Time for a post from the boring half

Since I am the boring one, I will not write much nor will the writing be witty. I will just post some pictures and then get on with it. Here are some pictures from last Sundays adventures.






We had a fun Sunday, we actually took alot of pictures of the palace we were visiting, but these pictures of Morgan were more fun. Doh! I guess I should have posted the boring pics. Ah well.

Bennigan's

Johan & I ate at Bennigan's for the first time last weekend. I'm surprised at the number of American chains there are in Korea (Baskin Robbins, TGI Fridays, Subway, Domino's, Pizza Hut, Papa John's, and Outback, among others). Anyhoo, it was pretty good, although rather expensive. It did include free bread, though! Wooooooo! The bread was pretty good, although not purple like Friday's, which is always a disappointment. It came with a mysterious white spread.
What is it? Too white to be butter, too fluffy to be sour cream (& why would you get sour cream with bread??), and too thin to be cream cheese... tasting it didn't make things any clearer. Weird.
From the pictures, you can see the white substance didn't agree with Johan... Luckily it didn't seem to have an effect on my looks.

I had a Monte Cristo, simply because it sounded so weird: a ham and turkey sandwich, dipped in batter and deep fried, sprinkled with powdered sugar, and served with rasberry preserves. How can that be right?? So I ordered it, and it was pretty good, and I'm pretty sure it was fairly healthy, too. Batter-fried? Powdered sugar? Yes, please!
The powdered sugar grew on me, but the jam added nothing to the overall taste experience. I came home and looked it up, and it turns out the powdered sugar is normal, and Bennigan's is known for serving Monte Cristos. Good thing I had my first one from a reputable source, and not from some sketchy street person or something, because it could have ended badly. Instead I took the leftovers home, and ate it for the next two days. The powdered sugar was at the peak of pallat pleasingness later on the first day, FYI. By the second day, it had like melted into the bread. Maybe I should write a letter to Bennigan's about this issue? Thriftily, yet resourcefully, I'm using the rasberry jam with my peanut butter sandwiches. It's quite good when not paired with meats.

Johan's Seoul Burns With Hunger

Johan is always hungry. It's really embarrassing, because he's always eating inappropriate things. Like this temple in Japan, on our trip in May:

Or this very large Buddah, also in Japan:

Or these berries, ALSO in Japan (he was especially hungry that week we were in Japan. Sightseeing does burn a lot of calories, but STILL):

But he gets hungry in Korea, too:

& to wash it all down, he drinks four glasses of beer at the same time!

Unbelievable! Sometimes he eats normal foods, too:

& by "normal" I mean "gross dried fish."

Seoul Caliber II

The other day there was a protest outside the American Embassy in Seoul. It was very exciting. There were like 30 protesters and 50 police officers in full riot gear. Apparently, Condoleeza Rice was in town to give a speech, and the people were protesting the US sactioning North Korea for the nuclear test. I think. You can see all the police lined up in back in the picture. Protests always put me in a good mood. Like I'm an activist, saving the world. Yes, even if I'm not in the protest, just walking by. Good enough for me.North Korea's army:
Scary, but the fact that they need to be plugged in gives them limited mobility, thank goodness. So we're safe for awhile...

Chuseok

The other night we went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner. When we left, the server gave each of us a bag full of bread. 12 loaves! For 3 people! We didn't ask for any at all! Johan has been playing with the loaves ever since. He can't believe his good fortune! So much bread!!!!

We've both had the week off work for Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving. Everybody gets giftsets for the holiday (except Johan, who is unpopular). I got a tea set from work. There are sets with tuna, shampoo, toothpaste, or drinks, but most popular are the SPAM sets:
All the Korean teachers at work got spam, tuna, and grapeseed oil sets, with a lovely canvas SPAM carrier bag. All the foreign teachers were jealous (and by "all" I mean "none").

[insert funny Seoul pun here]

Johan bought a new camera today. Here's a picture of my old camera & Johan's new camera kissing:











Mine is an N50, and Johan's is a D50!!! Can you believe it?! Such a coincidence!!!! I'm expecting "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" to call any minute now. Probably, next time you go to one of those museums (although why would you? They're pretty crappy), you'll see an exhibit about us.

Uhh... in other news, in my class (at my job which I have quit (but am working at for another month, stupid notice)), we get these cards for phrases in English and Korean, like, "Copy from the blackboard" (which is ironic, as we only have whiteboards) or "This is homework." We were recently given this one:

How do they expect me NOT to steal it?? I've never used any of the cards, but another teacher used this one, and her whole class started laughing, so I guess it's just as funny in Korean. It is so typical of my job, that they make 20 copies of something in English BEFORE they check with a native speaker. They have made copies of all the tests for the entire year at my school without proofreading them first. The test I gave last week had some questions that had more than one right answer, one with no right answer, and a few more with grammatical mistakes. It drives me crazy (which the kids call me all the time anyhow. Bastards).