Kimchee!!!!

Meet my 2 wonderful Korean Lady friends. Meeok, (black hair) she teaches flute and she is a music director. Jung Hee, (brown hair, we call her Sally) she teaches english at her house to elementary children after school. I met them at Uijongbu Baptist Church that Jesse and I attend. The Lord blessed me these wonderful ladies to adjust to life here and they are always there for me. Meeok is the one who introduce me to acupuncture which helped me tremendously with pain management. I could never ask for a better set of friends. Like I said, I am truly blessed.

Making Kimchee

One morning after Bible Study, we went to Sally's house to help her make kimchee.

Napa cabbage soaked in salt for several hours

Chili, garlic, ginger and some other ingredients to add to the cabbage for fermentation.

The kitchen sink is too small to rinse the salted cabbage, guess where we rinse it? If you live in an apartment, I guess the bathroom is sufficient area to do the job. I have heard that some people rinse theirs in a bathtub. Don't worry, Sally has the big plastic containers for rinsing.

I didn't realize there was so much involve in making it. The pictures and video is only a fraction of how to make it. There was so much preparation before you can mix the ingredients. I thought I wanted to learn how, but I will just settle for the bottled one from the store.

Small World

This is my friend Chun from Phoenix, AZ. I met her at our favorite Korean Restaurant "Hodori" in Mesa. She is originally from here, Uijeongbu City, South Korea and now she is here visiting her family. Imagine that we are together again at the other side of the world.

Jesse and I had lunch with her and look at all that food.

Picture This!

I have been volunteering at the Dental Clinic inside the Base for the last 2 weeks. It has been interesting and painful just to get a volunteer job. I guess, you will do anything if it is important to you. I had a background check, 3 on line test including HIPAA and anti-terrorism. 1 tetanus shot, a flu mist in the nose, 1 blood test, 1 chest x-ray, 1 mumps shot (my blood test showed I have very low count.)

In some ways I feel like I went back in time 10 years or more. In the office in AZ, we haven't used Amalgam (silver filling) the last 10 years. In other ways, its modern, they have digital x-rays, the patient chairs are brand new (to the dental people it is Adec brand, they are very nice.) Computers in every room. They do everything here, surgeries, root canals, fillings, crowns, etc. I volunteer Tuesdays and Thursdays and I'm still deciding about every other Wednesday afternoons because I have commitment with the ladies at church on the other days. There's 2 dentist (both Koreans) 1 just graduated from NYU, the other is SGT Major whose been here a while, 1 civilian hygienist, 1 office coordinator, 1 lab person/housekeeper and several assistants, 1 female American soldier and 2 male Katusa (Korean soldiers, 1 of them is in his first year in dental school here) and 2 male Katusa receptionist, and me, the volunteer. They are all very nice and easy going, the young Korean guys are very quiet though. I am told that they are quiet because they can't speak English well.

Today, there's only 1 doctor, the other is at a seminar.

Picture this! 1 patient (it was an Examination appt. only) 1 doctor and 4 assistants. To me it was funny because there's more assistants than patients. I have never seen that before.

I am very excited to be a part of the group and I am happy because I am back in my element.

More Fall Colors

Fall here has been nice, not only the colors but lately the weather also. The colorful leaves comes from maple (red), ginkgo (yellow).

Gingko tree, picture taken on our way to the Base or the church.

Maple tree inside the Base.

Gingko trees inside the base

More trees inside the Base.

I'm not sure the name of this tree, it is in front of our apartment.

Ichon Rice Festival

Pictures from the Ichon Rice Festival. No, we didn't plant any rice. It was a celebration of a bounty harvest. Apparently, the rice grown here are the best and Ichon is also famous for their ceramics. The Festival have all kinds of rice cakes, rice candies and food.

Like any big cities, the busy roads become a parking lot during rush hour. This was on the way to the festival.

The Fall colors are so vibrant.

In front of the Ceramic Museum

Jesse's Birthday

We celebrated Jesse's Birthday by going to Ichon Rice Festival, and ended with a great dinner at Outback Steakhouse.

Birthday boy gesturing how old he is. I took this picture as soon as we got off the bus.

Birthday boy at the entrance.

Nice wall art!

Dinner was just beginning...hmmmm, it was all yummmm.

It was a great day!

1 Year Anniversary

I don't have any pictures but to share a milestone in my life. I thank the Lord for another year of my life. October 20, 2008, a year ago, I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer, Ductal Carcinoma Stage 1. I believed we caught the cancer early because of monthly self-exam and yearly screening. Awareness and education is the key especially if you have a family history. I beg each one of you to take care of yourself because no one else will. Your body is the Temple of God. Take care of it, it is the only one you have.

May the Lord Showers you all His Love and Blessings. I love you all.

Ladies First Fall Fellowship at the church

We had our Ladies First Fall Fellowship (I guess they never had one in the Fall before) it was so much fun. We cooked Korean dishes and sweet cakes, baked and decorated. I shared my devotion. At the end my camera's battery run out. :(

FISHMARKET

My Korean friend Chun from Phoenix is here on vacation (I can't believe she is from here when I told her where I am going in Korea.) Anyway she is here and we walked around the fishmarket in downtown and I can't believe how big these mussels are and they have a lot of crabs, squid, all kinds of fish, and so many other seafood.

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Fall

Fall is beautiful and cold. 40's at night and high 60's during the day. These are just some pictures I took and they don't do justice at how beautiful the colors are and it is everywhere.

I took this picture last week from my window.

I took this picture this week at different time of day.

I took this inside CRC (Camp Red Cloud)

Beautiful Fall morning. The fog is covering the low areas and you can see the top of the buildings and mountains.

Meeok and Teddy!

I want to introduce my friend Meeok. She is very kind and a sweetheart. I met her at church. She's been a widow for 9 years. She is a flute teacher. She teaches at a elementary, middle, and high school and she also has a studio and teaches private lessons. She is one of my many blessings and I am so thankful that the Lord brought her into my life especially being far away from friends and family back home.

She took me to dinner last night, at a sit down on the floor restaurant (with the aquarium in front). The food was good and plenty. There were several sushi and fish soup after I took this picture. It was all YUMMY!

Meeok and her Teddy (a 7 yrs. old male poodle)

Oh how I miss my Speicher.

Aquarium or Restaurant?

They open from 12:00 pm to 2:00 am

They look like little milkfish to me.

Those are shrimp.

It is a restaurant! That's how they keep everything fresh. I've seen a lot of flounder, octopus, squid, clams, sea cucumber, eel (unagi).

Cheseok, Similar to Thanksgiving

Last weekend was Cheseok, the Korean Thanksgiving. It is not totally like our Thanksgiving but similar. It is a celebration of a good harvest and they go back to their ancestral home and celebrate it with family, they bring presents to the family and they also go and visit their ancestors burial areas and clean it and eat there too. Jesse and I went for a walk and everything was closed like a ghost town, there were a few restaurants that were open.

Jesse close to the train station

Jesse on the sidewalk that is always busy and full of people close to our apartment

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

This is a reminder to all my women friends' to remember to do your monthly self exam. Early detection is the key....

Thank you for all your love, support and prayers.

More Interesting Sightings in Korea

This was taken as we were passing by on our hike. Bottles of some drink everywhere (I think it is beer) and the restaurant is below the freeway.

I thought dogs were suppose to be on the ground guarding? I guess not this one. It is on top of the roof of the house.

Yesterday as I was doing my daily walk to the base, at the crosswalk in front of me, the police officer parked his motorcycle and I looked and it is a Harley Davidson. Wow! I couldn't take a picture because I didn't know if I could take one and I didn't dare do it because the cop was right there.

Hiking

Jesse and I went Hiking today, it was a very steep hike.

Me and the Korean Smokey the Bear and his friend. Can you read and understand what the sign says?

You have to look hard to find the chipmunk. It was collecting nuts.

Town of Dobong down below.

The colors are beginning to show.

Temple in a very steep part of the mountain

Another temple we passed by.