Seosan, South Korea

Recently we took a day trip to the seaside village of Seosan, on the East Sea (known outside of Korea as the Sea of Japan).

Pictured here are some natural wetlands in Seosan.


And here are the plans for the development to take over the wetlands. *sigh* (sorry the photo is sideways!)

Here, Marlena contemplates the sea.



This woman was shucking oysters and clams with a traditional tool, a simple wooden stick with a pointed metal pin attached.
Marlena discovers sea grass!

Fishing boats off the pier.

For my friend Brianna, a castle we saw while driving to Seosan!

Yes, I Am Boring

I know I've been bad about posting - or good about NOT posting!!

Truth is, there just isn't much to blog about. I've been sticking pretty close to home, being boring. I get up, drink coffee, play some Scrabble on my cell phone, do dishes and laundry and all that June Cleaver stuff, take the dog out to pee, play on the computer.

The weather here is finally nice. Or at least as far as my definition as nice is. Autumn, little chilly, no more humidity. Leaves are falling. Usually they fall faster if you have just swept up the ones that have fallen. LOL!!

Snuffles has some leave for the next several days so we plan on doing some traveling around the country. Short trips here and there. We've booked Marlena at the boarding kennels for three days this coming week, and four days the week after.

No definite plans as of yet. We will head east and north (but not to North Korea!). Since we both need our tourist passports updated, our travel will be limited to in-country. It's hard to plan a trip since any tourist information about South Korea revolves around Seoul.

I look forward to seeing the sea and the mountains, and hopefully some of the more traditional Korea. To get away from the hi-rise apartments and sky scrapers of Seoul. We hope to find a traditional Korean guest house for at least one night, rather than staying at a tourist hotel.

I spent part of Saturday helping out the base Girl Scout troop. The girls were working on their Quilting Badges by making quilts for the local orphanage. They did a great job! I was paired with a young lady who has never sewn before at all and she did so well. I've invited her to come and sew with me anytime she wants.

With Thanksgiving coming, I'm looking forward to seeing some old friends and meeting some new ones. I have a couple of friends who's husbands are stationed here so they will be coming to visit during the holidays, and I can't wait! A new friend of mine is looking forward to cooking her first Thanksgiving dinner here at my house; I'm delighted to let her do the work and of course I'll help out when she wants. I've invited various people to come for Thanksgiving dinner but not yet sure how many will come.

I've got some good friends up at Yongsan Garrison in Seoul now, too, and it's always a treat to pop up there and meet them for lunch.

Little bit of this, Little bit of that

Hello again!

• Went to see Mama Mia! last night - what a great movie!! Snuffles, of course, refused to go when I told him it was based on the music of ABBA. I can't wait to buy it when it comes out on DVD, and the soundtrack!
• It's been years since I last had a new pair of glasses and mine are so trashed that there is no point in cleaning them anymore. While I was out and about downtown today, I decided it was time for a new pair! I went into Sun Optical and received a free eye exam and had my new glasses in about an hour and a half! The price for the glasses wasn't much cheaper than in the States but it's nice to be able to see again. That cross-hatch effect of the scratches may be kicky in some modern art but not when you just want to see!
• My main goal downtown today was to take a quilt to be quilted! Yes, I finished a quilt!! Pieced front, pieced back and binding. I'm so proud. Too bad it's a seriously garish quilt LOL! It's a Halloween theme in bright orange and purple. I've actually grown accustomed to it but it still seems to terrify Snuffles when he sees it laid out on the bed. The quilt shop provides the batting and puts it all together; it will be done in two weeks for a total cost of . . . $45! Forty-five bucks for a twin sized quilt!! I know that's a great price and I am very pleased. I was hoping it would be done before the spouse's meeting next week. The spouse group is just starting out and I had planned on offering it as a raffle item to kick off fund-raising if raising funds is part of our plan. I'll still offer, if appropriate, but it would have been nice to have the finished product with me.
• Right now, Marlena is chasing around a snack-sized bag of Korean bugles (the corn horn-shaped snack) and is digging her nose in so far that she then spends a couple minutes trying to extract her head from the bag, while crawling backwards. Goofy dog.
• Speaking of Marlena, she's had a set back this week. We've got another week to go before she is "cured" but two days ago she encountered another dog and went absolutely bonkers barking and jumping at it. So for the last two days, she's been coughing almost non-stop. The vet prescribed some more steroids, so let's hope this gets rid of it once and for all. She has an appointment next Friday (the 26th) and while they are not due to check the heartworm for another three months again, I think I will request that they do a chest x-ray just to confirm that she is in the clear.
• I'm on the books to take my driving test for my Korean driving license next week! Watch out, Korea - I'll be on your roads!! It will be a welcome relief for Snuffles, I am sure; he will no longer have to be my chauffeur at all times. I just know how much he enjoys going out to the fabric warehouse LOL!!
  

Now for the big news: My son has proposed to his girlfriend and she accepted! Such mixed emotions - I am so happy for them and proud of him for being so completely grown up but at the same time, where did my baby go?!? I made so many mistakes with him, mistakes where I could have done so much better. I feel like I've let him down on a lot of things and I wish I could do it over and do it better. Do all moms feel like this? I have never loved anyone as much as I love my son. He has thrived despite me and no one could be prouder than I am of all he has accomplished.

Katie, his girlfr . . .oops! fiancee!!! is such a nice girl too. It's truly a pleasure to see them together and how well they interact with each other. They are a good balance to each other and this in iteself is a strong foundation to a good marriage.

Chusok

Merry Chusok to all!

This weekend marks the three-day Korean holiday of Chusok. To compare the holiday in importance and festivity, this is the Korean holiday most similar to Christmas in the United States. I mean this in terms of the holiday atmosphere.

Last week we made a quick trip to E-Mart (the Korean version of WalMart) to do a little shopping. The store was filled with lovely women in beautiful traditional hanbok:Each of these lovely ladies was showcasing different gift packages to give for Chusok. Similar to the American Hickory Farms packages or other gift baskets, there were packages of instant coffee, packages of Spam with Olive Oil, fruits, mushrooms and traditional cookies.

For Chusok, families will all travel to the home of the oldest relative to celebrate. This is a holiday for honoring ancestors and spending time together as a family. The city of Seoul will be virtually deserted, as most older Koreans live in the small villages outside of the big city. Most businesses will be closed for the duration.

It is said to avoid traveling during Chusok. While it may normally take an hour to get to Seoul from Songtan, over Chusok it can take five, six or eight hours!

Update on Marlena

Yay! She's home from her overnight stay at the vet clinic. While she was good and brave, she didn't have much fun with Specialist Crawford and the other vet tech because they just wanted her to stay calm and relaxed, so no playing!!

She received her 2nd and 3rd heartworm shots, and got a packet of heartworm pills to start on. The vet said that they figured out the trick with her - the first shot she got last month, she wriggled when they injected her and it caused a subcutaneous lump of fluid to form. They figured out that if her feet aren't on the ground, she won't wiggle! So two techs held her up while a third gave her the shots this time.

When I went to pick her up, the vet said she was doing great. We decided to go ahead and give her the rabies vaccine and distemper shot today too; she's good on the rabies now for a year, but will receive a booster shot of the distemper next month. And she is to come back for follow-up on the heartworm in four months. Also, next month she will get her Bordatella vaccine (to be done every six months) which is a preventative against kennel cough. This is given in anticipation of her having to stay at a boarding kennel or her playing with large groups of dogs.

She's such a good girl! and she was so delighted to see me come pick her up. While she was gone, I washed her sheepskin bed thing and her two towels in her crate, and bought her a nubby squeaky donut toy and a pink rhinestone heart charm to hang on her collar. So now she is sporting some serious bling - her pearl necklace, her heart charm, her microchip ID tag and her rabies tag. Such a spoiled little princess!

This and That

Things have been hectic so let me try to fill you in a bit!

• Household Goods (HHG) arrived - all of our stuff! It's been quite the orchestration trying to organize and coordinate fitting everything in and finding places for all of it. Like putting 10 lbs of flour in a 5 lb sack!
• Marlena - doing well. Took her in to the vet today but they had a scheduling conflict. The vet needed to attend a conference. So she did not get her last shots for the heartworm today, but she did get her microchip! Poor girl, that really hurt when they did it. But she was brave and well behaved. Tomorrow morning we will drop her off at 8 AM for her heartworm shots and she will be having a sleep-over at the vets. When they do the final shots, she has to be on 24 hour watch so two of the vet techs will be switching on and off overnight to monitor her, and the vet will then be available to be on call should anything happen.
• Car - we have our car (not sure if I confirmed that earlier). I don't have my license yet, though, but I plan to remedy that in the next week or so. Until then, Snuffles is my chauffeur and he has been quite patient and accommodating about that.
• Fabric - OMG!! Mr. Kahn's Happy Quilter Warehouse - it is NOT just a myth, it is real!! About five minutes from my house by car. A literal warehouse brimming with bolts and bolts and BOLTS of fabric. Not flat bolts either - the real McCoy, the ones off the loom!! Big huge round bolts of fabric. And the price? $5.00 for TWO yards!!! It's all the good stuff too! I spent 85,000 won (roughly $85 American).For $85, I got 36 yards of fabric. That's $2 a yard!! Remember, I said it was $5 for two yards; well, for every 10 2-yard packs you buy, you get one free!!Brand names? I have Lakehouse Dry Goods, Clothworks, MBT, Alexander Henry, Maywood Studio, Wilmington Prints, Blank Textiles, Andover, Moda, Benartex, and Makower UK!!!
• I have to add, my wonderful fabulous husband took me down to a furniture store last week and had me pick out a glass door cabinet to hold all my fabric! Absolutely lovely!
• Our other big purchase recently was our hand-made, double-knotted 6' x 6' rug made in Pakistan! OMG so gorgeous! The one rug shop was going out of business and the rug was originally priced at $2000 and I talked him down to $600!

Some detail of the rug:


I'm still chugging away at language class and Snuffles is still working hard.

I am a SPECIAL kind of stupid!

or "How I Know that I am Really At Home Now"

My family will appreciate this second title. I am definitely home here in Korea now because I had my first trip to the Emergency Room today!!

Being the good little housewife I am, I have been working on unpacking boxes and trying to get everything in order (another blog to come about the moving in of the House Hold Goods) and I even managed to do some dishes.
Now, as you can see from the drawing above, I have the dish drainer facing the wrong way, because the silverware holder is on the outside edge of the counter. And it tilts. And I washed a VERY sharp knife and set it in there to dry.

I went about puttering around, putting things away in the kitchen and turned to walk to the other counter when I . . . (and here is where the special stupid comes in) . . . walked INTO the VERY sharp knife! Yes, I impaled myself on the *&#%@* knife!!

Bear in mind, this isn't the first time I've done such a thing either!! Several years ago I had a paring knife in the dish drainer and brought the side of my wrist down right on top of it!!

I'm hot and sweaty and grungy from doing the boxes, and I am dressed but no bra. I immediately ran my arm under the tap water (let's hope it was pure enough!) and grabbed a paper towel and applied pressure. Then I went to the medicine cabinet to grab an ace bandage and I wrapped it around my arm to hold the paper towel in place, so I could put on a bra!! Didn't want to scare the natives and the hospital staff.

I shut off the hot water, latched Marlena into her crate and grabbed my purse and out the door. I got to the street corner and fished out my phone so I could call for a base taxi to pick me up, when my neighbor (whom I had just met this same morning) called hello to me and asked what I was up to. I said I was on my way to the ER (explained the whole special stupid to her) and was calling a taxi. She told me that her husband was just heading out the door to work on base (he is a contractor) and that he would take me. What a wonderful neighbor!!!

The physician at the ER determined that I did not need stitches, so the assistant put a couple steri-strips on and sent me up to immunizations to get a long overdue tetnus shot. I have to say, I think the assistant was fairly new to the whole job because she put the steri strips on as if they were bandaids, instead of using them to pull the wound together and hold it tightly. I think I'll live though LOL!!

The cut is about a half an inch long and looks like I gouged out my skin. When I got home, I examined the knife to determine how far in it had gone and from what I can tell, I impaled a good full inch of knife into my tender flesh. I have no tingling or loss of feeling or sensation though, so I'm sure that it will be fine.

I wanted to have it checked out though because the last time I self-impaled, I didn't have it checked and it probably needed a stitch that time. Plus, I haven't had a tetnus shot in about 15 years so all in all, it was a wise move to go visit my ER.

Now I am off to turn the dish drainer around!! No more self-inflicted physical idiocy if I can help it!!

I can't wait to tell Snuffles about my adventure today, and to warn him that he may be questioned. I realized that as I said that I walked into a knife, that it sounded like the lamest I fell down the stairs / tripped and hit the door knob with my eye excuse ever!! Hopefully they understood that it was what happened and there is no question about spousal abuse, but who knows? He has an alibi, I promise he didn't do it!!!