Adventure is my middle name

I have a student called KiHoon (he's middle school so about 15 or 16) who says that every time he comes into class, even if I just had a class with him an hour ago.  So cute.  He's one of my favourites.  And there's JuHwan, and SeungJin, and the one whose name I can't remember but who owns these glasses. Did you know that Korean names are alway 3 syllables? First syllable is the family name... Kim or Lee which I think is actually just 'I' but it's like 'U' and there is some need to add a consonant at the beginning of it, or Park, which could actually be Baek,  but I'm sure I'm confusing you.  And to make it even more confusing, a woman does not change her family name when she marries so there is no Mr and Mrs Lee or Bro and Sis Park.... ANYWAY... After the first syllable  family name then there are 2 more syllables for your given name.  As above.  So I write them with 2 capitals but no space in between.  I don't know if everyone does that...

Bing Su is a traditional dessert that I was told about fir ages before the sisters and I had it with an investigator a few weeks back.  It is shaved frozen milk, and it's piled up with usually fruit on the top.  But sometimes this powder that looks like malt, but is actually bean powder. (this isn't the actual photo of my first bingsu - i lost that one but this chocolate one has become our favourite since then!) And there's a surprise of red bean mush at the bottom.  If you want to eat Korean, you need to get used to the idea of sweet red beans.  They're in ice creams and bread rolls and donuts and bingsu! They're everywhere in the summer apparently and I already see most coffee shops and the McD equivalent Lotteria have it on the menu. this is one I shared with Flora - the dark stuff is the bean mush: They seem like a dessert to share because they always seem to come piled high.  We had just one between the 4 of us!   And here ar...

To be perfectly honest I had not had Korean food at all really before I came.  I had bulgogi at the Hamilton night market, and it was quite spicy and I liked it.  But that was about it and probably about as authentic as dominoes is to Italian pizza. So here are my observations of Korean food.  Sorry very few photos as I haven't eaten out that much.  I'll do better though in future, I promise! A lot of soups and stews... All very moist and slow cooked in general.  And I've just been told by sis Collyer's sister who served her mission in Taiwan that they don't use spoons there and it's true, you use a spoon here a lot.  A lot of spice!  Hot hot hot! And Koreans assume that foreigners will not like it hot.   Side dishes.  There is the main, and on the table at the same time will ALWAYS be little bowls of vegetables in varying states of fermentation and pickling.  Radish, which is a large white crunchy vegetable, cabbage both...

yes, consider this your warning, this post involves description (but no photos) of almost public nudity.... before we start I think its time we all just admit and accept taht I don't do capital letters.  and I don't really do spell checking very well.  Its not that I don't notice them errors, trust me I do, but I just can't be bothered fixing them.  and for someone who cares so much about the beauty of the visual, I am surprised how 'not pretty' my entries are... anyway, its just not important to me atm. ok is that enough room to shield from any unintended exposure? so yesterday I finally got to go to the Mokyotang (or JimJilBang?) with the sister missionaries.  they invited me to go with them weeks and weeks ago but one thing or another always got in the way since they can only go on P day.  Apparently they aren't allowed to go in the Busan mission but here it is fine. I know!  I was shocked that missionaries would be allowed, but I hear...

So I've managed to stay away from all the new korean bugs but today I couldn't avoid it any longer.  Just a sinus/cold thing.  Low fever, sore throat, super tired.  So S wrote me a message and sent me to the pharmacy to get this: Don't know what the bottles are (which are warm, btw - "it's better"). but the others are for throat and nose... But the big thing is it all cost only W6000!!! I'm feeling like NZ is ripping us off just too much. 

Ok so I don't know if they were originally Korean ideas or not but here we go. Keypad / password entry instead of keys.  Great idea I say! Hold your bus card up to a spot on the bus stop screen to check your balance. The flat fold up spoon at Burger King! Strategically placed rocks to cross the river/stream while still letting the water through. Exercise equipment all over the place freely accessible.  Of course most of it seems to do very little actual excercise but the potential is there! Shop opening hours - very generally from 11am-11pm.... And businesses like hair dressers too so you can actually do things you need to do after work!  Brilliant I reckon! Smoothies.  They're different to smoothies in NZ.  Also called snow, any variety of 'cino' like yogocino, and sometimes frappe.  All are ice blended and usually fruity.  Not as heavy as the yogurt or ice cream based milky ones I remember at home. ...