Tour to Pottery Shop and Wawoojongsa Temple

This was a fun day out seeing the colors of fall and having a lunch like local Korean's have every day. More on being in the country away from the city next. Lets talk about "Squatty Potties".

You can see the ceiling above the Buddha is covered with small paper prayer requests attached to the pink lanterns.

Smaller Buddhas around the lake below the head.

Wawoojongsa Temple in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. Our guide told us that this is the youngest temple in Korea, around 40 years old. It was built with the purpose of prayers for a future happy reunification of Korea. Everywhere in this beautiful area were candles, papers and tiles to purchase and leave behind a personal prayer.

More greens cooked in many way.

The bowl in to front of this picture contains sweet potato and some kind of fish. Behind is is plain tofu bean curd, behind that crab parts, boiled and chopped up. Next to the crab is lettuce leaves to put the fatty bacon on and spread chili paste on that and eat it. The gentleman in the picture brought his own food having been on tours around the area. Notice the american hotdog in his hand

MMMM Kimchi! At least I know what that is. I will get better with the chop sticks!

After the pot shop we went to a local roadside restaurant for a "yummy" authentic Korean lunch. You can see how happy Mike looks to partake in the many unknown foods put before us. Our tour guide was not much help with identification. To the left in front of Mike is bowl with some kind of turnip. The next bowl looks like Kimchi. Hot red pepper is the key to overcoming the fishy undertones.

Mike shopping for our first Kimchi pot. He really does enjoy Kimchi, we may have to use the pot when we return stateside.

Happy Quilts!

The ladies at Happy Quilts! The most popular store in the area of Osan. Even those of us that are not big quilters can't resist this store. It's a big warehouse of every quilt fabric you can ever imagine. It was only open on Wednesdays and Saturdays, but recently changed to being open 6 days a week. The owner knows a good thing when he has all the ladies from base purchasing yards and yards of fabric. Right now with the won exchange rate the fabric goes for between $2.5o to $3 per yard.

Evening out the back gate

Korean Puppy wants Popeyes! We see him working the strip whenever we go off base. This street also has a 24 hour McDonalds. I hear they deliver too. Well, not on base, but to you house.

On Saturday night we went out the back gate to do some night shopping. Now we know that's when the area really wakes up. The shops are still open. Then street vendors come to line the walk ways, waiting for all the people who are in the bars upstairs. It's a pretty fun atmosphere.

Let me comment on Yaki Mandu. It's my new favorite Korean food. Here is a link to a Korean lady making Yaki Mandu. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zECZXmDmHR0

The vendors bring them out and cook them right in front of you. Mike found out the hard way, how much heat they retain. Burned his mouth when he bit into one right out of the hot oil.

Most of the bars here in Korea have what are called Juicy Girls. In some clubs they just sit with you or play pool with you; in others, they dance, put on various types of shows, but all are doing the job for a disgustingly low salary. They are contracted from Russia, Philippines, Malaysia, Nepal, and various places in Korea just to name a few. Some actually enjoy doing it, some are paying off debts that were incurred by themselves or their family. We see some of them getting their dinner before going to work when going out to do night shopping. There are even groups of volunteers that come out from base, to check up on the young Airmen and make sure they don't over do it when out drinking with the Juicy Girls. No pictures of Juicy Girls for this blog.

Trip to the EMart

We went with our friends Rich and Mary to the local EMart. Like a Super Walmart. One picture is of Rich trying some kind of meat. The other is of the Spam girl. I've mentioned that they like spam. She is selling several kinds of Spam gift sets. When they have the Christmas Spam Gift sets out I'll get a picture of those. I hear they run about $40. I know that they were all laughing at me, taking their picture in the local grocery store. Crazy American.

Korean Pears

Sorry it's been so long since I put up a new post. We have lots of trips in the near future, so promise not to take so long again.

First, I have to post a pic of a Korean Pear. I took this in my kitchen, next to a coffee cup so you can see the size of these things. They are like oversize softballs. Koreans love them and have them everyplace. They are big on giving them as gifts. I find them to be a little too sweet for my taste. Their grapes are like that too. Had some of them and it was like the taste of a full sugar grape soda.

Quick note about the pictures

Just so you know, if you click on a picture it gets much larger so the details can be seen.

Flower Market and food shops outside base

Here are the chilies that they love so much. I missed the chance to take a picture of them drying them when we first arrived. I did post a picture of the chilies drying at the Korean Folk village. The reality is that they are city dwellers, so when we first arrived I had to get used to seeing masses of chilies drying on the sidewalks of all the streets. I'm sure that the gas fumes from the cars driving by, gave them a special flavor and helped them dry quicker.

This is an alley outside of base where you can purchase all kinds of local Korean foods. So, far it's just a place to look, I'm not sure about the quality of some food preparation yet.

Here I am with all the flowers.

Neighbor Mary inside the flower market. Mary is a great adventurer. She has already really seen a lot of Korea. I'm going to have to work to keep up with her and you all know how good I am at getting to know my area.

This is a favorite place to go. Inside is every kind of flower and plant that you could ever want. There are also pots, silk flowers and ribbons. It happens to be right down the street from the local Costco. Yes I said it, there is Costco in Korea. I have not been, but hear it has many of the things you find in the states. I plan to join after we get our car. I really want to see the isle of Spam. Koreans have a love of Spam that has no match. I hear that the Spam isle has every flavor you could ever want in your life. I'll have to do some research to find the origin of the Spam love.

More Korean Folk Village

Tight rope show, one of many at the village. We will see more shows when family visits.

Mike at the Folk Village

Bridge and shops at the village. High rise homes in the background.

Korean boat at the village. That's my kind of sailing. Slow and steady.

Pictures from the Korean Folk Village

This is the entrance to the Folk Village. The lady is wearing a tradition Korean dress called a Hanbok. Here is a link to get some history of this dress. http://lifeinkorea.com I see older women on the streets still wearing this kind of dress today.

Class picture before we enter.

Pretty Traditional Home

These are large Kimchi Pots. Most are turned upside down in this picture. There are chilies being dried on trays around them. They love their hot chilies. They grind them up and put them in all their food. So, when making Kimchi, they use these pots to ferment the cabbage and spices. They have big lids to keep all the goodness in. I of course will have one before we leave Korea. Just have to wait for the big "Yank Tank" to arrive, so I can haul it home.

Korean Cultural Class

We were lucky enough to be able to attend a Korean Cultural Class. It was held at Pyongtaek University. For three days we learned the Korean alphabet, including singing the alphabet song in Korean. That was fun. On the third day we went to a traditional Korean Folk Village. American Studies students from the university were our tour guides. Since they knew we would stumble over their Korean names, they chose American names to use for the day. Our tour guide was proud to go by the name "Usher", "because he can sing and dance like Usher".

The back of our house

This will complete the tour of the house.
This is the view from our back porch. These are dorms for the single Airmen and they do have a good time. They love to come out and BBQ. Beyond that is the rest of base and the city beyond. This is a clear day for Korea. Most of the time it's very hazy.

This is the covered area for all residents to have BBQs and there is a fire pit in the grass. Hear it's fun to sit around the fire when the kids come for Halloween.

This is our back porch. You can see Arthog again giving the tour. Mallory says it's like playing where's Waldo. We have a nice balcony off the master suite. Nice to sit and have coffee in the morning.

Rest of the house

Mike's Man Cave Korean size. This is on the back porch. Notice the detail that my new camera picks up. Like the beer can.


Guest room. Mike painted the walls for me. He is always so good about making my ideas come to life.






Here is the dining room








Master bedroom, notice the extra space for new Korean furniture







Mallory bedroom and office space. Tiny, but she's used to it in the dorms.

Guest room, all are welcome to visit. The dogs won't let you get lonley.

Maddy and Arthog help with the tour.

So here is the rest of the house. Some things look better since these were taken, but you don't want to wait forever to see where we live.

Finally getting this Blog going

Front of Building


Our front door. Was I standing funny when I took this?




Living room

Mini Kitchen

9/29/2009

Okay, I'm finally getting this Blog going. So have pity if things are a bit choppy. I plan to post when I have something new or exciting to add. Many days it's just about living on base and doing the spouse volunteer thing. Here are pictures of our home. We have 6 families living in this row and we have already become great friends. We go to the O'Club on Wednesday night and have BBQs in the back yard area. More after I try my first go at posting lots of pictures.

Arrival in Korea

Flight was smooth and we landed on time. After having my temperature taken in case of Swine Flu, I was on my way out to meet Mike. It's so good to finally be here. The ride from the airport through Seoul was exciting. I kept thinking that Stew would love to see me now. The traffic in Seoul can only be explained by the word chaos. The city itself is an amazing mass of humanity. High-rise buildings as far as the eye can see. I think Mike quoted me something like 11 million people. Imagine them all trying to get around on the highway. Our driver was very experienced and after some slow going we were speeding out of town to Osan AFB. We arrived at the base around 9:30 pm. I was worn out so no big observations on that night. The next day we started to walk and have walking ever since. I haven't seen much more than the mile it takes to walk to the BX and Starbucks, but what I see is nice. The house is going to be great. Mike spoiled me by doing most of the unpacking before I arrived.

Leaving America

9/1/2009
Flight to Korea. I consider this my first official day as an "Empty Nester". Until now there have been details for our move and travel to visit family. Sitting to my right on the flight to Korea is another Air Force Spouse on her way to join her husband as Osan AFB too. She too is leaving behind grown children and even grand babies. We both keep reassuring each other that "this will be great", as I'm sure it will be. Bringing into focus how far she and I have come is the young Army wife on our left. She is traveling on her won with a rambunctious five year old and a tired one year old. It seems just like yesterday that I was making that same flight from Germany with our young children. Funny how it always seems that dad has to go ahead and we end up making the trip alone with the kids. I remember flying back from Greece with Garrick when he was a little over two years old. He kept going back to the nice Greek lady on the flight who gave him all kinds of sweet treats. I was too young to know that I could tell her no. Just about the time we were to land in New York to make our connection to Colorado, the candy had its way. Garrick was sick all over both of us. You can imagine how happy anyone was to be sitting next to us right then. I managed to take off the sweater that I had on. Thank goodness for the t-shirt underneath. Being the great mother that I was. I had not packed any extra shirts for baby Garrick. I had lots of pants, but no shirts. So he and I strolled into the US Customs area with Garrick shirtless like a mini body builder. I'll never forget the looks that I got. As soon as I was able to get our suitcase, he was decent again and we were on our way to the next flight.

My First Osan Blog

This Blog is to post about my life here in Korea. It's also for family and friends to be able to see what we are up to. I also like to think that if any Air Force families moving to Korea find this Blog, they will get some good information about what life is like here on Osan AFB. Hope you will forgive any long winded posts in the future. After all this is ultimately for my fun.