I won, I won!

In honor the father from "A Christmas Story", who just recently passed away... "I won, I won, it is a major award!" It's not coming tonight, though. :)

Well okay so it isn't really a major award for me either, but I did win something. In my internet travels into the knitting world, I came across Vogue's Knit 1 blog site. You can go visit it right here. My knitting pal Sean turned me on to the magazine.

Anyway, I entered a contest on a whim and I won a little knitting bag that you can take with you when you travel (convienent, no?). I am excited because when I get it, I will be able to take my knitting on the subway or bus when we go to Seoul. If you want to know what it looks like, go over to this site.

It is a good morning when you wake up at 5am and realize you got something cool. I can hardly wait for it to get to me!!

is something wrong with this picture?

This is the vending machine near where I work. Hmmm. Wasn't this banned?

Anyway, Not much is new today. Had a fairly uneventful day at work. I like my office. I like helping people get ready to leave the Army. I went to the gym today and had a good workout, it is nice to go with my new friend Lenka. She is originally from the Czech Republic and we are about the same age. Her husband is alot like Harland and they even trained at Benning at the same time, even though they never ran into each other. Without her here it wouldn't be half as fun. I am actually sad that next week I don't work, so that means I probably won't see her much.

I am eagerly awaiting some yarn in the mail so I can work on Amy H's and my cousin Lisa's Christmas presents. Yeah, I know it is february, but you gotta start early if you want to make your good friends and family homemade presents. After those two presents, comes one for my mother in law, Wendy... then my cousin Jim's. After that... well after that I have to do some more research to see what to make people.

Well I have to go look up a word in the dictionary for Harland...
Hope all is well!

You'll probably never hear me say this again...

but tonight I was craving beef, so Harland and I went out and had ourselves a heck of a dinner. We finally used the money Grandpa gave us for Christmas to go out to eat. I don't know exactly how much we ate, but we ate a ton of food. There was kalbi, salad, coleslaw (korean style), radishes, cucumber kimchi, regular kimchi, kimchi pancakes, spinach kimchi, and bean sprouts. Whew. I seriously have no idea how we ate it all. It was so incredibly yummy. I think I ate over a steak's worth of beef. Good thing I have started working out again!!

We now have a bed and a dresser in our apartment so soon we will be actually staying there on occasion. :) Plus we have Korean TV there and so today we watched Shrek on Korean TV. What I like is when they play American movies, they put the subtitles in Korean so we get to hear the original sound. One funny thing was on the channel called "super action" they were playing the movie Home Alone. That isn't exactly what I think of when I think of an action movie.

I haven't written much lately, because I was sick. All I did last week was go to work, come home and eat and then clean up and go to bed. It was a very boring schedule. I am feeling a lot better now and only have a cough. I think next weekend (March 4,5th) we will be going to Seoul so I should have some really good pictures to post all next week. This week I am not sure how much time I will have to write again because I'll be working all week. After this week I will only work a few days here and there so I will have more time to blog.

I mentioned going to the gym, I am working on getting back into running. I have a plan adding on small bits of running to walking everyweek and in 8 weeks I should be running back up to speed. I'll keep you posted on how it is going, that way you'll keep me honest and I'll feel guilty if I slack off. Harland has me lifting weights too. That I am less fond of.

Here is another picture of food. Remember a few weeks ago when I ate some triangular things? Well, I said I would post a picture of "normal" kimbap. So here is the picture of the normal kimbap. This one is a little different because it has spam in it instead of cooked beef. But this entire plate only costs 3 bucks, which is amazing. It is a lot of food.


Some people out there are giving me some flack about all the food pictures, but they are really easy to get. Food is a nice, colorful, willing to pose subject for photography. :)

And I didn't mention it earlier, but my AUNT PATTY and my friend EDDY PACKARD both had recent birthdays. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Well off I go to wind down for another week at work!

my 1st hat!

I just want to share my excitement. I may not have gotten out of my PJs in over 48 hours. I may have to blow my nose once every 3.5 minutes. But this morning I started my first hat and I finished it not long after. While Harland was job searching I was knitting away.

Here is a picture of the hat. If you are interested in knowing more, you can go to my brand new blog - www.yuknitwit.blogspot.com and read all about it.

Also here is a close up picture of one of the roses Harland gave me. We have been messing around with the extreme close up. We need to get a tripod though, 'cause it is a little blurry.

Have a fun weekend, I'm going to take a nap.

Sorry it has been a few days....

Sorry it has been a few days since I have written here! On Monday, after work, we went to the movie showing on base. It was Underworld: The Evolution. Basically your werewolves vs. Vampires with a beautiful lady fighting. If you liked the last one, you'll like this one. I don't think I have to specify whether it was Harland or me that wanted to see it. :)

Tuesday of course was Valentine's Day. Elena always calls it Single's Awareness Day because everyone can tell who's single. I wasn't expecting to make much of Valentine's Day because Harland has been in the field... But Harland surprised me with some roses and a cute little Camp Casey bear (my first Cmp. Casey souvenir!) We also went out to dinner to a very fancy restaurant here in Donduchoen. It was a Tokk Kalbi restaurant which means it serves a special kind of Kalbi that is all chopped up while it cooks. There is also somehow some rice cake in it, which is how it gets it's name (tokk is rice cake). It was really nice and it was interesting to me because I have never had it. Unfortunately, our dinner was spent with me eating in silence while Harland was alternately yelling or being yelled at on the phone. The usual night around here.

The restaurant was pretty, there is a little courtyard in the stairwell with rocks and plants. It looks like an outdoor garden indoors. Also the doors were made out of some really beautiful wood, and I wish I had brought my camera. Inside you had your choice of tables or Korean style tables. They also had some rooms where you could be closed off, if you had a group of people.

Today was interesting - I got fingerprinted. Finally after doing the dishes tonight I can start to see my skin tone again. All day I was black from the second joint on each finger. Pretty funny. I wish I had a picture of that too. :)

well that is it, I am tired! Here is a non-food picture for you all to see. If you're anti-valentine, I am sorry.

More food - Yakimandu!

Okay friends...
Sorry it is another food post, although I really have no idea what I'll post tomorrow! Tomorrow I will be starting my new part-time substitution job which will be full time for the next three weeks. I am excited to work with Lenka one of my new friends I have recently met.

Okay I posted a while back that I had manduraymon soup. It was spicy with dumplings and raymon noodles. Well the old awesome food site I had sent you to is having picture hosting problems... So I guess it is up to me to show you some mandu.

Yakimandu is when the mandu are fried. This is usually a side dish or an appetizer or a snack.
Mandu are very thin skined dumplings and they contain a mixtre of pork, leeks, cellophane noodles, and spices. There is usually a lot of blackpepper involved.

Here is a bunch of mandu on a plate, you can see that they are about 2 inches long and half an inch thick.


Here is a closer up picture of one split in half.


and here is another picture. I tried to make this one closer up, but the camera refused to co-operate with me.

Happy Birthday Amy!

I know I usually don't post on Saturdays, but today is Ames' birthday! I wish I could celebrate with her, but alas I am a long way away and I have a really bad cold. Blah!

Anyway, Amy is the best, if you didn't already know. She has been like my sister since she first visited me back in 2000! People have even accused us of sounding like each other, which I don't believe. She is one of the most kindest, sweetest people on earth. And that doesn't sound like me at all.

But anyway, Happy Birthday Amy! I think this is the first time I actually remembered your birthday and got it on the correct day! Most of you know how terrible I am with birthday dates.

This is the only picture I have on the computer of us! Oh well!
Love us, Love our hats!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! BTW, Amy, Tell me how 29 is, so I know when I hit it in June.

My favorite, Kimchee Chigae

Okay another food post. People who are not into food, I am sorry. I just love food so much, and Korean food is very good. This is my favorite korean dish of all time. It is a kimchee stew. It can be made in different varieties... but the basics are kimchi, tofu, and a tiny bit of garlicy pork (which I admit I usually pick out because it is usally some kind of tendon-y meat and even though I am not a vegetarian anymore, I still can't handle chewy meat products). Sometimes it has beef instead of pork. And if you buy it on post like this one, it has hotdog slices in it too. Sometimes it has slices of rice dumplings in it. It really depends on the maker and what they feel like throwing in.

Kimchi Chigae is not for the faint of heart. It is very spicy and will clear all traces of a cold out of your sinuses. Also people have been saying kimchi and sauerkraut reduce your chances of contracting the avain flu, so it is extreamly good for your health - just like 1,000s of Korean Grandmothers have been saying for centuries. Anyway it is yummy and I could eat it everyday.

Here is a picture of the Chigae (Chigae by the way means stew so you may see it attached to other words like Dobu Chigae - which is Tofu Stew)


Kimchee Chigae also always comes with a bunch of rice. You can dump the rice into the stew for quite a culinary delight! I try not to add in all my rice right at the beginning so that when my mouth is burning later on I can add new rice that won't be as spicy as the stuff that has been siting in the soup. Also there are some sides of kimchi. Because this is a take out place, the kimchi doesn't change a whole lot. This one (going clockwise starting on the top left) is bean sprouts (my fav), regular cabbage, radish, and fish.


You'll see that there are several different ways to spell things: Kimchee can be spelled with two e's, or as kimchi with an i. You will also see chigae spelled chiggae, chijjae, or chijae.
As long as it sounds the same, it is the same. :)
Cheers!

Samgak Kimbap

Well since I wasn't up to much today I thought I would share another food lesson with y'all today.

Samgak Kimbap is not something you'd publicly admit to saying was your favorite Korean food. After all - the only place to buy it is at a convenience store. As Susan puts it "It would be like saying your favorite American food is a ham sandwich from 7-11". They have Samgak Kimbap in Japan too, although the Japanese call it onigiri. (Susan or Naoe, tell me if I am wrong here).

Harland and I call them triangles because for a long time we had no idea what they were called. You can usually buy one for 700 won. That's 70 cents, folks! If you are really hungry you can buy two. Sometimes they come in packs of two. I like them, but they are really mostly salted seaweed and rice. There is a little bit of paste in the middle. Now because my Korean language skills are dubious at best, I never know what will be in the middle of my samgak kimbap. It's always a fun surprise! I wasn't very hungry the day I got this one (these pictures were taken last week) and I think this one may have been pork or chicken based. Usually if I am really hungry I'll get two different ones for variety.

One of the coolest things about samgak kimbap is how it is packaged. I'll take you through the process. First, here is one ready to be opened!


Next you peel the center strip away. It is similar to the strip on a package of gum. Rip!


Then you pull the plastic away from each side. This is really an ingenious way of packaging. The seaweed does not touch the rice, therefore, the seaweed is not soggy after sitting in a fridge for a while! I don't know how long these things sit there (and I would rather not, thank you) but anyone who has every tried to take sushi home knows seaweed gets soggy in no time. Here is a picture of the wrapper taken away from one of the sides.


And here is the samgak kimbap after I have taken a bite! Yum! Sometimes the fillings are just very salty, but most of the time they are very spicy. This one was spicy and it had something chewy like beans, Yummers!

Maybe some of you have heard about kimbap - it is like a sushi roll but Koreans usually have cooked beef, radish, egg, and cucumber in them. Sometimes they have tuna in them. The ones here on base have spam in them. One day soon I'll order some and take a picture so you can compare the triangular kind to the "real" kind.

Snow, Snow, Snow!!!

(Remember - you can view any of these thumbnails as a large picture, simply by clicking on the image.)

This morning I woke up, opened my window and this is what I saw!


Then as I walked to the bus stop - this was the view to my right:


As I left Camp Casey I noticed that the Statue looked a little cold!


I took a picture of the mural on the side of Camp Casey's wall as I walked down the street.


Here is the red bridge that I will see on my way to my new work over near Camp Mobile.


Here is a picture of "American Alley" or the alley right next to Camp Casey where all the GIs go drinking. It is litterally a row of bars and nightclubs. I have never been into any of these places, but even here looks pretty tranquil covered in snow.


And here is a man sweeping the sidewalk. I don't think many people here have snow shovels, I only saw one person shoveling the walk... everyone else used a broom or salt to melt it. They have not plowed the roads here either, which makes for interesting bus trips. I am glad I don't have to go out the rest of the day!

Harland's gone

Harland just left for the field a few minutes ago. He will be out for an exercise until next monday - so it is a week of boredom for me. Today was pretty eventful, though, so I guess that makes up for it. Right now I am microwaving a frozen dinner, which is less exciting.

So today I had an appointment with the ACAP office - they are the people who help soldiers transition into civilian life. I met a woman who worked there, and she told me they are looking for someone to hire as a "firebrigader" which means I am like a substitute. I'll come in when other people int he office are sick or on vacation. It isn't very steady work, but it seems up my alley (I'll be helping soldiers write resumes, and I used to teach resume writing) and so it won't be something I'll have to learn quickly.

The cool thing is someone will go on vacation next monday and be gone for three weeks - so for a while it will be like I have a job! So that is nice, it will give me a little extra spending money.

I am kinda glad to ahve a job like this because that means I can still travel and such on my own.

So that is exciting. Today is also exciting because I got a few packages in the mail. One was some things I ordered to complete my secret susan project (SSP). So that is cool. Once she receives it I will post a picture of it. It won't be for a while though. I also got a package from susan and it had in it the coolest gadget I have seen in years. Crafty and Scrapbook friends, perk up you ears (well eyes) - she got me a sticker making machine. Any piece of paper can now become a sticker AND be scrapbook safe. The possibilities are endless! ENDLESS!

So the only blight of the day is that I am eating my microwave dinner in front of the computer with no husband around.

So send me lots of e-mails this week, folks!

Dinner at the Beef and Mushroom Place

It is currently 3 degrees outside. Just FYI.

Okay I don't have any pictures... but man was the food good. There are three courses at the beef and muchroom place. The first course was my favorite... it was the actual beef and mushrooms. I can not tell you what kind of mushrooms there were - there were about 4 different kinds. They were so pretty. I will take my camera next time for sure! I was told they actually grow the mushrooms there at the restaurant. And there was thinly sliced beef... it was even thinner than roast beef from Arby's.

I guess I should back up a little here... Okay when you get to the restaurant, there are small tables (low to the ground of course, one has a little leather mat to sit on). In the center of each table is a little stove that has a stone plate that has about a 2 inch lip around it. When you arrive, the waitress adds some special broth (very yummy and garlicy). When that starts to boil she comes back with a huge platter of the sliced beef and beautiful mushrooms.

So then you cook your beef and mushrooms on the hot stone. The beef cooked really fast since it was sliced so thin. There was also some onions and garlic on the platter that you can add. It was incredibly yummy. I could get up right now, at 9am, and eat some more.

Okay so then after you cook all your beef and mushrooms (one has to do it in several batches or the beef will burn onto the bottom). Then the second course coomes out. They scrap most of the mushrooms and tiny flakes of beef out of the pot and place it in a bowl (so you can snack later I guess). Then they add rice, kimchi, and some toasted seaweed laver (thin sheets of seaweed like in a sushi roll). And you stir that in the pot. It was yummy too.

There were also some dishes of kimchee - the usual cabbage kind, some garlic stems with some hot pepper sauce, radishes, cabbage in mayonaise, and a cabbage salad with a horsradish sauce (every person got an individual serving of the salad). I think there also was a seaweed kimchee too... but it was pretty far away from me, and it was the thick slimy kind that is really chewy and I find hard to eat in big pieces.

Then the last course came - it was udon noodle soup! After we ate the stirfied rice, and the stuck on pieces were starting to get really stuck on, they removed the stone plate and replaced it with a stone bowl. In the bowl was a soup. When that started to boil, we added the udon noodles. I guess the speciality or bargin of the restaurant is that it advertises that you can eat a sackful of noodles if you want. So if you want more noodles, they are free for the asking. I am not sure how anyone could eat that much after the rest of the dinner. Anyway the soup was really spicy. It had some clams in it as well.

After the soup - there was soda, or coffee. One could also get some icecream if one wished. It was fabulous and I really want to take Harland there. Best part was - it was 6 dollars a person.

Meeting the wives was nice - i can't tell you how great it was to talk to some females! They are all very nice and friendly and I actually can't wait until i see them again next week! I was nervous because I had a bad "meeting the wives" experience once and that is why I never got involved at Ft. Benning. But this was really nice!

The inside of the apartment

Hey Everyone... Here are some pictures of our apartment inside.
I found out you can click on any of the pictures to make it bigger... and since I had so many... I made these a little smaller.

If you missed the post on what the outside looks like, check it out HERE.

Okay, so here are the shots...
Here is the livingroom. You can notice the front balcony straight ahead and some frosted doors to the left. I wonder what could be behind those doors?


Over here you see the ugly chairs. They swivel though, which is a plus. And they are ok for comfort. Also you can see a closer up image of the front balcony.



And now behind those doors... the couch! It is a fun little room and for some reason it is my favorite room in the apartment. I think it is the novelty that you can shut the doors off.


Then here is a boring picture of our empty bedrooms. We have two.


And here is my very pink kitchen. I have to say, though I love the sink like crazy. I used it today to clean the fridge shelves and it is very cool. I love the faucet wand, the two sinks and the rack off to the right. See the black thing on the left? that is our gas stove. it has two burners, and no oven... so no Turkey dinners here.


Here is a picture of the bathroom, which may be considered indecent, but, hey you are getting the full tour. What you can't really tell is that this is our shower. you'll notice that the sink is right next to it... that's right... the shower is built right into the room! No pesky tubs or shower doors here! This is very common in Korea, and I have stayed in a few hotels that were set up like this as well.


So that is the tour, folks! Thanks for visiting. Tonight I get to meet the wives... I'll tell you how that goes tomorrow. it has been a long day - there was an alert this morning at 4am, and Harland says he has to work late as well. Poor kid.

Busy Day today

Well today was pretty busy, as the title suggests. Harland and I moved furniture and the fridge into the apartment. unfortunatly the space aged looking furniture was broken... so now we have a lovely orange and purple leather couch (yes you heard that right), two spinny chairs, and a fridge. We need to buy a bed - the bed in the old place was pretty gross.

So that was exciting. I also walked around 2nd market today. I didn't bring the camera, so no pictures. I forgot about my camera phone... and that takes such small pictures I am not sure how they'd post here anyway. I promise next time I am in 2nd Market, I will take some pictures.

I bought us some bowls. They're pretty ugly, but they are melamine. You remember - the plastic your highschool dished were made of? Very fun indeed, even if they have sheesy flowers on them.

I also bought us some real spoons and chopsticks. Some of you may not know this, but Koreans use the hardest kind of chopsticks there are to use. They are metal and very thin. I do not have time to post a picture of them tonight because Harland needs the computer in a minute, but check this same post tomorrow and I'll post a picture of them... I promise.

And here it is! In this photo I have some Chinese style chopsticks (blunt ends) and some shiny Korean chopsticks! See how thin they are? The are also flat, whereas the Chinese style ones are either square or round.



Also we went out to dinner after we moved the furniture (actually after Harland and the adashee moved the furniture). we went to "happy wok" an American style Chinese food place. I admit I was very skeptical. But I was proven wrong - it was fantastic! And they gave us a discount because we only had 12,000 won on us, so that is all they charged us. It was very good, we had the spicy sesame chicken. YUM. The only weird thing was that there was corn in the fried rice. But hey, what's a little corn? Tyler, tell Mike to go try it.

Also I am going into the apartment tomorrow and I will take some pictures of the inside. Well, that is all I have time for tonight!