Happy New Year. Things have settled back into a routine here in Yangsan. It looks like we will be here for awhile unless we decide to walk away from our 3 million won (about $2400) deposit on this apartment. Myung’s not up for that. Plus, she’s fine staying here for at least the time being. Hence, the routine. We go here and there, sometimes for no reason other than to keep busy and not spend all day watching TV or sitting at the computer. Myung’s talked about maybe teaching English or something to bring in an income, but I doubt anything will become of that idea, at least not yet. Maybe we will be able to rent our apartment and get out from under the lease. Personally, I’d be willing to walk away from the deposit pretty soon. Stay tuned on this one.
Like everywhere in the northern hemisphere, it’s winter here. You’ve seen pictures of rivers and foliage in many past blog entries. The picture above is of the river near Tongdosa temple. You’ve seen that before, but wouldn’t recognise it now. Winter’s are relatively dry at this time of hte year, and the rivers are running low. It’s colder than the populated parts of California, but not too bad, usually about 40-something Fahrenheit during the day and 20-something Fahrenheit at night. This is the warmest area of Korea, a veritable banana belt. The rest of Korea is pretty cold. In Seoul, the highs are usually about 32 Fahrenheit and there is an unusual amount of snow. No snow is likely here.
We’ve had one out of town trip, with Gyung Ja, Il Hwan and their kid, Dong Yi. We went to some sites and a couple of temples near the south coast last weekend.
I get asked, “What do you do for New Year’s?”. Some people here ring it in. Koreans mostly ring in the lunar new year which is Jan. 26 in 2009. Myung says if you don’t stay up on New Year’s Eve, you’re eyebrows will turn white. Myung will have no part of any white hair, so we may have to try to stay awake. We made potstickers today. She says that’s traditional too. I like the beer bottle rolling pin in this picture.
Yes, we get all kinds of crud in this computer. You wouldn’t believe the compost I plowed out from between the keys yesterday. I should do a testimonial for Samsung laptops.
Il Hwan made a DVD of my and Myung’s pictures since I came ot Korea in May. For who knows what reason, I uploaded these to this website before sending it to my friend, Larry’s, for safe keeping. They are mostly just “family photos” and a little scenery. I probably blogged some of them before, but here’s what I’ve got.
That, of course, is me eating traditional Korean fare. It might be intersting to Westerners. Myung photographs Western food for her Eastern friends. She took this of a salad with, get this, RAW bean sprouts, mushrooms, broccoli and zucchini. Can you imnagine EATING this?! With olive oil and balsamic vinegar?!
I still think I’m the spittin’ image of Dick Cheney in this one. Boy, am I glad he can now devote full time to shooting trapped birds with his buddy, Judge Scalia.
I guess this is artsy. It’s of jugs of soy paste you see fermenting at all temples. They sit there for up to 100 years, but 30 is good and one year is adequate.
That’s about it for now, I guess. Again, Happy New Year, and be well, all of you.
