Our Newest Additions

Ok these three little guys don't look so spectacular, compared to what was available, kind of reminds me of Charlies Browns choice in a Christmas tree. There was some method to our madness. They only have to be watered once a month and even less in the winter. We have a half of chance of keeping them alive if the can survive neglect. When we go back to the U.S. for three weeks, I don't want them getting thirsty. The large one is a Chinese Jade plant. Its 30 years old to get it to that size, and it will flower every spring. I will have to have a burial service if we kill it, it is so old.
The picture below is what we could have selected from, if we weren't so practical.

I'm getting spring fever

This week we went to 63 Building. Yea, you read that right, not Building 63. It is the tallest building in Seoul. And here's the view from one of the windows. Incredible, how large this city is. You are only looking at a tiny speck of the view from up on top. You can click on the picture to get a little better idea. Sorry it was kind of a foggy cloudy day like most of them in the winter.



63 building also has an aquarium in the basement and it was pretty good, even if the fish I am standing by is literaly older than dirt that has been embalmed. It was the only one I could find that would hold still long enough for a picture., oh except for this one...


Notice how Lyle can be calm and collected in any situation. Even a pending shark attack. What a guy.

We also went to the flower market. These people never do anything on a small scale. It was a wholesale and retail market, and of course 5 large green houses. It took us about an hour in each green house if that tells you how long we hung out there. Every plant was georgous.

I always took a little pride in getting my two struggling orchids to bloom every year, thinking how great they looked. I have been humbled. They obviously need more water and more plant food Lisa.

Sorry a couple of these wanted to stay sideways, I had them flipped in the folder, but they kept wanting to turn back the other way when I posted them. Give your neck a stretch on these.

Can you be this healthy with no dirt. Obviously, if you know what your doing.

OK, one more. This is just a smidgen of what was there. There were rooms full of these.

Church was good. I am a bit of a quote collector. Have been for years. That and recipes. Ok, and maybe a few stamps and shoes too. Anyways, this is a quote from Pres. Monson that was part of our R.S lesson on Sunday. I thought it was fabulous council, now I just need to try harder to follow it.

"Let us make our homes sanctuaries of righteousness, places of prayer, and abodes of love that we might merit the blessings that can only come from our Heavenly Father. We need His guidence in our daily lives."

Krista and Nate are engaged!

Krista and Nate Lowe got engaged on Feb. 13th.
We are so happy for them! (Thanks Krista for giving your Mom an excuse to come home a little earlier than planned.)
Nate grew up in the Northwest, (Portland) and they found each other in Provo.
No wonder they call it happy valley..ya gotta admit, they look happy! And so are we. Congratulatons!

Signs of the (good) times in Korenglish

I took a walk through the neighborhood with my camera. I thought you would like to see how a few things get "lost in translation" and yet, on the other hand "a rose, by any other name is still a rose."

I am POSITIVE they got the name on this bar right. The Man Club didn't have near the business...

I am pretty sure they could open up a whole bunch of these bars in Butte and do well.

Are they trying to say "Keep the kids home, please." It wouldn't make it in Utah.

I always prefer my IK (??) to go, but its nice to have the "bottoms up" option.

By the way, when you are at the "Buy the Way Cafe", they prefer it if you BUY!

And forget poppy seed bread, puppy seed is much tastier. Although I'm still wondering where they go to get all those little puppy seeds. Hmm.

I love this guy, he reminds me of the U.S. I wave to him everytime I am walking to catch the subway. He's most definately my SEOUL Man.

Now this is a great idea...since guys usually have a difficult time explaining how they want their hair cut anyway. All they have to do is decide on which of the four haircuts they want, point to it, and the barber gets it right and the customer is never disapointed. Sadly, it wouldn't work for Lyle, since these drawings all have hair, and his haircut is not one of the options here :o(

Haven't bought these yet, but they've gotta be as good as homemade.

And what eye couldn't use a good friend?

I could go on, but I will end with asking Eric, why are you spending so much on dental school and the high cost of living in California? Just come to UCLA in Korea and let us spoil Lilly...please?

Week three, but who's counting?

Well, we must have been busy, because the week flew by pretty fast.

Our excursion this week was to the venue where S.K. held the Olympics, some 20yrs ago.

T The park is in great shape and we got a chuckle out of the rows of totem poles, sometimes I think they resemble some of my moods.

We are also still trying to figure out how "Happy Christmas" got lost in translation to Helpy Christmas, but then I pretty much slaughter the Korean language as well. I guess they leave some of the Christmas decor up until the Easter Bunny arrives.

There were also some pretty interesting sculptures from each of the countries that participated in the Olympics there. I had already walked at least two miles on blistered feet (didn't know my new tenni-runners would be getting such a work-out and you can only walk so far with toilet paper stuffed in your shoes) so we didn't find the sculpture from the U.S. It will give us a reason to go back I like to call this one "Are You My Mother?"

And here' just a couple more..

Don't ask me to interpret any of these sculptures . I will never understand or probably appreciate to the full extent what is going on in the brains of some of these artists, and how this ties into the Olympics or represents their country. These sulptures go on for acres, so it was kind of a fun walk. Not very often I get a little culture in my stroll. (No offense intended to those friends and family members I have walked with over the years on that last comment.)

It felt good to get out and walk so far your legs were stiff the next day. Gotta get in shape for when I figure out where all the good shopping is and Krista arrives in a couple of weeks! We had a great time and as always, wish you were each here to enjoy it with us as well.

We survived week two!!

We had a great week. Because of the New Year's holiday Lyle had Mon. and Tues. off.
We decided it was time to explore our neighborhood about a half mile down the road. This will give you a little better idea of the Korean lifestyle. I guarantee you there are no meter maids, or parking tickets in this country. It's pretty much anything goes and they give new meaning to the phrase "off street parking"

We also had a little house fire in the hood. This is the tale end of it. It was almost over by the time the fire truck showed up. We watched it from our apartment, and I thought I would see if my zoom lens is any good. Turns out it is. You couldn't see those little people from our window.

Lyle and I feel like we have mastered the subway system here (only because things are written in English, and its a pretty easy system to figure out...so we went to the temple on Tues.

It is tucked in a small street. Unlike most temples you won't see this one from the highway.

I'm not sure why the spires look bent in these pic's. But I liked the stone work on the sidewalks.

I am amazed at no matter how busy the area is where the city is located, there is always such a feeling of peace and serenity as soon as you enter the temple grounds. You really do feel like you leave the craziness of the world when you arrive.

Just down the road from the temple is a little restaunt owned by some members of the church.

They joined the church about in the 70's, sent several children on missions and he was a bishop for 10 years. They were very kind, and it was nice not to have to tell them "no tea." But the same did not hold true on what we were going to eat.

I told her I would like the beef dish, but she insisted that I would love the duck. Not being that brave and I hadn't eaten in a while and didn't want to go on that 2 hr. subway trip home hungry, I said I thought I would take the beef , and she said "no you try the duck, everybody likes it." So I said "self, when in Korea do as the Korean's do and eat the duck." She was right, It was great, and the meal was excellent. I tried the grape leafs, sauces, pickled garlic, thin sliced radishes, etc. etc. with it, but passed on those skinny silver looking sardines. Lyle had a couple of them and said they weren't bad. "Tastes a little like beef jerkey" I believe is what he described those little swimmers tasting like. Umm....I'll take his word on it.

I'm still mentaly adjusting to the thought of eating duck, but when you eat it sliced thin and cooked on a Korean barbeque, its pretty yummy. She asked us during the meal if we would like lemon (we thought that she ment in our water, so we said yes.) The next thing we knew the noodles were going in the pot and what she had really said was ramen :o)Ok sorry these pictures are so random. Don't blame it on my teachers, Eric, Lisa and Tammy (it takes a village to teach this old lady) just blame it on the student, and the learning curve. Pray I get better at this, or you learn to tolerate it, which ever comes first!