Repatriated October 9, 2009

Today seems like a good day to get started with blogging again. Here’s the short story. Since we got back, we’ve been shuffling back and forth between our parents’ houses, collecting the scattered remnants from our life before Korea, and trying to figure out what’s next for us.

Today we are at Kristin’s parents’ house near Conifer. This morning the clouds rolled in and swallowed up the mountains across the valley, leaving only one spectral mountain spur in sight. You can still make out a few puffs of golden aspen trees breaking up the triangles of pine trees, highlighted by a layer of snow. It looks like this:

Mountain in the clouds.

In the last few weeks we’ve gotten to enjoy a lot of good old fashioned American activities. We’ve done some gardening, learned how to make jelly, can pickles, and assemble corral gates.

Homemade Concord grape jelly. Not so sickly sweet as the stuff from the store.

One of our old home brews with jars full of beets waiting for their pickling brine.

This is a picture from branding at my dad's a few years ago. We helped replace the gate behind and to the left of the new mom. Just for fun, guess what she's eating?

We brewed some beer.

Me watching some industrious yeast making beer fun.

We took a little road trip and visited some tourist attractions.

Back row (left to right): Devils Tower. Front row: Kristin.

The moment we found the bathroom at Mount Rushmore.

We went to a football game.

Me and my dad at the game.

Saw some Americana.

You mess with the US, you don't just get the horns, you get an eagle with a cow skull for a body that will seriously peck you really hard if you get close enough for it to reach you. Like, it will really hurt. I'm not messing around here. It'll maybe even leave a mark. Or a bruise. So you really shouldn't try to steal it. Even without the camera. Canada.

This was not a common sight in Korea. Nice work, 'Merica!

Saw some wildlife.

A mule deer in the driveway at Kristin's parents' house.

A mountain goat in the parking lot at Mount Rushmore.

A mounted jackalope at the gift shop near Devils Tower.

We’ve done a lot of other things since leaving Korea, too, we just don’t have pictures.

It’s been good to be home, but we’re still a little homesick for at least some aspects of our life in Korea. Here are just a few of the reasons:

Kristin's last day with some truly remarkable kids.

Feeling fussy.

Six years old and pretty much fluent in two languages. They're that cool. And funny, too.

Fun with tissues and spit.

Power Slacks!!!!1 June 14, 2009

Power Slacks!!!!1, originally uploaded by Jake & Kristin.

Feel the power! of POWER SLACKS!

Stop by the Hoeyeon Underground Shopping Center in Seoul while supplies last!

Korean Treats May 2, 2009

Yummy, originally uploaded by Jake & Kristin.

On Thursday, one of our Korean coworkers celebrated her daughter’s first birthday, which means she is actually two years old in Korean reckoning. Among other things, it is a tradition to make cakes like this one to celebrate a child’s first birthday. Our coworker brought in a couple of different varieties for us to try. This is the only one that made it home. The rice part was incredibly sticky and the beans would only pass as partially cooked if you found them in a taqueria, but overall the cake was very tasty and just the right amount of sweet.

Ahh, Nature. April 7, 2009

Ahh, Nature., originally uploaded by Jake & Kristin.

We went hiking this weekend. Instead of hopping in a car and driving to the mountains, we took the subway to the end of the line, and wandered through a little town for several hours before we found a trail head. Here is a view looking back at a small slice of Seoul from near the top of Bulamsan, a mountain on the north-eastern edge of the city.

Bird Watching February 10, 2009

Bird Watching, originally uploaded by Jake & Kristin.

After elephant trekking we stopped at a little restaurant in the middle of the jungle to have a bite to eat. After lunch, we noticed this spider hanging out at about face-height near the path. Apparently spiders like this one sometimes catch and eat birds. It was as big as my outstretched hand.

Serenity Now February 5, 2009

Saffron Buddha, originally uploaded by Jake & Kristin.

This is one of the Buddhas we saw at a shrine while we were in Thailand. The shrine is famous as a home for long tailed monkeys, which our guide described to us as “not so clever” as their short tailed cousins. She also warned us about a variety of activities that would almost certainly lead to receiving monkey bites.

Thankfully we are charged with educating a troop of short tailed monkeys, most of whom are much less prone to biting. We’ve been working on preparing them to give speeches, sing songs, and do dances to show off all the things they’ve learned this year. They’re quite clever indeed, and they’ve done very well.

Still, there are moments when even “serenity now” barely keeps us sane.

Lucky January 10, 2009

Feeding an Elephant, originally uploaded by Jake & Kristin.

Seven months ago today we arrived in Korea, full of trepidation, excitement, curiosity, and airline peanuts. We had no idea what to expect from the next day, let alone the next year, and certainly no idea we’d be feeding pineapples to pachyderms by New Year’s Eve.

Fortunately a nice Korean man met us at the airport and ignored our snoring and drooling as he drove us to our new home. Since then we’ve learned a thing or two, like how to teach, where to get Korean beer, why you shouldn’t get Korean beer, and how to not only spend this much time together without going crazy, but in fact enjoy it.

Korea hasn’t been our only teacher though. Over the winter break we visited Thailand. There we learned that elephants like to carry things around with their trunks while they’re hiking and wearing a backpack full of people. Our elephant leisurely munched her way through a six foot long banana tree in a few minutes. We found each slow bite through the crisp stem and gradually softer crunches as the elephant chewed to be rather soothing.

We still have seven months or so to go before we head back to the US. I wonder if the next seven will be as full as the first?

Boog check December 8, 2008

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.

A Great Weekend November 13, 2008

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:

So Much to See… October 13, 2008

Bulguksa Deer, originally uploaded by Jake & Kristin.

This is one little bit of all of the marvelous decoration around Bulguksa Temple. It is a Buddhist shrine and a World Heritage Site located near Gyeongju, a smallish city in the southeast of Korea. Gorgeous.

Anyhow, it’s been another week with very few posts. I’m sure plenty of things happened, and we probably came across some odd little bits of Korean culture that we could poke fun at, but as it turned out, we mostly didn’t notice. You see, one big event occurred over the last week–we matured. That’s right, from here on out, we’re going to balance our checkbooks, stick to budgets, drive with our hands at 10 and 2, save for retirement, make a plan before we act, read the comics section last, put an end to being silly and joking around, and, most certainly of all, our days of horse play are over.

We also hit the four-months-in-Korea mark. One third of the way through our contracts. Nice. It seems we’ve hit upon a routine here and made enough trips to, through, and around Seoul that we’re more or less used to the sights. I guess since I’m too mature for silly stories, instead of doing the usual post, I’ll just do a little roundup of the main events of the last week or so:

1. Kristin turned 29 last Monday.
2. I’ve been bribing my students to color pumpkins for Halloween. I now have a stack of papers an inch tall to cut out and laminate. I used to work with a guy that could tell you how many sheets of printer paper, on average, there are in an inch. I didn’t pay attention. Now I’ll never know how many pumpkins I have.
3. We bought glasses. Two pairs with lenses for 150,000 Korean Won.
4. We reserved plane tickets to Thailand.
5. We went to Itaewon and it was actually kind of pleasant.
6. Since our absentee ballots that we requested almost two months ago have still not arrived, we sent off our Federal Emergency Write-In Ballots this weekend. We feel good that we’ve done all that we can to help Colorado’s electoral votes go to the most worthy candidate, something they haven’t done since 1992.
7. We finally started mailing some postcards to you folks. Sorry for the delay. I promise to catch up on e-mails and such next.
8. Although tortillas can be purchased only a few subway stops away, we decided to try making some on our own. The things we produced were tasty, but bore only passing resemblance to tortillas.
9. We purchased a set of ankle weights.
10. We also reserved accommodations in Thailand. For once, we will not fail to plan for a vacation.
11. I taught some of my students these words: pee/ing and fart/ing. They asked about them and I’m not going to pretend these body functions don’t exist. These words added to such vocabulary gems as “booger” and “zombie.” Side note: On each weekly spelling test my students are supposed to write five sentences using vocabulary words from the test. One of the spelling lists for one of my classes included the word “brain.” One student wrote the sentence, “Zombies eat brains.” I couldn’t have been more pleased.
12. Being in Korea isn’t bad, but we realized that sometimes it is a little bit like doing time. Some days we just can’t seem to get how long we’ve got left to serve out of our minds.

Chances are a few more noteworthy things happened, but who’s counting? We’ve got a rhythm, we’ve got a routine, and we only have 8 months or 36 weeks or 240 days left to go.