Quick Trip

This weekend was our grandma's 94th birthday. So we all packed into the car and drove up to 대천 (Daecheon).
What I expected was a quiet weekend with some family that I don't see very much.
What I got was a loud, fun, exciting, and great weekend.
Our uncle was there with his two boys. The older is around Suah's age, so she had a great time (the loud part of the weekend).
Also, our cousin was there with her 11 month old baby. Cute!
I was able to spend some time with uncle and a cousin Friday night. We went out for some drinks and had some good conversation!
On Saturday, Mijin Suah and I went to the beach (it was too cold for Sujeong). Suah enjoyed the sand and the waves.
Next, we had a great lunch! Some pork and rice. The rice is cooked in a stone bowl and it sticks to the bowl because of the heat. So, you take the rice out of the bowl and pour water in the bowl. As you're eating the meal, the water gets hot in the bowl (its a stone bowl so the heat stays fairly well) and rice comes loose. Thus making a very delicious water rice mix called 누룽지 (nurunggi).
A great weekend!

The waves!

Yay!

With daddy

3/4 of the Stoehr fam

Love u

Seashells!

1 2 3 Go!

With mommy

5 grand kids

4 generation picture

Suah with her cousin, Young-ah

The 누룽지 lunch

Resolutions or Revolutions?

Yesterday we spent the evening with our Aunt and our nieces, Bona and Rosa. We had a great time playing Catan, talking and making our New Year Resolutions... or Revolutions.
Yes, I want to 'resolve' things in my life and I want to make it a better year. I want to do this by 'revolutionizing' my life, not constantly 'resolving.'
A revolution is taking new territory. A revolution is forging new ground. Making a better life. Facing the problems with a smile and welcome as they will teach me how to be a better person the new year.

So, I'm wishing you all a Happy New Revolutionizing Year, 2013!

Deajeon

Got to go on a free trip to Deajeon on Saturday. MiJin had a training seminar, so I went with to take pictures around the area. It was really fun.... and really hot. I was sweating like crazy while trying to get some pictures. I got a great picture of a dragonfly, and the sweat was pouring the whole time. But well worth it!!

Seonamsa Temple



I had a chance to go see another Korean Temple, Seonamsa Temple. It was absolutely beautiful. Here's the pictures:
The big tree is, well, big. Not too big in the diameter, but it stretches straight out. Very cool.
The coins in the tree was pretty cool too. People put coins in the tree for good luck.
And the Monks are pretty chill around there too. I guess that might be obvious beings that it's a Buddhist Temple.
And stacked rocks everywhere. For good luck.
Finally, Mi Jin. She's been my Korean guide... and companion. :)

Went on a great hike yesterday to South Mountain. Pretty drab colors, but absolutely beautiful. Here's a few pictures of the day... with Boomer of course :)

Well, ok. It's been a while since my last update. Sorry about that. Kinda got busy and neglected the old blogspot. But I'm back, HAY!

So the biggest update is... this guy:



Everyone, meet Boomer. He's a Siberian Husky. He's about 4 months old. He's full of energy and a great little puppy!

Here's a few more pics of our hikes and what not:





This last one is Boomer's new riding spot for trips on the bike!



He loves it!


Other than that, I've been loving the teaching and having a great time here. Of course, trying to keep warm right too! But even with trying to stay warm, I still enjoyed making ice-cream with some of my kids:





And finally, I had a chance to go up to Seoul. It was a one day business trip, so we didn't get to do too much. But when you see a giant bull, you have to take your picture with it, right?





And that's an update. Have a great day!

광주

So I had a fun, double Gwangju weekend. I went on my own on Saturday, and met up with some friends later that day. Then I ended up in Gwangju again on Sunday when I went persimmon (감) picking with my boss and her family.

Gwangju is a bigger city about 80 kilometers east of Suncheon. It's an easy, and cheap, 6 dollar trip over there... and tons of shopping. A great get-a-way. I wanted to go over and check out an electronic store they have there. It's 7 or 8 floors of just electronics. I had some fun there looking at new camera gear and dreaming about what I wanted. I also found the Nikon shop, where they clean the cameras. When I finally figured out that they did clean camera, I decided to get mine cleaned. So I handed my baby over to the lady, gave her 10 bucks, and was told to come back in 20 mins. A little nerve racking. But it's clean... and it's a fraction of the cost in the states.

The second half of the weekend was spent picking persimmons. Very interesting. We used a few methods to get the persimmons:

1- A bamboo stick that was cut at the end. You stick it on the branch and twist. Persimmon picked.

2- A metal rod with branch cutters and a net on the end. You snip the branch, persimmon falls into the net. Persimmon picked.

3- Cut the branch off the tree. Persimmon picked.

It was a ton of fun. I got to hang out with my boss and her family. It was also the hardest day of work I've had since coming to Korea.