Day by Day with Gina

Days of Rest and Korean Potty Adventures

UPDATE FROM SOUTH KOREA
Friday, December 30, 2005

After our two busy days Seoul-searching, we decided to take it a bit easy. We hung around the apartment for the first half of the day, then Becca, Shane, Jason, and I decided to do some shopping in downtown Songtan. I made some all-important purchases during our excursion: jewelry, stickers I will use for my scrapbook, a cool scarf, and some hand warmers. They have these cool hand warmers you put in your pocket. There's a little bubble with some kind of chemical in it, and you pop the bubble, and it gets warm. You can put it in your pocket and make use of it at anytime. You can even reset it by putting it in the microwave, then reuse it at will. They are a brilliant invention, and they are in really funny shapes, too.

On Friday nights, Britt and Becca do a meal for the Hospitality House. Becca made ham, carrots, and green bean casserole (Jason's favorite dish). It was mashesayo (delicious)! After staying up a bit later to have a deep conversation between Ben, Jason, Shane, and me, we all got a really good night's sleep.

Saturday, December 31, 2005
New Year's Eve!!!

After sleeping in this morning, we took it pretty easy all day long. Ben is still feeling rough, so we decided to rest. We slept in, ate meals at appropriate times, and watched some Arrested Development. We're in season three now!! Woo hoo.
We getting up early to go to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) tomorrow. The DMZ is the area that separates North Korea from South Korea. It's a pretty big deal, and a pretty long trip. It involves us traveling about three hours each way to get there, then taking the tour while we are there. Large time (and money) commitment, but I think it will be well worth it. There is one part of the tour where you actually get to step into North Korea--enemy territory!!! Someday, Lord willing, the DMZ won't exist anymore, and it will be very cool to see it while we are here. All that to say, Ben and I intentionally took it easy today in an effort to store up energy for tomorrow. It's going to be a long Sunday doing the DMZ trip, and then we wake up on Monday to go to the airport and take the long journey home, so it was good to chizill today.

The highlight of the day, for sure, was the evening church meeting. Britt and Becca hold a meeting in the Hospitality House on Saturday nights. Becca usually cooks another meal, but this week, we had a teacher at the school where Britt works and her familiy cook some awesome Greek food. It was great! After the meal, we had a time of singing and sharing about what the Lord is doing. The meeting went really well, and Britt shared some good teaching. Most of the sharing and teaching tonight was about focusing on the Lord and being willing to die to ourselves, our desires, and our dreams and let Him be enough. It was a good word, and I was really blessed by it.
Shane started Micah on his first piano lesson tonight! He was pretty distracted, but that's okay.

So, tonight is New Year's Eve, and I am going to be in 2006 before all you guys back in the states, so nanny-nanny-boo-boo! I will hopefully be asleep by midnight as long as my laundry finishes in time, isn't that sad? I am getting old...

Korean Potty Adventures

So now, time for what I promised: my Korean bathroom experiences. Here are some things to know about public potties in Korea.

• Most of them are not heated, and therefore quite cold since this country has very chilly winters and the restrooms are all ceramic and metal.
  
• In many public places, such as the subway, you won't have a "Western" toilet, but what we affectionately call a "squatty-potty," that looks like this:

• They don't have hot water to wash your hands. The water is honestly right around 33 degrees Fahrenheit in most I have seen: just "warm" enough to be able to flow out of the faucet.
• They also don't usually have paper towels. They may have a hand dryer that blows out cold air. Between the cold water and the lack of paper towels or cold dryer, my hands have had trouble staying warm.
• Several places I have been also don't have soap. Rinse, rub, repeat, shake dry, then hand sanitizer is the best formula.
  
• Most Koreans don't flush their toilet paper. They use it and deposit it into a small trash can next to the toilet. This causes bathrooms to both look and smell rather...interesting.
• The topic of toilet paper brings me to my last, and most funny, observation. There are three varieties of toilet paper providing. 1) My personal preference, which is a roll of toilet paper in each stall. Seems normal and expected, right? Oh, just wait. 2) A large roll of toilet paper in some central location of the bathroom. Grab as much as you think you'll need, and take it in with you. Makes me concerned when I don't see women grabbing any, though...guess they drip dry. 3) Last, and least desirable, is exampled by my experience at the bus station the other day when we went to pick up Shane and Jason. I went in the restroom, looked around for the toilet paper, found none in a central location or in the individual stall. Seeing my confusion, a Korean lady motioned profusely and told me (in Korean) that I had to go buy some at the small store in the bus station. So, for about 500won (50 cents), I bought some toilet tissue. Ladies and gentlemen, if you ever come to Korea, bring some toilet paper with you. I would hate for anyone to have to "drip dry" if they weren't planning on it. That's just an uncomfortable situation.

So, the funny thing about this toilet paper is not only that I had to buy it to use a public restroom, but the package itself is quite amusing. Koreans really like to use English words, but their phrasings are rarely exactly correct. This is a perfect example. I will show you the pictures of the three sides of the pouch that have such writing, then put the words in quotes underneath so you won't miss the linguistic humor.

posted by Gina @ 7:39 AM 4 comments

Seoul Searchin'

UPDATE FROM SOUTH KOREA
Wednesday, December 28, 2006

On Wednesday, we rode the subway into the city of Seoul and did some Seoul-searching. Ben, Shane, Jason, and Britt went early in the morning to explore the Electronics Mart. Becca, Micah, and I went up around lunchtime to join them. The subway ride there was very culturally interesting.

At first, we didn't have a seat, but a nice lady let Becca have her seat when she saw her carrying Micah on her front-pack. As Americans, we get a fair amount of staring and general attention most of the time. When you throw in a Caucasian blue-eyed baby, we get even more attention, especially from old Korean ladies. Becca had to feed Micah while we were on the subway, and this Korean woman next to her tried several times to tell her how to do it. Becca was covered with a blanket, which I am sure many on the subway appreciated her modesty, and the Korean woman next to her told her to take the blanket off because the baby couldn't breathe. She even reached over to take the blanket off of Becca, and Becca had to pull out her smack-down face, grab the blanket to keep it on, and insist that Micah was just fine. Keep in mind that we have never met this person before, and she's trying to expose Becca in front of a subway car rather full of people. Micah was, however, getting warm, so Becca and I pulled his pant legs up so he could have a bit of ventillation. The Korean woman reached over and tried to pull his pant legs back down, I assume because she thought he was cold or that we were being negligent. Becca and I both pulled out our smack-down faces and said (with motions) that he was hot. The Korean lady finally stopped making unreasonable suggestions and became content just watching and making cooing noises at Micah.

There were other interesting things that happened on the subway. Several beggars came through during our ride, asking for money, sometimes playing music on an instrument or a small radio. There were also salesmen that walked through, selling items like earmuffs, scarves, gloves, toothbrushes, battery-operated razors, and even band-aids. I actually saw some people purchase from them, so it mus be a viable economic option of some kind.

Becca and I made it into Seoul at the Yongsan station, which is really big and looks like this:
There is a very large store there called the Electronics Mart. I only spent a couple of minutes in it, and I had to leave because I was so overwhelmed! If you have ever been to the Apparel Mart in Atlanta or know what it's like, imagine that, but full of only electronics. It is several buildings (over 20) with several floors (3 or more) each, and on each floor are many separate vendors, each selling myriads of electronic devices. That's the best I can do to explain it. Ben will probably do a better job since he spent more time in there, but imagine lots and lots of this:
Also at the Yongsan station is a relatively new food court, where we ate lunch together. I had BiBimBap, which is rice, vegetables, and eggs in a very hot ceramic bowl, where you cook it yourself altogether. Ben had Bulgoki, which is beef and rice that you put in leaves of lettuce like a burrito. Shane had some kind of sweet pork dish. Britt had a turkey sandwich, go figure.

After lunch, we walked around the shops a bit. I found a store named after me!!!

Then, we braved the subway journey home. It was so crowded on the subway that we all stood the whole way home (over an hour). Poor Becca was carrying Micah and standing most of that time, so she got a bit tired. Britt finally releived her and carried him the rest of the way.

We took a taxi back to the apartment, made chicken for dinner, and the boys went downstairs for the men's fraternity meeting. Becca, Shane, Micah, and I chilled out in the apartment with some Allison Kraus dvd viewing and put our feet up. We ended the evening with...Signs, the alien/faith in God movie, then had a much-needed night of sleep.

Thursday, December 29, 2005
We got up early on Thursday and headed back into Seoul via the subway. The boys had some interesting head happenings on the train:
We rode toward the Gyeongbok palace on the north side of the city. It was very cold, but it was really a neat palace and we all enjoyed looking around the grounds and the beautiful buildings.
We took the subway south back into Seoul and got off at Daebong to see the 63 building, the tallest building in Seoul. Guess how many floors it has??? We had planned to go there and eat in the food court and shop around a bit in the building, but we found out most tourist-y spots at the building were closed for renovation. Bum-mer. It was about 2PM and everyone was starting to get cranky from lack of food, so we zipped out to the streets and found the closest decent-looking restaurant we could. We had Kalbi at this very authentic Korean restaurant. We sat on pillows on the floor, and they brought out the meat and cooked it on a grill in the middle of our table. They had excellent pork and rice. I also had some really good dumpling soup, but the side dishes were not as accessible for us boring Americans. They were mostly too spicy or had unidentifiable substances.
Now that we had our glucose levels back within the safe range, we walked back over to the 63 building and went up to the observation deck, the only part of the building that was actually open. It was a beautiful view of the city.
Seoul is really interesting. In most American cities, the tallest buildings are offices and companies. In Seoul, the apartment buildings are just as tall, if not taller, than the businesses. And since the tallest building in Seoul is only 63 stories, you can imagine that there just aren't that many skyscrapers there. Donal Trump has some Trumpworld towers in Seoul. At least two sets, that I was able to see.

After recharging with some chocolate ice cream, we boarded the subway again and headed toward home. Becca and Britt were able to get seats, which was good so that they could hold Micah and Becca could feed him again.

We picked up our really awesome tailor-made shirts at the shop and then walked over to Britt and Becca's favorite Bulgoki restaurant. The owner and his wife know Britt and Becca really well, so it was really a great experience. He called himself grandfather (in Korean) and whisked Micah away when he started to get fussy.
He and his wife ("grandmother") entertained Micah for most of our meal. The Bulgoki was great. He cooked the chicken on the grill in our table, then would randomly put food in our lettuce-burritos for us- a little bean sprout there, some seaweed over here. He was really a fun guy and seemed very genuine and nice. The food was incredible.
My favorite side dishes were the potato salad, the egg rolls, and the cucumber kimchi.
We made a stop at the Coffee Tree, and kept ourselves warm with our excellent coffee on the cold walk home.
We ended the evening with two more episodes of Arrested Development, the we all crashed after a very busy day.

I promised to write about my Korean potty-time adventures, but this blog post is getting really long, so I will save it for tomorrow. I know you're disappointed, but a girl can only do so much.

Until next time...sugo hasaeo! (Keep working hard!)

posted by Gina @ 7:56 PM 3 comments

Chillin' Like Korean Villains

UPDATE FROM SOUTH KOREA
Monday, December 26, 2005

Happy day after Christmas! We spent the morning calling family, since it was still Christmas evening over in ol' Atl. Britt and Ben went downstairs for the men's Band of Brothers all-day marathon in the Hospitality House. Becca, Micah, and I hung out in the apartment for most of the day. We had some fun visitors like Laura Beth and Hannah (the little Christmas tree from my last post), and Jenn hung out with us a lot since Butch was enjoying the marathon downstairs. Becca and Jenn went downtown to run some errands, and I stayed home and baked some cookies while entertaining the boy. I haven't made peanut butter or chocolate chip cookies in awhile, but they were successful adventures. Apparently everyone else thought so, too, because it's only been two days, and they are all gone!!1l!

We closed out the evening with, you guessed it: Arrested Development.

Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Britt and I went to work out in the morning, then we came back to the apartment to get ready and go to Incheon to get Shane and Jason! We took the bus into the city and saw some interesting buildings and bridges on the way in. The apartment buildings reminded me of condo buildings at the beach, just more of them, closer together, and in the cold instead of the heat. The bus itself was extremely uncomfortable. It was literally over 80 degrees on that bus the whole way. I thought I was going to hurl. But at least we got some good pictures!
We picked up a very tired Shane and Jason, got McDonald's at the airport, and got back on the bus toward Songtan. It's at least a two-hour ride one way, so we had plenty of time to eat our McDonald's and catch up. The temperature on the way home was much better, actually on the cooler side. But, our bus driver must have been a kamikaze. He drove like a maniac! We almost hit some pedestrians a couple of times, and in Korea, that's a really big deal. This girl across the aisle from me actually threw up during the trip. We all agreed that our bus driver was certifiably crazy.
Becca picked us up at the bus station and we squeezed two more adults into Britt and Becca's apartment. We also squeezed two more episodes of Arrested Development in before we all crashed!!! Shane and Jason did well staying up late and sleeping through the night.

Okay, so now, time for what I promised and for what you probably came looking for: Micah's hair adventures. This is probably one of those embarrassing things moms will show future girlfriends in baby books, but it is a reality nonetheless: Micah has a mullet.

He has rubbed off all of the hair from the back of his head, so he's left with a smidgen of hair on the top and front, and a thick-ish row of hair on the neck. It's really funny- we all laugh about it pretty hard. When we laugh, Micah laughs, too, so I guess he's okay with it. Britt wants to trim, the "party in the back" section, but Becca hasn't seen the light yet. Well, on Christmas morning, Britt decided to experiment and see what Micah would look like with other kinds of hairstyles. Becca donated her hair to help us with the demonstrations.

So, there you have it. Now you know something really personal about my nephew.

Up next...Korean bathroom adventures!!!

posted by Gina @ 7:45 PM 4 comments

A Korean Christmas

UPDATE FROM SOUTH KOREA
Saturday, December 24, 2005

After lunch was over, several of us took a turkey nap and then got ready for Christmas Eve Chapel Service on base. I have never been on a military base before, so it was interesting to be signed on, have to leave my driver's license held, and walk into an American city that is in the middle of Korea. It looks just like a small town or college campus- lots of buildings with housing or offices, then also an elementary, middle, and high school right there on base. We found out that this base (Osan Air Force base) has about 8,000 men stationed there, so it's really its own little community. It takes about 10 minutes to walk to the base, then about 15 minutes to get to the high school auditorium from the gate. It was about, oh, 20-25 degrees Fahrenheit, and we were pretty cold by the time we actually got to the high school. The Christmas Eve service was really nice. There was a Korean brass ensemble that accompanied all of the Christmas carols. The group had actually driven all the way from Seoul (a couple of hours away) to play on the base, which was really nice. The opening act, though, was this really cute group of children who ranged in age from five to ten. The little ones were extremely cute, of course. They sang two songs, both of which illicited cute hand motions and other humorous behaviors. The third song, though, took the cake. The kids had these color-coded hand bells, and the director held up these colored cards that showed the kids when to play their bells. It was really cute. This one little guy got really into shaking his bell back and forth.
There were many other special music presentations, Christmas carols, communion, and the classic pass-the-light-of-the-world candlelight ending with the little paper wax-catchers. The service was really more like a Lutheran or Methodist service. We did the kind of communion where you walk up, get a wafer, dip it in the cup, and eat the soggy wafer on the way back to your seat. We also did several responsive readings and scripture "lessons," so it was pretty liturgical. It was also really warm in there, which you know I like, but I got kind of drowsy. I was glad there were special music groups to keep us entertained.

When we left chapel, we had to walk all the way home, and now it was about 10 degrees. We all had trouble feeling our faces and talking without slurring by the time we got home. It was super-duper cold. We (Ben and I) realized about halfway through the chapel service that we had forgotten to eat dinner. We are sleeping pretty well at night and seem to be adjusted to the time change, but we still kind of get confused about eating times. I don't realize it's time to eat until way too late and my stomach says, "Hey, what about me?!?" Anywho, we got home and ate some long-awaited leftover pizza, watched some more Arrested Development, and went to bed.

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Merry Christmas!!1!l!1l!
We took it pretty easy on Christmas morning. We spent a lot of time on the phone talking to the Deatons (Ben's family), the Mooneys (my family), and the Schneiders (Becca's family). After spreading our Christmas wishes around the globe, we opened some presents. Well, I say "we," but I really mean Becca, Britt, and Micah. You can guess who got the most presents. Ben and I didn't actually have anything to open on Christmas day. We got each other the trip to Korea, and Britt and Becca are getting us our tailor-made Korean shirts for Christmas. It wasn't a big deal not to have anything to open, just a bit weird. Didn't really feel like Christmas. We both kept saying over the last couple of days that it didn't feel like it was really Christmas. I don't really know why. Maybe just being halfway around the world and away from most of our family and friends is part of it. I don't know. But we are glad to be here! Okay, enough rambling. Time for what you really came here to see: pictures!!!
We watched some more Arrested Development to waste away our afternoon. We are one-third of the way through the second season, so we're really booking it! We tore ourselves away from the beloved show to get ready for the Christmas Day chapel service on base. We all tried to dress up a bit more, but no one looked cuter than Micah.

The walk to base and then to the chapel was really cold- about 15 degrees- and we were cold all the way through by the time we got to the chapel. The chapel service we went to was the more contemporary one with a praise band and power point slides and all that jazz. After the service, we went to Checkertales, a burger joint similar to Johnny Rockits. Many people from the chapel joined us, including several people we had already met at the Hospitality House. After hanging out and eating some good food, we took a taxi to the gate, got signed off, and Becca, Micah, and I rode with Kenny and Nicole home because it was- you guessed it- super duper cold! Ben and Britt braved the elements, allowing the gentler gender to enjoy the engine-induced heat. Oh, yeah.

We got a few Arrested Developments in before bedtime, naturally. Thus ends our Korean Christmas adventures!
Coming soon...Micah's hair adventures.

posted by Gina @ 7:55 PM 5 comments