A Lone Photo from the DMZ

A few months ago, I went with the sixth grade class to the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea. Unfortunately, that day my memory card was not in my
camera so I couldn't take any pictures. The above picture was sent to me by another teacher, Mrs. Lee (who is in the picture with me). We were "in" North Korea in the picture, inside a building built on the dividing line. It was a very intense scene at the border. Across the line there were two North Korean soldiers watching us with binoculars, and several more could be seen in the windows of various buildings doing the same. Everyone was very serious, including the sixth graders (which was a rare and beautiful thing). It was a clear day, so we could see the propaganda village and a statue of Kim Il Sung through the binoculars. It's so strange to be so close to an isolated country that no one really knows much about. I think, wonder and pray about the people who live there.

Icheon Rice Festival; Saturday Escape from Seoul

This weekend we attended a festival held in thanksgiving for a good harvest of rice in Icheon, a city about an hour northeast of Seoul. It was refresing to leave the city for several hours for the more mountainous eastern Korea. Icheon is famous for having the best rice in all of Korea (because of the geography and the lack of pollution.) I think that I have yet to develop a refined rice tasting palette, as I was unable to detect anything particularly superior in Icheon rice. It was good though. Rice is good.



These ladies are in traditional dress, hanboks, serving tea (even though we had to sanitize our hands coming into the festival, it was totally ok for us to all drink tea out of the same glass cup.) I like that about Korea.



more scenes from traditional Korea




a sweet little ajuma & ajashi weaving straw into animals




At lunchtime, we walked along the food stalls to find something to eat. Usually in Korea, a restaurant has one or two specialty dishes and little else. We saw
some familiar favorites, like the seafood and green onion pancake pictured below. Since we've eaten those many times, we kept looking.



We saw this lady and what appeared to be deep fried green peppers. Tempted by these tasty looking things, we settled on eating at the place she was working. They had two dishes, one was soup and the other was the fried peppers.



We all ordered soup without knowing what kind it was. One lift of the spoon revealed
this.


The soup was a typical red pepper broth but there were many whole fish with white eyes in it. We thought that they were perhaps eels of some sort because the did not have fins. Later we found out that they were mudfish. Mudfish live among the rice paddies and in really dirty parts of rivers. They are really fast and are considered to have all kinds of health benefits. In traditional stew, they drop them in while they are alive. They crawl into the tofu to escape the heat and die there. Lovely!



We ate some rice and broth and eagerly anticipated the arrival of our fried peppers. You can probably guess what happened next....they weren't peppers, they were deep fried mudfish! Some Korean men were so excited that we were eating it, they gave us some sort of nut or fruit and proceeded to make us try it right in front of them. Of course, we did our best to look like we LOVED all of it! Inside we were making a face like one of the children below.



After the mudfish experience, I got an icecream cone to get the taste out of my mouth and enjoyed the rest of beautiful Icheon. The availability of cheap & tasty icecream cones everywhere in Korea has definitely been a daysaver on many occasions.









The next night our friend invited us over for chili. She had several of her Korean friends over and they were all eating their chili very cautiously and slowly. It resembled the way i "ate" my mudfish stew in a lot of ways. Even when things are hard, it's so special to get to particpate in Korean culture. I want to try harder to do it more. (Ryan is already pretty good at it, but even he couldn't eat the mudfish!)

Cross Country Meet, Fall Weather, Good Day

Saturday morning was the first middle school cross country race. The girls came very pumped up (despite the early hour) and began cheering loudly from the back of the bus. It turned out to be a lovely day and the girls ran really well. 4 or 5 international schools participated in the race. Hannah Parrish (pictured above)came in 2nd place in the meet. I happen to know that her grandparents occasionally look at this blog and thought they would be happy to see a little report on their star cross country running granddaughter!

Anguk Station Area; Perfect Spot for Autumn

One thing that is so nice about living in a big city is that there is always somewhere new to go. Saturday night, some girls got together while our husbands were eating steak and wandered around a serene and romantic area across from Insadong. (We then managed to destroy the romantic mood by being the only non-couples in the whole neighborhood!) It's a peaceful little section with many promising looking cafes and shops. Brick buildings & the careful thought put into the design of the establishments, inside and out, make this a really charming place. I definitely caught the "happy virus" in this neighborhood; it's contagious. cafe that's on my list for next time adorable bags of coffee outside the shop on our way home...happy!

Chuseok, Wonderful Weather, Etc

This week we had a lovely break from school in honor of Korean Thanksgiving, Chuseok. Though we planned on attending some cultural events around the city, Ryan became sick just in time for the break. Boo! He started feeling a little better towards the end though and we were able to enjoy the extremely pleasant weather Seoul has had as of late. We walked across the bridge near our house to the very beautiful Banpo Bridge Park. In this case, the grass is definitely greener on the other side. We rented this tandem bicycle and rode all up and down the river, glimpsing skyscraper after skyscraper and some cheezy Korean couples on picnics. You can see one such pair in the video below (taken from the back seat of the bike.)
It's a popular Korean trend to wear matching outfits with the one you love.

Our friends, Carrie & Dan Buller, were out and about a few weeks ago and heard a man speaking Portuguese; since Dan speaks Portuguese also, he introduced himself. The man was Fabricio from Brazil and he lives in Seoul and plays for the Korean soccer league. We went to watch Fabricio in action Saturday night. Happy Soccer! Happy Yellow!

Typical E-mart Lunch

First, look in the glass case at the models of all the dishes that you have to choose from. Try to read in Korean what the thing that looks good is called.

Go to the counter and order. The cashier will give you a ticket with your number. When your number is called, go and get your food.

Enjoy (the kimchi udong!)

Second Summer in Seoul

We just began our 2nd year living in Seoul. After a wonderful summer of rest, we have come back rejuvinated and excited to begin. Last week was our first school week and it has been so good to see former students and meet new ones. The girls in this picture are seventh graders that come to after school discipleship group that Abby helps to lead once a week. There are many new teachers at our school; below is the middle school staff on the first day. The high school doesn't seem to have anyone gathering them for mandatory photo shoots yet, so there are no pictures of Ryan and his co-workers. There will be some soon maybe.
We got together with some friends and went to a baseball game last night. By the time we got there, the only tickets left were standing only. We managed to find us a pretty good little spot and were even occasionally able to sit down on the stairs. We were definitely in close quarters, but it was fun that way. I (Abby) have to say that baseball games in Korea are far more exciting to attend than baseball games in the U.S.A. There is so much passion and energy the ENTIRE game. The fans never stop cheering, even if they are down 7 runs. The fans do organized cheers and songs in perfect unity.


The boys all had a traditional Korean baseball snack, a dried squid. It has been really hot this week. Today we went with our friend, Jung Mi, to eat cold noodle soup with ice in it and some kimchi mandu. We passed this sweet little sign in our neighborhood walking home from the bus stop. We're feeling happy to be back and looking forward to a new year.

I fought the octopus and I won

This weekend I (Ryan) went with Will and Toby to a nakji restaurant. Nakji means octopus, and it is served in a variety of ways. We "enjoyed" it both cooked in a red pepper sauce and freshly-killed-raw. I wouldn't say it was the most pleasant experience. The taste wasn't bad, but the octopus didn't seem to know that it was dead. It writhed around on the plate for about an hour.

Bali, Indonesia

This week we traveled to Bali, Indonesia to enjoy some rest and warmth during our school's spring break. Our first few hours after landing were a whirlwind—stepping out of the air plane into the humidity and the sudden onslaught of money changers and taxi drivers competing for our attention; whisked at a breakneck pace from the coast to our hotel in Ubud, a village surrounded by rice paddies and forest. The Hindu religion dominates Ubud. There are temples and alters everywhere, and the colorful and sometimes frightening gods are a constant reminder of the unseen world. Our driver stopped so we could take a picture of these two women who were walking to a temple with offerings.

Every shopkeeper, restaurant and hotel owner places small offerings to the gods on the ground outside of their establishment. Usually these are banana leaves filled with fruit, crackers, and incense. It's hard to tell where the line is between religious devotion and nominal tradition; one day we were behind a group of school children who were picking up these offerings, throwing them at each other and stuffing them into mailboxes. At the end of the day they all end up in big trash heaps.

The lushness and variety of flora and fauna in Bali is astounding. Flowers explode from the left and the right down paths and sidewalks. Coconuts and bananas hang within plucking distance. Street vendors sell snake skin fruit, durian, mangosteen, oranges, and things I can’t name.

We met a very nice couple from Canada who were staying at our hotel. They filled us in on the best walking routes into and around the village, where to eat and what to see. The walk was beautifully lined with rice paddies.

About one minute after we wandered out of our hotel the first morning, we found ourselves in the sacred monkey forest. Monkeys basically do what they want in this Hindu community. We saw them boldly stealing fruit from the alters to the gods, and they perform all other sorts of lewd and indecent acts in the trees around Ubud. At first we were a little apprehensive wandering down the path, heavily populated by all sizes of monkeys—some were quite large. But they don’t really seem to care that you’re there—unless of course you are holding a banana or you’re staring at them in the eyes.

We left the village of Ubud for the peninsula of Nusa Dua on day 3. We were a little sad to leave Ubud for the more touristy coast, but we soon found that there was still plenty of authentic Balinese culture to experience.

All along the shore, there are structures like the one below for resting and getting out of the sun. It has a simple wooden platform that you can lay on while the wind from across the Indian ocean blows all around you.

We were sitting in one of them when we noticed a troop of kids banging on a gong and performing a dragon dance down the beach. They were Indonesian children trying to raise money for their orphanage.






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The beauty of the island and the friendliness of the people made our week in Indonesia so memorable and special. Even though we were there for only 5 days, each one seemed long and full. We have come back to busy Seoul feeling as though we have been away a long time and with a very fond place in our hearts for Bali.