Korea Calling!

In case you haven't heard...the hubby and I are trying to move back to South Korea where we will both be teaching English.

Mike taught there while we were engaged and I was fortunate enough to visit. We have most of our paperwork lined up and have applied for many jobs.

Now we're just waiting got the right job, in the right city.

We will most likely be taking a couples position at the same school. The school will provide our housing as part of our contract.

We'd appreciate your prayers as we start down this journey.

Colpops and the Best Sandwich in Changwon

Colpops- Have I shared these with you yet? Here, take a sip and a sword:

These babies are pretty neat. Personally, I think they'd go over pretty well at baseball games. The bottom cup has your drink of choice. I chose Cider [sigh-da], which tastes a lot like Sprite and Mr. Groom chose Cola (Coke). The second smaller cup sits in side the larger one and is filled with popcorn chicken, that you eat with the tiny plastic sword. Neat huh?

Last night, I decided that today I would write about the Colpops and then Mr. Groom took me out to eat lunch at Millo's Bakery and I had the best sandwich in all of South Korea.

It was called the Tomato Cereals.

It was (the closest I've come to) deli sliced ham, swiss cheese, fresh juicy tomatoes, crisp lettuce and a  deliciously nutty  (bakery fresh) bread. Ahh....

And I forgot to take a picture. But trust me, it was fabulous (and less than four dollars)!

Mystery "Stains" and Liquified Zucchini

I've come to notice that every so often these circular, brownish gray "stains" appear on the hardwood floors in our kitchen and living space. The only thing I can recall spilling is water, and dry cereal so thats not the problem. And they tend to pop up around the same places. The spots in the kitchen wipe right up with a wet cloth, but the ones in the living area require a slight scrub. They look a bit like the residue left after you remove a long term band aid. But they aren't sticky to the touch.

Can you see them? I just scrubbed them away yesterday.

We had hardwood floors growing up, and I don't remember anything like these. Does anyone know what these are? Do you think its mold seeping up through the apartment below us? Gross.

As for the second part of the title, I think I mentioned earlier that we bought some zucchini. I'd been munching on it raw and was planning on cooking some yesterday for dinner. I pulled the leftover zucchini (still in the produce bag) out of the fridge. It still held its shape, but when I reached into pick it up its was completely liquid! I don't know its because I left it in the bag or if it has something to do with our fridge. Our msutard tends to freeze and I have to wipe down the apples and peaches every day because they get soaked in water. But, there are no settings to tamper with on the fridge. Has anyone else had this problem?

Walk With Me?

Since I've been here I've been working on my goal to take more "just because" or "just for fun" walks. Occasionally, Mr. Groom and I will go on a stroll after dinner. Before the summer schedule started I would take walks around 6pm. Since it was cooler yesterday, I thought I'd walk the trail again. I took along my camera, so that I would be encouraged to be creative. I forgot that cooler weather means more mosquitos, so I didn't make it quite to the top of the hill because I'd endured far too many bug bites.

Here's the path I take:

Down two streets and past the high school

Towards the library, until I run into what looks like a driveway

Down the path I go

Need a breather?

See the graffitti?

Around the corner...

and past the mushrooms.

Up some man-made stairs

Up some natural stairs

Have a sense of humor, Mother Nature?

If you keep going, you run into a flat spot

with exercise equipment. I work out there somedays

but this time the bugs were too bad.

Thanks for walking with me!

Seven Springs

Saturday night Mr. Groom and I went out to dinner with our friend Aerie. We went to Seven Springs, which was located inside of a western style mall called City 7. You ordered of the menu and helped yourself to the buffet. I ordered maple terrayki chicken and it came with a side of carmelized onions and carrots. Aerie and I made a salad to share with shrimp, fresh pineapple and an amazing citrus dressing.

The buffet featured stockpiles of food and I felt like I was in Western food heaven. I ate more than I've ever eaten in Korea or that I've ever eaten at an American buffet. And yet, I ended up feeling only mildly full and not grossly stuffed.

In addition to my meal I dined on the creamiest "cream pasta", and tons of grilled veggies and fruit. I feel veggie deprived here so I made sure to load my plate with tomaotes, peppers, cuccumbers, corn and squash. Mr. Groom brought me bruschetta and it was  the best I've ever had. It was  topped with whole tomato slices and minced onions.

I fixed a dessert plate as well with almond cheese cake squares, a mini chocolate chip cookie, yogurt dipped bananas, apples, grapes and vanilla ice cream topped with blueberries. Two little notes I've noticed about desserts here. The first is that when  you order something like an "almond muffin", "chocolate chip muffin", the chocolate chips or almonds are just sprinkled on top of the muffins, not baked in them. The second thing I noticed at Seven Springs. I think the cheesecake we tend to eat can be described a little as pie like (not cherry pie, but like a chocolate pie?). Here it was definitely textured more like cake, with crumbs and everything.

I raved about the dinner all night and even dreamed about the cream pasta. This weekend was the perfect time for us to go because I'd complained to Mr. Groom this week  that no matter how much I'd been eating lately I couldn't stop being hungry. I have also noticed a decrease in energy since being here. Before arriving I could do situps in sets of 50. Now I can barely do 25 situps in a row. I really think the lack of variety and the lack of vegetables in my diet is causing this. (When I eat vegetables here it is either peppers on pizza or lettuce with a slice of carrot in a salad. I make potatoes and occasionally cook them with peppers but that's it.)

But,the restaurant was wonderful. If I were single, and in Korea alone I would go there at least once a week. It was that fabulous.

I got a PACKAGE!

I don't get much mail in South Korea so it is doubly exciting when it happens. Today I received the package my mother sent.

I opened the package and found all of the goodies packed in a shoebox!

I unpacked everything and discovered:

(a sweet bear card, beef jerkey for Mr. Groom, gum, our favorite granola bars, creamy peanut butter)

(the two newest Real Simples and baggies for us to bring liquids home in our carryons)

Thanks Mom! We'll be eating PB & Banana sandwiches for dinner  tonight! Yum! Oh, that reminds me, I'll have to post tomorrow about the amazing restaurant I went to this weekend!

I'm Hungry and in Korea

I'm hungry, in Korea and tired of sandwiches, fast food and breakfast food. I have a stove top and a grocery store that sells a handful of recognizable ingredients. What do I make?

Hot Dog Stir Fry (Kinda)

Ingredients:

2 hot dogs, cut into "beanie weenie sized" pieces
1/4 of a red pepper chopped
1/4 of  yellow pepper chopped
2 small potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 slice of cheese
mustard

Season the potatoes- my limited supply caused me to salt and pepper them and then cook them in corn butter. Cook up the veggies and hot dog pieces in a pan-potatoes first until they're soft and and then everything else. Top with cheese and mustard. I started out trying to grate the potatoes, but the potatoes were too small for me to grate them without chancing a finger. Tastes kinda like a hot dog and fries. Is quite possibly kid friendly.

The bread was suppoused to be cheesy bread but upon biting into it I discovered it to be a plain dinner roll. Slightly dissapointing.

Man I miss "regular food", but this was a good break from sandwiches and breakfast food.

Chocolate in Changwon

After reading on Kraft Foods' facebook page that Wednesday was National Chocolate Day, I thought I'd do a post about the chocolate I've had in South Korea.

I've had three kinds of Chocolate bars:

1. Toyou

None of the chocoalte I've had tastes bad- but I haven't tried anything high quality either. I'd say this and and the Ghana flat bar are similar to the Hershey bar. I think its interesting that the bar seems to be called "To you", but that the brand name is whats printed on the chocolate- same with the Ghana flat bar. Until the other day, every time I'd eaten the Toyou bar or the Ghana flat bar the chocolate was quite bendy and never snapped when I broke it into pieces. And quality chocolate should snap. When I mentioned this to Mr. Groom he pointed out that the stores here don't usually run airconditioning so the chocolate is usually melted when I buy it which is what is making it bend. He's so smart. So now I put my chocolate in the fridge after I buy it- it snaps and tastes a little better too.

2. Ghana

This Ghana bar is similar in style to a Snickers- but the filling is different. Its peanuts, peanutbutter and sometype of nougaty filling. Its at least twice as chewy as a Snickers and costs close to eighty cents. A Snickers here cost around $1. As does the Toyou bar.

3. Ghana- or what I call Ghana Flat

I don't have a picture for you because the last time I ate one I thought I'd already taken a picture. Its very similar to the Toyou bar. In fact, I can't taste the difference.It costs about the same as the Toyou bar too. It drives me insane that its called a Ghana bar but is obviously quite different from the above Ghana bar. Its got Lotte stamped on it (brand name). Lotte owns freaking everything. There is a Lotte grocery store, Lotte cinema, Lotte department store. Restaurants and convience stores sell Lotte brand drinks and food.

Heres the corner of the Snickers style Ghana package where you can see the brand (look closely and in the corner):

Weekend Recap

This weekend was quite enjoyable- even if I didn't get to spend it cooking out, making festive desserts and watching fireworks.

Saturday we met our Korean friend A, one of her friends and two Belgian guys for dinner. We went to a place called Meat Home. It was very literally just that. For a little under $12 a person we experienced an all-you-can eat meat buffet. The meat sits out, uncooked buffet style and you pick out what you want and cook it yourselves at your table. We had beef and amazingly yummy pork and excellent sausages. We even ate dumplings stuffed with meat. There were also vegetables but they came fried. I ate something similar to corn fritters and random assortments of veggies all cut up and fried together. It was quite delicious. We ate for two hours!

After dinner we went down to the WABAR (which according to the sign stands for western ice bar-somebody messed up with that one) so that we could show the Belgian guys where they can get Belgian beer. We all hung out, drank, told jokes and laughed. It was so wonderful to be around a bunch of English speakers (I think the Belgians said they know 4 languages)--people who could understand sarcasm. You don't realize how much you miss it until you're around it  again.

Sunday was the usual two small pizza's-pineapple for me, spicy taco for him. And lots of relaxing and resting from the night before.

I think next weekend the girls and I headed to the beach for the day!

What was your weekend like? Did you do anything exciting for the fourth?

Cleaning in Korea

Whew.

I've done a lot of cleaning this week.

I sweep several times a week anyway, but I think I defintely swept twice as much this week. We have hardwood floors and I shed like an eighty pound long haired dog with a balding problem, so if I don't sweep every other day then it starts to look like we have carpet. Yeah, it gets that ick. There are two problems I have with sweeping. One is a local problem: The only brooms we have are half the size of regular brooms. And thats the only kind of broom I've seen here. Shopkeepers and street sweepers sweep with half brooms. I don't understand why. I mean, there are tons of skyscrapers and cellphone stores- can't someone here make a full size broom? The second problem I have is more personal. As I sweep, my hair falls out. So its like theres no end to the chore. So I just sweep until I reach the point where I just give up. PS: I registered for a pet hair vaccum and we don't have any pets.  And I want it really bad.

At the beginning of the week I cleaned out the fridge and cleaned the water dispenser. I started to clean the bathroom until I realized Mr. Groom had beat me to it. And after he came home from work, I thanked him and he said something along the lines of "Man these kitchen floors need some work". How's that for a hint?

So Wednesday I got in there and swept twice and then scrubbed the hard woods in the kitchen with a dishrag, swept the living/bed room and spot scrubbed that room since it wasn't as dirty. After  everything dried I had to sweep again. Bleh.

So now all I have left to do this week is clear the clutter off the coffe table and the suitcases and do laundry. There isn't much room to store the clutter so I'll either just end up rearranging it or stuffing it int a suitcase until its time to head home. As for the laundry, I alternate between washing towels one week and sheets the next because the washer takes almost two hours and we don't have enough space to hang up both towels and sheets and our clothes at the same time. And I'm too lazy to do laundry more than once a week. Unless its an emergency. Oh how I miss America-where even if you dont have a dryer you probably have somewhere to string a clothesline.

Word to Changwon

When I get back to the states I want to make a flip book of all of the mistranslations I've come across. Here are a few- look closely. 

this one may not be unintentional but I'm not sure

In Need of New Clothes...

So the washing machine here stretches out clothes out like you wouldn't believe- and we dn't have a dryer to help shrink them back to normal. Poor Mr. Groom will have to buy all new clothes when he gets back to the states-he has lost at least 20 pounds and his clothes are all stretched out from the machine. I noticed the other day that my tshirts look a size too big. But today was the kicker- Mr. Groom kept nudging me and telling me I was flashing everyone. The shirt I was wearing was cut like a tshirt. But its been stretched so much that when I sit down the sleeves either slide off my shoulders or my tatas fall out of the neckline. So I went out and bought some febreeze so that I can wash my clothes less often and wear things like my dresses that I usually only Dryel.My Korean friend A and my newfound American friends M and J hope to take a shopping  trip soon but until then I am in desperate need of:

via

     via

via

Okay, well mostly I need things like the top picture but I always get suckered in by pretty dresses.

Korean Bucket List

I've crossed on item off of my 101/1001 list but I probably won't be able to do much more of the until I return home at the endof August. That being said, I've put together a list of things I'd like to do while I'm in Korea.

1. Finish my wedding planning guest post.
2. Learn how to ask how much something costs.
3. Learn my numbers 1-10, 100, 500, 1000
4. Go to the market.
5. Visit somewhere other than the city I live in.
6. Eat machiato ice cream-- I think thats what it was called- you eat it with your hands?
7. Eat at the gelato and waffles place.
8. Go to the game bong (like the nor-ray-bong/ private karoke room but with with a Wii instead of karoke)
9. Buy postcards for my wedding guest book.
10. Buy souvenirs.
11. Send my bestie a postcard.
12. Take more pictures of me and mr.groom on my camera
13. Collect my new friends email addresses/facebooks.
14. Take a picture for our engagement notice.
15. See the buddhist temple that mr.groom showed me pictures of.
16. Try the German coffee shop. (Weird, I know but I've already been to the Irish pub)

F is for Five Things I Like About South Korea

1. No Fear

There is little to be afraid of here. Children play in the streets at midnight on a Friday night. Children buy ice cream from random men on the sidewalk. Delivery restaurants bring food in real dishes and people leave them outside their doors for the restaurant to collect. No one thinks of stealing them.

2. Packaged Foods
 Things that come in bags like big bags of chips or cereal come with stickers on them. You use the sticker to seal the bag. Brillant.

3. Words of Wisdom
My friend A informed me of two korean sayings the other day. One is "You have thin ears". It means that you listen too much to what other people think. The other is, "You are going to fly away". It implies that you listen so much to what other people think that your ears are flapping back and forth and you will take off. We could all listen a little less to what others think of us and the things we do.

4. Numbered Buildings
If my computer cord was working I could show you a picture of this. Instead of having an address like 101 Blog Lane, buildings are assigned numbers. I think we live in 13. This eliminates confusion. For example, in the states, my sister could live on 101 Main St, and I could live on 101 Mane St. This way, each building has a unique number and your pizza gets delivered to the right address.

5. Postage
I mailed two postcards internationally. It costs me ten cent total. Total. When I was in Scotland mailing one letter  to the states cost me close to 2.5 dollars.

Just a quick recap

I've been going to school with Mr. Groom. The children are just adorable! Many of them are very eager to look and talk to me. I've met many little girls who have learned to say my name and always ask "Girlfriend?". One even dug out her workbook and showed me a picture of a bride and then pointed to me and said "Teacher bride". So cute I may have to steal one...

I've started giving myself little photography projects. Yesterdays was to walk around downtown and take pictures of all of the mistranslated signs. Todays was suppoused to be photograph all of the statues downtown. But it rained so it turned into play papparazi and photograph Mr. Groom. He doesn't like me taking pictures of him- says he looks like a goober. But I managed to get some sexy shirtless photos of him this morning, and a few of him sitting at his desk at work.

Oh! I want you to guess what I had for dinner last night.



Fried chicken, watermelon and peanuts.

I must have stepped into a cultural time warp bubble when we went out for dinner. The place also served eel, cuttle fish and a variety of other nonappetizing culinary delights.

More Food (Mis)Adventures

Ya'll will probably be hearing a lot about my food misadventures-at least until the end of August when I will return to the comfort of southern food and then begin experimenting with recipes I've been collecting this summer.

Saturday night a group of us went to dinner. We had some type of pork (sim something), that is very similar to bacon and almost as deliscious. At this dinner, I was taught a new way to hold and use chopsticks and suprinsingly, it worked- unllike the 82 other methods I'd been shown. Try, try, try again. We had the pork and with it they served many side dishes. Mr. Groom  coerced me into trying the octopus side dish. The taste wasn't bad but it was too chewy for my liking. After dinner we were served some type of drink that ended in the "qua" sound and was quite yummy. It was sort of like drinking cold apple cider, with honey but a bit thicker.

After dinner we headed home to  meet two more friends to watch the World Cup. Well, they had not had dinner yet and brought Japanese take out with them. And offered to share. Lucky us. Mr. Groom explained to me before, that refusing food was equal to a social slap in the face. So I took a bite. And then our guests announced what we were eating. Cuttle fish. Look it up. Its a squidy type fish. It had been made into meatball shaped  pieces along with very slimy bread. The texture was too much to handle. It sloshed around in my mouth as I tried to swallow it. Half of it down and I felt my gag reflex kicking in. Have mercy, I can't reject their dinner like this. At this time, a soccer player  tripped and our guests raised thier hands to their mouths in laughter. I raised mine, in kind. But I was keeping my dinner from spewing across the apartment. Luckily, I was able to swallow it and then hopped up for some water. I made a comment about being so full from dinner and THANK THE HEAVENS our male guest asked me if, since I was full, his girlfriend could finish mine. I could have kissed him.

Sunday, we went to Pizza Etang for our usual Sunday afternoon pizzas. I've become fond of their pineapple pizza. Sunday night, I braved the ferocious fire spitting gas oven and made scrambled eggs with peppers and cheese. I've cooked with gas before, but this stovetop seemed to either be full flame or no heat. I managed to cook Mr. Grooms eggs in a scalding 5 seconds, did mine in 6 and ended up with burnt bits.

Tonight- I mastered the flame. I was able to coerce the stove into giving me a smaller flame. I heated hot dog weenies and peppers and topped  them off with cheese and mustard. Mmmm.

And I'll likely be back at the grocery store tomorrow. Wish me luck

Oh and I promise that E is for.... will be coming up soon

Changwon: Some Pictures

this is in the park I frequent

this is from the same park

I tried and tried to roatate this picture but no matter what I do it won't save rotated. This building is on the way to Mr. Groom's work

this is our apartment building

we push the red button at the top to turn the hot water on so we can shower or burn our feet on the floor, you know whichever happens to float our boat.

neighboors (across the street)

on the way to the library. I like to go there and write. You can see the mountains all around the city but its hard to get a clear shot

lack of space leads to putting things like driving ranges on top of really tall buildings

this picture was taken down by the grocery store. look closely at it. See the vertical yellow sign in the middle? Look to the left of it. See what looks like a barber shop pole? There are TONS of these poles all over the city. They don't designate barber shops. Oh no. They designate ummm....errr....shall we say "happy endings"

D is for Delicious

I feel like I've been complaining a lot about the food I've been eating, so I thought I'd take a moment and highlight a few of the delicious things I've tried here, as well as my standard favorites.


Since being here I've had a few things that I've really enjoyed.


The first was at a restaurant where the food grilled in front of us. We had pork pieces, that we took and wrapped in lettuce, and topped with bean paste and onions. Mmmm Oh, and it was served with a very yummy egg souffle.


The second was a soup. It had meat stuffed dumplings and veggies in it and it was very good.

The third was grilled/smoked duck. It was at a restuarant similar to the first and served with a (eww gross) cold bones intact fish and some version of kimchi. But the duck was very enjoyable.


My fourth favorite thing:

Of course its a sweet. Mr. Groom brought these home from work for me. They have dough on the outside, chocolate and a nut on the inside (I say pecan, he says walnut, he's probably right.). And they're best when chilled.


At home?

I love love love my veggies- especially the homegrown ones like corn on the cob, tomatoes, and okra. I also loved butterbeans cooked with bacon. With them I love crumbly cheese biscuits. I also love cheeses, shrimp and grits, mushroom green pepper bacon pineapple pizza. Yum

My favorite ice cream would have to be anything with chocolate-unless its Butter Pecan. And I don't like plain chocolate. I tend to lean towards moose tracks, reeses, and rocky road.


Drink? Water



Alcoholic Drink? This is tough. I love red wine, I don't love the headaches it gives me. I love rum and pineapple, hot chocolate with brandy, homemade lemonade and vodka, bahama mama's, pina coladas, daiquris and mudslides. Basically, when it comes to alcholic beverages I defintely drink too many calories.



Dessert? This is a killer. I love cookies. I love icecream. I'm not a big cake person- unless its homemade or I made it. Because I love to make cupcakes. So basically, the answer here should be anything with chocolate. (As you couldn't tell from my blog title I love chocolate)

It was oh so very nice

We walked in and I looked up. Sparkly chandeliers hung from the ceiling, posh puffy black chairs lined the walls and tall golden mirrors stood infront of them. We sat down to wait and were offered drinks. I went first. A young woman clad in leggings, a black skirt and a sparkly jersey with the word "Seniors" emblazoned across her chest cut and styled my hair. I've been told that the most style savvy people wear shirts with English on them. I bet I must look super cool.

It was the nicest salon I've ever been in, yet we both got our haircut for $15 total. I usually pay $12 for mine alone. This- from a place where shoes are usually $138. I don't understand it.

Several Topics One Post

I'm getting lazy or something. So I'm going to do another list topic post.

1. Cancer
       It seems as if everyone here is afraid of getting cancer. They stand way back from the crosswalk in the shade to prevent skin cancer. I've heard that eating crispy/burnt meat will cause cancer. I've heard that taking a pill-like Tylenol- without food in your stomach will give you cancer

2. Staring
       I was defintely not expecting this one. We get stared at for 3 reasons. And I think it bothers Mr. Groom more than it bothers me. I tend to think- if they want to stare lets give them a show. But he is the opposite. It must bother me some or I would not be blogging about it. Everyone stares at us because we are white. Especially the little kids. We get stared at even more when we wear sunglasses. Maybe they think the sunglassses keep us from seeing the stares. We get stared at a ton when we hold hands. PDA is very limited here, unless it is between two female friends, or two drunk busineness men. Our friend A and I can walk down the street  holding hands with no staring. I take that back, we could if we were both Asian. The fact that I'm not Asian causes us some stares

3. I could never ever drive a car here. Even if I could read the signs. People don't look. Drivers don't look, don't care if you're walking or if you have the green signal. They don't look when they turn and another car is there. I've seen so many almost accidents. Pedestrians don't look either. They just run across the road.