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!