barking dogs. And it smelt terrible. It was actually really disturbing. I didn't take a photo because I wanted to get out of there asap. On a side note, I've been toying with idea of going vegetarian for a while now... and just haven't because I like the taste of meat too much. We'll see what happens.

Here we are in the middle of tons of rice fields. Harvest time is a comin'!

Scott wanted me to look at the map and help figure out where the heck we were going, but I just wanted to take his cute picture.

I definitely saw and heard something fishy going on in this ditch! Get it? Fishy?!

Korea grows some big bugs. The end.