Derik and I are starting to get into the groove of things. We no longer stumble around hoping we get to the right place at the right time,in Gohyeon anyway. Just wait until we start exploring other parts of Geoje Island. We know the best place to buy tools, the right store to grab a quick carton of milk, and of course we know that McDonalds has a happy hour from 11-2 everyday (of which we visit this every couple weeks, maybe more frequently soon…my husband has rapidly dropped 20 pounds in the last month). We know our schedules at work, we know how much time it takes us to get there walking, and riding the bike. We know some Korean words such as: “Hello/Goodbye,” “Thank-you,” “Yes,” and of course “Sexual Predator,” and “Poop.” Thank you students and Jeremy Diamond. There are other phrases I am starting to pick up on, I just dont know how to say them…such as “I am finished,” and “Please.” Derik and I have found a website we can learn the language on…as far as reading, so in our spare time we glance at that. I can tell you now what the ‘A’ sound looks like…thats about it. Ha. Great student I am.
Everyday we wake up and look out at the day. This is what we see. From our apartment of course.
I’d have to say since the last time I wrote we’ve had a few fun ‘adventures’. First of all I should mention the adventure I’ve had with baking/cooking. Since being here…I go out of my way to make Derik and myself comfortable with the food we eat. I’ve resorted to making quite a few things homemade…which really, as we are finding out, is the best and most delicious way to do things. How have I not tried this before? Thankfully I have a partner-in-crime in my baking/cooking endeavors. God has blessed me with my friend Chelsea…who also has a passion for baking. I think we’ve gotten together at least ONCE a week in the past few weeks to toss ideas around and come up with some pretty delicious stuff…with the aid of the ever-so-popular site:Pinterest. We haven’t heard our husbands complain, so I imagine it’s probably turned out ok. I’ve resorted to making no-rise bread…I’m just WAY to impatient to do the real deal. Plus, I can make two loaves in 30 minutes…when regular bread would take me a few hours. If you don’t mind the haphazard shape it’d be perfect for you too.
I’ve also done my fair share of cookies. We found out that the flour here is actually a little finer than that back in the states, so if you add a little more to your cookies they turn our ‘fluffier.’ It’s really hard to find ‘light’ brown sugar here, so if you want to make chocolate chip cookies you have to resort to the darker stuff. The chocolate chips aren’t the greatest either, so if you want to REALLY do it right, break up a candy bar. I’ve also made about 3 batches of flour tortillas. I’ve tried three different recipes…all WITHOUT a rolling pin, and i’d have to say the last one was the best (Thanks to jess and pinterest for the recipe). To buy tortillas here you have to travel about 15 minutes outside of Gohyeon into Okpo to the ‘Foreigners Mart’ where you can actually find quite a bit of ‘American’ food items (cheddar cheese, oatmeal, jasmine rice, taco seasoning…the good stuff). the tortillas there are like $7.00 a bag! So to save some money, to make mine at home, I spend about $.20 for the same amount of tortillas, and an hour of elbow grease. Yes an hour, because remember, I dont have a rolling pin.
I really didnt get on here to tell you about every baking/cooking expedition….just one. The latest and BY FAR the greatest. I have to give you a little background on this brilliant idea. Back in Oregon we lived about a mile away from everything. One of Derik and I’s favorite places to visit was Applebees during their happy hour. You could get a 4 drinks (2 each) and two appetizers for under 20 bucks. It was pretty awesome. We always…even though I know they have absolutely no nutritional value…got the boneless bbq wings. Always. So the other night as we were coming home and up our elevator Derik pops me the question: “I have an idea for dinner tonight. What if we made boneless wings? We could cut up our chicken strips, bread them, fry them, and then dip them in the bbq sauce from Brent and Jessie.” I, of course, immediately began racking my brain trying to figure out if I knew how to bread chicken without breadcrumbs, or an already pre-made mixture. But being in the mood to cook…I decided to accept the challenge and found a recipe online. I’d have to say they turned out a thousand times better than I could have ever expected. To be honest, those wings put Applebees down a few notches in my book. My husband readily agreed. We already have plans to share our new-found gold mine with Jeremy and Chelsea on Sunday. Can I say I cant hardly wait? My mouth is watering right now. Below are pictures from our ‘boneless wing’ adventure.
Yes. That good.
So enough of food….it’s almost midnight and i’m starting to get hungry. You know what they say about eating after nine. We’ve had plenty of other adventures besides just the food. Another one involves our apartment. As you know, our apartment is not the newest. It has mold problems, it has heating problems (takes an hour or more to get the floor warm), it has drafty problems. But as of this week we also found that the main door has problems, as well as the faucet in the sink.
In Korea most entrance doors into apartments and other buildings don’t actually have a key entry, they have a coded lock entry. It’s actually quite convenient…that way you never lock yourself out, and you don’t have to worry about grabbing a key. Our problem occurred when the door decided to fall off its hydraulic hinge…the hinge that shuts the door behind us instead of us having to manually push it closed (wow I just got a lazy person complex there for a second). We didnt figure out our door didnt close all the way until our coded lock alarm started to go off. It wasnt until the third time of this happening did we realize the door wasnt properly closing. Derik found some screws and tried to put it back on the door. Unfortunately the screws are too small…and we’ll have to go hunting for some more this weekend.
Ok the faucet. This one happened to me, and I swear I didn’t do anything. I was washing my face like normal the other night, went to go turn off the water, I pressed down on the nob and then water goes shooting out everywhere…from right below the handle. I of course did what everyone does in the movies…try to cover it with my hands…as if I thought that would stop the water from flowing. I started yelling for Derik, who of course had no idea what was going on. He comes in all calm like…while i’m freaking out, and simply reaches down below the sink and turns the water off. It’s in these moments I’m glad I have a husband. Why I didnt think to turn it off myself, i’m not sure. We were supposed to get it fixed this morning, but naturally the guy never came. We’re beginning to find out that Koreans are very indecisive with their time when it comes to fixing things.
I promise, before I write a novel, I only have one more story to tell you about. Last Sunday, being a beautiful (but windy) day, we decided to climb the mountain that is pictured above in the first picture of this post. And we did it. Successfully. I about died…I was still getting over my sinus infection, and wasnt able to breathe correctly. We literally did a mile of lunges up crude steps and huge rock piles…that for some reason were supposed to be the ‘trail.’ I decided to calculate stair-stepping up a vertical mile, and found out on Sunday we climbed up 420 FLOORS OF STAIRS. Yep that’s right. But the view on the top was absolutely spectacular. Have a look.
If that wasnt enough as far as pictures go…I do have a few random ones to throw in there.
#1. Have you ever seen Jupiter, the moon, and Venus all in a line? Now you have.
#2. Yes there is a random life-sized spider-man in the middle of Gohyeon. Im clueless as to why.
#3: How could I not show you another picture of my students? This is sweet little Lucy.
Just FYI. Half of all my pics are Iphone, the other half are my camera. Thank you so much for your prayers! Derik and I are feeling a lot better health-wise. God is good to us and has blessed us abundantly.
