Joy to the Fishes in the Deep Blue Sea

Habakkuk 3:16 When I heard, my belly trembled;

I had a bright idea tonight. I figured Annie, Karen and myself could talk our English over dinner at a local restaurant. Since I have only been to a few of them, Annie picked one out and then ordered for us. I figured I was safe, because Korean restaurants always serve a lot of side dishes..........seems this was a Japanese style restaurant.

If you know me, then you know I am not a fish fan. I can eat Captain D's but if there is another choice, Betty Lynn is not opting for food with fins. Well, tonight was fish night, and there ain't no Captain D's in Korea. Our first course was a big pot brought to the table on a gas burner. It had odeng in the broth with noodles, tofu and several other unidentifiable items.

Sidebar: Odeng is a shish-ke-bab of chopped up fish and flour that has been formed into ribbons suitable for the skewer. (One friend told me that odeng is fish like a hot dog is pork.) While I forgot my camera tonight, I found this picture for your viewing pleasure:

Odeng is one Korean food that I had already determined in my heart that I would not try and tonight it was the main course. I ate a whole one, but I did not do a lot of chewing.

After we finished the pot of soup out came the next round......Sushi. I was expecting tiny slivers of raw fish inside a roll of rice - NOT. These slabs of meat were nearly as long as my finger, almost twice as wide and laying on a roll of sticky rice. Here is a picture of the octopus sushi I found on the internet, and it looks just like what was on my plate:

Since knives are not standard Korean tableware, I had to ask how to eat them. Seems you are supposed to stuff the whole thing in your mouth. I was trying to just politely taste a small piece and without a knife I had the bright idea to bite mine in half. Raw fish does not give, so I ended up with a little rice and ALL the fish - half of which was dangling outside my clenched teeth. "Whole thing!" they both tell me. So there was nothing to do but eat it. Not a lot of chewing this round either. I ate salmon, flounder and octopus sushi but passed on the shrimp (thank heavens for food allergies) and let Annie eat the only serving of eel.

Tonight, I am thankful for chopsticks. While we talked, I was able to pick up tiny bits of food from the soup with the chopsticks and kill time between my acts of bravery. While none of it was really horrible, it is not anything that I will run out and order again. Mirim told me that you have to try something three times before you know whether or not you can like it. I guess I will never know.

Thanksgiving In Korea

Here we are at the Dining Facility for our Thanksgiving Dinner. Erin's new friend Soon-Hwa joined us for her first Thanksgiving meal. 1-19 Thanksgiving meals tasted better, but this one was fun. (I will just have to remember to not leave all the cooking to the mess hall when Christmas rolls around.)

I forgot to post that CBN came to the chapel last week. In fact I had forgotten all about it until Bonita emailed me and said she had seen the chaplain on the 700 Club. Since the 700 Club is in the same time slot as The Andy Griffith Show, it was a miracle that she had even seen the report. (I have lived with her, and everything stops for Sheriff Taylor and Barney!) She sent me this link to the clip (thanks Bonita!):

<http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/61353.aspx>

Happy Thanksgiving to all y'all way over there

From all us way over here!

Chusu Kamsa-jeol Chukha hamnida!

Which would translate as Happy Holiday of Thanks for the Harvest!

...Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God. II Corinthians 9:11

It is already a bright and early Thanksgiving here. There are a few food baskets to distribute and then it is dinner at the DFAC, formerly known as the mess hall - somewhere along the line, they quit calling them mess halls and started calling them Dining Facilities. It is pronounced dee-fac, because where would the Army be without acronyms? Anyway, a big meal at DFAC and the rest of the afternoon is open for whatever may present itself...except for Meghan's afternoon. The scholarly among us has two classes today, so she will spend 3-9 listening to lectures and other such classroom pursuits of knowledge.

Yesterday was the annual Turkey Bowl. The teams were Captains vs. the Lieutenants, but the Captains (thanks to a chaplain that did not want to lose) recruited a few FSGs, a CSM and an LTC. To avoid any rank conflicts, the referee just named the teams The Old Men and The Young Boys. Here are the Old Men:

And here is how the game deteriorates when Old Men play with Young Boys: (so much for FLAG Football)


Well, the most important thing is the Old Men won the game. The Young Boys can find some satisfaction in the fact that after the game is forgotten next week, some of the Old Men will still be feeling it.

Happy Thanksgivingness from us here in Korea!!
Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.

Happy Birthday to Me.....

...Early!

I have been doing quite a bit of souvenir shopping for folks back in the States, especially since Christmas is almost upon us. The other day, we went shopping for a Snelling Family Souvenir and found one we liked. It looks like Snelling souvenir purchases will have a dual designation as a "gift." I have my eye on a couple of more Korean Keepsakes.......I just hope there are enough gift giving occasions to get them all!


This is a detail of the artwork on the front:

A wandering we will go.......

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Erin and I decided to go somewhere. We were not sure where we were going, and we even considered traveling down to Osan.

I had it sorta figured out on the map and although I wasn't real sure of on how we would get there. It could not hurt to try. Besides, it is a smallish country - how lost could we get?? I did have the forethought to pack our toothbrushes in my backpack.......just in case we did not make it home. Well, we missed the train and just ended up in Seoul. It allowed us to finish up our Christmas shopping and even get my bearings on Osan. I think Meghan and I will head down there on Saturday.
While we were out and about, Erin was "interviewed" twice and I was "interviewed" once by different Seoul University students. It was probably a class project of some type or a ploy to practice English. The pictures are of us and our interviewers.

I purchased some original paintings, and this is the artist that did the painting. I have my eye on one of his larger pictures as one of my Korean momentos.
Erin and I spent about 10 hours snacking our way through the one teensy area of Seoul. We found a few yummy and a few not quite yummy items. I was surprised that she was so willing to try different things. She is still in search of the perfect hot dog. I am not so sure this is where she will find it.

Erin found this sculpture on the sidewalk outside Namyang Station. At this point, we were temporarily disoriented. We found ourselves, and them made our way to Yongsan Army Base for a late but substantial supper.




Here we are on the way home - we opted for the easy way home and took the military bus from Yongsan. This is the ride back on the bus after a long, cold and windy day. I was just as tired as I look - and that is pretty tired. The colorful curtains and seatcushions make the bus look like a circus, but the curtains are really nice when the sun is coming in.

Here is another tired tourist. Meghan was relieved to hear we were headed home and not stranded somewhere out there.




After a couple of days of rest, I will be ready to conquer Osan.

Seeing Is NOT Believing

I wandered into Seoul again, and will probably make this a regular event. There is alot to see, and the public transportation cannot be beat. I have traded in my beloved mini van for a subway car.

As I was strolling through the subway tunnels trying to make my way to the next adventure, I was waylaid by a food vendor. Here is the picture of her automatic treat maker:

The first nozzle is the batter and then the second nozzle is the filling. The cast iron molds are automatically pushed across the hot plate until they reach the other side baked to perfection.

Of course, I had to taste these little things.

Now look closely at this treat:



What exactly do you see? Click it for a larger view, just to be sure.

See that yellow glob of filling in the center of the purple CORN shaped cake? Care to take a guess at what taste sensation I received when I bit into one of these? (Thank goodness it was NOT fish!)

Corn maybe - nope? It was sweet potato. Even though the taste was waaaaaaaaay off in the expectation department, once my taste buds recovered they were still happy.

Well, the chaplain had to come out of the field for the Chapel Service on Sunday, so it was one night of shelter from the elements.

This morning at 0500 it was time to head back to the training and I got a picture of him all bright eyed and ready to face the chill. (I think he was still asleep, because he did not even try to get away from the camera!) He did get sent off armed with brownies, muffins and cookies for the poor souls braving the weather. Nothing like chocolate chips to enhance a field service.

Embarking On A New Adventure

UPDATE: I made it there and back, with no problems. I am sure it had more to do with my command of the Korean language and sense of direction than it had to do with Miri's d-e-t-a-i-l-e-d instructions and worrying. Photos will be forthcoming, as soon as I get the ones from Miri's camera.

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I am off to Miri's for an overnight adventure. If I am never heard from again, it means I am standing at a bus stop somewhere in Seoul trying to figure out which bus to board.......

If you have to send out a search party, you will need identifying features. I am the ONLY person in Korea with big hair!!

Something Fishy......

I have seen these things for sale at various sidewalk vendors:

These are pretty ones - some have obvious dark and chunky bits peeking through the bread scales. Now if you see several of these stacked up, what is your initial thinking?

duh! FISH!

Since I am not fond of fish or anything fishy tasting (like seaweed) then I have never braved these fried morsels. Besides, in this neck of the woods, fish means a W-I-D-E variety of species (and their parts) prepared an even W-I-D-E-R variety of ways. ick!

Well, thanks to Meghan and her students I have been enlightened and I have now eaten one. The dark chunky bits are just mashed red beans, and these things are rather tasty. Whew!

Freshman

Here is Meghan at the bus stop on her first day of college.
Look out Biology 101, here she comes!

Of course, that means a couple of parents have entered the world of tuition. The college messed up and ran her tuition through the credit card THREE times. :O After an initial credit limit heart attack we got that little matter straightened out - actually the college had already began fixing it when I stumbled back to their financial office.

Do not think we are keeping this bliss to ourselves. No way! We are sharing the joy. Meghan gets to pay for all her textbooks, so she had the opportunity for a bit of exhaltation herself! (snicker)

That is not her books she is carrying, but her new "swiftboard" and helmet.

It has alot of different names, but it is basically a jointed skateboard with only two wheels. The wheels are like casters, so they spin around a full 360 degrees. Because it is jointed in the middle of the board, you can propel yourself without ever touching the ground - just twist your feet in opposite directions.

It's Snowing!!

Not hardly a winter wonderland, but that is a picture of night time snow from our balcony. The weekend was beautiful and today it is wickedly windy and cold. I had heard it got cold in these parts, but I have never been anywhere that got really COLD cold. Although ignorance is bliss, I did a little weather research on the internet and it seems our winter winds come straight out of Siberia. I am bracing myself for a rude awakening.

UPDATE: At midnight, our doorbell rings. Annie (one of my Korean friends) is standing on my doorstep with a pile of clothes. She has brought me 2 heavy coats, 2 scarves, 2 insulated vests and four sweaters. She told me that she got to thinking that I might not be ready for the cold that was coming......now isn't God good!

Erin's Adventure

Erin has recovered from the Dodo Bird Flu. She had the opportunity to go four wheeling this weekend, (which may explain the miraculous recovery) and had a great time. I am posting some of her pictures for you to see and enjoy. The group went to an ATV course located somewhere north of here on the Korean Training Center (KTC). They had an ATV competition and then free time to explore the countryside. There was some great scenery of the river and the mountains changing colors, and I was a bit envious of her adventure. Maybe next time....

Here are her pictures.