May Madness

Happy Spring everyone! I have just returned from a short but great trip back to Seoul to send my mother in law and aunt back to the US. David and I were fortunate enough to have received our very first visitors since we got to Korea. My mother in law Wendy and David's aunt Bonnie flew in about two weeks ago and came to stay with us in Yeosu. I have to say their trip came at the most perfect time because everything has started to come alive here. We had the most perfect 70-80 degree weather and David was able to get a day off work so that we could do some fun activities. We started out by taking them to Odong Island for some light hiking and and a beautiful view on the water. We also visited the Nagan traditional folk village in Suncheon as well as the Suncheon Eco Park which is one of the top five biggest marshlands in the world! Apart from those two adventures we did some shopping around town, saw Mirror Mirror in theaters while enjoying some delicious Korean popcorn and we ventured out to a few Korean restaurants. I believe that Shabu Shabu was a big hit because it is a large pot of seasoned water that cooks at the table and you just have to add a whole bunch of cabbage and greens along with thin strips of beef. It is actually very tasty and healthy at the same time. At the end of the meal we cook our noodles and the make a sort of rice porridge with the remainder of the liquid. The day we attended the World Expo was also a big adventure. The World expo is a giant convention of sorts that happens every three years at a different location around the world. It just so happened to be here in Yeosu this year so me managed to show up for the rehearsal day at a fraction of the cost. Unfortunately, so did the rest of Korea. While the grounds were very beautiful and well constructed there were just too many people to really enjoy ourselves. We have decided that if we go back we will have to make reservations for the different country exhibits so that we wont have to wait in all the long lines. Apart from all that fun there managed to be a bit of down time thankfully in which we were able to explore the beach and do some walking around our apartment community. They really seemed to enjoy all the coffee shops and bakeries which I cant blame the for, they are wonderful! This last Friday we then took the three and a half hour KTX train into the city so that they could experience a bit of Seoul before they had to go to the airport on Sunday morning. While in Seoul we visited the most northern royal palace as well as the famous Namdaemun outdoor market and Myeongdong shopping district. We basically walked until our legs about gave out. Friday night our old Korean instructor Isabel met us for some Mexican food and Ice cream so that she could meet Wendy and Bonnie. Isabel of course was a big hit and showed them a good time. Saturday night in turn we met our good Korean friends Rahni and Min Seok for Korean BBQ and Karaoke. I must say that we had a wonderful time and I even got up and sang which is a big deal! Sadly our time with them had to come to an end and we are back in Yeosu once again. We took an exorbitant amount of pictures though so I hope you enjoy some of the highlights.

Since it was Mothers day this past Monday as well I must mention That I have been extremely blessed to have such an amazing mother and Mother in law as well as step mother for that matter. I am blessed three fold and am so eternally grateful to my father in heaven for all that he has given me! May God bless you and all the mothers out there.

Yeosu Relocation

Its official, we are now yeosuites....yeosumites....yeousuonians...hmmm well anyways we are now living in Yeosu and all settled in. The move was amazingly easy with the help of our wonderful moving company and furniture rentals. While we are still getting to know the area we are really enjoying our new apartment and all the extra cabinet and closet space. My favorite part so far is the freedom of taking Bear outside. We no longer need to leash him up or avoid traffic and all the distracting people. It is so much easier and much less of a chore. Bear in turn has really enjoyed all the green grass and the ability to run around without constraint. He has even enjoyed our nice hike behind the complex and the walks to the beach across the street. Driving has been a bit of a challenge but we are slowly adjusting. Driving in a foreign country is never easy but driving in a place where no one obeys traffic lights, traffic signals or even traffic lanes is a whole new ball field. Our current vehicle complements of Albemarle is a new Samsung QM5. Its a nice little SUV and as soon as the cigarette smell dissipates it will be even better. This next weekend we hope to explore the Azalea festival if the weather allows. I'm under the impression that it is quite a hike to the top of some mountain where the Azaleas bloom. It sounds like a lot of fun so hopefully there will be a post about that a bit later. For the time being i'm filling my days with working out at home, hanging out with Bear, shopping, and meeting up with our new expat friend Erin. I think life here in Yeosu is going to be great and i'm looking forward to getting out in the nice weather to enjoy the beach and mountains.

I have one more thing to report upon. Just prior to leaving Yeosu our Korean teacher gave us a cooking lesson on Korean style Dak Bulgogi (or something like that ). While it doesn't look like much it actually had a nice sweet flavor with some yummy beef and rice cakes mixed in.   

Surgical Endeavors

I'm Back!!
      Yes, yes I'm sorry it has been ages since my last post but I have been out of the country and trying to get over the winter blues. Well, Spring is fast approaching now and I am happily getting ready for our next move to Yeosu South Korea. While its not the beaches of Florida I am still looking forward to being on the water with some nice open air to breath! We are all set to leave Seoul on the 30th of this month and will move into our new apartment on the 31st. While the move will be pretty easy thanks to our wonderful moving company, I still have quite a few preparations before I am ready. The main thing on my list is grocery shopping and lots of it!
         On another note the title of this post is surgical endeavors and believe me I have not forgotten. You see as I sit here writing it is my grand attempt to distract me from the pain I am in. For the last year I have been putting off having my wisdom teeth looked at. I new they would have to come out and my bottom two impacted teeth had finally begun to peek through. While I was in Minnesota visiting my family I decided to attempt to get them removed, with a nice American doctor and some nice general anesthesia. Well, once we got the total price estimate after insurance lets just say my husband wasn't so eager to let me have the surgery at that facility. In fact, he went so far as too book me an appointment with an expat orthodontic surgeon right here in good ol' Korea. While it is absolutely true that it is half the price to have surgery in Korea, they do still practice a little differently. When I was in the states I was looking forward to being put to sleep for the procedure and waking up in a nice bed for recovery with my mom waiting outside. Instead I got a local anesthesia and got to walk out of the office by myself and hail a taxi home while my husband was on business in Yeosu. Now I  don't blame him for having to work but it would have been nice to have someone like my momma here to help me recover. The other big difference for me was the pain medicine. In the states they are so kind to prescribe you the good stuff. I'm talking nice strong pain killers. The pills prescribed to me however are up for debate. I know that one of them is an antibiotic to keep and infection from popping up but who knows what the other one is. For one, its not very strong, two its leaves me in a mild state of pain all the time ant three, i'm only given enough to take one pill three times a day when I need way more! Now I know I am saving a lot of money here but is all this pain really worth it! My cheeks are the size of Texas and im so swollen on day three that I still cant talk properly. I can only hope that I recover soon because I only have one weekend left to enjoy this great city. As for the doctor, I will say she was very qualified and very nice. She completed the surgery in half the expected time and she was very good about asking me if I was doing alright. The office was very nice and up to date and her assistance were wonderful. Thankfully their English was also very good.

So in conclusion, if you have to have surgery or anything of great medical expense it is much cheaper to do it here but be sure to bring along some heavier pain pill!

Happy Chinese NeW yEaR!

Good Morning Everyone!
It has been quite a long time since my last post and I do believe that has to do in part to my winter hibrination . It has turned cold here and I dont really get out that much. David has been traveling a lot to Yeosu these past few weeks and I have been concentrating on my substitute teaching. Other than that I like to stay home with Bear and wait out the cold!

One happy this to report today is that David and i have successfully completed our class session ans confined water dive. We are now 2/3rds of the way to being Scuba Dive Certified. We found a wonderful PADI teacher here in Korea and after paying up an exorbident amount of money we were on our way! We have really had a lot of fun with the lessons and we cant wait to do our open water dive this Spring on Jeju island. It just so happens to be a top dive site and we are just an hours flight away. Once we complete our certification we will then be free to dive in places such as Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, New Zealand and so On.  Our instructor was kind enough to take an array of underwater pictures during our first dive and I hope to have them up in the next few days. They may also befound on my facebook profile!

As of now David and I are set to move to Yeosu on March 31. This would be a wonderful time for you to book your flight to com and see us. The weather will be getting warm and there are plenty of fun islads and mountains to explore! Dont delay though because plane tickets will only get worse :D!!!!

Happy Chinese New Year ~the year of the BLACK DRAGON!

Peace

Yeosu Apartment Hunt

Well I am finally back at the computer, ready to update! It has been quite a busy end of the year, but a fabulous one as well. David and I completed our house hunting trip down south just prior to Christmas. We are currently set to leave for Yeosu South Korea the first of April. Now for those that are not familiar with Davids project, he is working to build a chemical plant in Yeosu which will be completed in March of 2013. For the past few months we have been here in Seoul while the design phase has been underway. However, our life of leisure and convenience will end soon enough once we depart for the southern coast for the construction phase of the project. Yeosu is quite a bit different than Seoul but I am looking forward to meeting the challenges head on.

We found an awesome three bedroom apartment located right on the water with a little beach just across the road. Our complex has a really nice sized skate park, basketball court and climbing wall in addition to some really nice trails that surround the perimeter. There is even a mountain directly behind it which makes for some good hiking with Bear. The apartment itself has a nice open kitchen, two bathrooms with a shower and a tub as well as a nice side patio where can grow some plants. The entire unit is covered in hard wood floor with a built in heating system. I am most excited about all the extra space we will have and the many, many kitchen cabinets!

Apart from our unit, the town is quite pretty. It is surrounded by mountains and small islands in every direction. While there is a huge decrease in good clothing stores, they do have some nice looking boutiques and shops downtown. Unfortunately if we want to eat out, its most likely going to be Korean food. However, they have a Lotte Mart fairly close where I can get my American-ish style foods. Another perk is that David and I will be using our Korean pretty often, seeing as English is rare.

Overall we had a great trip to Yeosu. Our relocation agent was wonderful, despite her food choices for lunch of course. We got to see a number of different available apartments and experienced most of the major tourist sites within proximity. Now for all our friends and family out there, since we will be having a three bedroom unit, I encourage you to come visit!  What could be better than a trip to Asia to see our lovely faces!!!

Lovingly....



 

Dog Mania

Good morning friends, I hope that everyone is keeping warm out there, I know it is definitely getting cold here and we are anxiously awaiting the first snow fall. We have had quite a weekend in Seoul once again. While staying warm has been a bit of a challenge, we still managed to get out and about. We began our weekend with date night on Friday which consisted of a wonderful dinner at CPK (California pizza kitchen) and then went to an American movie. In between dinner and our our movie we also ventured out to see a few Christmas lights. I just wanted to show everyone the wonderful decorations and lights around the city. Here a just a few of the many...

This past Saturday I am happy to report that after taking a leisurely hike on Achasan, we took Bear to the Baus House...A dog cafe. We were accompanied by our NZ friends once again and it was quite a site to behold. First I must say that despite being a cafe, they only serve a select drink menu due to the chaotic presence of 25 different dogs. Purchasing a beverage allows access to the cafe and you can then buy as many dog treats as you like or merely chase the dogs around and play with them. Being dog lovers and all we were quite excited for this new experience. While I would recommend it once, I myself probably would not return. It was just a bit to unsanitary and crazy for my likings. We did have fun however playing with the gigantic husky, two devilish Dalmatians and one very rambunctious Bichon Frise. At one point in time one of the two Dalmatians decided to leap onto our table, thus spilling our NZ friend's drink directly into his lap. Thankfully, the staff were very quick to respond not only to our spillage but in cleaning up all dog waste. They even provided a lint roller and air-spray to manage the after affects. Bear seemed to do OK with all the excitement but he was a lot more content to sit in my lap than go chasing after any of the dogs.

Our next journey began on Sunday after church with a trip to Namsan Mountain, which is a very touristy destination. Many people go there to overlook the city, visit the tower with the revolving restaurant, or place a lock on one of the many lover's trees. David and I had been here once before but wanted to go and watch the traditional drumming and swordplay reenactment. We ended up taking the cable car all the way up and back down the mountain due to the cold weather. Once we got to the top everything had been decorated for the Christmas season. They had a very lovely silver Christmas tree along with several lights and Fake enlarged Present boxes for a photo opportunity. We managed to make it just ten minutes prior to the reenactment so we got a fabulous seat. The show was absolutely wonderful and we of course got loads of pictures. Well, I hope you all enjoy our photos, and keep the comments coming, we love you all and miss you!

Thankgiving

Well, I apologize for the lack-there-of with my posts lately. I fully intend however to remedy that shortly. I have a few fun things to mention today so I guess I will start with my Thanksgiving festivities. David and I have decided to remain here in Korea for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Not wanting to compromise on the holiday fun we have made some other plans. On Friday evening David and I decided to go to our NZ friends house for a somewhat Thanksgiving style meal with some other American teachers. We had chicken, mashed potatoes, non-homemade turkey with stuffing as well as some Korean-style sweet potato casserole and a salad. The food was pretty good actually and I managed to make both Apple and Pumpkin mini pies. We even had Pillsbury biscuits, thanks to some army connections! Overall we had a really great time celebrating with our friends. Now, David and I were a little unsure about how the holidays would be celebrated here in Korea. We didn't think many people would have Christmas decorations or trees with ornaments or any of the other must have traditions. Much to our surprise though we were very wrong. Right before Thanksgiving hit the entire city of Seoul slowly began to cover itself with Christmas!!! All the restaurants and stores have trees, the building have bushed and trees decorated, even our favorite shopping area has loads of light up reindeer and snowflakes. It is absolutely wonderful! I managed to get a small tree at the Lotte Mart and we have it nicely decorated in our apartment along with some exciting stalkings and a red poinsettia. So needless to say, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Another really exciting thing to report on was our last weekend. We managed yet another trip to Buchansan mountain with David's colleague Michael. This time however he brought along his female language instructor and another Korea friend named Victor. While the company was fabulous, the mountain was another story. I always enjoy a challenging hike but every time we venture to this particular one it manages to kick my butt! This time was no exception. It was a very muggy day and a little cold at ground level. The weather didn't stay like that for very long tho. After about two hours we made it to the top and in was below zero degrees Celsius, absolutely freezing and the winds could have blown me away. I was so happy to finally make it back down the mountain, but I will say I got a wonderful view and a great workout from the trip.

 

After our hike on Saturday we then went to church on Sunday, the first Advent. The week prior however, David and I were asked to do a short script in front of the congregation and to light the first Advent calender. Well, come Sunday morning we both got up there and really had a lot of fun with it. I was able to light the candle without burning down the church and I managed not to stumble during my speech, praise God!

Now it is Monday morning and I am sitting during the lunch period at Seoul Foreign School. It is my first day substitute teaching here and I love it. While waking up at 5 am was not real fun, I have enjoyed being back in a school setting without actually having to do school work. Today I am with the sixth grade teaching a humanities class. Mainly it is just reading and assigning book work but the kids are a lot of fun and I have met some wonderful American teachers that have been here for over five years. I will be posting more updates on my subbing but until then, its coffee time for me. We miss you all very much and hope you all send us Christmas Cards.

Many Blessings