A bit of new stuff

Hi Everyone!
All kinds of things going on here. One thing is... I am now an official volunteer of the American Red Cross. I went to the meeting today and have an official card and everything. In related news, I finished my first sock. How is this related you ask?

Here's how (a WWII era Red Cross Poster)


Here's my sock. If you want to see more pictures of it (I know you do!) you can go to my knitting blog Just click here!


And also for those of you who enjoy snow pictures, it must've flurried all night. By the time I went out this morning at 9am, there was only snow in the mountains and in shadows. By the time I came back to the room after the Red Cross meeting, there was even less snow on the mountains so i did not take the camera out. Here are two pictures from my cell phone, though from 9am.




Have a great weekend!!

An interesting day!

Let me step back here a second and tell you a little bit about yesterday first.

Okay yesterday I was planning on taking some pictures of the village but the weather did not co-operate with me. It was really cold and windy and there were even some snow flurries. Actually most of the day there were snow flurries... But no actual snow on the ground (disappointing all of you who want more snow pictures). Anyway, I didn't really feel like walking really far since it was so cold.

Last night I got a call from my boss who asked me if I wanted to be a teacher's assistant for the day because they need one at the Donduchoen American Community School. I said Okay, although I am not really sure why... Because we all know how much I like kids. But, I thought, "how hard could it be since teacher's assistant doesn't sound so bad, I just have to help them with work or whatever."

So I got there this morning and it turns out that I really am not an assistant. I am a substitute for 23 kids ranging in the age of 11-18. Which was interesting. It is a two room school. I was hanging out with the older kids. The only lessons I was given was spelling, grammar, and vocab. The rest of the time they were supposed to work quietly amongst themselves. Yeah, right.

But no one was injured, and they have 1.5 hours for lunch, and it really wasn't all that bad. I could do it again. Just not tomorrow.

Whew.

And, thanks to Uncle Buddy and Ed Packard for revamping my picture from Guam. Both of you had the same idea. I guess I had better not post any more pictures unless they're perfect! :) Just kidding.

Off I go to unwind.

a quick hit of wit

Okay, so my dear Dad sent me the link to this really funny website called Overheard In New York You should go there and read it, it is hilarious. This is a website where people send in crazy conversations they overhear in New York City.

Anyway, one of the first ones on there made me laugh.

As you all know I love eggs. Especially out. And I always order mine "over hard" which many people give me odd looks for (and usually this results in me getting eggs over easy, sometimes over medium, but I digress).

Anyway, I have a feeling I would like to go to breakfast with this guy.


Waiter: How would you like your eggs?
Guy: Can I get two eggs scrambled, one sunny side up?
Waiter: Um...I...Um...I don't...
Guy: Whatever. Give me three scrambled eggs. God.

--Ben Ash Delicatessen, 7th Avenue


As much as I like variety I never have thought to order my eggs that way!
Some may call him a diva, but I say he's brilliant!

Snacks and dinner

Hello! It is American food day here on Blog of the Morning Calm. First I have to share with you something I find odd. I buy our food at the commissary (so far, not odd). None of the food is marked "export". I think this is because technically it is still on American soil. Well none of the food except for Lay's brand chips. Isn't that odd? Why only the chips? Here is an example.


The second part of this is that I have a recipe for extremely easy chicken. I made it up myself. But I wanted to share only because it is so easy I can hardly believe it.

This is what you will need for 2 people:
1/2 jar favorite spaghetti sauce
2 chicken breasts (can be frozen even)
1/2 bag of washed fresh spinach
any other uncooked veggies you may have
2 servings of pasta or rice (cook this while chicken is cooking)

Okay so throw half of the jar of spaghetti sauce into an 8X8 glass dish. Place half a bag of spinach on top. Add 1/4 cup water. Mix all together. If other veggies, add these (today I added some leftover fresh zucchini) place chicken on top. Leave uncovered and place into preheated oven. If frozen, cook at 375F for 50 minutes. If fresh cook 30 minutes or until done.

Serve over pasta. Enjoy. Approx. 350-400 calories per person (pasta included).

I made this up the other week when we had some frozen chicken, spinach and spaghetti sauce. I didn't realize you could actually cook frozen chicken right from the freezer, but our bag of frozen breasts says you can. Who knew? Not me!! I guess that is why some one else is writing the labels on the bag. This is so great to make when you forget to thaw out your chickens or if you feel like making a lazy Saturday dinner.

Just sayin' is all.
Happy dinner.

Friday's over, the weekend is here!

Well I must admit I do not have much to report today. The most exciting thing I did all day was learn how to knit with 4 needles at once (see my knitting blog if interested!) The link is one the side over there <-------.

Anyway, I promised some pictures... so here is one that is a close up of the outside of a palace. Isn't it beautiful?


And here is a picture of us in Guam from last summer. This one was on Harland's computer so it was not in the picture album.


Cheers and happy weekend!!

whoops, has it been almost a week?

Sorry, I strayed from the blog. Not that I am sure anyone out there is reading it anymore. But to those of you who are, I appreciate it and love you for it. :) Anyway, I strayed for two reasons - 1.being that I was working and 2.the fact that when not working Harland has been using the computer for job searches.

If anyone is looking for a software engineer who knows a lot about Army stuff... let me know. :)

Not much to really reaport... sadly. I promise though to take some pictures tomorrow and post them on the blog.
I tired to upload some today but blogger is acting weird and is not working.

still life of a good night

Okay so This is my picture for today (once again food related!). I call this photograph "a good night" because what could be better than a bottle of the most expensive wine in the commisary (9 bucks) and a dish of just out of the oven lemon squares? They are cooling off next to the window. Pretty soon I won't be able to do this when the bugs come out. Don't worry - this isn't my entire dinner, I am making Chicken Piccatta as well.



which reminds me, hey Dad, can you mail me some thin wire so I can fix my screen or knit it a patch? See, I knew knitting would come in useful for things other than yarn!! There is no wire here in the PX to fix it.

So I have to say that Margaret Fitch-Hauser was the inspiration of these lemon squares. (Somewhere Margaret is scratching her head in wonderment). I had a dream the other day that Brigitta, Debra, Margaret and I were all going to a Listening Convention in South Dakota. Anyway, long story short - We had to sleep in Tichenor's basement because our plane was delayed and in my dream Margaret made lemon squares to cheer us up. So not only do I think often of the dear people of Auburn, apparently I dream about them too.

By the way - if you have been trying to reach me at my old Auburn e-mail, I can not seem to access it anymore. It won't let me. So please e-mail me at my yahoo address. thanks!

This week's forecast...Yellow Dust

Weather in March is always odd... the freak blizzard that may occur in the North East... the tornadoes that may occur in Alabama... the day it is finally warm to hang out at the beach in Florida in your swimsuit... the day that the yellow dust starts to come from China...

The yellow dust from China? On Sunday it looked really eerie outside. I asked Harland if he knew if Korea had tornadoes because the sky was a weird tint of yellow... but the weather report had only partly sunny skies!

Then on Monday when I was walking (in the bitter cold and wind, thank you) I noticed all the cars were covered in dust. I just thought it was the wind kicking up the ever-present grey dust. But no. We are getting dust from the Gobi Dessert in China.

This is the weather report for today from the Arirang News' website (the english TV station). This is a direct quote.

"Strange day today.
Conditions were just not what we would have liked. First of all, it was cold. Second of all, it was dry. Almost no relative humidity and last but not least there were parts of Korea that were affected by the Chinese dust from the Gobi desert.
It definately wasn't the best day.
Some good news, tomorrow it wont be as cold as it was today."

Now I don't know how you feel about weather, but whenever the news people say something's strange, it can not be good.

Here is a webpage with photos of the yellow dust from 2001.CLICK HERE TO SEE

But really all I know is that the dust is sand particles from the Gobi desert with some pollution mixed in, so it is not a good thing to breathe and many people get respiratory infections from it. I have spoken to several people who say this dust storm wasn't that bad and there will probably be more in the next month or two. They were surprised it was this early in the year. hmmm. So i am certainly glad I stayed in on Sunday and most of the day yesterday.

Today is pretty clear so no worries.
Have a happy dust-free day!

The Dining Out

Well the dining out was not half bad! Here is a wonderful picture of us under the fabulous barrack lighting. We're ready to go!



First there was cocktail hour, which was at the Warrior Club (some of you may remember this is the only place with a decent salad but they have terrible bread). Here is a picture of my friend (and co-worker) Lenka and me.


Once we were finished hobnobbing we went to the gym, which was decorated with the various insignias of the branches in the "Iron Brigade". Here is an overall shot.


Here is a picture of Harland at the table, and one of me.



Here is a photo of the coins we received for going to the dining out. (Since we had two it was easy to show both sides. Also I made a little bag to hold my money and ID card).

And here is a group shot of some of the people in 2-9. I think it is pretty funny all of us wives wore black. I guess you can never go wrong with Black.


Anyway, despite not wearing a formal gown, I had a really nice time. It was good to get out and get dressed up, hear a few speeches, etc. I enjoyed hearing a lot of the histories of the Iron Brigade. Plus we won a doorprise which was a gift certificate to a local pub/eatery... so that was exciting.

The Shawl is done

Whew. One thing done. I can now sleep in peace. Click here

Now I only have about 6 errands to run before 4pm tomorrow.
We have a mandatory cocktail hour at 6, dinner at 7pm.

I am anxious because I have never been to one of these things, and I have had two answers to the question "what is the dining out like" one is "oh it is really funny if you're drunk" and "I hate going to these kind of things". No one has really told me what it will be like.

I'll give you a report.
Jessica

hello there!

Today was nice, I had plenty of time to surf the web and look at a lot of other people's blogs that I have been terribly neglecting. I apologize that I have been in my own world. The Army computers at work will let me check e-mail, but they close off a lot of personal websites, and I have been a slacker at using the computer at home. Now that I am at home and not working...

(Jets are flying overhead, hard to think this second)

Okay, where was I... oh yes... so I apologize to everyone whose site I have not visited in a while. If I do that again send me a nasty e-mail and remind me. We all know I can be flaky.

And if you e-mailed me and I didn't answer, please e-mail me again. Usually I am pretty good with e-mail, but I can sometimes hit a wrong key and delete something and think I have answered it.

To the people who sent me real mail recently... I don't know what is up with the mailroom. Several people have claimed to have sent something to me (be it letter, package, envelope, what have you) and it has not yet gotten to me, yet. The mail has been slow the past two weeks. Strangely enough the things we ordered online have gotten to us very quickly. So I have no idea what is going on with letters from friends. I will make sure I will e-mail you when we get things so you know.

Harland has been looking at jobs. He has posted his resume to what seems like 1 million sites, and has applied to countless jobs. He spends every night slaving away on the computer, poor kid. He has very few bites, I assume because the time he can start working is so far away. He went to a job workshop this week and revamped his resume so that is good. I am sure things will start to look up.

I am still working on the shawl. I am starting to worry that it looks HOMEmade rather than the HANDmade look I was going for. I'm too far in to start something new, though. I don't really know what everyone else is wearing and I am worried I will look like a ragamuffin. I have heard some are wearing prom dress like dresses which I didn't have time to get made. I have a long dress and that is just going to have to do.

Can I catch the flu by tomorrow night?

another day off, are you jealous yet?

Anyway, today I had another day. I knitted some more on the shawl and I met Harland for lunch. I also tried to open a bank account and I tried to get paid, but those were less sucessful attempts.

I did work out and I jogged 2 miles (add your applause and encouragement to my comments to help get me to three miles soon). At the gym there is this Korean guy (100% Korean, not Korean American) and he has arms the size of LL.Cool J's. He must be taking something, I mean Asian's don't just bulk up from hitting the gym a few times a week, is all I'm saying.

Anyway, back to the bank account... I can't get one until my husband comes with me. Ugh. I understand when he has to be there regarding Army stuff (like for my ration control plate and gas mask) but for a bank account? For a bank of america bank account? I mean really. It just makes me mad. Lucky for me I have a loving husband... but what if I wanted to save up to get away or something. My friends who work in Domestic Abuse... does this seem right to you?

So I guess we will try and get an account later. I want to get one because my job hasn't put me into the direct deposit system yet. And I don't want my paycheck getting lost in the mail. Not that I have a check, as I alluded to earlier... my paperwork got messed up and I won't be getting paid until monday (boo!). I tell you what... when I work for a company that gets all my paywork in, without messing it up, I will work with them forever... I haven't had one yet.

Sorry this is a complainy e-mail... tomorrow will be better!!!

Hope everyone is doing well. Drop me an e-mail or two.

my first day off!

Well today was my first day off work and it was exciting. Today I went to a Korean Hospital. not for me (breathe sigh of relief here) but for a friend's child who had some kind of mouth infection. Poor kid. I went to a yarn store today too (yarn is expensive over here) and if you are interested in that I am going to direct you to my knitting blog click here!!.

Also I saw Eric "the Lego guy" on TV today!!! He was on Ripley's Believe It Or Not. I think this must've already played on US TV, a long time ago - but he made it to the Armed Forces Network today at noon. I was very happy to see a face I knew (I know that guy, I used to drink coffee in the same place as him when I graded papers at Taylor's Bakery! I saw the Mona Lisa he did HANGING. I had to tell everyone seated at the table at least 3 times). My only brush with celebrity.

So it was a pretty exciting day off. Also some jets were playing tag over the base for about an hour, that was (LOUD) like a free air show. Very fun day all in all. Now, if you'll excuse me I have less than 3 days to knit up a shawl so I had better get cracking.

Cheers!

what you see, isn't always what you get

Well today is a reminder that you should not judge a book by its cover. We bought some bread today at the local bread shop, called Paris Baguette. We bought a Baguette. I was excited because the only bread I have had since coming over here has been wonderbread texas toast style (think wonderbread but twice as thick... makes great frenchtoast). The bread of the baguette is good, and the shopkeeper threw in some whipped butter... or not. it was actually whipped cream! And the funny thing is the baguette has parsley and garlic on it! Yum, nothing like sweet whipped cream on garlic bread. I have notice that there a lot of look alike food items here in Korea. SOmetimes a baked potato will have whipped cream, or a cracker served with cheese will have sugar on it. They look similar... but are not the same.

Tonight we went to the Italian place that opened up right outside of the gate. I guess it was okay. The koreans like to add sugar to tomato sauce, so it is a little sweet for my taste. I also had grilled chicken with my spaghetti and it looked beautiful, a nice brown color... until I tasted a bite and the brown coloring was not from roasted perfection, but from the fact they seasoned it with cinnamon. It didn't taste bad, but it certainly was a surprise.

Other than that we didn't go to Seoul. There is some kind of transportation strike going on. But I did take a few pictures today... from my cell phone so when you enlarge them they won't be as clear...

the bread and sweet vanilla flavored whipped cream.



Some Hanboks (traditional fancy Korean dresses) in a shop window near second market.

One of the street food stands cooking up pancakes. On the table in front are some homegrown (extreamly huge!!!) mushrooms.

more snow!!

Well, it snowed again last night/this morning. Now that it is 7pm, most of it melted during the day - except in the shadows and on the ice. It probably will get a little slick tonight if it freezes... which it probably will. I am glad I am staying indoors and starting on my new knitting project.

Here are some pictures of the snow this morning on the way to work.

This is the building across the way from the ACAP center. It is some barracks for the inprocessing soldiers. Can you stand the excitement? But I have a soft spot for the symbol of 2 ID, so this makes me happy anyway. 2ID, Second to none!


This other picture is of the bus stop near to where I work. I have actually never stood at this particular bus stop because the bus from Camp Casey to Camp Mobile is inconvenient to my work schedule. So I get off at gate 1 in Casey and walk over to Mobile. Most people do that anyway.


Well, besides my new knitting project (just killing time until some yarn gets here in the mail to make Christmas and Hanuakah presents) Harland has a new video game called Command and Conquer Generals. I think he'll get to play a game tonight with his buddy across the hall. They play the games together against the computer while each of them are in their respective rooms. Oh well, as long as it keeps them off the streets!!