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.