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.