I'm no culinary goddess, but...

gotta type fast tonight. I just hopped myself up on good ol' Nyquil (to stop the assortment of symptoms that they painfully list off in their commercials - "sniffling, sneezing, coughing, spewing etc etc") so I figure I have between a half hour and 45 minutes before I drop like pants at a poker game.

so, about my most recent culinary experience - as the title suggests, I inflicted it on myself. Let me begin by saying that lately, I've not had the best diet in the world. Why? Pure laziness. I'm too lazy to cook anything half-decent for myself so I habitually eat things that are about 1/4 decent. Thank goodness I eat lunch at my school. Anyway, with a bothersome cold (not terrible, just annoying), I've been craving the hot soup, but instant Ramien noodles (think Mr Noodles, but spicy) just doesn't cut it. I've been told on more than one occasion that soup is the easiest thing to make, you just throw whatever you want into a pot and boil it. I decided to test this theory. I will say this - if the Koreans can throw a bunch of little clams in hot water and call THAT soup, then I can't do much worse.

The verdict...not bad, not bad at all. Actually, it was a lot more pleasant than I expected. I had a couple of chicken soup stock packs, so I through those in. The other ingredients included onion, potato, carrot, garlic, egg and Korean noodles called su-je-bi (surprisingly, NOT rice-based). Anyway, the only complaint I would make is that it was a little bland. Other than that, it was delightful. Things it was notably missing: chicken (bones and meat), celery and dill (Sari I miss your soup!!!).

Maybe there's hope for me yet!
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Today/yesterday (nov 22) is/was my Mom's birthday.
She's awesome.
I just need to type that so that all my readers can understand. AWESOME! She makes 54 look good. I wanna be like her when I grow up (if that ever happens).
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The other day at volleyball I saw the awesomest ass grab ever. Now, the guys get patted on the ass (by the guys) quite often. I don't see any of that action. I could go for a nice pat-and-rub combo...it's comforting. Anyway, SamChon (uncle, maybe 35) walks on court to play and he walks up to Chong Hyeon (young guy, 25) and fully pats and rubs his butt. Then, seeing that I can see, he gives it a hefty grab-and-squeeze. At this, Chong Hyeon wheels around to see who it is and catches my eye. He knows I saw the whole thing, blushes and gives SamChon a "WTF?" look. gotta love it.
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Last weekend, three of my girls came to stay with me Friday night - Mary Katherine, Carol and Mel. Friday night was an awesome slumber party and then Saturday I introduced them to a few of Boseong's tourist attractions (there are a few!!).

One of the pearls of wisdom we discovered during our Friday night talk was the following:
Things you should not put in you mouth
1. Fire
2. Road Rocks
3. Feet
4. Pocket lint
5. Acorns
If you can think of anything else please feel free to let me know!

First thing Saturday morning we headed to the Green Tea Spa where we whiled away 3 hours, alternating between soaking in one of 4 tubs (hot green tea, hot water, lukewarm water and cold water), the sauna and getting scrubbed by a stout Korean woman. It was fantastic in so many ways. After that we headed to the Greean Tea Fields where we had a yummy lunch. The last stop of the day was the pottery place that I mentioned in my previous post. Here we spent a few hours crafting all sorts of cool things.

All in all, the weekend was awesome..mostly because of the company!

Now, here are some pictures:


This is part of the view on my way to school everyday.

Here's my schoolioolio. All schools in Korea look pretty much the same.

Carol's masterpiece. Really good for a first go at it!

My creations the second time around. two tea light candle holders, a heart-shaped box with a lid and a bowl.

Yu Kyoung hard a work!

And last, but not least...The bowl/mug! in all its glory!

Ah, I think the Nyquil's kickin' in....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz