Kitchen in a Fish Bowl

Fish Bowl Food Genre #1: Curries

2011-07-18T07:38:00.001-05:00

Monday night’s dinner…

Ever since I got back in the habit of blogging about food, I’ve realized how much I’ve missed it. So today when I made some off-the-top-of-my-head curries for dinner, I thought it would be a good chance to post some recipes.

A brief history here: My family’s pre-Korea diet consisted of about 4 food genres: (1) pasta (generally spaghetti, the cheapest food to make in the U.S. next to Macaroni & Cheese, also in the same genre); (2) pot roast (or other crock-pot meat and veggie mix); (3) Tex-Mex (including chili); and (4) Curries.

There are a few reasons why I like to make curries so often. The first is that I love the flavor – in fact, for many years in my childhood, chicken curry was my birthday dinner of choice. The recipe my mom used was passed down a generation or two, and it had a heavily Americanized flavor and texture. However, after tasting authentic homemade curries and Indian dishes made by some of my friends post-high school, I knew my palate had not been tricked into falling in love with curries.

The second reason I enjoy making curries is that I used to cook them with PapaFish when we were dating. I still have the recipe cards we used on those first few dining-in dates somewhere around here…

The third reason I enjoy curries is that they make for a quick, easy, delicious recipe. They flavor vegetables well and make meats more savory. Everyone in the family, TheFry included, loves the taste of curries and will eat just about anything that is curried.

Now, I have a confession to make: the recipes I’m going to post, along with most of the curries I usually make, are completely random and not really related to authentic Indian food in any way. In fact, I regularly stock the sinful curry powder in my pantry, because I am too dang lazy to go to Itaewon (or wherever) and buy all the separate spices for authentic South Asian recipes call for. In fact, all the ingredients in this list I bought at HomePlus or Emart, including the curry powder, which is made by Tesco (yay!). (In fact the only thing I bought at Emart was the fresh parsley, which I promptly stuck in the freezer).

Okay, on to the recipes! I hope you enjoy these family-friendly curry recipes. ^.^

Beef, Carrot and Apricot Curry

Ingredients:

200g ground beef

1/2 onion, diced

2T Curry powder

4 small apricots, pitted and diced

1/2 C chopped carrots

1 C diced potatoes

salt to taste

Method:

1) Heat a skillet over medium heat. Brown the ground beef together with the onions.

2) Add the curry powder and stir. Simmer for about 2 minutes.

3) Add the potatoes and the carrots and stir a little bit. Cook on medium heat, covered, until the carrots and potatoes are slightly tender.

4) Add the apricots and stir. Cook uncovered for a couple more minutes. Add salt to taste.

Succotash Curry

I am probably the only blogger in the world who still takes pictures of their food with a point-and-shoot digicam. *^^*

Ingredients:

1 can (432g) kidney beans, drained and rinsed.

1 can (340g) sweet corn, drained and rinsed.

1C chopped spinach (fresh or frozen)

2T butter

1t cinnamon

1/2 t ground coriander

1/2 t black pepper (or to taste)

salt to taste

Method

1) On medium heat, melt the butter. Add the kidney beans right away, stirring and simmering for about a minute.

2) Add the corn and the spinach. Stir and simmer for about a minute.

3) Add the spices. Stir and simmer for a few minutes, until the mixture is heated through and the flavors are absorbed.

4) Add the salt last, until the taste is right to you. I used about a teaspoon.

Tomato & Parsley Chutney

Ingredients:

2 C diced fresh tomatoes

2 T crushed frozen parsley (or finely chopped fresh parsley)

1/2 diced onion

salt to taste

fresh lemon wedge (optional)

Method:

Mix everything together in a bowl except the salt. Sprinkle salt over the whole bowl, a pinch at a time, until the flavor is as strong as you like. I recommend starting with 1/4 teaspoon, stirring the mixture, and letting it set for 5~10 minutes. Then come back and add more salt if needed.

Squeeze fresh lemon juice over the mixture if desired.

So…I hope you enjoy curries as much as I do, even something as inauthentic as this. *^^* Until HomePlus starts stocking jasmine rice and garam masala, Tesco curry powder will have to do. ^.^

Sweet Daiso Find – Popsicle Freezers

2011-07-18T07:08:00.001-05:00

So I took TheFry to get a vaccination the other day and he was so upset afterwards that I would do just about anything to cheer him up. That’s when I decided to take him to Daiso.

Daiso is like a mini household-goods store, like if you put Bed Bath & Beyond in a Seven-Eleven. Anyhow, TheFry was excited to go, and I bought him a little set of six cars for 2,000 won (roughly $2). He couldn’t have been happier.

And neither could I, really, because I found these supercool popsicle freezer containers – sets of 4 for 1,000 won each. I bought two sets and immediately put them to use.

They’re dirty, but you get the point.

The great thing about popsicle freezers is that you can make an iced summer treat out of just about anything. Plus, you can wash the containers so you won’t be making a lot of waste throwing away popsicles and paper cups or the plastic wrappers from packaged ice-pops.

This week I’ve made ice-pops almost every day from 100% grape or apple juice. In fact, I made some watermelon lemonade and froze that, too. I must say that watermelon lemonade ice pops are really, really yummy!

What makes popsicle freezer containers worthy of a blog post? Probably because they keep me from having to march all the way to the grocery store whenever I feel like eating an ice cream. But mostly, I have a very vivid memory of the time when we first bought this particular kind of popsicle freezer containers. I don’t remember how old I was, but I remember my mom being excited about the little straws on the side that you can use to drink the juice. I must have been pretty young because I remember thinking it was an A M A Z I N G idea to put straws on popsicle containers.

Anyhow, I hope you can go out and buy some of these if you’d like – you won’t regret it! My next experiment…vanilla latte popsicles. *^_^*

TheFry and PapaFish with watermelon lemonade popsicles

Chef Fry: Bean Sprout Soup

2011-07-13T05:37:00.001-05:00

Last week, TheFry’s nursery school class went on a “field trip” to the farmer’s market that happens every Monday in front of their building. I gave him 1,000 won (about one dollar) and he bought a big bag of bean sprouts, a potato, and an onion.

He was super excited about his purchase, and he was even more excited to put on his apron and prepare one of his favorite foods with the ingredients: Bean Sprout Soup (콩나물국).

Normally the soup does not call for onion or potato, and actually I recommend against using them, as this particular soup tasted somewhat off. The recipe I like to use (as always whenever I cook Korean food!) is from Aeri’s Kitchen.

This soup has a really mild flavor (especially if you remove the anchovies!) and TheFry will eat it for any meal on almost any day of the week. Serve it with rice and some dried seaweed and it makes a tasty meal for any preschooler.

Here’s a video of us preparing the soup. I hope you enjoy it!

Cutest. Chef. Ever.

Summer Drinks and Treats

2011-07-09T21:49:00.001-05:00

One thing I haven’t even realized I’ve missed while living in Korea is the culture of summer celebrations in the United States. I miss the 4th of July fireworks and the random barbecues that happen where no one really invites anyone, but everyone just shows up, and the food is still delicious.

This past week I’ve been remembering back to my teenage years, when I spent much of the spring and summer going to various celebrations in the different places where I’ve lived. Between Fiesta Week in San Antonio, Cinco de Mayo and 16 de Septiembre in Tucson, to old-fashioned barbecues in South Dakota, there was always good company and great food.

This weekend my co-workers and I are having a gathering and we’re making Mexican food. In addition to the usual taco bar that I like to prepare, I decided it would be really fun this time to try and make some cold summery drinks. When I was deciding what to make, I really couldn’t choose.

My favorite summer drink to make has always been watermelon lemonade, which I used to make with my mom back when I was in high school. However, I don’t have a blender this time around so that one was out – I decided to make plain lemonade instead.

Then there was the conundrum of not having enough lemons. One summer drink that I enjoyed a lot when I was in middle school was horchata, a sweet rice milk drink that I used to have when I would go to celebrations of Mexican holidays in Tucson. The first time I tried to make it was for my high school Spanish class and it turned out pretty poorly, so I was eager to try again for better results.

I still felt like that wasn’t enough so I decided to make 수정과 (sujeonggwa), a sweet cinnamon and ginger tea that reminds me of cooking Korean food when I lived in Minnesota. Though it is most often served cold, I enjoyed drinking it hot with a dried persimmon or a dried apricot – the fruit would get plump and juicy in the teacup, and the flavor reminded me of spiced apple cider, which was more expensive to make when our family budget was much tighter.

So here are the links for the recipes that I was able to find on the web, and a little about them. I hope you have time to make some of these yummy drinks so you can cool off on a hot day.

1. Lemonade

yield: about 1.5 liters)

This is probably the easiest recipe to make, especially if you can get the lemon juice without hand-squeezing it. I bought some lemons at Costco for about 7,000 won and was really excited about the lemonade this time. I found this recipe yielded perfect results.

2. Korean Cinnamon & Ginger Tea (수정과)

I used this recipe from Aeri’s Kitchen, my all-time favorite Korean food blog. This recipe also yielded perfect results. You can serve this drink hot or cold. Normally I like to drink it hot in the winter time so the dried persimmon puffs up and is all juicy with the tea’s flavor, but this time we decided to chill and make a refreshing summer drink.

3. Horchata

This recipe for a Mexican-style sweet rice milk drink was hard for me to emulate because I don’t have a blender, food processer, or coffee grinder. I even tried using a meat tenderizer (haha) but that didn’t work, of course, because the grains of rice were so small that they stuck between the teeth of the tenderizer.

Also, I used short-grain Korean rice instead of long-grain rice and cinnamon sticks instead of ground cinnamon. Since I adapted the recipe so much, it’s quite different from the one I linked to, so I’ll write my own recipe here:

Danielle’s Horchata

yield: about 1 liter

Ingredients

1 C rice

about 3~4 cinnamon sticks (or 2 large pieces of bark)

1/3 C chopped blanched almonds

5 C warm water

1/2 C milk

2/3 C white sugar

Method

1. Put the rice and cinnamon sticks together with the warm water in a bowl and set overnight, covered.

2. The next day, strain the mixture into a bowl and squeeze out all the juice you possibly can. Set the rice aside and save it for a yummy breakfast porridge.

3. To the rice water, add the milk and sugar. You may want to add less sugar if you prefer the drink to be less sweet.

4. Serve chilled over ice.

Horchata Rice Porridge

(This recipe makes a yummy, cinnamon-flavored rice porridge that you can make with the leftover rice and almonds from the horchata you just made.)

Method

1. Pull out the cinnamon sticks or pieces of cinnamon bark from the leftover horchata rice and discard.

2. Place the remaining rice and almonds in a pressure cooker (or rice cooker if you have one) with 2 cups of water. You may also add a handful of raisins if you like it.

3. Cook until done (that’s 5 minutes of wobbling in our pressure cooker, not sure how long for the rice cooker). Stir in 1 cup of milk with the hot rice and mix together until the milk is absorbed.

4. Add sugar to taste. (I just serve without sugar and let each person add sugar to their own bowl)

So there you are! Enjoy these sweet, summery drinks cold with ice, or you can freeze them into popsicles. A cool drink is a good way to enjoy the summer and it also really brings back memories in my case. ^^

TheFry’s Art Projects

2011-07-02T22:00:00.001-05:00

TheFry takes four classes at his nursery school in addition to their normal program: art, P.E., music, and English. We pay about 60,000 won per month for these for classes in addition to his tuition fees, which altogether isn’t really that much.

So anyway, he comes home with a big bag of art projects and English books at the end of each month. We stow the story books on his bookshelf, look through the English activity books and kind of laugh at how hard they work to make 2-year-olds fill out workbooks (and I can laugh because I have to do this as part of my job, too – so I share TheFry’s teachers’ pain). We laugh even harder, however, at the cute and sometimes strange little art projects the kids do every now and then.

In this first one they learned about what animals eat, I guess.

I think he might have mistaken the peanut for something else…?

They made these cute felt headbands with different detachable animal faces.

This one of the different shapes of animal poo is probably my favorite.

Poor rabbit.

Not sure what’s going on in this picture…maybe he’s making a guard dog? It looks like a bald, earless sheep. ^^;;

Also not sure what’s going on in this picture of the hairy legs. There was another picture of a town that I think he was supposed to stamp, so maybe he stamped the wrong picture.

TheFry is in the Korean Police!

Prepare to be arrested with real plastic handcuffs and beaten with wiffle-bat-esque nightstick!

Bilingual Potty Training

2011-04-25T01:58:00.000-05:00

Our house has been alive with a new adventure these days: TheFry is finally getting the hanging of “Potty Training!” We’ve been working with him little by little for the last 7 months or so. We took the whole thing in several small steps, working only at home on weekends, then gradually introducing underwear, until he finally decided in March that he wanted to wear underwear to school and not his diaper.

However, the concern we always had about potty training was how it would work in two languages.

TheFry’s nursery school has been trying to encourage him to use the potty for the last five or six months. We had hoped that nursery school would aid in potty training success, and that the social pressure of being a big boy like his classmates would help him. However, we started potty training at home before the nursery did, and we were concerned about the confusion TheFry might feel when learning potty training at the school.

As much as I thought I might speak Korean with TheFry on a daily basis, it has not turned out that way. Most of our interactions occur in English, because the words I want to say just come naturally to me. Therefore, it felt awkward and even a little silly to try and teach him two sets of words for “pee” and “poop”. At first I started teaching him the words in English and Korean, but he seemed confused, and I was constantly fumbling over the words. Therefore, I dropped the Korean vocabulary and just trained him in English.

When he started potty training at the nursery school, I wrote in Hangeul the pronunciation for the words we used for “pee” and “poop.” The teachers were kind enough to make an effort to use the English words, but I know they were more than likely going through the same thing I just described. And, given that Dexter was used to hearing only Korean from them, it only made more sense for them to potty train him in Korean. (Furthermore, I’ve been told he actively ignores his teachers when they try and speak English to him, but that’s another story for another day.)

In the end, he learned both sets of words just fine, but now that he’s mastered potty training, he only uses the Korean words. Why? Maybe it’s because he knows I understand them. Maybe it’s because he spends a large part of every weekday speaking Korean and using the Korean words for “pee” and “poop”, and switching doesn’t seem to make much sense if he knows he’s being understood. Maybe he finds that the words just come easier to him in any case.

All this makes me wonder just a little bit how he will feel in other situations in his life. I’ve often wondered if, when he finds the one he loves in the future, whether the Korean words or English words for “I love you” will come first to his mind. Or, if he continues to worship God, which language he will feel more comfortable for worship. When he writes in his diary (if he ever has one), in which language will he write?

Though I ponder all these things often enough, for now I’m just glad to not be buying any more diapers for awhile!

English Loan Words in Korean: A Bus Stop Story

2011-04-14T01:48:00.000-05:00

One thing I’ve noticed TheFry doing in his language acquisition adventure is categorizing loan words in a very different way than I expected.

Let me explain this further for a minute. The Korean language (as used in South Korea) is full of English loan words. Many everyday objects are words taken straight from English with a Koreanized (or “Konglish”, as many of my students would say) pronunciation. Off the top of my head, I can think of these: bus, heart, truck, pink, pizza, chicken nuggets, cheeseburger, spaghetti, taxi. Yes, many of these items are food or transportation-related nouns, and it certainly doesn’t stop there – this is just the kind of vocabulary that’s infiltrated TheFry’s life right now.

Now, as a monolingual speaker of English, I tend to recognize the loan words as being English words borrowed into the Korean lexicon, and not separate members of the Korean lexicon. As my undergraduate studies in linguistics will refresh my memory, this is not necessarily the way that native speakers of Korean, especially monolingual Korean speakers, will think of such words. Anyhow, I had neglected to remember this when TheFry’s Korean and English lexicons began to form and appear in public. One particular incident brought all of this to the forefront of my mind:

We were standing at the bus stop and waiting, as we generally do on Saturdays, to go into Seoul or grocery shopping – I don’t remember which. We were all alone at the bus stop at first, and TheFry was chirping “Bus! Bus!” as he usually does, because he can’t say a word just once and leave it at that. Soon we were joined by other would-be passengers, and one lady in particular greeted us. TheFry refused to be greeted, protesting “No, thank you! No, thank you!” and hiding his face in my neck. Then, out of the blue, he turned to the lady and shouted “beoseu! beoseu!”

I had to laugh out loud. TheFry had perfectly differentiated the two words in pronunciation and usage. One thing he has managed to do since a very early moment in his acquisition of Korean and English is to distinguish to whom he speaks each language. In general, he uses English with his family members and other people that he knows will understand English, and he uses Korean with everyone else. So, he had distinguished the English word “bus” from the Korean word “beoseu” without any trouble.

This little anecdote reminds me that TheFry, as a native speaker of Korean, has acquired what I would call “loan words” as Korean words, and they appear to fall naturally into his Korean lexicon, separate from the English words from which they are derived. Those English words, in turn, appear to fall into his English lexicon, and are separate in form, but not in meaning, from their Korean equivalents. I will need to do more research to see if this is a common phenomenon, and if it indeed happens as I think it does, so if anyone has any pertinent information, please feel free to share. ^_^

I wonder how he will come to think of such words as he grows older. I can only assume that he will come to think of such words as loan words from English, although not English words – much in the same way Spanish loan words and phrases (i.e., “burrito”, “hasta la vista”) are recognized as being not native to English by many, if not most, English monolinguals. However, there is a chance he could still see them as distinct forms of separate languages (a similar example from Spanish would be “barbecue”, from barbacoa). It will be interesting to see how he thinks about and uses English loan words as he grows up.

TheFry's Linguistic Development: Bilingual Babbling

2011-04-11T21:22:00.001-05:00

There are a couple of things I've wanted to do during TheFry's early growing-up years. One of them was to make a baby book, which, after about two years, I finally finished.

Another was to keep track of all his developmental milestones beyond one year, which I've neglected to do.

Yet another was to write down a list of his first words, which I neglected to do until awhile ago, and then stopped about two weeks of trying to keep up with his rapidly developing vocabulary. I even had a list of his words written in IPA with their intended meanings, in both Korean and English. So, you can see what a daunting task that was, and I just didn't have the time for it.

One thing that I refuse to give up on is to track his linguistic development. As a monolingual myself, I am constantly fascinated by my son's linguistic development. I never thought I would raise a bilingual child (without having become bilingual myself, that is - a state in which I think I shall never find myself at this rate). I think my undergraduate studies in linguistics has tainted the fascination somewhat; when other monolingual parents of bilingual children that I know seem in awe of his abilities to switch between Korean and English, I tend to shrug it off. However, when that new word or phrase sprouts up, whether in Korean or English, and I see his maturity coming about, I can help but be joyous - it's almost as if he has two personalities, and he's dissected them completely. However, he is one, and he knows he is one. He recognizes himself in the mirror and in pictures, and talks about himself using his given English name and also his Korean name. But, I wish to talk about the bicultural aspects of his linguistic development later.

This post is about the very beginning stage of his language production: his babbling.

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Bilingual Babbling

As much as I wanted to raise TheFry bilingual in Korean and English (even though he was born in the U.S.), when it came time and he was born, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I didn’t have the special vocabulary that made talking to an infant in Korean endearing. Korean, in my mind, was a very functional language for talking with other adults. I had no knowledge of Korean “baby talk” words (you know, like how we say “pee pee” instead of “urinate” in English…), nursery rhymes, lullabies, or any such conventions. Thus, I began to raise him as a monolingual.

When he was 10 months old, we moved to Korea. It was August 1, 2009. TheFry stayed at home with his father while I took a job as an English teacher at a private after-school program in Seoul. However, my husband was looking for a job, and it soon became clear that we would not be able to swap care of TheFry and have him stay at home as we had for nearly a year in the U.S. No, it was time to look for a suitable daycare for him.

There were no English-language daycares near us that we knew of at the time, and even if we had known of the few that existed, they would have almost certainly been out of our price range. Thus, in November 2009, when our son was just 13 months old, he was enrolled in a public all-Korean daycare near our home. The price was just under 400,000 won per month (roughly $350 at the time), and we were excited about the prospect of financing a second language so cheaply. As we could not possibly rear him bilingually on our own, the cost of the Korean-only daycare was completely worth it to us.

Now, TheFry was a bit behind the curve in development in many ways. At 13 months he could not walk and was still struggling with drinking from a sippy cup. We had barely gotten him to sleep in his own bed – and that’s only because we all slept on the floor next to each other; he just got a different mattress. Also, his linguistic development was slow – he was still barely babbling, and could not even say simple words like “mom” or “dad”, or even sounds resembling them. He continued to be fairly nonverbal throughout November, but towards December he really began to vocalize more often.

Here I must pause for a moment before talking about daycare to briefly describe what our lives were like out in public in Korea. People were constantly talking to TheFry wherever we went. They played “peek-a-boo” with him, and made a number of exclamations ranging from “wow, he’s cute!”, “he looks like a doll/angel”, to “he must be cold!”, all in Korean. He responded positively to these exclamations, basking in the attention and really playing it up. But something else started to happen as a result of all this sudden exposure to Korean, and it began before he started attending daycare. At the time I thought I was just imagining it, and even now I’m not so sure of it, but I still remember thinking: He started babbling in Korean.

Before, his babbling consisted of a lot of stops, for example: /b/, /d/, and /g/ were the most common. Now, I was hearing plosives, such as ㄲ (Romanized [kk] or [gg]) and ㄸ (Romanized [tt] or [dd]. As anyone can guess, once he entered daycare, it didn’t stop there. More “Korean” babbling ensued, and in fact took over his “English” babbling to a large extent. Furthermore, when my husband and I were very eagerly awaiting his first words, there emerged Korean words when we were still expecting English. (His first word was eomma, or “mom”, which was followed quite closely by kkakgung, or “peek-a-boo”).

From that point there came an explosion of vocabulary, most of which was Korean. In fact, when I hear him playing now, at two and a half years old, I hear plenty of conversations between toys and blankets and stuffed animals that I know is Korean and that I also do not understand.

I must say that there was a brief moment of a few months in all of this where I worried about TheFry’s linguistic development, especially his English development. At 20 months he hardly knew any English words, but was saying complete enough sentences in Korean (for example, I heard him say “my, how handsome!” in Korean after trying on a pair of my sunglasses).

At present, the two languages seem fairly evenly implanted in his mind. Back in November 2009, he was attending daycare part time, perhaps 4 to 6 hours a day, three or four days a week – now he attends for 8 or 9 hours a day so that my husband can study full-time while I’m working. However, even though his hours of Korean exposure outnumber his hours of English exposure by quite a bit during the weekdays, he communicates well enough in both languages – even though his two-year-old pronunciation is generally not understood by anyone except PapaFish and I.

Recipe: Andong JjimDak in the Pressure Cooker

2011-03-26T02:39:00.001-05:00

Last night I made this recipe for Andong JjimDak from one of my favorite Korean food bloggers, Aeri’s Kitchen. This is the second time I’ve cooked this recipe, and it tasted fantastic both times. The difference this time was the fact that I cooked it in my pressure cooker.

Not much needs to be changed for the recipe; however, there are a couple of things to consider before cooking it in the pressure cooker. First of all, you have to make sure your pressure cooker is big enough to hold all the ingredients (mine was hardly big enough – in fact, all the steam came out of the lid, and the wobbly thing never wobbled. But it still turned out well). The second thing to consider is pretty obvious: you still need to soak the cellophane noodles before putting them in the cooker. The third is that the sauces won’t get mixed all together until the very end.

The pressure cooker method requires essentially the same preparation as the normal method: soak the noodles, chop the veggies, mix the sauce. In your pressure cooker, place the noodles and veggies on the bottom, and the chicken on the top. Then pour the sauce over all of it, in addition to probably an extra 1/2 cup of water. You can mix it together a little bit, but like I said before, it won’t really all get mixed together until the end, because all the sauce will sink to the bottom of the pot.

Ideally, you will only need the wobbler to wobble for 7~10 minutes before the dish is finished. The chicken should temp at 160 degrees Fahrenheit when done. Once the pressure has stabilized and you open the pot, mix everything together quickly to get a good coating of the sauce on all the ingredients.

Good additions to this dish may be bell peppers, or hot peppers if you would like the dish to be spicy. However, the flavor as it is in the recipe is just as satisfying. It’s really a delicious savory and somewhat sweet way to cook chicken and vegetables – TheFry and PapaFish both like it, so it’s a winner in our house!

Dorm Parents

2011-02-21T05:29:00.001-06:00

About every four to six months I’ve been in Korea I’ve been thinking about where I’m going to go next, whether I’ll stay in Korea at all, etc. I’m constantly on my toes, evaluating and re-evaluating my current work situation and whether or not a change should be necessary at the end of my contract. This has caused a lot of stress for me in the past, making it that much harder for me to be content with my current situation and be thankful for the blessings I have.

My last workplace really tired me out. I felt like a commodity rather than a valued employee. I was exhausted, and not keen on moving anytime in the near future. Furthermore, uprooting TheFry from the nursery school he had become attached to, as well as the teachers and friends that he had grown to love, was extremely difficult for me emotionally. I didn’t want to have to do that again for as long as possible.

As it turns out, my current school is opening a dormitory for students in the church building next door from this coming semester (which starts on March 2). Knowing that the church building contains 2-bedroom suites, I suggested to my boss that PapaFish and I be the supervisory “dorm parents”. That way the school wouldn’t have to hire new staff, and there would be both a male and female adult present to care for the boys and girls, respectively. Furthermore, I knew that the two-bedroom apartments would cost the school half of what they were already paying for mine. The proposal was a win-win situation for both the school and my family – the former which would save money, and the latter would have more living space.

Well, I’m happy to say that my boss and the school board accepted my proposal, and in fact we’ve already moved into the new place! It’s quite a spacious apartment – much more so than our last two apartments in Korea – and has a large bathroom with a proper bathtub. There’s a free public laundry facility in the church building, and it even has a dryer (but not the kind we’re used to in the U.S. – this one takes 3 or 4 hours to dry clothes, I’m told). We’ll have a proper-sized fridge (we had a mini fridge before) and I think we won’t have to pay utilities for our apartment.

With the huge bonus of the apartment, which I never thought I’d get as long as I was in Korea, I’m also pleased to announce that I’ll receive quite a boost in my salary, depending on how many students officially sign up for the dorms. Right now that number is estimated at six, but it could be eight by the time the new semester starts next Wednesday.

Because of all these bonuses, and in order to be fair to the students I’m starting out the school year with (both in the dorms and also my students at the day school), I’ve decided to extend my contract until the end of the school year, which is the end of February 2012. I’m hoping (and praying!) that the dormitory situation will bode well for my school. We’re almost doubling our student population this school year, but it’s hard to predict how long this success will last, especially as the school starts adding middle and high school grades, because the competitive nature of middle and high school education in Korea can be somewhat fierce, and our school will probably have to make some changes to keep our students on par with their public school peers.

That said, PapaFish and I are happy with our decision, and feel that we have found a real ministry here. I am looking forward to really getting to know my students. PapaFish is looking forward to birthday parties and “family” games. TheFry is enjoying running circles and figure eights in the living room, and when I informed him today that there would be big brothers and sisters living near us, he shouted “Yeah!”

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we plunge head-first into this new and exciting adventure, that we would do well by our students, that we would learn a lot from them, and vice versa, and that our family will be strengthened through our work. We are simply awed and amazed by this blessing that we never could have imagined!

Perfect Pancakes–including gluten-free pancakes

2010-12-31T22:12:00.001-06:00

It’s been awhile since I did a food post (or a post at all, for that matter), so I thought I’d combine two recipes in one post for perfect pancakes you can make from scratch using ingredients that are widely-available in South Korea.

The first recipe is based loosely off the buttermilk pancakes recipe on the Joy of Baking website. (link) The gluten-free recipe is loosely based on the Delicious Gluten-Free Pancakes recipe on allrecipes.com. (link) Both recipes produce exquisitely soft, melt-in-your mouth pancakes. I enjoy adding a little bit of cinnamon or nutmeg to the recipe and leave out the sugar. TheFry loves pancakes, and enjoys eating them with just a little bit of honey.

Recipe: Perfect From-Scratch Pancakes

Yield: This makes about 8 4-inch pancakes, or enough to feed two adults and one toddler.

Ingredients:

1) 1 Cup wheat flour (밀가루)

2) 2 teaspoons baking powder (베이킹 파우더)

3) 3 Tablespoons butter or margarine (we use the brand below – it always stays hard, so you have to melt it for this recipe)

4) 1 egg, beaten

5) 1 Cup milk

6) 1 Tablespoon white sugar [optional]

7) Cinnamon or nutmeg to taste [optional]

Method

1) Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar) until combined

2) Mix together the milk and the beaten egg in a separate bowl.

3) Melt the margarine in a pan until it is just liquid. Try not to cook it too much.

4) Working quickly, pour the margarine into the milk and egg mixture and beat it together to keep the egg and milk from curdling and the margarine from getting hard.

5) Pour the liquids into the dry mixture and stir until just combined. It will be a little lumpy. If you stir it too much, the pancakes will be rubbery.

6) On medium-low heat, melt a little bit of butter or margarine and ladle the pancake mixture into the pan according to the size of pancake you want. When they get bubbly on top, flip them over.

7) Eat and enjoy!

Recipe: Gluten-Free Perfect Pancakes

Note: This recipe makes about twice as many pancakes as the previous recipe.

Ingredients:

1) 1 C sweet rice flour (찹쌀가루)

2) 3 Tablespoons soybean flour (날콩가루)

3) 1/3 Cup potato starch (김자맛전분)

4) 1 Tablespoon white sugar (설탕)

5) 1.5 teaspoons baking powder (베이킹 파우더)

6) 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (식소다)

7) 1/2 teaspoon salt (소금)

8) 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum (잔탄검) [this is hard to find in Korea – here’s a link to buy it on Gmarket)

9) 2 eggs, beaten

10) 3 Tablespoons butter or margarine

11) 2 Cups milk

Method

1) Whisk together all dry ingredients in a large bowl.

2) In a separate, smaller bowl, combine the beaten eggs and the milk.

3) Melt the butter or margarine in a pan and pour it in with the other liquids. Working quickly, whisk the ingredients to prevent the hardening of the fat or the cooking of the eggs.

4) Pour the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. This batter will be quite lumpy, with large bumps in it. Don’t worry about that – the pancakes themselves will be soft and clump-free.

5) Melt margarine or butter in a pan and cook the pancakes as normal, turning when they are quite bubbly on top. These pancakes are fairly delicate, so be extra careful while turning them.

6) Eat and enjoy! The sweet rice flour is a little potent in this recipe, so the pancakes will be quite sweet – you probably won’t have to add much syrup at all!

Halloween, v.2010

2010-11-05T09:34:00.001-05:00

For the last two years near Halloween, some expat parent friends of mine have had a big get-together where everyone dresses up their children in costume, takes pictures, and generally has a good time.

Last year we couldn’t make it for multiple reasons, but as TheFry is 2 this year, I thought it would be fun to go. He’s much more social (and active) now than he was a year ago (he couldn’t walk back then, either). The get-together was at Children’s Grand Park in Seoul. The park is huge, and admission is free. There is also a small zoo in the park, and it also has free admission. There are some other parts of the park – such as an amusement park with rides – that cost money, but the scope and amount of activities for a 2-year-old to do in the main part of the park is still amazing considering the (non) cost.

Anyhow, this year I planned way in advance of the party, and decided that I would crochet a costume for TheFry. I chose this pattern for a crocheted giraffe costume off of Etsy.

I then proceeded to visit Dongdaemun Shopping Town stall A36 – one of my favorites – to purchase the yarn for the project. However, as the yarn I chose was fairly thin, I had to modify the pattern quite a bit. I ended up scrapping the idea for the hat, because I thought it might be too warm (I was wrong, but whatever), and instead went with a version of this cap which I made for TheFry last winter (I honestly can’t find where I got this pattern, or I’d link it here).

It took about two months to make, considering I really only worked on it every other week or so. I was wise to start so early, because I still found myself at a coffee shop on October 30 for several hours making spots and sewing them on (and enjoying a pretty good Roti Bun and quiet time, too).

Anyhoo, this is how it turned out:

I’m too busy staring at the TV to care, Mom!

Side View

Rear View

Close-up of tail

Isn’t that just the cutest little giraffe booty you’ve ever seen? ^_^

TheFry is 2! That means photos at Mom’s Self Photo Studio!

2010-11-03T07:57:00.001-05:00

Last year, when TheFry turned one, we took him to Igloo Self-Photo Studio in Seoul. We were very happy with our purchase at Igloo and had every intention to go back, until we realized that all the pictures would look pretty much the same. Also, since we’ve moved outside of Seoul, Igloo is pretty far away from us now.

Thus, we decided to look for another self-photo studio closer to our area. After a couple of google searches, we found (and decided to go with) Mom’s Self-Photo Studio in Incheon, Gyeyang-gu.

Making the reservation with Mom’s was a big step for me because I did it entirely over the phone and in Korean (even though I found out later that the owner of the studio speaks fairly decent English). Also, I didn’t have to pay a deposit to reserve my date, which was good, because I didn’t want to figure out how to navigate the website and pay the deposit online.

The studio itself is a little smaller than Igloo, having only two rooms instead of three. One of the rooms is very geared towards babies than the other, which is larger and has more sets. Also, there is a “dressing room” with outfits your child can wear. As I didn’t notice the dressing room until after the photo shoot, I’m not sure if you have to pay anything extra for the outfits, but my guess is that the use of some are free (especially the hats), and that some of the more fancy outfits may cost you extra to use.

At Mom’s Self Studio you can bring your own DSLR camera or you can rent theirs for an extra 10,000 won. Additionally, the rooms are equipped with moveable lighting fixtures which you can adjust based on which set you are shooting.

One thing I was not prepared for the last time I did a self-photo session was how exhausting it is with a mobile toddler. Maybe it goes without saying that such an event warrants the use of multiple favorite toys and snacks, but I’m still kind of oblivious to a lot of parenthood and I figured that mess out the hard way, so I’ll point that out here in case you’re a self-photo first-timer.

At the end of our session we had taken 475 photographs, most of which were useless because of one or a combination of several of the following:

1) TheFry didn’t want to smile for almost any of his pictures. He maintained a placid, almost dumbfounded facial expression for most of the sets. No amount of joking or singing or cajoling could convince him to both smile and look at the camera.

2) TheFry refused to look at the camera. He was just too busy playing with the sets.

3) TheFry really just wanted to sit around and try to eat the toy food. Even after eating a sandwich halfway through our one-hour session, he still just wanted to play with the toy food, nibbling it and throwing it off the stage.

It wasn’t a total loss, however. We got some giggle-worthy shots that won’t make it to the framed WALL OF FRY but will make it into a photo album of TheFry’s Silliest Moments. We also got a dozen or so nice shots, which is really all you can hope for, and better than a traditional photo shoot might have been. In all, we’ll have plenty to send home to Grandma and Grandpa. ^_^ At the end of our session, we walked away with all 475 photos on a CD, and we paid 50,000 won for everything together.

And now, without further ado, THEFRY:

this was his general expression

Action Smile!

Ta-daa!

yummy fake croissant

getting ready to throw a slice of lime

Ballet Poses #1 & 2

This whole set was in between outfits. We didn’t want him to get peanut butter on his nice clothes. He enjoyed the diaper time. But he wants you to see his SEEFOOD!

Little rascal…

Silly little “Naughty Face”

Probably the best smile in the shoot, and I’m in the way of the picture! :(

Please, please, sit still and do it again!

First day of school…

…at Bible College!

probably my 2nd favorite shot

and my first favorite.

Chuseok 2010: Family Vacation to Gangneung

2010-11-03T07:47:00.001-05:00

At my last job, I was lucky to get a 5-day weekend for vacation every now and then. The excuse was always that parents of middle schoolers don’t want their kids to stop studying for a full week. Seeing as how most parents didn’t bring their kids in during those few extra days of the week anyway, I began to smell a rat.

Now that I’m working at a private primary school, my fortune has changed! I got a full week off for Chuseok, the “Korean Thanksgiving”, the Harvest Festival, and one of the two most important holidays in South Korea.

We decided to use that time off to do some traveling, since our traveling in Korea thus far has been limited to pretty much one vacation.

We checked into the Naiad Pension & Motel, and for 30,000 won per night we got a private room with a full-sized bed and a private bathtub! Seeing as how I haven’t taken a proper bath in a bathtub in over a year, I was ecstatic.

The weather was stormy when we arrived, and Gyeongpo Beach in Gangneung being much deeper than Songjeong Beach in Busan, the waves were much stronger. Nonetheless, when the weather warmed up a little and the sun came out, we got to see some of the beautiful sapphire East Sea.

TheFry wanted to go “splash”! He was very upset when i wouldn’t let him run out in the waves.

He settled for a walk with his trains on the boardwalk.

PapaFish tries to keep up with him.

Later on that day, the waves had died down only somewhat, but the weather had become quite warm and enjoyable. As rain was in the forecast for the whole weekend, we thought this might be our only chance to let TheFry splash in the ocean, so we began our trek along the beach to find a suitable place.

We came upon a section of the beach where the larger waves were broken up by some rocks near the shore.

There were still quite a few waves, but they were small in comparison.

TheFry longs to dive head-first into the lovely blue ocean.

PapaFish guards him from giving into the temptation.

Chasing (and running from!) the waves was still fun, though.

TheFry spots me with the camera.

TheFry frolics along the sandy beach.

TheFry in his all-time favorite yoga pose. :b

On our way home for dinner, we passed a lighthouse. A not-so-conspicuously-guarded tank was sitting at its side.

We also saw some bunkers along the road.

We stayed at a motel called the Naiad. It cost us 30,000 won a night for a double-bed room with a TV, mini fridge, and (wait for it…) a BATHTUB! Woo-HOO! It was awesome to have a private bathtub for the first time in over a year. If we ever go to Gangneung again, we will definitely be checking that place out.

Near our motel, however, were many, ahem, interesting other motels. Most looked fairly clean and decent, and then there was the over-the-top Gyeongpo Tour Night Club.

Boasting its very own sexy Zeus.

Gyeongpo Beach is actually quite near another lovely body of water besides the East Sea – Gyeongpo Lake!

In this picture, you can see the ocean in the distant background.

They really do have flathead mullets in the lake!

On our second day at the East Sea, we decided to go for a walk to a famous pavilion called Gyeongpodae. We passed some interesting archeological sights along the way.

A lovely little hanok, which used to be the guesthouse of a king.

Lighthouse at above hanok.

Sign marking Gyeongpodae

Gyeongpodae Entrance

Dragons on the ceiling.

Dragons at the entry way

PapaFish and TheFry look out over Gyeongpo Lake

What a little dude!

Cool drums on the gate posts of the exit from Gyeongpodae

The second day, though as warm as the first, was also windy, and the water was much colder. However, the waves were not as fierce and we enjoyed the sandy white beach and the dark sapphire ocean.

TheFry goes hunting for shells

He especially liked the seaweed and rubbish. Time to go throw it back to the ocean, from whence it came!

We had such a good time!

Relocating means: More Gmarket Furniture!

2010-09-19T05:33:00.001-05:00

Recently we moved into a new apartment that’s about a 40-minute drive from our old place. The setup was a little different and so we needed a few things.

1) Island, 59,900 won. (link) We bought “Type D”.

What’s good about it: It’s very sturdy. We house a lot of heavy stuff in it and put our oven on top.

What’s not so good about it: The shelves are fixed, and they’re not that far apart, so you can’t store tall items such as big canisters and the like.

What you need to know before buying: expect 20~30,000 won extra in delivery fees. Have it ready in cash.

2) File Folder Storage for important documents, 17,800 won. (link) I bought Model D2003.

What’s good about it: It’s very sturdy, but also lightweight. Plus, it has a cool design.

What’s not so good about it: It was too wide for my standard-sized American file folders. Plus, it’s a little expensive.

What you need to know before buying: Measure whatever you want to hang up or store in such a box before buying it.

3) Storage/moving boxes, 3,800 won for a pack of 4. (link)

What’s good about them: They’re cheap. They are also good for general storage, and you can get them in a variety of colors.

What’s not so good about them: They’re not very sturdy – good for light objects, like clothes or craft stuff (heehee…) but not books or anything like that.

What you need to know before buying: How much stuff you’ll actually need/be able to pack in them.

4) Jumbo-sized plastic totes with wheels, 10,000 won each. (link)

What’s good about them: They’re huge! And they have wheels. Plus, they’re half the price of similar items you can find in HomePlus.

What’s not so good about them: I can’t really think of anything for this. They’re good for what they’re good for, I guess.

What you need to know before buying: Being made of plastic, they might get damaged in shipping, so make sure you order them ahead of time enough to make a return on a broken one if you need to.

5) Wire and felt wardrobe, 21,900 won. (link) We bought the larger one and it was a little more expensive.

What’s good about it: I like the color. You can also zip it up for privacy. It’s inexpensive.

What’s not so good about it: It’s cheap. If you plan on storing board games, shoes, or a lot of sweaters on this thing then skip it and go for a sturdier model.

What you need to know before buying: You can’t store anything really heavy on it, so seriously consider what you will need to put in your wardrobe and buy one of an appropriate sturdiness.

6) Dish rack that hangs under the cabinets and over the sink, about 15,000 won. (link) We bought Model #20.

What’s good about it: It’s sturdy and holds a LOT of stuff. That’s great for us because we have more dishes than we have storage space, so we end up using the drying rack for two purposes: drying dishes and storing them.

What’s not so good about it: Nothing, it’s practically perfect!

What you need to know before buying: the exact measurements of the space where you will put it. It’s huge, and it hangs kind of low over the sink, so you’ll want exact measurements to see if it will work for you.

7) A spin-dry mop, about 16,000 won for a mopstick, 5 mop attachments, and a spin-bucket. (link) (note: it looks like they are temporarily out of stock)

What’s good about it: It’s fantastic!!! Can you believe I’ve gone a whole year in Korea without a mop? I was using cloth diapers to mop the floor, and then I just stopped mopping after a couple of months because it was so tiresome. I just didn’t have any place to put one, and I didn’t see any I liked. All the other models like this one were way over priced (like 50 bucks!).

What’s not so good about it: You need a place to store the 4 mop attachments you are not using. Then again, that’s not really anything wrong with the product, more just a lack of space in my apartment. Let me just say that this was BY FAR the most satisfying home purchase I’ve made since the move, and probably the second or third most satisfying purchase I’ve made in Korea, next to my oven and couch.

What you need to know before buying: Where you intend to keep it! The mop bucket is a little big, and you’ll have to store the attachments.

Happy Shopping, everyone!

Summer Vacation 2010: Trip to Busan

2010-09-05T05:43:00.001-05:00

This summer, we took a family trip to visit Granddad while he was on a business trip in Daegu. Then we all hopped on an express bus together to go to the beach in Busan!

TheFry has his bag packed and is ready to go!

We went to Songjeong (송정) Beach, which is supposed to be less crowded than famous and popular Haeundae.

A couple of months earlier, when summer was just beginning, I tried on the swimming trunks I had bought in advance for him in the U.S. last summer. Unlike pretty much anything else size 12 months and above, they didn’t fit! Thus, I ordered this froggy swimsuit off of Gmarket (link). Additionally, I bought him a coordinating froggy towel, which is too big for toddlers but still cute (link).

As for the swimsuit, I especially like the fact that it guards his body from the sun so that I don’t have to worry about reapplying sunscreen to his whole trunk. Also, many swimming pools in Korea require swimmers to wear swimming caps, and the built-in hood functions as a cap, so I don’t have to worry about keeping track of a swim cap. Plus, it shades his face a little bit, which is nice – and pretty much the only reason he tolerates wearing it.

TheFry plays in the waves with his Granddad!

He’s the cutest little froggy at the beach!

He was surrounded by adoring fans all day long

TheFry loves water, so naturally, he loved the beach! He was very busy the whole time we were there – he simply would not sit down and take a rest for one minute! His favorite activity was putting sand back in the ocean.

He finds the utensil of choice…

…and scoops up the sand

here he’s bringing it back to the ocean…

where it belongs!

Going back for more.

He also enjoys diving head-first into the water.

Good save, PapaFish!

By the time we got to the barbecue restaurant afterwards, he was pretty tuckered out.

blink.

And by the time we got off the train at the Busan Bus Depot, he was completely gone. He stayed that way on the bus ride home to Daegu, and on the taxi ride to the hotel…all the way through the night.

Sweet dreams, little Fry!

Domestic Relocation, i.e. Moving in Korea: My Review of Brandon Moving Service

2010-08-23T06:46:00.001-05:00

Moving in a foreign country when you’ve never done it before is the kind of adventure-chore that requires the utilization of all kinds of new and potentially crappy-time creating services. After finding out that my old employer basically wanted us to clean out our old apartment (there were many reasons for this, which I won’t go into now), we decided to go ahead and get a moving service to transport all our belongings from our old apartment in Mok-dong to our new apartment in Incheon.

Now, the drive between Mok-dong and northern Incheon is about forty minutes, and with the help of large elevators in the old place and a second-floor apartment in the new place, our moving expenses weren’t very high. Also, we packed all our own things. We found all the newspaper we needed in the recycling area of the basement of our old place, as well as some boxes there. When we were short on boxes, we headed out to our local HomePlus, where they keep a stash of boxes by the door for people to use in lieu of bags if they want. Finally, we purchased some small moving/storage boxes from this gmarket store. The latter weren’t very sturdy boxes, but they are nice for storing things like old toddler shoes, crochet projects, and random food items.

With PapaFish and I packing all our own things and helping Brandon move our stuff onto the truck, our cost was cheap. He quoted us 150,000 for the deal and was true to his quote. He arrived half an hour early and we got started right away. When all was said and done, we had packed the truck, transported our goods, and unpacked the truck in a matter of two and a half hours. Forty minutes of that was transit between the old place and the new, and an additional 20-30 minutes of it was me trying to clear out all the old garbage and recycling from the place before finally leaving it forever. (Even though there were soda bottles on the floor and rotten meat in the fridge when I moved into it, my mother just didn’t raise me that way. Yes, the fridge was dirty when I left it – but it was empty, at least. And the floor was also vacuumed.)

If I were to give Brandon Moving Service a star rating out of five stars, I would give it: five stars! Because he was prompt, friendly, true to his quote, and got things done in a time-efficient manner. It’s true that a few ridiculous things went wrong on our moving day, like my phone being locked and I couldn’t find the password, but still Brandon was patient with us and didn’t charge us extra for the trouble. I’d recommend his service to anyone! (link)

Relocating the Fish Bowl, v.2010

2010-08-23T04:56:00.001-05:00

Wow, it has been a long time since I last blogged! Working six days a week really did a number on me after about 2 or 3 months. The last month of working Saturdays felt pretty unbearable, and hence there was no blogging and pretty much no creativity until the end was in sight.

I had been looking around at jobs that offered more leave time (in other words: university jobs) since April, but I knew most of those were out of my league. I had two interviews in late may and early June but neither were successful. Since I had about six weeks left on my contract with my previous employer and they pretty much dragged their feet all the way through mid-June, refusing to tell me wither or not they would renew my contract for another year (although I was exhausted, it WAS good money, our apartment was okay, and I really didn’t want TheFry to switch daycares), I decided I had better just go ahead and accept one job offer I had teaching elementary school at a rural private Christian school.

Therefore, I announced my decision to my boss in middish-late June that I would be going elsewhere after the end of my contract, and here I am: in the northern part of Incheon, a city-province west of Seoul. The school has treated me very well already, providing me with an excellent apartment within walking distance of the school, and allowing me to move in a full 12 days early, as there was that large of a gap between the end of my last contract and the beginning of my new one, which starts tomorrow.

That said, there are several things we will miss about living in Seoul, Mok-dong. First of all, I will miss my son’s old daycare, the Blue Grass Nursery, very, very much. The daycare workers were so unbelievably kind and helpful to us, and TheFry really misses them. Even after going on vacation from the nursery for a week in July, he squealed and ran to the head teacher when he saw her again. I never really worried about him while he was away there, and I was thankful to have him spending his time in such a nurturing environment. They taught him very good Korean manners, and he was getting along with his friends there very well.

The second thing I will miss is the availability of English-language services. In Mok-dong, we had access to free Korean classes, English-language medical and dental services, amongst other random things. It was convenient by both bus and subway. That said, I am looking forward to being forced to use more Korean out in the country – I hope my proficiency in the language will grow, and I also hope that I’ll be able to find a tutor or something so that I can really learn to communicate with people at a more real-world level.

The third big thing I miss is the availability of parks and entertainment for children. There are a couple of playgrounds around our new housing, and a few more areas to run within the larger apartment complexes, but there really isn’t anything in the way of the huge parks with fountains, bandshells, baseball diamonds, walking paths, and exercise machines that there were in Mok-dong. Then again, this area is a relatively new development, so hopefully as it becomes more populated, more shared community spaces such as parks will spring up throughout the area.

With all of this in consideration, there are a few huge advantages we’ve already found to living out in the country:

First, the cleaner air. I already feel like my lungs are getting healthier and losing their grayish tinge by the minute.

Second, the quietness and slower pace of being out in the country. I don’t get woken up by buses driving by at 5:00 in the morning anymore. I can go for a walk at any time of day and mostly what I hear are locusts and the wind in the trees. The scenery is amazing, with long, flat rice paddies surrounded by hazy green mountains. I often feel like I’m standing in front of a painting, and it’s quite therapeutic.

Third, the friendliness of the people. They’re never too busy for a conversation, whether in English or Korean. They also seem less concerned with the “propriety” that people in Seoul seemed to like – I’ve seen more people with unconventional hairstyles, piercings, body shapes and clothing than in upscale Mok-dong. It’s kind of nice to see people as they are. My son may get more attention as a strawberry-blonde, blue-eyed baby here, but people are at least willing to talk to me when they are ogling my son.

Fourth, the reduced cost of nearly everything. With the exception of maybe bread and real drip coffee grinds, everything is pretty much cheaper here than Mok-dong. That’s probably at least partly due to the fact that Mok-dong is populated with doctors and lawyers and people who work for major radio and TV stations. However, if it means 1/3 the cost of utilities and 2/3 ~ 1/2 the cost of groceries, then I’m all up for it!

And finally, Incheon is not necessarily convenience-deprived. I can still charge my transit card and catch a bus into the city within a city block of my apartment. I can walk probably 200 meters or less to the nearest grocery store, and I could walk within three or four blocks to a whole collection of businesses that include a bakery, dental and medical practices, a taekwondo and kumdo (Korean swordfighting) school, a toy store, and several real estate agencies.

So, while I feel like part of my heart is still in Mok-dong, I’m sure that in a few months I won’t be missing it much at all. I’m looking forward to this next year as a year to learn more Korean, live a healthier lifestyle, and spend some time relaxing and enjoying life outside the stress and hustle of the city.

Cheers to Incheon!

Not Much Going On Lately

2010-06-28T00:29:00.001-05:00

Wow, I didn’t realize that I hadn’t posted at all in June! In addition to not having bought anything off of GMarket (because they are no longer accepting PayPal for domestic purchases, and I can’t figure out how to get any other methods of payment to work), life has been pretty regular.

TheFry is developing at a rapid pace. He is talking all the time now, saying words here and there in English and sometimes short sentences in Korean. I’ve stopped making a list of all the words he knows because it’s rather exhaustive. However, he doesn’t speak consistently – he’d rather whine! We try and reward words over whining but it’s still his preferred method of communicating his emotions to us.

Apparently he is shy and doesn’t talk much at his nursery school. They announced rather proudly some words that he could say in Korean to PapaFish about a week ago, but they were words like 아빠 and 엄마, which he has been able to say for awhile. PapaFish proudly showed them how he can say 아버지 and they were impressed.

Lately the nursery school they have been trying to teach him how to bow. They will put his hands on his stomach and dip him over in a deep bow. He thinks it’s a game and tries to thrash about. He knows how to bow and greet people but he’s just too shy and silly to do it.

Recently we have found that the only way he will greet other children is to give them a good shove and push them down. He seems surprised when they cry or run to their moms and don’t want to play with him afterwards. We never reward him for this behavior and we chastise him when he does it. We have tried to prevent it in any case but we have yet to find an alternative (like shaking hands or giving a high-five) that he finds suitable.

His most favorite playtime activity as of late is to throw things in the sink. We have found shoes, his toy school bus, and many other things in the sink after being absent for short activities such as using the bathroom or making the bed. It’s another activity that we discourage but haven’t had much success in doing so.

We have been rather busy lately, as I work six days a week (that’s coming to an end soon, thank goodness!) and I have been looking for a new job. The one I have right now is not bad but it’s getting too stressful and the night hours are just killing my ability to get any rest. Last week I signed a contract with a private day school in Incheon province, near Gimpo City (which is technically in Gyeonggi Province). The pay is the same as my base pay is now and the hours are better. The air is clean and fresh and there is farmland and countryside everywhere. The prices are also much cheaper – we bought a MOUNTAIN of food at the Gimpo HomePlus yesterday for a mere 11,000 won. (2 tonkatsu, 1 fish katsu, 1 hamburger steak, 1 cheese baked spaghetti, 1 cheese baked corn, 1 sauteed pork in soy sauce, 1 omurice, and a side of coleslaw and pickled radishes. I’m proud to say that PapaFish ate most of it!) This kind of meal would be easily twice that price in our current location.

So life is good, even though there are changes coming our way. Hopefully I’ll have pictures and/or videos up in the near future.

Recipe: 흰죽 (White Rice Porridge)

2010-05-26T00:32:00.001-05:00

The other day TheFry was having some digestive troubles and he just really wasn’t feeling well. We thought he was better by the time he went to daycare but the teachers wrote in his little memo book that he had had a pretty hard time and wouldn’t eat anything. They even sent him home without a diaper as he was so troubled.

Our daycare is really super. TheFry is always happy to go and play with his friends there. while he’s a picky eater at home, at daycare he always eats a lot. He plays lots of games there even though he acts bored at home. The teachers there have been really great. They are so caring and kind with TheFry and they have given us good help in Korea, including recommending pediatricians to us and, when TheFry was ill, recommending him to eat certain foods.

Now, I have to be honest and say that I rolled my eyes a little bit when I saw that they recommended him to eat 흰죽 (plain white rice porridge) and 미역국 (seaweed soup). That’s because it seems like white rice and seaweed soup are cure-alls in Korea for pretty much any illness (but kimchi is stellar, too). However, when you think about it, we do the same thing for illness in the West: eat saltine crackers, drink bubbly soda, eat chicken noodle soup, and so on. There’s just something about plain, bland-tasting grain foods and clear broth that does a body good!

So naturally, I began to go on the hunt for a good 흰죽 (white rice porridge) recipe that I could read. There are a couple of Korean food bloggers out there who have pretty extensive collections of Korean food recipes online: Aeri’s Kitchen (http://aeriskitchen.com/) and Maangachi (http://www.maangchi.com/). However, although they had recipes for other kinds of porridge, I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for – plain porridge with no meat, veggies, or additives in it.

I searched for 흰죽 on the Korean version of Google (google.co.kr) and found a couple of recipes that I had to translate line by line (Google Translate only goes so far…). After trying out a very basic recipe, I’m happy to report that it turned out well (though bland) and that TheFry ate a lot of it!

So, without further ado, here is the recipe:

흰죽: Plain White Rice Porridge

Yield: A lot (like 6-7 cups)

Time: about 1.5 hours – 40 minutes prep, 50 minutes cook time.

Ingredients

1. 1 cup short-grain white rice (sometimes known as sweet rice), uncooked

2. 1 Tablespoon sesame oil

3. 7 cups of water

4. Patience

Method:

1. Soak the rice in a bowl of water for 30 minutes. When it’s done, pour off the water. Some people like to save the drained water to use in the porridge, but I just dumped it. Also, some people like to rinse the rice more than one time. At any rate, it should be whiter after soaking.

2. In a big pot, stir together the rice and sesame oil over medium heat for about one minute. Some recipes I found said “until the rice is translucent”, but I just used the 1-minute rule and the porridge turned out fine.

3. Add 7 cups of water and bring the pot to a boil, stirring frequently (though not constantly).

4. Boil rapidly for 20 minutes, stirring frequently (though not constantly).

5. Turn the heat down and simmer for 10 more minutes, stirring frequently to make sure the rice doesn’t stick too much to the bottom of the pot.

6. The porridge is done when it is thick and porridge-y. if there’s a little bit of thinner liquid on the top, it’s okay – you can turn off the heat, cover, and let it sit for 10 minutes or so and it will finish cooking.

7. Season to taste and serve! It will be really, really bland, but it will really stick to you when you’re sick and it will be easy to digest.

Here are some pictures of the porridge when it’s done:

And here’s a video of the porridge when it’s done, to give you an idea of the consistency:

I used Aeri’s recipe for 미역국 (seaweed soup) It’s an easy, quick, and tasty recipe!

I served the rice porridge and seaweed soup together, mixed a little bit, to TheFry and he gobbled it up. I haven’t seen him eat like that at home in weeks. I guess I need to start cooking more Korean food. ^^

Here’s a picture of the rice porridge and seaweed soup served together:

A side note: if your kid doesn’t eat leafy greens like spinach or cabbage, why not try and serve them seaweed cooked in broth (like in the soup recipe)? Seaweed that’s cooked in broth has a milder flavor than spinach and it also slides down the throat easily, making chewing a little unnecessary (of course you have to chop it up well enough!). It is also loaded with iron and iodine, and is good for relieving constipation. Also, iron and iodine are important minerals for postpartum and nursing mothers, which is why Korean women are told to eat seaweed soup for every meal after giving birth.

You might be surprised that your kids like it – I never ate seaweed while pregnant with/nursing TheFry, but he loves it! I have tons of seaweed in my pantry now because a little bit of dried seaweed lasts a really long time – I think I’ll be making seaweed soup more often these days. ^_^

Talkin’

2010-05-16T09:41:00.002-05:00

TheFry has really, really been learning a lot of new words this week! So far, this is what he has been caught saying around the place in English:

1. “b’bye”

2. “apple”

3. “socks”

4. “cracker”

5. “uh-oh”

6. “hi”

7. “quack, quack!”

And in Korean:

1. “김밥” (kimbap – kind of like a sushi roll with rice, ham, eggs, vegetables, rolled in seaweed)

2. “세살” (se sal – “three years old”. A girl on the elevator today told him she was three years old [while holding up four fingers – it was too cute!] and he mimicked her a couple of times.)

3. “나 갈거야?” (na kalkeoya? “Am I going to go?” He said this as we were leaving a friend’s house.)

4. This week he said a word that sounded like “바보” (babo - “dummy”) but I think he might have been trying to say “뽀뽀” (bbo bbo - “kiss”). Sometimes I say 뽀뽀 to him when I want a kiss, but I could have sworn he was calling me a dummy!

5. "왜" ("why?") He says this more often than any other word - usually when he's been scolded, or being forced to have his diaper changed, his nose wiped, his hair washed...you get the idea.

So yes, he said his first sentence in Korean today! PapaFish has sworn he has said “I love you” on more than one occasion. The first English sentence I heard him say was about a month ago, and it was “Bye bye, Dad!” (as TheFry and I were leaving the house to go on a walk).

He has become such a little boy that I can hardly call him a baby anymore. Nevertheless, he still loves a bit of cuddle time now and then. Most of the time, though, he’s everywhere all at once, running, climbing, getting into things, stealing people’s stuff, screaming like a madman and trying to catch the attention of the general public.

He has also started posing for the camera. These pictures are kind of old (from last month), but I’ll have some good ones of him doing some quintessential Korean school kid poses later on – I just have to post them yet.

Here he is smiling and saying “cheese” for the camera.

And here he is covering his mouth while laughing. What a silly boy!

Buddha’s Birthday

2010-05-16T09:25:00.001-05:00

Buddha’s Birthday is coming up (Auguts 21, 2010). There was a parade in Seoul this weekend but we didn’t go – too many people + confined toddler = madness, and probably a shortened lifespan of PapaFish and I.

Nonetheless, the town is decorated with colorful lanterns for the occasion. Lanterns have decorated the walkways near a local temple and park for the last two weeks.

The temple is quite large, and has a short bell tower in front of it.

Yesterday, a truckload of lanterns was delivered to the temple, and they were all hung up in a huge bunch in front.

I really like this temple because it is quite a graceful, lovely building surrounded by huge grey concrete and glass rectangular structures. It’s nice to see something so lovely in the middle of such a huge metropolis.

Spring Flowers in the Neighborhood

2010-04-23T21:46:00.001-05:00

Even though Yeouido is famous for its cherry tree-lined streets, and even though there is a festival there every year where they block off the roads to motor vehicles so pedestrians can enjoy the blossoms day and night, our neighborhood in Seoul was just as lovely.

cherry and magnolia trees in blossom adorn the apartment complexes near where we live

The trees can be seen all along the walkway of this little arcade where bikes are stored.

close-up view of the same trees seen in the previous picture

A particularly lovely tree right outside the security building in this arcade.

TheFry has enjoyed a daily walk for some months now. In fact, we have to take him out for at least an hour in the morning so he’ll be tired enough for an afternoon nap. Otherwise, he can be cranky all day.

Here he is in the arcade, making a mad dash for the phone booth.

He inspects all the glass panes to make sure they are really there.

He takes an interest in the bolts.

A mere four days after the previous pictures were taken, we had received a bit of rain. When the clouds parted, most of the cherry blossoms were gone.

See you next year, my lovelies!

The next spring flower to grace Korea is the bombshell azalea.

Sometimes my camera takes good pictures…

Gathered together, gossiping in the sunshine.

They are most popular in purple, but they also come in red.

There were also these delightful flowers…not sure what they are called yet.

And Lilacs!!!

I’m trying to get TheFry interested in flowers.

He tries to grab them.

Trying to take a picture together. TheFry says: “Look out, ladies!”

Unexpectedly, TheFry said “Cheese!”

Happy Spring, Everyone!

Cherry Blossoms…At Night!

2010-04-23T21:38:00.002-05:00

Yeouido Island is the “place to go” for cherry-blossom viewing in Seoul. The road behind the National Assembly Building is lined on both sides with cherry trees all the way around. At night, the road is blocked off to motor vehicles and taken over by pedestrians and street vendors. The sidewalks are equipped with lights that highlight the blossoms’ beauty.

It being night time, good photographs are somewhat difficult to take.

The streets are flooded with people.

The blossoms are just as lovely in the dark.

PapaFish tries to get a picture of us with blossoms in the background, but TheFry refuses to cooperate.

TheFry just doesn’t feel like taking pictures this evening.

These blossoms were made for lovebirds.

Cherry Blossom Success!

2010-04-23T21:26:00.001-05:00

We finally had a successful trip to Yeouido about a week ago. (About a week after we had originally tried to go)

The Cherry Blossoms were in full bloom.

We walked in the opposite direction of where the festival is normally located. There was a lovely little tree-lined sidewalk that bordered the Han River Park.

Office buildings can be seen in the background – they are across the river from us.

Cherry Blossoms and Golden Bells meet for a kiss.

We eventually came upon a place where there were cherry trees lining both sides of the sidewalk.

TheFry was getting antsy so we crossed over to a park.

Goodbye, cherry blossom road!

The park had lots of lovely blossoms of its own.

TheFry and I pose for a photo.

TheFry was pretty much bored the whole time.

But he still took some cute pictures!

Spicy Toasted Cheese and Tofu Sandwiches

2010-04-08T08:19:00.002-05:00

I was never a fan of tofu back home. In fact, every time I think of tofu, I still think of this song.

However, that was back in America, where the tofu was gritty and glumpy and oh-so-foreign. We never ate tofu as a part of our daily diet. The only time I ever ate tofu was at Chinese restaurants. I'll never forget the slimy texture and the flavorlessness of the probably-from-a-can-hot-and-sour-soup I had once when I was ten years old.

However, the texture and variability of tofu has grown on me. I have had good tofu that is silky soft and mixes well with savory or spicy flavors - perhaps sour was not the best way to enjoy it in my youth. My favorite way to eat it, of course, is cubed and rolled in a little bit of flour, salt and pepper and fried to golden crispy goodness - the outside is crunchy, but the inside is soft and delectable.

Additionally, tofu in Korea is cheap. I pay less than 800 won for a block of tofu. At the current exchange rate, that's less than $0.72 for a block of soybean goodness that would cost me probably $3 or more back home. So when I find a protein source that I kind of like that comes as cheaply as tofu, I take advantage of it! The fact that TheFry doesn't mind tofu at all helps a lot, too.

Last night I made spicy toasted cheese and tofu sandwiches. I prepared the pan as I usually would for making a toasted cheese sandwich - I melted a tablespoon of margarine over low heat and then added a slice of bread. I had already prepped a few thin slices of tofu for the sandwich. I layered the tofu between two thin layers of cheese and toasted the sandwich as usual (although I recommend adding a pinch of salt on top of the tofu before the next layer of cheese). After the sandwich was done, I added some hot & sour sauce given to us by our local pizza restaurant (but tabasco sauce would do wonderfully, as well).

I must say it was a success. Even PapaFish didn't mind it so much. I'll definitely be keeping this experience in mind for the future when I run out of cheese but need a melty toasted sandwich treat. ^_^ Sorry there's no pictures to share!

Cherry Blossom Fail

2010-04-08T07:23:00.006-05:00

Call me silly, but I always have to post pictures of flowers and nature in the springtime. Last April I posted pictures of trees blossoming near our home in Minnesota. It was truly a glorious event, because Minnesota winters are long, cold and depressing. Every year I feel like the winter just might last a full 365 days.

The winter of 2009-2010 here in Seoul was quite bitter. It snowed at least four times. Not Minnesota-style knee-deep snow, but we actually had to *gasp* cancel classes because of snow one day in January.

That said, I feel like the winter here lasted longer than it should have - or at least longer than I was expecting. So maybe you can imagine my elation when the Golden Bells started blooming last weekend:

Believe it or not, but I used to hate these flowers. They were just too bright for me - not dainty enough.

Now I welcome them with all my heart.

There were plenty of Golden Bells decorating the National Assembly Building. They make a lovely fountain of gold against drab white concrete.

There was plenty of lovely green foliage, as well.

While in the area, we visited a park on a hill that was full of all kinds of strange, bizarre, and inappropriate sculptures. We also saw at least three kindergarten classes walking around the park and/or picnicing there, also. Probably the least strange sculpture was this one, which I happened to really like:

I have no idea what the significance of this statue is, but I thought it was lovely.

There was plenty of running around, waving hello to anyone who was not made of metal or stone, and chasing magpies to be had. TheFry has been up to his same old tricks, but with some new habits, as well.

He has started covering his face while laughing, which is pretty common here. Most of my students laugh this way.

However, there were no cherry trees in bloom as far as we saw along the road where the cherry blossom festival will be held this week. It's been just a little too cold the last few weeks probably. However, there were a few shrubs here or there who offered a little bit of hope.

We're going back on Saturday night after I get off of work. We'll probably take some snacks with us and mingle among the throngs of people who will likewise be enjoying the graceful loveliness of these flowers as well.

Happy Cherry Blossom Viewing Season, everyone!

Snoring

2010-03-31T10:25:00.001-05:00

TheFry is snoring. We finally got him to go to bed at 11pm the other day and he was so tired he snored like an old man. Listen closely, especially towards the end.

TheFry goes for a walk in the park

2010-03-28T08:44:00.001-05:00

Buying Furniture on Gmarket

2010-03-28T07:53:00.001-05:00

Furniture can cost a surprising amount of money in Korea. The tradition of second-hand stores such as Goodwill and Savers is not as strong in Korea as in some Western countries. Furthermore, rummage sales are almost unheard of (although there are some in the expat community once or twice a year).

Thankfully, Gmarket is a resource you can count on for affordable quality furnishings.

Now, if you are an English teacher, you may have been provided with an apartment that was furnished with all the basics. Perhaps what you have is good enough. However, the furnishings with which we were provided were all very low-quality. Our chairs, a combination of aluminum and plastic, broke after a couple of short months. On Gmarket we were able to buy these gems for about 20,000 won per chair (shipping was 7,000 won for both items together):

Remember our gmarket highchair? Yes, our new chairs match!

(link)

One of the very first pieces of furniture we bought off of gmarket, however, was this wonderful lifesaver:

(link)

Our computer desk came with a 4-shelf bookshelf and a computer tower. The ensemble cost around 30,000 won together, and probably 7,000 won for shipping. The pieces do not come with any hardware – everything is supposed to balance together without attaching.

While that may work in some households, we knew it was a disaster waiting to happen in ours. To prevent a very busy toddler from disassembling such a delicate balance, we went ahead and just nailed the thing together.

Issue resolved!

Our most recent prize is our new couch:

PapaFish models our fancy new couch!

(link)

This couch is actually a sofa bed! The back folds down to two positions: it can either fold into a reclining couch or all the way down to a bed. I thought it would make our apartment feel more cramped, but at 183cm long it actually is pretty much out of the way. I think our place is quite a bit roomier now!

We bought the couch on sale for 84,000 won, and shipping was an extra 30,000. The delivery guys set it up and assembled it for us, too – and they also delivered it a week early! The initial delivery date was more than 2 weeks after I ordered it, but I begged them to deliver it sooner as my dad was in town visiting us. They did their best and it was here for his second weekend.

All in all, we’ve been able to furnish our little oneroom apartment comfortably and with a decent amount of organization. Thank you, Gmarket!

What Kind of Person Will You Be, Little Fry?

2010-03-26T04:27:00.004-05:00

What kind of person will TheFry be?

He refuses to hold hands while walking. He heeds the directions of his parents about 50% of the time. Recently, he has begun a pattern of refusing to be fed - he must do it himself.

Last night, however, PapaFish witnessed the most telling actions of who our little man is growing up to be.

While strolling at the park, TheFry tripped over a crack in the ground, falling to his hands and knees. He got up, unfazed. He circled back to where he had been standing before. Very precisely, he walked over to the crack to step over it successfully.

It's one of those powerful moments I wish I would've caught on camera. Our little guy is very determined in everything he does. His will is strong. His sense of adventure knows no bounds. I hope he can keep these very good qualities into adulthood. I feel it is my responsibility as a parent to give him the kind of environment where he can be free to do so.

I'm so proud of my little Fry!

Tidbits

2010-03-18T22:21:00.008-05:00

1. PapaFish recently became a volunteer online teacher three nights a week. One of the benefits of this volunteer opportunity is that it will give PapaFish a taste of the main industry for foreigners here in Korea: teaching. The greatest benefit, however, is that students of less-than-wealthy parents will be able to practice English regularly throughout the week, hopefully narrowing the income gap between Koreans who can speak English well and those who can't.

2. TheFry has been walking for one whole month now! ...Or, at least I think it's been a whole month. He pretty much was running from the start. One day he was still clinging to the walls, and the next evening I caught him scurrying past me from the corner of my eye. Now it's just a game of chase until he decides to start listening to and cooperating with MamaFish and PapaFish. He refuses to hold hands, and it can be very difficult to guide him in the right direction sometimes. Needless to say, we still often use the Pognae baby carrier most of the time when we go out.

3. The new semester at my work has begun, as of March 2. It's been a crazy whirlwind of teachers getting hired and quitting, and me not knowing how many classes I'm really going to have to teach each week. I have a stack of about 75 or so essays on my desk that need grading by next week. Not sure when I'm going to find time to do it all!

4. My dad is in town! Yay!!! AND HE'S GOING TO TAKE US OUT TO TACO BELL ON SUNDAY HOLY COW I'M SO EXCITED!!!

5. Here's hoping the springtime warms up sometime soon.

6. I can't really fathom making a blog post without pictures, but this is the best I've got:

If that doesn't say "I'm a boy," I don't know what does.

P.S. - I have no idea why he's not wearing a shirt.

Chatting with Grandma

2010-03-01T20:22:00.001-06:00

TheFry has a chat with his grandma – the mother of MamaFish. He has a lot to say, and he’s very adamant about all of it. At the end of the video, he bites my hand pretty hard, which is why I’m screaming “Ouch!”

Cooking with Gmarket!

2010-02-21T09:04:00.001-06:00

Gmarket is pretty much an expat’s best friend. Granted, it is somewhat difficult to navigate without some knowledge of Korean, but being able to read the language – even if you don’t understand all the vocabulary – is quite an advantage.

The main reason I say that gmarket is an expat’s best friend, however, is that it is a cheap place to find a lot of the items you can’t find elsewhere at more reasonable prices and with the convenience of not having to hunt all over the peninsula in every market only to turn up empty-handed (which has happened to us, albeit on a much smaller scale, a number of times before). Equally as bad is hunting down an item in the recesses of Dongdaemun just to find it at HomePlus or on gmarket later at a much lower price, knowing it could have been delivered to your door in 48 hours or less! (but sometimes a little longer)

Here’s a recent example: last month it was PapaFish’s birthday. We invited some work friends over for chili and fish tacos. I wanted to make Mississippi Mud Cake. We needed some hard-to-find, or otherwise wallet-breaking ingredients.

Therefore, I sat down at my computer, and VOILA!

Chili Powder? OKAY. (link)

Cocoa Powder? NO PROBLEM! (link)

Tortillas? AS IF! (link, although PapaFish ended up making them himself…on his birthday, no less!)

Non-dairy heavy whipping cream? YOU BETCHA! (link)

We even bought a spatula to ice the cake. (link)

Mmm…Mississippi Muuuuud… Happy Birthday, PapaFish!

There are a great many other baking-type items we’ve found at gmarket – including cookie cutters, marshmallows, icing, flour, vanilla…you name it! It’s way too long of a list to post here, so why not just check out the whole baking section for yourself? (link)

We have a growing list of items for baby, which we’ll be saving for another post. Until then, we’re wishing you safe and prosperous gmarket travels!

Walking…or Running?

2010-02-15T09:42:00.001-06:00

TheFry has been walking a lot recently. Last Sunday we tried a new church. It was the first time we’d been to church since he started walking about two weeks ago. We couldn’t keep up with him. He was running between the aisles of chairs from one side of the room to the other.

Here are some videos of him walking at home.

And here he is drumming on the floor with PapaFish:

Hope you are all staying warm this winter, and that spring will find you soon!

Technorati Tags: TheFry,walking,daily life

January, week 4: 2 weeks in review

2010-01-29T20:05:00.001-06:00

TheFry sports a new hat I made for him. Sorry for the poor picture quality.

So, I finally downloaded Windows Live (including Windows Live Writer) on my work computer, so I have managed to get [sort of] caught up on blog posts that have been on the brain.

Now I’d like to at least do a periodical recap of what’s been going on in our lives. If there’s something monumental or TheFry reaches a new developmental stage, I’ll post once a week. But if life is boring me to tears then I probably won’t be sharing any of that nonsense with you!

So here’s the last two weeks for you:

1. I got caught up on blog posts, yay! I feel like I might actually have the potential to keep family and friends updated regularly.

2. TheFry is almost walkin’ and pretty much talkin’. It’s taken me a couple of weeks to realize that there are a couple of words—in both English and Korean—that he knows fairly well. In English, he uses the expressions “oh” and “yeah” pretty regularly and with confidence.

He also sometimes cries “Mom!” and “Mama!”, but only when he’s upset or having a tantrum. He also often whines and cries “엄마!” (“eomma”, the Korean word for “mommy”) in the same instances. Therefore, I’m reluctant to say that he uses any of those words at all, since he only uses them in those instances and never to get my attention any other way.

He also has started saying “아빠" (“appa”, the Korean word for “daddy”) pretty regularly, although I don’t think he uses the word to call on PapaFish, but he seems to enjoy saying it, and pronounces the ‘ㅃ’ sound very deliberately.

Furthermore, PapaFish informed me today that when playing “peekabo”, he will say something that sounds like “까꿍!” (“gga ggung”, the Korean word for “peekabo”).

3. TheFry continues to stack blocks. His nursery school even wrote a note about it, saying that he pretty much likes to play with the wooden blocks all the time.

4. Last weekend we went to the ToysRUs near Guil Station. It was fabulous – way cooler than any ToysRUs I can remember in the States! The checkout lanes were shaped like big toy train engines, and they had to-scale models of tables in chairs that adults can sit in to see what it’s like to be kid-size at their age!

TheFry can’t walk confidently yet, so he missed out on a lot of things, but we found that the store has quite a number of decently-priced toys for infants and toddlers, and quite a few infant/toddler necessities that aren’t bad, either. Of course, everything we would consider “necessary” back home (car seats, strollers, and baby safety gates, to name a few) were way off the charts as far as reasonable prices go, we found the store a great place to stock up on things like sippy cups and the like.

The ToysRUs is on level B1 of Lotte Mart, a grocery store similar to HomePlus in that it carries non-grocery items (such as clothing) and also has a food court. We ate at the food court for cheap, and TheFry gobbled down his meal. It seems that any more these days he will only eat when he’s not at home. Apparently the meals we serve at home are for playing with…

5. Probably my favorite development thus far is TheFry’s participation in ordinary activities that we do as a family. Specifically, I am speaking of mealtime prayers. When we can manage to all have a homemade meal together, we say a blessing beforehand. We have been showing him how we fold our hands. He loves to participate in family prayers! He will sit in his chair with his hands folded and the biggest grin on his face, being very quiet but letting out cute little sighs. Most recently he has started bowing his head a little bit, but of course not for the whole prayer.

The thing that is so interesting about this development to me is that we haven’t enforced it very much at all. We never discipline him if he doesn’t fold his hands, but we encourage him to do it with smiles and soft words. He just loves copying his mom and dad and he loves doing things together as a family.

Further developing his participation in prayers, however, is this little anecdote that had me laugh/crying on the bus on the way to ToysRUs last weekend:

We were taking the bus, and as per usual, the driver was cruising along like a maniac. I was wearing TheFry in the Pognae carrier, strapped to the front, and for some reason I was not able to sit down. The driver hit a big bump, and as I almost lost my balance, I shouted “Geez!”

TheFry looked up at me with bright eyes and a wide smile, and folded his hands in front of him. He recognizes the name “Jesus".

It’s time to start watching our mouths then, I guess.

See you next time, folks!

Haircut Transforms Baby into a Little Boy

2010-01-20T04:57:00.001-06:00

I was getting to love TheFry’s long hair. It was curly in the back and all wispy-like. It had a wonderful copper glow. He was a real cutie.

See those curls on the side? I loved them!

The long hair kept him looking like a baby for a long time…

Now he’s a little boy! Yes, he did draw on his own face with a couple of ball-point pens!

Sorry for the poor picture quality – but I love his grin!

Bread on the Floor

2010-01-19T05:40:00.001-06:00

So the other morning, I woke up to this:

It seems that when TheFry woke up, he went about his business instead of waking up myself and PapaFish. He proceeded to roam about, playing and causing general mayhem for the better part of an hour. Towards the end of it, he pulled a bag of bread off the kitchen table, opened it and pulled out some slices of bread. Then he started tearing them up and eating them.

Not wanting him to get sick from eating bread on the floor, I put him in his highchair and proceeded to pour him a glass of milk. When I turned around, I saw something like this:

…followed by this:

Okay, so I guess I can’t put him in the highchair without buckling it anymore. I get it.

But, even after strapping him in fairly tightly, how do I wind up with this:

?!!!!

Cute, but naughty.

Seoul in White, Part Two

2010-01-17T21:44:00.001-06:00

As I mentioned earlier, on January 4, 2010 Seoul had the heaviest snowfall since 1937. I didn’t get that many great pictures, actually. I took these early in the morning before PapaFish and TheFry got up.

Trees from our window

The tops of various businesses and apartment buildings across the street from us.

Looking down at the bus stop right across the street from us.

A close-up of the bus stop. The snow was ankle-deep already. It was 8:00 in the morning and it snowed past noon. The flakes were big and fluffy, and the snowfall was soft. Not a blizzard in any sense of the word. It was wonderful!

Developmental Review

2010-01-14T06:05:00.006-06:00

Some new developments have been unfolding in the Fish Bowl, especially now that TheFry is finally over all the miniscule illnesses he’s been struggling with since Thanksgiving:

1. TheFry has started taking steps. He will only take one or two at a time, and then drop to his knees. Then he will either start crawling like a madman to his intended destination, walk on his knees for a little bit before crawling, or collapse altogether into a desperate temper tantrum. Usually it’s the first or second option, though.

2. TheFry recognizes himself in the mirror. When I showed him his reflection, I said: “Who is that? It’s Dexter!” He responded by saying “Deh-ter.” I said, “Yes, that’s Dexter!” He responded again by saying “Deh-ter.” The other day I showed him his reflection in a little toy mirror we have and he said “Deh-ter” immediately. He only appears to be interested in this activity about half the time, but I think he’s catching on!

3. TheFry continues to love to read. Now he really wants to help turn the pages. His current favorite book is 곰돌아, 어디가니? (Little Bear, Where Are You Going?"). I am not very good at reading it but about 60% of the time he waits patiently for me to stumble through the words. It’s really helping my Korean reading skills improve a lot!

4. TheFry began to “play pretend” about two weeks ago. This really moved me, watching him imagine scenarios. His favorite game by far is feeding. He still will not feed himself at the table – he thinks it is a game and he will just end up scraping all the food on the floor – but he will feed himself (and others!) imaginary food. If I give him a cup and plastic fork he can play pretend for hours. The other day I woke up in the morning to him dipping a fork in an empty cup and then “feeding” himself.

Another play-pretend game he plays is crochet! If he has a crochet hook he will look for yarn and he will try and stick the hook in the yarn. He’s watched me so many times, I guess, it’s one of the things he knows about best!

5. He has started really getting interested in sorting objects. He will pull all the plastic bowling pins out of his toy box, for example, and line them up. Or he might spend quite a bit of time figuring out how to stack a set of plastic nesting barrels he has.

One particularly new development in this area is that he has become interested in building towers rather than just knocking them down. About 80% of the time he is building he will hand the blocks to me or PapaFish and then we will build the tower. However, on my dinner break this evening I was handing the blocks to him and he was trying to stack them up in a tower by himself! I am really excited about this one.

The down side of these developmental heights we’ve been climbing are the temper tantrums that have come with them. He just really screams and throws little fits sometimes. Also, he’s learned how to wiggle out of his seatbelt in his highchair and stand up in it, which makes me pretty nervous. I can’t take my eyes off of him for a second!

And now, the Stages of Tantrums:

Oh, Hi!

You have the camera!

Give me the camera!

Why won’t you give me the camera?!

Alas, cruel world, how will I survive?! My life is MISERABLE!

Does no one understand my pain?!

Fine, I give up—but I’m not looking at that camera EVER AGAIN.

Seoul in White, Part One

2010-01-14T04:42:00.003-06:00

Last week, Seoul got the most snow it’s had since 1937. However, I am so behind in posting that I only have a few pictures of the light dusting we received just after Christmas:

McDonald’s near our house.

The building where I work.

A walkway dusted with snow.

Cart belonging to “The Snack Man” (yes, that is his official name – given by yours, truly). In the summer he sold fried spiraled potatoes and in the winter he sells those yummy fish-shaped cakes stuffed with bean paste or custard.

Bicycles lined up at a neighborhood building.

Belated Christmas Tree!

Gmarket Products We Love!

2009-12-30T00:13:00.001-06:00

There are a few things we have bought on Gmarket recently that I really have enjoyed having around.

The first is our oven, which I mentioned in a previous post.

It sells for about 88,000 won on Gmarket. It’s a convection oven so it cooks things super quickly. It is portable and runs off of electricity but it still is large enough to bake cake rounds. Like what you see? You can purchase it here.

The second are the wonderful baby legs that TheFry has been sporting these wintry days. I don’t have any great pictures of them so far, so I’ll probably have to come back and post some later.

Here is TheFry, wearing his striped leggings that a friend bought for him on Gmarket:

Here you can see the picture on the bum (a lion playing the piano!):

One not-so-great thing about the leggings is that after several washes they get a lot of fuzzies on them. If I can manage to get my hands on an electric razor I can make those go away.

The leggings are great for kicking around the house, wearing them as a second layer of protection against the cold, or wearing them with a long-sleeved onesie for pajamas.

There are also leggings that are not like tights (think leg warmers, only for the whole leg). Those, from my experience, do not wear out as quickly. However, I prefer the leggings that are like full pants because the seem more comfortable and they have cute pictures on the booty. ^^

Anyhow, they are all super cute and come in many different styles. You can see them or purchase them here. They generally cost less than 5,000 won each.

The third thing that we are really, really loving right now is our Gmarket highchair.

Remember when TheFry used to sit in this rickety old thing?

He was starting to tip it over by rocking back and forth, the chair was difficult to clean, and he could reach almost anything on the table. It was completely not toddler-proof!

Look how much we love our new highchair:

I believe it is good through age five or six. Right now he is 15 months and about 9 kg so we have a while to go! The supports that run along the bottom and connect the legs (not pictured above) have anti-slip pads on them so the chair can’t be pushed around. The best part about this chair was probably the price – about 26,500 won! Interested? You can purchase it here.

Gmarket has made our lives incredibly easier as items for baby are often too expensive for us to buy in stores. Aside from that, there are some items on Gmarket that have been pretty much impossible to find in stores, such as:

1. Settlers of Catan board game, found here.

2. Non-old-lady bras that are larger than size B, found here.

3. Reasonably-sized cribs that cost less than 200,000 won, found here, here, and here. (we almost bought the second one, but decided against it due to the size of our apartment).

4. Razbaby pacifiers, which lack the chisel-tip that every other pacifier I’ve seen in Korea has, found here. My son hates chisel-tip pacifiers, and although I haven’t ordered these yet, I will definitely keep this place in mind for the future. They also have pacifier clips, which I have not seen in Korea, either.

5. If you search Gmarket in English, you can find a variety of larger but non-old-lady-looking clothing in “plus-sized clothing”. The range of how large the sizes get depend on the Gmarket store.

Some of the pages listed above were actually found by searching Gmarket in Korean. Gmarket can be a little tricky to operate if you don’t know any Korean, so here are some general hints about operating Gmarket:

1. the Korean site is gmarket.co.kr.

2. You can search in English and navigate the payment system in English using english.gmarket.co.kr. However, not all items available on Gmarket in Korean are availalbe by searching this site.

3. Even if you search Gmarket in English, the pages will still have a lot of information in Korean. The pages have a lot of information in general, so scanning is recommended. Look carefully at items for numbers and measurements, which of course you won’t need Korean to interpret.

For example, if you are looking for a crib, look to see a diagram of the crib with the measurements drawn in. If you want to know if the crib is adjustable, look at all the pictures and see how it is used. Some Gmarket stores make this easier than others.

4. Clothing items are listed in Korean sizes, so make sure you’ve looked up a size chart and you know the Korean conversions before shopping around. Also keep in mind that most standard measurements in Korea are metric. Knowing your measurements in millimeters/centimeters will help a lot.

5. The names of many items are English words written in Hangeul (the Korean alphabet). Knowing a little bit of Hangeul will enable you to order most things on Gmarket yourself. Of course, you could always get assistance from a friend, relative, or coworker who knows Korean well!

6. You can pay for your purchases via credit card, bank transfer, or PayPal. I usually use PayPal and it is pretty quick and painless.

7. You can ship many purchases domestically within Korea and also internationally. Make sure that when you are looking at your shopping cart your items are going to the right place!

8. Gmarket stores, as with many stores in Korea, are amazing to do business with. Their items are often discounted, shipping for small items and clothing is never over 5,000 won (as far as I can see) and is quite often free of charge. Also, I almost always get coupons and little freebies with my purchases!

9. Need something from Gmarket and are still confused? Just drop me a line!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-27T19:57:00.001-06:00

This is just a quick little picture-post about our Christmas this year!

First of all, some friends lent us their Christmas tree. It really helped put me in the Christmas spirit! We taught TheFry how to use “gentle touches” with the tree and kept him from stealing ornaments. Eventually he found out that the tree was pretty to look at but otherwise boring so he left it alone 90% of the time. Here is a picture of our tree with all the presents underneath!

Here is a present on the tree – a homemade version of Hnefatafl that I made for PapaFish! We first played the game on our honeymoon in Iceland back in the summer of 2007. We considered buying it in Iceland, but decided it would be cheaper to buy back home. When we couldn’t find it for any cheaper (and it was only available through online shopping!), we talked for forever about making a version, but it never panned out – not until this year, anyway!

This present was “given” to TheFry at his nursery school by “Santa”. His Korean name, DaeSung, is written on the front. Actually, PapaFish and I purchased it for him, wrapped it, and gave it to “Santa” to pass off for us. Can we say “photo-op”? It was the smallest present handed out at the school’s Christmas party – perfect for the youngest student!

All the children decorated their own Christmas cakes. Each cake had three layers of low-sugar sponge cake, held together and frosted by whipped cream (without sugar), and decorated with sprinkles and chocolate frosting. PapaFish and I enjoyed it with a glass of Moscato on Christmas night!

TheFry goes to bed early on Christmas Eve like a good little boy!

On Christmas Day, we visited a friend’s house for Christmas Dinner. TheFry played in the exersaucer.

He loved it so much!

TheFry spend some time on Dec. 26 exploring the cabinets in the kitchen.

He helped me set the washing machine.

He watches the clothes getting washed all squeaky clean!

All the rest of the weekend after Christmas TheFry was sick.

He spent most of his time with Sucker and Blanket, his two best friends.

He also asked if we could read a book. Of course, he helped turn the pages!

We hope all of our friends and family had a very Merry Christmas and will enjoy a joyous and prosperous New Year. We love you and wish you all the best!

Don’t be too sneaky, now!

Baby Steps

2009-12-10T08:11:00.001-06:00

TheFry took his first steps yesterday.

He was scooting around the furniture, but the computer table was a bit too far from the laundry rack. He reached as far as he could, then shimmied two steps to the computer table before reaching its leg.

It was not a magic moment, full of wonder and giggles and delight. He didn’t even notice what he had done.

I have been eager for him to walk, but there was a slight terror sinking in my stomach at that moment. When he does walk, will he notice it, or will it just come so naturally that he’ll skip straight to running?

We’ll see!

There is no time…

2009-12-07T10:33:00.001-06:00

…for anything.

TheFry looks out over his dominion, planning his next campaign.

Our days generally go like this:

-get up at 9am when TheFry wakes us

-make breakfast, clean

-go to work

-come home from work

-entertain TheFry until he’s tired

-put TheFry to bed (hopefully) before 1:00am

Right now it’s 1:00am, and he’s still not sleeping on his own. He will be up at 9:00 tomorrow morning.

TheFry looks cute but he is really a time-stealing megalomaniac!

So here’s the shimmy, quick-and-dirty:

1. We bought an oven! We bought it on gmarket. Maybe I’ll post a link to it later. It was about 82,000 won. It’s a portable electric convection oven but it has 3 trays and can fit a bunch of stuff in it. The only problem is that if you use the top or bottom tray, things get cooked unevenly. Still, it was a godsend.

Halleluja!

2. TheFry is still not talking or walking. He prances around on his tippy-toes while holding onto walls. He also blabs all the time but his speech is incoherent. He can recognize a few words, namely “mom”, “dad”, “milk”, “blanket”, “sucker”, “snack”, and a few Korean words, as well (words for “dad” and probably some other things).

3. How did TheFry learn Korean, do you ask? Since mid-November we have put him in a nearby Korean nursery school. Our main reason for doing this was that we anticipated PapaFish would find a job. He is still interviewing for several jobs without much luck. Everyone wants him to be able to work a swing shift between the hours of 5:00am and 10:30pm. What’s up with that? Apparently shifts are not cool anymore.

Secondly, it came to our attention that TheFry gets cramped in our teeny little apartment. There is not enough space for him to explore. We are bad at coming up with things for him to do. We are busy people, needing to clean and cook and do laundry. TheFry does not tolerate this. Because he is so persistent at fussing and keeping us from daily chores, and especially since he does not sleep much during the day (his naptimes are a joke – more like ridicule!) or night, we found that we do not have enough time to give him the attention and exercise he needs.

TheFry has crossed “the line” into the kitchen. The look on his face says “What, did I do something wrong?”

So, in hope that we would have a place for him to go in the case that PapaFish found a job and also to give him some entertainment and a healthy dose of exposure to the Korean language, we put him in a nursery school part-time. The first week was difficult, of course, but he grew to love it quickly! The lady in charge told us it usually takes 4 weeks for babies to get used to going to the school, but after one and a half, TheFry was doing great! He eats and plays well, and he is the star of his class. His picture has been in the newsletter almost every week.

TheFry steals my crochet patterns and litters them across the living room floor. He lost his blanket in the aftermath.

4. We had a Thanksgiving pot-luck with some of my coworkers and it was fantastic! I made cranberry sauce with real cranberries. Where did I find them, you ask? Costco was selling huge bags of craisins so I rehydrated them and followed the recipe from there. I didn’t say they were fresh cranberries, did I! *^^*

Anyhow, to rehydrate the cranberries you just put them in a pot and cover them with cold water. Bring the water to a boil and boil them for 20 minutes or so, until you can see that the cranberries are fully rehydrated, plump and juicy. The longer you boil them, the more delicious the water will be, so when you drain them, be sure and reserve the water. An added benefit of making cranberry sauce this way is that you don’t have to use as much sugar in your recipe since craisins are already loaded with sugar. Or you can add the regular amount of sugar and just have super-sweet cranberry sauce!

My husband claims he can’t bake. He lies!

5. I have several informational posts I would love to write. First of all, I would like to give some information on the difference between getting vaccines at a hospital in Korea versus at the Community Health Centers, because there is a huge difference (and you pay for it). I also want to post on where to find some great baby stuff that I have found rather cheaply online. This month, if PapaFish lands the job we are holding out for, we will be buying a number of items online that I would like to review, so stay tuned for that, too. I’m also hoping to start blogging more about our neighborhood, what there is to do and see, and places to find good deals on normally expensive stuff (which means probably a full post on district recycle centers, because I’ve been to a couple of them, but have as yet chickened out on buying anything).

I really apologize to any family and friends (but especially family) who watch this blog because this last month has left me wondering how I will ever have any time to myself again. I suppose this is one of the seasons of parenthood! Maybe it’s called “having a toddler.” Who knows?!

Ha, ha, you fool! I switched the glasses while your back was turned!

And yes, this is our kitchen, complete with table, sink, oven (not the one we bought online – that’s another story for another day), and washing machine.

Silliness at Home

2009-11-20T08:11:00.003-06:00

TheFry handed me a book. It is called “Neighborhood Animals”. The last page of the book features a frog. The frog goes “rrrrrRIBBIT!” TheFry thought it was hilarious.

Uneventful Weekends

2009-11-17T19:20:00.001-06:00

Lately, we have been having uneventful weekends. Somehow we’ve managed to keep ourselves busy enough to avoid posting on the blog.

Really, when I say the weekends have been uneventful, I mean U.N.E.V.E.N.T.F.U.L.! We sleep late, eat decently, walk around, crochet, play games, do nothing.

The last couple of weeks have been somewhat interesting, though. First of all, I got paid (cheers, anyone?).

Secondly, I bought an oven. It’s a small convection oven. The only thing is that it’s about twice as big as I thought it would be! (double cheers – pics to come later!)

Thirdly, I’ve become more comfortable shopping on Gmarket – the online store used widely in Korea to avoid sky-high prices on necessary items, especially in the baby and plus size categories. I bought TheFry some leggings, which I’ve fallen in love with. I intend to buy more when PapaFish will let me get away with it…

We had a game night with some friends from work over last week. We ate chili. It was awesome. Then, over the weekend, we baked pumpkin pies and sold a few. Want one? Just drop us a line!

Finally, this last weekend we went to Songtan. We went shopping at the Shinjang Shopping Mall, right outside of Osan Air Force Base. Shinjang Shopping Mall is much like Itaewon except that there are much fewer people around on the weekend, and also most of the foreigners there are U.S. Air Force Personnel, rather than the extremely diverse mix of international people that reside and hang out in Itaewon.

I have found that Itaewon has cleaned up considerably in the five years since I was in Korea last, and some people have told me that the developments – such as the new sidewalks – are actually quite new (having been installed within the previous year). Anyway, Itaewon is starting to look like what Shinjang has always looked like (at least according to my memory) from an architectural standpoint, at least. Both Itaewon and Shinjang have significantly more storefronts than they did 5~7 years ago, and fewer random merchants.

Anyhow, after not having found the kind of winter blanket I wanted in Itaewon – most of the mink blankets I had seen there had sports teams or gaudy pictures on them – we headed out to Shinjang Mall in Songtan to find blankets and winter coats. I found the shopping areas in Shinjang easier to navigate than those in Itaewon due to wider alleys and fewer people. Since it was a Sunday, many stalls were also closed, but there were plenty of vendors still open and carts about, even in the blisteringly cold weather.

Also, we were on the hunt for a decent winter coat for PapaFish. We ended up finding one with a multitude of pockets and a cuddly warm hood for 30,000 won. Previously, I had bought my own winter coat for 15,000 won at a subway station. I love the fact that we bought our two coats together for cheaper than I bought my own winter coat last year in Minnesota!

Next, we purchased a huge super-king size mink blanket in forest green for 41,000 won. The blanket is very warm and toasty, and for once PapaFish and I aren’t fighting over and stealing the blanket from each other.

What’s next for us – who knows?! Always there are adventures in the Fish Bowl!

Halloween…er, a little late ^^;

2009-11-15T19:40:00.001-06:00

We were planning on doing some fun stuff for Halloween, but it just didn’t pan out the way we had planned. Holidays coming at the end of the month tend to get the shaft because they come at the end of a paycheck.

Anyhow, there was a fun Halloween event at the school where I work. TheFry decided to join in on some of the fun. Here he is as the Cowardly Lion:

Note the Cowardly Pacifier…

Here he is running away!

Don’t knock the Cowardly Lion…he was the cutest lion to be found on such a spooky night!

Gyeongbok Palace

2009-10-31T02:07:00.001-05:00

Last weekend, we went to visit one of the must-see places in Seoul: Gyeonbokgung, or Gyeongbok Palace. This palace was used during the Joseon dynasty in Korea. I’ll spare the history lesson here; there’s plenty of info about it on the interwebs. You can start with the wikipedia page if you like.

The wall around Gyeongbokgung:

A pavilion overlooking traffic outside the outer wall:

The outer wall as seen from across the street:

Inside the outer wall, there is an open courtyard where you pay for tickets and enter the inner courtyard through the inner wall. with the backdrop of mountains, here is the gate through the inner wall from a distance:

The gate through the inner wall is guarded by “palace guards” in traditional costume. Tourists flock through here, taking pictures with the guards, in front of the impressive gate, and entering into the inner courtyard:

Palace guards at the gate:

Here’s a better view of them (they were performing a “Changing of the Guard” ceremony just as we arrived):

Don’t mess with this guy:

This guy doesn’t look quite so scary:

The gate:

This is what the roof of the gate looks like up close:

Upon entering the inner wall, we noticed that a special event was taking place. Some middle-aged dudes were just standing around in front of these reed mats, and a woman was yelling at them through a microphone. Then they would bow for a while, and get back up. Apparently, it was the 16th annual reenactment of the state exam, which was historically used to test scholars as an entrance examination into government and other bureaucratic employment positions. Anywhere, here it is, with the throne room in the background:

Another view of the art on the beams supporting the roof:

The latticework:

A view of the gate to the inner courtyard through which we previously entered. I like this picture for its representation of the coexistence of modern and ancient architecture in present-day Seoul.

The throne room:

Art in the throne room:

The throne room from a different angle (I’m not sure exactly because PapaFish took almost all of these pictures):

I liked the many gates, walls and doorways that separated the different buildings and sections of the palace grounds.

This was my favorite wall, even though I felt like I couldn’t manage to get a good enough picture to do it justice:

The wall with a gate and rooftops (pay no attention to the fire hydrant behind the ~~curtain~~, er, I mean doorway!):

A pavilion (I forgot the name of it; I think it’s Hyangwonjeong)

This was another of my favorite doorways, with a little garden off to the side:

The doors of the palace buildings were also striking:

The doors are lined with a think kind of paper (it reminds me of mulberry paper)

A pagoda that we just walked by without visiting; hence, I don’t know the name of it:

Rooftops of the palace buildings against a mountainous backdrop and autumn colors in the foreground:

Palace walls with an autumn backdrop:

Angular view of palace walls with mountains and autumn colors in the background:

I did not really ever appreciate the autumn season before living in Minnesota in 2008. Back then, I got to see such wonderful treasures as this:

Bloomington, MN

and also this:

Normandale Lake Park, Bloomington, MN

in Seoul, we get similar pleasures, such as these bright colors amongst the still-green foliage:

The trees look like they are dying by fire:

As you can see, it was lovely, so we took a family picture:

Some Chinese tourists thought the view was lovely, too:

Happy Autumn, everyone!

CAMERA!!!!!

2009-10-20T09:35:00.002-05:00

Finally, we got a camera! It cost less than $40. We shipped it from the USA because cameras are extremely overpriced in this country.

So, of course, we had to take a few obligatory pictures of what life is generally like for us.

First of all, we needed a memory card because the camera would only hold about four pictures without one. We bought one at HomePlus – 4GB for less than 10,000 won (1,000 won roughly equals $1).

HomePlus is like Wal-Mart combined with Macy’s on some kind of weird illegal substance. Whenever we go to HomePlus, we eat at the cafeteria because they have super huge portions of food for less than 6,000 won. The three of us can share one meal, and I find the taste to be delicious.

Behind PapaFish you can see Overpriced Baby Studio on the right and a children’s play area on the left. The children’s play area costs something like 4,000 won for two hours of child-free freedom.

Probably the biggest bonus of eating at HomePlus is the fact that they have highchairs. Anywhere else we go to eat – except other supermarket-on-cocaine-cafeterias – requires holding TheFry on our laps, trading him back and forth so the other person can eat. We have a portable inflatable highchair seat, but we use it permanently at home, and I guess we’re basically just too lazy or forgetful to tote it around with us everywhere. Maybe we should make a better effort…

TheFry gives a “whaddup” to his homies.

I require tonkatsu from the HomePlus cafeteria. It is a tenderized pork cutlet, breaded and deep-fried Japanese style. This kind of Japanese-style cuisine is pretty popular in Korea these days. Also we got a big helping of omurice, which is basically fried rice wrapped in an egg. That’s ketchup squiggled on top of the egg.

Tonkatsu, omurice, cole slaw, kimchi and miso soup cost us 5,500 won.

TheFry absolutely loves tonkatsu. He is the main reason why we order it. At home, if we can’t get him to eat his vegetables, sometimes in a moment of desperation we will dip a small bit of it in tonkatsu sauce. He will usually eat it, unaware of its original form.

In other news, TheFry is getting his top two teeth at the same time. This basically means we get to hang out with this every day:

Sometimes he still looks like this, though.

This is fine, too.

At the end of the day, PapaFish is more exhausted than TheFry.

“Milk” and “Mama” are two words that TheFry knows. He can say “Mama” but not milk. However, when we ask him if he wants his milk, he sometimes gets hysterical. If we go to the fridge without asking him if he wants milk, he sometimes gets hysterical. And sometimes he just gets hysterical.

Also, he doesn’t just call me “Mama”, he basically says it all the time. He knows that “I’m the Mama”, but he has been known to call PapaFish “Mama” also.

Up until recently, TheFry had a really clingy fixation with me, preferring me in most circumstances to anyone else, including PapaFish. I prayed and hoped that this would change. Maybe I wasn’t specific enough. Now, if I get home from work and PapaFish needs to go grab groceries, take out trash, run some other errand or just plain go out to relieve some steam, TheFry will cry when he leaves. However, when PapaFish is home, I still have to be with them. So really, TheFry has learned to prefer having the three of us together to any other arrangement at all.

We’re hoping to go out this weekend to see some fall foliage; it’s supposed to be the peak time for viewing the red maple leaves. The bad thing about having a super-cheap used camera is that the batteries only last a couple of hours at a time. Hopefully we can find some good rechargeable ones somewhere without having to travel too far to buy them.

Chuseok 2009: Namsangol Hanok Village

2009-10-19T09:46:00.002-05:00

Saturday, October 3 was Chuseok. Chuseok is one of the biggest holidays in Korea. I got almost the whole week off, and about a dozen Asian pears, to boot!

Apart from baking pies the whole week and doing pretty much nothing around the house, we did venture out on Chuseok Day with some friends. We visited Namsangol Hanok Village.

A Hanok is a Korean traditional-style house. The Hanok Village is thus a cluster of Korean traditional-style houses set up with rooms to look as they would have in ye olden days. There are a number of Hanok villages in Korea, and the one at Namsan has a large open area for big events.

When we arrived, the place was packed. There were people doing traditional crafts and playing traditional games everywhere.

It was quite a lovely day. Some people were flying kites. That is Namsan Tower at the top of Namsan in the background.

There is a little pond with foliage. It is a nice spot for some nice landscaping, with the modern buildings towering in the background.

There was a large pavillion in the middle of everything where people would gather to rest in the shade on the warm day.

Different rooms of the Hanok were set up to look like they might have some time ago. Here is one room with a bed, a dresser, a table, and a lamp in the background.

Here is a kitchen. There is a spindle but also some kimchi jars.

Kimchi jars sit amongst the lovely autumn foliage.

This is a rice-cooker.

I find Korean architecture to be quite aesthetically pleasing…

A garden. There was traditional music playing, and we were all fooled at first, thinking someone would actually be sitting around the corner playing the fiddle. Alas, it was a recording, broadcast from strategically-planted speakers.

Near the Hanok Village is the Korea House, a super-expensive tourist destination where people can eat a meal and watch traditional performances. They had many food displays. Above is a table set up with foods for ancestors.

Cabbage kimchi, standard fare for most meals in Korea.

Rice cakes steamed on pine needles – traditional food for Chuseok

The outside of one of the buildings – I can’t remember if it is the Korea House or one of the Hanok buildings.

So what did we do besides just look around? Plenty of stuff! One of the things I love most about Korea is that, while you may be able to do a lot of cool stuff that costs money, there’s almost always something to do that costs nothing (or next to nothing).

PapaFish plays jegi chagi, or, as we call it, Korean Traditional hacky-sack…

Here’s a game I can’t seem to remember the name of…or find it on the internet

PapaFish is kind of a natural at games, of course, so he was a pro from the start!

There was, of course, the obligatory hanbok-wearing event. TheFry hates hats.

This one is a little better…

So what does a munchkin like TheFry do at an event like this? He chills! He watches games, he looks at the rooms, and he charms people! There was even a point where we had to give a premature goodbye to some lovely people because a crowd was starting to form around the stroller!

And who can blame them?

By the end of the day, he was a little tuckered out.

He made a very lovely courtesan.

Thank you to our wonderful friends, who lent us their camera and took us around! We had a lovely time.

Number One!

2009-10-09T10:12:00.016-05:00

After surviving a year "under the sun", we reward young humans with a party.

But really, we are rewarding ourselves for not completely losing our minds, whether accidentally or on purpose, in the past 365 days.

A co-worker was kind enough to lend us her apartment for a wonderful one-year bash, but there was a catch: we had to wear ridiculous fuzzy animal ears. TheFry, being the birthday boy, got to wear a bow tie.

We ate one of TheFry's favorite rarer foods: spaghetti. The noodles aren't difficult to find here, although they're a tad more expensive than you would find in the USA. The sauce was more expensive: a little less than $5 per jar. Still, it was a welcome treat.

We always get sauce on our face when eating spaghetti.

He likes the camera-lady.

Next, we opened presents from my very generous co-workers.

TheFry wanted to taste the shiny paper.

One of his favorite presents was a duck. It's got a string that you pull and then it rolls along.

It also tastes great!

Another present was a wonderful pair of winter pajamas. How thoughtful!

TheFry received many other really wonderful gifts, and we were all quite surprised. Among them were some winter shoes and a really great stroller. Thank you, everyone!

Finally, we had cake. I baked it at home. We also made the frosting at home by melting chocolate and butter together, then whisking in powdered sugar until the frosting became thick, but not clumpy. Delicious and simple! The cakes were cut in half and filled with either strawberry jam, persimmon jam, or more frosting!

Then, I helped TheFry blow out the candle. I wasn't expecting to look so conspicuous.

He may not have been able to figure out the whole "blowing out the candles" thing, but he sure knew how to eat the cake!

What would the event be like without a family picture?

Thanks to everyone who made this day really great!

Peace

2009-10-04T10:05:00.003-05:00

TheFry has gone to bed before midnight for - wait for it - five days in a row. This is a major accomplishment, given that for the last month or two he's been staying up until nearly 2:00am and basically driving both myself and PapaFish insane.

There are two possibilities to this conclusion:

1. The last five days were vacation for me (Happy Chuseok, everyone!). I have been home almost non-stop, and he has certainly enjoyed all the cuddling and walking around together that we've been doing.

2. I've tried my darndest to have him fall into a bedtime routine. This was rather sporadic beforehand, given that I came home from work at different times, and also that PapaFish occasionally tried to put TheFry down early so he would be asleep when I got home. However, TheFry would always just use that extra snooze as a nap and get up around 11pm and decide to hang out with us for a couple of hours until we were so exhausted that we would just go to bed and let him crawl around until he fell asleep on his own (which he tends to do on occasion).

I hope it's the routine. I really, really hope it's the routine.

TheFry gives a few telltale signs that he's tired enough for sleep: he grabs his blanket and pacifier and spends some cuddle time on his bed watching TV with his feet wiggling around in the air, repeatedly hugging the blanket and rolling his eyes back. He pushes them back open with such a strong will to not sleep that it's almost aggravating, if it weren't so cute. Also, he can get very clingy and refused to be separated from PapaFish or myself by even a couple of feet. One thing that unfortunately happens quite often is that TheFry will be hyper as usual (or even a little moreso) and then start having really random clumsy moments. Usually the spills are not bad at all - but when he falls on his face from a crawl and starts screaming as if he's going to die, we know he's ready for bed, without a doubt!

That's when I scoop him up, toss the blankie and a book on the bed, change the diaper, bathe, lotion, and dress him in clean pajamas, and then we sit down to read a book! Lately he's had such a huge interest in books that it blows my mind. He loves them, to look at the pictures, to smile with his two-tooth grin the whole time, and to try and help me turn the pages (or close the book before the story is over). Then we might give him a cup of milk if he hasn't had one, or we might just go without and brush his [two] teeth either way. He loves his little toothbrush with duckies on it, but usually he just tries to chew on the non-brush end. Anyway, it's the exposure that counts! Mainly, I think he enjoys the bonding and social time that toothbrushing involves.

Afterwards, I fight him for a grand total of 5~10 minutes before he's out like a lamp. It usually includes 2 rounds of "Barges", "Jesus Loves Me," "Jesus Loves the Little Children", the "ABCs", "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", followed by 3 rounds of "Edelweiss" to get him to ease into sleep. The fighting has been getting less and less, so I really hope the routine will stick.

Interestingly enough, "Edelweiss" is the only song that really gets him to fall asleep - the others are just warm-ups that get his attention, perhaps soothing him until "Edelweiss" is the final push over the edge. Or maybe it's just the fact that it's the only song I sing to him in 6:8 time.

I'm anxious about tomorrow, but I'll definitely be more consistent about what time I come home so that this routine can have full effectiveness. Previously, only PapaFish had success with putting TheFry to bed but now I think I might have provided a comfortable alternative.

The Last Couple of Weekends

2009-09-27T20:52:00.003-05:00

Note: I wrote this at least a week ago, but for some reason I didn't publish it.

The last couple of weekends have been rather eventful for us. Although there are no pictures, we did some cool stuff and had quite a bit of fun. We also have gotten really, really worn out.

The weekend before last (September 19) we went out of town. PapaFish went all the way to Camp Casey - a good 1.5~2hr subway ride from our place in Seoul - to play board games n' such with some guys. He had fun, but it was a long day.

TheFry and I opted out of this kind of gaming, and so we went to hike Soyosan instead. I was winded after about 20 minutes of climbing up the hill.

Soyosan was a little disappointing. To its credit, it had been largely destroyed during the Korean War and it looked as if there was a lot of renovation still going on. Nonetheless, there were plenty of piles of random crap on construction sites, intermingled with lovely statues, buildings and scenery in general.

The waterfalls are made to look much more impressive in the marketing, but they were still graceful and sweet.

The temple had been recently reconstructed, and included a gift shop. I understand that it's customary to sell candles and incense and other things necessary to make offerings at holy places in such locations, but there was plenty of jewelry and cellphone accesories alos, which was quite disappointing (along with the coffee vending machines, and big black plastic sewage pipe running down out of the waterfall into the cave of worshippers).

Furthermore, hiking a mountain on a weekend is like asking for advice from every Korean grandmother in town. There was plenty of advice to go around, mostly to keep TheFry from getting crooked teeth and a cold. I didn't mention that he already had a cold that weekend, and no one seemed to notice or care, either. They also didn't seem to care that I understood very little of what they were saying, but the power of miming pushed through.

I was thinking of going there later in October because they supposedy are having a red maple leaf festival, but I don't think I'll make it. It's not worth the 3,000won to go inside the park - the outside is just as lovely, as far as maple trees goes - but traveling that long and tiring journey with a toddler in tow just to see the outside of a park whilst getting parenting advice from strangers in a language I don't fully understand doesn't sound like a relaxing time at the park for me. I think we'll stick closer to home, and hopefully by then we'll have a camera to share pictures of all the wonderful fall goodness.

This last weekend (September 26~27) we had a full weekend of events. On Saturday we went to Myeong-dong and Dongdaemun (and wound up walking through Namdaemun in between destinations) on a hunt for yarn so I can make myself a fall sweater. I've shrunk my other fall sweater, and my post partum self is just not fitting anything I own properly anymore. I'm too cheap to buy clothes in Itaewon, so I'm going to be making my own sweaters and such come fall and winter. Since I hardly have time to get this stuff done anymore, I thought I'd start now.

I ended up buying yarn in Dongdaemun. I remember thinking to myself (and actually saying out loud once) that there was no decent selection of yarns in Dongdaemun. That's probably at least partially due to the fact that I have a tendency to show up at the wrong time on the wrong day(s), which can really happen to anyone. Also it is partially due to the fact that a number of shops only display their thinnest, thread-like yarns on the outside, keeping their wooly yarn of delicious heavenly goodness on the inside for serious browsers. It also seemed, the first couple of times I went there, at least, that the kinds of items people like to make are those fishnet-esque sweaters and caps with tiny yarns and tiny tiny hooks...I'm just not interested in that.

This time, it must have been the right day, the right time, and I actually carried with me a recommendation list of stalls to go to. I picked up 1000 grams of super-soft yarn (I think it was wool, but I'm not sure) for 24,000 won (sold in 500 gram increments). I know for a fact that you can buy yarn even cheaper than that at Dongdaemun; last time I bought 500grams for 6,000 won each, which is comparable to Wal-Mart! I think that kind of yarn only comes in fruity bright colors (I bought royal blue and a lighter shade of blue) but if you're doing something fun then it's worth it.

There were also a fair amount of stalls that had boxes of miscellaneous yarns for 1,000~1500 won apiece outside their stores. I thought about sifting through some of those but I decided I'd spent enough time already.

Last night (Sunday) we went to the Grand Finale of the Seoul Drum Festival in Seoul Forest Park. It was an interesting show. The announcements were made in both Korean and English, to our surprise. There was a fusion group combining Korean traditional drumming and Peruvian music, a group from Mexico that mostly danced, and several other groups fusioning traditional Korean drumming techniques and modern music. It was interesting, but we could have done with out the techno beats in the background. Furthermore, every time the audience applauded, TheFry started freaking out and crying. It would have been sad, but after the 10th time or so, he wasn't crying anymore, he was just screaming, as if that's how he felt he was supposed to react. It was hilarious.

The weekend was long and exhausting, but we got to do some free stuff, so it was not all in vain.

One-Year Photos!

2009-09-23T10:15:00.014-05:00

Today we got TheFry's One-Year Photos taken!

We took them ourselves at Igloo Self-Photo Studio. PapaFish actually took all the pictures, and I was on distraction duty. The studio lent us a DSLR, lighting, props, and a large choice of outfits, and we did the rest ourselves!

We took over 200 photos in one hour, and got to keep all of them on a CD. There were many outfits available for free, but we chose to use mostly our own clothing. We did pay an extra 5,000 won for TheFry to wear hanbok (Korean traditional clothing). In the end, the total bill came to just over 50,000 won, around $50 U.S.

Of course not all the photos were spectacular, but at least half of them were very, very good. Here are the best photographs from each set we took:

The first set was a bakery. TheFry loved the bread and all the other props. He looks the happiest in these sets because, well, he's not as tired and hungry as he would be an hour later!

The second set had this really cute mini telephone booth. He loved standing by it but his face was always "behind bars". There were some cute shots, but this was probably the best one. He's got that signature smirk on his face - the same one he wears when he's about to pull a plug from the wall!

He didn't like this set much. This was basically the last time we could get him to sit down on anything for the rest of the hour, and that's only because we bribed him with grapes. Puppy tagged along for shoot.

The clouds was one of his favorite sets. It was soft and bright and he could sit down comfortably with his back propped up against something stable. There were a number of classic shots taken with this set but this is my favorite, because he's being himself.

My favorite set was the toy car. This is my favorite picture: dude in a red convertible, wearing a scarf, windswept hair, and a dog along for the ride!

At first he was wearing a cute little red hat, but he hates hats, so he figured out how to rip it off and throw it to the floor. Then the person who was running the studio thought it would be a great idea for him to wear this:

This is by far my absolute favorite picture out of the whole set. It has so much personality, so much emotion. I laugh a little every time I see it. It never gets old.

Finally, it was time for TheFry to get dressed up in Hanbok, Korea's traditional costume. The first birthday is actually a huge deal in Korea, with a formal party and the baby wears hanbok.

This hanbok features cherry blossoms and it is definitely for boys. Pink is a very stylish color in Korea for both men and women, and pink on boys' and men's Hanbok is in fashion right now.

This is probably my favorite photo for photographic value of the whole set:

And I really, really love this one also:

After the shoot, one of the photographers thought it would be a great idea for us to do a family shot. I had no idea this was coming. I had skipped a shower and makeup application because we had been running late, I was sweating profusely, and I had been puked on in transit to the studio. Nonetheless, we managed to take a decent one:

And another one which was a little more honest:

After getting TheFry back in his more comfortable clothes, we took a pretty good one:

We couldn't have managed all this without the assistance of some terrific friends who translated the directions on how to use the camera, assisted us with getting TheFry's attention during the shoot, changing clothes, cleanup, and taking a few pictures of their own! In the end, I would call it a success.

A Toddler's Breakfast

2009-09-17T20:32:00.010-05:00

(excuse the crappy resolution...these were taken with my webcam; it's all I've got for now)

As I type this blog post, TheFry is shoving bites of breakfast in his mouth one right after the other.

He is eating a scrambled egg and a piece of bread smeared with persimmon jam.

He does not wait until chewing up one bite to cram more in.

If it's in front of him, he will undoubtedly reach for it and shove it in his little face.

That cute little face! (yes, that IS a washing machine under the gas range [it's a two-top, ugh...] in our kitchen)

This season--the end of summer, that is--is the season for all kinds of ripe fruit. Persimmons are some of the cheapest fruits to come by, with a pack of 6 costing 3,000 won (or less, depending on which neighborhood you live in. We live in a fairly wealthy part of town, thus the more expensive...everything!).

You can usually choose between ripe-enough-to-eat persimmons and ripe-enough-to-be-disgusting persimmons. We bought a pack of the latter.

(thank you Google Image Search)

These persimmons can barely be eaten. They cannot be sliced. Once you peel them, a few clumps of fruit fall apart in a stringy, gooey mess.

Furthermore, the persimmon is not the sweet, tart fruit that spoils us in North America. They are barely sweet (even though they are very ripe), and their flavor is reminiscent of pumpkin.

So what do you do with a fruit that you can't eat straight-up? You make jam, of course!Our big challenge was to find some kind of thickener. I believed that Pectin would be impossible to track down in any location within walking distance from us, and I was correct! I even joked with PapaFish that we might just have to boil a chicken and scrape off the gelatin if we couldn't find anything else. (eww)

We did find gelatin in with the German food at our local HomePlus. However, gelatin does not behave like pectin exactly. Even when the jam cooled, it still seemed runny, so we added more gelatin. In the end, the jam hardened, and it was as stiff as jelly candy.

So we added more persimmons!

At last, we had wonderful persimmon jam, and now that the fruit is sweet and able to be smeared on the most delicious dainties, we can rest well.

On a side note: PapaFish has been working like a madman in the kitchen the past couple of weeks. He single-handedly made the persimmon jam. Additionally, he has prepared kimchi with both radish and cabbage.

Next week, for TheFry's first birthday, we will be making spaghetti and probably having another cake adventure. More details to come!

Baking a Cake without an oven...

2009-09-15T21:54:00.002-05:00

...or a rice cooker, toaster oven, microwave, crock pot, etc...

Whether you use a cake mix or you make the recipe yourself, here is what I did:

1. Take a pot and pour in a little bit of water (1~2 cups).

2. Insert a metal steamer (one of those ones that folds up really small and then expands). It should be expanded as far as it can go. You are going to do this double-boiler style.

3. Grease and flour a cake pan that is small enough to fit in the pot. I used one of those disposable foil pans that you usually make banana bread or poundcake in.

4. After greasing/flouring the pan and pouring in the batter, cover the pan with aluminum foil, shiny-side-down.

5. Place the covered pan in the pot and cover the pot. Cook on high for the first 5 minutes, then turn the heat to low so that the water keeps simmering. Cook until done (it took me about 45~50 minutes) - when a toothpick (or a chopstick!) inserted in the middle comes out clean.

6. Remove from the pot, cool, and remove the cake.

As for a recipe? Well, I kind of winged it so the ingredients aren't exactly right, but here's what I did:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine 1.5 cups cake flour, 1/2 cup sugar (or more if you like a sweeter cake), 2 teaspoons baking powder, and a dash of salt.

2. In a separate, smaller bowl, beat 2 eggs, 1/2 cups milk, 1/4 cups vegetable oil (or margarine or butter), and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (we didn't have this, but it was definitely missing in the flavor of the cake later on).

3. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture all at once and mix just until it is moist. If the batter is too thick and doughy, add a little more milk.

4. Pour in a greased and floured cake pan and cook as above!

We hope to try a chocolate cake for TheFry's first birthday next week. I also want to try and make some frosting or some kind of filling. This week, PapaFish made persimmon jam, but it is still a work in progress as it got a little too...hard. Maybe when that problem is fixed, I will make a layer cake with persimmon jam and chocolate frosting.

Until then, eat and enjoy!

Sharing

2009-09-11T21:02:00.002-05:00

TheFry has started sharing things.

Sometimes he shares things he likes, such as his pacifier. He will pull it out of his mouth, and with a big grin and a few meaningless utterances he will shove it in your face. As soon as it gets to your mouth, he giggles, and then you can give it back to him successfully. The process is repeated several times until he gets bored.

Usually, however, he shares things he doesn't care for too much. For instance, as breakfast is drawing to a close, he suddenly becomes extremely generous with his eggs. He still manages to stuff his face with crackers, though.

I still can't decide if that glint that shines in his eye before opening drawers, doors, and reaching for electrical cords is pure naughtiness or just delight at my funny reaction. All I know is that my son is irresistably cute.

One and a half Teeth

2009-09-11T20:58:00.002-05:00

TheFry is using his one and a half teeth to bite everything he puts in his mouth in half. He was doing okay with eggs, but not so well with crackers.

I needed to vacuum the floor, anyway.

Alien Adventures, Part 2: I Can Has National Health Insurance!

2009-09-10T10:26:00.004-05:00

We've done it: we've got health insurance!

Not that it was unaffordable without it (less than $20 for a visit and less than $10 for prescription antibiotics), but we are glad to have it now. It will definitely make upcoming vaccines more affordable, and also regular visits should be a fraction of what we've paid before.

This was quite a process, however. Here is how you register your F3 dependents with National Health Insurance in Korea:

Step 1: Visit the National Health Insurance (NHIC) website and find your gu's local NHIC office.

Step 2: If you need directions to your local gu office, the NHIC website also has the number for a call center where you can speak with an NHIC representative in English. That number is 02)390-2000.

Step 3: Once you have directions for your local gu office, prepare all the documents you'll need to get your dependants registered. Everyone needs to have their Alien Registration Cards (ARCs) and passports. Also, you need documents that prove your relationship to your dependents, such as marriage and birth certificates. Also bring the English Call Center number with you because you might need it to communicate with the office staff if you do not speak Korean.

Step 4: Show up at your local gu office, take a number and wait. There will be forms out that other people will be filling out, but if you can't decipher that level of Korean and nobody in the office speaks English (as was the case with us in Yangcheon-gu), just wait. You will have to communicate with the clerks via the English Call Center.

Step 5: Upon the request of the clerks, present your documents and wait. They might communicate with you via call center or they might just figure it out. Whatever the case, you should in the end be presented with a small paper booklet with your names written in Hangeul. We received one booklet for all three of us.

I found the people at the call center to be particularly helpful, so if you're ever in a bind with this, I'd call that number straight away. This whole process was something I knew little about to begin with and couldn't find any information about on the net (with a lazy amount of searching, to be honest), so I hope you find this useful!

Jjajang Baby!

2009-09-10T10:11:00.005-05:00

This is one of those posts I just really didn't want to write without pictures. However, it's just too good to pass up.

Recently, TheFry has decided he will not go to bed before midnight. This is probably partly due to the fact that MamaFish gets home from work at about 10:30 at night, and he likes to wait up for her. Therefore, in order to retain some semblance of sanity, the Fish family goes for a walk around the neighborhood every night at 11:00.

There are many things to see on this walk. Sometimes we go to HomePlus Express and buy groceries or an ice cream bar. Sometimes we get ice cream at McDonald's. Sometimes we even get ice cream at the Family Mart in any of the buildings nearest us.

There is also a park near our place called Paris Park. It is complete with fountains, basketball courts, a therapeutic walkway (sharp rocks! ouch!!) and exercise machines, bench presses, and a running path. We usually stop by so PapaFish can bench press and MamaFish can take a stroll with TheFry.

The past couple of nights, however, we've been stopping by a certain noodle tent. The noodle tent opens up at night right outside of the building where MamaFish teaches. It sells two kinds of noodles: udon and jjajang.

The tent is actually more than just a tent. It is a truck that has been converted to a restaurant. The truck's sides fold down and the truck bed and tailgate are covered with a kind of linoleum that looks like wood. The tent is set up and attached to the truck, and it houses a few plastic tables and stools.

In the truck bed there is a gas tank and hooked up to the gas tank are four large burners that are used to boil water and keep the sauce and broth hot.

I'm not sure about the actual mixing of the dough, but the noodles are cut fresh right in front of you, then boiled on the spot. When we go, we order jjajangmyeon, which is a kind of noodle served with black sauce. The sauce is salty and savory and about the consistency of country gravy.

TheFry loves jjajangmyeon! And by loves I mean he screams at me until I feed him the next bite. Of course all the passersby exclaim how cute he is, how he eats like a doll, and that he eats so well. I can't help but wonder, though, what they think of his constant yelling.

When we eat out with TheFry, it usually goes like this: MamaFish holds TheFry in her lap and feeds him for 3/4 of the meal. When PapaFish is down to his last few noodles, he cuts them up, takes TheFry onto his own lap, and feeds him while MamaFish can enjoy the rest of her dish! This usually works out pretty well, and everyone is happy in the end.

At the end of the night, TheFry crashes on his little makeshift bed, his face still covered with brown sauce, and he falls into a deep sleep rather quickly. Am I introducing him to bad eating habits? Perhaps so, but I don't think we've made this a habit quite yet. Still, we love jjajangmyeon!

Alien Adventures, Part 1: F-3 Visa - Dependent Visa for Family Members

2009-09-07T08:22:00.004-05:00

Yaayyyy! We got 'em!

After a lot of stress in the spring over what to do about PapaFish and TheFry's visa status while in Korea, and finding next to no information on the great-wide Internets about it, I kind of blindly leapt towards Korea with very little information and hints about how to get things done. Well, we figured it out, and it wasn't that bad. The worst that happened is that we originally went to the wrong floor of the immigration office, only to be redirected after 15 minutes of waiting.

So, do YOU have dependents that are following you to Korea but not working? Here's whatcha do:

1. Apply for a C-3 tourist visa. I think ours cost about $45 apiece. They are valid for 90 days. You shouldn't need to give them proof of return airfare to get it.

2. Come to Korea, get your Alien Registration Card (ARC). Do this as soon as possible.

3. When you get your ARC, leap for joy, cry a few tears of merriment, kiss it, and plan an excursion to Immigration early the next morning.

4. Go to immigration...and early. The earlier, the better. If your local office opens at 9, expect there to be at least 30 people in there waiting by 10. Often, it is more. We had to make 2 trips to immigration just to hand in our applications so you have been warned.

When you go to your local immigration office, bring your ARC and the passports for everyone in your family who needs their C-3 switched over. This includes the wee babes. Also, bring proof of relation, such as a copy of a birth certificate or marriage certificate. Ours did not have to be noticed or apostilled, and they made the copies right there for us. Also bring at least 1 passport-sized photo for everyone who will be applying. Make sure you know your address and phone number. Also bring money - the application fee for us was 60,000 won per applicant. It might be a good idea to pack some snacks and drinks - you could be waiting for quite a while.

5. Purchase "Revenue Stamps". At the Seoul Immigration Office in Mokdong, these can be purchased in the basement. The stamps will be pasted to the application because 0the immigration officer upstairs on the first floor will not have a cash register.

6. When you fill out the application, select "4" - "Change the status of sojourn". Fill out the app, paste the revenue stamps and passport-sized photo on with a glue stick (provided for you), take a number and wait your turn. Wait and wait and wait. Eat and hydrate and entertain yourself in the meantime.

7. When your number is called, hand your stuff over to the immigration officer. They will take your applications and make copies of all your documents (your ARC, marriage/birth/etc. certificates, and so on) and take the passports of the applicants (my husband and son in my case).

8. They will give you a receipt and a date/time you can return to pick up your passport. At that time, go in the same room, take a number (it will be a different category than when you originally applied; for example, in Mokdong, press button "4" on the number machine. This is for Pickup Only). When it's your turn, they will return the passports with the new visa stamps and also issue ARC cards for the applicants. Then you can do a little Irish Jig of Happines!

9. Eat Samgyupsal for breakfast on your way back home. You deserve it!

Our next little Alien Adventure: Obtaining National Health Insurance!

Things I Love about Korea!

2009-09-05T21:17:00.003-05:00

I go to work every afternoon at 2:30. That means that the time I get to spend with my family is in the morning, when I am refreshed and happy (I'm a morning person if you didn't know). In my previous life, I worked eight hours at a job that drained me completely, so that by the time I got home - even if I hadn't had to think or move around or really do much of anything at work that day - I was totally exhausted and wanting to be alone or just veg out and watch TV and eat. Mostly, I just wanted to eat. TheFry would be either taking a nap or just waking up when I got home from work. When he woke up, he would be happy for a little while, then he would want to eat. We would eat food. I would put him in the living room so I could clean the kitchen. I would put on a half hour baby video so I could crochet for a few minutes. Then we would go for a half-hour walk together. Sometimes we would watch Korean dramas on the Internet together, but other times we would play. TheFry would take a long bath, have a bottle, and go down to bed. I would spend a few hours watching TV and crocheting. It was rather bleak.

Now I get up with TheFry. PapaFish gets up when breakfast has been prepared and we all eat breakfast together. Sometimes we go out for a walk in the morning. There is a park near our apartment that has a huge pool with a ton of fountains. Also there is a bunch of exercise equipment at the park, from bench presses to rowing machines. There is a "therapy walkway" which is a path of different sized rocks arranged in various patterns; you take off your shoes and walk on the path, and it's like getting a massage or acupuncture in your feet. It feels wonderful afterwards.

Sometimes we just go to HomePlus - our local grocery store. It has 3 floors. It's like Super Wal-Mart and Macy's combined and on crack at the same time. There's a huge food court and all three of us can share a meal there for about 5 bucks. It's cool to just go and look and see what they have, to plan out the things we might buy to improve the living conditions of our apartment, or to just dream of what we could make the place like. But the food court is reason enough for us to pay HomePlus a visit on a weekday morning.

Sometimes we just hang out at home. TheFry takes a morning nap. I crochet. We watch NCIS back-to-back for about 2 or 3 episodes. I go to work a little early to use internet or to prepare for the day.

I get off work at 10pm. After work, Seoul is even more alive than it was before. The park fountains aren't going anymore, but the park is full of people playing basketball and hanging out with friends. On Thursday, we went for a walk to a playground that was in a nook between several high-rise apartment buildings. There must have been about 10,000 people living in that small portion of the neighborhood, but it was completely quiet. There were no loud cars, loud music, loud people being obnoxious. It was THURSDAY, and it was almost midnight. We played on the see-saw, swang on the swings and slid down the slides.

There are many things here that are different than back in the United States, but we have found that we are adapting rather easily. TheFry has also been doing very well. He loves the attention he gets and he loves going out people-watching in the middle of the night. We love going to grab an ice cream bar for the rough equivalent of $0.40 and walking around the neighborhood. There is always something new to find, always somewhere new to eat. It is going to be a really fun, exciting year.

Sippy Cup Wars

2009-09-05T21:05:00.004-05:00

TheFry will be 1 year old 19 days. He will stop drinking formula (YAAAAAYYYYYY!!!) and he will no longer be using a bottle...

...or so we hope. You see, he's getting to that age when "training" is difficult. He has developed preferences.

Until about a week or two ago, he had a clear preference for the bottle. I would offer him a sippy cup at lunch time and he would scream and push it away vehemently. I was desperate, wondering what I should do - should I force him to change his ways against his will, or should I go easy on him? He is still a baby, after all.

In the end, I decided switching to a sippy cup was the best thing. I didn't foresee it getting any easier in the future. Also, I deduced that it would make everyone happier in the short-term long run. Within a month or two, he would be able to hold his own cup, he would be able to eat his own meals, and MamaFish and PapaFish could finally get back some of the sanity they had before TheFry was born.

Even though he is accepting a sippy cup at mealtimes these days (we still give him a bottle at bedtime), he REFUSES to hold the cup himself. If I set the cup in front of him, he will literally scream and swat it away onto the floor. He will watch it as it falls to the ground, spilling formula everywhere, and then he will turn and see the desperate fury on MamaFish's face and smile, with that one little white tooth poking out, laughing at me.

Apparently, however, he will hold the cup for PapaFish. PapaFish has been christened as the fish bowl's disciplinarian - TheFry definitely takes him more seriously than he does me. I'm glad. I don't want to be the disciplinarian.

Hopefully, TheFry will be drinking from (and holding) his own cup three times a day by his first birthday. We have almost three weeks left. I'm wondering how weaning him off that final bottle will go...

Toothers!

2009-09-05T20:40:00.003-05:00

TheFry cut his first tooth a couple of weeks ago. I am so happy. I was starting to wonder if they would ever come out. My mother told me that I got my first tooth at 15 months, and I was not happy about the prospect of that happening with TheFry (for whatever reason - I don't know...). Anyway, the second one has been pushing its way through this week, which is externally evident in his endlessly crabby mood. Our solution:

(Thank you mykoreankitchen.com via google image search!)

Kimbap Cheonguk means "Kimbap Heaven". Kimbap is like a sushi roll, only it's not sushi (technically). You can put anything in kimbap (and I mean anything). But really, Kimbap Cheonguk serves Korean comfort food to the masses. It is one of many such chain restaurants in Korea.

Most importantly, however, kimbap is not the only thing they serve! Their menu is huge and full of such cheap local quick foods. Here is what we have eaten in the past week:

chumeokbap - a big rice ball filled with such things as tuna salad, bulgogi, kimchi, or whatever inside. Then the ball is rolled in shredded dried seaweed laver (yummy!) and sprinkled with sesame seeds. It is fantastic! And, seeing as how it's about a dollar to buy one of these, I often purchase one for dinner while I am at work.

tangsu mandu - fried dumplings in a kind of sweet-and-sour sauce that resembles ketchup. I suspect that the sauce is probably mostly ketchup. Anyway, it's yummy.

kogi mandu - steamed dumplings with meat in them. We bought a huge package of frozen ones at the grocery store and TheFry loves them!

curry tonkatsu - Tonkatsu is a pork cutlet, tenderized and breaded with panko breadcrums, then fried to yummy perfection. Usually it is served with the aptly named "katsu sauce" - something like barbecue sauce - but you ca also order it with curry. Ordering something with curry in Korea means you will get a mild curry-esque sauce, not really all that spicy, and it will be loaded with potatoes and carrots. Also, because tonkatsu is a Japanese-style dish, the meal is served with all kinds of side dishes that you get with any kind of Japanese-style dish in Korea: corn kernels with mayonnaise, cole slaw with thousand island dressing, etc.

veggie kimbap - kimbap with vegetables, mayo, processed ham and imitation crab. Being a vegetarian in Korea would be extremely difficult.

So why do we do all this? Because walking around in public with TheFry and feeding him restaurant food is the easiest way to placate him when he's angry at the world. He loves the attention he gets from the general public (as long as MamaFish or PapaFish are holding him), he loves tonkatsu and he loves eating in restaurants. He is a connoisseur of sorts, refusing to eat plain rice (I must mix broth with it instead) or eggs (unless they are salted) amongst other things. He has eclectic tastes for an 11-month-old. His father is proud of him.

All Moved In...

2009-09-05T20:36:00.002-05:00

5 weeks ago, the fish bowl was officially relocated to Seoul, South Korea. It is certainly cliche of me (and those of you who know me in real life know precisely how much I loathe cliches), but I'm gonna say it anyway: It seems like just yesterday we were 5 weeks away from Seoul, I was in a job that was going nowhere, we were fretting over dropping the bomb on people when we told them of our plans, etc. Well, we've been here 5 weeks, and the only way I can see us loving it more is if we hadn't lost our digital camera on the trip over.

So I'll be posting a few things here and there, but I feel like blogging without photos to share is akin to showing up to class without any shoes on. I still would have plenty of things to share, but I would feel slightly naked.

The ultimate blogger...fail

2009-08-06T02:28:00.002-05:00

We made it to Korea! But...

...I lost my digital camera. *sniff* And I don't get paid until September, which means there won't be pictures for a while. But I have a superrific post in the works - in my brain, that is - for later. So stay tuned.

2009-07-24T15:40:00.002-05:00

The big fat thing I learned this week is that I should've scheduled all these measly doctor appointments looong before going overseas:

1. If you are getting new life insurance, then you are probably going to have to have a medical checkup (at least if you are going through American Family). They can come to your house or work, but this is something you'll need to remember to do early (2 weeks = not quite enough time, but it'll have to do for us!).

2. If you are going to get an annual physical or any other kind of checkup, do it right before you leave. Make sure you are up-to-date on your vaccinations. You can do this in Korea - that is, if you feel like dealing with culture shock, a language barrier, and new sociocultural conventions when it comes to health care all at once! Do yourself a favor and see the doc before you leave so that you have some time to adjust in your new country before doing something this stressful. But if you're go-with-the-flow enough, go for it!

3. Take care of said appointments before your car is gone. Maybe even before you list it. Otherwise you could be up the creek without a paddle, so to speak.

4. Take shot records and other medical records with you. I've switched hospitals so many times in the last 3 years that I don't have a coherent medical record at any of them. I don't think I've had a coherent medical record since I left home. Maybe I should work on that.

Stuff o' the week!

2009-07-23T08:19:00.005-05:00

Okay, let's count down the top five!

5. I made a list of stuff I need to do before the move on Monday, and I haven't looked at it since. Good thing I e-mailed it to myself.

4. I eat way. too. much. sugar. I'll be lucky if I don't get diabetes before I'm 30 at this rate.

3. Man, I'm really going to miss the support staff at my current workplace. It's a hoot making jokes to pass a slow afternoon. These ladies are terrific, and I can't imagine having more fun in a workplace again as long as I live.

2. Buying international plane tickets isn't as easy as I thought it would be, especially from an agent. It took about 6 days to confirm ours. At any rate, we got the ones we wanted, so we'll be getting to Seoul on August 1 at 4:00 in the afternoon. More details on that to come!

1. I'm supposed to move stuff to storage tomorrow, and probably only 2/3 of my stuff is actually packed! Way to go, me! I'm going to be up late tonight scrambling to get the last few things together.

Summer Vacation, Part 2!

2009-07-21T11:53:00.005-05:00

We went to see PapaFish's family in South Dakota earlier this month. I took less pictures than I'd hoped to, but we still managed to get some good ones.

Here's TheFry with his Great Grandpa!

Here's TheFry eating some of Great Grandpa's 75th birthday cake!

Red Velvet, Yum!

He thought the table was rather tasty, too!

Here's TheFry with his Gramma! She has managed to pacify him after a tempestuous tantrum - Gramma skills, activate!

He likes chasing his cousin around, even though she avoids his overly-friendly nature!

After getting sick many times on the drive home, he finally falls asleep.

2009-07-15T22:58:00.004-05:00

After returning home from a vacation where he was held nearly every minute by a different person every 5 minutes in a different location every 24 hours with new foods and surroundings and an all-out barf-fest on the way home, TheFry will.not.let.go.of.me...or PapaFish, for that matter. Clinging to MamaFish has been pretty routine for the last two months or so, but crying when PapaFish leaves the room, even though MamaFish is holding him, is something TheFry has not really ever done before.

Is this just normal separation anxiety, or is it related to our recent vacation, or both? How will we survive our move to Korea??! How long will it take him to adjust, never mind PapaFish?

*sigh*

Now it looks like we will need to get a sitter just to be able to pack a couple of boxes each night. Looking around our apartment, I realize how much work there still is to do, even though I feel like I've been working endlessly on it for the last two or three months.

Blech. It's 11pm, and I'm going to bed.

I know people thought he was a girl, but this has gone TOO FAR...

2009-07-13T21:29:00.010-05:00

The Korean Consulate in Chicago thinks my son is a girl. Okay, he kind of has eartails in his passport photo, HOWEVER, his passport clearly states that he is MALE, hence the "M" in the "Sex" column of the photo page of his passport.

However, when his visa was issued, he was listed as "F". Whattheheck?! So, after dozens of dollars in shipping fees and a week and a half of wait time, I still don't have a visa for my son or for myself. I'm calling the consulate tomorrow at 10am if I can possibly manage it.

At least PapaFish has his visa correct and in tact. Maybe they should issue proofs of the visas via e-mail before they stamp them in your passport to avoid the hassle. I have 2 weeks and 5 days to get this done. Actually, 2 weeks and 4 days, since the last day we'll be staying in a hotel before we leave for Korea.

In other news, we just got back from our week-long vacation to visit PapaFish's side of the family. The trip there was easy-peasy. Did I mention that TheFry loves to ride in his car seat? We are planning on buying him his own seat on the flight to Korea, and I am going to try and convince PapaFish that bringing the car seat is a good idea. Give me a holler if you've done this (bringing the car seat, that is) and what you thought of it. Was it more convenient to strap the little bugger in the seat for an hour or two so everyone could get some much-needed shut-eye, or was it just more of a hassle to carry it around?

PapaFish is leaning towards bringing the umbrella stroller to cart TheFry through the airports and we could possibly use our travel booster seat to strap him down for some time in his own airplane seat. I don't think that the flight attendants will let us do this because it is a flimsy inflatable booster seat and not a government-approved vehicle seat. Plus, I don't think that it would really hold TheFry down because the harness strap is not the most restricting thing in the world. Anyway, here is our travel inflatable booster seat and here is the car seat.

As for our trip home from visiting relatives, it was a 6.5-hour doozy! Usually the trip takes about 3 hours and 45 minutes, but TheFry barfed about 5 times (multiple heaves each time) and had a blowout diarrhea diaper towards the end of it. We changed his clothes twice during the trip. He was exhausted and, quite literally, pooped out. Apparently, he is allergic to bananas. We called PapaFish's mother in the beginning of the trip (after Barf #2, and about 25 minutes of driving) and she mentioned that PapaFish had also been upset by bananas in his infancy - he'd just had the opposite reaction. So there we have it. No more bananas for TheFry until he's old enough to clean up his own messes. Like, until he's 17 or something.

Oi. Right now I'm soaking the stains of various baby clothing items with OxyClean. I have so many things to do tomorrow that I can't think straight about it all. Here's what I have so far:

1. Go to work
2. Give 2-week notice at work
3. Get chip in windshield fixed over lunch break
4. Get car washed over lunch break
5. Call Korean Consulate in Chicago over lunch break
6. Get quarters from the bank after work
7. Clean out inside of car after work
8. Show car to potential buyer at 6:30pm
9. Do laundry
10. Go to bed tired

We'll see how it goes!

*UPDATE*: I got the car wash done before work to lighten my work day a little bit. I also called the Korean Consulate in Chicago, found out my visa is on its way to our local UPS Store, and that I don't need to mail in TheFry's passport again to get his "F" changed to "M". So there we have it. All that and a bag (*snap*, *snap*, *snap*!) of chips.