The Happy Is Some More

Things have been pretty slow lately, but this weekend was nice and full. Our friends Nick and Lauren came up Friday night and stayed till Sunday. We were hoping to go to this really cool-looking ice palace on Saturday, but the wind made it super cold - more than I think the kids would have dealt with - so we just made a quick trip to Olive Mart for some treats and then headed back to the warmth of the apartment. I felt sort of bad, because I just kept stuffing Nick and Lauren with crappy American food - on Friday night we had pizza for dinner, and Saturday morning we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

                                                  (Lauren anticipating the cinnamon rolls)

Saturday the missionaries came over for dinner, and I made cheesy enchilada chowder. Someone challenged Nick to eat it with chopsticks (that someone may or may not have been me...) and this was the result.

Today I had an appointment with a neurologist, which was interesting. The doctor and nurse both spoke very good English, but I had to go to Yeungnam University Medical Center. It was crazy busy, and Reagan and I were seriously the ONLY white people there. There were a few soldiers in American ACUs, but they were all Korean too. It was very overwhelming. All the signs were in Korean, and everyone was looking at us as I tried to determine where to go just to sign in. Of course Reagan got the usual "Aigoo!" and "Kyoo!" with plenty of cheek stroking and grins. A woman sitting in front of us turned and asked how old Reagan is (we've been asked this enough times that I've started to recognize it), and Reagan held up 4 fingers and said, "Net." She's awesome. 

On the way back to the subway we passed this fantastic shop. I love it when they use English!

I will always remember that The Happy Is Only Some More. 

And to refresh ourselves after the very draining trip through the hospital, we stopped for subway waffles. These were AMAZING. They were topped with miniature marshmallows and chocolate syrup. Holy cats they were delicious! 

In my opinion. The Happy Is Only Some More Subway Waffles.

The One With The Yums

I got my new lappy working fairly well, and have named her Delphi (those of you who know me well know that I name almost all of my gadgets), so now that I have a working and named laptop I think I'll be able to keep up on my blogging while David is gone. He leaves tomorrow bright and early and will be gone until March 2. Independence in a foreign country, here I come!

Today is our video game/veg out in front of the TV day, so I decided we'd use up as much of our Korean change as possible and go get some treats at Olive Mart. And I even remembered to get pictures of everything, since that's what most people requested. :)

 

Here's what it looks like when we wander down the little aisle in Olive Mart to pick out some candy.

 

 

The kids' favorite candy here is something we call Popper Toppers. The actual name in English is Fun Caps, and the name in Hangul reads something like "kan chyo".

They are little round cookies with chocolate inside, and little pictures on the outside. We call them Popper Toppers because the first time I had them was when I visited our friends the Guzas who were living in Seoul at the time, and they called them that presumably because they came in a cup with a little pink lid. I dunno. Seemed like a fitting name.

Next up is what Aiden chose - we actually have these in the states, even in regular grocery stores. I think over there you'll see them as Pocky Sticks, but the name here is Peppero.

 

I chose something that looks sort of like giant Coco Puffs, and it tastes like deliciousness. I'm not sure what it's called in English, but the front of the box says the brand name, which is Ghana, and then the Hangul says "pongtyoo", which sounds a lot like fondue. So we just call it Ghana Fondue.

 

I also picked this bag of sort of honey cinnamon corn chip things that we hadn't tried before. They were pretty good.

 

 

The Hangul in yellow says something like "kooksak palmol". I have no idea if that's the name.

 

Then the girls got their usual drinks, Hello Pandoli, and Aiden got a fruit juice.

 

 

And for a super special after-the-kids-go-to-bed treat, David and I got ice cream. :) Yep, totally good for 10 degree weather. But these are so good! I may have already posted a picture of these.

 

 

So that's what I have for food pictures this week. Later on this week Reagan and I will probably go out to eat at a beef & leaf, or maybe just the snack bar on Camp Walker, which has really good ramen (super common here), and I'll get some pictures of that. Aiden has mastered chopsticks, and Lillie is starting to get the hang of them.

 

Oh, the food here... so so yummy! Come over and try it, especially if you like hot and spicy stuff. :)

 

 

Another Day, Another Weird Picture

There's not a whole lot going on lately, but here are the few pictures I've taken in the past week or so.

I got to see Les Mis this weekend with our friends Nick and Lauren, and it was amazing. If you don't cry at that movie, you have no soul. Doing anything as mundane as going to a theater here, however, is always an adventure. Luckily the theater wasn't too far, so we only had to go a few subway stops away, but then we had to do a little bit of wandering because the theater itself is on the top floor of a department store and it's sort of in a secret little alcove that isn't particularly well-marked. But we found it, and Nick was able to get tickets and concessions without any major problems. Well, except for poor Lauren's cold churros... not a tasty situation.

Anyway, this is a sign that was in the lobby. I wish I knew what it was advertising. Possibly some sort of strange flavored squid snack? It's a popular concession here. Not a pleasant smell when you're trying to enjoy your movie.

Next, I wanted to give a shot of how people move into these apartments. We live on the 4th floor of a 5 story apartment, and I don't know how it's done in the states but here the movers use a really cool conveyor belt sort of contraption to move our stuff. Our front door opens onto a sort of open corridor, kind of like a motel, instead of like a normal apartment building, so when someone is moving in or out you'll see this giant conveyor belt thing propped up against the wall and the movers at the top taking the stuff off.

And today's last picture has nothing to do with Korea, but I wanted to show Aiden in the cutest hat ever. My sister-in-law made yoda hats for both him and David, and I got pictures of both of them, but I can't technically post David's because he was wearing it while in uniform. I'll get another one of him later and post it, probably when I put up the one of me wearing the awesome headband and scarf my other sister-in-law gave me. We seriously have the greatest family.

I finally got a decent camera, so I have a list of stuff to take pictures of while I'm out and about over the next couple of weeks. However, David will be out of town with our good laptop till the beginning of March, so it will be a little more difficult to blog. Hopefully I'll get one post in before he gets back. If not, I'll just have more time to get pictures of Shin Woo and Olive Mart and our church and ... hey, does anyone have any requests? Anything specific you'd like to see? Let me know!