Who misses summertime?

Okay, 'Tis the Season and bla blah blah but who misses the Summer? Here are just a few daydreams we had this week....


CAMPING
Who doesn't love camping? Plus, Jake's gourmet meal cooking follows from the kitchen to the campfire.

BOAT RIDES
This is me and Jake in 30 years, if we're lucky.

SUMMER JAMMING
Ben, Jake and Dave setting up music outside. Doesn't this picture just look warm?!

PETTINGILL'S FRUIT STAND
Beautiful apples and delicious peaches from the Davis orchard in northern Utah!

BARE FOOTIN'
Flip flops, slippers, sandals, whatever you wanna call 'em. They're great and everybody needs a pair.

HANGIN' OUT
This was one of the happiest tourists I've ever seen. I real beach beauooty!

And my favorite.... SURFING
The ocean is so relaxing and healing. Plus Jake looks hot with a surfboard.

Tradition

Jake and I have successfully made and enjoyed many rounds of egg nog this season! I remember my dad making egg nog and cinnamon toast for many years around Christmas time. Since there is nothing even remotely close to egg nog in Korea, we did some research and have discovered (and altered) a pretty good recipe:

4 cups milk (the heavier, the better)
5 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilaa
1 tsp. nutmeg
dash cinnamon
dash salt

Mix together the eggs, sugar and half the milk (2 cups). Heat on low, constantly stirring so the eggs don't fully cook. Remove from heat when the mixture can thinly coat a spoon. At this point you can strain it if you like really smooth nog. Stir in the rest of the ingredients. If you use heavy whipping cream instead of plain 'ol milk, you get the kind of egg nog you can chew before you swallow. That's my type of egg nog! Too much cinnamon will give it more of a custard flavor. Put it in the fridge and enjoy within a few hours!

The Street Market

This is a market near our house. They rotate locations every week but they seem to stay within a mile radius. There are about 50 different vendors-- all selling the same thing. Here you can see a bowl of live squid. Yes, the live stuff is a "delicious" delicacy. I wish I had a video of it moving.... next time!




You can also see some crab, clams, sting ray, and about 20 bowls of different kinds of kimchi.

These people are really healthy, other than the social chain smoking that's considered upper-classy. Of course, that's only for the men. Women don't smoke in public or they're considered to be the scum of the earth. They go to bars or internet cafes to smoke.... much more classy.

Ping Pong

We found our way to a "lumber yard" and paid for an 8x4 sheet of wood. This thing was (and still is) HEAVY HEAVY HEAVY! The lady who sold it to us didn't speak any english, I mean NONE. It didn't look as if anybody else would be back in the office/yard for the rest of the day so we communicated with her the exact same way we usually communicate with anyone in Korea. Lots of pointing. She saw that we only had our bikes and her facial expression hid nothing when she realized our wood transport plan. She just kept shaking her head "no" but we had paid for this massive piece of wood so we were gonna get it home and play some ping pong that night!
That's right! Jake balanced this awkward and heavy thing on his head--while riding his bike home--a mile through the crazy city, with me behind taking pictures and watching as people on the sidewalk ducked out of his way. People usually stare at us when we're just walking down the street because we're white. However, when this whole ping pong table on the head thing was happening hardly anybody took a second glance.

Once a day either Jake or I will mutter, "There are some things I will never understand about this place." Seriously, at least once a day.

Now we have an awesome ping pong table (not the 9x5 regulation size because that would never fit in our apartment) and my right wrist is already feeling the burn! I'm sure our neighbors just love that we bought some ping pong paddles and balls. Ping-pong . . . Ping-pong . . . Ping-pong :)

O Christmas Tree!

Here we are decorating our very first Christmas Tree! Since everything in Korea is automatically smaller, we had to put our little tree atop a little dresser to make the whole thing seem more majestic when entering the room.


We had to get passport photos taken for obvious work-related reasons and Jake's picture looked so cute that I had to make a little heart ornament out of it. Sometime last week it disappeared from the tree and nobody in the house seems to know what happened to it....
Did you notice how 'O CHRISTMAS TREE' started playing in the background during Jake's video-- not even planned!

Now that I know our cute little camera takes short videos and now that I've figured out how to put them on the computer I'm probably going to over-do it! Videos are just so much fun! And as soon as I figure out how to "spruce up" a blog page we will probably all look back at the beginning of boucherbombshell, August 2007, and laugh at my amatuerly mundane blog skills!

Elementary days....

Kiki (left) and Joy (right) These are Jake's Korean co-teachers and they have chosen some radical American names! They are pretty young and cool. We have been to dinner with them a couple of times and just last week we had them over to our house for some American food! During the last few months Jake has worked many hours with Joy teaching english to elementary students. I think Joy was intrigued by Jake's shining spirit and he has asked some questions about the "mormon" church. On the last day of school Jake gave him a Book of Mormon. Isn't my husband awesome!?!
We recently found out that every male in Korea must serve in the army for 2 years. Well.... Joy left today to serve his time and it's kinda sad to think that we may never see him again. I'm glad for Jake's testimony and the courage he had to share it with a new friend.

This is a picture of an elementary playground. They ALL look the same. Big, rectangular, dirt, soccer field. It can be 20 degrees outside and those kids are still out on the field trying to do the next best bicycle kick.

Jake's headmaster likes to grow flowers and he has taken it upon himself to plant a huge row of flowers behind the school. It's pretty amazing. Here in Korea there is no waste of space. If something can be built, they make it 10 stories high. We definitely miss the openness of our small hometowns.


I just happen to catch this 4th grade class at the right moment. They were doing taekwando dancing moves to some Hip Hop music. How come we don't learn cool stuff like that in America?


Okay, I know this is probably more visual than you wanted but it's every day life so I thought you should see it to believe it. Malls, the subway, restaurants and any public restroom all have the same set-up. These pictures happen to be of my school bathroom. There is a community toilet paper roll nailed to one wall. You better grab some before you go into a stall or you're sh-- outta luck. Sorry, I couldn't help myself! This thing by my feet.... well this is where you squat. The end.

Cody Singing "MaMa"

So I didn't know Jake was taking a video of me. He always acts like he's taking a picture so I sit there and pose for a long time doing nothing. It's one way he amuses himself. This time he wanted an "action shot" and again, hid the fact that he was taking a video. Jake even has one or two incriminating videos that could get me in a fist fight with a couple of people. Here's me embarrassing myself singing a song that Jake listened to a million times in two days. The song is called "ma ma" and it's done by a foreign guy with a thick accent so I was trying to make fun of the song. It was a cold day with nothing much to do. Why do I post some embarrassing video of me, you ask? Well, what is a blog good for if you don't get a laugh in once in a while?!

Suwon World Cup Stadium

That's right, we live in the same town as this thing! It's ginormous! Just like the rest of the world (America excluded) these people are CRAZY about soccer. AND they think the word "crazy" is a really big deal-- or even something bad to say about somebody. Whenever I want to get a students' attention I just tell them that they're crazy and they laugh a lot then give me their undivided attention for about 30 seconds longer.So here's a picture of Jake and me on our way to becoming pro bicycle kickers. All those blue and white guys by the door are our home team.

In response to the Duck Face post....

I received some great comments about the infamous Duck Face and I think people wanted a closer picture of the beard! We were riding our bikes around one day and his beard looked so RED that I had to take a picture. Yes, I let him get away with a pretty nasty look for a while but he is now shaved. He's my sexy hot stuff! Am I allowed to use the word sexy on a blog?

Duck Face

Jake has this terrible face that he makes sometimes. I tell him that he looks like a duck and then I try to mirror and show him what he looks like. Well we were waiting for a pizza the other day and he made the face. I took a picture and went on to copy him.
Little did we know that the place called "Seven Pizza" from which we were purchasing our pizza only cuts their pizza into 7 pieces. We didn't realize it until we got down to the last piece. "Did I eat 3 pieces or four?" "I think I only had three..." It took us a minute to put it all together.

Taekwondo/Taegwando

This is something I see everyday. These little guys show up in groups of two everywhere! The cutest thing happened with one of my students last week. We were learning "What are you doing?" And the students would have to answer "I am ______" using verbs. One said, "I''m playing soccer." Another said, "I'm jumping." They went on to say "I'm studying, I'm playing the piano, I'm watching TV, I'm eating." The cutest answer I got was this, "I'm taegwandoeing!"

MONKS and MT. SORAK

We paid 20,000 won and rode a bus four hours to get to the east coast of South Korea, to a city called Sokcho. It was absolutely beautiful and it was sooo nice to get out of the city. I think deep down in our hearts Jake and I are kinda country folk. Kinda.



We hiked up this mountain where only monks used to come and worship and do their thing. Now it's a tourist attraction, so we took pictures. The hike ended up being pretty long, but it was one of the prettiest views imaginable .... too bad the camera batteries were dead for that picture!

Some friends had come with us so after replacing our shoes and lighting a candle we made our way over to the Korea Motel Hotel that was so nicely cozied right up next to the base of the mountain.




















They looked very deep in conversation, drawing in the dirt and stuff. What they don't know is that I peeked into one of their little house things and saw a nice big couch in front of a huge flatscreen, with a computer and fax machine on the desk in the corner. Later on that day I saw one of them taking a break from all of the tourists-- sitting in his jeep parked so secretly behind a tree and eating a sandwich. Maybe I just don't understand the life of a monk....
Their clothes look really comfy though.

Students/Babysittees

The one on the left will most likely play in the world cup one day. I think the one on the right is in love with him.

This is the "cool crowd" of girls in the 5th grade at my school. The leader wears a scarf if it's hot or cold outside because scarves are always cool. Peace.

These kids were hula hooping and it looked like so much fun that I put my camera down after this picture and played a little. After I got done I let my hair down and they started saying "Teacher Boucher pretty." I think THESE guys are the cool crowd!

This place is called Wolhwawon. It combines modern technique with civilian gardening style easily seen during the end Ming dynasty to the first Ching dynasty-- okay, I stole that right out of the pamphlet.

The leaves are turning colors (so maybe fall happened in one day) and it is B-E-A-UTIFUL! I loved my walk through this garden. It's only a block from our apartment so I will be back!

Down the street from our house live a couple of dinosaurs. Jake made friends, I didn't.
Actually, we live in an area with a lot of parks. We lucked out picking "Happy Suwon" as our city of destination. Yes, everywhere you see signs that say "H*A*P*P*Y" Suwon. It stands for healthy.....I forget blah blah blah.....and youthful. I don't know. It's cheezy! Just like all of the construction signs here. They are pictures of cartoon-like midget men with heads such a grand size that they make up 1/3 of their cartoon bodies.

Staying American Made

I feel like this spiniach salad is one of the few green things we've eaten lately. Korean vegetables are different. We miss bags of frozen peas and stalks of celery.



BUT six nights a week Jake impresses me with what Jake does best.... DINNER! He's keeping our tummies warm during this very cold winter. Ya, there's no such thing as Fall-- straight from summer to winter. Jake says he's "just taking care of his lady."
This was probably the best pasta I've ever eaten in my entire life. Oh ya, and he takes me on a date that 7th dinner of the week that I forgot to mention.

Seoul Temple

Well, we made it to the temple. Every first Saturday of the month they have an English session at 9:oo AM. Jake and I took the subway but it ended up being a longer ride than anticipated (as always) so we attended a Korean session with accommodating headphones. The temple is beautiful. Small, and beautiful! It is true that the church is the same everywhere but that the people are different. Even inside the Seoul temple it was hustley and bustley. I must have been bumped by at least 3 different little women on my way to the restroom. No "excuse me's" exist here.

We bought a guitar that was made in Korea. We saw the brand name 'Mr. Potato' and we just had to have it! I have a feeling this one is coming home with us....

This week Jake took a silly english-learning song and played it on the guitar for his students.

House Shoes

In Korea everyone has a pair of house shoes and a pair of outdoor shoes. Every kid pretty much has the same pair of the "$2.99 special" dark blue rubber Addidas slippers.
When they come in the morning, they change their shoes and then enter the building. If they go out for recess, they change their shoes both leaving and coming back indoors.

It's the same in a Korean house, or traditional Korean restaurant. Everyone leaves their shoes at the front door. Like always wearing clean underwear in case you're in a car accident, you never want to be caught in Korea with nasty dirty socks.

Suwon After Dark

Out our front door and down the street, past a school with pattering children's feet
Past the fish tanks with with live squid and shrimp, you'll find a mini Korean Vegas strip.