Another week

Well another week has past and that means we are another week closer to leaving and I still have done nothing to get organised. I think a lot has to do with this game call Boomshine that someone sent to me. Here have a play! http://www.k2xl.com/games/boomshine/ - Watch out it is highly addictive!

Well we had two birthday parties this weekend, both at the same time. So Paul went one way with Emily and I went the other with Claudia. I hit the jackpot - good food. Paul got the not so good party with little kiddy chairs and no food for grown ups. After the party Claudia and I went to the markets to get some fruit and veges. I love going to the market because you can get really fresh food and it is always such an adventure. It was cold, I mean really cold and Claudia whinged her guts out, but I had fun and just kept putting food in her mouth. Here are some shots I took (yes I take the camera everywhere).

Don't these look delicious? Wrong, as Miss Corky found out the hard way - filled with bean paste. Bean paste is the biggest disappointment of Asia. You will see this lovely looking donut or cake, you bite into it thinking you are about to taste something amazing and yuck, you get a mouth full of warm, lumpy bean flavoured goop.

These are not sticks for the fire, these are an ingredient in Korean cooking. Never been quite game to give these a go. I have no idea how you would prepare it - do you need a hammer or a saw?

Another one of my greatest frustrations in Korea - shoes that I can not buy. the biggest size you can get here is 250 and my size is 255. Trust me I have tried to squeeze my feet into them, but I always regret it after I have bought the shoes. I stand in the shop and think, "I can do this, I can handle the pain." I then wear them once home and hobble. I have resigned myself to the fact that I will never get shoes to fit me here........but they are so pretty.

Fish is such a key component to Korean cooking, I just can't cope with the taste. The fish here has a really strong taste and lots of bones.

This is crab kimchi. It is marinated in this mixture of soy, vinegar, chilli and herbs. It is raw!!!!! Paul got put on the spot at a work function and has to try this. I just looked at hime sucking this hot raw crab into his mouth. I felt for him and when he swallowed it, and smiled, I was so proud of him. Anyway they do onions the same way, and they are amazing, but crab - not thanks.

These turning symbols represent a barber in the western culture -not in Korea!!!! They are brothels. So if you are ever in Korea, don't make the mistake of thinking you will get your hair cut. The amazing thing is that they are everywhere!

Feel like some meat?

I am offically old!

We had our school dance on Saturday night and it is officical - I am old! I had to chaperone and I didn't know any of the songs! It brought back so many memories of the Churchie dance, although Korean kids are not big dnacers!

I have put a few shots I took on the night. I was offical photographer. I haven't edited these yet, they need some serious colour work, but I wanted to show how serious the kids took it. Now this was a dance, not a formal or a semiformal! Girls had dresses made and their hair done. I helped a girl cut a price tag from her shoes and they cost 258 ooowon, which is almost $300!

It was stuffy day on Friday - you bring your stuffed toy to school. Anyway, here are my cuties with there stuffed toys. Claudia's hair looks bad beacause I had to hide the infamous goop.

Goop

Goop out - nail polish remover softened it and then 2hrs in the shower combing conditioner through it got it out! Lucky I don't pay the bills! In the end I stuck a lolly pop in her mouth to stop the crying.

Claudia, Claudia, Claudia!

You can only love them! Claudia got this wonderful bouncing goop for Valentines Day from her teacher. She loved it and played with it all afternoon. She loved it so much she took it to bed with her (Paul and I did not know this fact!) When she woke up this morning she not only had a massive knot of goop in her hair but it was stuck to her ear and down into the actual earhole!

I spent most of the morning digging goop out of her ear. I did not have time to get to the hair - that is tonight's job. You can't see it too much but it is a big clump about the size of a 50 cent piece. Fun, fun, fun.

She got to school, with goopy hair and at 10am I get a call from the school nurse - there is pink stuff coming out of her ear - great, we need to dig more out!

I tell you life is never dull with Claudia around.

Keeping updated.

Well we are all still sick, but the girls are getting better. Paul now has the flu, and funny he seems so much worse than the rest of us - hmmmm. Must be that modern medical marvel - the Man Cold. In his defense, he did take fantastic care of us all. I seem to have bronchitus ( Ican't spell, I teach art!) and am now on some antibiotics, which are helping me feel much better.

No more sick talk. I have some photos from our trip to the Markets before we all got sick. We have just discovered this market hidden away in an alley. They sell lots of fresh fruit and veges, meats and other strange items that are required in Korean cooking. Here are some of my snaps.

Some people buy there meat here - we have and it is always good quality and fresh. This is sulgogi meat which is usually used in Galbi (Korean BBQ). I also have a recipe to cook this one at home and it is good. Don't be mistaken, some of that meat may look like bacon - oh no it is not. It may be the same cut as bacon, but is not smoked!

This is just a small selection of the different types of Kimchi available. some is good, some is ok. Some is just plain nasty. If it is red, it is really hot! I used to think Kimchi was only for cabbage but there are so many varieties. I think it is like pickling here. Anyway there are many varieties - below is Claudia's face when we suggested she try some Kimchi!

This is dduck (not a typo). Dduck is a pastry made from rice. It is chewy and really good. These snacks are soooooo good. Inside each little ball is a mixture of honey and sesamie seed. Koran's eat these on special occasions.

I have idea what the Korean name for these fish is but the Ciempka's call them penis fish. Gosh I wonder why? Anyway you can order them at most Seaafood restaurants. You will be able to tell what is a seafood restaurant in Korea, it is the shop surrounded by fish tanks. You then choose whcih seafood you want and it is cooked to order. I am thinking I may never have the courage to eat one of these little buggars.

These are dried little fish that they make into a salad side dish. I made the fatal mistake of trying this salad once - I think it is what Whiskars may takes like but only crunchy. Anyway cool photo - revolting to eat.

I love this shot of Em, a bit out of focus, but cute. She is trying to run away from me as I try to take her photo. I love it because she looks so sweet and innocent admist a all the business of the market.

Talk about highs and lows!

We are currently on Lunar Vacation now. Which is the same as Chinese New Year. Don't ask me to explain much more than that because I don't understand it. All I know is last year was year of the pig and this year is year of the rat -hmm what lovely animals. We have 10 long days off and that is great. One of the parents of the school invited us (the staff) to go skiing with them. This was a generous offer as they paid for everything! Ski hire, lift passes, meals, transport. I was blown away at their kindness. We went off the to ski field Young Pyong. It is the site of the next Winter Olympics. It is about 2 & half hours from Suwon. It is like another part of the world.

We had a fantastic day. It had been almost 12 years since I had last skied, and I am happy to say it didn't take me long to get back into the swing of it. Paul has had a few trips to the ski fields this year so he is starting to look like a skier. The dark horse of the Ciempka family was Emily. This was her second time on skis and by the end of the day she was skiing with me down the harder slopes. She has no fear and it blew me away how quickly she took to it. Claudia is not a skier. She cried through her whole lesson and spent the afternoon in the hotel room playing - maybe next time?

Claudia and our generous host Mrs Baek.

This was before I even put the skis on her feet - snow is cold, and according to Claudia anything that is cold is bad. I told her ice-cream is cold and she just looked at me with the evil eye. She also doesn't like skiing becasue she is a little girl and you shouldn't make little girls do dangerous things.

We all fell into bed on Monday night exhausted only to wake on Tuesday morning sick as dogs. Well the Ciempka girls are sick as dogs. Emily, Claudia and myself have had fevers now for 3 days and I think it is just a bad case of the flu. Claudia and I are starting ot improve, but Emily is still really sick. I haven't been able to crack her fever yet, here's hoping it happens today. Because it is Lunar all the doctors are on holidays, and if we want her to see a doctor we have to take her to the hospital. I am not sure she is bad enough for that, but she is not improving at all. Bloody Lunar holiday. Mind you if I take her to the doctor I will need to take a translator with me and our school nurse is away on a trip, so I would have to hit up a neighbour. Any Korean speakers would be celebrating Lunar with their families (Lunar is as big as Christmas here). AAGGGGHHH!!!! Lets hope her fever breaks today?

Let me just say that this was not how I planned to spend my holidays.

Emily really did not want me to take this photo - can't understand why?

This is Claudia's best sick look.

We have some very dear friends here and we have been supplied with pots of chicken soup and jelly and all other sorts of things ot make us feel better. Thank you Karen J and Karen W, we would have starved without you, or worse still have to have eaten Paul's cooking! I think this photo shows how the soup was made with love!