Hello to everyone,

Another fall day here in Korea. The weather has been in the low-mid sixties and other than the typical haze it is sunny. Spent Saturday shopping at Osan and it is just as everyone says. Fantastic shopping, fantastic prices. You can find whatever you want - custom made apparal at unbelievable prices, sports jerseys, jewelry, handbags, etc. It's shoppers paradise. Nothing custom for us at the taylor shops, but plans to have a few things made on our return trip.

No additional mishaps with food this weekend. At Osan we played it safe and ate some springrolls and bu gol gi for lunch followed by Chili's for dinner on the base. At 4:45 we figured that the restaurant would be quiet without much going on and we'd sit and have a beverage and dinner. Wrong. The place was packed! Not even a seat at the bar. We waited about 25 minutes before getting a table but had a great meal before catching our bus.

Public transportation is amazing here. Frankly I'm beginning to believe that most of the world has better public transportation than we do. You can catch a bus to nearly anywhere you want to go for an affordable price. We used a base-sponsored line this past weekend and had no problems commuting between the two.

Well friends, it's off to the gym. See you soon!

"Once a Gambler, always a Gambler"

"Once a Gambler, always a Gambler"

Ah, another cultural experience to write about. This time, Mike and I provided the laughter. Our friends gave us the name of a fun restaurant to try tonight, Gai B. Tables in the restaurant are rectangular with a hole in the middle where they set a pot of white-hot coals and then place a grilling grate on top. You choose the meat or veggies that you wish to cook and they quickly bring it and the traditional accompaniments...think fondue only grilling. Mike and I are clearly the only two Americans in the place and thankfully seated at a table in the back corner. Out comes bowls of different types of lettuce for making wraps accompanied by spicy cucumber salad, crushed pineapple over iceberg, and a oniony salad with chili and ginger. Also, there is tofu and a huge bowl of raw onions, sliced ginger and chili paste. Directly in front of each of us, they place a soup-style bowl with a brownish-gold soup. The waitress places the meat on the grill and it begins cooking. Mike and I sample the salads with our chopsticks and discover some large spoons in the silverware tray at our table. We both sample the soup and find it suprisingly cold and a bit spicy but hey, it's a cultural experience so we go with it. In the meantime, I'm fascinated with the whole place and even though I am trying to be "cool" I decide to be a tourist by taking a picture. As I do, I knock both metal chopsticks onto the floor. The waitress comes over as I put my camera away and proceeds to assist in the cooking of the meat. In the meantime I try another sip of soup. She looks at me strangely and pulls the bowl of onions closer and then indicates that the "soup" is a sauce for the onions and shows me to put it on the grill. I would have given anything to have seen my own skin color in the mirror at that moment. I thank her and begin to laugh because all I can think is that the people next to us must be saying "dumb Americans." Oh, well, we laughed about drinking marinade the entire way home! Hope you had a giggle too!

Well I've found an Etiquette Bell video on youtube...here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G88WnAcPTKI. This one seems to play a recording of what sounds like flushing water which I must admit would be more discrete than a tune!

Friends, tonight I introduce you to the Etiquette Bell. Now some of you being worldlier than I will have to forgive my ignorance and humor. Here’s the deal…if you feel the need to pooter (that’s fart in “southern-speak”) just press the Etiquette Bell inside your stall and a pleasant little tune will play covering your little escapee and rendering you and fellow stall occupiers less embarrassed and/or offended. That’s right. Read it again if you think I’m making this up. Are you laughing yet? The other day while visiting the rest stop bathroom along the Korean highway, I enjoyed a song from the neighboring stall over. It was lovely but I certainly would have been okay with her letting one go in the bathroom. As it was, pressing the Etiquette Bell is almost like making a public announcement to the entire bathroom that you’ve just ripped one. I’m going to attempt to find a picture of one to post so that you can be fully enlightened as I have been.

On to Mike’s car. When Mike and I married he drove a Geo Prism. White, essentially all boy on the inside…stuff everywhere and a musky scent…and the back and passenger side windows were held up by tiny pieces of rolled up paper stuffed between the glass and the frame. You have a visual now, right? Okay, well the $300 beater here is about the same. A previous owner of the Hyundai misplaced the keys and in a desperate moment broke the small triangular window on the rear passenger side. After entering the vehicle and driving to his dorm he used the traditional Duct-tape-fix-method to protect the interior from future rain. The tape job is incredibly neat and tidy and does what it is supposed to do. Well done. Who knows how long ago the window was broken but glass shards glisten on the floor mat back seat as a reminder of good times. The engine of the car, with 185,000 miles, roars to life with double muffler vigor. It’s hot. Honestly, it runs great. A bit temperamental at times, you leave one key in the ignition (so that if you’re blocking someone they can move it or steal it…) and carry the other key in your pocket. This is in case the car has a schizophrenic moment and decides to lock you out even though you didn’t lock it. This happened to me 3 times yesterday but no worries, I had the extra key. Finally, as a safety feature the car has a sensor on the back of it to warn you if you are getting close to hitting something. I don’t know if it is accurate but I wouldn’t mind having it on my Odyssey at home.

Okay, enough from me. Hope you laughed a little. Isn’t life fun?

"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?"
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, 1811

Well Mike's room has been officially deep-cleaned...is this the correct phrasing for this? I don't know but go with it. I spent the remainder of the afternoon cleaning the bath and dusting the room, changing the light bulbs...kind of bizarre but the bulbs in all of the lamps were tiny 2-inchers and didn't provide a whole lot of light. Mood lighting you ask? Probably not. More than likely the cheapest bulbs that the last guy with the room bought. Anyway, everything is sparkling clean, including the kitchen and bath floor which I scrubbed on my hands and knees. Please do not misunderstand me, I was thrilled to be able to do this for my hubby and felt extremely useful.

I had a moment of true gratification when I proved yet again, that the way to a man's heart is via his stomach. Mike had a home-cooked meal this evening thanks to the new Crock Pot and skillet acquired this morning. The chili turned out great and Mike was excited to think that he might be able to fix a few dishes other than frozen microwavable meals. He's living large now, folks. Even a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie to polish off the meal. Isn't it funny what we take for granted until we are away from some of the simple routines and comforts of home?

So in honor of Mike's new Crock Pot, here is a great website with some perfect meals for "dump-it-in-and-walk-away-cooking," http://www.crock-pot.com/Recipes.aspx . Hope you will find something tasty. Here's the chili recipe, too:

Chili
1 large can tomato soup
1 large soup can of water
1 small can tomato paste
1 can kidney beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can tomatoes seasoned for chili (found next to the canned chili at the Kunsan commissary...)
1 c. chopped onions
½ tsp. pepper
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. chili powder
1 lb. ground beef, cooked and drained

Combine all ingredients in crock pot. Set it on low for 8 hours (unless you get caught up in scrubbing something, then set it on high for 4 hours). Serve with cheese, fritos and sour cream. Enjoy!

Well today it's some deep cleaning for Mike's dorm room and a little sprucing up. I just finished taking apart the stove top, which must be 30 years old, and sadly the grease under the burners was about the same age. YUCK!!!! Oh, well, a little Dawn and hot water have rectified the problem. I know that Mike would never have realized that the burner plates were dirty but I'm cooking this week and I insist on clean!

A trip to the BX provided some simple comforts...a small entryway rug, two bath rugs and some fresh towels. My favorite find was the Crock Pot though. I'm putting on some chili for tonight and we'll have a little fall-spirit here in Kunsan.

Last night we took a trip to A-Town and enjoyed some delicious Bu Gol Gi. We ordered way too much food but today's lunch was fantastic due to our mistake. The restaurant was 3 four-seat tables against one wall with the owner/cook working her magic against the other wall. She was so excited to see the two small children accompanying our small party and lit up at their entrance.

We have become comfortable saying hello and thank you in Korean and are working on goodbye. It's amazing that after a few days you begin to recognize the greetings that you were sure you never would. I got a pleased giggle from the maid in Mike's dorm when I said goodbye when leaving the laundry room. Hopefully I said it right but who knows....

Anyway, off to scrub something else. I ought to mention that the room was extremely neat and tidy but the layer of dust on everything seems to have gone unnoticed. Not anymore!

Meet our favorite and most abundant feathered friend here in Korea! The Black-Billed Magpie...you know me...I love birds and this one cannot be missed. He is huge...17 - 23 inches from beak to tail! Pretty black-blue sheen on his wings and black-green on his tail. I'm sure he's probably a local pest or something but I love his stark white chest and glossy black feathers. You can check his stats out here (I know most of you won't but humor me...): http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-billed_Magpie/lifehistory

So irony of ironies, we are both in Korea and get an offer on our house. Better yet, we sold the house!!!! Kudos to our real estate agent Don! Thanks, Don. We truly loved our SC house and hope that the new owners will love it as well.

A parially productive day here at Kunsan. Lots of time to do some "housecleaning" on my email, etc. I've gotten rid of almost 9000 emails (Christy will be so proud). The goal is to try to make my inbox more managable. Things are looking up that's for sure.

A surprise late this morning when a girlfriend from days at Luke was strolling through the dormatory halls with her two beautiful children. Big hugs and talk as though we'd never missed a beat. I love that about the AF. Her little girl, in utero when I last saw her is almost 3 and wonderfully happy and precocious. She and Sydney would hit it off for sure. With luck they will get a chance to when we come to visit when school is out. The baby is adorable and huge! Not surprising, his daddy is a big guy. Plans to meet with them for dinner tonight. Very cool.

Well, off to dust the room and christen it with a little windex. It's extremely neat and tidy but needs a little touch-up from the wife.

See you soon.

Changdeokgung Palace and Insadong Market

Hello to everyone!

I arrived in Korea without incident via Tokyo on Friday afternoon. In Tokyo, it was hard to miss how beautiful the Japanese women are. Their skin is like porcelain and their features are soft like their language. Thus far of all the Asian languages that I 've heard, it is the most fluid and romantic sounding. Everywhere here, it is a treat to see the well-dressed, sharp uniforms of the airline flight attendants. They are modern suits that are reminiscent of another time when air travel was a special treat, not the unimportant commodity that American-based companies have succumbed to. In fact Mike and I are impressed by the dress everywhere. Taxi drivers and bus drivers all wear dress shirts and pants with ties. There is an honor to their job and they dress accordingly. Women are well dressed everywhere in the city. Most women in the city wear high heeled shoes in the same manner that we don a pair of sneakers. I can't decide if their shoes are better made and more comfortable or if our feet expect better. Even walking through the city, high heels are the norm. Skirts are more common-place than pants for women and it's fun to see the women locked arm-in-arm as they traverse the marketplaces. It is obvious that this is a social norm, one that as Americans we do not enjoy without social judgment.

We took the Seoul City Tour Bus from our hotel into the city. The bus runs two different lines, one highlighting the historic palaces and one highlighting downtown. We rode the downtown route which has 30 different stops and runs in a circle. You buy a pass for $ 10 and can get on and off all day. Our only complaint was that the bus only rode in 1 direction so if you got off and wanted to go back to something you had seen, you had to take a cab. Not a problem though, we were smart enough to figure this out and chose to exit at Changdeokgung Palace which ironically means, palace palace. The Palace was used until 1989 but sadly when the last queen died, there were no more direct descendants to the Joseon Dynasty. The ticket price was less than $ 3 and were were just in time for the English speaking tour. Our guide was wonderful and had a good sense of humor. We walked over an ancient stone bridge and toured many of the buildings including the throne room and residences of the king and queen. According to Confucianism women and men had to live separately from age 7, thus accounting for the separate quarters. The Palace was constructed over more than 140 acres and included many gardens, most of which had a rectangular shaped pond with a circular island in the center. The belief was that the earth was rectangular and the sky circular, thus the representation. A beautiful stone gateway, carved from a single piece of stone sits at the entrance of one garden. Everything is beautifully preserved. Only Palaces and temples were allowed to be painted with color. The colors and ornamentation of the buildings was fantastic. Rooftops are covered with individually made and baked tiles. The roof tiles of buildings specific to the king were tiled in blue; a color representing dragons and thus the king. The more important the person occupying the building, the more stone creatures on the corners of the roof acting a protectors of the buildings.

Marketplaces, namely Insadong, The art district, where one is treated to a crush of people enjoying some of the Korean traditional crafts and foods. From traditional Korean tea rooms to street vendors cooking Kebabs, Sweet custard breads with a sweet bean filling, and a sweet cinnamon-filled pocket that Mike and I would gladly have eaten all day, you quickly gain access to the sights, sounds and smells of Korea. We were quick to stand in long lines for the freshly made treats; like anywhere, the longer the line, the better the treat. Among our favorite shops was one called "The Riceteria"Whose window looked like a candy store but rather than chocolates there were beautiful packages of rice-based confections or concoctions in every shape, color, flavor and size. Other stores boasted handbags, papers, pottery, and clothing. My personal favorite was a store with traditional Korean dresses shown in the widow that were "Sydney-size." Without a doubt she would never have taken it off because she would have been a princess.

At a posh tea-room on the second story of a building at Insadong, Mike and I enjoyed a steaming cup of 5-spice tea while sitting on the porch overlooking the market. We asked our waitress for a recommendation of tea and 5-spice was described to us as a treat brewed to enhance all of the taste buds. She told us that we would taste spice (or heat), sweet, sour, tartness, and beer? Mike and I both gave a puzzled look at the word beer. Nonetheless it was delicious and the color of pomegranate served in what looked like a rice bowl (though it was a tea-cup) with a small spoon and was sprinkled with pine nuts. Mike and I looked about trying to decide if you sipped the tea from the spoon or picked up the cup. To our dismay no one near us was having tea and so we did a little of each wondering if anyone was giggling a the Americans. Finally we decided sipping from the bowl was easiest and went with it. Along side of the tea, we were given two treats; a chewy and airy rice confection with toasted sesame seeds on the outside. Very tasty!

Alright, well enough prattling for now. Talk to you soon!