One YEAR

Happy Anniversary to us.  It’s one year today that we have been living here.  Let it be said that we know this from adding up  the hatch marks on our concrete wall.  Also, we have lived in this cell block apartment for longer than we’ve lived in any other dwelling since we have been together.  It’s weird to know where everything in our apartment is.  It’s about time we moved again.

Summer’s Here

Today we are making the trek to the post office in Suji to mail home some winter clothes. We are getting so close to the end of our adventures in Korea, it’s exciting and nerve-wracking all at once. It isn’t clear where we’ll be living or what we’ll be doing when we get back to the US. I usually enjoy that feeling of “anything’s possible” that you get when a big change is coming. This time that anticipation is laced with the likely reality of going back to being something less exciting and glamorous than “English teacher in Korea.” “Store clerk in Thermopolis” or “salesperson in Atlanta,” for example, just doesn’t have the same sort of ring. The feeling of uncertainty is actually greater than when we moved to Korea, when we at least knew we had jobs and an apartment waiting for us. Who knows what will happen when we get back, but at least it’ll be easier to get burritos and tasty beer.

Fat Chance

Well,  after several false promises, hopes raised and crushed, the waxing and waning of love, surgery, 34 poops and pees (in the house no less), and several sleepless nights, we think that maybe we have a Korean taker for the damn dog.  We’ll find out tomorrow for sure– we think–as the communication is between us and a 9 year old with limited English skills.  Here’s hoping.   However thankful we’ll be to them for taking him,  we’re still telling the new family his name is “Purple Turtle Umbrella.”

He still hasn't figured out which end is up.

Perpetual Juvenile

We often come across such misspellings in our students’ writing, and I would like you all to take note that we have restrained ourselves until now from spoiling your delicate sensibilities.  We’ve held on to this one since Christmas, not wanting to spoil that time of year for my mother, who doubtless would have told me to go to the bathroom and stay there if I was going to talk about potty things.

be sure to mak them, teacher

Aaaaah, Brewskies

A delicious and nutritious bevvie we call "My Other Lover."

It's good in bed, too.

These are oldies but goodies (greaties?) of our first homebrewed beer.  It was a stout and it was delicious and we miss it something awful.  We miss the rug we detroyed in the process of making this little darling, too.

Here’s a picture advertising the beer we have the most immediate access to here in Korea.  I’m pretty sure “Tok” means “pee-pee flavored.”

"Fresh" in this case means "made yesterday and has no possible chance of having any flavor."

Boog check

Jake and I have both been mildly to extremely sick for the last few weeks, and we finally this evening went to the clinic and got our sinus cavities suctioned, thanks Jebus.  But within 15 mintues, we were seen, defrocked, vacuumed clean, diagnosed, turned and coughed,refrocked, nebulized, and given 4 days worth of drugs, all for under $50.  Hopefully it works, as we are scheduled to leave for Thailand in 16 days, 22 hours, and 27 minutes.  Give or take a minute.

Two weekends ago we felt good enough to go for a long walk around the ‘hood, and ended up finding a new trail to walk on:

At some point we found a random lettuce farm, which are pretty sure feeds all of Jukjeon and Yongin city.  There were at least 50 of these plastic greenhouses.  Thing is, this lettuce farm is in between a large sewage drain and the highway.  Bon App….

Then off to the other side of the sewage drain pipe for a little exercise:

So now it’s 4 days of antibiotics and the impending non-fun that goes with that.  Hopefully this weekend we will do a little, well, anything, as this last weekend was all naps, drooling, eating, and watching movies.  On second thought, it was perfect and I hope we do the exact same thing again this weekend.

Tae Kwon Do bad mutha

Hey interweb! I have been feeling under the weather for the past week or so, but on Saturday I was feeling perky enough to go see this Tae Kwon Do performance, and got there just in time to catch this sexy bad-ass guy kicking some boards in half. Oh, wait, IT WAS MY HUSBAND.

A Cheerful Corner Of This Universe

A few weeks ago my kindergarten class and I were discussing the intricate anatomy of, say, lima beans and I begged my supervisor to allow a little hands-on project. Well, these are the fruits of our labors, thus far, including a couple of clandestine side-projects of pumpkin and marigold seeds. My kids have responded handsomely to the project with diagrams, observation sheets, hypotheses, long-term goals and plans, and a heavy discussion of what to do with the profits from our farmer’s market sales come spring. Oh, my little burgeoning hippies!!!

A Great Weekend

Last Saturday we were shopping in Seoul and heard these guys playing:

and did some sight-seeing which was cute pretty:

And then dinner in Jookers which was downright yummers, complete with salad, pizza, and a glass of wine. No pig’s bladder tonight, people!!!

And finally a ride in this, which was great because there’s no better way to end the day than by saying “F*%k you” to poor people:

Doing Fine…

Our reader may have noticed that new posts and pictures have been slim for a while now. Here’s why:

Organic milk!

We found some organic goods at E-Mart and an organic grocery store opened down the street from our house. Since then we’ve been busy drinking organic milk and yoghurt. No more BGH for us!

In other news, we’ve got a good routine going. We’re pretty used to life here, we like our jobs, fall has arrived and the trees are changing color, and we have almost finished Christmas shopping. Korea is a good place to be. Life is good. Now it’s time to go to Seoul and look for some more Konglish goods to send home.

PS-We just finished K’s birthday pound cake as part of a delicious breakfast. It lasted more than a month. That’s self control people.

Dead pound cake.