Much to be thankful for

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. Just like last year, we had planned to go to my boss's house for a potluck. Unlike last year, I was able to contribute. I cooked up two batches of Dubuisson sweet potatoes, and Bobby made a Mt. Dew cake. Also different this year: we brought a friend! I am grateful to have made friends over the past year, and it was wonderful to share Thanksgiving with them. Dinner was a nice mishmash of good food, good liquor, conversation, and karaoke, which I'm finding is a fixture at all parties in Korea, American or Korean. Here they call it norebang (karaoke is a Japanese word, which Koreans try to avoid).

My birthday is tomorrow, but I've already received my presents. I got some fabulous boots from my parents, along with some clothing and an autographed copy of Greg Mortenson's book. Greg is a personal hero of mine; he is fighting terrorism in the middle east by building schools. I firmly believe that education is the key to a free democratic society, and Greg is trying to prove that. My dream job is to one day help build libraries where Greg builds schools. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

This morning, Bobby retrieved an Amazon box from base. It was kind of slim, and I opened it to find a bread machine cookbook. Bobby told me he would get me the bread machine for Christmas. I was actually kind of fooled, but then he got the machine from the car.

I have wanted a bread machine for awhile now, and it was astute of Bobby to decide to get me one now. I used to live two doors down from a bakery, and now there is almost no source of good, fresh bread. Sure, Korea is littered with bakeries, but they concentrate on Korean pastries: sweet cakes with bean paste or cheese and sausage laden crusts. There are no baguettes or artisan breads. Now, I can make my own with little effort.

Clearly, I have much to be thankful for. Here's to another year in my fortune filled life.

My bread machine

These boots were not made for wearing in the house,  so don't tell my landlord

Pyeongtaek

Well, I need new work pants. There are a ton of places to buy clothing in Daegu, but many of them have no fitting rooms and I am often too tall and thick for Korean clothes. We decided to skip the hassle and go to Osan Air Base, which has the closest thing to an American shopping mall on the peninsula, or so we hear. There's a free bus that goes from Camp Walker to Osan every day.

It was a four hour bus ride, but once we got to Osan we encountered a store resembling a Target. I have to say, I have missed my big box stores (sorry, small businesses). They had everything, including a large Misses clothing section. I found my pants, and we decided to explore Pyeongtaek while we waited for our bus out.

There is a nice shopping area outside of Osan, though it's very similar to what we have in Daegu. I was able to buy some super cheap socks, mittens, and a pillow. Pyeongtaek has a much higher concentration of Americans, which is no surprise given their proximity to Osan Air Base and Camp Humphries, both of which are larger than USAG Daegu. The stores had American sizes, and everyone gave prices in dollars.

The highlight of our day was when we decided to try a Brazilian steakhouse. It was an experience. I'm not a big meat person, but Bobby is, and he found a lunch right up his alley. We paid a flat fee for “weekend lunch,” and received a couple of plates for the salad bar. When we finished our plates, the waiter brought us steaks. Then veal. Then some kind of flank steak on a stick, chicken and beef bits wrapped in bacon, more flank steak, chicken, sausage, garlic encrusted beef ribs, and more flank steak. I am inclined to believe that there was more meat in our dinner (and the chain's website says something about 15 meats), but I started refusing courses after four and Bobby had to stop after this. The waiter then brought us a pineapple on a stick encrusted with cinnamon, and cut a sliver for each of us. We spend the rest of the afternoon joking about our meat on meat lunch with meat on the side. I don't think I need to try that again, though I suspect that Bobby will want to.

Fortified with meat, we took another four hour bus ride back. A year ago, I would never have imagined myself traveling four hours to visit a more expensive version of Target. I would travel twice that for a good Mexican restaurant!

The Autumn Leaves

Since we live next to a mountain, I have eagerly anticipated the changing leaves. And then, I missed them. I'm not entirely sure how this happened. It seems like one minute, the leaves were green, and the next they were brown. I have a couple of theories:

1. The mountains are to the north and south of me, so the light never hit them right.
2. The leaves don't turn fiery spectacular colors like the ones on base.
3. I've been working too damn much.

I think it's some combination of the three. I did catch some of the leaves on our street, which were cherry blossoms in the spring. In the fall, they get lovely red leaves. If I ever have a yard, I'll be sure and plant some wild cherry trees in it.

I do work a lot. I have somehow adopted this evil schedule where I work Tuesday through the following Sunday, take Monday off, then work till Friday, and take a three day weekend. Of course, there are often meetings and other hoopla that come up on Mondays, so I'll pop in for them. On paper, it sounds nice to have a three day weekend every other week, but the preceding 10 day stretch is just too much for me. I know, I know, Koreans work 6 days a week. I'm just not cut out for it.

In other news, we've been here a year now! Woohoo! A nice celebratory dinner is somewhere in our less hectic future. The time flies, and I find us facing another Korean winter (inject whatever the opposite of woohoo is here.)

I'd be remiss if I ended this post without mentioning Bob. A good friend died last week. Bob Remsburg was like a grandfather to me, and I feel his loss like I would (did) my grandfather's. I'm sorry I can't go to the funeral, but I am saying goodbye in my own way. Bob Remsburg, thanks for everything.

Bob and Mary Remsburg and Bobby at our wedding

The last time we were all together.  That's Bob in the back.

The cherry trees changing color.

That's today.  The red comes from the setting sun, I think, 'cause it's pretty much all gray now.

I think she's too big to be a lap dog, but Bobby begs to differ

My Trip to YUMC

On Thursday, I was reminded that Korea is an easy place to be an English speaking foreigner. I developed this godawful pain in my abdomen very suddenly on Thursday morning. I have never felt anything like it. While I was making a scene, Bobby frantically called Mr. Pan and had him cover for me. I happened to know that Yeungnam University Medical Center is close to our house—well, there's no happen about it. It's, of course, very important to know your closest hospital, and I had this scenario worked out in my mind shortly after we moved in. Anyways, Bobby helped me hobble to the car and we took off. When we got there, I made it to the international reception desk, which has a bevy of translators. A nice lady took me to see a gastroenterologist, and by the time we got into the office the pain was very manageable. I felt silly being in a hospital for it. Nonetheless, they gave me a once over and got an extensive medical history. The doctor actually spoke English as well. I left with medicine for an ulcer and gastritis. I guess they were covering their bases.

The medicines are Korean, but they worked well. The pain has disappeared, and I'm glad it wasn't my appendix. That was my first thought. In the back of my mind, I keep remembering when the Chinese herbalists in Beijing asked me if I had poor circulation and pains in my stomach. I wonder if the two are related. I have been consulting my good friend internet, and poor circulation may also finally explain to me why my legs hurt so badly sometimes. They have done so my entire life, and I'm completely clueless as to what brings it on. I wish I could find an oriental clinic here with an English speaker. I will have to start questing.

Okay, full stop.  Going to the hospital was my wake up call about dealing with stress.  Since we got back from China, I have been working nonstop.  Literally.  I did not take a day off until I was forced to.  The thing is, I'm still learning this management thing.  I have always had the opinion that if you don't like something, you stop complaining and change it.  Now that I have some power, I feel obligated to fix all of the problems.  I am finding that this is a little beyond my limits as a human being, and I need to learn how to step back a bit and pick my battles.  I hope this isn't my first step towards "jaded-bureaucrat-collecting-bloated-salary-for-a-living."