Happiness

It's been a very long and busy week, even though it's only Thursday. It feels like it should be Friday or Saturday but, then again, my body's internal clock is seriously screwed up right now. I go to bed late (2 or 3 am, last night it was 4) and wake up later and later (11, noon, etc). I blame David and his ridiculous work schedule but really, it's my own night owlish tendencies. I've always been more productive at night and love the quiet stillness of the early morning hours. Anyway, I'm trying to get back on a more regular schedule, but it's been difficult. Especially since my body can't seem to get enough sleep these days.

We've been in Korea for 6 weeks now. I'm almost getting to the point where I feel comfortable in my surroundings though I haven't done as much exploring as I would have liked. It was at this point after moving to Hawaii that I began to feel very, very discouraged and depressed. There were no job opportunities, I was bored, and had little to fill my time with. But surprisingly, I do not feel that way here at all. I've been quite content to just stay at home to clean and organize or run to errands, and I have yet to feel guilty for not having a job. I'd like to have a job because I always function better when I have a more consistent schedule, but I don't feel as useless here as I did in Hawaii. I know part of it is a change in my attitude, but a big part of it is feeling like I have a support network here, which I lacked in Hawaii.

See, when you are stationed overseas, the world becomes a lot smaller. By that I mean, the number of places where you can meet and form acquaintances becomes smaller for any number of reasons: language barriers, culture differences, etc. I love to learn about Korean culture in my daily interactions with Koreans, but ultimately, nothing beats being with fellow Americans who share the same language, cultural understandings, humor, and food. (Though I enjoy Korean food, I need more variety in my diet.) As such, David and I already have a strong network of friends both from church and David's work. We've had more social engagements in the last 6 weeks here than our first 6 months in Hawaii. The ward has been extremely welcoming and friendly and we already feel like we belong. Plus, the wives often get together for girl time at least once a month (Pedicures and lunch....we've done it twice already. My feet are very appreciative.) I never realized how much I missed having girl time since getting married. I love being with David and spending lots of time with him. We talk about everything but there's just something different about getting to be around other women.

In my other time, I read and watch movies (thankfully the base has a pretty decent library) and spend time baking and cooking. David and I are trying to change our eating habits by eating more fruits and vegetables and I've enjoyed finding and trying out new, healthier recipes. I don't know how much longer this arrangement will keep me content, but for now, I'm quite happy to just be a housewife. (Although, for some reason, I was quite offended that the Korean official listed me as a "home maker" on my visa application.) I'm often surprised to realize how happy I am here (though I wish it weren't so blasted hot and humid) and I figure I should just enjoy it while it lasts.

Lofthouse Cookie Attempt #1

There is nothing I love better in the world of store-bought baked goods than a Lofthouse sugar cookie. They are my addiction and my crack and I have inhaled more boxes of these delectable treats than I care to admit. Little did I know that Lofthouse is a Utah company, based out of Ogden so they predominate on the West Coast, but I was often able to find them in Virginia and occasionally, in Hawaii (especially around holidays). Before we left Georgia, I insisted on buying two boxes of Lofthouse cookies (one I ate there and one I polished off in our first week in Korea) because I feared that I wouldn't see them again for another two years.

However I did see them at the Commissary over the Fourth of the July weekend. They were very patriotic. I rejoiced in seeing them and exercised extreme willpower and did not purchase them. I have come to regret that decision since I have yet to see them there again. They are probably only brought in during certain holidays and so I will have to bide my time until the next cookie worthy holiday arrives......which means I've got a long wait until Halloween.

So I began searching for a Lofthouse cookie recipe. And I found many a recipe claiming to recreate the splendor of the cookie; one even claimed to be the original recipe. I've decided to work my way through the collection of supposed Lofthouse cookie recipes I've amassed to see if I can come close to its cookie awesomeness.

Here's the recipe I chose to make today:

Ingredients:
1 (18.9 oz Pkg.) Pillsbury French Vanilla cake mix
1/3 C vegetable oil (Crisco)
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 375F. Blend, cake mix, eggs, and oil until moistened. Roll into 1" balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten with a glass or cookie stamp. Bake at 375F for 6-8 minutes. Allow to cool 1 minute before removing to cooling rack. While the cookies are still a little warm, spread on some buttercream frosting. Allow the frosting to set up before storing.

Buttercream Frosting
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
6-8 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Place butter in a large bowl. Add 4 cups sugar and then milk and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy, approx 3-5 minutes. Gradually add remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time beating well after each time, about 2 minutes, until the icing is thick enough to spread. Add food coloring if you'd like.

I liked the idea of this recipe for several reasons: it had a simple ingredients list, relatively clear directions (some have no directions), and derived from a cake mix. I like the cost effectiveness of using cake mixes. Plus the Lofthouse cookie is a cakey sort of cookie and I thought using a cake mix might be a good step towards recreating that soft flakey cake-cookie hybrid.

I made the dough according to the instructions but added some sour cream (for moistness) and more flour. It was too wet a dough to begin with and so I added maybe 1/2 - 1 cup extra flour but I don't think it was near enough.

I shaped bits of the dough into balls and rolled them in extra flour. Otherwise they were slightly too sticky to work with.

I then used the bottom of my measuring cup to smash them into circles. I popped them in the oven for about 8 minutes.

And here they are fresh out of the oven. I think, in addition to more flour, I should have also cooked them for a little longer but I was afraid of over cooking them since Lofthouse cookies are never golden brown, but rather delicately white.

In the meantime, I whipped up the buttercream frosting. Now, you must understand that frosting is my Achilles Heel when it comes to baking. Aside from my brown butter maple frosting, I have yet to find a frosting recipe that I like and I can never seem to get it to the right consistency. I was wary about this frosting and thought about cutting it in half but I decided to be brave and go for the whole thing. I should have cut it in half. It was no where near thick enough for a Lofthouse cookie and did not have the right taste, texture or flavor. And, of course, I had a TON left over. It's a good thing I was planning on making cupcakes later this week or else I'd be rather perturbed by how much extra frosting this recipe produced.


And here's the finished final product. I thought they looked tasty despite the inadequate frosting and after waiting for them to finish cooling down, I tried one.

I was not impressed.

Oh, don't get me wrong. They're are perfectly acceptable sugar cookies. In fact, they are moist, soft and chewy. But they in no way resemble a Lofthouse cookie. The cookie itself was not cakey (needs more flour) and the frosting was not thick enough (less milk, more butter). So this recipe will get written down as a fail. I'll just have to keep trying. And now I need to find someone to eat these cookies. I can't even look at them without being utterly disappointed. Plus, I really went crazy with the frosting. Hee.

Goop-da!

The Korean word of the day is 굽다 (goop-da) which means to bake! I'm actually surprised that the word exists in the Korean language since Koreans (or most Asians, for that matter) do not bake. Most homes do not have ovens or if they do, they are very, very tiny.

This, for example, is my oven. It's located in the utility room next to a sink, the washer and dryer. It's obviously an afterthought added by the landlords for their predominantly American tenants. (For which I heartily thank them.) The top portion is a broiler rack and the bottom is the regular oven. I'm still learning how to manipulate the gas oven because it's difficult to get a set temperature that stays there for any length of time. Plus, I'm doing it in Celsius. Luckily, the previous tenants printed up a big list of conversion from Celsius to Fahrenheit and I bought an oven thermometer which dangles from the rack so that I can get an accurate reading of the real temperature. It's always an adventure cooking in this oven but I'm sure I'll eventually get the hang of it.

Aside from my tiny oven stuck in the laundry room, the rest of the kitchen is spacious, with lots of storage space and countertop room, which is a marked difference from the shoebox kitchen we had in Hawaii. I'm most excited about what I've dubbed my "baking corner."

Here you can see my Kitchenaid and all the workspace underneath my cupboard full of my baking supplies. Conveniently, this is the space closet to the oven as well. I stocked up on cake mixes and brownie mixes. I like to make certain things from scratch but cake mixes often come in handy as a quick base for a lot of different items. And I find it to be more cost effective.

I have my containers of flour, sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, toffee bits (love toffee bits!) and chocolate chips. (I prefer to use real chocolate instead of chips, but I can't find good baking chocolate here, so I'm reduced to using chips again. Oh well.)

And of course I have my baking agents (salt, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa) and a bin full of sprinkles, flavorings (vanilla, rum, maple, lemon extract, etc.) and food coloring. Everything I need to bake within an arm's reach.

Underneath it all is my cabinet full of my essential baking items including Pyrex glass dishes, cookie sheets, muffin pans, wire racks, pizza stone, bowls, cookie cutters (located inside the cake container), round cake pans, pie pans, springform pans, measuring cups, pastry cutter, flour sifter, rolling pins and my ice cream maker.

I'm so excited to do more baking in my new baking corner. I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Martha Stewart cupcake book that I just ordered which, I have on good authority, is pretty awesome. Hopefully soon, I'll be able to share some more recipes and baking successes with you.

I Think I'm Paranoid

Awhile back, I added Google Analytics to my blog. I thought it'd be fun to see how many people actually visit my blog, how long they spend here, and where they come from. In some ways it's really fascinating. In the last month, I've had visitors from all over the United States, Japan and Brazil. (Who the heck do I know in Brazil? Or Japan, for that matter?) The average time spent here is 34 seconds. (Uh....thanks?) And thirty-seven "unique" people have visited my blog. I didn't think I knew that many people. Or rather that that many people knew I had a blog.

Despite these fascinating statistics (the only form of math at which I did not suck at), I don't really like Google Analytics. And I'll tell you why.

It's because I hate the thought that other people have Google Analytics on their site. If my friends check it, then they will know that I have no life and check their blogs at least 2-3 times a day. (Please post more, friends!) But I've also gotten into the habit of reading the blogs of friends of friends. The blogs of complete strangers are either extremely interesting and extremely boring, the latter being the more prevalent form. (Please stop thinking that my blog is boring too.) But if these random strangers check their analytics pages, they too will notice a mysterious visitor from South Korea. And suddenly, I'm no longer an anonymous visitor. People will know. The most annoying thing is those blogs that actually have a counter of where their visitors are coming from. "Visitor arriving from Seoul" with a little Korean flag next to it. Could I be more inconspicuous?

Sheesh.

It's okay. You can think I'm weird and paranoid. Afterall, it's nearly 2am here in Korea and I may have inhaled too many fumes from all the cleaning solutions I've been using. I just hate feeling like I'm being watched....

And so, because I hate that people know that I read their blogs, I will no longer check my Google Analytics. So, you may all rest assured that as far as my blog goes, you are all anonymous here and welcome to remain so.

Just thought you should know.

Friday, the Follow-Up

Friday evening, we met up with some friends from our ward, the only other couple who don't have children. We went to a very traditional Korean restaurant near their home. It was the first time I've had to take off my shoes when entering a restaurant and to sit on the floor (though there were chairs without legs to sit on). All and all it was an interesting experience but not one that my poor cramped legs want to participate in again anytime soon. It looks fun, but it is very difficult to stand up when you've been sitting like that for a long period of time. The food, however, was very good. We tried two different dishes which were prepared right at our table. Again, I wish I had brought my camera with me to document the sheer number of plates and bowls that crowded our table and represent a typical Korean meal. One thing that I love about Korean meals is that if you order bulgogi for instance, you receive not only your main dish (and generally rice) but vegetables, kimchi, and other odd specialities of the house. It's always an adventure and you will also get something new everytime. And even though you receive all this food, it never weighs you down and over-stuffs you like American food does. I've already lost a few pounds from eating Korean food and walking everywhere, but now that I have my kitchen supplies, that may rapidly change. (I already baked some chocolate chip cookies. And ate WAY too many of them.)

So, we ate this elaborate meal, which was topped off by watermelon (which is insanely expensive here but very delightful) and then went to the IPark mall to see Harry Potter. We walked to the mall, about a 20 minute walk from our friends' place, and it took us some time to figure out how to even get to the theater since the mall was closing down and certain access points were closed. I keep hearing how shopping in Korea is really amazing and if the size of this mall was any indication, then Koreans certainly do like to shop. (Although I have yet to see a single shoe large enough to fit my feet.)

In Korean theaters, you have assigned seating, which means that when you purchase your ticket, you also select where you'd like to sit. In some ways this is nice--you are guaranteed a good seat and you can see online how many seats are available at each given showing of a movie. The unnice thing about this arrangement is that as foreigners, we cannot purchase our tickets online. In order to do pretty much anything in Korea you need to have their version of a social security number and since we are not Korean nationals, we can't register for simple services like buying theater tickets online. Because we wanted to have good seats, we had to go to the theater and then wait for an extra hour until the 11:30pm showing. Had the mall been open, that would have been a fun diversion, but instead we found a small mini-mart where we bought ice cream and sat and talked until we could take our seats.

The theater itself wasn't anything spectacular and the screen almost seemed too small for the size of the room. They played about 20 minutes of commercials (all in Korean) and no previews and then the movie started. It was in English, with Korean subtitles. My favorite thing about the whole endeavor was that while David and I were laughing quite uproariously at certain parts of the movie, the Koreans just didn't get it. It was dead silent except for us, and the other few English-speakers in the crowd. David did say that the subtitles didn't often do the dialogue justice, but I still found it funny that the Koreans around us just didn't get how humorous parts of the movie were.

As for the movie itself: I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed. Perhaps the extra wait time and suspension had led me to have undue expectations for the movie, but it was not up to the standards of the last movie, which was my favorite. However, the brunt of my disappointment came from the script and the absence of what I felt were integral plot points. I thought the acting was very good (the three leads continue to get better and better; I think that Emma Watson is the best of the bunch), the direction was affecting (I love David Yates work on the movies), and certain moments were absolutely delightful and heart-felt.

My main quibbles were the handling of Ginny and Harry's budding romance, the explanation of the Horcuxes, and the addition of a scene at the Burrow that was not in the book, which bothered me even more greatly due to the fact that they entirely cut out the battle at Hogwarts at the end of the book. However, I still plan on seeing the movie again when it comes to the base movie theaters this weekend. I hope a second viewing will change my opinion. I still enjoyed the movie, but obviously, I'm a bit of a Harry Potter nerd.

재미!!!

The Korean word of the day is 재미 pronounced jeh-mi. Jehmi means FUN!

Yesterday (Friday) was an insanely long but fun day. We woke up on the earlier side of the morning (not a regular habit with us these days due to David's fluctuating work schedule) and hopped on the subway to visit the Seoul Immigration Office near Anguk station. Since the military and weather had joined forces to make getting my visa as difficult as possible, we decided to head straight to the immigration office where it took a grand total of 10 minutes to get my visa. So now I'm an official, legal resident of Korea. Hooray!

Since Changdeokgung, a palace built in 1405 during the Joseon Dynasty was nearby, we decided to enrich ourselves culturally and visit the large palace complex. We waited until 11:30 for the English tour but it might as well have been in Korean because I could only understand about 1 in 3 words that our Korean tour guide said in "English." David actually understood the guides better in Korean than in English. Oh well. At least we got a brochure in English that explained everything. And I've only found a few grammatical errors so far.

Here's the main gate of Changeokgung where we began our tour. Various parts of the palace complex were destroyed, rebuilt, and destroyed again by the Japanese and fire. It was fully restored in 1991. It's a much bigger complex than I thought it would be.

Here we are all walking along toward Injeongmun, the gate (on the left) that opens into the courtyard to Injeongjeon, the throne hall. As you can see, it was raining. Because no Korean day is complete without rain. Luckily for us, though, it drizzled through the majority of the tour and only started to really rain at our last stop.

Here's the throne hall. The guide said something about why they used particular colors on all the buildings and what they mean but I stopped trying to understand her at about this point in the tour.

And here's the interior of the throne room where coronations and state events were held. I especially liked the interesting light fixtures and the interesting blend of Western and Eastern aesthetics.

I don't remember what part of palace this was, but this is a picture of the ondolbong furnaces underneath the floor of one of the rooms. On means warm, dol means rock and bong means room. Basically it means that the floors were heated. Most Korean homes--including ours--still has heated floors. Except we don't have to light a furnace to heat ours. Thank goodness.

And here's David by the king's bed chamber. Or maybe it was the queen's. I forget.

I really can't remember where I snapped this picture, but I loved the look of all the pillars. I just wish it hadn't been such an overcast day so that the colors would have really popped.

The final stop of our tour (right before the rains started pouring down) was the "Secret Garden" where no one could enter unless the king gave his permission. It really wasn't much of a garden in the western sense but it did have a pretty lily pond and terraced walls.

After our tour was over, we found a Korean restaurant near the subway where we stopped to eat. It was a beautifully crafted place, full of wood detailing and open beams. I love that rustic, hand-carved look. I took a few photos of the meal, but I really wish I had taken more so that I could show you how elaborate Korean meals are. Perhaps another post. Suffice it to say, there are only so many choices at a Korean restaurant and unless I'm feeling adventurous, I generally order bulgogi. However, David greatly complimented me by saying that he's been very surprised by how well I've adapted to Korean food since he didn't expect me to like any of it. Sure, some of it is weird, and I don't like how hot and spicy a lot of it is (I'm still not convinced that kimchi is all that great), but some of it is pretty dang tasty and I'm trying to be as open as possible. If I eat enough of it, I'm sure I'll grow to like it.

After lunch, we made our way home. I attempted to put a few more things away (our house is still a disaster. I have no idea where most of our stuff is going to go) and then we called our friends to see if they wanted to brave the Korean cinema and see the new Harry Potter movie with us. But I'll talk about that fun adventure (and my disappointment with the movie) in the next post. Right now, I need to clean my kitchen!

Jangma!

You know what's fun now? Everytime I come to blogger to log-in, everything is in Korean. It's a good thing I know just what to click to get where I need to go, otherwise I'd never be able to update this blog. And for some reason, even though my computer is set to Korea's time zone and my profile has been updated, I have to post my blog entries on American time because it doesn't recognize the fact that I'm a day ahead of everyone else. So if it looks like I posted this entry on Monday, it was, in fact, actually Tuesday. For the record. (And because it bugs me.)

July is monsoon season here in Asia. In Korea, it's called jangma. What it really means is that it rains. A lot. And it's not just a steady drizzle or even moderate rain. It's gushing buckets to blustery rain that comes at you from all sides and soaks you to the bone. The fortunate thing is that it's not a constant rain....it will let up for some time (maybe 20-30 minutes) before pounding down again and it often stops at night. It rained like this on Sunday, was clear yesterday, and today it poured. Luckily for me, I can often avoid the rains altogether by staying indoors, but today I had to go to base.

Every month, an official from Korean immigration comes to the base here to issue visas to military/DOD dependents. You have 90 days to get it your visa. I made my appointment as soon as I arrived in Korea, but it wasn't until today. Yesterday, I went to a pre-screening, where they check all my documentation to make sure it's all in order and of course (because this is the military) there was one little thing missing from one piece of paper, so I had to wake David up (he was sleeping because it had to work the night watch that night) so that he could put on his uniform, come to base, to have his command fix this one problem. Annoying!

So I had to go back to base this morning to pick up this aforementioned piece of paper and got gloriously soaked in the process. In this kind of rain, an umbrella is really only a showpiece. It really doesn't prevent the rain from coming at you from all sides. I got some lunch and met up with a friend to lament our employment woes (as in, there are very few jobs here) and then headed to the building to get my visa. But of course, because nothing is easy around here, trees had knocked out the power and an entire section of base had lost electricity and I could not get my visa. But hopefully--if it doesn't rain later this week--I'll go to the immigration office in Seoul and get my visa issues worked out without having to wait another month. I hate not having a visa, just in case something were to happen.

However, the day was not a total bust. I managed to take a taxi back to our apartment by myself having finally successfully learned how to say "hello", "thank you", "left", "right" and "I don't speak Korean" in Korean. And yes, it did take me 3 weeks to learn just that. Korean is hard ya'll and my tongue does not want to make some of the sounds that it's supposed to make. The other fantastic news is that our household goods have arrived in Korea (I hope it's all here! and in one piece!) and will be delivered on Thursday. I'm so excited to be reunited with my things. At least it will give me something to do for the next little while. And take my mind off the painful process of job hunting. I think I'd rather get another root canal than write another cover letter.

Genesis of a Name

When I first created this blog, I gave it some pithy name like "The Adventures of David and Liz" or "Musings from a Tropical Island" or something equally uninventive and unoriginal. And that was fine. This blog is written solely for my own enjoyment and for the enjoyment of my friends and family so it didn't really need a catchy, memorable name. But then I decided to re-vamp my blog about a year ago and I chose a new layout that allowed me to use a photo at the top of my page. Instead of using some cheesey photo of David and I, I picked the one you still see up top. It's a shot I took at Fredericksburg when my parents and I were visiting the Civil War battlefields of Virginia. I loved the look of the dirt road, the weather-beaten fence, and the wildness of the green grass and stormy sky. When I think of the journey of life, I often envision an unpaved road and so it seemed appropriate to use such an image for a blog of my day-to-day life.

The image, in turn, brought to mind a line from a poem by William Butler Yeats which perfectly described the picture I had chosen. Lest you think I am a great reader of poetry, the truth is that I pulled the line from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, which starts each chapter with a poem or song lyric. The only poet I read with any real passion is Emily Dickinson, although I do love certain poems. I've just always preferred prose to poetry. I did track down the source of this line that I love so well and here it is:

The Rose of the World

WHO dreamed that beauty passes like a dream?
For those red lips, with all their mournful pride,
Mournful that no new wonder may betide,
Troy passed away in one high funeral gleam,
And Usna's children died.

We and the labouring world are passing by:
Amid men's souls, that waver and give place
Like the pale waters in their wintry race,
Under the passing stars, foam of the sky,
Lives on this lonely face.

Bow down, archangels, in your dim abode:
Before you were, or any hearts to beat,
Weary and kind one lingered by His seat;
He made the world to be a grassy road
Before her wandering feet.

In any case, before I knew what I was doing, I inserted the quote into my blog and re-titled it "wandering feet," thinking that I could change the name at any time. But I've grown rather fond of the quote and the name and so I think it will stay. I do, after all, have quite the wandering feet.

Since graduating high school in 2001 (can you believe it's been 8 years?), I've lived in four different states and two different countries. I always knew I would never be one of those people who stayed in the town they grew up in. But I certainly never expected to live in Monterey, Hawaii, or South Korea. I dreamt of living in Rome and Washington, D.C. and I did. I've lived places I did not particularly like and I've lived places that thrilled me to no end. I've moved away from a place, glad to be moving on, only to realize later how much I had loved living there and wanted desperately to return. I've lived in exciting, fast-paced, crowded cities, and small, quiet communities and grown from each experience. I've lived close to family and friends and moved to places where I did not know another soul. It's amazing how you can live in a place for a year and never feel like it is truly home, and then move to a foreign country and feel like it's the place you truly belong.

Korea is like that for me. It's so new and so different and so 100% foreign to me and yet everyday here is a joy and everyday I grow to love it a little bit more. I knew when I married David that Asia was in my future (since he speaks Korea and Mandarin Chinese) and Korea feels like just the beginning of our Asian adventures. The frightening and exhilarating thing is that I have absolutely no idea where we'll go next, where we might end up. But I can't wait to experience it all. Isn't it amazing where life takes you sometimes?

A Mystery of Words

On Monday, David and I went to Namdaemun market, a large outdoor market near Seoul Station that literally sells everything. It takes up a whole city block and there are dozens of alleyways and streets devoted to the market. We wandered around, looking at all the weird and wonderful things we could buy. We spent a good deal of time in one shop that specialized in Korean ceramics, mostly vases and tea sets, which are generally a gorgeous greenish jade color and are exquisitely beautiful. We didn't buy anything, but I hope to return there soon and start purchasing some Asian artifacts. So beautiful.

However, my favorite thing I saw that day was this T-shirt. I'm always on the look-out for bad English (and boy, is there plenty around here) but you can generally get a sense of what they intended. This shirt, however, is completely beyond me. Does anyone have any clue?

For those who may not be able to see it all clearly, it reads: "Intensive Vintage. Shout at the world don't care what they 'cos your life is now, and Some people are much top smart Too many faces around they're talking They play their parts Oh, so well but what CHOICE set your spirit free infinite desier (sic) of perfect quality casual wear in pursuit of freedom and freshment (?) explorative and tractical (again ???)"

So delightful in all it's nonsensical-ness. And yes, I free perfectly at ease making up words like that even though that T-shirt just butchered the English language.

Yesterday, David had to work all day so I watched some movies and then hung out with my friend Jenn and her two kids. I would totally have forgotten that it was the 4th of July if the Korean soldier who checked my ID hadn't told me to enjoy the fireworks that night. David got home from work around 8pm and we rushed to the movie theater on base to catch one of their only screenings of Transformers. (Which is pretty good, even though I don't get most of it. David, however, LOVED it.) The base movie theatre has a weird schedule of movies. They have 3 screens and they tend to have either really new movies that are only shown one weekend of the month or older movies that came out awhile ago or just came out on DVD. This was the only weekend they were showing Transformers so I was really glad we were able to catch a showing. They're going to have the next Harry Potter movie in 3 weeks and I'm so excited. The best part about it is that all the movies are free if you have a military ID.

Week Two in Korea

Asia is really just something else. David assures me that I'm adjusting "surprisingly well" to Korea, but I'm just waiting for the real culture shock to hit me in a few weeks. For some strange reason, the thing that is hardest for me to comprehend about Asia is the homogeneous culture and genetics. It's not unusual for me to be in some crowded space (the subway, a street, the market) and be the only person without black hair and brown eyes and Asian features. On the one hand, I expected all the Koreans to look the same to me, and I'm surprised by how different and distinguishable everyone is, but on the other hand, there is no cultural diversity, no ethnic neighborhoods, no melting pot scenarios. The thing I love most about living outside of America is that you gain a greater appreciation for just how unique and special America truly is. There are so few countries that have the same kind of diversity that America embraces. And yes, sometimes I get annoyed by all the talk of ethnic pride and cultural diversity and minority rights (why can't we all just be Americans?) but to look around Korea and see how the culture, the traditions, and the people have changed so little over hundreds of years, makes me even more shocked that a country like America can exist and thrive. (Although, I am not quite happy about the current state of America but that's another topic for another day....)

Anyway, I hope to start blogging more in the future about all the crazy, strange, fascinating and absolutely bizarre things I encounter in Asia. In order to not make my head explode with all the different sights and sounds coming at me, I plan on picking one thing to focus my blog posts on, whether it be my favorite Korean foods, the toilets (believe me, I've got a post about toilets in the works), or Korean temples, landmarks, or museums. I also want to try to learn more about Korean culture and history and write about that here as well. Korea is often a forgotten country amid its more famous cousins, China and Japan, and I certainly knew very little about Korea before I moved here. In the meantime, here's a random smattering of my thoughts about Korea so far:

The Food: I've had some absolutely delicious Korean food (my favorite is bulgogi, a very thinly sliced marinated meat that is often cooked right at your table on charcoal grills), and then I've had some stuff that I couldn't even begin to describe. It's such a different type of cuisine and one that relies on flavors and components that I've never heard of or never really liked much to begin with. I'm a rather picky eater (and not a lover of seafood) but I'm trying to be open to possible to all types of Korean food. I'm trying to stray outside my comfort zone and try many different dishes (you never know what you may end up really liking) but I'm just glad that food here is relatively cheap....and that I access to the commissary so that I can still prepare all my favorite foods.

The Money: While on base, we still use American currency, but out on town, we use won. (Which also means that I have to have both forms of money on hand.) The hardest part about using any foreign currency is understanding the exchange rates but my math-muddled brain is too slow to figure it out quickly enough. The exchange rate around here is around 1250 won to $1. Which means, I go to the store and see a bottle of juice for 1,500 won and want to freak out just a little, only to remember that it's really only $1.25.

The People: I had heard many things about Koreans before arriving here. Many had told me that they were rude or unfriendly or hated the military. I'm sure I will run into those people. But so far, every Korean I have met has been extremely kind and friendly and they are even more welcoming when you attempt to speak Korean to them or want to learn about their culture.

My next biggest challenge is to find a job. I'm not sure if I should try to find something on base, or look for a job teaching English at a Korean school. Either way, job hunting is about as fun as getting a root canal.