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29 November 2003 (Saturday)

Jaynie & Erica took me out last night for my birthday. We have no photographic evidence, but we had a good time. We started out at the "mushroom bulgogi" restaurant that Jaynie frequents and had some good bulgogi and kimchi rice (and although there were various side dishes, we didn't eat much of them). Toward the end of the meal, Erica got a call from Joel and went outside to meet him--he brought us 3 slices of Baskin Robbins ice cream "cake" (that's in quotes because there was actually no cake involved in this cake, which, of course, was fine). Erica & Jaynie sang "Happy Birthday" and then the entire restaurant cheered. We went to a couple of bars after that and had some more cake and met some interesting people.

Today, Craig made the pie crust for the tarte tatin I'm making for our Thanksgiving tomorrow. Originally I was to make the crust and he was to make the tarte tatin, but he is leaving at 7 tomorrow morning for Busan and is heading to Houston for a week! I'm not sure what I'll do to pass the time, but hopefully the week will go by quickly.

A couple of updates from earlier entries that you may be wondering about: 1)we only went to two Korean language classes but we plan to go back when the class starts over, hopefully in the next few weeks 2)I did find bubblewrap! I went back to the post office and (I'm not positive about this) it seemed like the woman there saved some bubble wrap for me! She gave me a couple of big sheets of it and I was able to send my boxes to the US (and word is that they arrived safely).

28 November 2003 (Friday)

My stack of boards. 11/28/2003

Today was my first test in taekwondo--there were five of us that were testing for our yellow belts and two testing for their second blue belts. For the white belts, we had to demonstrate punches, blocks, kicks, poomse 1, and break boards. They took our photo as we broke the boards, so I will hopefully be able to post that soon. At least I did it on the first try--it really stung! We don't get our new belts until Monday, but we know that we all passed because we knew what we were doing and we did it well.

27 November 2003 (Thursday)

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you in the US! We are celebrating Thanksgiving on 11/30 because the guys don't have Thursday off to celebrate. Erica & Joel bought a 30lb Butterball from the Army base in Seoul! Erica did check to make sure it fits in the oven so we're good to go! I'll post pictures from our feast Sunday or Monday.

24 November 2003 (Monday)

I went to the Okpo Great Victory Park today to take some photographs.

23 November 2003 (Sunday)

"Colorado Rookie" finishing a down-down. 11/23/2003

We went on the hash today. It was the 22nd Anniversary Hash for the Koje-do HHH. There were three trails today: a walk for families, a hike, and a run. We chose to do the hike. It was a long hike (and an even longer run--so glad I didn't do that!) and we were glad to finally finish so we could relax and enjoy the food and drink. When everyone finally made it back, it was time for the down-downs. A couple of unfortunate hashers wore new shoes to the hash and had to drink beer from their shoes. Craig got his hash name and had to do a down-down since this was his third hash--Joel named him "Colorado Rookie."

22 November 2003 (Saturday)

Cow on the side of a country road. 11/22/2003

We went for a drive today through the countryside near Okpo and then went for a short walk after lunch by the water near Jangseungpo.

17 November 2003 (Monday)

At last: a tour of our apartment!

16 November 2003 (Sunday)

Steps at the Geoje POW Camp in Gohyeon. 11/16/2003

We went to the Historic Park of Geoje POW Camp today. I didn't learn a lot about the Korean War because there was limited information in English; however we did see plenty of dioramas throughout the park and other interesting exhibits in the museum. Craig & I were able to try out being prisoners of war. This sculpture was at the entrance to the park.

Finally, I learned that Seoktae loves Shinja (rough translation) and that everyone has a camera-phone but me.

15 November 2003 (Saturday)

We got a new car today. Craig had been eyeing it for a while so I finally gave in.

14 November 2003 (Friday)

Rice fields near our apartment. 11/14/2003

Today I walked down the main road a little way to take some photos of some rice fields near us. This is something I've been meaning to do since we got here. The different levels are so interesting to see from the road.

This afternoon I went on a quest for bubble wrap (to ship some gifts home to the US). No luck, people looked at me like I was insane! I'll keep trying since I still have a little over a month until Christmas. I just hope I don't have to pay an arm and a leg to get the packages there in time if I wait for the bubble wrap....

12 November 2003 (Wednesday)

Our internet connection has been patchy since we moved in which I'm finding pretty obnoxious! I will try to post photos of the apartment in the next couple of days and I'll keep my fingers crossed that our connection stays on so I can keep the site updated, too!

It has been cloudy and rainy here for the past week or so and it has really cooled down as well. It's nice to have real fall weather unlike what we get in Texas (although I know it's going to get colder here than what I've gotten used to the past couple of years so I'll be missing Texas winters real soon!). The trees are changing color on the mountainside, but it's nothing dramatic. Maybe the typhoon messed things up a little (some trees near our apartment were blossoming shortly after the typhoon!) for fall color.

4 November 2003 (Tuesday)

We moved into our new apartment today. The movers came around 9 AM to pack up and and they left the new apartment by 11 AM. They were quick, but not nearly as cautious as the people who moved us to Korea from TX. I guess it's not as big of a deal when you're just moving up two flights of stairs, across a parking lot, and then up 2 floors in an elevator! However, I was a little worried about our computers, etc. as they exhibited no extra care in transporting them... They're safe now though, so don't worry.

We didn't have an internet connection, phone, and an assortment of other "essentials" when we got here. I'm left to wonder why they said the apartment was ready when clearly it wasn't. They arranged for the movers, so it's not like it was a surprise to them that we were moving!! Oh well, I guess it keeps things interesting.

2 November 2003 (Sunday)

Sunset near Wahyeon Beach. 11/2/2003

We drove toward the south side of the island to watch the sunset today. We sat near a graveyard on the side of a hill. Other than that, we just did stuff around the apartment.

1 November 2003 (Saturday)

Buoys at the Siljeon car ferry terminal. 11/1/2003

We took the car ferry from Siljeon to JinHae today. From JinHae we drove to Busan. We ate lunch at an Indian restaurant in Haeundae Beach. After that, we went to the beach and saw a man sculpting a woman's face in the sand. Finally, we went to Carrefour which was our main reason for coming to Busan. We didn't make it back to JinHae in time for the ferry, so we drove home. Under ideal circumstances this would have been fine, except that there was a lot of traffic at the time we chose to go. Maybe we'll have better luck next time.

I can't seem to fit these in my paragraph above, but wanted to include these photos ... we saw some starfish out near the buoys at the Siljeon ferry terminal while waiting for the car ferry to arrive. Also, I saw these red gloves hanging on the wall on the ferry (in the area where the cars park).