What We've Been Up To

West/An Tir War 2013

2013-07-10T08:51:00.003+09:00

We just got back from the annual war between the Kingdom of the West (most of California) and the Kingdom of An Tir (Oregon and up). While fighting I noticed a remote control helicopter, which I thought was odd at a medieval event, but then someone explained that there was a camera mounted on it, allowing footage to be taken of the fighting without worrying about getting accidentally injured. How cool! They've just posted the footage on YouTube, and I thought some of you might be interested to see. (By the way, you can even catch a glimpse of our green and white striped tent. It appears in the bottom left corner at 2:17 and slides quickly across the bottom of the screen.)

Ouch

2012-08-17T23:49:00.003+09:00

Today Haley and I went to the beach with my friend and her son. She and I put on our SPF 45 waterproof sunscreen at home, so it would have lots of time to soak in before we went swimming. When we got there, the weather was lovely -- nice and overcast (though still hot). Because it was a much less popular beach on a weekday, there weren't too many people :) We were there for maybe two hours total. And, like I said, it was overcast for most of that time. Alas, 45 times my natural sun protection is still zero :(

You mean that's not a bird?!

2012-08-15T16:08:00.000+09:00

So when we first moved to Korea, I thought they had the noisiest, crappiest power lines on the face of the planet. Then I found out that that terrible, incessant noise was made by insects, not the power lines. We don't have cicadas where I'm from, but they're these big bugs, kind of like giant grasshoppers. They make a whirring, droning noise that is louder the hotter it is. They can also fly, and I've woken up a couple of times in the middle of the night because Hooligan was going nuts trying to get the cicada taunting her from the other side of the window screen.

What I didn't realize is the sheer variety of noises that cicadas make. Most of the noises I've thought were birds have, in fact, been cicadas. Here, listen for yourself to the cicada in this tree (and his friends in neighboring trees...)

Hallelujah!

2012-08-15T13:40:00.000+09:00

The principal and owners apparently didn't know that not everybody has airconditioning. After a certain amount of debate, guess what?!

Yup, we have our very own airconditioner! I had to move the TV, and I'm not sure what to do with it now that I can't stuff it in the corner... But anyhow, woohoo! I ran it for 4 hours last night, and cooled the apartment off to 79˚ (and dried the air out too!). It was lovely :) I have no idea how much it costs to run though, so I'm going to save it for when I'm desperate.

Oddly enough, the unit comes in two parts. The upright part in the living room and the big box that lives on the back porch and blows hot air out the screen door.

Beating the heat

2012-07-28T16:11:00.001+09:00

Between packing for my business trip to Hong Kong and getting ready for tonight's dinner party, we made time to come down to the river. The water has warmed up a lot in the last week; it was pretty cold right after the big storm, but now the reservoir has been warming in the sun. Haley is finding litter to remove from the river.

Heating Up

2012-07-26T14:54:00.001+09:00

Current temperature: 88 F (31 C)

Heat index: 99 F (37 C)

Yuck :p

Marilynn's Visit to Korea (Guest Post)

2012-07-04T08:39:00.000+09:00

Shortly after I got to Korea we went up to Seoul for four days. We were visiting some SCA friends of Meg's at Osan Air Base, so stayed in a hotel they recommended in the bar district just outside the Osan Main Gate. Here is Meg with a street vendor just outside the main gate:

I was a little unsure about the hotel when I heard it was in "the bar district," but it turned out to be really nice and had a beautiful swimming pool that Meg and I had all to ourselves at ten in the morning:

We stayed there for two days then took the subway 1 1/2 hours north (still in Seoul, which is a huge city of 10 1/2 million) to a chic hotel in the center of Seoul that even had a bidet with seats that would heat up and many options for spraying various parts of one's bottom that I was not quite up to trying:

While in Seoul we went up in the Seoul Tower. Here is a shot of it as we were climbing up to it and another of Seoul from the observation deck of the tower:

While in Seoul we also visited the Changdeokgung Palace, which dates from 1405. Here is Meg in the palace and me in front of the main gate:

My favorite part of the visit was back in Busan just hanging out with Meg and Haley, cooking, eating, talking, and poking about their neighborhood:

We visited the Old Market near their apartment. Here are fresh fish and eels and fresh vegetables for sale in the market:

Busan is a metropolitan city of 2 1/2 million. Here is a view towards the waterfront taken from the top of Meg and Haley's 25-story apartment building:

But it is also a very green city; especially in Haeundae, Meg and Haley's part of the city, there were many walking paths shaded by trees and decorated with rock gardens and flowers. Meg and I enjoyed taking the paths just to see where they would lead. There are also playgrounds and exercise parks on almost every block:

Meg had long wanted to follow the path beside the river behind her apartment complex uphill to the mountain beyond. Here are some photos from that climb:

Meg and I also walked to Haeundae Beach. Though it was a blustery day with a storm coming in, I dipped my toes in this side of the Pacific just to be able to say I had and Meg actually got in with her bathing suit:

Afterwards, we walked to a traditional Korean spa near the beach. We were the only Caucasians in the spa. It was a women-only naked spa and it was clear to the rest of the women that we didn't know the protocol, but they were very welcoming and helpful to us (I think partially because they could see that we were a mother and daughter together.) One scrubbed down very, very clean in showers before entering the spa area where there were soaking pools from very, very hot to very cool and saunas of varying temperatures. It was clear that it was a place for female bonding, with all ages from little toddlers to grannies so stooped over they needed to be helped to walk. Meg loved it and would have stayed the whole four hours allowed if I hadn't tired of it sooner.

On one of my last days, we went with Haley to Shingesae, proclaimed by the Guinness Book of Records to be the largest department store in the world:

And then we spent an hour at the karaoke studio Haley and her friends like to sing at:

It was altogether a wonderful visit!

Holy crud

2012-05-11T00:20:00.001+09:00

So for Haley's birthday, I made brownies (from scratch!) in muffin cups to take to school to share with her class. For her party, she's having 4 girls over. They'll go to a karaoke room right after school, and then come home for pizza and girly stuff. I'm making a veggie tray with spinach onion dip, possibly guacamole, and ordering pizza. Oh yeah, and the cake... Korean cakes taste weird, so I made one for her. From scratch. Oh my goodness... Chocolate sour cream cake, with peanut butter frosting and chocolate ganache. Here it is in our fridge:

Assuming I don't drop it or some other catastrophe, I'll try to take a couple of photos tomorrow with the candle... :)

Anyhow, this cake was a pain in the butt to make, but if it tastes half as good as I think it will*, it's totally worth the effort a couple of times a year :)

* Of course I licked my fingers a couple of times, but I haven't gotten to taste all the components (cake, frosting, ganache) at the same time...

Location:Jwa 3(sam)-dong,Busan,South Korea

If you say so...

2012-04-22T01:30:00.001+09:00

Today I went back for my 3 day checkup. I feel a lot better. I'm still snotty and coughing, but my incipient sinus infection is gone. I'm a little sick, but I'm not dragging around feeling exhausted and with that overall achy feeling. So yay for Korean drugs :)

My doctor decided to change my prescription, since I'd responded so well. He said he was removing some medicine and adding some cough medicine.

Growing up, I was a fairly sickly kid. Seems like I caught just about every bug that came around. So I took antibiotics a few times a year for the whole time I was growing up. And every time, the family doctor would lecture me that even if I felt better, I still had to finish all my antibiotics so that I wouldn't create drug resistant germs.

So I asked the Korean doctor if I had been on antibiotics, and if it was ok to stop after only 3 days. After a discussion clarifying the meaning of "antibiotics", he said it was ok to stop. I relayed my childhood doctor's instructions, but he assured me that since my illness had been so slight, I didn't need to take antibiotics anymore**. Ok... If you say so... I just hope my sinus infection doesn't come back resistant to that antibiotic. Meanwhile, I can hear Dr. John protesting in my mind's ear...

I also told him that the medicine packets made me silly, and asked if he could give me something with fewer side effects. He said he'd try, but I got the impression that anything that's effective is going to make me loopy.

** Koreans don't wear seatbelts either, which seems to trigger the same sort of "Uh oh, I'm breaking the rules!" instinct in me. The seatbelts in the back seat of most Korean taxis don't even work, so I usually try to sit up front. If I don't wear a seatbelt, I have a nagging, "something's wrong" feeling, and the last thing I need is added anxiety while I'm watching my driver perform death-defying maneuvers in Korean traffic.

High As A Kite

2012-04-19T22:15:00.000+09:00

I've been battling a cold for the last week, but it started turning in to a sinus infection. So... time to go to the doctor. I hadn't been to the doctor yet in Korea, so it was an experience for me. The receptionist spoke no English, and my Korean is very minimal. She asked for my alien ID card and my insurance card. Then she spent a looong time looking up my insurance information on the computer, and asked me to call my work so she could talk to them. Twice. Finally, the doctor came out to tell me (he spoke some English) that my insurance wasn't in the system so they couldn't help me. At that moment, the receptionist found my information**. So I did get to see the doctor. After the most cursory examination I've *ever* had (he stuck a metal popsicle stick in my mouth and asked me to say "Ah" and then asked me a few questions - total time, 5 minutes) he sent me to a back room where I got a shot. At the time I thought it was antibiotics, but my coworkers later told me it was just vitamins. Then I took my prescription to the pharmacy downstairs where the pharmacist (the doctor's brother) prepared my medicines. Holy crap. You know those pill containers older people use to keep track of their daily medication? Korean pharmacists make these little plastic packets for you that are a lot like those. Except I had a packet of pills 3 times a day.

Yes, this is only 3 days worth of medication.***

So when I got home I cooked dinner and took my first dose. After dinner I basically passed out on my bed. The plan had been to do a little grading, but the minute I was horizontal it was lights out. This was not a bad thing; I'd been having trouble sleeping because of my cough, so it was a relief to get a good night's sleep. The next day I took my morning packet and went to work. Hmmm... I feel... funny...

At lunch I took my afternoon packet. My next class was Algebra 2. About halfway through the class, I thought to myself, "Oh yes. I think those drugs have hit my bloodstream. I can feel waves of drugs in my brain. My face tingles. If I close my eyes, I can feel the earth rotating. Yes, I am as high as a kite. And I have to teach Algebra..."

And that has been my introduction to medicine in Korea.

** I was inclined to be cranky about it when I was talking with my Korean coworker the next day, but she explained that she has the same problem with her sons, as they have English names. Apparently, translating English names into Korean is pretty nebulous. So when your name is entered into the system (and it has to be written in Korean) it is up to the person doing the data entry how to sound out your name. Which can be pretty comical, and makes finding your information later a crapshoot.

*** BTW, the total cost for my doctor's visit and prescription? About $8.

My Bed 2

2012-04-04T00:34:00.003+09:00

I forgot to post a photo of my other set of bedding! Here's my blue bedding. Hooligan says Hi :)

Warmer Weather

2012-04-02T18:50:00.000+09:00

The weather has gotten so much warmer that I decided not to wear my long underwear for my triumphant return to school after the spring break. I guess the school agreed with me; the central heating was shut off. *shiver*

Crockpot “Hollandaise” Roast Chicken :)

2012-04-01T20:00:00.000+09:00

I made this for dinner tonight... I was skeptical, but it turned out great! And it was really easy, too :)

Crockpot “Hollandaise” Roast Chicken

http://littlehouseinthesuburbs.com/2012/03/crockpot-hollandaise-roast-chicken.html

Ingredients:

one hen, icky gibblet bag removed

salt (and/or preferred seasoning blend)

Aluminum foil

3-6 egg YOLKS

1-2T lemon juice

pinch salt

possible extra slosh of olive oil or wad of butter if you can have it

Directions:

1. Place rinsed, dried hen in crockpot, breast side up, on a big enough wad of aluminum foil to keep it off the bottom, but not touching the top. Season well with salt and/or seasoning blend. (We like creole seasoning!)

2. Heat on low for, six hours, then crank to high for last hour. (Or you can do the reverse, I think. It’s just to crisp the outside.)

3. Remove chicken and allow to rest.

4. Pour “drippin’s” through a sieve to remove big yuck flakes. Eyeball how much it is. (Different chickens give off different amounts of liquid.)

5. Place not-scalding-hot drippin’s in a medium saucepan.

6. For every one cup of liquid, beat together three yolks and a tablespoon of lemon juice.

7. Add egg mixture to not-scalding-totally-make-poached-eggs-immediately drippin’s and beat.

8. Doubt that there is enough fat in there to emulsify properly, and slosh in a glug of olive oil or dump in a few pats of butter. (I can’t have butter.)

9. Heat on medium-low, whipping constantly, until thickened.

10. Taste, adjust seasoning (remember all that seasoning you put on the hen before you cooked her before you try to salt it again.)

Serve over chicken….it’s HEAVEN.

YUM!!!!

Bread

2012-03-30T19:16:00.000+09:00

So I finished the last day of school before spring break, and on the way home I stop by Paris Baguette to pick up some bread since we were out.

Holy crap, I was just there 2 days ago!!! Where do I get my bread now??? So I got some bread from the corner store as an emergency measure, but it was only so so. And bread here in Korea is already not so great so...

I decided to learn how to bake bread. I've been making my own bread for years, ever since I got my first bread machine back in college, but I've never made bread by hand before.

After reading around on the internet, I made the New York Times No Knead Bread. It made a nice looking, rustic loaf :) As promised it had a crunchy crust and a holey crumb.

However, Haley and I decided we didn't really like our crust that crunchy. So I found an alteration of that recipe: The Cook's Illustrated Almost No Knead Bread.

We also wanted our bread to be a sandwich loaf, rather than a round boule, so I bought a loaf pan (for the low, low price of $19! Yeah, that's Korea...)

Result: Yay!!! Yummy sandwich bread at home :) I made a white loaf and then a whole wheat loaf, and both turned out well. Softer crust, finer crumb... And tasty :) Here's a photo of the remains of our whole wheat loaf (it used to be rather larger!)

Oh, and it turns out Paris Baguette is just being renovated; they'll be back in business on the 6th :)

Avocados

2012-03-20T09:11:00.001+09:00

Dinner last night was baked potato wedges, toast, and herb cheese omelet. With AVOCADO. We haven't had any avocados for a long time, and last night's avocado was delicious :)

Location:Jwa 3(sam)-dong,Busan,South Korea

Salmon Dinner

2012-03-14T21:35:00.001+09:00

I was complaining to my Korean coworker about the stupid, bony little fish they eat here, and how sad I was when I cooked fish for dinner and we got bones in every bite. She explained that in a Korean family, the mom cooks the fish and then *picks through it with chopsticks*, removing the bones for everyone in the family. No, really. Happily, a Canadian coworker overheard our conversation and mentioned that Emart has salmon fillets for sale. Oh yeah! When I bought the fillets, the fish monger explained that it was imported from Chile. Wow. Anyhow, tonight's (very late) dinner: teriyaki marinated salmon, rice, and broccoli. :)

Location:Jwa-dong,Busan,South Korea

They're not kidding...

2012-03-03T21:07:00.002+09:00

No joke, this recipe really does make the Absolute Best Pancake Syrup!

Makes: 2 1/2 cups of syrup

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup buttermilk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon corn syrup or honey

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

* buttermilk substitute

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 cup milk (less 1 tbsp)

Directions:

Bring butter, sugar, buttermilk, vanilla extract, corn syrup, and cinnamon to a simmer in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Once simmering, whisk in baking soda. It will foam up quite a bit; whisk and cook for 5 more minutes or so (till the foam is mostly gone) before removing from heat. Serve warm.

Notes:

If you don't have buttermilk, measure 1 tbsp lemon juice into 1 cup and fill the rest of the way with milk.

The milk will curdle as the mixture boils. Don't worry -- it'll be fine after you whisk it :)

The syrup will thicken as it cools, so make it up before you start cooking your pancakes and it will be perfect by the time you need it :)

Good News, Bad News, Annoying

2012-02-29T20:00:00.000+09:00

We finally went down to the cell phone store to look into getting a cell phone for Haley. Since I already have a plan, and Haley is under 13, they have a special deal. For only 10,000 ₩ a month (less than $10), Haley would get unlimited incoming calls, 300 minutes to call me, and 66 minutes to call anyone else (her friends). When the minutes are gone, they're gone, so she can't rack up a big phone bill. Crazy awesome, right?! That's the good news. The bad news is that in order to get the family plan, we have to prove that we're family. Having the same last name and looking alike isn't enough (there are only a few family names in Korea, and all waygookin look alike), nor are my guardianship papers. So we have to go to the immigration office and get the official Certificate of Family. Which will probably be a good thing to have, but I wish I'd heard about it earlier (this summer, for example, when I had to be at the immigration office anyhow). The Immigration Office, being a government office, is only open from 9am to 4pm. Nor are they open on holidays. So Haley's cell phone will have to wait until spring break, which is only 2 weeks off. The annoying? That would be the explicit, non-refundable foreigner fee we have to pay to get a cell phone. The idea is that they pool those fees to pay the cell phone bills of those foreigners who skip out on their bills. One the one hand, I guess it makes sense... On the other hand, it's pretty prejudiced :( Still, even with the fee, it's a better deal than I've ever heard of for a kid's cell phone :)

European Home Ec.

2012-02-25T22:20:00.000+09:00

I have two tricks that I've picked up in the last couple of years that are super awesome and I wish I'd learned them earlier!

1. Duvet + Duvet cover rather than flat sheet + blankets. Holy smokes!!!

Time to wash my sheets? Wash the pillowcases, fitted sheet, and duvet cover. The comforter stays clean because it's wrapped in the duvet cover, safe from dirt. Before, when I had a flat sheet and blankets, I washed the sheets every week or two but the blankets? Maybe twice a year. And since sometimes I'd kick the flat sheet to the foot of the bed and wake up wrapped in my blankets... Yeah, now that I think about it that's kinda gross. The duvet cover is like a giant pillowcase, so you can't kick it off without losing the whole duvet. There's a trick to putting it back on quickly and easily: wash the duvet cover inside out. Then you stick your arms inside the bottom opening of the duvet cover and grab the top corners with your hands. Then just shake the duvet cover down over the duvet :)

Time to make the bed in the morning? Nothing simpler! Throw the pillow to the top of the bed from where ever it's migrated to. Grab the duvet. Shake it a couple of times and then throw it onto the bed. Elapsed time: 30 seconds :)

2. Measure by weight rather than volume when cooking.

This is amazing. Get a digital kitchen scale. They cost about $30, and are *totally worth it*. Put your mixing bowl on the scale, and turn it on. The scale will ignore the bowl and read 0. Add your ingredients by weight (you can google how much a cup of something should weigh, or just measure it one last time and weigh it), and zero the scale between ingredients. You don't have to use measuring cups, so there are fewer dishes. You don't have to worry about whether your flour is properly sifted or your brown sugar is properly packed. Recipes are much more consistant, and did I mention the part about fewer dishes???

Night Owls

2012-02-25T10:30:00.000+09:00

Last night I got the urge to make chocolate chip cookies. I had the flour all measured out and the butter melting on the stove when I realized that I didn't have enough eggs. Aarrrgh! So I set out to see if the corner store was open to pick up some eggs. Open? Yes. Eggs? No. But the bigger store two doors down was *also* open. At 11:30PM. *grin*

Cellier des Dauphins

2012-02-24T22:30:00.000+09:00

Upshot: meh...

Cost: less than $10

Notes: major points for being a *grape* wine, but definitely not a fantastic one. Kinda sour, kinda thin. However, better than several I've had in the last few
Months, and cheaper. Overall, an ok cheap wine, but not something I would serve to guests.

Location:Jwa-dong,Busan,South Korea

My Bed

2012-02-20T09:23:00.001+09:00

I was remaking my bed this morning after changing my sheets (juggling laundry when everything has to hang dry in the winter is an adventure) when I realized I'd never posted any pics of my fitted sheets that I made. Well, actually, I never finished them, so I have really big flat sheets that I tuck under all the way around. They work just fine, and look fairly snazzy :) Here's the purple set; next time I change my sheets I'll try to post a photo of the blue set (don't hold your breath; winter has me on a much longer sheet-changing cycle).

Location:Jwa 3(sam)-dong,Busan,South Korea

Geoge Island

2012-02-19T18:30:00.000+09:00

Today Haley and I took the subway halfway across town to meet up with the family of a couple of my students. They're originally from Poland and have been here for seven years. They have a car, so are able to travel places that can't be reached by public transit. We all piled in, including the dog, and drove forever to get to a place called Geoge Island, to the southeast of Busan.

The land around there has lots of waterways, so first we drive over a few bridges. However, instead of a bridge one section has a tunnel; a concrete tube lying on the floor of the bay. My photos didn't turn out; one tunnel looks the same as another :p

The big attraction of the island was walking the dog on the beach; it's deserted enough to let him off the leash for a while.

Korean beaches aren't very warm in February though, so we didn't stay more than an hour. Then we went out to lunch at some all-you-can-eat place where you pick out raw meat from a buffet and bring it back to the table to fry there. It was pretty good; Haley and I both ate a lot of meat :) Then back to town, where they showed me some good places to shop, including the "secret" bakers supply stores :) After parting from them, we hopped onto the subway to get as close to Costco as we could before taking a taxi the rest of the way. Hundreds of dollars later, we took a taxi home and put away our groceries. Dinner tonight? Brie and donuts! Super healthy :)

Deviled Eggs and Strawberry Pie

2012-02-05T15:58:00.001+09:00

This weekend I made deviled eggs and strawberry pie. The deviled eggs turned out great. I used lemon juice instead of the vinegar and I like it so well I think I'll use lemon juice from now on. Here's the original recipe:

Deviled Eggs

Servings: 12

Ingredients:

6 eggs
1/4 cup mayonnaise (1.8 oz, 51 g)
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard (.07 oz, 2 g)
1/8 teaspoon salt
paprika

Directions:

Put eggs into a pot of cold water and bring to a boil. Let boil for one minute, then cover tightly, remove from heat, and let sit for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, use cold water to chill the eggs as quickly as possible, to avoid a green ring.

Halve hard-cooked eggs lengthwise; remove yolks and mash. Use back of spoon to completely pulverize chunks. Add mayo, mustard, salt, and vinegar and mix. Hand mixer may be necessary for double batch. Refill whites with yolk mixture; sprinkle paprika on top to taste.

Hint: if you're taking your deviled eggs to a potluck, put the filling into a Ziploc bag. When you get there, cut the corner off of the bag and use it to pipe the filling into the eggs (like frosting).

Source: Better Homes & Gardens; alterations by Marilynn and Meg Claypool.

My strawberry pie was less successful. The crust turned out great, but the filling was not so excellent. My crust recipe is here:

http://mobile.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/07/easy-pie-dough-recipe.html

It's by another of those fantastic "cooking as science" not just art chefs I love. He has an article about why the crust works the way it does here:

http://mobile.sweets.seriouseats.com/2011/07/the-food-lab-the-science-of-pie-how-to-make-pie-crust-easy-recipe.html

I think I may have mentioned this recipe before, but it's so awesome that it bears repeating :)

Now I have to go score about a million midterm exams in time to turn in grades in two days :p

Holy crap, it's cold!

2012-02-02T08:28:00.001+09:00

Walking to school this morning, we agreed it was pretty damn cold. Haley said it was below freezing, but I disagreed... Turns out she was right. It's about 15˚F outside right now!!! This is definitely the coldest weather I've ever been in. My face hurts, my nose runs, my eyes water... Still way better than the summer though. I think I'll go buy us some scarves this weekend :)