Christmas in Korea

This is the shortbread I made. I didn't have the proper cookie cutter, so I just cut out the cookies with a knife. Even though the shape wasn't quite right, they tasted good. Everybody enjoyed them, even though a few commited the sacrilege of putting whipped cream on them. It was suggested that we could decorate them, but the look on my face stopped that. You can't put icing on shortbread.
Here is some more of the dessert. It wouldn't have been a proper Christmas without excessive amounts of sugary stuff. There were two pans of brownies, a peach pie, a blueberry pie, shortbread, and a triffle. All were yummy. The triffle made me think of that story Nancy used to tell us. Unfortunately, I can't actually remember how the story goes, but I remember that there is one. Something about a little girl picking the stuff off the top and ruining it.

Here are the people who were part of the Christmas "family" gathering. They make a good replacement family. We sat around and ate too much, as is expected at Christmas. Then some of us watched a movie. I fell asleep partway through the movie, which is also expected. It was a nice, relaxing day.

Merry Christmas!

Okay, another bug for your enjoyment. I saw this one just outside my door. I had to go get my camera so you could freak out too. I had nothing to compare the size to, so you just have to guess. I would have put my finger next to it, but it might have touched me. The body was about an inch and a half long, and then it had legs.


In other news, it still doesn't look like Christmas. It rained twice this week. I didn't have my umbrella either time. Still no snow. I want to make a snowman, but rain doesn't make shapes so well. I mixed up dough for shortbread today. I know it won't taste right since it isn't October, but I thought I would give it a shot. I'll let you know how it goes.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Okay, only a little like Christmas. There is no snow, it rained today, and the temperature hasn't gone below freezing yet, but I now have a Christmas tree set up, so I can pretend that it's beginning to look like Christmas. I was in a Christmasy mood, so I got out the tree and the decorations and turned on some Christmas music. I had lots of fun. Decorating the tree always puts me in a good mood. Merry Christmas everyone.

Isn't this a pretty shoe? This is one of the shoes I bought on Saturday. I thought I would show you so you could appreciate them too. I haven't actually worn them yet, but I like to look at them. I'm sure I will not have to look far to find an excuse to wear them. I like shoes. Who doesn't?

Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I have been craving banana bread, so today I decided to make some. I make some pretty dang good banana bread, if I do say so myself. I have made banana bread many times. I should have the recipe memorized. I should be able to make it in my sleep. Somehow, I lost my mind and over cooked it so it was burned on top. I could live with that. Then I tried it. Not good. I realized that I had forgotten to add sugar. You could eat it I suppose, it's just not very good. Fortunately, I had enough stuff to make another batch. I remembered to add sugar this time, but I didn't add enough baking powder. I also forgot to grease the pans, so the bread stuck and ripped. I tried the part that ripped off. It tastes good, it's just a little heavy. It's not my day for baking is it? Combine that with yesterday, which was an "I hate Korea day" where I actually yelled at someone for speaking to me on the street, it has been a wonderful weekend. The only good part was that I bought new shoes. They really are nice shoes, too. I am actually looking forward to Monday morning so I can listen to the Rider game. Isn't that sick? Who looks forward to Monday?

Go Riders!

Go Riders!

Yay, go Riders! Let's repeat it next week. Maybe with a few more touchdowns, but I'll take any win. I finally figured out that I can listen to the game live. The wonderful radio station, CJWW, has a live broadcast so I can listen to the game. The game started at 7:00 this morning. I didn't listen to the whole thing, but I got most of the last half. I'm excited to listen to next week's game. Hopefully there will be one more game after that. I wore my Rider's t-shirt to listen. Joyce sent me the t-shirt for my birthday, and it got here just in time.

More exciting news, I figured out how to change the language on my blog, so now I can read all the buttons in English. Before everything was in Korean, so I mostly pushed buttons and hoped it did what thought it did. Now I can actually read it. Yay.

One more. I found Miracle Whip at the foreign food store. Does life get any better? A Rider victory and Miracle Whip. Life is good.

Octopus and the pomegranate tree

Everyday I walk past this tree on my way to taekwondo. The first time I saw it I had to stop and stare at it because I couldn't figure out what was on the tree. I thought it was really funny looking. I finally recognized that they were pomegranates. Really, who knew that they grew on trees? The things you learn. It really is interesting to see all the new things here. My friend Eun-Ju laughed at me because I had to stop and look at the baby squid at a seafood restaurant. They were swimming around in the tank, how could I not look? She said I was like a child to find everything so interesting. How can you not find squid fascinating? They're pretty cool. So are octopuses. And shrimp. Did you know that they aren't actually pink? Living in Saskatchewan the only shrimp you see are the frozen ones in the shrimp ring. Here I get to see the live ones. They're grey, with lots of legs. They really are quite nasty looking. At least they taste good. Seeing all the variety makes me think that God is very creative. He must have a good sense of humour, too. How can you look at an octopus and not think that it's funny? Look at all those silly legs. Aren't they funny looking? Look at all the colour around. The changing leaves, the sunset, all the different skin tones and eye colours. (Tony's eyes are blue) God is not boring. He loves variety. He gave us all this beauty around us. How often do we actually appreciate it? We complain about the cold. The changing leaves mean that winter is coming and it will be cold. Do we think "wow, the leaves are beautiful, and just think, soon there will be snow to cover everything in a beautiful white blanket"? Maybe we should try to think that way. Let's thank God for all the beauty he has surrounded us with. If we think of blessings first, maybe we will not think of the complaints.



Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Praise Him all creatures here below.
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host.
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Amen

Flower festival

We went to the flower festival on Sunday. It was at a park near my house so we thought we would go over and see what was going on. There were flowers everywhere. There was Peter Pan and Captain Hook, a couple of flamingos, Shrek and Fiona, and a Korean family all made out of flowers. It was pretty cool. The guys didn't seem to care so much. "It's a bunch of flowers." Whatever. I liked the flowers. There was also a performance with traditional Korean music and a taekwondo demonstration. The video is part of that demonstration. It's really cool. I can't do that, but these kids are sure good at it. The cute baby was infront of us and kept turning around to stare and give us a cute smile. There are some pretty cute babies in this country.

After going to the festival everyone came over to my house for tacos. We hadn't had tacos in ages, so we thought it was about time for taco night. It also gave me an excuse to make butter tart bars. I've heard they're good. You should try them.

This is my new hair. I spent some time taking pictures of myself trying to get one that I liked enough to share with all of you. Not only can you see my new hair, my eyes look really blue in this picture. I really like my hair this colour. I'm already planning what I'm going to do next time I decide to dye my hair. I'm thinking all over honey-blond. I'll have to see. It will be exciting to find out.

In weather news, I was thinking about turning my heat on today. It seems to have skipped light sweater weather and gone straight to jacket weather. I had to wear socks today because my feet were freezing and I got out more blankets to put on my bed. I don't want to turn the heat on because October isn't over yet and I refuse to give in to the cold until November at the earliest, and possibly December if I can hold out that long. I'm cheap, what can I say. I can always wrap up in a blanket. The leaves finally started changing colours. They haven't really started falling off the trees yet, so I don't get to step on crunchy leaves yet, but maybe next week. I like crunchy leaves.

Go Riders!

In our lives we tend to take things for granted. It is so easy to think that something will always be there when we want or need it. Living in a foreign country has made me realize this even more. We went to Seoul this weekend and got to go to a Western restaurant for dinner on Saturday, and then Burger King and Starbucks on Sunday. These aren't things we normally get to do as none of these things exist in Iksan. Aside from family, food is one of the things I miss most. It can be really difficult to buy food from home. Finding celery is next to impossible, and finding Miracle Whip is impossible. Fortunately, there are some foreign food stores. It seems strange to call stores that have food from home "foreign", but in Korea, that is exactly what they are. Today we went to the foreign food market in Seoul. I was so excited to find salt and vinegar chips, and I was practically ecstatic to find a bag of dried chick peas and a box of graham wafers. None of these things would be even remotely exciting to me in Canada, but it's thrilling in Korea. Next time you're in the grocery store and you buy Cheese Whiz, whole wheat bread, or dill pickles, send up a little cheer for me.


We did stuff that didn't involve food this weekend too. I went to the salon and got low-lights put in my hair. My hair looks quite a bit darker now. I absolutely love it. I can't show you yet because I don't have a picture, but I will get one soon. I will let you wait impatiently.

Where to start? So much has happened since last update. No new bugs, thank the Lord, but stuff has happened anyway. Let's see...

I went to Canada for Joyce's wedding. I spend way too much time either in airports or on airplanes in the last two weeks. I did discover that I can sit around for a long time and not get too bored. I only finished one book in the 30 hours in airports or airplanes, and I had started that one before I left. On the way back to Korea I talked to the ladies next to me. One was a Buddhist nun, and the other was studying Buddhism. They were very interesting, which was good because my television screen didn't work for the entire flight back so I couldn't watch movies. I'm not sure what I did for the rest of the time, but I must have done something, because I made it back. Work this week was exhausting. I was always tired. I think I'm over it now, because I was okay today. Saturdays are good for that.

The wedding was good, by the way. I won't bore you with details, because I'm pretty sure that everyone who reads this was there, but if you weren't, leave a comment and I'll give you details. Suffice it to say, I looked hot, Joyce looked hot, and we all had nice shoes. There, you got all of the important details.

Today we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving. There were six Canadians, three Americans, two South Africans, and two New Zealanders. It was multi-cultural thanksgiving. We had way too much food, but that seems to be a part of Thanksgiving. It isn't Thanksgiving unless you eat too much to move. After the food we all sat around and laughed at nothing in particular, and then we played Taboo. It was a good Thanksgiving, even if we don't get a long weekend and I didn't get to go to Lectureship.

That's all for today. I'll save stuff for the next update.

Jimminy Cricket!

I showed my students a picture of the bug and they told me that it was a cricket. Then they laughed at me because I freaked out about a cricket. "It's just a cricket, Teacher." It's not just a cricket! A cricket wears tails and a top hat and sings "when you wish upon a star". It doesn't freak me out in my bedroom. Stupid bug. I don't care if it was a cricket. It was still gross.

Yucky bug!

I went into my bedroom yesterday and I thought that there was a spider on the floor. That was bad enough, but then I looked closer. That is not a spider! I have no idea what it is. It totally freaked me out. It jumped!! I dropped a container on top of it and then had to leave the room and freak out for a bit before I came to my senses and thought that I should take pictures of it so you could see it too. If you look closely you can see that it spikey things on its bum and extra mouth parts. It had really long antenna too. When I started taking pictures it turned around and came to the edge and looked at me. Creepy. When I was finished with the photo shoot I took the container outside and dropped the bug out the window. A three floor drop probably did it good. I live on the third floor. That bug has no wings. How did it get into my apartment? I hope I never have to see anything like it again.

See, it's looking at you.

I was a tourist today

Today I went to the traditional village in Jeonju. I had already been there twice, but I'm always up for touristy stuff. I figured out how to put pictures on here so you get to see too.


This is the gate that goes into the garden at the palace grounds.

Isn't this a cool picture?

More moss covered trees.

Pretty trees. I like trees. Most of the pictures I take are of trees or some other kind of plant.

There is a big Catholic cathedral at the entrance to the traditional village. It doesn't really fit in with the Korean architecture. I didn't take any pictures of th exterior because they are restoring it so there was scaffolding all over. I'll take pictures of it next time.


When Nancy and Joyce were here we couldn't go into the cathedral, so I was excited that I could this time. There is something about churches that makes me want to go inside.

I think I've figured it out!

Okay, I know that the last post says I posted it over a month ago, but then I came back to Korea and everything was in Korean and I didn't know what buttons to push to make it do what I wanted. A friend came over today and I asked her to tell me what everything meant, so I think I have it figured out. Thanks Christen!


When I got back to Korea I had to get used to the heat again. I had forgotten just how hot it is here. Fortunately, it has now cooled off enough that I don't have to have my air conditioner on all the time. It has rained almost everyday for the last three weeks, but there was no rain today so we were all very happy. I even saw blue sky for a few minutes!

I look forward to seeing most of you soon, although I feel like I just saw you, but it will be nice anyway.

Get better soon Grandma.

Okay, you can stop nagging

Okay, I finally started a blog. I haven't figured out how to put pictures on here yet, so you don't get any, but you don't have to say "you should have a blog" anymore. Of course you'll probably start telling me that I should be on facebook now, but one thing at a time people.

That's all I'm going to say for now. I'm going to figure out the whole picture thing and then try again.