Thanksgiving

We were not able to find a turkey this year at Costco, so we settled for 3 roast chickens, broccoli casserole, sweet potato casserole, potato casserole, salad, fruit salad, cranberry salad (Dad has to invent something every year - this year he found cranberries at E-mart and invented a recipe with them), bread, stuffing, apple pie, "pumpkin" pie, and peach pie. As you can see, we are not starving over here! Of course, there are some things we cannot get such as cranberry sauce (which explains why Dad was so excited to find some dried cranberries) and pumpkin pie filling. I used a squash instead of a pumpkin and it actually tasted really good. It must be my incredible baking talent! :) I made all of the pies and was quite proud of them so I made sure to get a picture.

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday because we have co-op on Thursday. Jay and Joo-yun, who work with the home schoolers at Global Mission Church and do our translating for us, joined us along with one other family from our high school co-op. We had a good time playing Uno and Scrabble with them as we tried to keep alive our Thanksgiving traditions.

Notice Dad's unique creation in the middle of the table

Aren't they beautiful? (The pies, of course! :) )

Snow

Here are a few pictures of our first snow here in Suji. All of the family was away on a field trip with the elementary co-op, but I had to stay behind for my CLEP test on Tuesday. Monday night, I was getting ready for bed (I had just gotten out of the shower and was in my pajamas) when I heard thunder crashing outside. I thought it was pouring rain until I looked outside. I couldn't believe it - the ground was already completely covered in snow. Since I've lived in the warm and sunny South all of my life, it was quite strange to have about 4 inches of snow on November 19th! The Willings and I went outside and played in the snow for a couple hours (until almost midnight). Sorry I look a little, umm, frazzled in these pictures...I was just about to go to bed! :)

High School Open House

Tonight, I am going to quickly post pictures from last Friday when we hosted a high school open house. But, first of all, I wanted to let all my southern friends know that we had our first snow of the season on Monday night. We got 2 -3 inches which is quite a lot for November 19th. Then, on Tuesday night, we got another 2 inches. I can't believe it's Thanksgiving (80 degrees in Florida), and there is snow on the ground here. I will post some pictures (eventually) of our first snow.
Also, I passed my 6th and final CLEP test on Tuesday making me an official junior in college - yahoo! :) Anyway, the open house was a good time of fellowship. Even though it was freezing cold outside, we all went down to a nearby school to play ultimate frisbee in the dark. (We had bought an LED frisbee in the U.S.) Once my fingers were so numb I couldn't feel them anymore, it was fun teaching the Koreans how to play. I really miss doing athletic activities here - its just too cold! I tried sushi for the first time; it just tasted like chewy vinegar (I know, my taste buds are a little weird!)

I must have said something funny - but that's no surprise :)

Boys - need I say more?

I still need to ask someone why Koreans always make the peace sign when they take pictures.

Brotherly kindness

With extreme anticipation, my younger sisters awaited the arrival of a promised package from Judah. He had called them a couple weeks ago and asked them if they wanted anything, to which they unanimously replied, "My Little Pet Shops!" For those of you who are not up to date on the latest in little girls' toys, My Little Pet Shops are plastic bobble-head animals. Caroline, Evangeline, and Julianna were so excited when Judah told them over the phone he'd bought around 12 of them! (Jared told me they felt a little odd as they searched through Wal-Mart's toy section for the animals my sisters wanted. Judah and Jared spent quite some time hunting for the correct animals...they couldn't find everything they needed so Judah also took a couple trips to Limited Too. Judah felt a little awkward shopping alone in that particular store.)

Judah also decided to ship us a bunch of full sized candy bars along with some t-shirts he bought at the pro-wakeboard tour in Cancun, Mexico. Needless to say, we were all thrilled when the package arrived.

Packages are fairly consistent as far as delivery time so on the day she knew the package would come, Julianna faithfully did her school in front of the window so she would know exactly when the mailman arrived.

Waiting for the mailman to come up on the elevator

"The suspense is killing me!"

Getting ready to rip it open

Treasure

Oohing and aahing over each new animal

Divvying up their treasure (they've practically got a zoo now)

The sight of these candy bars inspired Gabriel to begin singing, "America the Beautiful." Notice - he had already started eating!

High school excursion

Bright and early Friday morning, all of the high school co-op loaded up on a bus and set off for a long field trip to the east coast. We visited an organic farm operated by a small church out in the country, went hiking on a mountain, and visited the ocean. We were on the bus for about 7 hours total so that gave us a lot of time to talk with the students. I used every game I've ever known to do in the car! Evangeline was sick so Mom stayed home with her; all the rest of us went.

Dad on an old farm tractor

Fermenting kimchi (Fermentation is what gives kimchi its, umm, unique taste!)

Exploring the greenhouses (Every week, we get a box of lettuce shipped to us from this farm.)

The water was freezing, and, of course, we got soaking wet!

The whole gang

Octopus, anyone?

Today, we were invited out to lunch with a Korean family who lives in the country. After being lost for two hours, we finally made it. The food was great, but there was one dish that I was definitely not going to eat - octopus! However, realizing that this could be a once in a lifetime opportunity, I told Gabe I'd try it if he would try it. (Misery loves company, and it's much easier to get yourself into troublesome situations when you have siblings that will cooperate with your plans.) He agreed, and after we each grabbed a tentacle with our chopsticks, it took us several minutes to finally get the courage to chew. In all fairness, Gabe bravely went first, and when I saw he wasn't dying, I followed his example. To my surprise, it really did not taste bad. How would I describe it? Hmmm, maybe "rubbery chicken" would be a good representation. The hardest part was when I bit off one of the tentacles - it's not that the taste was horrible; instead, it was the rather squirmy thoughts "swimming" through my head! Hello, I'm your lunch!

Now, the only thing I have left to try here is dog...

Ja-Jong-Myon

Despite the fact that ja-jong-myon sounds like a character out of Star Wars (possibly related to Jar-jar-binx?), it is actually a type of Korean/Chinese food. Ja-jong-myon are noodles covered with black bean sauce and onions. Though it might seem unappetizing, it is really quite delicious.

In Korea, many of the restaurants offer takeout service; they deliver your food to you on the back of one the numerous motor-bikes buzzing around the cities. Sunday night, I had the lovely idea that we should order ja-jong-myon takeout so I could practice speaking Korean over the phone. Knowing that I was calling someone who wouldn't know a bit of English, I wasn't sure what might end up wiggling through the door (or if it would even arrive at all). Even though the lady talked so fast I sometimes had to take an educated guess as to what she said, it worked. About 15 minutes later, one of the crazy, motor-bike, delivery men drove up to our apartment. How much do you have to pay for all that extra service? Nothing! There is no tipping in Korea, and since noodles in black bean sauce is not exactly an expensive recipe, we are hoping to repeat the project again soon!

Ja-jong-myon and radish kimchi

The noodles try to attack you sometimes - you have to learn to use your chopsticks to defend yourself!

Recovering from the attack

Slurp, slurp (an Asian tradition)

Party Time!

Last night (Friday), we were supposed to have an open house for the entire high school co-op and their families. However, it ended up not being a very good night for some of the families so we postponed it for a couple weeks. Instead, Dad and Mom were invited out to dinner with a Korean couple so Mom gave us permission to invite any of the high school students who were available over for a time of games (and dessert- you wouldn't believe how much they love our homemade desserts. It's not uncommon to see plates stacked with 5-10 cookies, brownies, etc.!). We had about ten high school students along with the 6 of us kids. We played several different kinds of games, and we were laughing so much! The expressions that the Koreans have and the English words they say are so funny to us sometimes. Also, as you spend more time with them, you begin to discover their sense of humor. Here are a few pictures of our games (I wish I had taken more, but we were too busy having fun...)












Notice the blonde in the middle of all the black - and I actually seem tall.













Thinking...













Doo...little thinking he's smarter than everyone else :)













Some of the gang













It's very important to wear glasses when you are blindfolded - otherwise, you might not be able to see well!