My China Book!

Ok, I was going to wait until I actually received my book in the mail to write about this, if I wrote about it at all, but I'm too excited.  I just finished putting all of my China blogs and pictures into a book and hit the "order" button on blurb.com.  I guess I should wait to see the finished product to endorse the website, but so far I'm impressed with the service--it's pretty easy to use, and the prices seem really reasonable.

If you're dying for more blog to read (or having trouble sleeping, maybe), you can preview my book at the blurb website, here.

Random Notes

Whew, been busy with the new job.  It's going well so far, though, which I'm thankful for.  We got to have dinner with Uncle Kim, Komo, and the Unnies' and families on Saturday, and Michelle arrives tomorrow--fun!

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I was walking down the street in Itaewon yesterday when I was stopped by a college student who wanted input for her school project.  Having once been a college student needing research participants myself I was happy to oblige.  I was tickled at her subject--inter-cultural relationships.

Student:  "Would you ever consider dating someone from another culture?"
Me:  "Well, I'm married to a Korean-American, does that count?"

And on the questions went; some were actually a bit difficult, as Mike and I both grew up in the States--where there are "cultural" differences they're often southern vs. southern Californian rather than "Korean" vs. "American".  I could confidently answer one question, however--

Student:  Do you find Koreans attractive?
Me:  Sure do.

I could hear the girl giggling with her classmates as I walked away.

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They're getting ready for the holidays in the on-base stores.  And I do mean holidays-plural:  they've had Halloween candy out since late August, recently had a bunch of 4th of July paraphernalia on the sale racks, and just put up a new shipment of Christmas items.  I won't lie, I bought a few strings of lights and an ornament or two.  It was such a great selection!

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We went to dinner with a coworker of mine and his wife Friday night.  We went to a restaurant called "Mad for Garlic," and sure enough, after our meal we smelled a bit spicy for a couple of days.  The food was delicious--we had the "Dracula killer" appetizer, the seafood and garlic pasta, the "garlic snow" pizza, and jalapeno garlic rice with steak (my coworker was ordering for the table).  Our dinner companions were laughing at us because we were excited about dinner before the meal even started--just because the waitress gave us all tall glasses of water, with ice!!  This never happens in Korea!  If water is served at all, it's usually self-serve in small metal cups.  Never ice!  Craziness!

A Day in Dongdaemun

I know I've written about Dongdaemun before; I go there often (usually to meet my Korean tutor for lessons).  I don't usually go with my husband, however.  So last weekend when he reluctantly agreed to go to the fabric market with me I was pretty excited.

I know I've told you about my husband's legendary patience.  He's handled pottery shopping, art museums, and a 3 hr. Target run with uncommon grace.  Still, I try not to take advantage of his patience too frequently--I'm told it will eventually run out.  The reason I dragged him to Dongdaemun last weekend was that I was picking out fabric for a duvet for his comforter.  The darn thing has feathers poking out all over, and I finally got tired of being scratched.  So I took the measurements and we were off.

We stopped first at a local restaurant for lunch--Tak Han Mari, or "One Chicken."  I'd been before with my tutor and thought Mike would enjoy the meal.  Basically it's a whole chicken in a pot with potatoes, green onions, and garlic.  As the chicken cooks, the waitress (or customer, depending on their level of experience I guess) cuts the whole thing up with scissors.  You eat the chicken with a dipping sauce of chili sauce, vinegar, hot mustard, and soy sauce.  Simple, but pretty darn delicious.

After lunch we headed to the market.  It was Chuseok weekend, so thankfully it wasn't too crowded.  We found a lady with a sewing machine and asked about having a cover made.  Of course she could do it, she said.  She had her husband walk us a few aisles down to the fabric stalls to pick out material.  Most of the fabric stalls were closed for the holiday, but that's probably a good thing since I have been known to want to look at ALL of the options before making a decision.  As it was, we really only had two stalls to choose from.  I started flipping through the stack.  "What about this one?"  I asked, pointing to a blue/brown flower-ish pattern.  "Uhh, I think I'm ok with anything.  Just not flowers"  was my handsome husband's response.  I looked down at the stack.  Every single pattern involved some size or style of flower.  Hmm.  "What about this one?" Mike asked, pointing to a multi-colored dot pattern.  "You like that one?" I asked--knowing my husband does not always like dots.  "Yeah, I kind of do."  So dots it was.  Back we went to the sewing machine lady, then to walk through the market and grab a cup of coffee before going back to pick up the finished product.  

Mike was tickled with the result.  "It's kind of cool, no?"  I agreed.  Now I just need to find pillow covers that match...

Last Day in Jeju Do

We spent our last day in Jeju on the east side if the island.  Our first stop was a beautiful cove (Seopji Koji), where volcanic rock formations jut out into the ocean.  It was actually the most crowded place we visited on the island, but everyone seemed more interested in this little building to the land-side rather than the water views; apparently it's the site of a famous Korean drama.

Being Asia, of course, sunbrellas were out in force.

A little further up the coast we stopped at Seongsan Ilchulbong, the "sunrise mountain"--a volcanic crater (or "tuff cone", for volcanology enthusiasts) on a grassy peninsula.  We didn't decide until the last minute to climb it; we were both a bit stiff from the hike the day before, and not sure we wanted to be sweaty for the plane ride home.

Hike it we did, and we were glad for it.

We spent our last hours on the island driving back toward the airport, stopping to visit a folk arts center (really a big gift shop) and to take pictures of the volcanic rock walls in the fields along the road.

We had a really wonderful weekend.  It was so nice to get away, to take in some of Korea's natural beauty, and just to spend some quality time together.  We're already planning our next weekend vacation...

Jeju Do Day 2

We spent most of our second day in Jeju do hiking Mt. Halla, the major feature of the center of the island.  The hike was no joke, but the weather was awesome and the views were worth the work.

 

We had a late lunch at the bottom of the mountain after we came down, then decided to drive over to the northwest part of the island to visit Hallim Park, where we enjoyed viewing the flora...

 

 

...and fauna on display.

 We also tried the local cactus juice,

and stopped to pose by one of the "stone grandfathers" (hareubong) that are everywhere on the island.

We were pretty worn out from the hike and walk through the park, but we decided to stop by a beach on that side of the island to just dip our feet in.

Dinner was another local specialty--black pork (heuk taeji), which we enjoyed along with the sunset back on the southern side of the island.

Jeju Couples

Jeju Do is a popular destination for honeymooners, making it a prime location to observe a Korean cultural phenomenon--matching couples.

We did not partake in this custom.

Jeju Do Day 1

We had such a great weekend last weekend in Jeju Do.  We just happened to find cheap tickets and decided to go at the last minute, and were so glad we did.  Our trip started with a late lunch after our flight--we just walked into the first restaurant we saw.  The jigae and soondubu were pretty good, but what impressed us the most was the friendliness of the restaurant owners.  We were the only patrons, so they sat down and chatted with us for a bit, then shared some of the fruit they were eating while we were waiting for our meals.  I'm not sure what kind of fruit it was, but I really appreciated the gesture.

As we were leaving one of the owner's friends asked if we wanted to see Seogwipo, the main city on the southern coast.  We told him we were staying there; he gave us his card and told us to give him a call after 5 p.m. and he could show us around.  Incredible!

We checked in at our hotel, which was on the budget end but which ended up being fantastic, and spend the afternoon and evening walking around the harbor area.  There were a couple of parks and two waterfalls in the area.

We caught a beautiful sunset on the tip of a volcanic crater by the harbor.

Dinner was seafood (much of it raw).

 

More to come about days 2 and 3...