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28 May 2004 (Friday)

I started off the day by visiting Connie's cats, Pumpkin and Goblin. Connie is in Malaysia so I'm going over to take care of the cats while she is away--it had been a while since I had pet a cat and it made me miss Gertie even more than I already did!

We had our test in TKD today. Minsue, Jaynie, & I tested for second red belt which means that we won't get a new belt on Monday even though we all passed. We won't get a new belt until we pass the black belt test and they finish stitching our names into the belts! I'm feeling very relieved to be done with the tests but it's making the impending black belt test seem much more real! I need to work on getting a turn kick in when we spar--Minsue & I both failed to get one in today with Sabaemnim starting and stopping us often to give us pointers. Next time.

26 May 2004 (Wednesday)

Paper roses with the symbol for temple in red. 5/26/04

Craig and I went to Beomeosa today to see the temple all decked out with lanterns for Buddha's Birthday. I've been to Beomeosa three times now and each time has been very different from the last. This time what was most noticeably different was the amount of people there--it was crowded! Some of the ceremonial-type things we saw were people pouring water over Buddha's head (with tons of beautiful flowers all around) and a choir.

I will have to research it more, but I think you must buy the lanterns and maybe put a prayer on the note attached to the lanterns. We saw a pile of lanterns that were waiting to be claimed and hung from the strings around the temple grounds. In the crowd, I noticed the large pile of shoes at the entry to the worship rooms but then I saw a pair of lonely shoes where someone must have wanted to worship in peace in a smaller room!

As we left the temple we saw a monk loading up the vending machine for all of the thirsty worshippers. We saw this giant pile of Garlic just before we got to the rice cake maker that was shooting rice cakes out of it at a pretty steady pace.

24 May 2004 (Monday)

I completed the Self Challenge! I've started the Challenge several times now (first time was in 2000 when we were in Boston) so I'm so happy to have finished it (of course I'm happy to report that I lost 6 pounds in the process of finishing as well)! Now I've just got to keep motivated to keep hitting the gym and hiking trails.

We had an easy day at TKD (we just practiced our poomses) and then our pottery class was cancelled because the instructor is ill. So I had the afternoon to try to finish the book for our book club meeting (we read The Other Boleyn Girl). Erica and I sat out by the pool and read for a while, but I still had 60 pages left of the book... I went to the meeting and we had a good discussion and I do plan to finish the book this weekend. We won't have another meeting until September (too many people are traveling this summer) when we'll discuss Pavillion of Women by Pearl S. Buck.

23 May 2004 (Sunday)

Cell phone charms on display in Daegu. 5/23/04 (photo by Craig)

Craig and I went to Daegu this weekend to go to Costco. We went up Saturday and came back Sunday so we wouldn't have to do the six-hour round-trip drive in one day. We saw the 10:30 PM showing of Kill Bill Vol. 2 at the Lotte Saturday night. We stayed in an inexpensive ($35) run-down hotel near the Lotte which was actually fine since we didn't spend much time there anyway!

We went to Carrefour and Costco and spent a ton of money on a bunch of random items (mostly food) but it was all worth the trip. Now we have bagels for several weeks and I got a CD player/tape recorder so I can make tapes to listen to in my car (yay!).

19 May 2004 (Wednesday)

I skipped TKD today (it was painful to miss a class!!) to take photos of the kids at Playschool. There were about twenty 2-4 year olds and it was a wild and crazy time! I'll post a link to some of the photos when I've finished editing them.

Craig and I went to Delhi for dinner and Davinci for iced cappuccinos before Korean classs. In tonight's class I learned: "Ohnuh nahrah sahrahm immika?" (What country are you from?) and "Migook saram immida." (I'm American.)

17 May 2004 (Monday)

Jaynie, Minsue, & I got to work on poomse number 7 (tchil) a lot more today which was good--our test is at the end of next week and I don't feel as prepared for this one as I have for past tests... I need to practice more at home this week and next.

I made a bowl to go with the platter I made last week in pottery--the instructor asked us what colors we wanted for the glaze on our pieces, so we're going to get a bunch of finished pieces next week! If my platter with the cherry blossom design turns out, I want to make some dessert plates to go with it. I'll be sure to bring my camera next week to get a photo of all of our fabulous work.

Craig had to work late tonight, so I went to Korean class by myself. Fortunately for him, most of what we went over tonight was review from the previous weeks. My phrase for today is: "kohpee han jan juseyo" ("Please give me a cup of coffee").

16 May 2004 (Sunday)

We watched Harley this weekend and in exchange, Erica & Joel brought us bagels and Listerine from the Army base in Seoul! That's a pretty good deal, if you ask me--especially since Harley was such good company when Craig had to work late on Friday and most of Saturday.

I made my first attempt at Korean pancakes tonight... they were a little thick, but still tasty. I think I need to go to Chicken on the Mountain again (I'll take any excuse!) to study their pancakes so I can get make ours better next time.

13 May 2004 (Thursday)

On Saturday after our hike, Jaynie, Julie, & I stopped in to see the "furniture man" who was in town for the day. I ended up buying a chest designed for CD storage (although it is being used as a printer stand in my office now and I think it will possibly go in the breakfast room when we get back to TX) on a whim. Since Craig was working on Saturday he wasn't consulted nor could he stop me! Of course it wasn't until I got home that I saw the "Made in China" sticker on top of it. Not that I was told it was made in Korea or anything... maybe next time I'll get something Korean.

12 May 2004 (Wednesday)

Tonight in Korean class we learned "Nice to meet you"/"Good to see you" ("pahn kahp sum mida") and went back over some of the things we learned in the last class. Still haven't made those flashcards...

10 May 2004 (Monday)

Lunch with TKD. 5/10/04

I went out for lunch with TKD today--we had pork at a place in town that I had not been to before and it was really good (more fatty than I would like, but good anyway). After lunch, I went to pottery with Erica & Vanessa where we worked on our platters. I'm really hoping that mine looks like cherry blossoms after I sand off the paint and it is fired later this month!

Tonight in Korean class we learned to ask "Where does it hurt?"/"Are you hurt?" ("a dee ah pah yo?") and respond with various body parts like "My ear hurts." ("Kwee ah pah yo.") I fully intend at some point to make some flash cards so I can learn the vocabulary, but it just hasn't happened yet... [As always: pronunciation guide is my own which may or may not correspond with the "official" way to pronounce it.]

7 May 2004 (Saturday)

This afternoon I went over to the ABS Barbecue and had a good time while I waited for Craig to get home from work!

5 May 2004 (Wednesday)

Jaynie & Erica at Cinco de Mayo. 5/5/04

We had a Cinco de Mayo party at Hansol Villa today--Craig had to work today but was able to come enjoy some delicious Mexican food before heading back for the afternoon. (Thanks to Julie & Nancy for organizing the party!) If you choose to look through these pictures (warning, there are a lot--especially of the kids with the pinatas), you'll notice I had an obsession with a pug named Salty yesterday... All I can say to defend myself is that he's really cute (and I think Tillie would approve)!

3 May 2004 (Monday)

Some of our finished pottery! 5/3/04

Minsue, Jaynie, & I got our red belts today! It's pretty exciting now that we just have one more red belt test between us and the black belt test!

It was another rainy day today... perfect for pottery even if I do feel extra sleepy when the sun doesn't come out. We each got a couple of our finished pieces at pottery today which was exciting. The pottery instructor accidentally dipped one of Hanne's pieces in the wrong color glaze though so she didn't take it home--after all of her hard work! A casualty of the language barrier, I guess.

In Korean class tonight we learned a couple of good phrases like "Did you have a good weekend?" ("Ju mal jal bo net seo yo?") and "Yes, I had a nice weekend." ("Ne, jal bo net seo yo.") [Pronunciation guide is my own which may or may not correspond with the "official" way to pronounce it.]

1 May 2004 (Saturday)

Jaynie, Julie, and I hiked up behind the Admiral this morning--we were a minute faster than last week.

Craig & I went to Hanne's birthday party tonight and stayed out too late with Erica (we had a great time, but I think I'm going to have start imposing a curfew for myself!). We made sure to end up at Mama's so we could buy a rock--we wrote "Erica & Becky Rock Craig's World! 3:15."