Just slightly different

So I was walking along today... and suddenly had to stop and back up. Was that a white dandelion I just saw? And sure enough it was. With a yellow center. Like it was trying to be a daisy or something. Pretty neat.

It is pretty dreary out. I can not tell if it is dusty or just going to rain. I guess we will see. Here is a cell phone pic of the dandelion.



Stay tuned to this blog, there should be some awesome pictures up here on monday if everything goes well this weekend. There is a lantern festival and it is supposed to be really really neat. One woman I know said when she went last year it was the coolest sights she has ever seen in Asia, and she lived in several Asian countries.

Happy Wednesday!

well, again not much to report. It has been threatening rain all day - but yet, it has not rained, how odd!

I made a bulletin board today at the Red Cross. I know that isn't really exciting, but here is a picture!! The notes are from a banquet they had and the notes have little Red Cross facts. Abigail had come up with a musical theme for the banquet. I wasn't there since it was before I joined up with the red cross. But the multi colored background was all me. Ha!!



Well that is all today!
Jessica

How to tell I am American

Okay, today I was really tired because I didn't sleep well. So I went to get some of this:

Whee we have starbucks! well, not really we have a place that will make their coffee.


Also I saw these weird flowers over the weekend. Don't they look fake? Well they aren't.


Here is some dust. The Korea Herald (newpaper) said this week's storm is the worst since 1992. Wow. Ick! No wonder everyone is feeling ill.


And on a more cheerful note... here is some mountain flowers! I don't know if these are cherry trees or what.


Cheers.

The sheep are shorn

Hello, not much to report here. We are having another yellow dust storm and are advised to stay indoors and shut windows. My eyes are burning a little bit. Dad was asking what it was like and it is very hard to describe and I can't really take a picture of the yellow dust... except if you want to see my windowsill... it is covered in the ick.

Anyway it is like a very cloudy, foggy day. Except you can see the sun and your shadow and if you look directly above you can see blue sky. It is a little eerie. Kinda like if you were in cartoon land and everyone was having a bad day except you (hence your little pocket of sunshine).

Anyway, people have said that the yellow dust is a lot worse this year.

Harland got a haircut yesterday. He said "no skin" but I think the woman only heard the skin part.
Don't laugh like I did.



:)

Rain, Rain, go away

Well it has been Weird Weather here in Camp Casey. The cherry blossom pictures sure do deceive - they make it look warm and lovely here. In fact, yesterday I saw SNOW FLURRIES on the way to work (it was 36 degrees at lunchtime) and today we have had massive scary thunderstorms all day. You know - Alabama style thunderstorms. The kind you DO NOT want to go outside in and each lightning strike is so loud it could defribilate a heart attack victim.

So that is what is new here. I am ashamed to admit I have not finished the other orange sock (to go with the one I showed off on here). I of course, in typical Jessica style, have started a new sock. This one is a real sock, made of sock yarn.

But I won't bore you with the details in case you are a person who does not like knitting.
(for all of you who do, check it out on my other blog

But since I feel weird leaving you all without a picture so here is my attempt at a cool close up of my sock in progress!

Cherry Blossoms

It is cherry blossom time here in Camp Casey. We were planning on going to Seoul, to see the blossoms there - but Harland has gotten a pretty nasty cold, and now I am coming down with it (gotta love being married!) and so we decided against it. But here are some pictures I took today on the way to the grocery store.

There are cherry trees lining the main roads here on Camp Casey - so everywhere you look, there is a line of white. It is especially nice riding the bus through the trees. Also I noticed that there was a lot of spring green splotches on the mountains, it looks like the tree leaves might be coming in!! Here's to spring!








And also - Happy Easter. A friend gave me some camouflage eggs to fill will Jelly beans. And, well, I couldn't find a basket, so tuperware had to suffice. :)

Friday Night

(warning, all pictures taken with cell phone so the quality is not the best)

Hello! Harland and his friends Charles and Pete let me tag a long for a night out. We went to a restaurant in "New City". New City is an area of Dongduchoen that has recently been built and it has a lot of places to eat and go drinking. There are some American type places too (Pizza Hut, Dunkin' Donuts, and Baskin Robbins). BTW, is Drew Barrymore in ads for Baskin Robbins over there? Because she is all over the place here. Just wondering.

Anyway we went to a Korean restaurant and this is what we had: Talkkalbi


It is a very spicy mix of cabbage, chicken, yams, mint leaves, and rice dumplings all cooked in this huge stone pot. We also had some cold buckwheat noodle soup (mulkuksoo). It was pretty good even though I admit I was quite the skeptic. I wasn't sure I would like noodles in ice cold soup (it literally has ice in it). You know I'll try anything at least once and it was very tasty.

You can also see there is a bottle of Soju and a small glass of soju in front of me. It is hard to describe it, it is a little like vodka. That is the closest drink I can come up with. There is a lot of Korean culture surrounding Soju. You shouldn't ever pour your own, And usually I think if someone makes a toast you have to drink it. Anyway, Pete and I mostly drank the soju because Charles doesn't like it, and Harland can not drink due to the TB meds.

Anyway after dinner and a stop at Dunkin Donuts for Charles and Harland, we ended up going to "miller time" a bar that specializes in, well, miller products. A few icehouses later and suddenly this sounded like a good idea:


going to a karaoke place.

Now in the US usually there is just one Karaoke machine in a bar somewhere... but in Korea they have Karoke places. You walk in and it is like a hotel. You get a room and it has karaoke in there and you sing with your friends.

here is a picture of Harland and Charles picking out a song:


Here is a picture of Harland singing. I think to Radiohead's "Creep".


Anyway, that was my night.
Hope your Friday is just as fun!!

Pictures of a spring day

Well I do not have much to write but today was beautiful. The dust storm was over and it was a really clear day today. The mountains really looked fabulous (these same mountains we literally could not see through the dust fri-sunday, it was the worst dust storm I have seen here). And some flowers popped out. The first few pictures are of a Pink Magnolia tree, which appear in some Korean Poetry (not this particualr tree, of course). Then there are some Mountain shots, and I wrap up with a purple bush (I do not know what it is) highlighted with some forsythias in the background.

Cell phone pictures

Well, Not much oging on this weekend - another icky dust storm so we didn't want to go out of doors much so we didn't go to Seoul.

But there are some signs of spring here at Camp Casey - I saw this outside of the PX:



And I got to spend time with a dog this weekend as a friend went to Seoul and I got to watch over her dog.
Here is a picture, he is a fabulous dog.

snack attack

Okay these are the last set of pictures from Seoul... Maybe we will go this weekend and see the cherry blossoms if they are out. Of course if we do I will let you know!

Here is Harland in the "Express Bus Terminal" we were not taking a bus (I know - mindblowing really). The subway and the bus terminal are in one building that also contains the Shinsegae department store and a mall. It links up to the JW Marriot as well. It is quite a crazy set up, and it is a busy place. I should have taken a picture of some clowns making animal ballooons but the camera was in the backpack at that moment. Anyway we decided to get a snack at the JW Marriot's cafe and coffee place. Harland got cinnamon bun.


I got this:



It is a delicious buttery roll that has a slightly sweet bean paste in the middle. (warning: do not give this type of bun to Susan or Harland. They do not like them.) I like them alot. I really like the rice balls with this type of bean paste in the middle but I do not know where to buy them.

Out a window...

Well here is another installation of the weekend trip to Seoul Keep in mind it was rainy most of the time we were there... until we were close to Camp Casey (of course!).

Here is us in the hotel before going to dinner. Aren't we cute?


Here is a view from our hotel window. I am interested in what is being built in the pit (see left hand side of picture) across the way.


Here are some shiny buildings in Uijongbu. Korea, especially near Seoul, has a lot of shiny buildings. They're so pretty when the sun is out. I took this picture out of the bus window. We actually had a decent driver on the way back on Sunday. Usually I will do anything to get out of taking a bus, because the drivers are just on this side of sanity. This guy actually honked when he was running the red lights so no one would pull out in front of us. And he didn't stop as suddenly as some at the bus stops.


This is a grand opening for something. I don't know what the business is. It must be a very profitable one since there are so many flower baskets. Usually a grand opening will have one, maybe two here in Dongduchoen. So this must be something really cool. Also taken out of the bus window.


It is hard for me to explain to y'all back home what the apartment buildings in Korea usually look like (I am lucky mine is so small). This reminds me of the movie Bladerunner a bit. Almost all of the urban Korean population live in apartment buildings, and the majority of them all live in buildings like this. I think the field in front had either rice or wheat in it and has been cut - getting ready for spring!

The Subway!

Here are some shots of the subway (which made me look like a tourist, and embarrassed Harland a little, so you better enjoy these!).

I wanted to take Harland's picture, but he insisted he should make it look like an action shot. Don't let him fool you, he isn't really pointing to anything. He's pointing to the wall behind the tracks. I think this is at Yaksu Station.


Here is a picture of a subway train coming. They move rather fast, hence why it is all a blur. This is a different station than the picture of Harland.


Not that anyone really uses these unless the station is extremely crowded... Here are some waiting lines. The people getting off the train get off in the middle, the people waiting to get on the train get on either side of the people coming off. If you look carefully at the picture above you can see the black arrows pointing in both directions. In this next picture you can tell which way we are supposed to go with the same type of black arrow. Only really busy stations seem to have the blue waiting lines. They are certainly needed during rush hour.


Here is a mural in one of the stations (Itaewon Station) as you leave the station. All along these stairs are different murals, but this one of the subway is my favorite.


The station at Noksapyeong decorated for spring with some Azaleas. Sorry it is blurry, but when I took the picture with a flash it was too dark and you couldn't see the colors of the flowers.


Well, Hope you enjoyed a mini tour of the subway!

Spring has Sprung in Seoul

As you may have read in yesterday's post, Harland and I went to Seoul this past weekend. I am going to try and spread the photos over a few days so there is something neat and exciting each day. Today I have for you two photos we took in between the rain showers. Seoul is a bit ahead of Camp Casey weather wise and flower wise. So while there is no hint of green up here yet, down there they have some actual signs of spring! Lucky them!

Here is Harland in front of some forsythia bushes. This is on the main street from the Subway to Yongsan Garrison. We went to the PX there to look for some new reading material. As you can imagine, they have a lot more down there than we do here. Their PX is huge - like a walmart.


Here is me sitting on the side of the sidewalk in front of my favorite flower. Since daffodils only happen for a short time each year, I was pretty excited I got to see some.


Look at my blog tomorrow for some shots of the subway!

This blog's gonna get exciting!

Well hello, Harland and I are freshly back from Seoul. We went for the weekend and we had a good time despite the rain (of course it poured the whole time we were travelling, but upon arrival back to Camp Casey the sun came out).

Anyway, I embarrassed Harland by taking a lot of pictures when we were outside of the hotel. And before you start commenting on how we're still in the honeymoon phase (which I don't deny) we also ate ourselves silly with a gourmet buffet and enjoyed the hotel's huge fitness pool (it had 8 lanes) saunas (your choice of dry or steam) and whirlpool.

We're calling it our belated anniversary and valentine's day rolled into one. But it was nice to sleep on a featherbed with a down comforter and no one to be loud in the hall to wake us up. I also enjoyed a bath which I haven't had since i got here (ewww! I took showers, I promise).

Anyway, it is about an hour past our bedtime, so I will post some pictures over the next few days. I just didn't want you to think I was ingnoring y'all.