So long... for now

I am leaving for Thailand in two days.. less than two days- a day and a half. I am sorry I have been slacking on the blog. Life isn't really nonstop excitement like you might think it would be. Once I am back from Thailand, I will have lots of pictures to post and then I will post the random pictures of Korea that I have stashed away on my camera.

To hold you over, here are some pictures of my lovely dogs. My mom is graciously caring for them while I am away.....

The weather is getting cold at home. Mom is making sure they stay warm on their walks no matter how silly they look.


New beds for the doggies. They appear to love this new life of luxury at mom's house. Look at arnie's picture and you see Chowly is stuffed into a little bed while arnie has this huuuge bed!!


And finally... the top picture is the current weather in Seoul and the bottom picture is the weather in Bangkok. Goodbye cold, hello hot weather!!


So long! see you in 2010!!!!

My stomach is turning...

So my usual BBQ has turned into my taste test place. Last week, he brought out pig intestine and cow stomach. Reluctantly, I tried both. This week, thinking it went so well last time, he asked us to try pig skin. I mean, I love some pork rinds, but grilled pig skin??? I'll have to say, it was the worst of the three in my opinion. It was basically a sheet of fat that we grilled. It did not have a ton of flavor, but the texture was enough to make me sick. It was chewy and fatty. That's about it.


Pig skin..... or a sheet of fat really.


Pig skin cooking along side our meat.


Pig skin. ew.

In other words..... look how cold it is going to be here next week!!! The temperature drops over 20 degrees in one week. I am going to freeze.



So, Korea apparently has no health regulations. This can be seen all the time with fish and meat sitting out in open containers on the streets for sale, among various other examples. Along with this lack of health regulations, you can have your pets in your restaurant. We have encountered this giant, but sweetest ever dog a couple times at a bar nearby. He just roams the bar and visits the tables to receive love and kisses from the guests.



Soooo cute!

the other white meat....

So Amanda and I, and anyone else at work who is interested, go to BBQ every Friday night at the same place. Well, actually, it was one place, but after going every Friday for two months, we showed up to find the place gutted, and now a bakery is in it's place. Anyway... we have a new place now and we have been going for a few weeks. Every time we go, I see people eating this one kind of meat that I could not quite tell what it was. Last time we went, I described it to he waiter/owner (who speaks pretty good English) and we come to learn that it is pig intestines. He told us his restaurant was famous in the area for this dish. I don't know if this is true, but I always see people eating it, so perhaps.
After getting through the language barrier and finding out what this is, he proceeds to bring us some to try... oh dear lord.... it did not look good. It comes as a tube, no less, and he cuts it into bite size pieces with a pair of scissors right over the grill. After grilling that up, he brought out yet another dish to try-cow stomach. I thought I would die.... I tried both. Actually, neither one had too much flavor to it. They both had a very fatty, very chewy consistency. It wasn't gross tasting, just felt gross to chew. I can't say that I would ever want to eat it again. I'll just stick with my grilled beef please!



This is the pig intestine. Notice the round tube... yup, it looks just like your intestines.


The top part of the grill is our beef. The bottom part is the cow stomach and pig intestines grilling away.


ewww......


This is the owner of the restaurant. Very nice guy. After we went one time, he remembered exactly what we wanted to order and he remembered our names!

Hiking to my death

Today, two friends (and my friend's dad) and I went to Mt. Daedun. It was about a three hour bus ride, but that seemed to go fairly quick since I slept a good portion of the way. What makes this mountain unique, is that it has two suspension bridges linking mountains together. But this trip was especially unique because the weather was below freezing and it was snowing, even hailing at one point. We were told this was a fun, simple hike, but I beg to differ. The hike consisted of climbing steep slippery rocks, and this problem was compounded by the fact they were covered in snow and ice. Perhaps not meant for the inexperienced hikers, like us. Overall, despite the wind, snow, and freezing temperatures, it was very fun and the views were beautiful.



This is me on the bus as we are departing the subway heading for the mountain.


This is our tour guide. He told us he called the office at the mountain and they said it was not snowing. LIES!


This is the snow ball I made at our rest stop. It was definitely snowing as we got closer to the mountain.


A Christmas tree!! At home Christmas stuff is everywhere, but that's not the case in Korea. Some places have decorations, but not nearly like it is at home. This was at the rest stop where we took a quick 10 minute break during our three hour bus ride.


This is a view of the countryside from the bus.


This is a view of the mountains.


First, we all had a quick lunch.


This is the view from the cable car. When you get to the mountain, you can take a cable up most of the way and then hike the rest. You have the option to hike it all, but I don't recommend it in snow.


I am not a fan of cable cars, especially ones over packed with people.


I don't care for cable cars. Something about being strung hundreds of feet over the ground by a simple wire does not sit well with me.


One view of the mountains.


A path up a moutain?? One of many, many typos in English translations.


A view from the hike.


This monk was in the freezing cold banging on a drum. I'm not sure why, I could not read the sign. But he had to be frost bitten. It was FREEZING!!!


This is me along the hike. I had so many layers on that I actually wasn't all that cold. My face got cold and when the wind was blowing it was cold, but overall, I was ok.


We are working our way towards one of the bridges.


This is the second bridge. At a steep 70 degrees, it was not fun climbing covered in snow and ice.


This is me on the first bridge. The wind was blowing quite hard, which was making the bridge sway. It's about 100 meters to the ground.....


We tried to pose for a picture on the bridge, but the wind was blowing soooo hard!!


Another attempt to pose on the bridge.



I guess this is an old school cable car. NO THANKS!


Me.


About to climb second bridge.


This is Amanda on the bridge.


Here I am climbing the bridge.


We made it!


Some serious hikers enjoying a nice picnic lunch on the mountain. What a nice day for a picnic!


I reached the top!


A view of our hike back down.


These are some of the rocks we had to navigate. They were extremely slippery being covered in snow.


Me. Amanda. Chrissie.


A view of a not snowy mountain... why weren't we on that one!?


I think the videos explain themselves. Watch for a glimpse into what our hike was like.....























This is a video from the bus of a town we drive through.