Random cool things

i found out tonight that one of my co-workers was in the peace corps and taught english in kazakhstan!

also i met a customer tonight that taught english in south korea in the 70s!

pretty cool, eh?

bonus: funny thing overheard in half price-

a young girl talking to her dad saw a book in true crime and said:
hey dad- you should get this book called evil wives so if you're really mad at mom you can read this and then think you are really blessed to have her!

lol kids...

English couchsurfers

we finally had our first couchsurfing guests wed. and thurs. night and it was really fun! if you don't know what couchsurfing is, go to: http://www.couchsurfing.org/

jens couchsurfed at a couple people's places in san marcos in the past month and it went really well so when we got a request from two english girls we accepted! they both just finished university and are taking a huge road trip all over the u.s. and canada for 6 months! it sounds so awesome! i really wish jens and i could do that!

they arrived wed. night and we grilled portobello mushrooms and other veggies for fajitas and they were a hit! we just talked all about their trip, some about our travels and various other random things. it was a good time! after dinner we had some intense chocolate cake that they had brought with tea which they said was the first "proper" cup of tea they had had since being in the states! score one for the rushings lol

we chatted til midnight and then went to bed.

the next morning jens had to leave early for emt school unfortunately but i got up and made a big breakfast of homemade biscuits, scrambled eggs and pepper bacon. it was good if i do say so myself ;o)

the girls went into dallas that day and visited the dallas museum of art. i didn't get to hear how their day went yet because i worked 3-11pm last night and only briefly met up with them after. jens, joel, patrick and selene took them out to potager for dinner and then caves for some beer. i met up with them at caves around 11:30p-12a. they had to get up fairly early today to hit the road again but i stayed out with joel, patrick and selene and we ended up talking to this funny, gregarious guy nicknamed hermes. i also saw two half price books employees up there which was cool! one of them said she goes up there every thursday for the karaoke. jens, joel and patrick did some songs but i much prefer the asian-style private room karaoke lol i don't like singing in front of strangers :oP

we crashed at joel's since we couldn't really drive home and there is of course NO public transit (BOOOO!) and then we had to get up at 6am so i could take selene to her car and she could get home and ready for work by 8:30am! i was REALLY glad i didn't have to work til 3pm today lol i got home and slept til about 10-10:30am. the english had already left and i felt kind of bad that i didn't see them off but i don't think they had much time to chat this morning anyway.

overall our first couchsurfing hosting experience was awesome! the girls were fun to talk to and it was really interesting to meet new people, especially from another country! i would definitely recommend it!

i work again today 3-11pm and i think jens and his band have a gig tonight at the health and harmony house coffee shop near uta. i may try to meet up with them when i get off work but i dunno if they'll still be out. i close sat. and sun. at work also but i have monday off. not sure what my plans are yet.

i'm hoping to do something really fun on sat. april 2 because it'll be my first sat. off since working at half price! woohoo! party time! :o)

ok i'm gonna go get ready for work now! happy friday!

Blogging again

hello! long time no blog, eh? i stopped around thanksgiving because the blog just wasn't going where i wanted it to. i thought i would be writing more about adjusting to life back in texas, etc. but i just couldn't get the motivation to make it super interesting. i'm much better at stream of consciousness writing about my everyday life. so that's what i've decided to do. i've re-arranged the blog a bit. i got rid of the "offbeat texan life" location and just re-posted all of those entries on here. one because my blog wasn't specifically about life in texas and two because i may not always live in texas. i'd rather have a blog i can use throughout my life, ya know?

so i'll briefly summarize what i've been doing for the past 4 months and move on lol

thanksgiving was fun! we spent it with jens's side of the family at his grandparents house and had lots of wonderful food and great company :o)

then the christmas season rolled around and it was pretty crazy! i had completely forgotten what christmas was like here. for the first time in my life i totally understood why people get stressed around that time of year and how they don't like the commercialism of it, etc. it's really in your face! i had gotten a break from it for 3 years in korea because it's quite subdued over there in comparison. here i felt like i needed to buy more and more which was bad because i still didn't have a job :o/ i tried making most of the gifts i gave but i still spent quite a bit. 

overall though it was nice to be home at christmastime and get to spend it with all my friends and family. there were lots of parties and festivities and we had a great time! :o) some of the gifts jens and i made were photo collages, capes for our nephews, pumpkin butter, all natural cleaner and wine charms. it was fun making things so i think i'll try to do that next year too!

new year's eve was a bit weird...jens's band, the small gods, had a gig at the bandwagon in the fort worth stock yards and NO ONE came out except me, joel's gf and david's gf - so they did a show for the 3 gfs lol the employees there only let them play for about 30 mins. since no one else was there so we were "kicked out" before midnight and had to figure out what to do. joel, katie and chris went home which left me, jens, david and his gf who is only 18. we hadn't been under 21 in so long we had no idea where to go so she could get in lol we tried the chat room but they're 21 and up and we only had about 15 minutes til midnight so jens and i stayed there and david and his gf decided to go elsewhere. we felt really bad but there wasn't much we could do. we celebrated new year's with a bunch of strangers but it was pretty fun lol i definitely want to do something better next year though! we need a plan b in case things fall through.

we started 2011 off with a trip to colorado with christopher, lorri and ben and had an awesome time!!! we drove up and stayed about 5 days in jens's aunt and uncle's cabin in winter park. while we were there we sledded down the street, went snow-shoeing, cross-country skiing and sledding on hills. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! i loved it! i thought it would be deathly cold but it's so dry there that it doesn't feel as cold as texas does in the winter! it was so strange! jens and i liked it so much that we started thinking about living there. i think he's going to test for their fire dept. in june. we'll see! 

when we got back from that trip i re-doubled my efforts to find a job. i was pretty shocked that i still hadn't gotten a job by 2011 and i started to feel pretty discouraged. but i got a couple interviews and was FINALLY offered a job in february at half price books! i couldn't believe it! i had heard from a few people that it's really hard to get a job with them but i did it! it was pretty much the only place that didn't require a degree yet didn't hold it against me that i had one. so many places that i interviewed for that didn't require a degree deemed me over-qualified :o( but half price books sees a degree as a plus which is the way it should be! hello! 

i've been working there for about 7 weeks now and i'm really liking it! it's a great company! i like the people i work with, i like being surrounded by books, i like the variety in the job and they have great benefits! my 8 weeks of training are almost up and then i'll get health insurance and library privileges (meaning i can check out $100 worth of books at a time for one month at a time for free! so awesome!) 

while i LOVE finally having a job it has been quite the adjustment! i considered my job in korea full-time but now i see that it totally wasn't! i pretty much only worked part time there. the other half of my time was spent surfing the internet/sleeping/socializing (and yes i mean AT WORK lol). now i'm REALLY working full time and it's definitely taking its toll. when i'm not at work i just wanna veg out. i've been pretty good about continuing to clean the house/do chores and have a social life but not as good as i would like. i'm wondering how long it'll take me to adjust. 

anyway- update on jens! he graduated fire academy with flying colors!!! he was the captain and valedictorian of his class and got the highest grade anyone has ever gotten at weatherford fire academy!! pretty amazing! i'm super proud of him :o) since then he's been applying to/testing for fire depts. in various parts of texas and the country. and last month (or was it this month) he started emt training online. now he's doing the 1-2 week class portion of that and then he'll start paramedic school this summer. we're really hoping he gets a job before paramedic school starts because it's really expensive and if he's hired the dept. will pay for it! he recently tested in san marcos and is 5th on their list so our fingers are crossed for that!

as much as i would love to move out of dfw or even texas i'm torn because i JUST got this great job at half price books! i knew i would most likely have this dilemma but it's still hard. wherever jens gets a job (as a firefighter) he will definitely make more money than me and maybe have better benefits so it obviously makes sense to move wherever he gets a job. i'll just feel really bad if i have to quit mine. they've been really good to me and it takes of time to train a new employee. we gotta do what we gotta do though!

on another note- i went to two concerts this month! first- lady gaga! which was awesome but i (and my friends) were super far away!!! i'd love to see another one of her concerts with better seats! the very next night i saw devotchka with jens and joel and that was great too! we were only like 20 feet away from the stage- much better view! lol next month we're going to see gogol bordello which will be cool! i've just turned into a concert-going fool! lol i never went to concerts this much before but i am now and it's fun!

i've done quite a few other things in the past four months but i think i've written enough for now lol hope it's not too much to read! i'm going to try to get motivated to clean the house now! we have house guests wed. night which i'll write about later! happy tuesday! :oD

Job search, class, Halloween, garden, Thanksgiving and fire academy!

Re-posted from November 11, 2010

my job-search is on-going...still unemployed.

my class is going pretty well. there was some drama for a while- people complaining about how the class was going, etc. but i think it's finally settled down. there are only 5 classes left and we're starting on our big final projects. we basically have to plan an entire wedding as if we're doing it for a real couple. we have a budget and we have to choose real vendors in the area and use real numbers for the cost of everything. my budget is $30,000 and i'll have 60 guests for a fall wedding. sounds pretty awesome to me!!! :o) i've already been looking up ideas for fall weddings and i've found some cool stuff.

the more i think about event planning the more i think i don't wanna do it full-time. i just like my weekends too much! i like the freedom to plan my OWN events, ya know? i want to be able to plan a big halloween party for my friends rather than for strangers. so i think event planning is either something i'm going to try to do THROUGH another kind of job (like working on a uni. campus) or something i do on the side every now and then.

i'll be glad to be certified though because it certainly can't hurt in the job department. plus i'm learning a ton about event planning that can help me just in the creation of my own events!

halloween:

the friday before halloween we went to a friend of a friend's party and it was fun! jens and i dressed up as japanese people and i finally got to wear my second ukata (summer kimono)! i actually had to watch a video to figure out how to tie the obi (sash) lol

the sat. before halloween we co-hosted a party with some friends of ours and it was really fun too! i dressed up as a female mad hatter and i actually won the costume contest! i gave the prize to the runner up though since i was co-hosting the party lol it was my friend who dressed up as a female sherlock holmes! very cute! jens was mario from the mario brothers and he wore a fake mustache and everything. it was funny!

me and another friend are already talking about next year's halloween! we're thinking of getting a bunch of people together and renting out a place for a masquerade ball! nothing too fancy- the key element would be everyone must wear some type of mask.

i wonder if we could even turn it into some sort of charity party like the halloween party we had in mokpo, korea every year benefiting the local orphanage. we might even get more people to come that way! i really miss that party in korea- so much fun! if we did it here we could raise money for the local shelter! hhmm....

garden:

it's going well! i have 4 buttercup squash growing! i planted onions which won't be ready til next spring, the cabbage and carrots are getting fairly big and the oregano and basil are AWESOME! i've had to give away cuts of basil it was getting so big. i should really freeze some of it for the winter cuz it'll eventually die off but i've been too lazy lol

growing a garden has been so much fun though! it's really rewarding and i would recommend it to anyone who has the space! even just growing some herbs in pots on a windowsill or porch would be fun! the biggest surprise with gardening has been how easy it's been. after the initial work of digging the bed, putting up the fence and putting the seeds in he ground it was a piece of cake! i just water every day and throw some leaves out of the bed and that's it! nature does the rest! i have been lucky though- i haven't had a lot of pests. something was eating my basil for a while but it quit and now i think grasshoppers are eating my cabbage and squash leaves a bit but not too bad. they say you can spray this organic stuff on them called garrett juice but again, i haven't taken the time to make it. you have to get things like manure-based compost tea and seaweed juice....the grasshoppers haven't been too much of a problem yet so i'm going to wait on that.

we have our compost heap going too...not sure if it's the right ratio of "brown" and "green" items or if it has the right moisture level but i'm not too concerned with it lol it's basically just a place to throw my food and yard scraps. if it turns into some awesome compost then great! if not, whatever. it must be fairly rich in nutrients though because i think a squash seed i threw in there started growing! :oD unfortunately i have to stir the heap up every now and then so i dunno if it'll get a good chance to grow but that's cool it sprouted!

thanksgiving:

i can't believe we're almost halfway through november! time has been flying! i'm excited for t-day though! i LOVE all the wonderful fall foods and it'll be great to be home with family this year! my parents work alternating days throughout t-day week so i'm spending the time with jens's family and then i think we're gonna do a christmas decorating dinner with my family later.

fire academy:

i think the reason time has been flying by so quickly is because jens has been in fire academy! it's been keeping us both pretty busy! i do housework all day and when jens gets home he and/or i have to do showers, dinner, ironing, homework, cleanup and bedtime! then every weekend is packed because it's the only time we can do fun stuff together or with friends. he's doing really well in academy though! he was just bumped up to captain of ALL his classmates! :o) pretty awesome!

he's testing for cleburne fire dept. this sat. and i'm hoping he passes! it would be GREAT if he got a job there because they'll pay for his emt and paramedic training. so fingers crossed!

i'm hoping one of us has a job before x-mas so we can actually buy a few things for people. i've been trying to think of things i could make but i can't really think of anything i haven't already done...and i'm not SUPER crafty...like i'm really slow at knitting and i have almost no experience with sewing...

anyway, that's all for now!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Garage sale, class, job search, social scene, urban planning, etc.

Re-posted from October 11, 2010

wow! a lot has happened in the past month! we had a HUGE garage sale that took days to set up and we made some pretty good money at it!

i also started my event and wedding planner certification course at uta's continuing education building. it's only on monday nights so we've only met twice so far. i've been surprised how much i've learned already. it's not only about learning how to plan events but how to start your own business, getting vendors, dealing with clients, the whole nine yards! and there have been tons of assignments! i can barely keep up but i'm glad to be busy :o)

i've really delved into looking for a job lately. i applied to several event planners and professional organizers as an assistant as well as the library and central market. i'm still waiting to hear back from most of them but i do have one lead on an organizer assistant position.

i just hope i get some kind of job soon because i don't wanna spend all our savings!

jens has been SUPER busy with fire academy! it's taken a while for him (and me for that matter) to adjust to the drastic change in lifestyle but he's doing really well! he's been making great grades on the tests and he was appointed lieutenant of his shift (or group)! so that's exciting! he'll do emt in jan./feb. and then he'll start his paramedic training which may last til nov. of next year. it's a long process to become qualified but it'll be worth it in the end. he may do some substitute teaching during emt training and then ambulance work after that.

as for our social life it's been pretty good but it's been really hard adjusting to the different social scene here. in korea we had one big group of friends. everyone knew everyone and we all had the same job and most of us had the same schedule. so it was super easy to get everyone together not only on weekends but on week nights! for the majority of us our jobs were fairly easy so we weren't too tired to go to dinner on a week night or go camping all weekend. stuff like that.

whereas back home we have various friends who don't all know each other, they all have different jobs and different schedules some of which are super tiring and stressful so it's hard to get people together. i might be able to make plans with one person every two months! granted there are friends of ours that are more available and we see more often and that's great. i just wish i could get more people together, more often. i wish i could call someone up on a wed. night and go to a bar for a drink.

but that's another difference here- things are super spread out! the people AND the business we wanna go to. plus there's no public transit! so it's this huge ordeal to get people to meet at a place (some having to come from far away) and then be able to drink whilst worrying about being sober enough to drive home! korea was so much more conducive to relaxed, fun nights out! everyone lived within 15-20 minutes of each other, they could take a cab all the way across town for about $5-6, there were tons of bars, restaurants, karaoke places, etc. all near each other, there were pedestrian areas to walk around and at the end of the night you could just take a cab home with no problem!

i really, really miss that! that's probably what i miss the most in fact! i wish i could wave a wand and turn DFW into a more compact city with great public transit! lol that would make all the difference in the world! because the longer i'm here the more i realize that there ARE fun things to do in the metroplex, they're all just really spread out. we love the museums, performance halls, theaters, the few bars, etc. there have been arts festivals, beerfests, latino cultural festivals, free concerts, eco-fests, etc. it's just that they're in all different cities and the way the area is set up it's actually kind of difficult to find out about them. you don't have people out and about on foot, mingling, looking at flyers and such. the only way i find out about anything these days is facebook and the internet in general. it's so impersonal :o/ i'm happy that there's stuff going on at all. i'm happy that i can find out about it at all. it's just that i miss that sense of community and closeness and ease of having fun.

jens and i are still thinking about eventually moving to portland or the surrounding area but i don't think it'll be for a while. jens won't even be fully qualified for a firefighter position until the end of next year and then he may need to work for another year to get experience before applying in the n.w. which is fine. i'm happy to stay here and get our careers established before we start to move again. i just need to adjust to the car culture here.

happy halloween if i don't write again before then!

Our garden!

Reposted from September 19, 2010

we started a garden at the beginning of august. i knew nothing about gardening whatsoever so i bought some books, talked to some people, looked stuff up online and then just jumped right in. jens and i tilled a rectangular patch of soil behind our little bungalow. we weren't sure where to put it in order for it to get maximum sunlight and we ended up having to dig the whole thing over again when we realized it needed to be 4 feet closer to the house in order to get more sun lol oops!

let me tell you- it was hard work! we got all the weeds, grass, etc. out, put a wooden frame around it that jens nailed together and then mixed the soil with compost and other soil we had bought. then we put this little white picket fence up around it to keep the dogs out. the fence was pretty dingy and dirty so we decided to paint it some bright cheery colors! grassy green, bright fuchsia and sunny yellow! it took several weeks before we were finally done painting!

around aug. 15th i transplanted our basil and oregano into the garden and planted some winter squash seeds. the herbs flourished but the squash never sprouted! then around sept. 10th (i think it was...) i gave up on the squash and raked down the hills i had formed for them. i planted carrot and cabbage seeds and hoped they would do well.

then we had that day of torrential rains! my garden looked like a pond and i feared my seeds were done for! but that was in fact exactly what they needed! i had sprouts one or two days later INCLUDING the winter squash sprouts which were now all over the garden and not in a neat row since i raked them out lol i transplanted two of the squash sprouts to be near the others and not interfere with the carrots.

all the sprouts have just been getting bigger and bigger and it gives me hope that i might actually grow something edible! woohoo!

i still don't think my garden gets as much sun as it needs because there are so many trees in our yard but the leaves are falling like crazy so maybe the garden will have more light soon enough.

later i'm going to plant onions, garlic and spinach.

we started a compost pile too. we just got some rolled up wire fencing stuff, formed it into a circle and wired it to the side of our fence (so it would stay standing up). then we just started throwing all our produce trash and garden refuse in there, like leaves, etc. you can't put meat, fat or grain products into it i don't think. but you can put paper products in there- used napkins and such. some websites say you have to be careful about the percentage of produce trash to garden refuse you put in but we haven't really been worrying about it too much. it seems to be doing it's thing!

when i'm cooking and i have peelings and bits and pieces of veg. leftover i throw them in a groc. bag in the freezer and once it's full i go out and dump it in the compost pile and kind mix it in with a pitch fork. maybe one day it'll be some really good compost for the garden or yard. it may be a year or more before there's anything usable and we may not even live here anymore but i wanted to go ahead and start it so i could see how to do it, etc. and my parents can continue it after we move.

so that's my gardening adventure so far! it's really exciting to see things sprouting and growing and to think i might actually be able to eat a vegetable i grew myself! i'm doing it all organically too. i won't be spraying pesticides, but there are organic sprays you can make if you have certain bugs, etc.

i'll keep you all updated about how it's going! til next time!

Our birthdays 2010!

Re-posted from September 6, 2010

 my birthday is july 28th and jens's birthday is august 28th...

so this year jens and i decided to have a combined korean- style b-day bash! our friends met us at our house and then we drove WAAAAAY out to some part of dallas where there is a korean restaurant right next to a korean noraebang (karaoke room)! jens and i were super excited to show our friends how we partied in korea! we got a private room in the korean restaurant which was cool but it was different than in korea. first of all it was a table and chairs and you didn't have to sit on the floor, second there were no call buttons on the table so we had to keep getting up and pushing a button on the wall about 10 feet away to get someone to come to our room and let us order something and third they weren't as quick to come to our table as in korea. but overall it was fun!

we ordered dueji galbi for everyone (except the vegetarians who got bibimbap- rice and veg. bowl. galbi is marinated pork you bbq on a grill on your table. in korea dueji galbi always had a sweet brown marinade on it that we love but for some reason at this place in dallas it had a spicy red pepper paste marinade like what would usually be on dak galbi (chicken) in korea....strange but still pretty delicious! one of the waitresses cooked it for us and she was hilarious! lol she just joked with us the whole time and it was really fun. we spoke some korean to her and i think she thought that was funny lol

some other differences were they didn't give us quite as many side dishes as i would have liked. there was a decent amount but i only like about 3 of them. and they didn't serve ANY korean beers! now korean beer IS gross but we just wanted that authentic experience lol we had to settle for the better japanese beer.

the most shocking difference was the price- all my friends who have taught in korea are about to get their minds blown...guess how much a bottle of soju was? (soju is the traditional korean liquor)...$10! TEN FREAKING DOLLARS! in korea it's less than $1! lol the galbi was about $16 a person which is twice as much as most galbi places in korea. needless to say we felt bad for bringing our friends there when it turned out to be so expensive! most everyone were good sports though and didn't complain :o) they all liked the food and had a good time!

after dinner we went next door to the noraebang!!! again it was similar to in korea but slightly different in various ways. first of all it was huge. you go in and there's a very large open room with some tall tables and bar stools and a bar at the back with all kinds of beer and liquor. it's almost like a club. they have a huge tv screen on the wall and you can pay $3 a song to sing karaoke on this stage to your friends as well as strangers. but we went there for the private rooms! we had had to make a reservation ahead of time because this place gets busy on the weekends! so we told them we were there, got drinks and waited a little while for our room to open.

(in korea most noraebangs have a very tiny room when you go in with a counter where you pay and 99% of the time we haven't had to reserve or wait for a room. we did once in a seoul at this really popular place but that was the only time. usually you walk in, tell them how many people, pay and go straight to a private room.)

so- back to the american noraebang- our private room was awesome! it was almost the same as in korea but it had much bigger, nicer and comfier leather chairs to sit in, one ENGLISH remote control lol, and a button by the door to call a waiter if you wanna order drinks or food. the song books were exactly the same as in korea though! they had korean, japanese and english songs in there and they pretty much didn't have many more english songs than they do in korea. that was kinda weird cuz i thought on their website there were more. i think they encourage you to look at the song lists online and make a list of the songs and numbers you want before you go. but we of course did not do that lol everyone found plenty of songs they liked though! it was so fun noraebanging with our texas friends for the first time!!! (ben and viv were there and they've been to korea but the rest hadn't.) i was really glad that most everyone wasn't afraid to sing. it was also really fun for me because my cousin catherine was there and she and i hadn't gotten to hang out in forever!!! (she was visiting from virginia).

i had set up a tab at the bar and jens just kept calling the guy in to order drinks. well when we left i had quite a shock! i went to the bar to pay and the guy goes...did YOU have 10 shiners??? i was like no! that must have been my husband! and he was like- ok cuz i thought- she should be falling on the floor right now! lol i don't think i'll do a tab there again because jens went a little overboard! i think he must have given some of those beers to other people cuz there's no way he would have been standing after 10 lol

overall, it was a great birthday night! i was so happy so many of our friends could come out and have a korean-style party with us! it definitely made me miss certain things about korea! like the cheap galbi and being able to drink whatever and not worry about driving home because there were taxis. siiighhh...

in conclusion i don't think i'd go to that korean restaurant again but i'd definitely go to that noraebang. the prices were comparable to korea and it was super fun!

____________________________________________________________

like i said jens and i had decided to have a COMBINED b-day party. this was HIS idea. he didn't want his OWN b-day party but when sat., august 28th rolled around suddenly he did! lol it was mainly because we happened to not have any plans on a sat. night so he was like- hey, why don't i have a b-day party? surprisingly (and luckily) a lot of our friends didn't have plans that night either! so we cleaned the house and gathered up some snacks and everyone came over around 7 i think. at the last minute we told everyone to wear some kind of WACKY clothing lol most people didn't dress wacky enough so i let them borrow some of my wacky accessories. i didn't realize til that night that most people don't have a stash of wacky accessories lol ya know like sombrero hats, giant glasses and boas. we snacked, talked, took pics, played "beerminton", danced the night away and listened to joel philosophize intensely while drunk lol it was a good night! i'm glad jens had a b-day party after all :o)

so we're both one year older and it feels pretty weird. i'm 27 and he's 28...that's almost 30! we don't feel almost 30...but i guess that's a good thing! FOREVER YOUNG!

Portland!

Re-posted from August 25, 2010

portland was amazing! we absolutely loved it! we went there for about 5 days at the end of our northwest trip. we stayed in the northwest international hostel and it was really nice! it was made up of 3 big, old houses in a neighborhood converted into a hotel with hostel rooms, hotel rooms, separate bathrooms, kitchens, lounge rooms, patio, garden, etc. we had to stay in two different rooms there just because of timing (we stayed in one for half the trip and another for half the trip) but we liked both rooms.

the public transportation in portland was great! in the central downtown area they have two types of free pub. transit: a streetcar and a train and the buses are really cheap. the pub. transit also goes way out into the surrounding suburbs which is really convenient.

our first night we ate at some of the food carts for which portland is famous. people just set up these little trailers all over the city and sell all kinds of great food out of them! jens had ukranian and i had mediterranean and they were both delicious!

i love the pedestrian lifestyle there- public transit, lots of sidewalks, food carts you can walk right up to, public parks, etc. they're also really bike-friendly. they have bike lanes all over the city and the people in cars are aware of them so they don't have as many accidents as other cities.

they also have tons of stuff going on all the time! we went to a random event there called bridgefest where they celebrate the cities bridges lol there were all kinds of works of art representing the various bridges, there was cheap beer and wine, some snacks, music and a dance performance!

on friday we went to the HUGE farmer's market they have on the psu campus every fri. and sat. it was enormous! it was mind-blowing! i loved it! that right there made me want to move to portland! lol they actually have various farmer's markets all over the city everyday but the psu one is the biggest. there were tons and tons of vendors selling organic produce, meats, breads, spreads, desserts, etc. there was live music, food carts and tons and tons of people! we spent hours there roaming around, eating food samples, listening to the music and just basking in the wonderful, liberal, hippie vibe :o) they even had recycling and composting bins all over! all their cups, plates and utensils were compostable! how cool is that? i felt right at home :o)

after that we went to the famous powell's bookstore. it's the size of a city block! literally! it's the largest used bookstore in the world so of course jens was in heaven! we spent like 3 hours in there and only got through about two sections of it! we bought tons of books and were able to ship them to our house right from the counter so we wouldn't have to pack them in our suitcases! it was awesome!

we ate a late lunch at rocco's pizza and it was so good! we got the tomato basil pizza with cheese but they also have vegan and gluten-free options. that's another thing that surprised me about the city. they have vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options at almost every restaurant! it's the norm! can you imagine???

that night we went to the playwright's festival and saw a dance performance and a play for FREE! the play was called gnit and it was really funny :o) for a late dinner we went to teazone and got a mezza plate and chai tea and watched a band play.

sat. we went to the saturday craft fair which was almost as big as the farmer's market. it was so cool! there were tons of people selling their handmade wares, plus food carts and yet again- live music! portland apparently loves live music lol i bought some cute little soap truffles- it's soap that looks like truffles. they look good enough to eat! i also had mehndi done on my leg and i loved it! it was so pretty and it only took the woman about 5 mins. to do! i'm thinking about trying to learn how to do it myself. it looks pretty easy but i dunno lol

after eating african food at the craft fair we headed to the beerfest! yes! another festival! you buy tickets at the door and then go try all the beer you want! 1 ticket is a taste and 4 tickets is a full beer. jens and i had 14 tickets each and it was a bit much lol mainly because a "taste" of beer is like 1/3 of a mug lol they had live music too of course and we watched a breakdancing show that was awesome!

we got so tipsy we had to go back to the hotel and take a nap lol that night we had a really late dinner at typhoon- a thai place. it was ok but not the best meal we had in portland.

next day we went to another farmer's market and had lunch at a food cart there that was soooooo goood! it was a pulled pork bbq sandwich with some kind of berry bbq sauce plus a fancy salad with blue cheese, nuts and berry vinaigrette. all of it was organic, local and in season! we bought some stuff for a picnic that night and then we went to voodoo donuts! we knew the place was famous but we were shocked when we showed up and the line was out the door and around the building! i had to put sunscreen on just to stand in line lol i think we were there 45 mins. before we got our donuts and i have to say i don't think it was worth all that! they were good donuts but not better than i've had before. the reason people like them is they have unique flavors and shapes of donuts- like the signature voodoo doll donut with pretzel sticks stuck in it and raspberry filling and the old dirty bastard which has chocolate frosting, oreo cookie crumbles and peanut butter drizzled over it Po: they also have some with fruit loops, maple frosting and bacon and one called tex-ass which is an enormous glazed donut lol the size of 4-5 donuts!

so we got our donuts and went to stumptown coffee to eat, drink and read which was nice. then we walked to couch park to hang out for a while. the weather was really nice the whole time we were in portland- sunny and warm but not hot. a little chilly at night.

that night we went out to sellwood (a suburb) for an outdoor concert by the water. i loved that neighborhood! there were all these cute little houses with gorgeous little gardens and lots of people walking down to the water for the concert. you could really feel the sense of community! we ate our picnic of olive bread, alsatian sausage, pesto cheese curds and peaches and listened to the band and watched people playing on the water. it was so nice! we'd love to live in that suburb. even though it is a suburb and it's small it still has public transit access to downtown and it still has a bookstore and coffee shops and antique stores and a yoga studio and all kinds of things!

after the concert we went to the green dragon which is a brewpub and had some beers and chips and salsa.

the next morning we wanted brunch at byways but we got up too late so we went next door to cha cha cha's for some tex-mex and it was really good! so now that i know portland has good tex-mex i can move there! :o) after that we took a tour of the rogue rum distillery, tasted some liquors and had some beer. then we went to an open mic at our hostel and it was a weird crowd. mostly older people and their kids. a kid even performed on stage and unfortunately he wasn't good at all lol jens got up there and played a couple of his weirdest songs which really didn't go over well with that crowd so we shrugged it off and went to eat lol

thankfully dinner totally made up for the weird open mic! we went to jake's for crawfish and it was wonderful! it's a really old establishment that's been there forever and we had a great server! we had wine, crawfish boil, salad and key lime pie and we were in heaven the whole time! i'd love to go there again!

our last full day in portland was my 27th birthday! so we got coffee and pastries for breakfast and then went to the rose garden because i love roses! portland is actually called the city of roses so i guess it's just another sign that i should live there ;o) the garden was huge and had so many different kinds of roses that there was no way we could look at each one. i took so many pictures! it was great! we ate the rest of our farmer's market finds for lunch and then went to the japanese garden. it was really nice too! very peaceful :o)

we were gonna see a movie downtown that night so we headed down there and caught yet another free live concert and they were probably the best band we had seen the whole time we were in portland. really fun! the movie we saw was called winter's bone and it wasn't one of those uplifting birthday movies but we still really liked it.

we had brunch at byways the next morning and then we flew out!

it was an awesome trip and we can't wait to go back- OR MOVE THERE! lol :oD

Vacation continued....

Re-posted from July 31, 2010

like i said vancouver was awesome! not only did we get to spend time with abby, jason and little anneke but we also got to see rich, shannon and jen! they too taught english in korea while we were there. rich and shannon came over for a couple bbqs at the sauchuks and we biked around the seawall and went out to eat twice with jen. the first time went to this awesome little japanese place called guu with garlic. there are apparently 4 different guu restaurants and each one specialized in a different spice/taste like garlic! it was packed and the servers just yell your order from your table to the people in the kitchen! it was a really lively and the food was awesome! it's like an izakaya which basically serves tapas styles dishes. we got garlic udon noodles, okonomiyaki (fried veg. pancake), octopus balls (like meatballs but with octopus!) and mackerel. it was all super delicious! the second time we ate with jen we went to a ukranian place where we had cabbage rolls stuffed with meat, perogies, sausage, and relishes. yuuuummm!

we ate at really nice restaurant the day we went to deep cove! we got a lamb ragout appetizer that came with pita bread and jens and i split a lemony buttery seafood mix of scallops and crab that came with risoto and vegetables. soooo goood!

i just love food!  

we spent a few days on vancouver island and it was really nice! we stay in abby's mom's condo that's right by the water in nanaimo and it was amazing! i loved it! alex met us out there and it was great to see him again. we all just hung out, they swam a bit but it was too cold for this texan! lol we ate at a mexican place that literally floats on the water and the food was really good. californian style mexican (which basically just means it was healthier than tex-mex lol). we spent our last full day in victoria (the major city on the island) and they happened to be having this huge classic car show lol so i took some pics for my dad. we went to the wax museum which was cool at first and then it creeped me out. i don't understand the necessity of displaying wax figures in darkened rooms with thunder and creepy voices playing really loudly lol wax figures are weird enough on their own! we ate lunch at the pub where abby's sister works and got a wonderful reuben sandwich and good beer! we saw the gorgeous empress hotel and parliament building! then we dropped alex off at the airport and headed back to nanaimo. it was a good day!

our last half day on the island we went with the sauchuks to visit the van keorklies (i have no idea how to spell their name lol) abby grew up near this couple and they're really awesome people! abby actually names her daughter (anneke) after the woman. i think they're from holland and they survived a concentration camp growing up! now they're in their 80s and live in this gorgeous eco-friendly wooden house in the woods on several acres (don't remember how many). they have a garden and plants everywhere! it's just an absolutely amazing gorgeous place and i wish i could live there! lol we took a walk through the woods with anneke v.k. and she showed us where she has to break open a little dam that this beaver keeps building in their stream every day lol they said he (and or his family of beavers) have been trying to build a dam there for years and years but they have to break it open daily so it doesn't flood. but the v.k.s have a very zen attitude toward all things so they just go out there and make a little break it in everyday so the water can get through. it was awesome to see this 80 something year old woman out there with a hoe hacking away at this beaver dam! lol

when we got back to the house we had a very european style lunch: bread, cheese, sausages and fresh raspberries picked right out of their garden mixed with yogurt! it was so good! i knew that they gardened organically so i asked anneke how they keep the bugs off their crops without pesticides and she just said- well the bugs have to eat too! lol abby also told me that they never bother taking the bugs off the raspberries before they eat them lol "extra protein!" i guess after surviving a concentration camp you don't worry much about those kinds of things!

i loved their house though. they told us that it totally burned to the ground a while back but they had the plans for the house so they just had it re-built exactly the same way! only they added a few more eco-friendly features like geo-thermal heating, bamboo floors, etc. even their compost heap was cool! their kitchen is upstairs so just outside on the balcony they have a little chimney that goes down the side of the house right into another little wooden house where their compost is! so they just step outside the kitchen and throw their food waste down this little chimney! so cool!

we wanted to stay there for days but it was time for jens and i to catch the ferry back to the mainland so we could get the train down to seattle!

so we said our goodbyes to them and then we said our goodbyes to abby at the terminal cuz she was staying there to visit more with her mom. jason went back with us though because he was gonna have a visit with his parents. once we got back to vancouver we parted ways with jason and took the train down to seattle where we met up with the langs! jens went to high school with ali (duke) lang and jens and i actually went to her wedding in 2004 when she married patrick lang. they live in a suburb a little outside the city-center of seattle.

i love their house too! it's on a hill so it has a split level basement where half of it's underground but the other half isn't. so you can in through a door into their basement or you an go up some stairs into the main part of the house. their master bedroom is in the basement. on the "first" floor there's a kitchen dining, guest bedroom, guest bathroom and office, and then they have an upstairs loft which is their living room! it's so cool! and i love the way they've decorated it! it's mostly ikea furniture, very modern, soft colors. very nice! the guest bath made me feel like i was in a ritzy hotel! lol

we only had 3 days in seattle so i feel like i still don't know THAT much about it but it was still a good visit. the first day we went to pike's place market which was huge and awesome! i saw a crab thrown! lol i saw the original starbuck's coffee there too. it was packed but there didn't seem to be anything exceptional about it lol we bought a bunch of fruit to eat during our stay and some vegetables to grill with the langs one night.

after that we went to the mind-blowing library! it's SO COOL! it's super modern and has a "book-spiral" like the floors spiral up and up and up so that their collection can be continuous! they also have a "red hall" and a "mixing room" and all kinds of crazy stuff that is better represented by photos which i will eventually add to facebook lol

after the library we stopped by the pink gorilla, formerly known as pink godzilla, video game store so jens could look around.

for dinner went to to big bowl- a vegetarian thai place that had the best fake meat i've ever tasted! then we all took the underground tour! to learn more about the seattle underground go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Underground

it was interesting and fun! (and funny because we took the "adult" tour lol) afterwards we got a drink and headed back to the house.

our second full day we went to freemont with ali and saw the troll under the bridge! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemont_troll we ate indian for lunch and then we met up with patrick and took a hike in the woods which was quite nice (other than the tons of mosquitos lol) then we drove over to some waterfall that was HUGE! the biggest one i had ever seen in person. i unfortunately can't remember the name of it but i could ask ali if you're really interested lol

we grilled that night and it was de-lish!

our 3rd and last full day in seattle we toured a winery with ali. it was the first time we had ever done it and i wouldn't mind doing it again! you get free wine at the end! woohoo! we also did a survey of 3 different reislings for free and they were all really good. we ended up buying their dry reisling. (yeah there are DRY reislings!)

next we went to an awesome boehm's candy shop started many years ago by mr. boehm's who was from switzerland (i think). they make handmade chocolates and candies and they are OUTSTANDING! we actually got to see some women making some chocolates by hand through the window. jens and i bought chocolate caramel pecan turtles and they were YUM!

that night we ate at a pub and then we stayed the night with ali's sister, kat, because the lang's had to leave the next morning bright and early to fly to north carolina!

the next day we trained down to portland!!! i think i need a whole separate post for portland so i'm gonna stop there and go clean my house! :o) until next time!

ps- thanks to all our friends who let us stay with them and showed us around the awesome cities where they live! it was great fun and we really appreciate it!

Vacation in Vancouver-BC-Canada, Seattle and Portland

Re-posted from July 15, 2010

i've been wanting to update for a while now but haven't had a chance and now we're on vacation!

we're visiting some friends (the sauchuks) that we met in korea who live in vancouver, b.c., canada and it's been really fun! the first couple days we just hung out and then we started siteseeing. we've been to the imax theater, granville island which has a huge, amazing local market, chinatown, gastown (historic district), stanley park, we biked along the seawall as huge waves were crashing up against the wall, saw some amazing views of the mountains, city and water, went to the aquarium, deep cove for swimming (very cold!), art gallery, a bit of shopping, eating out at awesome little restaurants (japanese, chinese, fancy seafood, ukranian, fish and chips, etc.), we've cooked out a few times and hung out with 3 other friends we met in korea too! it's been a little mini reunion :o)

vancouver is AWESOME! i absolutely love it! the only things i don't like about it are it's way more expensive than texas and it can get pretty cold even in july! it was really sunny and warm the first few days but then it got really chilly for a few days! i had to wear the hoodie i brought and i actually would have been fine wearing a winter sweater! lol so weird! but most days have been really nice. it's great to get away from the scorching texan summer!

but if not for those two things i would totally live here. it's my ideal city. there are tons of things to do and see, the natural scenery is gorgeous, you can see mountains in the distance all around, there are some really interesting and fun neighborhoods, lots of ethnic restaurants, great shopping, great public transit (trains, buses, etc.), people biking and walking everywhere, great bike parking, you can take bikes on trains and buses, there are huge parks right in the middle of the city where you feel like you're not even IN the city!, etc. it just really easy to get around the city without a car and there are tons of areas people actually WANT to walk around. it's like a different planet than arlington, texas!

not to mention there's recycling, farmer's markets, local produce and eco-friendly stuff all over the city!!! I LOVE IT!

i'm hoping portland is just as cool but less expensive cuz jens and i really wanna move there. from what i've heard it's like a mini vancouver and somewhat cheaper. so we're anxious to visit!

tomorrow we're going with the sauchuks to abby's mom's condo on vancouver island. should be really nice! our friend alex is gonna meet us out there too which will be fun. i actually took over his job our last year in korea. unfortunately his wife can't come too but maybe we can at least call her or something while we're there. after a few days jens and i are gonna train down to seattle and stay with one of his old high school friends and her husband there.

we flew into seattle and then bused up to vancouver at the beginning of our trip and we were able to spend a few hours there so we were already able to see that it's a pretty cool city. only reason we aren't really thinking of living there though is it's further north. portland is far south enough and inland enough that it doesn't get too cold or snowy.

so we'll spend a few days on vancouver island, a few in seattle and then we'll train down to portland and spend about 5 days there. can't wait!

we'll return to arlington july 29th! then it's back to "real life" lol

Yoga and Scarborough Faire

Re-posted from June 17, 2010

so we've been doing yoga at the ymca down the street. it's literally like 2 minutes away which is nice.

jens and i got memberships at the ymca during our first week back i think. that in itself was a bit of culture shock because the girl that helped us talked SO FAST i could barely keep up! lol it was such a strange feeling. i was so used to talking really slowly to people in korea and having them talk really slowly to me...sometimes incredibly slowly...sometimes so slowly i would finish people's sentences for them just to get on with it lol but this girl at the ymca was talking 90 miles a minute and i just stood there in a daze trying to take it all in. we successfully signed up and paid for 6 months though.

jens started working out there right away but i don't think i tried yoga until our 3rd or 4th week back. i went by myself the first time but i liked it so much i convinced jens to try it with me the next time and surprisingly he went and liked it! jens has always told me that would never do a yoga class with me because he doesn't like the class atmosphere. it makes him uncomfortable. but the yoga class is done with the lights off and nice music and it's not about competition at all so you can kinda be in your own little world and not worry about what anyone else is doing. that's part of why i like it so much. you go at your own pace. you do what your body can do.

the instructor is great! she's very aware of everyone in the room and is always helping people, giving tips and reminding everyone to go at their own pace and not push themselves to injury. she's serious most of the time but you an tell she has a goofy/silly side too. she makes jokes, etc.

the class is mostly women. other than jens there's only one other man that comes to every class. he might be in his 70s. then there are a couple other guys that show up randomly. i don't think jens cares though.

overall it's a great class and i'm really liking it! i'm to the point now where i don't wanna miss it which i didn't think i'd get to this soon lol i may try a zumba class in the future and i might just workout up there sometimes but for now i'm focusing on yoga. one step at a time!

last month jens and i went to scarborough faire with joel and katie and it was awesome! i hadn't been in years since i hadn't been in texas in the summer in years! it was sooo hot and sunny but it was great! it was much bigger and more built-up than i remember it. like a virtual medieval town! and i LOVED all costumes i saw people wearing. i would love to have a few of them lol some of them are a little out there and not really my taste but i like the traditional dresses and the fairy costumes!

we watched various shows- singers, musicians, fire whippers, fire eaters, acrobat types, christof the insulter (the best! lol). we looked in a bunch of shops that had handmade costumes, artwork, jewelry, ceramics, puppets, and tons of other stuff. and we OF COURSE got a big, wonderful, delicious turkey leg! omg! best i've ever had! we also got a fruit ice, some king's nuts (a must!), a reuben sandwich, german potato salad and beer! yumyumyum! it was a great day! i took lots of pics which i will post eventually :o)

i was so happy to be able to go there because i went every once in a while growing up and always loved it so it really made me feel like i was home! :o) i didn't have a whole lot of culture shock while i was there aside from certain people wearing things they really should not wear in public lol i dunno what some people are thinking when they get dressed to go somewhere! and i thought the fake accents were a little silly but other than that nothing really stuck out.

anyway, i must be going. until next time!

First month back in the states!

Re-posted from June 1, 2010

here are a few things we did our first month back:

our welcome back party! it was may 1st (one week after arriving in texas) and we really had to scramble to get things ready for it. waiting one more week would have been helpful but we got it done and the party went off without a hitch! :o) the main thing we had to focus on before the party was getting stuff OUT of our little house that we did not want and putting things IN (from storage) that we did want. that was quite a task let me tell you! the pack-rat gene runs in my family and even though my mother had already gone through my grammie's old house and taken out boxes and boxes of stuff jens and i still filled about 10 more boxes with things that either weren't our style or we just couldn't use. don't get me wrong, i've kept several things of my grammie's and i like them and i enjoy using them...but there's only so much you can keep!

the party was on a sat. and people started arriving around 1pm i believe. we didn't put the food out right at first because we wanted more people to arrive before we did so. i think we got the food out around 2pm and we had lots of it! smoked ham and turkey for sandwiches, bratwurst and hamburgers plus sides that our guests brought: cole slow, potato salad, pasta salad, fruit, chips, etc. i also put out some homemade salsa that my mom's friend adelita showed me how to make :o) and jens's mom made an awesome chocolate cake!!! the food was wonderful and the company was great!

it was awesome to see everyone again. i didn't get to talk to any one person for very long but it was a good way to at least SEE everyone at once lol now that we live here for good we can go and visit longer with individuals over time which we've already started doing.

it's such a different feeling this time around- since we're not just visiting. i think all our family and friends feel the same way. they keep saying- "i can't believe you're actually here for good! i keep expecting you to have to leave but you're still here!" or "i get excited everytime you come over cuz...YOU'RE HERE! lol" it's funny...we feel the same way. we have to keep reminding ourselves- we live here for good now so we don't have to rush and do everything all at once or see people every single day - we can take our time!

everyone liked our little house. we got it cleaned up pretty well for the party. we've done so much to it since then too. gotten more boxes from korea, emptied more boxes in storage, put things away, put up decorative stuff- plus we got a full-size couch with a pull-out queen size bed!

our friend joel also took some family pictures at the party. some of my family members had already left unfortunately but we got a few which was nice :o) the weather was absolutely beautiful that day which we were so happy about because the forecast had said rain. some of my family stayed til late in the evening and a few of our friends stayed til late into the night. we partied aaalll day and aaall night lol it was really fun though! we had some games for people to play like frisbee, horseshoes, bubble wands and badminton. jens, joel and ben played drunken 3-person badminton at one point which was pretty hilarious! it was a great time overall!

another thing we did in may was go to central market. i told my kroger's grocery store story but central market was even crazier! we spent 4 hours there cuz the place is so humongous! I LOVE IT! there are new wonders around every corner! fruit and vegetables i've never seen before (or at least haven't seen in over a year! lol), lots of fresh herbs, artisan bread galore!, what feels like miles and miles of cheeses, hundreds of wines and beers, an all natural/organic/eco-friendly cosmetic/bath section to die for!, locally made bbq sauces and honeys, handmade sausages, huge filets of salmon, samples of food throughout the store, a cafe with food that made me drool, a gelato station that made my eyes bug out and gorgeous flowers of all kinds! amazing! love, love, love that place! i would have spent even longer if jens had let me lol we got tons of yummy stuff and just went home and had a foodfest lol

we got a few things for mother's day which was the next day. it was the first mother's day we were home for in at least 3 years! jens's mom and dad were out of town so we just celebrated with my family that day. i had my grandaddy, dad and mom over for brunch and we ate awesome cheeses and crackers, homemade guacamole, a pasta salad from central market with tomatoes, cucumbers, greens and edamame, hummus, olives, homemade caprese salad, and lots of fruit! it was really nice :o) i got my mom and my grammie flowers and after we ate we went up to the home where my gram lives and gave her her flowers and cards. she really liked them! :o)

mother's day with jens's family was the next wed. night. jens's dad cooked a bunch of delicious food and we gave jens's nana and mother cards and flowers and had a lovely evening of talking and looking at pictures. it was fun!

alright that's all for now. i've got to run!

Update and grocery shopping experience

Re-posted from May 25, 2010

ok i have a little bit of time so i'm going to try to update you :o)

we've been home a little over a month now and we've gotten quite a bit done! the state of the house fluctuates because as soon as i get everything put away a few more boxes arrive from korea for me to unpack lol it definitely keeps me busy though and i think we'll only receive a couple more boxes and that'll be that! we'll have all our stuff in one country!

i'm almost done going through all our boxes in storage too. we should hopefully be having a garage sale next month. just have to check with my mom on her work schedule. we'll probably end up having 2-3 garage sales. there's just so much stuff we need to get rid of! after living in korea for 3 years i'm realizing there are a LOT of things i've had since high school (and before!) that i really don't need anymore lol plus my mom is really wanting to down-size on all of her stuff. it'll be good for both of us to purge all this extra junk!

so that's what i've been focusing on lately. it's been like a full-time job so i haven't looked elsewhere for work yet. jens did the written test for the fort worth fire dept. and he thinks he did really well. we find out this week if he passed it and if he can move on to the physical test which will be within a couple weeks. it would be so awesome if he got that! here's hoping! as for me i'm in no hurry to find a job. right now i just wanna get our house in order and help my mom get hers in order, etc. after we're done with all that i'll think about jobs. i can't pin-point exactly what i wanna do. all i know is i'd love to be involved in the local eco-friendly community. i already have a few contacts so that's good. i'm not so much concerned with money as i am with just doing something i really wanna do, ya know?

anyway: here's a reverse culture shock story for you:

the first time we went to the grocery store we just went nuts! we went to kroger and were pleasantly surprised at their selection! of course, we were coming from korea so we weren't hard to please lol some of the differences between korean grocery stores and american are: in korea a store that only has groceries will be fairly small (like the size of a wal-greens or smaller) and most everyone has one within walking distance (which is nice). there are also big grocery stores that have a wider selection but they are 3-4 stories and are more like wal-mart in that they have lots of non-food items also. the first thing that stands out about an american grocery store is you most likely have to drive to it and it has an enormous parking lot out front. the distance from the street to the front door is almost as far as i would walk from my apt. to the grocery store in korea!

in korea there are lockers at the front of the store for extra bags or your dog (if you happen to have it with you). you just put in a 100 weon (or about 10 cent) coin in the slot which enables you to get the key and you get your coin back later when you open it. same goes for the grocery carts- you put a 100 weon coin in to unlock it from the row of carts and you get your coin back later when you put the cart back. now, i dunno why but all the carts i ever used in korea were much nicer than the ones in america. they just seemed better maintained or newer. the ones in america have all seemed really rickety or down-right impossible to use lol they're bigger though!

so- we went into kroger and were automatically mesmerized by the produce section! there's an entire wall of organic produce! including things we can't get in korea at all such as: huge, cheap bunches of cilantro, fresh mint, tarragon, thyme,  purple cauliflower, mini cauliflower, nice, big, good-looking bunches of asparagus, cheap green beans, tomatillos, guava, passion fruit, artichokes, limes, texan ruby red grapefruits, and BERRIES! lots and lots of berries! blueberries, raspberries, blackberries (and strawberries- which you CAN get in korea) i have to say though- korea totally wins out on strawberries. the ones we got at kroger unfortunately tasted like cardboard in comparison :o/ we just grabbed wildly and all these wonderful things and then moved on to the organic pre-packaged foods section which was equally awe-inspiring!

there were more kinds of organic cereals at kroger than there are of just regular cereals in korea! koreans don't really seem to be cereal-eating people. they've got corn flakes, green tea corn flakes and chocolate cereal at most places and then 2-3 tesco brand cereals at the big home plus (wal-mart-type store). we immediately grabbed some cinnamon shredded wheat squares that were to DIE for! lol i know that sounds crazy but korea really changes your taste buds lol other foods we were excited about: brown rice (koreans think white rice is superior), basmati rice (have to travel a ways and pay a lot for this in korea), brown basmati rice (non-existent in korea), various kinds of whole wheat pasta! (i think there was one kind in the stores in mokpo), many different kinds of yummy-sounding chips! (no more shrimp or squid flavored chips for me!), tooooons of different kinds of tea...tea that actually sounds good that is! in korea they've got green, black, barley, corn, multi-grain and other boring or gross sounding teas lol

and that was just in the organic section! i think an hour had passed by the time we got to the regular part of the store and another hour or more passed before we were done lol

some other general differences: the aisles are nice and WIDE! i felt like i was constantly bumping into someone or something with my cart in korean stores. they have limited spaces so they have to build up instead of out and everything is really close together. this has resulted in people getting used to bumping into each other so much that they don't even say anything when they do it lol in america we have lots of land so we can build out, space things far apart and rarely bump into each other. when we do we MUST apologize. how dare someone get in our bubble! lol

we have TONS of selection in america. we have 100 different brands of cereal and 5-10 different flavors of each brand! it takes forever just to pick out cereal! although i suppose after you live here a while (or if you've just lived here your whole life) you get to know what there is and what you like and then you can just go straight to what you want and pick it up. but if you're suddenly confronted with more cereal than you know what to do with it's a bit daunting! i would LOVE to plop a korean person in the middle of an american cereal aisle and just watch there reaction lol i have a feeling there would be bugged out eyes and lots of OOOWAAAHHHs! lol

another difference in america is you don't have guys screaming at you through a karaoke mic/speaker about their specials on watermelon or meat or fish! good grief i can't tell you how many times i went downstairs to the food floor at home plus and immediately ran through the produce section to get away from the watermelon man. i had to cover my ears it was so loud! trust me dude- if people want watermelon they will buy it. you don't need to yell at them for them to do so! it's RIGHT THERE when you get off the escalator! i like the very subdued announcements over the pa system they have in american grocery stores. it's very....non-deafening!

i also enjoy being able to buy normal cuts of chicken, fish without bones in it and nice, big fresh shrimp! in korea the butchers randomly hack up chickens so that the pieces are completely unrecognizable, the fish ALWAYS have all the bones in and sometimes the head and eyeballs attached and the shrimp is just not fresh. i think they must have to get it from far away.

we, of course, have many more kinds of bread and bread products since we're a bread-eating country and not much of a rice-eating country. korean people usually just eat bread as a snack. it's always white or white flour based and really fluffy. they're not into whole-wheat or multi-grain or bread with OOMF!

after going through almost the entire store we made it to the cheese aisle! AH glorious cheese! korean people aren't really a cheese culture. they have american slices and "pizza cheese" (which we call plastic cheese) and a few select "fancy" cheeses like expensive brie, camembert and parmesan. and if we were feeling really ambitious we'd take an hour-long bus ride to another town and go to a specific foreign foods store to buy a big block of $20 cheddar lol well those days are gone! we bought about 7 different kinds of cheese while we were there: cheddar (of course!), monterey jack, feta, a blue cheese, provolone, parmesan, and a creamy herb and garlic goat cheese that was my favorite! sooo goood! we were in cheese heaven! lol

after the cheese came the wine and the beer! wines we would pay $15 for in korea were only $5 here! insane! we got a couple bottles of wine and a couple 6-packs of beer. are you wondering if they sell korean beer here? no, they don't. know why? cuz it's awful! lol their most popular beer is called hite but we've taken to calling it shite. we most likely got shiner that day at kroger and maybe something else.

we were finally done shopping and we were super excited about all our purchases including our alcohol! :o) then a man came up to us and said...uuuhhh you know it's against the law to buy alcohol before noon on sunday right? and were like whaaatt? no! (we were still waking up at the crack of dawn at this point...still getting over jet-lag and so we were at the store really early! lol) stupidly we had to put our alcohol back. it's not like we were gonna chug two bottles of wine and two 6-packs and then go to church! lol so dumb!

we went and checked out and were surprised again when we BOTH had to be carded! we were NEVER ONCE carded in korea anywhere, at any time. they're SUPER lenient about alcohol there. you can buy it anywhere, at any time and drink it anywhere at any time. you can walk down the street and drink. you can drink in the park. once i was offered a shot of strong blackberry wine AT SCHOOL at 10am! i drank soju (like vodka) at my korean elementary school after students had gone home almost every wednesday after the teacher's volleyball game with my co-workers! lol totally different culture! anyway, it was a good thing i had my passport with me because i lost of my texas driver's license like two years ago lol

they bagged our groceries, we took them to the car and put them in our nice, spacious trunk! in korea when we had our scooter we had to be careful about how much we bought because we had to fit it all onto the scooter. we got really good at fitting tons of stuff on there though. korean grocery bags are about 3-4 times the size of american ones and they're stronger. we'd fill 2-5 of those, hook a couple on the front floor board and i'd hold the rest and off we'd go! it was fun seeing korean people staring at us with all our groceries piled on the scooter! we've fit a chair, an ironing board, an amp, guitars, the dogs and all sorts of stuff on that thing! we were really sad after it was stolen. then we really had to be careful how much stuff we bought cuz we'd either have to carry it onto the bus or to a taxi.

another little thing about bagging groceries in korea: when you're going through the check-out line you have to tell them how many bags you want and then you have to pay for them (i think it's only like 5-10 cents a bag). i think we should do that in america! i heard they were going to and it fell through or something. the best thing to do of course is to bring your own bags. i can't believe people aren't doing that more now that they're selling them all over the place and we're running out of the oil to produce plastic ones! such a shame! anyway, in korea you have to bag your groceries yourself which i totally don't mind but i hate the fact that they rush you through the line. as soon as they're done scanning your stuff they want you to pay so they can move on to the next person, i've even had them start checking out the next person before i even pay! so you have to really scramble to hurry up and get your stuff in the bags which is pretty nerve-racking. i like being able to take my time!

overall it was an awesome shopping experience and we've really been enjoying all the foods we can buy and make here :o)

until next time!