Woman eats too much 911 – A woman in Florida who dialed 911 claiming she eats too much has been charged with disorderly conduct and for Misuse of 911. A St. Lucie County Sheriff’s deputy responded to the emergency call at a local Travelers Inn located in the 3400 block of South U.S. 1. Police arrested Mary Ellen Lisee at a Fort Pierce, Florida for disorderly conduct.
The 911 call:
“My name is Mary Ellen Lisee. I have beaten, I believe in God, and He forgives me. I may joke, but I do not do crack. I will not for as long as I live.”
The hotel staff escorted police to her room where Lisee, 45, was yelling incoherently and jumping up and down in excitement.
A man who identified himself as her boyfriend was leaving for the night. He said it was too noisy and he needed to get some sleep. She was extremely loud in the room and in the hotel parking lot.
At that point, police interviewed the woman and asked how they could be of help to her. She stated that they should not be there. However, she did admit to calling them. The woman said she ate too much and dialed 911. Furthermore, when asked if she needed medical attention, the woman declined.
Lisee was then asked if she knew it was unlawful to misuse the 911 emergency systems. After she acknowledged the abuse, she was arrested for disorderly conduct and misusing the emergency system.
While this story is full of humor, it’s important to note that she is obviously abusing alcohol and the offense is a very serious matter. The woman who ate too much and dialed 911 could have clogged up the system during a real emergency. Hopefully, she gets the help she needs and understands that abusing the system can have life or death circumstances. At a minimum, it gets you a trip to jail.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Florida is scary #15
Santa Gets Stuck During His Grand Entrance - Video - KMBC Kansas City
What could delay the delivery of Santa’s gifts this Christmas?
Children might be wondering by now if Santa will have trouble going through their chimneys on Christmas Eve, especially after he got stuck making an entrance in a crowd of kids at a mall.
A man in a Santa Clause costume, hoping to wow kids by rappelling from the top floor of a Florida mall, got stuck after his long white beard was entangled in a rope.
“Santa!” one of the kids from below yelled as he saw helpless Santa struggling to free his stuck beard from the rope.
The announcer, who tried to keep the show rolling, told the kids to sing nice and loudly so they could help Santa come down.
Santa kicked and bounced around but to no avail. In the end, he had no choice but to spoil the kids’ excitement by removing his hat and beard so he could finally get down
Read more: http://www.kmbc.com/holidays/29897225/detail.html#ixzz1fLGcShI1
What could delay the delivery of Santa’s gifts this Christmas?
Children might be wondering by now if Santa will have trouble going through their chimneys on Christmas Eve, especially after he got stuck making an entrance in a crowd of kids at a mall.
A man in a Santa Clause costume, hoping to wow kids by rappelling from the top floor of a Florida mall, got stuck after his long white beard was entangled in a rope.
“Santa!” one of the kids from below yelled as he saw helpless Santa struggling to free his stuck beard from the rope.
The announcer, who tried to keep the show rolling, told the kids to sing nice and loudly so they could help Santa come down.
Santa kicked and bounced around but to no avail. In the end, he had no choice but to spoil the kids’ excitement by removing his hat and beard so he could finally get down
Read more: http://www.kmbc.com/holidays/29897225/detail.html#ixzz1fLGcShI1
Monday, November 14, 2011
Korea four
Ah the boys of summer, the crowds roar, the crack of the bat, the smell of dried squid and boiled octopus in the air. Yes folks, I'm talking about baseball Korean style! Our friendship circle took us to a game. Dr Synn had been trying to discourage this from the very beginning but we were not to be dissuaded from our course. Gary in particular wanted to see a game while in Daegu and it worked out great as the Daegu Lions were playing one of their last regular season games in town. Our friendship circle is all college girls this time and none of them have ever been to a ball game. I'm pretty sure none of them knew the rules either but I'm sure they do now. Korean fans are a die hard bunch. We had a bit of a mixup getting our tickets so didn't get into the stadium in a timely manner. What we didn't know was that they oversell tickets for general seating. There are special seats set aside for little league teams that was cute. They all wore their uniforms and brought their gloves just in case. The assigned seating is like some kind of baseball maniac's club. After the game starts they open the gates to allow those of us without seats to spread out into the reserved sections. As a whole the Korean people are very polite and friendly. Some of their customs however, take some getting used too. Like the thing about personal space. While waiting in line they will press their bodies up against yours and think nothing of it. It's not considered rude at all, it's more of a camaraderie thing. Since we didn't have seats we were pressed into walls and crowds of people waiting for the elusive specail chairs to become available. Gary started to lose his cool at one point which is remarkable as I was on the edge about 20 times. Probably because Gwyndolyn was sandwiched between us and we were using our bodies to create a zone around her. Much to my amazement these polite, socially correct people hog seats! The first ones into the stadium snag a seat plus one on each side. One for their jackets, purse's, doo dad's and such, the other for their food. You have to stand in front of them, point at a seat and ask if it is available. Some of them actually say no even though you know it's open. Others will let you sit down.
The stadium is over 70 years old lacking in modern amenities, which is likely why Dr. Synn didn't want us to go. It's a concrete structure with minimal hand rails and concession stands. I avoided the toilets but you can't help but see into the mens room as the urinals' are all the way up to the missing door. If you are a modest guy, this is not the place for you. Dark dirty corridors under the stands to reach the exit's. The first row of balcony seats had no railings at all. So you sit up on this 5 foot wall, on a chair and sort of hang your legs over it. Super crowded and totally not OSHA safe in any way. You have to be willing to let go of your American idea's when traveling. Other countries don't follow the same rules we do. A fire marshall would have a heart attack over here. Since there clearly weren't enough seats for us all to sit together, or in the same section it was decided to split up. Gary found a spot for him and Gwyndolyn together. I found one in the same section but several rows away. We could look at each other though and hand signal when we needed too. I have no idea where anyone else ended up. I chose a seat beside a young couple who moved a huge greasy paper sack for me to sit down. They were big time fans. Little flashing lights head pieces, long blue tubes of air that you smack together to make noise, faces painted, the whole experience. But oh that paper sack. It smelled awful. At some time during the game I noticed the smell getting over powering and discovered they had taken dried squid out of the bag and were happily munching away. Sort of like a dried pigs ear or rawhide bone. You can smell it, but it isn't until it's been sucked on or chewed on that the aroma gets high. They must have caught me staring as they smiled and offered me my pick of what ever was in the bag. I saw boiled octopus legs, lots of dried fish things and what looked like a bowl of tofu noodles. Hard to turn that down...NOT. They were a pleasant couple though and I let them take pictures of me with them. I'd say 2 out of 3 patrons of the game brought a similar paper sack into the game. The small concession stands were behind us and what ever they were cooking in rancid oil just added to the over all nauseous feeling. Believe me if you ever get a chance to see a game, bring your own food. Or do like the autopsy folks did in Silence of the Lambs and smear something under the nose to mask the smell.
Now onto the game itself. Wild Wonderful Hilarious Outrageous and the best fun in a long time. The Daegu Lions ended up at the top of their division or what ever it's called. They're a pretty good team. To me it looked more like a triple A team. Or a super good high school bunch. Crazy error's, temper tantrums and botched throws abounded. The stadium has a fancy new score board that would show the batter's with their averages and stat's but I don't read hangul so I didn't get much from it. Other than a lot of the advertising was for American products like Subway and Pizza Hut. That is the only modern thing in the stadium. They don't have a PA system so the maniac fans do it for them. Like us, each player has a theme song. Unlike us they don't stop singing it just because the player is at the plate. In USA we stomp, yell and clap until the guy gets to the plate, then we go silent and wait for him to swing or something. The Koreans only get louder when you go to the plate. I wish I could understand what they were saying as I'm sure not all of it was very nice. One half of the stands were singing, cracking those blue tubes of air together and in general screaming or singing all the time. They are wonderful to listen too. No wall flowers allowed. You sing loud, you jump around, you make sure they know you are there for them. The opposing team is brutalized by raucous cat calls and boo's. We hounded the fielders from both teams, depending on the play. We screamed at the umpires, and laughed at the players that struck out. We didn't shush for any batters, we got louder. The stadium rocked or we rocked the stadium. A few Americans in my section, looked like college age kids really got into the action and the crowd cheered them on. You can't get crazy enough to get thrown out. It was a hoot.
Dr. Synn wanted to leave early to avoid traffic so we left in the top of the 7th inning. Just as I made it through the packed crowd to the meeting point, our team hit a home run and the place went wild. I was wrong. I didn't think it would get louder or crazier but they proved me wrong. It was hard making my way out of the stands to get out of there. People grabbed my hands and pulled me into dances, they posed me for pictures, they celebrated without restraint. Gary was on his way back to find me when I finally broke free and made it to the lower caverns.
We all went out for coffee at a "angel in us" coffee shop downtown. It's a chain of shops throughout Republic of Korea (ROK). There were more of us than there were chairs and the little ones like Gwyndolyn, SynnDong and Jenny were up to late and getting out of control. It was a stark contrast from the game though. Our student MiHwa (me wah) gave directions to the driver and then immediately got into an argument with him. I think he was going to a different angel in us and she thought he was trying to go the long way to make extra money. When Korean is spoken softly it is sort of relaxing and soothing sounds. But raise the voice and it all sounds angry. You could be saying "hey I sure missed you I'm so glad we got to see each other" and it's going to sound like "as soon as I get close enough I'm going to punch you out". Maybe not that nicely said.
My whole point here is that Korean Baseball was great. What a wonderful experience.
My trip here is coming to a close and I have so much I haven't told you guys yet. I must get busy.
emily
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Korea Three
I have pictures but every time I try to upload them it freaks out my isp and kicks me off line. I'll try tomorrow. good night all.
So many things going on lately I haven't had time to sit and write. Let's go back to Jeon Ju the historical city. We spent the night in a Korean style hotel room which means no bed or chairs. There was a small fridge and a sink with some dishes making it a suite I guess. The bathroom was separate from the main room and required a small step up to the 'wet area'. Meaning the commode, sink and shower are all in the same area. The towels they offered were similar to what we call a hand towel, only thinner. Again, these are small people but those towels were really tiny. The heating system is in the floor. There was a stack of blankets and pallets on one side of the room. You basically use a quilted pad under you, a spread over you and the pillow is about the size of your forearm and filled with dried seeds. My old bones are used to mattress and box springs so I found it very tough to sleep. I had done a lot of riding in a car then walking around town so my knees were on fire. There was nothing soft about that bed so I used my blanket as a pad between the knees to stop them from touching. It got chilly at night and none of us really understood the heating system so we left it alone. Some friends of ours, The Cotters had a mishap with the heating system in their room so we decided not to touch it once set. Craig Cotter tried to flush the bidet and flooded the bathroom. Then the heating got mixed up so the floor was really hot. Like fry an egg hot. The Russ family planned on meeting the Dr's family to hike to the top of a hill to see the structure up there. I chose not to go so stayed asleep. Once Gary got his morning shower in it was decided to go ahead and try to warm up the room where I was sleeping. I woke up sweating and foggy headed. Seems the heater got turned up higher than they thought and it was about 103F in there. Much to my dismay I couldn't figure out how to open the doors to let myself out or the fresh air in. The room had glassed windows and doors on the front. I could watch the Korean workers fixing breakfast soups and jogging around in the small courtyard getting their day started. I could see how the doors they were opening had an outside piece of wood that they moved to the side to open the door. It was beginning to look like I was locked in with no relief when I finally figured out the inside door locks and was able to get out to sit on the step. I know that doesn't sound like much to you all, but it was a big deal to me, I really thought I might be might be cooked in there.
The city was marvelous with it's historical buildings and living history displays. My favorite was watching the paper makers working. The building was surrounded by tubs of sludge and huge piles of wood strips. Inside the building tables had been set up with stacks of paper drying on them. In one corner I watched a man standing at a large metal homemade looking machine making paper. He would lay a piece of lattice with some kind of liner inside a large tub. Then he'd release water to flow into the tub while he shook it and moved it around to get an equal distribution of sludge looking stuff on the lattice. He ran a piece of blue string down the edge of the newly formed sheet, turned and stacked it neatly on a pile behind him. He had about a 4 inch stack of soupy looking sheets. Then turned back to his machine and do it again. Gary heard the English description saying they would then smash the stack to remove most of the water. I suppose the blue string was to ensure it would still peel apart after being smushed.
We were in a liquor making building but didn't get a good description of it. We did see that raw ingredients were put into large fired clay pots and stirred before having a lid put on. They do have an alcoholic drink here that smells like grain alcohol only stronger if you can believe it and has some sediment that must be stirred before drinking. I think that is what we were looking at. The manufacture of this drink. They do have a rice wine and that also means a sediment. We spent more time at the alcohol exhibition than any place else. lol
Jeon Ju was also the spiritual center of the Joseon dynasty. Or Choson which is the ancient name of the people of Korea. They are not Koreans they are Choson. The dynasty lasted from July 1392 – October 1897 when the Japanese invaded. It is the longest running Confucian dynasty. As the center of this enlightened city there was a formal palace. You have to walk through a big gateway to get inside. The walls of the gateway announce long life, prosperity, good health so that when you walk through them these are your blessings. Beyond the gate is a much thinner gate called the Devils gate. There are red spikes on top of it and most of the architecture is red colors. The theory is that demons are afraid of red and those brave enough to try to pass will get hung up on the spears and not get inside. If you do walk through the gate you can only bring happiness and purity with you since everything else was removed by passing through these 2 gates. Inside the main courtyard there is an actual painting of the last emperor. There were 3 paintings of him done on silk but when the Japanese invaded 2 of them were lost forever. 1 was preserved by house hold servants. They took it down, rolled it up and carried it up into the mountains. The painting was constantly on the move to protect it. Only a few people knew where it was at any given time. The practice worked as the painting has been restored to it's original place. It's actually outside in a covered building, but open to the elements. Amazing it's still here but cool that we can see his image. Now I'm wondering if it isn't the first emperor and not the last. I waited to long to write this. I know it was super old but not sure if it dated back to the 13th century. That seems like a very long time, but it is possible I suppose. I'll try to look that up when I get time. Inside the walled palace grounds was a lovely garden of bamboo. Huge stalks thick as your arms and about 25 or 30 feet tall. Plenty of animals wandering around too. One of the funniest things was a special tree that doesn't grow bark. It is called the naked woman tree and women weren't allowed to see one so as to not embarrass them. So the womens housing was never built where they could see the tree. They kept their purity this way. Gates passing through the sections all had steps up or down and all were small in comparison to us North Americans who keep on getting bigger. Burials are different and sacred to Koreans. Emporer Taejo and his son were buried somewhere on a mountain but the umbillical cords were buried on the grounds. At some point the stone monument and the bodies were moved down to the grounds to be reunited with the umbillical cords. Not sure why that cord was so important but to them it was worth fightiing and dying over.
According to Dr Synn, Jeon Ju is the place where bipimbop was invented. Sort of a regional specialty. We walked to a restaurant that required back alleys and scary looking store openings. By the time we got to it though, the line was huge sort of validating Dr. Synnn's account of this being the best restaurant for bipimbop around. We ate at the #2 spot though and I loved it. No matter what you order the table is filled with tiny bowls full of kimchee and other delicacies that I don't recognize. I do love bean sprout kimchee and after eating all our tables supply Dr Synn had them deliver a bowl of soup to me. It's hot water with 5 or 6 bean sprouts floating in it. That is the soup that is mostly served for breakfast, like our oatmeal, just a lot less substantial. The bipimbop is a bowl of rice with veggies and red curry paste. They either break an egg into the middle of the hot rice to cook or they serve a bowl of steamed egg. One of the side dishes was some sort of clear gelatin squares with a lightly lemon taste to it. It had some leafy veggie in it that I never could identify. It was one of the best things I've tasted in a while. With all the hot spicy food a bit of that gelatin was soothing and perfect. My neighbors in Virginia had told me about bipimbop and they were 100% right. I could eat it 3 times a day and not feel like I was missing anything. I'm definately going to learn how to make it as I think this is a little far to travel for dinner. We had eaten a formal dinner with Dr. Synn and family the night we arrived. We were ushered into little rooms where you sit on mats on the floor, it had a television playing on the wall and a long low table in the middle. Food began arriving on platters with no rhyme or reason I could figure out. There were what I'd say was 3 categories. The first was a grilled beef or pork cooked in pepper sauces. The 2nd was whole fishes on plates, The 3rd category was all the side dishes. These side dishes are at every meal whether you order them or not. You also never know what they are going to be. Just what ever the cook had sitting around that day. All I can get anyone to tell me is they are already prepared and therefore, free. If you finish a side dish,someone will appear immediately to remove the empty bowl and replace it immediately. So if you are a member of the clean plate club you are in trouble here. You simply can not clean your plate without someone refilling it for you. Does no good to wave your hands and say no no. They smile and do it anyway. But the dinner was a lot of fun and I discovered a dish with thinly sliced strips of cucumber with a green leafy veggie mixed in it. Soggy veggie like maybe it's spinach and I just don't know it.
We spent the evening and next day wandering around this wonderful little city gawking at the sights. Some festival was going on so they had extra stuff like little girls in costume looking like our ballerina schools rushing around the streets. Street musicians, a calligrapher selling poems and texts on the street, and plenty of people and noise. There was a Catholic Church we got to visit briefly where I had hoped to light a candle for Matthew and Nick, but they didn't have any available. I've been lightingn candles all over the world, seemed odd to me not to find them here. Oh, jump forward to today and I also learned this is the one country that the Catholic's did not populate. Protestant's did though. There were 2 doctor missionaries in Daegu. They had a patient, probably someone important, brought to them and were told if you can cure him we will believe in your God because he is too sick for our own doctors. Nothing will help him. The American doctors treated him and he lived so they converted by the thousands. We brought the concept of surgery to Korea also, which to them was like a miracle. The American Christian doctors were healing people who normally would have died. Close enough to a miracle to get a strong foot hold in Korea. A group of Korean's who had been living in China and came to be Catholic's brought the religion back with them. There is a small Catholic Church with their pictures on the front of it. It is absolutely dwarfed by the huge Protestant Church directly behind it. There were 2 women and about 10 men. I didn't actually count but just looked at the pictures.
Now, back to Jeon Ju. Lovely cobble stoned streets worn thin from thousands of years of villagers walking around on them. The tiled roof with upturned corners jutting out over our heads gave us a feeling of antiquity swirling around us. Narrow streets that used to be only donkey, horse, oxen or people now having SUV's parked along it. Makes traffic quite a trick to get around in. Korean's honk their horns a lot. But they do it politely to inform other cars of their position. Good thing to with all the lane switching that goes on here. Phew, I could tell some tales there! American's honk horns mostly in anger. Get out of my Way you knucklehead type deal. We don't honk as much (except New York City where it is obligatory) but when we do it we mean business. Here the noise is constant, light little taps of I'm here, I'm here.
We took the short way home as Gary had volunteered to teach an English class for some professor. Keep in mind on the way to Jeon Ju we drove 2 hours South before Dr. Synn caught up to us to tell us we were going in the wrong direction. So it was a much longer trip getting there than it was coming home. If you know Gary, well, you know what I'm talking about. These things just seem to happen around him a lot.
notes on the side.
Gary participated in the "walk a mile in her shoes" campaign here on post. It's for awareness of domestic violence. He wore his military pants, a black tee shirt that says Walk a mile in her shoes and high heels. Stiletto style. It wasn't a mile but it was enough! About 50 soldiers were in the march including a lot of young Korean men who weren't too happy about it. They either laughed it up and posed funny or hid in the back and scowled. Nothing inbetween. Some of the guys looked great! Gary found standing still in the heels to be painful so was pushing them to finish the speeches and get to walking. He started near the front of the pack. Before they got out of the small parking lot he had fallen to the rear. Every step he could you could watch the muscles on the side of his face twitch. His bright pretty shoes even had the long pointed toes on them. By the time they got to the end of the street no other marchers were in sight except Gary, slowly plodding along with determination. He wasn't going to be the first but he was going to finish by God. I cut across the golf course where some Korean women had been playing but were standing watching the spectacle. They asked me what was going on and when I told them they fell apart laughing. They want to start this tradition with Korean men too. The Katusa's (Korean Aid to United States soldiers) who did the walk all brought shoes and I got to watch them walking off post with some Korean women who were laughing hard at the young mens faces of pain. Too funny.
Korean food remains a mystery to me. I've never ordered in a Korean restaurent. You just sit down and food starts coming. Reasonably priced too which makes it all the stranger. I have been doing well with asking if there is fish in things and usually find something to eat. I was going to a tofu restaurent yesterday with some Korean women who assured me tofu was all about soybeans. But right as we were ready to make the turn they mentioned it was boiled in fish broth! I told them to go ahead, I would eat side dishes and maybe something later, but they found a place that serves chopped beef steak instead. Same thing, we walked in, sat down and the table started filling up. The menu must have had 30 things on it but without even asking we all ate the chopped beef steak. Last night there was a reception as this super upscale hotel and it was served buffet style. I was unsure about a few things so passed them by. I did eat some wonderful barbecued tofu, herb grilled chicken, beef chunks in bbq style sauce and beef pot stickers. Only the pot stickers didn't taste right to me. Normally I love beef on a skewer like that and these had sliced almonds and green onions on them too. But it was too rubbery and I didn't like it at all. I discreetly scraped the sauces off of it and discovered I was eating some kind of animal kidney flayed open with the stick run through it. Oh my! I had taken 2 of them off the tray, now what was I going to do with them? But I get ahead of myself. Food here is something of a miracle and I don't understand the process at all. But I find I can eat more of it than I thought I would be able too.
This seems to be about SeoMun market, I'm not sure when I typed it so will just stick it on here.
In general the Korean's eat a lot of fish. Oh lets be honest, it it once lived in the ocean they eat it. An amazing array of fish and byproducts. Korea is a peninsula that is very mountainous. Tough to plant crops on these mountain sides. So they turned to the most natural source of food and that is the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea. Seaweed is another staple of their diet and it's not so bad. Salty and tough to tear off chewable chunks but I can do it. That's it though, I don't want smashed squid or octopus legs. I didn't know there were that many octopus' in the ocean. Maybe they have a farm of them someplace. Like we farm catfish. The curled up tentacles must be good to seafood minded people cause there sure are a lot of them for sale. We ate at a French Baguette cafe for breakfast and I was relieved. I eat as much local food as I can because I want to experience everything but my stomach must be touchy or something. It is not unusual to be queasy the day after I eat a whole meal. Oh, except for hotta, not sure of the spelling. It's a Korean pan cake. They take a doughy ball and smash it flat, add sugar/cinnamon to the center with some finely chopped peanuts. It gets folded back up into a ball then placed on a hot griddle. It gets smushed flat again and cooked on both sides. The griddle is specially made so a bar runs up the middle. As the pancake is thick they push it up against the bar to make sure the outer edge gets cooked too. Talk about a taste treat. melt in your mouth goodness.
I try not to think about the sanitary systems as there really aren't any. I am hoping the heat kills most germs. They have no idea of Osha standards in the workplace. You would give the fire marshall a heart attack if he saw what the inside of buildings look like. Same with electrical stuff. People hook themselves onto power lines illegally to bleed off electricity for their own use. The power poles are a mess of wires. I witnessed a man trying to repair a tangle of wires because one was drooping down to head level. His ladder was made of bamboo. Made total sense to me. I wouldn't want anything metal around there. There are no escape routes from buildings, you just run and hope for the best. Same with driving. If there are laws out there everyone ignores them. Lot's of modes of transportation. To the usual flow of cars and truck we add small motor scooters, bicycles, strange little hand carts pulled by a home made scooter and just plain old people power. Driving successfully has something to do with guts and chutzpa. I am happy to leave the driving to someone else. Not me. Karen zips around in traffic like an old pro. I don't have much opportunity to drive with Gary but each time I have been with him, we got lost. Only 2 of them were his fault though. On one occasion the whole caravan got lost. Gary has a trickster for the angel on his shoulder. likes to keep things mixed up some.
Oh Gwyndolyn just came screaming into the room that there was a bee in her room and she wanted me to do something about it. As we walked down the hallway a house fly buzzed past and she pointed and yelled there it is, while ducking behind my back. She is now hiding in her room saying she'll come out when all the bee's are gone. She doesn't believe me that they are flies and won't bite or sting. Silly girl. She remains the great love of my life despite a new habit of getting close to your face and screaming aaarrrrggghhh! Sort of like Lucy yelling after Snoopy licks her on the lips. Or Linus in frustration. It's loud enough to make my ears hurt. That and she insists on doing my hair in various styles most of which draw stares when I go outside. We walk to swimming class and she talks nonstop the whole time. I am trying to walk for exercise but she insists on going along and almost immediately begins to whine that it's too long and she wants to go home, or look I've never been on that playground before and so on. I'm not getting much exercise in but am getting great at patience. Other than Barbie.I've about had it with Barbie. Bored bored bored. Oh, I did wrap Ken up as a mummy for Halloween against her wishes and he looks really cute. I plan on leaving him that way at least until I get some good pictures for my kill greg website.
Now that I've finished this one we can move onto Korean baseball.
emily
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Florida is scary #16
LAKE CITY, Fla. — The battle for pizza supremacy has taken a wrong turn in Florida.
Stampede! C'mon — what's not to like?
Hoof it over to Facebook to join the weird news herd.
..Two managers of a Domino's Pizza restaurant in Lake City, in north-central Florida, have been charged with burning down a rival Papa John's location.
The motive? Police say one of the men admitted that he believed with his competitor out of the way, more pizza lovers would flock to his restaurant.
The Papa John's was gutted in the Oct. 20 fire.
Sean Everett Davidson, 23, and Bryan David Sullivan, 22 were arrested Thursday and Friday, respectively, and booked on an arson charge each and were being held in jail.
The Star-Banner of Ocala reports that police are still looking for an ignition device that the men claimed they made but did not use to start the fire.
Police said the suspects described a device made out of a clack, a nine-volt battery, a golf ball-size amount of black gunpowder and a plastic bag, the newspaper reported.
The suspects allegedly told police that they dismantled the device and threw the parts out of their vehicle along Interstate 75.
Police warned anyone finding an odd device along the highway not to touch it.
Stampede! C'mon — what's not to like?
Hoof it over to Facebook to join the weird news herd.
..Two managers of a Domino's Pizza restaurant in Lake City, in north-central Florida, have been charged with burning down a rival Papa John's location.
The motive? Police say one of the men admitted that he believed with his competitor out of the way, more pizza lovers would flock to his restaurant.
The Papa John's was gutted in the Oct. 20 fire.
Sean Everett Davidson, 23, and Bryan David Sullivan, 22 were arrested Thursday and Friday, respectively, and booked on an arson charge each and were being held in jail.
The Star-Banner of Ocala reports that police are still looking for an ignition device that the men claimed they made but did not use to start the fire.
Police said the suspects described a device made out of a clack, a nine-volt battery, a golf ball-size amount of black gunpowder and a plastic bag, the newspaper reported.
The suspects allegedly told police that they dismantled the device and threw the parts out of their vehicle along Interstate 75.
Police warned anyone finding an odd device along the highway not to touch it.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Korea two
Today I went to the sun moon market. That's seomun to those who speak the language. We walked off post to the subway station. I lugged my camera with me only to discover I had taken the digital card out of it so had zero memory. Bummer. I tried to take a picture of the name of the home station so I would know where to return too. Had to walk down several flights of stairs so gave me a chance to try and pick the best foot position for the knee. I was doing great until the bottom step which I missed. Ended up falling into a ball stretching my knee in new and exciting positions. Karen looked at me on the floor and asked 'do we need to go back'. Once the waves of nausea passed I discovered I was able to get up and walk around okay. Much to my surprise my big toe on the other foot hurt the most. I'm used to the knee pain. The subway was clean and nice. Young students filled most of the seats and aren't good about letting old folks use them but that is pretty universal. I did okay hanging onto a strap along with the other oldsters. My blondish white hair creates a stir and I plenty of stares. The market was sort of like an outdoor mall. There are 4 huge buildings with 3 or 4 floors on a corner. The roofs are connected by canopies to keep off the rain making it into a sort of building. The aisles are narrow and packed with goods and people. They have sections or areas designated to certain things. I tried to stay out of the fish aisles but no matter where you go you run into it. The 'food court' was made up of small booths with knee level chairs situated around a pot of boiling water and another pot of possibly hot oil. You just set down and choose your ingredients since they are spread out on trays around you. Noodles appear at 90% of the meals. So do mushrooms and what I can only guess is sections of large intestines of cows. Our friendship circle does not recommend we eat them as they aren't always sanitary. They looked positively nasty so it wasn't much of a worry I was going to eat them. Silk worm pupae is a special treat though and you walk past baskets of little brownish black pupae (dead unborn bugs) which they roll in cornmeal of some type and deep fry. It's a lot like getting almonds in a cone I think. Special treat. We walked past many vendors crouched on the sidewalks leading up to the market buildings selling all kinds of fresh produce, mud still attached. Plastic buckets filled with teaming masses of eels, live crabs, and dried flattened fish. Since the country is surrounded by ocean seafood is a big part of the diet. Squid and octopus show up on the dinner plate frequently. I saw a woman on a truck netting up what looked like sting rays into buckets for sale. Flipping wings and trying to escape I felt sad for them. I love the manta rays and would like to protect them as much as I can. Several places sell socks! There is even a whole street labeled sock street. They had plenty of booths selling them inside the market. Leggings, clothes, fabric's, herbs, misc stuff, many many jewelry shops filled with swarvorski crystal pieces so glittery it turns the head. Cookwear, shoes, quilts, bedding of all kinds, shops making and selling homb bocks the traditional womens dress up dress. They are lovely and I would love to own one but I think they might be too expensive for me. Plus I am too big so they would have to special make one for me. I did buy an outfit today that is natural fibers. It comes with pants and shirt. They had to look hard to find one that fit me, but luckily they specialize in large arms for style but it made it possible to get my arms into it. I think I'm looking pretty snazzy when all dressed up. I plan on buying more. Truly, everywhere Iook I like the clothing here. Except the ubiquitous sporting goods. Shoes are similar to Europe meaning not many walking / running shoes. Plenty of jeweled slippers though, super high heels, short boots and flats rule the day. All colors, mostly small sizes. My gal pal Panda would have a blast here. Shoes shoes shoes. It is still my intention to try as many native dishes as possible but keeping out of the fish arena is proving difficult. It is a main stay of the diet. I still gag when I get a mouthful which seems so disrespectful. I prefer to just stay out of it completely. This is another country that doesn't use much processed sugar. A cake here is almost like bread with just a touch of sweetness, mostly in the frosting. Karen bought me a treat at the market that was probably their version of a funnel cake. It was an egg rich dough that smelled like french toast. It was filled with a cinnamon apple butter with nuts in it. They put it on a skillet type drum and cook both sides then fold it in half and put in a paper cup for you. Very tasty and the sweetest thing I've eaten since my arrival. I plan on getting it at least one more time.
I came home to rest my swollen knees after the fall and much walking and ended up sleeping for 5 hours. It is now night time and I'm a bit more awake than I wish i was. Going to go back to sleep though and keep these knees elevated as much as I can.
Oh, a loud speaker came over the camp today announcing some kind of exercise and I saw lots of soldiers marching around with guns. Helicopters flying over and plenty of noise. Someone stopped in front of our house and took notes on a clip board. I had the shades pulled up to let in light and wondered if that is what they were looking at. Guess we will find out in a couple of days. Golfers didn't even pause in their play. They wear gloves, arm covers, hats, neck guards and sometimes face protectors to keep the sun off. I bet the rate of skin cancer is pretty low here. Driving ranges are spotted around the city of Daegu. Guess it's a big time sport event now. Most of the golfers I see here on post are Korean. I see Mr. Shin frequently as he cleans several houses in this section. His English is limited and he's a bit stingy on smiles but he's a hard worker and very dedicated to his job. The streets are almost leaf free as they have a group that goes around with rakes and an old fashioned broom made of sticks constantly sweeping. This is true downtown too. Every market has a stick broom leaning outside or close by. No fancy store bought brooms for these guys. All natural, all the time.
Went back to the market today and got some photo's which I shall post soon. I took a photo of a pile of intestines, lungs and livers and suddenly a woman popped up started calling me madame and pumping my hand. She wouldn't let go, she was very excited and happy. She is in Korea on vacation from Thailand and invited me to sit down and have lunch with them. Lunch being those same intestines I had been looking at with disgust. She introduced me to her friend and asked about Karen. In hindsight I should have stopped for pictures. She was that excited to meet me. I wore my one purchase, a Korean casual pant suit and was the center of everyone's attention. It was quite a sight. Everyone said hello and commented on my attire. In the traditional homback area they loved me and I loved them. I plan on going back on Friday to purchase an outfit I liked but didn't have enough money for. I truly love these fashions, especially the natural fibers and colors. Tomorrow the neighbor is taking us to the fabric market and I am hoping to get some good stuff there.
We ate on post tonight at a place called Hilltop. It's Gwyndolyn's fave restaurant. They all know her there and she doesn't even have to order, they all know exactly what she wants. There was a liveband tonight, basically 3 women wearing tight skimpy attire singing with a back up band. All of it sounded alike to me, until the last song. The skinniest one started rapping! It was so hard not to break out with laughter. It was just so incongrous, this little Korean chick singing rap and dancing with one hand sort of stuck in front of her pants, like the gangsta rappers do. I absolutely loved it. At one point Gwyndolyn and I got up and danced on the dance floor. Lot's of twirls for her and an occasional dip. Mostly we swayed and enjoyed ourselves. We were the only dancers all night and got the biggest applause when done. Even bigger than the band. What a hoot that was. Magic moments. She walked home with her belly pointed at the sky insisting she was pregnant and ready to pop. She still plans on marrying MyJohn. She asked me tonight if he was married and when I said no, she told me to make him wait until she got old enough. Next time we skype she plans on proposing. Actually she won't propose she will just inform him of what is already a done deal in her mind.
This past weekend we went to a town called Jeon Ju sounds like g on jew. It is a historical city that the emperor Lee lived in. The Jeosin or Geo sin dynasty was centered here. The last Korean dynasty it went from 1302 to 1910 when the Japanese invaded. In the old section of the city a lot of original buildings still stand and are in use today. Many have been renovated carefully to match the surrounding architecture. Between Gary's adventure spirit and Dr. Shin's directions we started out about an hour and a half in the wrong direction. It was a nice drive for me as I got to see a lot of the surrounding countryside, which is mostly mountains. I saw lots of small areas Gary called happy mounds. They are burial sites for ancestors, they are cleared places in forested moutains with these mounds of dirt about 3' X 5' by 3' tall. The rich folks have buddha statues or some kind grave marker surrounding them. Those mounds tend to be enclosed in marble or concrete but the top of the dirt is still showing. Apparently for last months chew sock holiday people would go to these burial mounds to bow to their ancestors and leave little gifts of food and notes. Gary says there are sometimes land disputes as the happy mounds are not official cemetaries but the countryside is dotted with them. Often with the land being owned by someone other than by the deceased family. This part of Korea is mountainous with small valleys filled with buildings and people. I think about the Korean War and the soldiers having to march & climb these unforgiving hills. It must have been brutal, especially in winter. In 1910 the Japanese pretty much stripped the mountains of trees to build cities and I suppose to open land for fortification. I should look this up as I am relying on spoken history without facts to back it up. I was also told that the trees were so decimated that for many years it was illegal to even climb a tree in some areas for fear of damaging them. These forests are full of tangled undergrowth and I would normally think a huge fire hazard, but South Korea gets a lot of rain so things stay pretty damp. Every couple of miles the highways cut through mountains with tunnels. In one of the longer ones there was a siren blowing inside the whole time we drove through. Pretty nerve wracking as it sounded a lot like an ambulance was coming up from behind and we kept looking for it. I really liked driving by the terraced rice paddies. This is harvest time so the fields are dry and the rice is heavy yellow stalks bent over with the seed pods. Somehow this computer has deleted and reinserted paragraphs several times. I think I"ll stop now and send this before spending hours going into details about the trip that disappear immediately after writing it down. To be continued...
I came home to rest my swollen knees after the fall and much walking and ended up sleeping for 5 hours. It is now night time and I'm a bit more awake than I wish i was. Going to go back to sleep though and keep these knees elevated as much as I can.
Oh, a loud speaker came over the camp today announcing some kind of exercise and I saw lots of soldiers marching around with guns. Helicopters flying over and plenty of noise. Someone stopped in front of our house and took notes on a clip board. I had the shades pulled up to let in light and wondered if that is what they were looking at. Guess we will find out in a couple of days. Golfers didn't even pause in their play. They wear gloves, arm covers, hats, neck guards and sometimes face protectors to keep the sun off. I bet the rate of skin cancer is pretty low here. Driving ranges are spotted around the city of Daegu. Guess it's a big time sport event now. Most of the golfers I see here on post are Korean. I see Mr. Shin frequently as he cleans several houses in this section. His English is limited and he's a bit stingy on smiles but he's a hard worker and very dedicated to his job. The streets are almost leaf free as they have a group that goes around with rakes and an old fashioned broom made of sticks constantly sweeping. This is true downtown too. Every market has a stick broom leaning outside or close by. No fancy store bought brooms for these guys. All natural, all the time.
Went back to the market today and got some photo's which I shall post soon. I took a photo of a pile of intestines, lungs and livers and suddenly a woman popped up started calling me madame and pumping my hand. She wouldn't let go, she was very excited and happy. She is in Korea on vacation from Thailand and invited me to sit down and have lunch with them. Lunch being those same intestines I had been looking at with disgust. She introduced me to her friend and asked about Karen. In hindsight I should have stopped for pictures. She was that excited to meet me. I wore my one purchase, a Korean casual pant suit and was the center of everyone's attention. It was quite a sight. Everyone said hello and commented on my attire. In the traditional homback area they loved me and I loved them. I plan on going back on Friday to purchase an outfit I liked but didn't have enough money for. I truly love these fashions, especially the natural fibers and colors. Tomorrow the neighbor is taking us to the fabric market and I am hoping to get some good stuff there.
We ate on post tonight at a place called Hilltop. It's Gwyndolyn's fave restaurant. They all know her there and she doesn't even have to order, they all know exactly what she wants. There was a liveband tonight, basically 3 women wearing tight skimpy attire singing with a back up band. All of it sounded alike to me, until the last song. The skinniest one started rapping! It was so hard not to break out with laughter. It was just so incongrous, this little Korean chick singing rap and dancing with one hand sort of stuck in front of her pants, like the gangsta rappers do. I absolutely loved it. At one point Gwyndolyn and I got up and danced on the dance floor. Lot's of twirls for her and an occasional dip. Mostly we swayed and enjoyed ourselves. We were the only dancers all night and got the biggest applause when done. Even bigger than the band. What a hoot that was. Magic moments. She walked home with her belly pointed at the sky insisting she was pregnant and ready to pop. She still plans on marrying MyJohn. She asked me tonight if he was married and when I said no, she told me to make him wait until she got old enough. Next time we skype she plans on proposing. Actually she won't propose she will just inform him of what is already a done deal in her mind.
This past weekend we went to a town called Jeon Ju sounds like g on jew. It is a historical city that the emperor Lee lived in. The Jeosin or Geo sin dynasty was centered here. The last Korean dynasty it went from 1302 to 1910 when the Japanese invaded. In the old section of the city a lot of original buildings still stand and are in use today. Many have been renovated carefully to match the surrounding architecture. Between Gary's adventure spirit and Dr. Shin's directions we started out about an hour and a half in the wrong direction. It was a nice drive for me as I got to see a lot of the surrounding countryside, which is mostly mountains. I saw lots of small areas Gary called happy mounds. They are burial sites for ancestors, they are cleared places in forested moutains with these mounds of dirt about 3' X 5' by 3' tall. The rich folks have buddha statues or some kind grave marker surrounding them. Those mounds tend to be enclosed in marble or concrete but the top of the dirt is still showing. Apparently for last months chew sock holiday people would go to these burial mounds to bow to their ancestors and leave little gifts of food and notes. Gary says there are sometimes land disputes as the happy mounds are not official cemetaries but the countryside is dotted with them. Often with the land being owned by someone other than by the deceased family. This part of Korea is mountainous with small valleys filled with buildings and people. I think about the Korean War and the soldiers having to march & climb these unforgiving hills. It must have been brutal, especially in winter. In 1910 the Japanese pretty much stripped the mountains of trees to build cities and I suppose to open land for fortification. I should look this up as I am relying on spoken history without facts to back it up. I was also told that the trees were so decimated that for many years it was illegal to even climb a tree in some areas for fear of damaging them. These forests are full of tangled undergrowth and I would normally think a huge fire hazard, but South Korea gets a lot of rain so things stay pretty damp. Every couple of miles the highways cut through mountains with tunnels. In one of the longer ones there was a siren blowing inside the whole time we drove through. Pretty nerve wracking as it sounded a lot like an ambulance was coming up from behind and we kept looking for it. I really liked driving by the terraced rice paddies. This is harvest time so the fields are dry and the rice is heavy yellow stalks bent over with the seed pods. Somehow this computer has deleted and reinserted paragraphs several times. I think I"ll stop now and send this before spending hours going into details about the trip that disappear immediately after writing it down. To be continued...
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Korea one
Time to start naming these things with numbers to keep them in order.
Yaki mandu, was there ever a more delightful word? It is pronounced yock e mon due and is basically a fried shell with rice noodles, onions, scallions and stuff I don't recognize packed inside. I really love these things and haven't had them in years. I wonder why? I also truly love a dish called bulgoki or bull go gee. Seen several different spellings on that one but the pronounciation remains the same. Still haven't tried bibimbop (?) soup yet but do plan on it as it comes highly recommended.
Our doorknobs don't have keys. It is a numbered keypad so you don't have to worry about forgetting your keys someplace. Frankly, I like it this way. So long as you can remember your personal code you can get into the house. GW gave me a mini course on how to do it.
Gwyndolyn asked to be called either Gwyn or G W. I truly think she prefers G W, but am sticking with Gwyn for now. All the teachers at school call her Gwyn per her request. I like that she has stated a preference.
G W and I have been playing catch every evening with a Larry the Cucumber stuffed toy. I couldn't find a ball at first and considering the control and variety of pitches she use's I'm glad for old soft sided Larry. It only hurts when one of his plastic eyes hits me. All us gal folks are trying to learn to hula hoop. Karen and I look pretty danged funny and I'm glad no one is videoing us. I used to be the hula hoop queen when I was younger but now can't seem to remember whether to move hips or belly or knees so everything gets involved. It ain't pretty. Plenty of laughs though so we keep at it.
Michael Jackson is still pretty hot here although you can't imagine how fun it sounds to hear Thriller in Korean. The music is the same but the words sure aren't. Depending on where you are when you hear it, you get either version but you do get it. lot's of it.
We went on a wine making tour couple of days ago that was pretty neat. The main bottling plant gave us a mini tour of what the different farmers do and took us outside to a bus. We passed a group of Korean school children maybe 5 or 6 years old. Maybe younger as they looked so small but most Koreans are pretty small compared to us. The children were shouting 'hello hello hello' and waving their hands at us. We all responded hello which made them giggle and jump about. Gwynn had taught me how to say hello in Korean so I bowed and said "on ya say so" which broke them up laughing. I did get several bows back and later learned the correct way to say it is on ya say oh. I'm going to give up on trying to use correct spelling as I'm probably wrong and those of you using screen readers would get it quicker than having to back tract by letter. Those kids were great and helped make the day for me.
The winery had only been open for one year so vintage 2010 was the hit. They had us walk down into the carefully maintained vineyards to pick our own grapes. The walk past rice fields and different vegetable patches was an experience all by it's self. We took our grapes to a room with tables and began squishing them into plastic tubs. Messy work with lots of laughs, they added sugar as their soil is different than California's and the sugar content is lower. A couple of bits of stuff to kill any germs and yeast for those wanting to make wine. Our buckets are now sitting in the utility room where they get stirred twice a day for a week. It looks pretty ugly with the skins floating on top although it does smell pretty good. G W and I are making grape juice out of ours. The stuff they served at the winery was cold and thick and very delicious. I want more of it! Heck with the wine the juice was the best treat.
The drive there and back was an adventure too. My first time to get outside into the countryside and really see things. The clusters of little buildings in farming communities. The rice fields patchworked with what I think is grape vines. They all have coverings to keep bugs and birds off and they lay mats down between the rows so you can easily walk out to pick. I think most of the picking is still done by hand unlike Italy where they use a giant vacuum cleaner type deal.
Throw this in while I am thinking about it.Seoul is still Seoul. The airport is Incheon! There might be a small town near it named that also.
We had a contest to see who picked the grape with the highest sugar content. A 3 year old girl won that one. We also spit grape skins for distance. My spit was only a couple of feet but one woman spit about 15 feet and landed it on her husbands head! Plus she had a baby in her arms while doing it. She got the prize for spitting. The kids got to run around and play on some gravel and dirt behind the main buildings. Gwynn fell and skinned up her knee. She jumped to her feet and said "I'm alright, I'm alright". She ran another lap and fell again skinning the other leg and making a bloody mess on both legs. She again jumps up and says "I'm alright" Then she spreads her hands out in this funny adult gesture and says "okay everyone.. I....am....alright...it's okay". Cute as a button and quite the little trooper as her entire legs are scratched along with arms and hands. She falls a lot, always has, we think it might have something to do with depth perception (she is near sighted) and (I think) her skinny ankles. She has what used to be described as a well turned ankle. Now I think of it as a frequently turned ankle cause she does go down a lot. Tough chicka as she bounces right up. I've seen her whack her side into a table hard enough to stagger the table, she'll pause, suck in her breath and sort of mentally shake it off with an I"m alright exclamation.
After leaving the vineyard we stopped at a restaurant that specializes in Bulgogi. We were going to one that has bone soup but one of the guests insisted she hated it so we wound up going to the one all American's like. Bulgogi. I am still happily eating it as it is so good. We took off our shoes at the entrance then sit on the floor at these low tables. Each table has a wok like pan sitting on a gas burner. There is a special vent that hangs from the ceiling down to just above that pan to keep steam away. The wok has a bubbling stew of meat on the bottom, then onions and spices on top of that. On the very top is a circle of rice noodles making the whole thing look like art. You are given scissors, spoons, chopsticks and tongs. You start by cutting the noodles up and then the meat. A server came along and helped me with mine. I don't know if I was that bad or if he was that helpful. Knowing the Koreans now I suspect it was his wanting to help an American. Our tables full of white faces is still enough of a difference that we stand out. They had side dishes of kimchee, spicy fish, sea weed, bean paste and rice. I took some pictures but wish I had photographed everything.
There are lots of mountains around us, not as high or as steep as rockies, more of a gentler look to them. I suppose age may have something to do with it as I've been told the rockies are a young mountain range. Not sure what accounts for young when you are around the million mark.
Last night Gary and I went to dinner with a fellow soldier Katie and Dr Shin. His name is spelled s y n n although it's pronounced shin just like our yard man. We ate at an Italian restaurent that was reserved for a performance by some Korean opera singers. 2 women soprano's although one of them seemed more like an alto to me. But heck, I am definately not a songstress as you all know. They opened their mouths to sink and I was carried away by such beautiful voices. The pianist was marvelous too, but oh those voices. Don't cry for me Argentina was sang in Korean except for the title line which was in English. You didn't have any trouble figuring out what the song was though as soon as she started it. Wow. Their dresses looked like 1920's vamp. They were so beautiful to look at and listen to I felt transported to a wonderful dream land. They each did 5 songs, but we called them back for several encores. The owner of the restaurent is a Korean man who goes by the name of Carlo. He was solicitous of us and one of those sparkly people who love what they are doing in life.
Karen had made a pumpkin dessert for the first get together with the new kids in the Korean / American friendship circle. Dr. Shin must have really enjoyed it as the next day he asked to have some of it to take home to his wife. Then he added his Mother in Law who lives with them. I'm thinking he liked it just fine. He even came home from the restaurant last night to get it and take it home. He's a nice man. An internist. I had all I could do not to pump his brain for information on Nick.
Speaking of Nick, those of you who don't know this. Nick is a member of my extended family. He is terribly sick right now, in Intensive care with a huge MRSA infection throughout his entire body. He has a liver problem so his immune system is always low leaving him open to infection. This time it got really bad really fast. The doc says 6 to 12 weeks minimum in intensive care. He's in a lot of pain and is one sick little boy. Oh, Nick is 11. Pnumonia + cracked rib + fluid collecting around liver & spleen + kidneys not working. Nicks very sick and I am asking you guys to pray for him. His whole family is suffering right now. So those of you who are the praying type, add Nick Bowne to your list. Those of you who aren't... well... this would be a good time to start.
Daegu is a huge active city. The streets right around the military posts look kind of run down and seedy during the day. A bit better at night when all the lights come on, but still run down. The rest of the city is very clean, bright, colorful and crowded. Bill boards here are metal posts about 10 yards apart. They stretch colorful banners between the posts. Most of them are about 24 inches high and fill up all the space between the poles. Even high rise buildings have neon lights and banners on each floor. They love their colors here and use them happily.
There are restaurants that have metal drums with a table top attached to them. The top of the drum has a grill plate. You sit on chairs around the drum and cook your own food. The servers bring you plates of raw meat and veggies. You sit around chatting while cooking. Everyone eats from the same pot. The same as with the bulgogi. I can't get the hang of chop sticks yet. My fingers twirl around those metal sticks and food goes flying. I'm going to start carrying plastic forks around with me.
Speaking of food. Every salad here has been mouth watering, delicious. If I can find a cookbook with salad making instructions in English I'm bringing it back with me. I keep getting caught up in the darned fish stuff but can cover by filling up on salad. The dinner with the opera singers was 7 courses and at least 5 of them involved shrimp or clams. I thought I would be safe with the ravioli but it was the fishiest of them all. Gary and I exchanged plates several times during dinner so he could eat my fish stuff and I ate the salad. He's a great guy to serve as a back up for me.
Yesterday while walking to the taxi stand Gwyn suddenly announced she is going to marry MyJohn when she wakes up! Just out of the blue like. They are going to have a lot of babies, 3 of which are going to be named Lydia, Mina and Hercules. I asked what about me and she flipped her wrist at me and said, oh you can marry someone else and be our kids Grandmother. Cute kid, eh?
Katie spent a weekend at a Buddhist temple learning about their lives. She did 108 'fetal position' bows and walked a quarter mile where you take 3 steps then kneel and bow. Her muscles were so sore the next day she could hardly move. They ate the same food as the monks and slept on the temple floor on blankets same as the monks. She had a blast and learned a lot. She's a good advocate for America as she will try anything. Some other Americans actually demanded better food and then walked out! It was very embarrassing for Katie. She put the tour together and had been very specific about what to expect. Why would you sign up for something and then not want to do it? She is still embarrassed and hurt by it.
Small post, lots of walking. I've lost 7 pounds! My knee is crazy out of whack but so far is still letting me go. I'm delighted. Korea is different than I thought it would be and I have so much to see yet.
This is long enough.
Oh wait. I forwarded the first couple of emails to someone who wasn't on the list. Unfortunately I didh't realize that by forwarding it I was also sending it to everyone on the BCC list. So you all probably got them all over again. I hope to have that corrected now and will try hard not to over whelm you with copies.
Comb sahme dah Emily
Yaki mandu, was there ever a more delightful word? It is pronounced yock e mon due and is basically a fried shell with rice noodles, onions, scallions and stuff I don't recognize packed inside. I really love these things and haven't had them in years. I wonder why? I also truly love a dish called bulgoki or bull go gee. Seen several different spellings on that one but the pronounciation remains the same. Still haven't tried bibimbop (?) soup yet but do plan on it as it comes highly recommended.
Our doorknobs don't have keys. It is a numbered keypad so you don't have to worry about forgetting your keys someplace. Frankly, I like it this way. So long as you can remember your personal code you can get into the house. GW gave me a mini course on how to do it.
Gwyndolyn asked to be called either Gwyn or G W. I truly think she prefers G W, but am sticking with Gwyn for now. All the teachers at school call her Gwyn per her request. I like that she has stated a preference.
G W and I have been playing catch every evening with a Larry the Cucumber stuffed toy. I couldn't find a ball at first and considering the control and variety of pitches she use's I'm glad for old soft sided Larry. It only hurts when one of his plastic eyes hits me. All us gal folks are trying to learn to hula hoop. Karen and I look pretty danged funny and I'm glad no one is videoing us. I used to be the hula hoop queen when I was younger but now can't seem to remember whether to move hips or belly or knees so everything gets involved. It ain't pretty. Plenty of laughs though so we keep at it.
Michael Jackson is still pretty hot here although you can't imagine how fun it sounds to hear Thriller in Korean. The music is the same but the words sure aren't. Depending on where you are when you hear it, you get either version but you do get it. lot's of it.
We went on a wine making tour couple of days ago that was pretty neat. The main bottling plant gave us a mini tour of what the different farmers do and took us outside to a bus. We passed a group of Korean school children maybe 5 or 6 years old. Maybe younger as they looked so small but most Koreans are pretty small compared to us. The children were shouting 'hello hello hello' and waving their hands at us. We all responded hello which made them giggle and jump about. Gwynn had taught me how to say hello in Korean so I bowed and said "on ya say so" which broke them up laughing. I did get several bows back and later learned the correct way to say it is on ya say oh. I'm going to give up on trying to use correct spelling as I'm probably wrong and those of you using screen readers would get it quicker than having to back tract by letter. Those kids were great and helped make the day for me.
The winery had only been open for one year so vintage 2010 was the hit. They had us walk down into the carefully maintained vineyards to pick our own grapes. The walk past rice fields and different vegetable patches was an experience all by it's self. We took our grapes to a room with tables and began squishing them into plastic tubs. Messy work with lots of laughs, they added sugar as their soil is different than California's and the sugar content is lower. A couple of bits of stuff to kill any germs and yeast for those wanting to make wine. Our buckets are now sitting in the utility room where they get stirred twice a day for a week. It looks pretty ugly with the skins floating on top although it does smell pretty good. G W and I are making grape juice out of ours. The stuff they served at the winery was cold and thick and very delicious. I want more of it! Heck with the wine the juice was the best treat.
The drive there and back was an adventure too. My first time to get outside into the countryside and really see things. The clusters of little buildings in farming communities. The rice fields patchworked with what I think is grape vines. They all have coverings to keep bugs and birds off and they lay mats down between the rows so you can easily walk out to pick. I think most of the picking is still done by hand unlike Italy where they use a giant vacuum cleaner type deal.
Throw this in while I am thinking about it.Seoul is still Seoul. The airport is Incheon! There might be a small town near it named that also.
We had a contest to see who picked the grape with the highest sugar content. A 3 year old girl won that one. We also spit grape skins for distance. My spit was only a couple of feet but one woman spit about 15 feet and landed it on her husbands head! Plus she had a baby in her arms while doing it. She got the prize for spitting. The kids got to run around and play on some gravel and dirt behind the main buildings. Gwynn fell and skinned up her knee. She jumped to her feet and said "I'm alright, I'm alright". She ran another lap and fell again skinning the other leg and making a bloody mess on both legs. She again jumps up and says "I'm alright" Then she spreads her hands out in this funny adult gesture and says "okay everyone.. I....am....alright...it's okay". Cute as a button and quite the little trooper as her entire legs are scratched along with arms and hands. She falls a lot, always has, we think it might have something to do with depth perception (she is near sighted) and (I think) her skinny ankles. She has what used to be described as a well turned ankle. Now I think of it as a frequently turned ankle cause she does go down a lot. Tough chicka as she bounces right up. I've seen her whack her side into a table hard enough to stagger the table, she'll pause, suck in her breath and sort of mentally shake it off with an I"m alright exclamation.
After leaving the vineyard we stopped at a restaurant that specializes in Bulgogi. We were going to one that has bone soup but one of the guests insisted she hated it so we wound up going to the one all American's like. Bulgogi. I am still happily eating it as it is so good. We took off our shoes at the entrance then sit on the floor at these low tables. Each table has a wok like pan sitting on a gas burner. There is a special vent that hangs from the ceiling down to just above that pan to keep steam away. The wok has a bubbling stew of meat on the bottom, then onions and spices on top of that. On the very top is a circle of rice noodles making the whole thing look like art. You are given scissors, spoons, chopsticks and tongs. You start by cutting the noodles up and then the meat. A server came along and helped me with mine. I don't know if I was that bad or if he was that helpful. Knowing the Koreans now I suspect it was his wanting to help an American. Our tables full of white faces is still enough of a difference that we stand out. They had side dishes of kimchee, spicy fish, sea weed, bean paste and rice. I took some pictures but wish I had photographed everything.
There are lots of mountains around us, not as high or as steep as rockies, more of a gentler look to them. I suppose age may have something to do with it as I've been told the rockies are a young mountain range. Not sure what accounts for young when you are around the million mark.
Last night Gary and I went to dinner with a fellow soldier Katie and Dr Shin. His name is spelled s y n n although it's pronounced shin just like our yard man. We ate at an Italian restaurent that was reserved for a performance by some Korean opera singers. 2 women soprano's although one of them seemed more like an alto to me. But heck, I am definately not a songstress as you all know. They opened their mouths to sink and I was carried away by such beautiful voices. The pianist was marvelous too, but oh those voices. Don't cry for me Argentina was sang in Korean except for the title line which was in English. You didn't have any trouble figuring out what the song was though as soon as she started it. Wow. Their dresses looked like 1920's vamp. They were so beautiful to look at and listen to I felt transported to a wonderful dream land. They each did 5 songs, but we called them back for several encores. The owner of the restaurent is a Korean man who goes by the name of Carlo. He was solicitous of us and one of those sparkly people who love what they are doing in life.
Karen had made a pumpkin dessert for the first get together with the new kids in the Korean / American friendship circle. Dr. Shin must have really enjoyed it as the next day he asked to have some of it to take home to his wife. Then he added his Mother in Law who lives with them. I'm thinking he liked it just fine. He even came home from the restaurant last night to get it and take it home. He's a nice man. An internist. I had all I could do not to pump his brain for information on Nick.
Speaking of Nick, those of you who don't know this. Nick is a member of my extended family. He is terribly sick right now, in Intensive care with a huge MRSA infection throughout his entire body. He has a liver problem so his immune system is always low leaving him open to infection. This time it got really bad really fast. The doc says 6 to 12 weeks minimum in intensive care. He's in a lot of pain and is one sick little boy. Oh, Nick is 11. Pnumonia + cracked rib + fluid collecting around liver & spleen + kidneys not working. Nicks very sick and I am asking you guys to pray for him. His whole family is suffering right now. So those of you who are the praying type, add Nick Bowne to your list. Those of you who aren't... well... this would be a good time to start.
Daegu is a huge active city. The streets right around the military posts look kind of run down and seedy during the day. A bit better at night when all the lights come on, but still run down. The rest of the city is very clean, bright, colorful and crowded. Bill boards here are metal posts about 10 yards apart. They stretch colorful banners between the posts. Most of them are about 24 inches high and fill up all the space between the poles. Even high rise buildings have neon lights and banners on each floor. They love their colors here and use them happily.
There are restaurants that have metal drums with a table top attached to them. The top of the drum has a grill plate. You sit on chairs around the drum and cook your own food. The servers bring you plates of raw meat and veggies. You sit around chatting while cooking. Everyone eats from the same pot. The same as with the bulgogi. I can't get the hang of chop sticks yet. My fingers twirl around those metal sticks and food goes flying. I'm going to start carrying plastic forks around with me.
Speaking of food. Every salad here has been mouth watering, delicious. If I can find a cookbook with salad making instructions in English I'm bringing it back with me. I keep getting caught up in the darned fish stuff but can cover by filling up on salad. The dinner with the opera singers was 7 courses and at least 5 of them involved shrimp or clams. I thought I would be safe with the ravioli but it was the fishiest of them all. Gary and I exchanged plates several times during dinner so he could eat my fish stuff and I ate the salad. He's a great guy to serve as a back up for me.
Yesterday while walking to the taxi stand Gwyn suddenly announced she is going to marry MyJohn when she wakes up! Just out of the blue like. They are going to have a lot of babies, 3 of which are going to be named Lydia, Mina and Hercules. I asked what about me and she flipped her wrist at me and said, oh you can marry someone else and be our kids Grandmother. Cute kid, eh?
Katie spent a weekend at a Buddhist temple learning about their lives. She did 108 'fetal position' bows and walked a quarter mile where you take 3 steps then kneel and bow. Her muscles were so sore the next day she could hardly move. They ate the same food as the monks and slept on the temple floor on blankets same as the monks. She had a blast and learned a lot. She's a good advocate for America as she will try anything. Some other Americans actually demanded better food and then walked out! It was very embarrassing for Katie. She put the tour together and had been very specific about what to expect. Why would you sign up for something and then not want to do it? She is still embarrassed and hurt by it.
Small post, lots of walking. I've lost 7 pounds! My knee is crazy out of whack but so far is still letting me go. I'm delighted. Korea is different than I thought it would be and I have so much to see yet.
This is long enough.
Oh wait. I forwarded the first couple of emails to someone who wasn't on the list. Unfortunately I didh't realize that by forwarding it I was also sending it to everyone on the BCC list. So you all probably got them all over again. I hope to have that corrected now and will try hard not to over whelm you with copies.
Comb sahme dah Emily
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