Sunday, December 6, 2009

A Birthday Twist

Oh what a day, and with Korea you just never know whats in store. It started out with a normal wake up time of 7:45am, yeah let me just say that we both felt great, and so naturally we were both in chipper moods. Amy's began to deteriorate a bit after the converter blew out her blow dryer and nearly started a fire. No worries though the converter lives, but the blow dryer does not. However, Amy recovered and was ready to go, and so we strolled on down the street to check out what was around us. On our way out we realized how brutally cold it was, and how walking to your car and walking everywhere else is quite different. We discovered a pharmacy, a bakery, dunkin doughnuts, and a bank.

You might be asking yourself a question similar to this right now, "Ben, but I thought South Korea lacked all forms of bread except for the bakery at E-Mart?" And you would be right in your assessment until today. Our bakery also known as the Paris Baguette is the most impressive bakery I have ever been to. Warm bread, doughnuts (with real chocolate on them), croissants, French pastries, luscious artful cakes. I may have to cancel my Korean diet, because this place is awesome.

So after we inhaled our bakery products Amy started to deep clean the apartment and I watched football over the internet, because it was my birthday and my wife is a sweety. She sprinkled little presents throughout the day it was just lovely. Later on Mr. Lee and his wife came over to fix our oven hood and shower. However, our power went out and he spent the next hour or so trying to get it back on. After that Larry, or "teacher Larry" as Mr. Lee called him, came over and we all went out to dinner. Now this was a little disheartening, because I had a domino's cheese pizza on my mind and I could even order it online so I didn't have to talk to anyone! It was a flawless plan, but instead we went out for Korean, yeah. But as much as I was disheartened it was really fun, we got there and took off our shoes at the door, because it is a custom, actually really nice because no one wears shoes in your house. Than we sat on the floor huddled around this little barbecue pit, and our waiter brought us over a pile of burning coals. Than she brought over a ton of weird things and some marinated pork and we had a barbecue. Well a Korean barbecue with large lettuce leaves, huge pieces of garlic, pink lily pads (I still don't know what they really were), green lumps of goop (again I apologize), red hot onions, some form of pumpkin, and a soup that tasted like fish death. The meat was really good and it was the catalyst for me finishing that meal. Amy loved it as usual, but shes great in the foreign food department. We finished the meal with Glass Coke and Sprite, because Mr. Lee knows I love it.

Next we went to the school where I will be teaching and it was very impressive, I'll post some photos later. After the tour we all sat around and drank hot coffee while Mr. Lee teased Larry about being pregnant because he was fat (that was probably my favorite part of the day). Overall though another awesome day in Korea, where life is done at a slower pace and people are the focal point. I can't believe how much I want to just do my own thing, but it is so refreshing to share great conversation and food with friends with no schedule or timeline to hold to. It's the thing I enjoy the most in Korea, and I can't wait to see whats next. I leave you with one more thing, this is a photo of our house from the outside. We are the top window one on the left, just below the G&B sign. That is the window in our living/dining/entertainment area. Also, tomorrow I will post a video of how creepy and terrifying it is entering our apartment at night, I couldn't get it to upload today!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

So glad you guys are doing well and enjoying the new pace of life along with enjoying the food like the bakery (Ben I couldn't be happier for you) and more disoncerting things like green goop! Sounds like you guys are having a ball! Look forward to hearing and reading for future adventures.

-Jeremy

Sara Nanney said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BEN!!! :)

Oh, and things that made me CRACK UP OUT LOUD in this post..."the converter lives, but the blow dryer does not," "cancel my Korean diet," and "fish death."

And seriously...you have a Dunkin Donuts?? I'm so jealous! Eat a double chocolate for me! :)

I hope you have a fantastic birthday! (It might already be over...I'm not sure how the time difference works. ??)

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday, Ben! We miss you and love you!
-Phil

Kurt said...

Happy Birthday (Again Ben!) I know it is Dec 7th over there by now, but it is still your birthday here. We laugh every time we read what you and Amy write in your blog it is very encouraging to here things are going well!

Love Dad and Mom N.