BBQ

It is an indisputable fact that BBQ-ing is one of (if not the) best way to cook food. It is borderline sin to cook certain meats in any other fashion. Having fried a good number of perfectly decent steaks since arriving in Korea, I can speak from experience: a frying pan is not a sirloin's best friend.

So a while back, we bought a charcoal BBQ. Essentially, it's a big metal pan. Then, you buy charcoal and put it in your big metal pan. Light, and voila! BBQ.

Friday was a beautifully sunny day, and we had been seasoning some steaks in the fridge for a few days. We figured it'd be a great day to grill up some beef, and it was. We went behind our apartment building and rustled up supper. Here's some pictures.



The Where: Behind our apartment. Not very pretty, but it makes for a good running around area for the kids and a BBQ-ing area for us. There are no lawnmowers here (as there are no lawns) so a large flat area like this is normally either sandy, overgrown or paved.

The Who: Me, getting the charcoal ready to cook. Most people sit like this here. It's also the position you are in if you use a "squatty potty." Not bad, once you get used to it. The position, I mean. Well, the squatty potties too. More on that later.


The What: Seasoned Australian beef from Costco and cut vegetables with butter & seasonings (including home grown fresh dill). Yum yum yum!


The Dessert: Smores, o'course! We used metal chopsticks, which were perfect for the occasion.

The Fans: These kids watched us make the smores and eat the first bit. Very shy (didn't say a word) but fascinated nonetheless. We made them a round of the sweet sweet treat and took this picture. You can see the smores in their hands.

Pictures

After a relative drought (and now that Blogger has made it easier to upload several pictures at once), here are some random pictures from our life here. Enjoy!


Not every brand name here is run by an English speaker before going into national production.


Written on a mug in a department store. Look closely and read the writing.



Strawberries during strawberry season. A box (usually around 2 kilograms, or about 4.5 pounds) was between $3 and $15, depending on the size and when you bought them. We've probably bought 8 or 10 boxes of them. We'll eat half (usually the same day) and freeze the other half to use in smoothies. Good stuff.



Strawberries again. The season is ending now (probably only a week or two left) so we bought a box and froze the whole thing. Incredibly delicious, I must add.


At one of our three local grocery stores, there is a pet store. For the size of the store, the pet section has a remarkable selection. Including chipmunks, which I didn't realize fell into the category of "pet." We were there again tonight, and they had a cage of probably 10 chipmunks in it. My, but they're hyper little creatures.



Among the various toys available for children in nearly every toy section in every toy store are air soft guns that shoot little white plastic pellets. They are realistic looking, perfect scale weapons. This one is a Smith and Wesson handgun, with nothing on it to distinguish that it is a toy. You can get M-16's, shotguns, a ton of handguns and a couple of rifles. Nothing will cost you more than $20. Every once in a while, you'll see a little gang of boys running around and shooting trees, buildings and whatnot. They actually do have decent shooting power (to hurt, not kill) so they are relatively careful.


Brooke, Ryan and Emily at this little temple we went to for Brooke's birthday. You can see the temple in the background there. I believe (I'm not sure) it's at least 500 years old. Really neat, really small.


This picture was taken about a month ago (early April?). The flowers here in the spring are beautiful and everywhere. This is a little park downtown that was built last year.

We took this picture today. The big plants are trees in our parking lot. The little ones in the foreground are Emily's little herb garden. We've got basil, dill, something, something else and rosemary. All the rain has really greened everything up here.
Every once in a while you will get a pet vendor on the side of the road. We've seen puppies on a pushcart, kittens in a cage, birds on a bike. This time, it was rabbits.

The Prayers You Never Say

Emily and I went to see Spider-Man 3 last Thursday night (it was released here and in Japan before North America - take that!) and I got hit with a pang of homesickness. It's funny the things that will make you miss home. It was Peter Parker and his friend, Harry Osborne, that did it for me.

Anyway, we get home after the movie and I'm missing...home. There was a thunderstorm that night, which reminded me even more of Canada. Thunderstorms are not common here, and the thunder isn't nearly as impressive as Canada's. However, it was still a good storm. I'm feeling blue, missing people I share a language and culture with and I head to bed.

Long story short, we ended up going to church with one of my students. She invited me and her dad is the pastor there. I don't really know why I said yes - I wouldn't normally. We get there, and it's her older brother that does the translating. Her older brother that is about my age, a Christian, speaks English, neat guy and lives in our neighborhood. He also likes to do a lot of the same things we/I do. We hung out this past Saturday and he invited me to play soccer with some people from his church.

Basically, God gave me exactly what I needed without me even asking for it, and just at the right time. He is really good to us, and I see that more every day.


"This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met... God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes." Matthew 6, The Message

When $5 is worth it

I (Jon) generally have two rules for a hairdresser in Korea: cut my hair short, and please don't talk to me. My Korean is not quite what I would care for it to be, and I tend to get a little nervous when a hairdresser attempts to get chatty.


Last year, I got my hair cut by the same lady all year long. I would go to the haircut street (about 5 hair salon places within two blocks) and I would go to her. Why? She was seldom busy, she cut my hair and there was no small talk. We understood each other.

This year, I've been searching for a new hairdresser. There's a bunch of places in our neighborhood. I started with one, and she was great. Her and her friend would make Emily & I coffee and order us dumplings when we went there. The cut itself would cost $5, and I'm sure the coffee and food cost them $2.50, so it was disappointing but not surprising when they were out of business a month or two later.

I found another place. She was chattier, but friendly. Dang good cut and shampoo for $5. Best haircut I've had in a while. Would she be the new one?

A month passes (I measure my haircuts in months - one month past is time for a cut) and I'm looking for a cut. She's really busy and I don't feel like waiting. I head over to the "Blue Hair Club," which has a Guinness World Record for the most amount of franchises opened in the shortest time, or something. 250 locations in 3 years. Impressive, though I don't see the reason for success.

The lady who cut my hair cut half of the hair on top, used no fewer than six razors on the side and sent me over to shampoo my own stinkin' hair. Short sides, long top, my own shampoo? And still $5? I don't think so!

I repent, learn the error of my ways and head back to the lady on the corner. Good job, shampoo and still only $5. Totally worth it.

Life

No matter where you live, life inevitably gets into a routine. What was once fresh, exciting and new is now just a regular part of your life. People, plants and pets all end up in the "everyday" pile of our lives.

Not that there is nothing special about these things in our lives. Instead, we need to make the effort to see the spectacular, the unique and the intriguing in the things under our noses.

Life has gotten into a routine here. It is no longer strange to have groups of elementary school children following you up to your apartment so they can talk to you. It is no longer strange to be given kimchi three times in one week from different people. It is slightly strange to be given a beautiful cake from a lady we don't remember but who remembers us.

It is no longer strange to get 7 days off in one month. Regular? No. Unforeseen? No. Appreciated? Yes.

It has become part of our lives for Emily to consistently receive marks above 95% in her school work.

We have a good life and we are thankful. God is taking very good care of us. We are healthy, we are happy and we are making good friends. Life is good, and we are thankful.