Chicken & Chelada

So, here we are again, finally. I'm going to start off with some current events. Things happening right now, as I write!

Okay, necessary background. I keep a file on my computer called "music testers". This is where I keep all the new tracks I pick up. Random tracks that indie artists throw out for free, sometimes free domain stuff. Anyway, I happened to have the Benny Hill Theme song in my testers. (Sometimes tracks just end up in there). I also happen to like to spend time listening to tester music while I'm blogging. I can decide if I want to integrate the music into my permanent files or if I want to junk it. So, here I am, waiting for pictures to upload and listening to tester tunes. The Benny Hill theme comes on at the exact same time that Ampersand starts madly dashing about the apartment. Belly laughs were had by me.

I so miss Benny Hill: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spz8_rpE0e0

Perhaps the story was funnier if you were there? So many of them are. I think that's just the nature of the damned things.

Speaking of Amper...

Awwwww! Wasn't that cute?

Anyway, I know we've been a little lax in the blogging. It been, what, eight days? Well, as we slip into the day-to-day more and more, things are less interesting. Perhaps I'll just have to get creative and make up some interesting adventures for us to "have went on"? ;)

Well, that's not the case today. We've had a bit of fun and adventure lately, so Ive a bit to write on about.

First though....


AWWWWWWWW! Sleepy Lola!

I don't believe I mentioned it before, but my wonderful sister has sent me a couple goodie boxes. She's sent me many things that just don't exist here (outside of the military bases). We got refried beans, pretzels, non-generic (ie bland) pasta sauce, FRANKS RED HOT, cat toys, ect...

Well, for Easter she sent us a big box of candies with all my favorites! Grandma pitched in too. I don't think jelly beans exist around here, let alone spice ones :) So, our days have been joyfully sugary as we allow ourselves tiny rations of candy. Mel's mom also sent us some candy which Melissa is ungraciously keeping all to herself.

We finally found a toaster oven. 74,000w (ie $55 or so). It has quickly become the joy of our lives. Real food is now easily made in our kitchen. Botana has returned to our rotation. I can now, theoretically, make a lasagna. Melissa fries can return to the oven rather than the frying pan.

Life is good....



Oh joyous BOTANA!! For those who don't know, it's glorified nachos. I believe botana is actually a Mexican food though, rather than most of our American bastardizations. Corn tortilla chips, top with refried beans and shredded Munster cheese. Bake in the oven for 5-7 minutes at 500 degrees. Once it's out, top with lettuce, onion, peppers, sour cream, and salsa or other veggies to your liking.

Since Koreans don't seem to eat cheese, (outside of on pizza), we have to settle for mozzarella. A small concession. Although I must say, cheese is super expensive here. 8oz of shredded mozzarella is around 7,000w.

Cthulhu demands you keep reading.

Lola doesn't seem to care.

Or maybe she's hoping that her overwhelming cuteness will urge you further on your journey?

Okay, so let's actually talk about stuff! Monday was crappy and Tuesday was too long. Wednesday was really horrible. However, we had a nice appointment for Wednesday. We met up with a few of our fellow English teachers for dinner at Uncle Tomato, an Italian joint. Food was decent (I had lasagna) and didn't break our wallets. Afterward we grabbed a couple of beers. We followed that up with bowling.

There was no beer at the bowling alley. That was weird. I've been told that they're not really cool about you bringing in your own either. Seems counter-productive. I can't get over 100 unless I've been drinking for a while. Bowling was fun though.

The highlight was when a Korean gent came down and started frantically talking to one of our group. The gist was that one of his fellow bowlers was real hardcore and wanted to make sure that no one was actually on any of the lanes while he was bowling. That's pretty hardcore right there...

Thursday passed by pretty nicely. Thursday night we caught dinner with Il-kyu and Mel's co-teacher Jennifer. We had the Galbi that Mel loves more than life itself. We also had like three or four bottles of Soju between the four of us.

After that we took them over to Time to Time. More drinks ensued. Mel had a lot more Soju. Eventually the night came to a close. He left the bar and noticed Baskin Robins was still open. We grabbed a scoop each and parted ways off into the night.

The funny part? Mel didn't remember having said ice cream. She was soooooo sad! :D

Very early Friday morning (ie 2:30) I awoke with killer heartburn. The pills the k-pharmacist gave me didn't do anything for the next few hours. Needless to say, I didn't get a lot of sleep. Thankfully Friday is my light day for classes. After the first was over I just closed my room up and put my head down on my desk for a light doze.

After lunch I was still exhausted. I was trying to power through though. We had a teachers' class around 2:30, but joyfully it was canceled. Il-kyu was aware of my situation and encouraged me to go lay down in the health-care room. Off I went! So that's how I got to take a nap in a nice warm bed on a Friday afternoon, while at work :D

Damn! Sometimes these things take forever to type! I should do this more often and spread it out a bit, ay? ;)

Saturday we were invited to Incheon. A couple of our teacher friends were heading out there for a BBQ. Incheon is nearly a two hour train ride, but it sounded like a blast, so we decided to go. We met one of our friends and a couple military guys he knew (from Songtan). Off we went!

The woman who's home we were invited to works for a pharmaceutical company. She lives on the 20th floor of a really nice apartment building. Four bedrooms, two baths, three fridges, damn I need to get into that line of work! :D The place also had a loft and roof access!



That's what it looks like from up there! Pretty nice, ay?

All the people were wonderful and we had an absolute blast! We were graciously offered a place to stay, so there was no worry of getting back to Osan on the fly. A great time was had by all!

The next day, (Sunday for the chronologically challenged), we had planned to head into central Seoul for a festival. A couple of the party goers tagged along and off we went again!

This is what a Korean subway platform looks like. Nothing really exciting to see here.

This is the first, and only, time we've been in an empty subway train! They're always so full. We were, however, at the end of a line! That was nice because we had a guaranteed seat! :)

Just another look at the emptiness. However, you can get a nice look at the k-subway too.

Oh yeah rather than continually say the "korean _____" I've decided to just switch to saying the "k-_____" seems a lot easier.

So, the festival we were going to? It was the Lotus Lantern Festival in celebration of Buddha's 2,253rd birthday! Neat, huh?


These shots are just to give you a little idea of how large the crowds were. They were pretty darn thick :)

I have no idea what's going on here. It seemed to be some kind of dental van, but I don't know if they were advertising or offering dental services. Either way, that tooth is adorable!

Some performers on the central stage. They were chanting.

And here's a little better look.

The building on the left (not the brick one) is the Samsung building. It's huge (it keeps going up a ways out of the picture) and has some interesting architecture.

People crafting paper lotus lanterns, for free! More on that later.

I think this was about making Buddha drawings. I don't quite remember. This wasn't yet the exciting stuff.
Awwww!

Okay, now we're getting somewhere. The colors you can see are approximately a billiondy paper lanterns. They have been assembled so that words can be seen from a high aerial view (which we didn't have). The temple can also be seen towards the top of the picture.


Cute little Buddha mascots! :)

Here's those lanterns as we approached. It was absolutely gorgeous! So pretty as all the light was filtered into so many colors as it passed through.
This is the temple on our first approach. It's not entirely visible as the whole roof is out of shot.

Okay, let me just preface the temple. You know that when something is so amazing that it fills you with absolute awe, it is said to be awesome. We use this word all the time, quite casually in fact. However, this was the first time I've even seen a sight that fit the word so wholly.


The temple was absolutely awesome. The pictures don't do it justice. I don't mean in that in the cliche way either. The pictures don't even scratch the surface of being inside this temple. It was beautiful and warm. It is way up high on the list of things I'm glad I have had a chance to see in life. If you're even in Korea....





Detailed pictures of the outside of the temple, so you can see how intricate it really is. And that is one of the little elephant statues at the top of the steps!


Sigh, I wish I could describe the amazement of being there. Maybe through the power of the edit Mel will be able to interject some further description. :)

Speak of the devil! (It's a sausage wrapped in an egg).
**Mel edit: it was not egg, it was kind of a weird batter. It was pretty tasty but one irritating point about Korea is that trash cans are placed sporadically around the cities, if you can find any at all, so I ended up carrying that wooden stick around looking for a trash. I was NOT about to throw it on the ground like everyone else does!!**

Gu Jun Pyo! I have no idea what the actor's name actually is, but he plays a character named Gu Jun Pyo on Mel's favorite k-show, Boys Over Flowers. **His real name is Lee Min Ho and he is cute!**

I think those Sumos are a little too absorbed having not noticed the tiger about to pounce on them.




Tiger with an Opium pipe and a very bold rabbit.

Here's some crabs in a tank outside of a restraunt on our way home (in Osan).

Oh yeah, eventually we left the festival. There was a parade later in the evening, but we didn't stay. It was an hour and a half train ride from Seoul to Osan and we were pretty beat. We did stop in the bookstore in Jongmak station. It was a huge bookstore with a really large English section. Mel got a book on Korean and I got The Ruins by Scott Smith (good so far). Then we headed home.


Oh yeah! Mel made one of the lanterns. It's very pretty, but was very time consuming to make. Plus, by the time she was doing it, there wasn't much paper left, and very few colors.

And that about catches us up to today. I decided to take a couple shots on my way home so you could see how green things have gotten. Look at all the flowers!

This is the path through the courtyards at our apartments. I walk through here every single day.

Pretty flower bush.

Okay, I've made it to the end of the post! Wee! Yay!

Oh, shit, wait. The title... Damn, thought I had finished. Do you get it? Understand what I'm saying there? Well, just in case, let me explain. There's a bar here in Osan called Rivendell. We haven't been there yet, but intend to soon due to our love of Lord of the Rings. I'm told the only nod to Lord of the Rings (or LOTR for you vets) is the name and the Elvish script carved in their tables. They do, however, have an interesting menu containing the item(s?) "chicken & chelada". What's that? Say it out loud. Still don't know? Chickenandchelada. Chicken Andchelada. Chicken Enchilada. Yep. That's not even the funny part. Order a chicken enchilada and they'll bring you a chicken quesadilla. :D

Later

Aaron