Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas

We are in Korea. What a different type of Christmas. We miss family and friends and are extremely homesick. It's snowing like crazy back in the states and we miss boarding in the awesome Pacific NW. We will enjoy a mellow celebration opening a few gifts then visit Everland to view Christmas decorations. We have great hope for the future and can't wait to see where we are going next.

I would tell you what we've been up to this year but you can read it in the other blog posts.
We pray everyone has a great Christmas and next year is the most blessed year yet.

Andy, Sherry, Chicane Pence

Happy Thanksgiving! It's all about the small things....

It is Thanksgiving today and we are in Korea without an oven. All is well though, because we bought a turkey and some sides which will be eaten with cousin in Seoul on the weekend.
Cousin has an oven. Oh how lucky to have a cousin with an oven...and that is just one of the many things we are thankful for this year!

Here are some other things we are thankful for! Friends and Family.

I am especially thankful for my dear sweet buddy Amber! Yes, YOU girl! For my birthday Amber bought me a sprout growing container and some seeds. I LOVE sprouts and have been very sad these last several months to go without them. All I have found in Korea have been bean sprouts....not the same!
I've got them growing good and well now and eat them everyday! One of my favorites foods is a little something I invented called....wait for it.....wait for it.....

"The Yummy Goodness!"

Yep and it may look and/or sound gross but everyone who has tried it has liked it! And it is oh so healthy! Here goes:
Slap down a tortilla and slather some hummus on it (in my case...home made because why would Korea be cool enough to have hummus?)
Put in the microwave for about 45 seconds,
Then put a scoop of cottage cheese on it as well as some of those delicious sprouts (again...home grown....see prev parenthesis) and top it of with....wait for it......home made hot sauce....(that I smuggled in to the country)....so sue me!

I've been missing, dare I say desperately, this wonderful meal since I arrived in this ingredient barren land. But now I am happy again...thanks to Amber! Yummy goodness will most likely be my thanksgiving dinner tonight!

I am also thankful for my cousin Jamie who (knowing that we don't have an oven) sent a baked goods care package. Oh my goodness....cookies and banana bread! Girl...you caused some serious marital discord when Andy thought it was all for him! I would show you pictures but we ate it too fast.

I am thankful for my sister who skypes us every other day. She keeps me posted on everything so that I don't feel quite so left out of family matters. Plus I get to talk to our nephews quite a bit which is awesome!

We are thankful for health, adventures, one another and a military income during our economical down turn.

Thank you Lord for all your blessings!

Paying the Rent

Well, it's that time of the month. How would you like to take a trip with me to pay the rent?
Are you ready....it's quite a hassle so hang on for the ride!

1.) Both Andy and I go to the ATM machine on base and max out our withdrawal limits. Our Korean rent is equivalent to paying our home mortgage.

2.) Take the stack of 20 dollar bills into the base bank and exchange them for 100 dollar bills (you get a better exchange rate this way.)

3.) Take your 100 dollar bills into the money exchange right outside the base's main gate. Trying not to get robbed on the way!

4.) Since the Korean Won's highest bill is 10,000 won (comparable to a $10 bill) we have to pay our 13 million won rent in these small bills.

5.) Hurry across the street to our realtor to give her the hugmongus stack of money, which in turn she will give to our landlord.


6.) Here is Kay counting the money and giving me a receipt.

Yes, we go through this rigmarole every month as does every military family that lives off base.

You have to pay in cash...it's the only way they will accept rent.

Isn't this the craziest thing you've ever heard?

My everyday prayer to God

I pray everyday, throughout the day, mostly for friends and family and for the United States and our planet. But lately I have added a selfish prayer, one that I pray about a dozen times a day. Maybe it's more of a plea than a prayer, but my heart is aching and it goes like this:

Dear God,
Thank you for my life and all the blessings and adventures you have given me. My special prayer is that you will send us back to Boise....the one place that I call "HOME". I know that the possibility is so remote that it would take a miracle from You to make it happen, but I believe in miracles. I miss my family and my support network. I am missing my nieces and nephews growing up. I want to be close to my grandparents as they age. I miss my church family. I miss the beauty and freshness of Idaho and I especially miss my pottery studio. I am broken down and tired from so many moves...I am lonely and isolated from all that was familiar. I need my haven back.
You know the desire of my heart Lord, but If it is not in your plan to answer this prayer then I pray for grace to accept what I believe is your will for our lives.
.....but please please please let us go back to Boise!
Amen

Best 5 bucks we've ever spent!

Here is me throwing down my fiercest back hand pose. Yes...be very afraid.

"DEATH TO MOGIES"

O.k, let me explain. This is not a badminton racket in my hand but rather a high tech, state of the art mosquito killer. Or as the Koreans call the little beasties..."mogies".

Side note: (Thank you Korea for not having regulatory laws on shocking devices and thank you for selling them in mass for only 5 dollars.)

Oh yes, I'll be sneaking this 'oh so awesome' racket back to the U.S. ....you know it!

It doesn't matter that I have shocked myself (inadvertently or otherwise) with it over a dozen times so far.

Mogies are a real plague here in Korea.....and trust me, I know bad mosquito infestations...I have lived through them in Florida. For the last three weeks, Andy and I wake up every morning with the dreaded "pimple looking" bites all over our faces....and poor Chicane too.

They have taken to biting my eyelids which make my eyes swell and look as if I have run into a door knob.

We have come to HATE them!

Yes, hate is a strong word even for these blood sucking, buzzing little clowns. I channel all my rage toward this singular insect by becoming the hunter rather than the hunted.

Andy and I take turns doing "the sweep" before bedtime. When our bug zapper makes contact with one there is this sick yet satisfying snap, crackle and pop and then the lingering smell of burnt hair. ....and then nothing but smiles and hope for a night of restful sleep....

We haven't had a night of restful sleep in almost a month now....because for every mogie we kill there are a dozen more lurking. We keep the zapper within reach at night. We are both guilty of jump out of bed around 3 or 4 in the morning incoherently cursing the wretched winged devils with shouts of, "I'm gonna get you! and Die sucker! (pun intended) and HA HA HA....take that!"

We also take turns encouraging each other with "Good job babe! You killed that one DEAD! There's another one...GET HER!!"

You can learn a lot of interesting facts about these distasteful creatures compliments of Wikipedia.

The "HEY LADY" ladies

"Hey Lady you want to buy T-shirt? Very cheap. Special price for you because you beautiful lady."
"Where you from? America?? Ooooh you rich. You want buy watch? Special price for you because you American!"
"Hey Sir, this you wife? She beautiful lady, you want to buy scarf?"
"Hey Lady! You want bag? My price is 600 yuan but because you my first customer, you special price of 440 Yuan. What??? You give me only 35yuan? Why you joking with me? Come on, give me No Joking price! See the quality? This not cheap. You want cheap you buy other bag. This bag very good quality. O.k. O.k. I give you this bag for 400yuan, this is very special price because I like you..ok.?"
"Hey Lady, Hey Sir, you no walk away. OK. give me your best price and no joking price, see the quality?"





You get the picture. If you know me you know that I am terribly claustrophobic and I was in Beijing no longer than an hour before I had my first panic attack. I call them the "Hey Lady" ladies. They all come at you at once competing to be heard and to sell their wares. They grab you and try to pull you into their booths. They block your way and stick t-shirts and other junk in your face. Very aggressive and overwhelming. I ran away with my hands over my head yelling, "Get me out of here". True story.

So yeah, I'm not much of a shopper and China is all about shopping. Arghhh....look at all the crap! I am proud to say that neither Andy nor I bought any touristy stuff no matter how cheaply it was offered.

Because it's EVERYWHERE you go that you get accosted, in order to survive, I started making a game out of it. Since the Chinese (like the Koreans) always assume that any white person is American we started answering them in other languages such as German, French, Spanish, and Italian, (yes we can speak a little of this and a little of that). It was hilarious until we were shouting German phrases all they way down the hall of an underground subway shopping station and caught the attention of some real Germans. (Apparently there are a lot of Germans in China.)

Another tactic when we were approached with someone trying to sell us something (like a pair of socks) we in turn tried to sell them something...like one of my hair scrunchies. They would usually walk away really confused.

Also I went to China with one goal in mind and that was to find SOMETHING ANYTHING Made in America.
Well, the only thing made in America that I found were me and Andy.

We love a good BM.... don't you????

Remember back when we first moved to Korea and we were talking about our awesome heated toilets? I mentioned that surely this topic would be revisited....well, I keep my promises.

This blog will not contain gross pictures...because I just can't bring myself to to that...but it will be vividly detailed so those with a weak constitution may want to stop reading NOW.



Seriously....there is no turning back from here......

Did you know that there are "No Pooping" signs in Beijing? Yep, people have been known to just drop trou and squat and unload on the side of the street. I'm NOT making this up. In fact we personally witnessed a small boy doing just that....right across the street from the Forbidden City. He hung his little behind over the street grate and let her rip! I guess the government is really trying to crack down on this problem ...especially in the big cities. But "IT" happens folks!

Also, we saw this cute little toddler with his parents (this was in Shanghai) all dressed up in this sweet little baby outfit. When he turned his back to us his whole complete bare bottom was exposed to the world. Yep, these babies don't wear diapers....they wear bottom-less chaps and I guess they just "go" whenever they need to.

We take Chicane for a walk when she wants to do her "business" and I suppose the Chinese just take their kids for a walk in much the same manner.

So I might have mentioned that the Chinese may have 1 public restroom for every 500,000 people. These "restrooms" are literally just holes in the ground and that's about it. You would be lucky to find a clean one. We weren't that lucky. In fact, I spent most of my vacation just holding it.

There was this one occasion where we were visiting the Olympic village and we were far far away from home... Both of us needed to use a restroom. So after walking about 20 miles (yes....Olympic village is HUGE!) we find a LONG line of people, some with wads of TP in their hands (obviously savvy foreigners, and we were like EUREKA! So we get in our respective long lines. I have my treasured wad of TP in my hand. The closer I get to the bathroom door the more assaulted my sense of smell becomes. I stood in line a good 15 minutes before gaining view of the bathroom door entrance. With excitement and trepidation mounting I start my little "don't pee my pants" dance when all of the sudden 5 little old Asian ladies completely cut in line right in front of me. .......I'll pause here to share Andy's story which is going on simultaneously to this one.....

Andy in his own words....

Ever tried to use a urinal with 25 dudes trying to be next in line to the point they are on your back and looking over your shoulder? No? Me either. I walked in to the WC saw the gaggle at the urinal and decided a stall would be a better choice. The first stall was open a few inches so I slowly pushed on the door to open it and the entire door fell off it's hinges and slammed into a Chinese man inside. When angry words started roaring out from behind the collapsed stall door, I decided to promptly leave without using the bathroom.

Back to Sherry: I got four of those sneaky old Asian ladies to find somewhere else to wreak havoc, but the last one was really stubborn and she dug her heals in. So I said "HEY!" and I heard an echo of "heys" in line behind me....apparently I wasn't the only one who didn't appreciate this lapse in courtesy.
The smell was really getting to me and I was peeved so I made a hasty decision to get the goob out of there and so abandoned my precious well-earned spot, much to the delight of the 50 people in line behind me.

I met Andy and we shared our stories and laughed (sort of) because neither of us accomplished our mission. We took a taxi back to the hotel and raced down our hallway to see who got to use the potty first.