That pagan American holiday

Happy Halloween ya'll!!!!!

Holly's school had a "Fall Festival" party yesterday. This is Holly and her friend Colesie.

Of course, Sarah came with me to help at Holly's party. She was the official taste tester.

Unfortunately, it doesn't feel like Halloween around here, as we are one of three non-local families in our apartment building. No jack-o'-lanterns are out, no really bad Halloween displays, and most of all, no trick-or-treating. Of course we carved our own and are keeping it on the porch for our viewing pleasure, and then off to the base we went for our Halloween fix tonight. One of the families opened up their home to us non-base dwellers (thank you again Hunt family!) The girls had TONS of fun, got way too much candy and didn't eat anything that would constitute as food for dinner. But it's Halloween and you only get to do this once a year.

Fall Foliage

So as the leaves are turning around our apartment, I see exactly what I've been missing all these years. As someone pointed out to me, we are real Southerners. Being from Florida, our leaves pretty much just turn yellow and fall off the trees over the course of a week. Not that I would trade sunbathing at Christmas while talking to my relatives in Seattle, but seeing the season change has been a real treat for us.

The farthest north we've ever lived was North Carolina. Arizona, Oklahoma and Texas don't really jump out at you for being fall foliage destinations. So here are some pics from around town.... I'll add more as the leaves get more and more vibrant.

Enjoy!

These were taken 10/16....

Same areas, taken 10/29:

Bon Appetit!

So many of you playing the home game have asked the same question: how is the food?

In general, we have enjoyed everything we have tried. But going out to eat is an adventure every time we go. From the massive food court in E-Mart and Home Plus to the chicken place by our house, we normally just point to what we think looks good and hope for the best. Take this for example:

This was my birthday dinner at the Korean restaurant by our apartment. Really neat place, you take off your shoes at the front (customary at most restaurants in town) and sit on pillows at low tables. You eat your meals family style and they have silverware type chopsticks. We chose what we thought was going to be a beef dish with vegetables and it was cooked on the grill in front of us. However, we were surprised when they delivered a seafood dish with octopus. It was really delicious, albeit a bit spicy for my taste and a bit chewy for Ronnie. The girls mostly ate the noodles and vegetables that came with it.

You'll also notice there are a lot of small dishes around the main dinner. These were kimchis of all sorts and the leaf in the lower right hand corner of the picture is sesame leaves - taste a lot like mint.



Our second attempt at dining at an unfamiliar Korean restaurant was more successful. The family center has a night where they take you to local places and explain to you what you're eating. Unfortunately, we didn't think to take pictures until we were well into the third course. We had food of all types, from kimchi to grilled fish to jellyfish to their version of chicken noodle soup. It was really nice to have someone at the table who understood the food and could explain to you what it was you were trying.
And I mentioned jellyfish above. Yes, I tried the jellyfish - it was pretty good. They had tossed it with a black bean sauce of sorts and it tasted like a chewy noodle.


All in all, I don't think we have tried anything that we flat out didn't like. Mostly it's been that it was an unexpected taste, like soy beans rather than raisins or a sweet honey filling in a waffle.

Random Ramblings.....

Just some random thoughts I've had over the last few days.....

Funny that we've been here 2 weeks now and I am starting to really know the lay of the land. I know where stores are, what their hours might be, and how to get there by foot or car. Kinda cool.

We moved into our apartment last week. It's really nice. I've posted some pictures on our family album: http://picasaweb.google.com/cmoliver1019/OurApartment?feat=directlink

Holly started school last week too, but more importantly started riding the bus. She was so excited - me not so much. The other parents at the bus stop asked me if it was her first day of school because of me taking pictures and all.

From October 2009

Holly's school curriculum is similar to the states, but there is one big difference. She has Spanish class everyday and a humanities class like Art, Music, Library, or Korean Education. Yesterday she came home and taught us how to bow. I'll need to get a video of it, because it is just too cute when she teaches us stuff.

If you missed it, I had my first international birthday on Monday. It was weird with it being my birthday when I woke up, but yet it was still "yesterday" in the States. Thus, the two-day birthday celebration was born. Lots of fun... we'll have to do that with everyone's birthdays.

Annyong kaseyo!

Annyong haseyo!

Our first week in Korea has been nothing less than a blur. We had a great flight over - the girls did really well on both the flights, layover, and bus ride to Songtan. After getting started at 6 am on a Monday morning, we finally got settled into our hotel around 9:30 pm local Tuesday night. We are 13 hours ahead of EST, which put us on the road for 27+ hours.

We were up at the crack of dawn the next morning and walked around the marketplace. I think I'm going to like all that shopping in a small area of town: beautiful blankets, tailors, and handbag/purse shops galore! The girls are getting a lot of attention, as children are seen as a lucky charm of sorts. And Holly's blond hair is really stunning to them.

Little by little we are learning the Korean language. We are mastering one word at a time to proficiency, tackling the polite conversational words first. Kamsa hamnida is thank you; annyong haseyo is the informal Korean greeting and equivalent of hey, what's up, how's it going. The family center offers Korean language classes weekly that we'll start attending soon.

All in all we are getting settled in nicely - we've found an apartment, gotten cell phones, found the Starbucks on base, and Holly enrolled in school. Yes, Starbucks is a very important commodity with the jet lag we have.

Until the next edition.......

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Well, we have made it this far in our journey. In a little over 24 hours, we're getting on a plane to Seoul, Korea.

We've spent the last few weeks in Florida visiting friends and family. The girls have had a great time playing "Cousin Camp" at Grandma's house, meeting up with some of my friends from Catholic school, and visiting at Grammy and Papa's house. We were also blessed to have my new niece, Laurelei Dawn, grace us with her presence while here.

Next time we write, I'm sure I'll have some anecdotes from our travels.

Najun-ge poepkessumnida! (I'll see you later)