e-mail update

Well, I didn't really have anything special to blog about.  It has just been a while since I've written anything so I thought I should.  I noticed that the last time I logged into my blog to update it it was all in Korean.  I figured that it was just because I was using the laptop and it didn't have the cookie on it.  Sometimes if I clear everything and try to go to google it will come up in Korean and I have to click the link to get google in English.  Well, blogger is now affiliated with google which is convenient in a lot of ways, but I didn't see a link to get it in English.  I was able to muddle through it and make the changes I wanted to make, but it was kind of a pain in the neck.  Well, now I'm using a different computer and it's all in Korean too.  I don't know what I did wrong!!  I think it must be going off the IP address or something.  Blogger offeres the capability to post to your blog via e-mail, but I didn't know the address I was supposed to send it to.  Fortunately, I can read Korean and I can understand it as long as it it a word I already know or a cognate.  If it isn't, you can forget it - I can sound it out all day and still not know what the heck it means.  I had to get out the dictionary and look up the words on the thermostat to figure out how to control the heat and hot water. Anyhoo, if you sound out the characters, e-mail is pretty much the same in Korean as in English, so I clicked on that link and it came up with the address I needed.  Yay!  I've been meaning to try that out anyway.

Cliff and I went to see 300 last week.  A whole group of us went.  We went to the Korean theater at I-Park and got tickets for the VIP room.  It's got seating for about 30 people.  The seats are set up by twos with a small table between them.  The seats don't have much more padding than a regular theater seat.  But other than the lack of padding, it's nice because it's basically a recliner so you can kind of stretch out and relax.  There's plenty of room between the seats and it's all stadium seating so no matter where you sit you get a good view of the screen.  We didn't have a camera with us otherwise I'd have taken a picture.  I guess that means we'll just have to go back soon.  : )  A free drink is included in the price, but there is also a menu of snacks for you to choose from which seemed to be reasonably priced.  There's also a couple of buttons on the table you can press for the attendant to bring you water or a beer.  We didn't know it, but they will also bring you a pillow and a blanket.  How awesome and cozy is that?!   You'd think you'd pay a fortune to get in there, but it really wasn't that bad.  It was 25,000 won per person which is about $27 with the current exchange rate.  It's what, $9 or so for an evening show on average in the States now?  Plus, at least $3.50 for a drink.  It was worth the extra bit of money for tableside service and not being crammed into a packed theater for a brand new movie.  For me, anyway.  Cliff really enjoyed the movie.  I liked it, but not as much as he did.  I really liked the story behind it and the historical aspect and if they had stuck to that, I'm sure I would have liked it a lot more.  I just didn't like the ogres and other creatures that they had in the movie.  That obviously wasn't realistic and detracted from the story, I thought.  We also saw a movie on post this weekend - Shooter with Mark Wahlberg.  This time Cliff didn't care for it as much as I did.  He thought it was too different from the book or something.  I know they did change some things, but I still thought it was good.  I read the book about four or five years ago, so I didn't remember the storyline exactly anyway.  The book is almost always better than the movie anyway.  I think Mark Wahlberg did a good job.  He has turned out to be a much better entertainer than you would have suspected back in his "Marky Mark" days.

Well, that's about it.  Have a great day!

And the winner is...

TEXAS! The decision has finally been made and we will head there this summer. It was a very, very hard decision to make, but we thought Texas would be better for us in the long run. The only thing that makes me sad about it is that we have lots of friends in the DC area and it would have been nice to live close by and visit them more often. Other than that, I had no real desire to live there even though there would have been a lot of jobs to choose from.

Now I can get excited about building the house again. I spent all weekend looking at flooring and kitchen appliances and such. I love the look of hardwood floors, but I just don't know if that's the way I want to go. I'm a little worried about Charley's claws scratching it up and the upkeep that will be required. It's also a lot more expensive than tile. The problem with tile is that Ang said their house echoes because of it. Of course, I can put area rugs down to tone down that effect. I'm also trying to decide on whether or not I want a gas or electric stove. I prefer to cook with gas. I also think gas stoves have more aesthetic appeal, but there aren't any natural gas lines in the area so we would have to have a propane tank installed. Then, we'd have to worry about having it filled and inspected and so on. It just seems a little expensive and extreme just so I can cook with gas. We could also have a gas dryer and water heater though so it would be a little more justifiable. We can use the money we save by going with tile rather than wood floors to offset the cost of it. : ) Gosh, there is just so much to think about!

Snow?!

Well, I spoke too soon about the mildness of our winter here in Seoul this year. The temperature dropped into the 20s last night and this morning there were teeny tiny flakes of snow coming down. I think it is supposed to stay cold all week. Poor Charley. We got all his hair shaved off yesterday. He absolutely hates to be brushed and once it gets to a certain length it will start getting matted, so we get it all cut off. We like our room to be cool while we sleep so we normally leave the door leading out to the patio open and the patio window open a little as well so it was pretty chilly last night. We put one of those little dog shirts on Charley to help keep him warm, but I think he was still cold because he kept scratching at the bed which he usually doesn't do. I think he was trying to fluff up the blankets so he'd be warmer. I ended up getting up and putting a throw blanket around him, but early this morning I could feel him shivering against my back. I made him get under the blankets with me and curled myself around him. I felt so bad for him! He must have been really cold because he stayed there and he usually doesn't like to sleep under the blankets. I shut the patio doors and turned the floor heat on before I left so the house will be warm for him. We don't turn it on very often because it heats things up so well that it's usually too hot for us even at the lowest setting. If the apartments above and below us have their heat on, it's usually warm enough for us in our apartment.

I finally got to see my friend Hak Sun yesterday. It has been over a year since I last saw her. Every time we have made plans to get together something has always come up. She's busy with school and I am busy with work so it is hard to come up with a time that is good for both of us. Anyway, we were going to have lunch and then see a movie, but then she suggested an art exhibit at the Kukje Gallery so we did that instead. Allissa went with us and we all had a really great time. There was a restaurant at the Gallery called "The Restaurant" which we both found amusing. We had lunch there. It was really good and looking at the menu I thought the prices were lower than I had expected for a rather upscale restaurant. We discovered why once we were served. The portions were tiny! Allissa had pasta, so her meal was normal sized, but Hak Sun and I shared a scallop salad appetizer and a sirloin meal. There were only two slices of steak with some salad. It was pretty artistic though. There was a toadstool made out of a cherry tomato half dotted with a cream sauce on an asparagus stalk. It was glued to the plate with a bit of mashed potato. It was really cute! I should have taken a photo of it, but we had already started eating before I thought of it. The scallops on the salad were excellent. Everything was really good - there just wasn't much of it. We did get a nice, crusty dinner roll so that helped fill us up a little. There was also a starter of a bit of seared tuna with a sprig of frisee lettuce. That should have clued us in that the meal was going to be small because the tuna was about an inch square. We were going to order something else to eat such as the pasta Allissa had but by then the kitchen was closed except for desserts so we decided we would wait until we got to the cafe later. The exhibit was pretty good. There were four artists exhibited there. I think my favorite one was the first one whose work we saw. When you first look at it it looks like a bunch of cute Korean kids floating around and it has mainly pastel colors so it looks like a nice sweet piece. When you get close and look at all the figures individually though it is really rather violent with them stabbing each other and cutting heads off and things like that. I didn't like the violence of it so much, but I liked that exhibit the best because of the way it changed depending on your perspective. I also really liked the exhibit by Hye Rim Lee which was a computerized animation type artwork. After we went through the exhibits we went to the cafe and hung out there and had coffee and talked for a while. It was a really nice time. We had the waitress take a photo of us. Allissa and I held our hands the way a lot of young Koreans do when they take photos. We tried to anyway. The palm is supposed to be facing out, not in. By then, it was getting late so we walked to the subway and took the train home. Hopefully, we will be able to get together again soon.