Carrots and Other Things

November 2015

CARROTS, LUNCH, JUNK, SHOPPING, AND OTHER THINGS

The carrots are huge, so you think they might not be delicious - no they're great!

Our friends from the English class picked us up at 11:00 am one day for "lunch". They said the restaurant was a little far away. After driving for an hour - very scenic and interesting - we arrived at this old Confucian School. We wondered if this was the restaurant? No, just used to hold classes occasionally.

Next stop was the restaurant - an old traditional Korean house with a thatched roof. We watched the man making thatching outside.

Inside we sat on the floor - and we had the usual thirty courses, beautifully displayed. The people are so kind, friendly, and generous. (Back left corner: Sister and Elder Bowcutt, me, Bryan, Harriet; Right side of table: women from our English class.

Harriet, Brenda and Ann 

The old-style restaurant had a thatched roof, with flowers and squash were growing all over it.

After the lunch, we walked around looking at the grounds, the "museum" items and old artifacts. It was a wonderful combination of food, architecture, history, and good company! We enjoyed every minute. 

These clay jars contain a year's worth of Kimchi fermenting outside the restaurant. The women make it in November/December, traditionally put it in these jars, then cover and wait for fermentation to take place! Nowadays, the modern Korean family has a special "Kimchi refrigerator" just for Kimchi. 

THE DILEMMA OF WHERE TO PARK YOUR CAR

                                                

Here in Busan there are 5 million people, lots of cars, very narrow and winding streets, and nowhere to park. People have to find ways to park, such as pulling up on the sidewalk blocking the store or business.

 What to do if you can't move?  Every car has to put a phone number on the front dashboard. If that car is blocking your car, you can call the phone number, which is the car owner's cell, and no matter where he is or what he is doing, he will come out and move his car. If no one answers the cell phone, the car gets towed away! Problem solved.

JUNK

                                                                                            

Since trash is such a big deal - no landfills at all and everything is recycled - there are many people, it seems, who make money gathering and sorting junk. Entire lots are devoted to junk piles, and people are out during the day sorting it. There are also people who go around with little carts and gather up cardboard for recycling. 

SHOPPING

There are literally hundreds of little produce stores like this. They usually open early and stay open late. It's really fun buying the fresh produce, inexpensive, and delicious!

These handmade stick brooms are the cool thing to have!! Everyone has one. You can buy them at the little stores.

SPAM

Spam is a favorite food, a delicacy, as shown by this giant display. They make huge gift baskets of spam for Christmas presents, etc. 

MASKS

 

It's true - tons of people wear these masks!! We had always heard that it was to prevent your lungs from the toxic air you breathe as you walk down the street. We found out that masks are also worn if people are afraid of getting sick - or if people are themselves feeling sick and don't want to be contagious to others. It is completely 100% totally acceptable, and masks are seen on old people, young people, children, men, women, cool people on motorcycles, beautiful young girls, everything!

BEAUTIFUL SIGHTS ON THE WALK HOME

 Bamboo forest along the sidewalk

Wooded path near the apartment

Autumn leaves outside the apartment

Can anyone tell me what this is? I look at it frequently and wonder if someone lives there, someone works there, or it just sits there? Curious: umbrellas, bucket, watering can, refrigerator with decorative stickers,  stick broom, and a chair on top of a table.???

FOOD!

November 8, 2015

EATING IN KOREA

Gopchang, pig intestines

Kimchi

Eating with chopsticks is only part of it...

In Korea, if you go to a restaurant or have a "traditional Korean dinner", you don't have a plate. The meal comes out on many different little plates or bowls. The bowls just keep coming. One lunch we had at a restaurant had about 30 bowls of different kinds of food. Some of the bowls are very small, but there are lots of courses and "side dishes".

A common drink is water with cooked rice in it. They cook the rice in lots of water, and when it's done they save the rice/water and serve it as a drink. Kimchi is served three times a day with every meal, or in between meals as a snack.  Korean women gather together as a family and make it in the autumn time when the cabbage is "good", then they store it in a special "kimchi refrigerator" all year, as it ferments. So everyone has a regular refrigerator, and a kimchi refrigerator. The kimchi can be made with different kinds of seasonings, and some of it is very spicy and hot, other kinds have a very strong garlic flavor, fishy flavor, or whatever.

Korean restaurant owners sometimes advertise their food specialty by putting pictures of the animal from which the meat comes on a sign outside of the restaurant. One sign had a picture of a pig, a duck, and a dog with a big arrow pointing to the restaurant. Another restaurant had pictures of a ferocious looking fish swimming around on the windows of the restaurant. We asked, "What kind of fish is that?" They said, "The kind that was in your soup".

The waiter brought these little skewers with something wrapped around them. It was sort of string-like and purple - baby octopus legs. Bryan tried to eat them but said they were too rubbery. The larger metal bowl has dried seaweed in it, some of the bowls have a vegetable you've never seen in a sauce - sometimes very spicy. When you think  you've had enough, they bring out more! This picture shows about half of the total.

Dessert is always tangerines. The fruit is delicious!

LIFE IN BUSAN

November 2, 2015

LIFE IN BUSAN

THE APARTMENT

Our apartment complex has twenty buildings all together with parking lots in between. They are called the "Lucky Apartments". The apartment has some really funny things about it. For one thing, the bathroom has a shower with no shower doors, just a shower curtain and the drain is in the middle of the floor, so when someone takes a shower, the floor is flooded with water. If one of us comes in to brush teeth or take a shower, the entire bathroom is already soaked and you find yourself standing in a little puddle. The great thing about it is that when you clean the bathroom, you just get the shower hose and hose it all down when you're done!

 Outside on the balcony there is a washing machine - Yea! However, there is no dryer, so all the clothes have to be hung out. It's OK except for the towels - they seem a little scratchy. We are spoiled. We do have running water, but we can't drink it. We have to brush our teeth with water from a water machine (like Sparkletts), and when we wash dishes, we are supposed to rinse the dishes with bleach in the dishwater.

TRASH

No disposal!  Getting little bits of food out of the sink and throwing it away is not too bad...then you have to separate your trash into all these different categories, carry it downstairs, and put it in various bags and containers. The really difficult thing (for Americans) is that the food trash (banana peels, rotten leftovers from the refrigerator, little bits of food on people's plates) has to be taken to a central trash machine and weighed. We are charged money for the amount of "food trash" we have each month. It's not super fun to put your rotten leftovers into a huge food trash full of everyone's rotten leftovers, but we do it. Of course no one wants to run down ten floors to the food trash receptacle after every meal or snack, so most people put the food trash in the freezer. Pretty soon the freezer is chock full of rotten bags of food trash until someone is brave and industrious enough to take it all downstairs to the giant food trash monster! Missionaries are famous for having so much food trash in the freezer that they can't even use it for freezing real food.

There are eight trash cans here in front of the mission home. You have to sort your trash into eight different categories - metal, glass, plastic, aluminum, paper, etc. etc. So there are all these recycling containers everywhere!

UMBRELLAS

Have you ever seen an umbrella holder with space for 24 umbrellas with numbered holes for them?

You can't see the little numbers but it helps you remember which umbrella is yours. Apparently, umbrellas are a big part of life.

Next blog topic: FOOD!

November 1, 2015

                               

November 1, 2015

      How is Korea?  Korea is beautiful!      

We went on a field trip with our Stake, to Suncheon Gardens, a beautiful botanical display featuring garden styles from all over the world.

Everything is perfectly manicured.

My new friend, Janet. Lots of Koreans also have an "English" name, which they choose themselves. It is also common for a person to change his/her first (given) name several times in their lives. The last name comes first. Example: Choi Jeong Hoon - last name is Choi.

Japanese Rock Garden

Fun day, in spite of having to pretend like we understand a lot of what people are saying to us.

 Driving back to Busan from Suncheon at dusk

FIVE DAYS IN KOREA

First Five Days in Korea

We were met at the airport in Busan by a wonderful group: President and Sister Barrow, Elder and Sister Bowcutt, and the four missionaries that work in the office. These eight people would become our best friends. We were taken to our new abode:

Our new home, 10th floor! All high rise apartments have security guards and a lock with a number code to enter, so no worries about theft or security, and no worries about losing keys.

Dining and Living Room

This room is rather spacious for a Korean apartment, and we were able to have lots of dinners and parties here. As with all missionary apartments, the furniture was eclectic - a collection from various other missionary apartments over the years. 

The wallpaper was also eclectic - different paper in each room, and some rooms had several different wallpapers. We were lucky enough to have a "Western bed" (rather than a rolled up pad that goes on the floor), and we had electricity and water!

My bed had two notes from Hayden, which I kept there for two years! Looking at them made me happy. 

The Mission Home

Just one half mile away from our apartment was our "home away from home", where we would spend more time than at our apartment. We loved everything about it - mostly the people: President and Sister Barrow, and of course the missionaries!

Elder Smith, Elder Park, Ben Barrow, Elder Dobbins, Elder Gim

Money

The currency in South Korea is the won. 1,000 won equals approximately $1.00 U.S., so it's quite easy to figure if something costs 75,000 won, it's about $75.00. Consequently, you need many won to buy anything! There is no denomination worth only 1 won. The smallest coin is worth 10 won. With that in mind, we found ourselves at Costco!

These steaks are about $72.00.

EXERCISE

 Saturday was a beautiful day, so we went for a walk along this greenbelt that is near our apartment and goes on for miles. There are tons of people walking, cycling, running; there is a little river in the middle with herons, egrets, and cranes. Every 100 yards or so there is a different kind of exercise equipment, and lots of people (mostly older, but younger than we are!) using the equipment to do all kinds of exercises.

These hula hoops are heavy, and it takes a lot of work to keep them going! The smaller ones have little bumps on the inside of the hoop, so it beats you up as you hula!

Bryan gives it a good try, but he's not accustomed to hula hooping around for very long!

                                            

This green exercise "machine" makes it possible for you to hang upside down... for as long as you want (see below).

He didn't think it was really too fun.

 You can see other places for sit ups, weight lifting, and stretching. You can also "rent" bikes for free - just borrow them and bring them back!
Exercise is a favorite pastime for Koreans, and the government pays for thousands of these exercise parks everywhere.

BUSAN MUSEUM OF MARINE NATURAL HISTORY

The next activity was The Busan Museum of Marine Natural History.

You can't tell that it's freezing outside! 

Dried Sting Ray

Little did we know that soon we would be offered all these things to eat.

          Bryan thought the hammerhead shark was real for a few seconds!!

So that was a fun P-Day, but usually:

What do we do all day?
Hmmm...we:

• Bryan:
• does all the financial business of the mission.
• gives each missionary (144 in our mission right now) a debit card each month for food, travel, etc. 
• gives people reimbursements for expenditures
• pays all the bills, sends financial reports to Seoul
• gets lots of phone calls like, "My iron broke, may I buy a new one?"
• Brenda:
• does all the correspondence for the Mission President
• corresponds with parents, Bishops, and Stake Presidents
• handles travel for missionaries, passports, foreigner cards
• orients new missionaries (every 6 weeks)
• prepares "departure" packets for departing missionaries
• TOGETHER, we:
• go to the bank on Mondays. 
• go shopping for office supplies (occasionally)
• teach three English classes per week - two are held at the church and one at a local Community Center. Some people attend more than one.
• Attend Zone Conferences, Transfer Meetings, Staff Meetings, Halloween Parties, lots of dinners and lunches .
• Meet with missionaries to help teach people. Two Elders can't teach a single woman, so another woman needs to be there. Sometimes the Elders want us to come because they're teaching someone "older" - they want someone the older person can relate to.
• We try to help as much as we can on Sundays at the ward. For example, last Sunday, we walked in and they asked us to speak in Sacrament meeting. I got up after the Sacrament to give a short spontaneous message, however someone had brought a little baby bird to church, and at that moment the bird hopped out of the person's hand and began to fly around in the small chapel. The bird would fly up by the stand, then back down in the congregation, then fly all around the room. Needless to say, the kids loved it, and no one was paying attention, so I cut my remarks very short. The bird then hid in the curtains during Bryan's talk, so it wasn't so distracting. Eventually someone caught the bird and took it outside.
• I have said the prayer once, and I volunteered to lead the music in Relief Society. I find out what hymns are planned for the following week, and practice during the week saying the words, using the hymn book that Tag gave to me.
• We have meetings Sunday nights at 8:00 pm

• Our latest duty is Apartment Inspections! Tuesday we drove for over an hour to Dogye, an area where we have two apartments full of missionaries. Without any warning, we showed up in the morning with our inspection list. We go through everything, asking them questions, and making sure they have smoke alarms, etc. If they pass, they get a candy bar - wahoo! Then I come back and write up a report and make sure they all have what they need. Here in Korea, the "beds" are kind of like foam cushions, covered, on the floor. They put a blanket over themselves. The "dining room" table is about 8 inches off the ground and for meals, everyone sits on the floor. It's lucky they don't need beds and chairs, because there's no room for them!
• Last Saturday night was "Movie Night" at the church. They were showing "Meet the Mormons" with Korean subtitles. Ward members were supposed to bring friends, and we invited some of the people who are being taught by the missionaries. Bryan was asked to give a little introductory speech. They showed the movie, but before refreshments, I was also asked to speak. It reminded me of a time when my family was in England. I was about 16 at the time. We found the location of the church meeting, which was in the top of a little store. There were about five people there. When we entered (parents and four kids), we were asked to give the talks, pray, lead the music, and teach the classes. I remember thinking it was so funny, but now I realize when the ward is so small, they get tired of hearing from the same people over and over again.

So that's what we do...more to follow next week.

Here I am eating dinner with "Vicky", a woman who is being taught by the Elders and comes to two English classes a week. She didn't want to be in the picture.

Here we are after Thanksgiving dinner with the Assistants to the President and the Office Assistants, who are basically our best friends, since we are together all day, and sometimes nights and weekends. We love them.

Left to Right: Elder George, Elder Park Kang San, Elder Kale Smith, Elder Dobbins, Elder Gim Hyeonmo

Georges Fly To Korea

Saturday, October 12, 2015 

Bryan at Burbank Airport

                                    Maren and Elliot dropped us off at the MTC.

We enjoyed a splendid two weeks in Provo at the MTC. When we arrived, there was one orange tree on the mountains. Now all the trees are arrayed in variegated fall colors - the effect is magnificent! 

Directly up the street from the MTC we discovered Red Rock Canyon, a terrific hiking spot. Exquisite scenery, evidence of God's hand in the Creation was all around us.








The MTC was a heavenly place - abundant smiling people who offered help, and teachers encouraging us every day in all our classes. The classes started at 8:00 am and ended at 5:00 pm, and in the evening we were able to hear some amazing speakers.

We made a lot of new friends who set off on their own adventures - to Mongolia, Cleveland, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Croatia, to name a few. By the end of the two weeks, we had grown to love them all.

 We were able to attend the Provo Temple up the street once. One last photo of the temple spire at sunset. Goodbye MTC, Utah, and U.S.A.!

The night before we boarded our plane - I think we were in shock! I love the missionaries' statues behind us. Ready for adventure!

Tomorrow we fly to Busan, South Korea (southeast coast).