Happy Wednesday!!

Woo wee, SO many things to talk about!  How is everybody doing?  Hopefully WoNdErFuL!  Things here in Korea are...wet.  It has been raining for about 2 weeks now and is projected to continue through the weekend.  It is full-force Monsoon season here :)  I will be ordering my Target rain boots tonight.  So, where to begin.  I am learning Korean (or trying to) at least, read and write.  It is so, so difficult but I am really getting the hang of it.  The picture below has me learning the phrase:

Jo-neoun Me-gook sa-ram im-ni-da

"I am from America"

or

"I am American"

I have almost the whole alphabet down and the sounds associated with each.  I kind of don't know why I'm putting in the effort because after I read them..and I can't understand them still haha.  OH WELL.

One of my absolute favorite things to eat in Korea..we call it "Beef & Leaf".  Basically, what you're looking it is pork (dweji-gogi) which is on the very right, just on the tip.  It is basted in this chili-type sauce.  Really good!  Then around the cooker is tofu-kimchi soup.  Mike doesn't like it but I think it is amazing.  It is spicy though, so have your Mul (water) ready!  Then, kind of what makes the meal is the red bean/chili paste (what my friend is reaching for).  It is so, so good..I would put it on anything.  It is full of flavor and has quite the kick so you don't need much.  Basically, you put a bit of that on the meat, wrap the meat in a lettuce cup, and then you put the other little dishes on it as you want.  There are whole cloves of garlic (apparently men here eat 3 a day to help their prostate....ooook) and then onions, radishes, that type of thing.  Anyways, I love, love, love it.

My 2 female coworkers and I went out to dinner a few weeks ago to this awesome, authentic Italian place up the street.  It was really good and had no Korean spins on it (which is really rare).  It was set up like an old fashioned Queens Castle or something.  Here is a picture of the back garden, just wanted to show you how pretty Korea is the spring.

And finally, B.M.K.  She is a famous Korean singer.  She has her own TV show and everything every night.  Well, she is a friend of my coworkers from the bank and we got invited to her wedding!  She married a retired Army pilot, kind of how they knew her.  Her wedding was fancy, to say the least.  The Korean news and press were there.  Really fun!  Mr. Yu (my bank manager) insisted on taking this picture.  He is crazy, lol.

Out front of the CAC where the bank is located.  Needless to say it was raining men.

Have a great week everyone!!!  

Love you all!

Heeeeello

Asha-mika!  (How are you?)  Hope everyone is doing grand.  Sorry it has been a little while, things have been a little crazy on this side of the globe.  Mike has been in and out for training and I have been busy working, and dealing with SHEP

Long story short, I was walking him and Danny.  There is this one really protective Jindo-k dog (remember those cute puppies I posted a while back, that same breed) that lives down the street.  She stays behind her fence but I guess Shep's foot got too close for her liking and she bit underneath and almost ripped off his entire toe.  So to the Korean Emergency Vet we went.  How STRESSFUL to try and find a vet..period in Korea.  Kind of like navigating in a supersized version of Manhattan where things are just on top of each other, making it completely confusing and not logical.  So anyways, he received surgery to stitch his toe back on and so on.  THEN, he decided it would be a great idea to rip out the stitches a couple days later so back we went and now he has staples.  SO it has been quite the 2 weeks, especially doing all of it with Mike gone.  That was definitely one of the hardest moments I've had living in Korea so far.  It isn't a good feeling having no car, no where to ask for directions because no one speaks English, and so on.  Definitely teaches you to appreciate the little things.  But all is well and he is healing slowly :o)

Nothing too different or new has happened here.  Just staying busy and following right along in our weekly routine.  Last week a friend of mine needed to renew her SOFA stamp (yearly stamp that permits you access into Korea) and you have to travel to hours South to Osan in order to do that.  Osan has an Airforce base so we headed down there for a day.  Did I mention they have a Chili's on base :o)  Funny thing is I don't like Chili's too much in the states but I LOVE it here!  A little taste of heaven.  Oh, and Osan has extremely good knock off purses so can't leave there without one of those either!

If you are wondering what the green net is in the apartment buildings..ohhh you know that is just a DRIVING RANGE for golfing.  They fit those dag em things everywhere they can!

The neat thing about Osan is that it is a world different from Seoul.  It is quiet, a lot more personal and friendly.  The drivers aren't trying to run you off the road..you know all the luxuries in life :)

And last but absolutely not least, I recorded one of 300 million commercials it seems like we have here in Korea.  They are soo obnoxious but you can't help but to laugh and be absolutely interested.  To me, it seems like the creators of these commercials have severe ADD but I will let you be the judge of that :o)

Make sure your volume is way up!

Have a great day everyone!  Love you all :)

Mike & Britt