Welcome Baby Nathan!

We are an aunt and uncle again! Welcome baby Nathan! Congrats Jason and Jackie!

Fashion

While we love Korea for many reasons, one aspect that we can't stand is how superficial it can be sometimes. When I dress up, I still feel under dressed compared to the girls here. Everyone seems so formal all the time! Fashion seems so overdone compared to what I'm used to. Clothes have sparkles and shiny pieces and ruffles and frills everywhere! These wedding dresses are just a glimpse of these extra frills that aren't so common back home!

Another cultural difference that we laugh at all the time is how girls appear to be so conceited. Back home, people may secretly try to check themselves out in a mirror, but usually the more intense fix-ups are done in private. In Korea it's acceptable to look at yourself in a mirror for like 20 minutes and it happens all the time! There are mirrors everywhere and people seem to always be fixing hair, make-up and clothes. I know we're geeks, but this is entertainment on our bus rides- it's really hilarious!

American Thanksgiving!

One of the perks of being in an international crowd is that we celebrate all different kinds of special occasions. We've had 3 Thanksgiving celebrations this fall. The picture is the latest one from American Thanksgiving at our church. It was one of the biggest feasts I've ever seen!

We're coming up on Christmas here and I think it's going to be a hard one. We aren't reminded that it's Christmas much until we go shopping or when we think that it's almost December! The stores are happy to promote and celebrate the holiday because it brings them business. I think we're going to have to work on the 25^th and we've never been away from family for this long or for special occasions like this. We know it's good to try to establish our own family traditions, but it's still really hard. We're past the 6 month mark and on the way down now. Crazy!

Korea's got Seoul

This past term Blake and I have had Wednesdays off together and we've tried to make the most of our time touring around and taking in the sights. Two weeks ago we decided to make the trip to Seoul which is the capital of South Korea. Seoul is actually where we arrived in Korea off the plane and also where we stayed for a week in training. Life has taken on a rhythm here and we're getting busier, continuously feeling more confident and sometimes forget how much we've learned. We sometimes have trouble remembering all the bumps and hassles of adjusting when we first arrived, but going to Seoul was like a trip down memory lane. While riding the subway in Seoul, we had a flash back to that first week when we didn't know how to make our subway cards work. We tried all the buttons, but the meter wouldn't let us out. There was a man working in a booth nearby and he was rolling his eyes at us and yelling something in Korea. It was pretty frustrating at the time, until we noticed that we were simply trying to exit through the 'enter' meter. Needless to say, we felt really dumb, 'stupid foreigners.' :) After that incident we didn't want to ride the subway much for fear of not being able to find our way back. This time, we were transferring and going all over the place! I guess we should take heed knowing that pride comes before a stumble- and we definitely don't want another toaster oven incident! ;)

While we were walking downtown, we stumbled across a Buddhist temple. This religion is huge in Korea and it seemed so odd to see people bowing down in front of these statues- not really something we see much of back home. You can't really get the full idea from the pictures of how big these Buddha's were. Absolutely massive! For those of you who don't know Blake well, he can be a bit of a bull in china shop in certain delicate situations ;) He kept wanting to get pictures of himself giving Buddha the thumbs down sign and talk to the monks- even though they don't speak English. At one point I turned around to see him (without thinking) 'hork' on the 'holy' ground. I thought we were going to get kicked out or put in jail!

While leaving, Blake gave some money to a beggar just outside of the temple and said 'Jesus' to him, but I don't think he understood. Sometimes it can be really frustrating to not be able to speak freely with anyone we want to.

Fall in Korea

Blake and I have been enjoying the weather these last few weeks here in Korea. The colours on the trees have been brilliant and the season has lasted a lot longer than what we're used to back home. We're coming up on December and we usually only need a light jacket during the day. I'm loving it! A few weeks ago Blake and I took a walk up a nearby mountain and took some pictures of the sights.

Farewell Gavin!

The time has finally come for us to say goodbye to CDI with Gavin. We are so sad because Gavin has become such a great friend over these past few months. He has helped us adjust to Korea in countless ways and will definitely be missed! He is currently travelling Europe for the next 40 days and then will come back in November to start his Masters in Seoul.

Jeju Island

The night before we left for Jeju, Blake could hardly contain his excitement and kept getting up out of bed thinking of things to do. He reminded me of a kid the night before Christmas! At 2am in the morning, he had the random thought of 'which countries were the biggest in the world in order from 1-10' and simply could not wait til a later time to find the answer!

Our flight to Jeju was great; aside from the rough landing. Jeju is absolutely beautiful! It's so warm and tropical with palm trees and great fruit! Our mission for our 3 day vacation was to make our way around the entire island and see as much of it as we could.

There was a lot of seafood that we weren't so keen on and we had a pretty hilarious experience (although not so hilarious at the time!) at one restaurant we went to. We thought we were getting pretty good at Korean when it comes to ordering food. We sat down at this restaurant and ordered Korean barbq, but the waitress came back with pork that had flesh and black pig hair still on it! We were horrified, but apparently it's a delicacy in Jeju. When it came to paying for the meal, we were told it cost $27! Normally Korean barbq costs around $10. Blake stood there holding his open wallet with a dumbfounded look on his face. I thought he was going to have a temper tantrum right there in the restaurant. Fortunately there was a Baskin Robbins nearby where we could get some good ice cream. Blake saved some money by ordering us 1 big bowl of ice cream instead of two small bowls and was able to save some money. For those who know Blake, swinging any sort of deal makes him happy and he was partly appeased about the expensive, uneaten, hairy pig! Here's a picture of it!

We found some really cute little motels to stay in while we were there that cost about $30 a night. One of the highlights for us was to get up early one morning and climb a mountain to watch the sun rise. It was so neat that we were some of the first people to see the sun that morning. Absolutely breathtaking- God of wonders!

We bought some Jeju cactus chocolate to share with anyone who is interested in coming to visit us!