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.

Yummy, Teacher! July 8, 2009

Today one of the kids at our school brought in the coolest show and tell ever:

Not just cute, Korean shit cute

Later, there was a fire downstairs, but the two incidents do not seem to be related–for now.

How We Got (Rid Of) a Dog March 29, 2009

The short story: We are suckers.

The long story: One rainy evening after a long day at school, we spotted a small black dog lurking near the recycling stuff under our apartment building. He was utterly pitiful looking, and too frightened to come anywhere near us. So we left some Pringles and called it good.

The next morning the Pringles were gone, but the dog wasn’t. We left some water and a hunk of dried squid for him and headed on our merry way to work. I’d been meaning to eat the squid and write about it on the blog, but I just couldn’t get over its stench or uncanny resemblance to a giant dried booger. The dog, on the other hand, loved the revolting chew toy and was quite a bit friendlier when we saw him again after school.

We brought him inside, cleaned him up, and found him to be a cute, friendly, and happy little fellow. Over the next few weeks he got to get neutered, wear a cone, get vaccinated, go on walks, romp in the leaves, sleep in a comfy puppy bed, eat regular meals, learn English, and take lots of showers.

He earned those showers mostly because, in addition to being a dog, he was a veritable fountain of excrement. In spite of our best efforts at training him, and running home at lunch and after work to let him out, he continued using our floor as his personal toilet. Part of the problem was that when we would make attempts to train him not to pee in the house, he would get nervous, roll over onto his back and pee even more. When we put his leash on he would get excited and pee. When we coughed, he would pee. When we laughed, he would pee. When we looked at him funny, he would pee. It’s quite difficult to train something not to do a certain thing when the very act of training causes that certain thing to happen.

After three weeks of cleaning up at least one puddle or pile (usually more) at least once a day (usually more often), on Friday when we found our spare room to have wall-to-wall poo carpeting, we gave up on caring for the dog. We’d been trying to find him a permanent home, but the slight language barrier made that pretty complicated. On Saturday it looked like it was time for him to take his chances in the Korean animal shelter system, but what this dog lacks in sphincter control, he seems to make up for in luck. A Korean lady magically appeared out of the woodwork and offered to continue caring for the dog until she can find him a home.

Final Score: Dog 2 / Us 1 / Korean lady 0

No Dice March 21, 2009

The kid that said his family would take the dog said ‘no’ after all, which came as no surprise.  It looks like we’ve accidentally become poodle owners.  POODLE owners.

We took him and his one inch legs for a twenty minute walk, and look...

Fat Chance March 18, 2009

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.

World Famous March 12, 2009

Hey, so maybe it’s kinda dorky, but we’re both a little proud of this. One of our photos was selected as the picture of the day on this website.

On a somewhat related note, while the pink eye has cleared up, one of Kristin’s students showed up to school today with a case of head lice. Since no one could reach her mom, instead of going home, she spent the day in itchy bliss mingling with all the kids in kindergarten. It looks like we have a good shot at going 2 for 3 on the list of dirty kid infections/infestations in under a month.

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.