a late birthday gift

Well Schmitz, you wanted a picture of O. in some historical hats, and even though this is not exactly the style you were describing, happy birthday. 

dermatology

Now normally I would not share such embarrassing information with all of you, but I figure this falls under the category of "korean culture" and is therefore ok to share.  If you are at all squemish about too much information though, stop reading now.

So yesterday morning I felt like I had to pee like every 10 seconds and then of course nothing happened.  (this is the too much information part - I warned you!)  Unfortunately, I know what this means since I've had this lovely affliction before.  Welcome to Korea, here's your UTI.  Now in the states, I could have gone into any CVS that had a minute clinic (if you are not familiar with these, they are fabulous!), get a walk-in appointment for $20 or so, and had my prescription for antibiotics filled right there.  Since I was not in the states, I had to get S. to ask the HR person where the nearest doctor was. 

Being the ultimate professional, the HR person made an appointment for me and  proceeded to call me to tell me that he would be taking me.  I knew it was probably for the best to have someone who actually speaks Korean to take me for the first time to the doctor's - I just wish it would have been for a broken bone or cut-off finger...something less...intimate.

He picks O. and I up and tells me that S. has just told him that it was a bacterial infection, but that maybe I should give him more symptoms so he knows exactly what kind of doctor to take me to.  Lovely.  I show him my phone which has a file of what a UTI is, and it's in Korean.  I love the internet.  He now is almost as embarrassed as I am - I think. **Here's the page if you want to see what I showed him...http://www.healthinfotranslations.com/pdfDocs/050778_Ko_Final_UTIFinal.pdf**

So here comes to the culture part...we end up at the dermatologist.  Yes, that's right folks, dermatology AND urology are evidently are a two-for-one specialty.  Who knew.  It all turned out fine in the end.  I got my meds and survived answering such questions as "what are my most concerning symptoms right now?" and "how many times have you had this before?" and "why can't they get rid of this for good for you?" 

Let's hope we never have to speak of this again.  Just to get everyone's mind off of it, here are some pictures of O. at the fountains in front of the bus station in Cheonan. 

Gakwonsa Temple

This past weekend, we decided to try out one of the tourist sites of Cheonan.  So we hopped into a taxi and took off for Gakwonsa Temple - home to a 15 m (45 foot) tall Buddha.  Unfortunately for us, we got a taxi driver that got lost and then proceeded to charge us for the extra time, restulting in a fare that was more than double what it should have been.  Oh, the times you wish you knew the language!

When we did finally get there though, the ride was worth it!  Gorgeous painted temples bathed in golden afternoon light and a beautiful green monument to Buddha.

 

And of course, because Korea is so random, we couldn't just leave you with peaceful images of monks hitting old brass bells, could we?  Behold what we saw on the way down the mountain back into town.

saturday night in fashion town

Hello dear readers!  

We went out to dinner last night realized that there is way more going on here than we realized.  Taking one of S.'s colleagues back to the place we had lunch at, we found the street transformed into a riot of flashing signs advertising karoke, bars, and places to eat.  Just the place to take a 2 year. 

(I know that it's not the best picture, but we were trying out the new camera on our new phones.  Once we get them in English, I'll let you know more about them.)

I forgot to get a picture of what we had for dinner, but as you can see from all of the empty dishes and bowls, you get a lot for 7000 won, or about $5.60 for each of us.   We ordered soemthing called samgyopsal which literally translated means three layers of pig....lovely thin slices of pork belly that you cook yourself and then wrap up in lettuce leaves or sesame/perilla leaves along with kimchi, garlic, green onions, and other vegetables.  

On the way home, I did remember to snap a few shots of a large seafood restaurant with tanks of live seafood outside.  You can't get any fresher than this.  

(flounder - lots of it)

(crabs, scallops an something else we couldn't identify)

(lots of fish, including a dogfish shark I think)

So before we go, just a quick question for all of you - what do YOU want to see?  Let us know and we'll try to get it for you...just leave a comment. :)

what cabin fever looks like

It has been POURING all day here.  What do you do with a 2 year old when you don't know the language and just moved into town a week ago and don't have a car?  Of course. 

kiwi and wii

Well, there's not much going on that would make for a good blog posting, so I thought that I would answer a question and then just post some gratuitous pics of O. for the grandparents! :)  

Someone had asked if Dunkin Donuts had any weird flavors, and I have to admit that we haven't actually gone in yet.  But, I did take this picture from the outside - looks like kiwi is their featured donut!

Today is the second day that O. and I are on our own - we were able to go with S. yesterday to the trip to Costco.  Strange to be in Costco while in Korea.  It was actually a good thing that S. and I both had our cards since no one else was a member.  We were able to pay for our stuff, then take each of the other teachers through one at a time to checkout.  So, things that were different than the one in the states: beer and wine for sale (note a pattern here with our shopping?); whole octopuses for sale in the seafood case; $15-20 for a box of cereal and $28 for the big box of oatmeal packets; pizza with bulgogi meat on it.  Speaking of pizza, you would not believe how good a slice of pizza from Costco is when you are here! 

So funny thing happened with O. and I on our own today.  We took the metro into the center of Cheonan and started to look for somewhere to get lunch.  As we leave the train station, I notice a big line of people getting bowls of something, but paying nothing in return.  I decide that we should check it out.  We stand in line and get a bowl of rice with chicken soup and kimchi on top - yummy!  It's not really until we are finished eating that I realize that probably this is like a mobile soup kitchen and most of the people standing in line looked like they needed a free meal.  Oops. 

Oh well - it's all about meeting ALL types of people, right?  Ok, grandparents, on to the O. pics...

metro genius

r 

After you ride the train, you can insert your used card here....

and get back 500 won!  The ride to the center of Cheonan (only one stop away) was 1,500 won each way, but since you get back 500 won if you return your card, it's less than $1 to take the metro into town and back!  

We were on a mission to find the Starbucks after hearing about it last night from some of the other teachers.  O. fell asleep on the walk down, but once we got there, soy chai goodness all around!  

Two things about the Starbucks: 

    1. Their venti size was our grande size - but the price was still venti!

    2. Why don't have this in the states??

   

store samples

Like in the states, big Korean stores give out samples of food and drink...

 

but, wait, what IS that sample?

First days

Hi!

We finally got all the blog issues resolved.  Choosing a name is much harder than it seems and I'm still not sure this works.  But, like my never ending quest for the perfect tatoo, if I waited any longer for the perfect name/design you wouldn't hear from us until we were back. 

So, onto the arrival.  We got into Korea around 3 in the morning along with the typhoon that had hit China a few days earlier.  The flight had been better than expected with O. getting about 7 hours of sleep and enjoying all the in-flight personal games and movies.  We were awake and ready to see Korea.  Unfortunately, Korea was dark and rainy.  

Through our jetlagged haze, we got to our apartment, set off the panic alarm while looking for the bathroom light and had security come to our door, went shopping at Lotte marte, fell asleep by 4 pm which meant we were awake by 1:30 am, had amazing food, realized that Cheonan is not the prettiest city but the people already are amazingly friendly, and finally three days later had dinner past 3 pm and slept in till dawn.  

Meal from the Lotte Mart - 9,500 won which is about $8 U.S.  It is a type of dolsot bi bim bap - rice, bean sprouts, beef, octopus, spicy pepper sauce, seaweed all on a sizzling hot plate like fajitas sometimes come on.  Amazing and fed all three of us...I think the Acme at home should have these.

  

Our apartment complex is to the right in the picture - these huge sets of apartments are everywhere in Cheonan it seems as we've been walking around.  Notice also the Dunkin Donuts across the street to the left :)

On our walks through Cheonan, we noticed that every spare bit of land had been transformed into growing spaces for hot peppers, corn, squash, beans and some other plants that I didn't recognize.