Party people!!

On Saturday my friend Lenka hosted a party on her roof for all the people who are leaving soon. It was a good time! Lots of great food. And when Lenka and I were preparing the food we were drinking champagne all day. Now, that is the way to get ready for a party!

Here are some of the appetizers, prosciutto and melon, some smoked salmon and cheese and tomato+mozerella+basil. Also I made some guacamole. I tried something new by adding sun dried tomatoes and it was quite a hit. I made guac out of 5 avacadoes (which is a lot but there were 18 people coming) and there was none left over. So I recommend adding some sun dried tomatoes.



The main dish was pork ternderloin and chicken grilled. It was excellent. I don't know if I have ever had pork grilled this way before I met Lenka, but now I don't wish for it any other way. Here are Dan and Lenka.


Here is a picture of my place from Lenka's roof... My building is on the righthand side. I am only two buildings down from her.


Anyway, it was a beautiful night, once the sun went down it was cool. There was even a slight breeze.


Now here is one thing that is so odd about Korea. Almost every Christian church has a large red neon cross on the top. To me, it looks so eerie. I am not sure how the tradition started. But there were over 16 crosses that we counted from the roof top. I finally got a picture of them, they usually blur quite a bit when I take a picutre so I never had one to show y'all before.

moving, missles and other fun stuff

So yes, I do know there is a ginormous missle in North Korea. No, I did not see it when I was at the DMZ. But thanks to those who sent me e-mail on the subject!!

So yeah, things are I guess a little more tense than normal here. Well, maybe not things. I'm more tense than normal here. :)

And why? Because I haven't posted on this blog in a long time!! And why is that?! because I have been super busy. And not the pretty kind of busy where I take pictures and post them. Sorry. I have just been trying to locate an apartment, find a job, figure out what to pack and what to ship, see my new friends before I have to leave, and shop. And to be honest, I don't feel I have had enough time to do any of these things! Oh well. That is the way it goes everytime you move (and I should know!).

But I do have some pictures to post. Here is a statue at the 3rd tunnel near the DMZ. It is a sculpture representing the two Koreas coming together.

Peace, Love and Happiness to all.

Rick!

Sorry to interupt this DMZ tour. Some of you may know Rick from my stories of a penpal I started writing to in 2002 when he was stationed in Afghanistan. Some of you know him as the guy I bet shirts with for Wisconsin-Auburn bowl games (we're 1-1 right now). But however you might have heard about him, I finally got to meet Rick last evening. (now if you would have told me back in 2002 that I would meet my penpal in Korea 4 years later, I would not have believed you).

So once again - I was proved the world is indeed small. Rick was here to plan some training activites for the Wisconsin National Guard. He was down at Seoul for 5 days. So last night Harland and took the bus and subway down to Seoul to meet up with Rick and another Wisconsian, Mike. We had a good time, and Rick is even cooler in person than via letter.

First stop - Insa-dong.
Here we are after eating a lot. Sorry the picture is blurry. We had some Bulgogi, some Bipimbap, some seafood pancake, some kimchi, and some soup. Also Rick tried out some Korean beer - Cass (slogan, "the sound of vitality") and the rest of us had some Soju. Rick tried it, but some people just don't like the rubbing alchohal aftertaste... I don't know why...

There was a little tea shop outside of the resturaunt and so while we did not have any tea, we did take a picture of it - because it is so pretty and they have birdies.


Also there are a lot of red these days - in honor of the korean Soccer Team.


After that we headed to Namdaemun to do some shopping. It is one of the larger markets. I had negotiated 10 dollars off a bag, but I decided against buying it. I may go back there to get it another day. The guys were looking for items for their loved ones back home.

(hey Dad, don't those peppers look yummy?)

And then we wound back to the Dragon Hill Lodge for a beer and some more talk. Here is another blurry picture of us before I left. we need to get a camera that behaves better in low light situtations.

DMZ part 2

Okay on with our tour.
Today we are going to visit the MAC (Military Armistice Commission) Building. This is where meetings are conducted in an unfriendly atmosphere.
The line goes through the middle of the building, on the table going left to right you can see some microphones in the center of the table. These record 24 hours a day. They also mark the line in the building.

Here is another shot of the same table.

There is the cement line outside the window as well.

Don't tell anyone but I went past the line for about 2 minutes to take a picture. Harland did not.

The next picture is of the flags of countries that participate in the UNC. There used to be a shelf with little actual flags on it. But then one day a North Korean went over there during a meeting, took down the US flag and polished his shoes with it. Now there is a plaque instead.


This next picture is interesting. This is a shot of the door on the North Side. See to your left how the wall has a white spot and so does the door? Well, there is an interesting reason. The white comes from the paint being rubbed off. Why? Because everyday they lock and unlock this door. And apparently the North Koreans used to try and pull the person locking (or unlocking) the door through the door. So now two people have to lock the door. One at the door and the other one holds the other guy while bracing himself on the wall. Before I went to the DMZ I didn't really realize things were still this intense. But they are. South Koreans talk about reunification all the time... but after seeing this, I think it is still a long time coming.

The DMZ

Well, we finally made it to the DMZ. It was a terribly rainy day (and it looks like more rain is on the way today.. But it is almost monsoon season). Anyway, it was very interesting and anyone who comes to Korea should go on a tour to the DMZ.

It may take me a few days to share all these pictures with you, because I want to write a lot about the history in here as well. You'll learn whether you want to or not!!

The first place we went to was the UNCSF-JSA or the United Nations Command Security Force - Joint Security Area at Camp Bonifas. Remember the name Bonifas, as sometime this week I'll mentioning it again. The JSA straddles the military Demarcation Line. I'll show you the line in my pictures.

Now once we went through all the briefings and everything, we hopped on a bus and went through some pretty tough security areas which we were not allowed to take pictures. But I have to say I saw more mine fields than I ever care to. Then we went to the peace house (pictures of that tomorrow) and then we got to see the line. All the blue colored buildings are the UNC buildings and the silver buildings are the ones owned by the North Koreans. Here is an example. Each of these buildings is cut in half by the Demarcation line.



Here are some more pictures of the guards. The American MP gave us the tour. Now if you look in between the buildings, you see that cement line? That is the demarcation line.



Notice you can see people cleaning the steps on the other side (North Koreans!) and they had a guard that obviously doesn't think we're much of anything since he had his back to us the whole time. There is a lot of psychological stuff going on still up there.

Our guide said sometimes the N. Koreans go into this tower and make threatening gestures at the south side.


Also the southside has a tower, here it is... I think they are positioned directly across from one another.

Also if you look at the pictures above and see that the big building across the way has three stories and the top one looks different? It is because when the southside built a new building the North Koreans didn't want a smaller building so they added an extra story. There is nothing on that 3rd floor.

But that is not the most crazy thing I heard about (or saw in action) while I was there. I'll tell you more as the week goes on.

And here is a picture of me, it felt weird to smile in this picture... Here I am smiling in a place that is very tense and weird... Anyway...

Oh and if you want to see a map of where I went...

JUNE PACKAGES

I just wanted to remind everyone that we are leaving Kore on July 13th. Which means, please do not send me any birthday packages, or even cards for I am not sure they will arrive on time. Sometimes packages take a week, but a lot of times they take 3 weeks or 8 weeks for no known reason. So please save anything you might want to send to give to me when you see me next or send it to my parents house. thanks. Birthday e-mails work just as well. Or even a comment on the blog (does anyone even read this anymore?)

Cheese!

Well, I just have to share some good news, I have eaten cheese three times in the last week and not gotten sick! It is all due to a new lactose intolerant pill that I have been using. It is pretty expensive, but so worth it if you are craving some cheese!! I had some powdered parm. on my spaghetti (which I would love to have some real parm. But I'm in Korea, y'all - they don't have any!) and some cheddar/jack shredded mix on bean burritos twice. I haven't eaten a whole lot of cheese (like say some pizza or something) but this is a promising trend. (since velveeta was making me sick and we all know how little cheese is in THAT!).

So that is cool. I look forward to coming to the States and having some Camembert or some shaved Parmesan with some salad. Or maybe even a slice or two of legendary Birdsboro meatball pizza. yum. Tell Dantes (or whatever it is called now) to be ready.

Other than the excitement of dairy, the Red Cross Station manager arrived incountry last evening and was in the office this morning. And so that is very cool... We won't be so stressed out with only two people (and 1 of them a part time volunteer!!).

Harland and I have some possible exciting plans coming up. I won't spoil the surprise. Anyway - happy weekend! And if you see Rebecca and Jason on the 10th - wish them a happy 5th anniversary. If you see my Uncle John on the 10th, tell him happy birthday! If you see Brig and Troy on the 11th wish them a happy 1st anniversary. I won't likely see any of them, unfortunately, but there should be a lot of celebrating out there this weekend.

Now - here are some shots of the landscaping around the Dragon Hill Lodge... A little bit of beauty. You can tell "haze" season has started over here. Now I regret not getting more clear mountain shots. Oh well. Today it massively poured for a few hours which reminds me that monsoon season is on its way.

More pictures!!

Tonight when I was at the gym, I saw a clip of a hockey game. I think maybe perhaps Bruins(?) as I am not up on hockey playoffs this year... Anyway in the crowd was a MAN WEARING A WHALERS JERSEY!!
How cool was that?! Are the whalers coming back? Is this guy just playing it cool? Please do fill me in! I miss the Whalers!!!

On a more somber gym note, I need to get back into shape. I am trying to run a 5K on my birthday. Well not a race, mind you - just me running 5K for fun. I hope I can find some fun runs in the DC area when I get over there. Maybe I should start a running blog?? I'll be lost without two blogs to update!! Anyway I weigh more now than I ever have which is quite depressing. But with running back on my plate it is a start in the right direction. Maybe when I get back to the states I'll go back to being vegetarian... I was a lot thinner when I was running and eating veggies. It is almost impossible to be a vegetarian in Korea... Everything has meat in it at restaurants.

Anyway - after all this babble (see what a glimpse of the Whalers do to me?) here are some pictures!! I call this collection "taken from a bus window":

rice patties...





a study of a guardrail, some bushes, apartments and a mountain.


P.S. Isn't it weird that when I spellcheck here in Blogger... it does not recognize the word "blog"? A little ironic.

mondays (bah!)

Hello! Everyone at work today must have forgotten to do laundry, and only had "crankypants" clean - because that is what they were wearing!! It must be a monday. Plus I had two icky things happen that annoyed me (and I am in a pretty good mood). 1. I spilled my soda and fries onto the floor at the PX at dinnertime while a soldier Harland knows watched (d'oh!) and 2. I had to tink (that's knit backwards... those knitting people are pretty funny) about 6 rows of my newest sock to get rid of a mistake.

Harland is down in Seoul taking care of our friend Charles who had 4 wisdom teeth pulled today (ouchies). So I will be all alone (boo!).

But that means - extra time to knit and blog! (yay!!)

So here are some pictures from the other weekend. The first is a picture of a sunset out of the hotel room.


These next pictures are of the riversides of the main river in Seoul. It is a pretty big river. I will have to get more facts for you on exact measurements. It takes a long time to cross. One of the coolest things about Korea is on the river floodplains on both sides, there are parks where you can bike/walk/play basketball/play soccer/rollerskate/etc. They have these on almost every river. We should have more public space like this in the United States. Also if you are so inclined you can plant gardens alongside the rivers. I will try to tkae pictures of the gardens near here another day.

Well, I got this from Susan, who got it from another blogging friend - funny how fun blogging is, really... anyway, I am happy to see my time south of the mason-Dixon hasn't completley changed my linguistics. (Hey y'all I have been there since 1999!!)

Your Linguistic Profile::

55% General American English

25% Yankee

10% Dixie

5% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

I also made Harland take it.

Your Linguistic Profile::

70% General American English

15% Yankee

5% Dixie

5% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Take the quiz and let me know!! Of course I was disappionted they didn't ask about lunchkettles (lunchboxes) macadem (pavement) and padiddles (cars without one headlight working). But such is life.

Anyway - birthday month so there are roses!!!