Food, the Continuing Saga

Some time ago I read an interesting entry on my friend Cheryl's blog (if you'd like to see for yourself: http://www.cherylwildelife.blogspot.com/). She was asked to do the following:

1. Go to your My Documents/My Pictures
2. Go to your sixth file
3. Go to your sixth picture
4. Blog about it
5. Tag 6 people

Well, I was one of those six people she tagged, and as she has surely noticed, I never fulfilled my part of the bargain. But since I just wrote a blog entry about moving into a new apartment, and in so doing realized there are two basic themes to my blog, housing and food, I thought it would be entertaining to finally write about the sixth picture in my sixth folder.

And so, here it is:

Me at a Buddhist Temple in Seoul on Buddha's Birthday (4-11 according to the lunar calendar), 2008.


Admittedly, this is not a terribly attractive or interesting picture.

But here is the ironic, or perhaps down-right strange part...

As you can easily see, I have only made a few entries to my blog over the last two years or so. However, one of the rare entries discusses a food adventure I had on the very day the picture above was taken. Namely, that my friend, Ju-eun took me out for dinner and fed me cow entrails. Why? you may ask... because she thought I was a vegetarian, of course. And what vegetarian doesn't love a good hearty meal of innards!? (Gratefully, she has since figured out I'm not a vegetarian, so we have yet to return to this scrumptous restaurant.)

So, just for fun, I will add a few more photos from that day. The first is Ju-eun concentrating deeply while preparing a piece of art from her food (notice the grilling guts -- here stir-fried with rice -- in the middle of the table), and the second picture is the masterpiece itself.




Who knew you could do so much with a one small squid and a little kimchi! (And yes, she did eat the "art" in the end!)

(And, I know I'm supposed to tag six friends, but I'm not sure if I have that many friends anymore... I'll see what I can do!)

On the Move

Obviously, I'm not exactly a regular blogger. I have good intentions, but they never seem to be realized. However, there does seem to be two basic themes to my blogs thus far, so I thought it best to continue along those lines. The first theme is that of housing. I have complained before about the difficulties of finding a decent home in Korea (or, more precisely, Seoul), so I will spare you the details again, but suffice it to say that after much searching I found a new one room apartment a few months ago, and moved in the beginning of February.

There are advantages to this apartment: it is bigger than the previous one (not too hard to do), and it is right next door to the LDS Temple, allowing for easy access, as well as a certain peace of mind. However, there have been a few other things that I don't care for about the apartment, but I'll resist the urge to complain.

For now, I just thought I'd better post a few pictures taken on the moving day... just in case I end up moving AGAIN in the next few weeks (a real possibility)!

Step 1: Pack up a few precious and breakable items myself.


Step 2: Movers come in and pack up everything else.

Step 3: Take everything out via the window -- I am on the 5th floor after all, and who wants to carry all that heavy furniture down all those flights of stairs. Mind you, they even have ladder trucks that can do this for the huge 20-story+ high rises!


Step 4: Squeeze everything into the truck (how did I ever collect this much stuff?)


Step 5: Movers unpack everything at the new apartment. Me, I barely broke a sweat!


Step 6: The final product!

The Art Gallery

The kitchen (combined with laundry)

The veranda as bedroom

The other half of the veranda as storage room.


You'd think with as much moving as I have done here in Korea, that I like it, but I assure you I would like to find a place and settle in for the next 20 years or so. Okay, the wanderlust in me would never be content with that, but a year or two would be nice!