Seoul Mates

Cute kids

2007-11-08T20:14:00.000+09:00

I was on a bus last weekend, and I saw some nice photos outside a portrait studio.

Oh! Korean babies are so cute! So much hair! Let's get a closer look!

Oh. Oh my.

40 lashes with a wet noodle.

2007-10-25T20:48:00.000+09:00

What is an eyelash studio, anyhow?!
This is in Osaka, Japan, where I went on vacation a few weeks ago. I tried to loiter inconspicuously, to see somebody come out so I could get a look at their lashes, but the place didn't seem too popular.

Bathrooms!

2007-10-21T11:22:00.000+09:00

The toilets at my school all look like this- no Western toilets, only squatters. Actually, there is at least one Western toilet at my school, but it's used as the storage closet for the mops and stuff. It doesn't work. There isn't any toilet paper in the bathrooms, everyone has to bring their own. The students do the cleaning. I think it's like this in all public schools in Korea- students take a half hour or so each day to clean up the school- mop, clean the bathrooms, take out the trash, etc. You might be surprised by this, but they aren't very dedicated cleaners, and the bathrooms usually are a bit gross. The wastepaper basket in the picture is for the toilet paper- people in Korea throw the paper away instead of flushing it so as not to clog the pipes. I'm a rebel, though, and I always flush my paper. I don't know, I guess I just like life on the edge.
It's funny, because Korea either has the most basic toilets (well... I guess a hole in the ground would be more basic. Whatever. Don't try to use your crazy logic on me.), or the fanciest toilets. There are no etiquette bells in our school bathrooms, either. It's pretty barbaric. People might actually know I'm peeing in there, which disgusts me.

Chic dogs

2007-10-14T17:21:00.000+09:00

A lot of people have little dogs as pets here. Not too many big dogs, since most people live in apartments here in and around Seoul. Often, the dogs' ears, feet, and tail are dyed, like the poodle here. I've seen orange, green, pink, and blue dogs. This sign is from Everland, a Korean amusement park where they have a zoo section. This was part of the dog exhibit, right across from the tigers. Dogs at a zoo?! That's just crazy! & none of the dogs were even dyed. Stylish dogs at a zoo- I can accept that. Plain old dogs... not so much.

Take me out to the ball game

2007-09-29T09:20:00.000+09:00

I went to a baseball game a few weeks ago with Johan and his coworkers Frida, Yacir, and Mattias. The Hyundai Unicorns vs. the Lotte Giants. We wanted to cheer for the unicorns, because who DOESN'T love unicorns?! But we bought tickets for the wrong part and ended up in the Giants section. They won, but man was it boring! The Unicorns had drummers and dancers and a mascot (I got to meet the Unicorn and shake his hoof when I went to the bathroom!!) and a guy leading cheers, and all the Giants had was a guy with a plastic bag and a newspaper pompom.

The worst part (well... the worst part was that it was a baseball game, and baseball is boring. But besides that.) was that they didn't have any hot dogs!! What's the point of a baseball game if there aren't any hot dogs?! Al they had was ramen and fried chicken. Phooey.

Mattias did catch a ball, though! I don't think it was a homerun ball, just a ball a player threw into the stands. But STILL! Definitely the most exciting part of the game! Besides me meeting the unicorn, of course!

(a reenactment of the famous catch)

Pears!Pears!Pears!Pears!Pears!Pears!

2007-09-27T21:19:00.000+09:00

I have a lot of pears. I got a big box of pears from my school for Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving holiday. The Korean teachers got money as a bonus, and I got pears. Suckers!! Fruit is expensive here! I totally got the better deal! Look at how big they are! Almost as big as my face! Although, of course my face IS very small... Don't be fooled by their resemblance to apples- that's how pears look in Korea.

Dog!

2007-09-08T14:13:00.000+09:00

I was showing pictures from my California vacation to my students, and I showed a picture of my dog. "Ooooh, delicious!" said one of the students. We all had a good laugh. Because of course, they do eat dog here sometimes. It's illegal, but the law is absolutely not enforced, and it's very easy to get. I don't think most people eat Boshintang (dog stew) regularly, but I think most people have had it at least once, and some people eat it regularly. I went on a hike with the teachers from my school a few months ago, and afterwards most of the men had boshintang. It's supposed to give you "stamina." I had a bite, just so I could say I've eaten dog. It was diiiiiisgusting. I don't like most meat besides chicken anyhow. People who like it say it tastes like lamb. I just thought it tasted tough and fatty and gross. I was gagging trying to swallow it. Yuck!
In the pot:

About to go in my mouth:

The most exciting thing since sliced bread!

2007-08-25T21:18:00.001+09:00

I know I haven't posted in ages, and that's because nothing exciting has happened. Seriously, NOTHING. Sure, I went to California and Vietnam, but nothing worth blogging about. Until yesterday, that is. Yesterday we met Dr. Fish.

There is a cafe in Gangnam where you can get the Dr. Fish treatment for only 2,000 won (about $2). First you wash off your feet, then you stick them in the tank with lots of tiny fish that eat the dead skin off your feet. It tickles horribly the first few minutes until you get used to it.

It was a surprise for me from Johan. Awwwww, what a sweetie pie! He knows just what I like! We were talking about getting some Dr. Fish of our own, because how cool would it be to have them eat the dead skin off your whole body?!

Lanterns.

2007-05-21T22:41:00.001+09:00

Sunday was the Lotus Lantern Festival in Seoul, to celebrate Buddhas Birthday.
Happy Birthday, Budds!

There were a lot of lanterns, as you might expect at a Lantern Festival.

I dare you to name a religion with a cuter mascot:

I'm totally converting. Buddhists are cool.

Pig headed

2007-05-20T12:35:00.000+09:00

There was a cermony a few weeks ago at my school to give an auspicious start to the new greenhouses and welcome the new animals at the school. We had a sports day for the teachers, and then there was the ceremony. There were offerings on the table of fruit and a pig's head, and people lit incense, bowed, and waved bowls of maccoli around (Maccoli is Korean alcohol).

And then the teachers put money in the pig's mouth (or in his nose sometimes). I don't know what they use the money for. I don't really care, either, because I put in 10,000 won that somebody else gave me, since I didn't have my wallet with me. They can do whatever they want with the money in that case.

The bigger the smile on the pig's face, the more expensive the head is!!

A long day.

2007-05-06T23:41:00.000+09:00

Today I came back to Korea from Hong Kong. It was sad to leave, because there was lots I more to do there. But on the positive side, I did get to spend like six hours at the Hong Kong airport, voted the world's best airport from 2001-2005!!

There was a nice view from the waiting area.
"But Morgan! Why were you at the airport for six hours?!" Well, funny you should ask...
First, it turns out that our tickets were for May 5th, and today was, in fact, May 6th. So that was a slight problem. But the airline was quite understanding, actually, and booked us on another flight. They were less understanding of Johan's single-entry visa to Korea, though. That and his terrorist ties... It took us two hours to get Johan's ticket, because the flight attendants were a bit too thorough in their jobs. Johan only has a single-entry visa to Korea, because he was told he didn't need a multiple-entry visa, but then they said he had to show a return ticket out of Korea, yada, yada, yada.... It was all very complicated, and the shoe bomb Johan had "just to see if he could get away with it" didn't help matters. But we made it home eventually... to Incheon! The 5th best airport in the world in 2006!! Woo!
Goodbye Hong Kong.

Today is Our Last Day in Hong Kong!!

2007-05-05T10:42:00.001+09:00

The goldfish market:

Hanging out with Bruce Lee:

Johan is art:

This was a room at the art museum with wallpaper made up of dirty words. Johan wants to put it in every room in our house.

Hong Kong

2007-05-04T11:26:00.000+09:00

Johan and I are in Hong Kong now! & here's a photo to prove it:

Teaching is hard.

2007-04-19T21:06:00.000+09:00

In my classes this week, we did an art project. The kids (uh, they're high schoolers, but they're still kids to me!) drew menus because we talked about restaurants. It was pretty successful- I had 99% of the kids awake for the whole lesson, which is pretty dang good! Unfortunately, I think after a month and a half, I'm pretty much out of ideas for lessons. And I do the same one for two weeks, so that means that so far I've come up with 3 lessons total.... and I'm seriously all tapped out. Teaching is hard freaking work.
A lot of the boys made blood- and gore-themed menus.

There were some that were just crazily priced

(although this one does offer a reasonable deal on the corn, so you really can't complain!)

There were also many with very jumbled messages, that I can't figure out.

"Two eat don't know one die." The graphic depiction of where the food comes from is nice, too.

Cigarettes for dessert?! I'd rather have "this plus," thank you.

There were lots of "sexy" menus, too.

The sexy water is twice the price, but it's so worth it.

Woe is Seoul

2007-04-15T20:53:00.000+09:00

Yesterday, Johan and I had a big, big day, full of big, big disappointments. We went to Seoul's Best Toilet!!

Well, it was Seoul's best toilet in 2005. I'm not sure it's really kept up the same standards... and if it had, the standards are low. It did have nice marble floors, but they were still grimy and nobody offered to wipe my bottom or spritzed me with any sort of upmarket perfume like I feel should happen in the best of bathrooms. If this is all Seoul's got to offer, I have to say, I'm not that impressed.

After the disappointment of the bathroom, we went to see the cherry blossoms in Yoido Park. Except they were mostly gone. Or we somehow missed them. Or something. There were other nice flowers, but it's cherry blossom time, and that's what I wanted to see. Johan did make a new friend, though.

Then we went to see the 63 building, the tallest building in Seoul (for now... there are plans to big the world's tallest building here very soon! Wooooo!).

We went up to the observation deck, which is only on the 60th floor, which was another major disappointment. I want to be on the top, darn it!

The view was nice and all, but I just kept imagining how much nicer it would have been if we were 3 floors higher. Sigh.

2007-04-11T21:38:00.000+09:00

Johan and I went to Seoul Grand Park on Sunday. It was a little bit rainy, and we had to pay to go into a rose garden with no roses.

It was weird that the map knew exactly where Johan was, and just what he looked like! Hahahaaaaaaaaa.
The Park was nice. We didn't go to the zoo, or the art museum, or the botanical gardens (I think... unless the rose-less park was the botanical gardens, but I don't think so), and we didn't ride on the sky tram, so we need to go back again. We did go to the petting zoo, where we saw llamas and donkies and rabbits and monkies.

Fugly monkies. But cute llamas:

Enriching Our Seouls

2007-04-08T08:23:00.000+09:00

The weekend before last Mirabelle and I went to some museums around Insadong in Seoul. We wrote down where a bunch of art museums were, and we found none of them. But we did stumble upon 3 other museums, so all was well.

First, an art museum, where people had re-thought classic works like the Mona Lisa. Then came the Gahoe Museum, which the lady said was a "Pork Printing" museum when we came in. So we paid our entrance fee, but imagine our disappointment when there was NO PORK to be found. At all. So I don't know what that lady was talking about.

I made Johan a present! It's an amulet of making lover! Dirty!

Then we went to the embroidery museum, which was pretty wild. If you think embroidery is wild, that is.
The museums were in this cute area with traditional-looking houses. When we were walking around, we stumbled onto three celebrity stores.

It was very strange that there would be one, let alone three. It seems really common here to group stores selling identical things together. It's really strange. Like if I wanted to open a store selling celebrity stuff, I'd do it where there were no other celebrity stores, not in a place where there were already two right across the street. Strange! The people working tried to get us to come in and look, but we said we didn't know any of the celebrities, so there was no point. But then one offered us free tea, and we couldn't very well turn that down, right? Mirabelle ended up buying a pair of socks with Jang Dong Gun on them, but they didn't have anything with my favorite Korean star (the only one I recognize), Moon Geun Young. She's the Mr. Pizza model!! I got a free picture, but no socks with her face. Drat.
Then Mirabelle & I had semi-crappy fried chicken, then we went home.
The End.

Morgan? That's "Small Face" to you.

2007-03-30T06:51:00.000+09:00

I keep getting compliments on my small face. What's up with that?! MY FACE IS NORMAL!!!!

See?!?!

I've got Seouliosis

2007-03-16T21:21:00.000+09:00

Yesterday, Johan took me to see "Jump"- a nonverbal Martial Arts play! Wooo! It was a special White Day surprise! We went with Carl & Mirabelle, who are our usual romantic holiday companions. "Jump" involved many cool Tae Kwon Do moves, and some a lot of wacky slapstick comedy. It was super fun, and I even got to touch the grandpa's butt! Score!
Otherwise, I started my new job- I'm officially a high school English teacher. I got the loudest cheers at the welcoming ceremony, simply because I'm a whitey! & the kids usually cheer when I come into class, and tell me I'm beautiful and that they love me. A girl could let this go to her head, if it wasn't for the fact that I know that any non-Korean would get the same treatment. Well, whatever, I still feel super cool and popular.
I've also been getting a strange rash of compliments since I started work. "Oh, I am so envious! Your face is so small!" I assure you my face is a completely normal size, but I've gotten the small face complement (it is definitely a complement, I've asked a lot of people about it) 4 times now, from students and other teachers. Super weird. Apparently it's my "big eyes and high nose" that make my face seem small... It's the same size as Korean women's faces, so I don't know what they're on about. But what the heck, a compliment is a compliment, and I'll take what I can get!
Korean teenagers are impressed with California (I get a lot of "ooooooooooooohs" when I say that's where I'm from. I kinda doubt it would be the same reaction to, say, Oklahoma), although many of them don't seem to know what or where, exactly, it is (multiple people have said it's in Mexico, and they don't usually get that it's a state). They have zero understanding for a woman not wanting to get married. When one class heard I'd been with Johan for almost 4 years, they sang the wedding song, and asked when I was getting married. I said I wasn't, and they were aghast. It's hard to convey that I think marriage is an outdated religious and social construct that gives false hopes of ever-lasting love and is a hetero-normative strategy by THE MAN to keep us down to a group of basic English learners. So I just said I wasn't ready to get married yet. "When will you be ready?? WHEN?! WHY aren't you ready??"

B-Boyz everywhere!

2007-02-19T22:29:00.000+09:00

I haven't posted in awhile, because I wanted to be sure everyone saw the great birthday video Mirabelle made for me.
Anyhow. Since then, Johan & I (& Mirabelle & Carl) went to see "Ballerina Loves A B-Boy" for Valentine's Day. I'm one step closer to become a break dancer...

It was really fun. Otherwise, I got Johan chocolate, most of which turned out to be pretty gross. He got me nothing. What a sucky boyfriend.

Just kidding! Boys don't buy presents for girls on Valentine's Day in Korea! That's what White Day is for, on March 14. What about single people, you ask? That's what Black Day is for, on April 14- the single freaks get together and eat noodles with black sauce and are sad.
& then, we all went to the Korean Folk Village on Saturday. It's a traditional Korean village, and what do you know- they had B-Boyz there, too!

We also rode some fabulous traditional Korean rides.

I don't know why Mirabelle is so excited- it was a Viking Ship ride, and she's a Viking, so she probably rides one every day at home. I guess she was just homesick for Sweden...

I, on the other hand, had never ridden a Panda before. They go way faster than you'd think. Really scary.

Girl Talk!

2007-02-07T23:24:00.000+09:00

Today I went for coffee and a Costco trip with Mirabelle, the newest Swedish girl in Korea (the newest one that I know of... she's been here a month, so odds are that there is somebody newer out there. But if I don't know them, they don't count.) (That should totally be my official motto). Very fun to have some girl time... I try with Johan, but he won't even let me paint his toenails. Nobody sees them! What's the big deal?! He sure likes to gossip, though...
Anyhow. Here's the Happy Birthday video Mirabelle made for me!!! It's the best birthday movie I've ever gotten! & I swear I'm not saying it just because it's the ONLY birthday movie I've ever gotten. It's fantastic!

Back in Korea

2007-02-05T17:10:00.000+09:00

Goodbye Malaysia, Hello Korea! Goodbye vacation, hello everyday life. Goodbye lounging around, sightseeing, and eating great Indian food, hello drudgery. There's a ton of laundry to do, and the apartment is all dusty and messy, and I have to cook my own food and make my own bed now! Blah! I miss vacation!
Our last night in Malaysia, we stayed at the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, which is this restored house from the 1800s where this rich Chinese guy lived.

It was fabulous! There were courtyards, and antiques, and the rooms were all decorated individually.

It made it hard to leave Malaysia. We should have stayed at the crappy places at the end of the trip instead of the beginning. I'll have to remember for next time...

Soon to Seoul

2007-02-02T19:19:00.000+09:00

Tomorrow is our last day in lovely Malaysia, then it's back to cold, non-tropical Korea. We've done all kinds of crazy stuff, including impaling ourselves in the face with these sharp metal sticks, and hooks in our backs and chests for the Thaipusam festival yesterday:

But silly us, we forgot to take any pictures!! We were too deep in our religious trances, I guess. So enjoy the pictures of our fellow participants.

They pulled on our back hooks with ropes, in a very similar manner.

We also have done a lot of shopping, of course! Here's what we bought yesterday:

Yep, that's a muffin pan on the left. A typically Malaysian muffin pan. Johan wanted it. I don't know why.

We also hiked in the rainforests, ate some wacky new fruits and heaps of delicious Indian food, took a gazillion pictures, and saw lots of animals, including snakes, which scared the poo out of Johan.

Happy Birthday to Morgan

2007-01-28T11:33:00.000+09:00

We're in Malaysia now. So far, it's not as nice as Thailand. But maybe we've just been doing the wrong activities?? If so, it's probably Johan's fault. Did you know it was my birthday yesterday, and he didn't even get me a present?! So rude! & so far I've paid for this whole trip!
The hotel we're staying at is not very nice. It's allegedly a 4-star hotel, but I think somebody bribed the guy handing out the stars.
Look at this primitive toilet-seat-of-the-future:

It's called the "backwasher," but why you'd want to wash your back while sitting on the toilet I couldn't tell you. They also have a very sketchy buffet breakfast, and an empty pool. Bastards.
We did have very delicious Indian food yesterday for lunch.

That, however, is not it. This was an alter at a Chinese temple with offerings.
There are a lot of churches, mosques, and Chinese temples here. Johan and I were so inspired by their beauty and the faith of the people that he decided to become a Muslim, and I am going to become Chinese.

Free your Seoul

2007-01-25T16:57:00.000+09:00

Paul + Tamago

Sushi! We went to Raw again last night. We got free deep-fried ice cream like usual, but we also got free Philadelphia rolls and free udon noodles. Yay, free!

The other day these four ladies knocked on the door. I got that they wanted me to come to their church, although I think we established that it wasn't in English, so I was a little hesitant. &, also, I'm pretty much an atheist, too. But then they gave me this:

The nicest free plastic tablecloth I've ever received!! So I'm totally a Christian now!! Or whatever religion they were! Score!

Then, just now, ANOTHER lady knocked on my door & gave me a yoghurt drink!

I'm not sure what she wanted, but I'm totally down with it!

Also, inspired by Mirabelle's luxury-housewife posts, I attempted to make a chocolate pudding cake today.
It turned out like this:

The watery part is chocolate water, which isn't as gross as it sounds. It's like a thin cake raft, floating on the chocolate sea. But quite yummy. Thank goodness. Because Johan & I have to eat the WHOLE THING tonight, since we're going on vacation to MALAYSIA tomorrow! Wooooooooooo!

Pickles Galore

2007-01-23T10:56:00.000+09:00

Soldiers from the Light Infantry, unit 546, Pickle Navy

May 12th, 2006
Dear Diary,
I've been in Korea a week now, and it is just so fun! With every meal, they serve you pickles! At restaurants, you get bowls of pickles, and when you have take out food, they give you plastic packages of pickles. They aren't very tasty.

July 29th, 2006
Dear Diary,
Man! So many pickles! Korean people eat them all the time! Pickles and kimchi! HAHA!

August 2nd, 2006
Dear Diary,
Freaking pickles. I'm so sick of them.

December 5th, 2007.
Dear Diary,
The free pickles are building up in the apartment. They just keep coming and coming... The whole guest room is filled with plastic packages of pickles, and we've started keeping them in the office. I was buried in a pickle avalanche yesterday for four hours before Johan came home and dug me out after hearing my cries. I don't know how many more pickles I can take...

January 12th, 2007
Dear Diary,
More pickles. I heard murmers amongst the pickles in the hall closet earlier. The words "revolt" and "overthrow" were definitely used. The pickles are getting restless, and I'm getting scared...

Pickluary 1st, Year 1 PP (Post-Pickle)
WE HAVE TAKEN OVER!!!!! NOW KOREA, NEXT THE WORLLLLLLLDDDD!!!! PICKLE POWER!!!! DEATH TO PICKLE EATERS AND PICKLE HATERS!!!!

Innocent-looking pickles that come with every meal in Korea. NEVER turn your back on them.

Welcome to the Future

2007-01-21T19:52:00.000+09:00

Last night, I saw the future. & it was a beer pitcher.

It was wicked (I'm trying to sound more Brittish. What do you think, chaps?). It had smoke coming out of a little spout (because who likes smokey beer??), red lights illuminating the beer, and bubbles continually pumping into the beer, keeping it... fresh? I don't know what the bubbles did... besides look totally rad. Duh.

Plus it provides a crazy illusion that you're pouring a whole different liquid out of it, since it's a different color in the glass, without the red lights! Woooo!
It goes with out saying that we ordered another. & then went to sing Norebang, of course.
Kalle assured us many times before we got there that he wouldn't sing, that he didn't like singing, and that he was no good. So imagine my surprise when, as soon as we got in the room, he grabbed the microphone and didn't let go the entire time. He sang his heart out! Although he does look in severe pain in most of my pictures...

Charles does the best death-metal version of "Creep" I've ever heard.

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry.

2007-01-20T15:21:00.000+09:00

Last night I finally found a Korean food that I really like! Chicken galbi! I've been wanting to try it forEVER, and I finally found a place that served it in Youngsan last night, so Kalle, Johan, & I had it for dinner.

It was delectable. Bean sprouts, chicken, and onions, and you grill it at your table.
Afterwards, we had chocolate fondue at Baskin Robbins, which I've also been wanting to try for many a moon.

Also delicious. But wait- what are those red things in the corner?!

Oh right. Tomatoes. Duh.

Window to my Seoul

2007-01-18T22:27:00.000+09:00

This is the view outside the window in the living room. Uh... except less wonky in real life. The buildings are a bit straighter. But you get the basic idea.

Funk Seoul Brother

2007-01-16T09:44:00.000+09:00

Saturday night I went out in Hongdae with Bethlyn. We went to this place called the Spot (you should totally read that review. It gives insightful commentary like, "The Spot is a small basement bar that's rectangular in shape.")
I left the red eyes in the pictures to make them more punk rock.

The first band that played was my favorite. I don't know the name, but I would totally buy their album (& by "buy" I mean "download for free," of course). They were all quite short.

Look at this guy's ashy elbows!
(okay, they don't show up well on my monitor either, but I swear they were ashy)

I hate armpits.

This one band only played for like 10 minutes, behind a screen the whole time. It was weird. I thought they were just warming up, but then they left.
Anyhoo, it was super fun. We danced a bit, talked to some people, some guys got in a fight over Beth and Adrienne, and Beth obsessed over it the whole night & the next day, Beth tried to make out with me, and then we slept together (see mom?! I always told you I was gay!). Unfortunately, only in a snuggly, fully-clothed way, not a hot-lesbian-sex way (never mind, mom!).
The morning after.

I was a bit hungover the next morning, but I met up with another friend, we ate Mr. Pizza (Motto: Made for Women) and KrispyKreme- a sure hangover cure, and explored the new Lotte Department store (motto: "Always with You" With a Light Heart) in Miasamgeori. According to Wired, Lotte is supposed to build the tallest building in the world in Seoul by 2012. By 2012, Korea will have the #1, #3, #6, #9, and #14 tallest buildings in the world. My my. Now I guess we just have #74. What a loser town.
Then I came home, where Johan had a lovely dinner waiting for me of stale tortilla chips and salsa (except I don't eat salsa). Awww, isn't he cute?!

Cookie catastrophe

2007-01-12T19:02:00.000+09:00

The other night, there was a knock on our door. It was nice Korean lady who gave us free milk! She just knocked, gave us a small carton of milk, and left. Johan got a lot of pleasure from the free milk.

I like free milk, too! Today at the grocery store, I bought a liter of milk, and I got 3 free small milks!

Banana, cappacino, and milk flavored! Totally gross, but they were free!
I also decided to make chocolate chip cookies today. I figured out how to use the oven function of our oven/microwave, found a recipe, and got down to business. I was quite excited, because the recipe called for milk, so I used the free milk! & that, my friends, was my downfall. Which was suprising, because I was pretty sure my downfall would be the white powder that I suspected was either baking soda or baking powder, but I couldn't be sure which. No, the milk was the culprit. Because you don't really need milk in cookies. The other recipes I looked at didn't call for milk. I've never made cookies with milk before. should have suspected something was up.

It turns out, I forgot to write down a key ingredient- 3 cups of oats! That's why it called for milk. It's pretty major, since oats should have made up like half the batter. So the cookies turned out not-so-fabulous. Plus, the edges were burnt, but the insides were rawish, giving me a clue as to why I've never heard of a oven/microwave before. I added some more ingredients to the second batch, but no dice. My cookies are a failure. I wasted the free milk. Could life get any worse??

Selling my Seoul

2007-01-11T09:26:00.000+09:00

We're going to Raw tonight!! Wooooooo!

A disturbing (yet strangely titillating...) sign in Hongdae.

When I first came to Korea, I was like, "What's UP with all the swastikas???" Now I'm like, "Swastikas... eh."

(yes, yes, they aren't REALLY swastikas. They're Buddhist swastikas! Who knew the Buddhists were such nazis??)

+ Best tattoo ever!

The Life of the Party

2007-01-10T18:17:00.000+09:00

The other night, we had a party. Just for people from Johan's company, if you're wondering why you didn't get invited... Or if you're from Johan's company and wondering why you didn't get invited... uh... ask Johan.
It was fun. We chitchatted, ate some pizza and Korean cakes Natasha and Soyoung brought, AND I got to show off that I know the word "stethoscope" in Korean!! 5 stars for our party!!
When we (er, Johan) cleaned up the next day, we discovered that like over two-thirds of the beer cans had beer in them still. & many of them were almost totally full! So it seems Johan works with squares who like to appear "hip" and "with it" by drinking. Interesting. From my photos, it also seems that he works with the most red-eye-prone bunch since... nobody! They're has never been a group more prone to red eye in pictures! Ever! I worked for literally minutes trying to fix all their red eyes, but some were impossible to fix (without exerting more than the minimal effort I was willing to put forth, anyway). My Korean friend Maria told me that, "All you Swedish people are so handsome!! Isn't anybody ugly over there??" I told her I'm sure we could find her some.

You think those beer cans on the table are empty, even though I just told you most of them weren't, don't you? Do you think I make these things up??

Yesterday, Sharon and I went for a jaunt around the Euljiro area. She's leaving Korea in a few days. *sob* We went shopping, ate lunch and ice cream, AND found all kinds of wacky art projects.
A giant hybrid fruit/vegetable tree. From my washer/drier and microwave/oven and now this, I can only conlude that Koreans are master combiners. It's weird I've never seen Combos here, then.

Some kind of crime scene, involving a psycho Snow White (see how her eyes are rolled back in her head??) restrained by police tape.

And here's me with my favorite fungus. No, not foot fungus! Mushrooms! (although I totally like foot fungus a lot, too):

I also sampled squash-flavored gelato (tasted EXACTLY like cold squash!) and black sesame flavored (tasted weird... but better than the squash). Oh, and in unrelated news, the other day I put dishwashing detergent in the washer! HAHA! Alas, I realized before I started it, so I didn't find out what would happen. Sorry.

On Safari in Morgan & Johan's Apartment!

2007-01-08T16:45:00.000+09:00

I've already written about the toilet-seat-of-the-future, so I thought I'd write about some other interesting things in the new apartment.

First, here's a look at the outside of the apartment*:

Here's the sink, with the pedal you use to turn the water on and off. You have to use it, it's not an option to turn the water on with the normal handle.

See it down there? It's very small in this apartment, compared to our old apartment. It's very handy, so when you're washing dishes, you just push the pedal to turn off the water when your hands are full. Smart, smart.
The kimchi fridge:

We don't eat kimchi at home (I don't eat it anywhere, in fact), so it's filled with beer & soju from our party on Saturday. The point of the kimchi refridgerator is so the kimchi doesn't make the fridge smell, to hold large amounts of kimchi, and to keep other veggies fresh, although why it would be better than a crisper drawer in the regular fridge is unclear. It's pretty handy, though.
In the regular fridge, we have a little door that we open to get drinks out, so we don't have to open the whole door:

We also have a drying rack in the laundry room that you can automatically raise and lower from the ceiling, an intercom-type thing in the bathroom to talk to people who are buzzing our apartment from outside (& it also has an alarm function, as we've experienced twice already!), an oven that doubles as a microwave, a washer that doubles as a drier, jets in our shower that will spray water all over you (in theory... our water pressure leaves something to be desired. It's like the shower's going pee.), and.... that's it. Isn't that enough for your people?!

*Okay, this isn't actually a look at the outside of OUR apartment. But all apartments look more or less the same (although ours is less green & newer), and this one has a nice big tree in front of it! It's too cold to go outside and take a picture of our actual apartment. This is one near ours.

Fooooooooooooood: The Christmas Edition

2007-01-05T22:51:00.000+09:00

Because it's my thing to write in non-chronilogical order, and apparently it's also my thing to write about food constantly, here's what we ate at Christmas. It's a traditional Swedish julbord. First you start with the cold food, which is fish, meats, cheese, bread, and sallads.

You should also know that there were only six of us eating all this. It lasted for 3 meals while we were there, and there were no signs of it running out any time soon. & this was smaller than it has been in the past!
Let's take a closer look at some of the main points, shall we? Come on!
The Fish

Oooooh, the fish. Two of us didn't eat fish at all, and one more person only ate salmon. So almost all the fish was for 3 people. To the left is smoked eel, smoked salmon, amd pickled salmon. In the small containers there is herring. Herring in mustard sauce, fried herring, herring in dill sauce, and... three other types of herring that I'm not sure what they are. This was a major reduction in the usual amount of fish Johan's family has. When I ate Christmas dinner at their house two years ago, there were like five different types of salmon, including garlic salmon, which I actually tasted.
The green cheese

It's oh-so-green! I love it! It was cheese with basil! It tasted like pesto, which is one of my favorite things! I love strangely colored food!

After the cold food, you eat the hot food!

There was a quiche-like pie with broccoli, feta, sundried tomatoes, these onion-potato roll things, prince sausages, meatballs, brown cabbage (which smells really funky, and I actually forgot to taste it, but I think it tastes a lot better than it smells), and boiled potatoes (not pictured, but I'm pretty sure you can imagine what they looked like).
We drank beer, Christmas cola, schnapps, and Fanta with dinner. They have Christmas beer in Sweden, but we drank normal, cheap, German beer instead.

After you've eaten like four plates full, it's time for dessert! We had a roll cake, which is my favorite. It's like chocolate cake with a butter-cream filling. & there was ris a la malta, which is like rice pudding mixed with cream and topped with cherry preserves. & there were almond mussles, which are these shell cookies that you put whipped cream and cherry preserves in (although I skipped the cream, because Swedish whipped cream isn't sweet, so I don't like it) (I could have also skipped the cookies, because I just love the cherry preserves). & we had chocolate candy & chips (cheesy puffs!).
And by then it was like 1am, and it was time for bed. & when we woke up the next morning, we did it all again.
Okay, next time I'll try not to post about food. Maybe. Unless I eat something fascinating in the next few days. Or if nothing else post-worthy happens to me. Or if I feel like posting about food.

Seoul-la-lay-hee-hooooooooo!

2007-01-04T14:37:00.000+09:00

The other day, Johan & I went to Yongsan and wandered into the red light district. It was strange. I didn't know what it was at first. There were these women, sitting in really small rooms with glass doors so you could see in, and there was just a chair and a watercooler in the room. We got there just as it was getting dark, so there weren't many ladies around, and no men that we saw. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to take a picture. Soon after, we saw a group of break dancers! It's one of my goals in life to learn to break! But alas, no picture there, either.
Here's what I did get a picture of:

It's in the bathroom at a department store. You push the button and it makes the sound of a toilet flushing! Without actually flushing the toilet! Because that's just good etiquette. These are fairly common in public bathrooms.

In other news, Johan & I finished moving everything to our new apartment yesterday. It's beeeeyootiful! I'm in love with it. & since we're talking toilets, here is our toilet-seat-of-the-future:

It sprays water on your bum or your... vaginal-urethral area (what's a cute word for your vaginal-urethral area??). Then it will gently blow warm puffs of air to dry you off. Which doesn't work very well. In any case, it is quite refreshing. AND there are still like eigh other mysterious buttons that I haven't dared to try yet!!! Who knows what they'll do?? Oh, one or two of them might be for heating up the toilet seat. Still 6 buttons left!!! I've been dreaming of a toilet seat like this since I moved to Korea, and now, finally, I've got everything I ever wanted (except a break dancing career, of course).
We still have to finish unpacking everything, of course. Last night, the only toothpaste I could find was a small tube of "fresh citrus breeze" flavor. First, orange-flavored toothpaste should be outlawed, and second, if you're going to defy the laws of nature and make the stuff, it definitely shouldn't taste like slightly-orange bubblegum, and third, putting glitter in it doesn't make it any more appetizing.

I should point out that this is American toothpaste, not Korean. For those people who think everything is so wild and wacky in Korea. It's not. They have normal mint toothpaste. It IS a civilized country, for goodness sakes.

Sweet Potato Seoul

2006-12-31T20:31:00.000+09:00

Okay, I haven't posted in awhile. First, it was because my camera battery died, and I forgot to bring my charger with me to Sweden. Ha! Then I just didn't feel like it. So there.
Today is the very last day of the year! So I should do like, one of those year in review things. Um, let's see, I moved to Korea, I read 90 books, and I actually quit a job by giving a truthful reason, instead of lying and saying I had a heart condition. Yay me! 2006 ruled!
Yesterday, Johan & I hung out on Love Avenue. It was very romantic, indeed. And that's all I have to say about that ("Forrest Gump" was on tv like once a day in Sweden, and we've both started to talk a bit more gumpy than usual. We just went to the store, and I was like, "Ruuuuuuun, Jo-han, RUUUUUNNN!" and Johan has taken to calling me Captain Dan. Which is weird. But speaking in southern accents is fairly amusing).

Before we went to Love Avenue, we ate this pizza that had mashed sweet potatoes instead of normal sauce. It was just crust, sweet potato, and cheese.

Koreans eat a lot of sweet potatoes. Especially with pizza (well, a relatively large amount. Since most Westerners eat no sweet potatoes with pizza. So eating any amount at all would be a large amount. Relatively.). Tonight I made black bean and sweet potato burritos. In Korea, they also have sweet potato sallad, and, as I wrote in an earlier post, roasted sweet potatoes. & this gross sweet potato candy we ate one time. In Japan we had sweet potato ice cream (See? I sound like that Bubba fellow. Way too much "Forrest Gump." I'm not even going to write about the borderline-mentally handicapped guy I seduced a few days ago... because my mom reads this blog, for gosh sakes!).

It looks as though I REALLY enjoyed the sweet potato ice cream. I don't remember it being so good I needed to devour it in like two bites, but pictures don't lie, do they? No they don't- Johan really is as goofy as he looks in the first picture. & I swear that was the best one of the three I took of him then!!

Christmas in the Air

2006-12-14T22:07:00.000+09:00

This is the strange plastic Christmas tree in Bantorget in Lund:

We can compare it to the more-traditional tree in Stortorget in Malmö:

What can we conclude from this comparison? I'm not sure.
I went to Lund yesterday to meet my friend Niklas for dinner and do some shopping. Here's me entertaining myself whilst waiting for him:

The most exciting part of my day was that I bought a pair of black pants and a black shirt from H&M, and THEY DIDN'T CHARGE ME FOR THE SHIRT!!! This is the second time something like this has happened to me. The first time, like two years ago, I bought a yellow t-shirt and a yellow sweatshirt from Old Navy, and they didn't charge me for the t-shirt. So in the future, I only buy one color of clothes at the same time. Sure, I'm probably going to burn in the fires of heck (yes, heck. It's not like I'm a murderer or something.), but hey! Free shirt!! Wooooo!

I Know What You Ate Last Night...

2006-12-13T19:40:00.000+09:00

Last night, I made this for dinner:

Veggie burgers, potato/sweet potato/carrots made in the oven, and macaroni & cheese (although I modified the recipe quite a bit, due to the fact that I don't like spices, and I don't believe in measuring). It was fabulously delicious. "This is the second time you've posted your dinner here lately. You're such a braggart, and is this going to be a food blog now or what?!" you say. Um, whatever, look at these:

"Those tomatoes look rotten," you say. That's because they're not even tomatoes, Ignoramus! They're kumatoes! That's right, the all-natural vegetable, grown by traditional secrets, easily distinguished by their unusual color and the fullness of their flavor! They do taste eerily similar to tomatoes, though. & maybe they're an aphrodisiac?? I didn't notice anything, but I'll ask Johan & Stoffer.

Hockey!

2006-12-12T14:33:00.000+09:00

Don't you hate it when you order a vegetarian meal on the airplane, but you aren't really a vegetarian, you're just really picky, and then the normal meal seems way better? Yeah, me too. Look what they wanted me to eat on the plane on Saturday:

What is it, you ask? It looks so green, yet very spongy, like some sort of radioactive muffins, you say? Yes. It's green eggy thing. Like a frittata or something (uh.. if "frittata" means like an omelet mixed with a bit of flour to make it thicker & more cake-like). It didn't taste green at all, in fact. & to be honest, I kind of like food that is a surprising color, so everything turned out alright.
In other news, Johan & I went to a hockey game for the first time ever last night, since Stoffer got us in for free. Yay, free!

It was the Malmö Red Hawks vs. the Frölunda... somethings. I don't know what they were. Well I do know they were winners, anyhow. Malmö lost. Probably because Johan & I only stayed for the first period, so they got sad and lost the will to win. Sorry Malmö! The hotdogs just can't compare to Costco hotdogs. Like 3x the price, smaller with no onions, and no free drink! It's just silly!

Here's Frölunda after scoring a goal:

Awww, they look so happy!

No Seoul

2006-12-11T04:52:00.000+09:00

Today I came to Sweden. Well, I started yesterday, but I got here today. "Oh, that's because of those wacky time zone thingies, right?" you say.
No, no it's not.
It's because of the wacky French. I was supposed to get to Sweden last night, but... well, let's start at the very beginning. Friday night, I went to this acoustic music competition thing in Itaewon. My friend Kane was competing, so I went to cheer him on.

But I guess I didn't cheer hard enough, because he only got honorable mention. Although he was clearly the best. Even I knew that, and he was the only one I listened to! He even played the harmonica! At the same time as the guitar! Two instruments at once! All the other lame-azoids only played one. He was totally robbed.
Anyhow, because I went to see him, I spent the night at my friend Nari's, so I didn't have to take a long cab ride back to Suwon. Then on Saturday morning, there was a whole debacle because I lost my wallet, which I only discovered after she dropped me off to take the bus to the airport! So Nari had to come back, and we had to find the stupid wallet, and she was late to work. & that really set the tone for the whole trip.
I got to the airport, and when I checked in my bag (oh! The handle of which broke the night before! THAT actually set the tone for the whole trip!), they put an "elite" tag on it. So I was totally jazzed, thinking that they'd bump me up to business class. Which they totally DIDN'T!!! The bastards! They can't put an elite tag on my bag, and then not treat me elitely!! It's just so wrong, on so many levels. THAT really cemented the tone for the whole trip.
So, of course my flight from Korea was delayed, and of course I only had an hour to begin with to get my connecting flight in Paris. So when we got to the airport, I told the flight attendent I was going to miss my flight, but she claimed there was nothing she could do. Which, if nothing else, definitely set the tone for the whole trip. So I went to the help desk when I got off the plane, and told them that I wasn't going to make my connection. & the lady said, "Hmmm. Well, you should try, because there aren't any more flights out tonight." Which is exactly why she should have helped me!! What happened to them driving you to the gate in a golf cart?! Doesn't anyone do that anymore?? After a mad dash through the airport, pushing my way to the front of the immigration line, I got to my terminal to find that boarding was closed, and I missed my flight. So I got to spend the night in Paris, which sounds way cooler than it actually is. I wasn't actually in Paris, I was at a crappy 1980s-decorated hotel near the airport. I'm totally calling them freedom fries from now on, because I'm angry at the French. Golf carts! Drive late people to their gate! Try it- you'll like it!
& the hotel room had no clocks in the room! So I couldn't sleep all night, because I had no idea what time it was, and I was totally paranoid that I was going to oversleep because my wake-up call wasn't going to work. But it did, and I caught my plane to Copenhagen.

& THEN, to just really emphasize and reaffirm the tone of the whole trip, my flight was delayed, and I didn't make it home in time to go to the Swedish Smorgasbord that Johan's parents were taking us to!! Johan went without me!
& it didn't matter that I had actually found my wallet on Saturday, because I had no way to actually get Swedish money. My American bank account is empty, I forgot my Swedish bank card in Korea, and my Korean bank card only works in Korea! I'm too darn international for my own good. & the stupid airport money exchange wouldn't change Korean money (which was pretty indicitive of the tone of the whole trip)! I went to another exchange place at the train station, and they could do it. Which seems counterintuitive, because I'm guessing more Korean people are flying to Scandinavia than taking a train here. In any case, I got enough money to pay for a taxi home (but just barely, because they're freakin' expensive! Korea definitely wins in the "Cheap Taxies" category). Only to be locked out of the apartment building. Temporarily, thank goodness, because then Stoffer, the guy who rents our apartment while we're in Korea, came fortuitously along & let me in. So here I am. The apartment is beautiful though, & I missed it. I forgot what a skilled interior decorator I am.

Views from the airplane window are pretty much my favorite thing to take pictures of.

Losing my Seoul

2006-12-08T09:30:00.000+09:00

Johan just left to go to the airport. He's going to Sweden for a few weeks. So am I, for that matter, but I'm not leaving until tomorrow!! How will I survive, all alone (except for our roommate, Rasmus)??!! I'm so alone, alone, alone... The silence is really starting to get to me. It pulsates like a large bongo drum. The walls are closing in, closer and closer, and the oxygen levels are getting low. It's been forever since I've even seen another human being. I thought I saw some movement out the window, but it was only one of those black floater spots on my eye. I've named him Harold, anyway, and he is now my closest- and only- friend. My vocal cords have begun to atrophy from not speaking, and I can only force out a strangled gurgle. My hair has reverted to it's wild state, and I've abandoned clothes, since they're a painful reminder of the civilization that I've left behind.
Here is a picture of me & Johan from happier, shinier times:

& one from the bad, deformed times:

Uh, in other news, I'm going to this music competition thing tonight in Ittaewon. My friend Kane is in the finals! Woooooo! Good luck, Kane (not that you know about this blog & are going to read my encouragement... but I'm sending positive vibes your way)!

Seoul Food

2006-12-07T10:59:00.000+09:00

What do you eat every day, Morgan?
Well, I'm glad you asked that question. Last night, I had a big salad, an eggplant parmesan-esque thing, ravioli with herb parmesan, and freshly squeezed carrot-cucumber-ginger juice (which is one of the most disgusting things I've ever drank. I don't recommend it).

Do you eat such fancy food every night?
Uh... yes, and for lunch and breakfast, too.
Really?
No.

Also, yesterday as I was walking to the phone repair place because my stupid phone broke again, this woman tapped me on the shoulder and gave me a potato and walked away. It was a roasted sweet potato, and it was delicious. About halfway through, I was like, "Stranger Danger! What?" I remembered I'm not supposed to take food from strangers! Duh! My bad. But free food, how can I pass that up?!
Me and my potato:

Random because I don't have anything to say today

2006-12-06T10:03:00.000+09:00

This time, you're here. Next time, you might be over there. Very deep.

Shoes I really want from Apgujeong. If only I wasn't morally opposed to high heels...

Art & Seoul

2006-12-05T09:47:00.000+09:00

I went to Insadong on Saturday to do some Christmas shopping with Mike and Angela. I bought mittens for myself, because, apparently, I come first. & I couldn't find anything that anyone I should get presents for would like. But my mittens are super-cute.
There was traditional dancing,

Blah, blah, blah, who cares, but then there was this rad Andy Warhol exhibit in this shopping center place. Or an Andy Warhol-inspired exhibit, perhaps? Because isn't he dead?? Anyhoo, it was pretty awesome.

Apparently it's kimchi season, and people everywhere are making kilos of the stuff at home. You can eat it right away, but I hear, like most everything, it's best when it ferments for 6 months first. There was even a windowful of cabbage at the art exhibit, ready to be transformed into special artsy-fartsy kimchi, maybe? Korea is Kimchi Krazy!!

After I left the exhibit, everything was Andy Warholish for me! People were multicolored and multiple (like there was more than one of the same person... get it?), there were umbrellas hanging over everything, cabbage everywhere... I thought I was going crazy! It turns out I was saner than ever! I took what I thought was a normal picture or Mike, and look!! Totally Warholified!

The Seoul of Science (redux)

2006-12-01T21:57:00.000+09:00

Whoops, I accidentally deleted this old post, I guess. So I'm just re-putting it up. It's retro!

I know I've been updating with old stuff lately. I have nothing exciting to write about at this moment, but I'm trying to write more often, because I'm pretty sure that soon I'll get offered a book deal, and/or I'll be able to live off the income I make from the blog. So instead of just lying about how fabulous my life is right now, I'll tell you just how fabulous it was last month. Although, to be honest, I am unemployed right now, so I get to sit home, watch tv, and eat bonbons all day, so it IS pretty fabulous. But maybe not what you want to read about in a blog.
Last month, the same day we went to Bennigan's, we went to the Science Museum near Hyehwa. We were a bit hungover (okay, really just Johan was. I was going to say I was, for solidarity's sake, but I changed my mind), but the greasy Monte Cristo sopped all the alcohol leftovers right up, and we were good to go (how come nobody ever says "good to go" anymore??).
Coincidentally, we had Bennigan's again today for lunch, and I again ordered the Monte Cristo. It made me feel absolutely disgusting afterwards. It was way too heavy and fatty. Blah. I vowed never to eat it again. But now, the memory of leadenness is fading, and the leftovers are calling to me from the fridge...
ANYHOW. Back to the Science Museum. The first floor had all the interactive experiments to get kids interested in science. Johan and I tried most of them, but as the explanations were only in Korean, we didn't know what we were doing or what was supposed to happen most of the time.
Nuclear Fission, or just a funny mirror?? We may never know.

The other floors were filled with stuffed animals (like the taxidermied type, not the Care Bears type). Everything was kind of worn down, and looked like it hadn't been updated since 1976. But I still liked it. Johan was less enthusiastic, as I recall. There was also a part of the museum about the human body, and a really small part with stuff made out of those Lego Connex things, and like 3 terrariums with spiders. It was kind of eclectic, but nice for a hungover, rainy Sunday. Until Johan climbed into the fish display and tried to swim.

It didn't end well.

Seoul-alicious

2006-12-01T21:06:00.000+09:00

Sometime in October (it's kinda my thing now to write about stuff that happened a long time ago, eh?), we (meaning me, Rasmus, Natasha, Johan, and Paul) went to this place in Apkujong called The Blue Moon Club. It's a bar with live jazz music. It was fun, and I don't like jazz music much. We were on the second floor, overlooking the stage. Which was cool, because we could spit right on the musicians' heads. Man, it was awesome.
We ordered fun drinks. & then we went home. But not before Johan did some crazy trick with a match.

See?! The match is in his nose? Then it's in his mouth! It's completely outrageous!
Oh, and here's me & Paul doing some awesome modern interpretive dancing to the music. I think we really captured the spirit of things:

Suwon-mates isn't as catchy

2006-11-29T10:10:00.000+09:00

Okay, I still haven't been doing anything exciting (or at least not anything I've taken a picture of or that I could post on a website my mom reads, heh heh heh, nudge nudge). So here's another account of something I did last month (October was a good month! How come I never posted then?!).
Johan, Razzy, and I went to the Suwon City Walls, aka the Hwaseong Fortress, aka the Fortress of Filial Piety. I'm sure you've heard of it. King Jeongjo constructed the fortress complex to honor and house the remains of his father Prince Sado who was forced to commit suicide by being shut in a rice chest by King Yeongjo. Now does it ring a bell?? Johan claims, "It's better than the Great Wall in China!" I've never been, but I'm still a little sceptical. Johan lies a lot.

At the gift shop, I bought an awesome filial piety scarf!! & later that day, I found a scarf of the subway map!! Therefor I have started a scarf collection.

A busy bee and a lazy potato

2006-11-24T11:57:00.000+09:00

Morgan has been a busy bee lately. She's been posting like there is no tomorrow and I have been lazily watching here in the background. Well now I feel it is time for me to shine again so I hereby present some more pictures from Thailand.

Ahh the love between a man and his croc. It's beautiful isn't it?

We also saw an elephant and a woman making love, that was a little scary actually.

Later Morgan was almost eaten by a huge croc, but I saved her.

Myeongdong!

2006-11-23T10:55:00.000+09:00

Yesterday, my friend Beth & I went to dinner in Myeongdong. It's such a crowded place to go, since all the hipsters are shopping and hanging out, with people running into you all the time. I like to go shopping there, but ekh! After 15 minutes I just want to go hide in a corner and not see anyone for a month. Too many people (do I sound like an old fuddy-duddy yet?). But we did meet some nice people: a comedic magician who showed us some (semi-lame) tricks, a nice sock and tights seller who got very excited when he thought I knew Korean (I don't, unfortunately. I can just say, "How much is this?" I've never gotten such a positive response, though!), and some people giving out free hugs:

Note our Krispy Kreme bags, too. Mmmm... donuts.
Oh, and here's an example of how couples sometimes dress alike in Korea:

Beth was acting as a cover, so I didn't look like some crazy person for taking a picture of people's backs. I think it's darling when people dress alike. I've tried to get Johan to do it, but he's just not into it. Although we did buy matching shoes in Thailand, so I think I'm slowing wearing him down. Victory will be mine!!!

I want your Seoul

2006-11-21T11:15:00.000+09:00

Last month, Johan and I went to the Changdeokgung Palace. It was quite nice. I wanted to go to the zoo, because I enjoy seeing animals in small cages and dreaming of monkey slaves, but it was too far away. So I just closed my eyes, pointed to a map, this palace is where my finger landed, and away we went. Then it turned out we had to wait for like 2 hours for a tour in English (you aren't allowed to go inside on your own, you have to be in a tour. It's like they don't trust people or something... So rude. I stole a statue when the tour guide wasn't looking just to get back at them.), so we walked around in the area for awhile. Since we've already been to Insadong a few times, we decided to hit up the Kitchen Utensil Museum instead. We were standing outside, about to go in, and Johan got over-excited. The guy LOVES kitchen utensils, and a museum full of them was just too much for him. He started hyperventillating, almost fainted, and we had to leave. Instead, we went to the Buddhist Art Museum. It was nice and calm, and Johan could control himself. Then we went to the palace. We were busy taking pictures with our nice shiny cameras, so we missed basically everything of what the guide was saying. I was completely disappointed we didn't see Korea's King and Queen wandering around. They must have been at their other palace.

Oh, and last night I went to Raw, my favorite place for roll & sushi, with Johan & his little job friends. Paul wondered if I was going to write about it. So I am, just to please him, since he said I'm a better blogger than Johan. HAHA!

Do Animals Have Seouls?

2006-11-19T18:48:00.000+09:00

I haven't really been doing much in Korea since I got back, just hanging out, looking for jobs. Blah. So here's another post about Thailand!
Thailand is a beautiful country, full of amazingly talented animals!

Artist or elephant? How about both?!

& the monkies...I could write a whole book about the monkies! They could ride bikes, do sit-ups and pushups, play basketball, and dive for things.

But that's not what impressed us. The ones who could do things like shop and get coconuts down from trees really made us sit up and take notice. Ever since we got back, all Johan can talk about is getting a monkey slave. I mean, it's 2006, people. Hover cars and robot maids may still be out of reach, but monkey slaves are out there, within ourreach! What are you waiting for?! Ours got taken away by stupid customs agents at the airport, though, so you must be crafty when importing them.

Thailand's Sexy Secret: Conspiracy of Silence
I find it strange that people frequently mention all the attractive women in Thailand, but nobody ever talks about the sexy crocodiles:

& this dog is learning to drive a scooter!!

De La Seoul

2006-11-16T11:08:00.000+09:00

We're back in Seoul. Blah. Thailand was super fun. We went snorkelling, elephant riding, swimming, boating, and kayaking, got massages, got harrassed by many tailors, watched a Vegas-style Thai extravaganza, and lounged on the beach. & ate a lot. The food was soooo good. I ate approximately 15 kilos of cashews while in Thailand. & every day I ate cashew chicken at least once. & usually chicken with noodles once. Here's a picture of the very best noodles & chicken I ate:

I don't know if it's still called Phad Thai if they're big noodles. Usually they were small noodles. I was soooo worried when the big noodles came out, I didn't think I'd be able to handle it, but they were fantabulous.
There were all kinds of crazy new fruits to try, too. The only reason I wanted to go to Thailand was to try a Mangostein, but it turns out they aren't freaking in season!! Luckily there were all sorts of other exotic things:
Custard apples:

Something that looks like a pineapple, but is more like fried rice:

Longans:

Dragonfruit:

But now I'm back in Korea, with not-so-fabulous Korean food, & few funny fruits. Phooey.

Goodbye Seoul, hello Phuket!

2006-11-01T10:19:00.000+09:00

We are going to Thailand! We are going to Thailand! We are going to Thailand! We are going to Thailand! We are going to Thailand! We are going to Thailand! We are going to Thailand! We are going to Thailand! We are going to Thailand! We are going to Thailand! We are going to Thailand! We are going to Thailand! We are going to Thailand! We are going to Thailand! We are going to Thailand! We are going to Thailand! We are going to Thailand! We are going to Thailand! We are going to Thailand! We are going to Thailand!

Yes I am quite excited about this.

Time for a post from the boring half

2006-10-30T21:15:00.000+09:00

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

2006-10-29T23:57:00.002+09:00

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

2006-10-29T04:00:00.000+09:00

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

2006-10-22T20:03:00.000+09:00

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

2006-10-05T11:06:00.000+09:00

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]

2006-10-02T22:48:00.000+09:00

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).

Seoul coughing (I hate that band, and they really have nothing to do with this post, but I'm getting desperate for more Seoul/Soul puns)

2006-09-14T19:27:00.000+09:00

I only like to post when I have pictures to put up, and I haven't had any pictures. That's because when we went to the Norebang last time, I was a bit tipsy, and took like 200 pictures of us singing, because there was this cool neon Swiss background. I LOVE neon Swiss backgrounds! They're my weakness. Anyhow, it took me AGES to get through all the pictures, weeding out the bad ones, cropping the good ones... you know how it is. I know you do. & just when I thought I was in the clear, my work had a party with freaking Karaoke! Even though there was no Swiss backdrop, how can I resist photos of my drunken bosses?? But last night, I finally finished!! No more 19-hour workdays for me!!
On a completely unrelated note, taxies are super cheap in Korea. Especially when Johan's job pays for them! I love when he has to go somewhere for work, and I can get a free ride! But the taxies often don't have seatbelts in the back, which is terrible. & cab drivers sometimes watch tv while driving. It disturbs me immensely. The tv is right next to the steering wheel. I'm almost positive that it's not safe.

See the little tv there???
Oh, and Johan found a new friend:

They have loads in common, besides just the obvious, looks. They both like walks on the beach and candle-lit dinners, and both have rock-hard abs and enjoy eating bugs.

Here are my feet:

Sweden, not Seoul

2006-09-10T18:44:00.000+09:00

I have left Korea for a couple of weeks. I will be spending one week in Sweden and then one week in Beijing. I don't have any thing fun to say, because that's the way I am. Before I left Korea we partied a little with Paul, and here are some pictures from that night.

We had some gin and tonic. The tonic was probably more expensive than the gin.

Henrik had a good time.

When I got home to Sweden I visited my parents and got to meet their new puppies!

This cutie is Jill. She really liked the camera.

Jack is really cool but a little more shy. Jill is once again in the photo, in my sisters lap.

And finally here is a picture of them both after a hard days playing.

I've got seoul!! Do you?

2006-08-30T22:24:00.000+09:00

Phew, I haven't posted in awhile. From now on, I suspect 98% of my posts will start out that way. Really, the reason why I haven't posted is because I'm overwhelmed with how many pictures I've taken. These wacky digital cameras... first, I can take any crappy picture I darn well feel like, since I'm not wasting film. Then, it doesn't take like two years for me to actually take the roll in to be developed. But now I'm drowning in pictures to be photoshopped. Bluh.
Anyhow, what have we been doing the past few weeks?! Yes, I know you're dying to know.
Johan's been working out:

But I found out that it was only because he's cheating on me:

The bastard. But I forgave him and we're working through it. Because it would be stupid to have a blog named "Seoul-Mates" if I'm single.

We've also been singing a little Norebang (That's Korean Karaoke, mom!):

Oh! & I discovered an entirely new fruit a few weeks ago! The MANGOSTEEN!

It's totally wild. Apparently, they're ILLEGAL IN THE UNITED STATES!!! So, like, me posting pictures of them is probably going to mean I'm going to get arrested. In like a Mangosteen porn ring bust. Or at the very least, they're going to start tapping my parents' phone, in case I call with any Mangosteen information. Anyhow, mine were frozen, so they don't look as cool as the fresh ones. But my pictures are free! No membership or credit card numbers required.

The boring half

2006-08-22T23:18:00.000+09:00

Hi I am Johan. I have been a long time reader of this blog and this is my first time posting. The idea is that Morgan and I will have this blog together, and write about interesting and exciting things that happen to us. Well tough luck everybody. I am the boring half of our relationship, so when I post you won't get any funnies, only boring details of our lives. Also I probably won't post as many pictures as Morgan, so if you want exciting and funny posts with pictures you will have to read Morgan's posts. If you on the other hand prefer boredom and plain text you will want to read my posts.
Thank you come again!
/Johan

Drinking is good for the Seoul

2006-08-06T12:59:00.000+09:00

Yesterday, Johan & I went shopping. I bought this newfangled thing called a digital camera in Yongsan. It's a camera, but it doesn't need film!! I swear- what will they think of next?! At first, I was like, "What's the point?" Apparently, it's so I can take dirty pictures without having to worry about the film technician publishing copies on the internet. It's very pretty. It's a Nikon Coolpix S5, if you care about that. It's red! Then we went to Myeong-Dong (heh heh, Dong), and Johan bought some snazzy new threads at American Apparel. Because we support the American Economy! I mean, otherwise, the terrorists would win, right? Or they would've already won. Or we'd be terrorists. Or something. Freaking terrorists.

At night, we met up with a bunch of friends at Raw in Apgujeong, our favorite Sushi restaurant. It's on Rodeo Drive! Can you believe those bastards from Beverly Hills stole the name for their street from the Koreans?! I eat the sushi without fish, because I think it's wrong to eat fish. They are not put on Earth for us to trap in nets and brutally take their lives by suffocation and put their corpses on top of a ball of rice and seaweed. They're here so they can swim around in small bowls for our enjoyment. Plus I think it's weird that a lot of people don't seem to notice they taste like absolute crap. The people at Raw think it's hilarious when we order sushi with no fish. They really like us and always give us complementary deep-fried ice cream. We've been there twice this week. Whenever somebody comes to town from Johan's company, we go there.

Then we went to a place that had fruit soju. We had apple (which we drank out of hollowed-out apples!) and pineapple (which we drank out of hollowed-out apples!). Then we ate the hollowed-out apples! Then we went back to our friend Paul's hotel room for a bit (is there anyone who possibly cares what his hotel room looked like? No, I just like linking), then off to some club in Hongdae. Then to the water pipe bar next door!

It was cool, with a pond in the middle, and little tables and pillows all over. Some people tried to peer pressure me into smoking, but I just said, "NO!" I'm probably the only one the anti-drug campaigns have worked on that I know, but the only thing that's going into my lungs is good old-fashioned pollution.

Man, are we cute. See how I bought red contacts to match my eyes to my shirt? Because that's what ritzy people who eat on Rodeo Drive do.

Then we went home and Johan is hung over and sleeping still. THE END!

New Soles for my Soul in Seoul

2006-08-01T23:32:00.000+09:00

On Sunday, Johan & I went shopping. We went to Costco (I hate to say it, but a big Western Store is one of my fave things about Korea... I suck), and spent three hours tasting samples, eating cheap hot dogs, and looking at all the pretty stuff. We got a bit tipsy off the beer & wine samples, grabbed like 20 oreos samples, and went wild. Here's Johan toting some of our finds back to my apartment:

We bought two kinds of cheese, a massive box of microwave popcorn, bagels, dill pickles, green olives, avocados, a lovely polo shirt for Johan, and some other stuff I can't remember.

We also went shopping in Yongsan, the electronics district, where Johan went hog wild, buying 3 video games for his Gameboy DS Lite (I would just say "Gameboy," but I'm pretty sure he wants everyone to know he has the newest, fanciest one (in fact he has not one, but two of them)), and an iPod nano. Nano technology is really big in Korea, so he figured they're probably much higher quality here than anywhere else. Here he is 2 seconds before he faints with excitement about the nano:

You can see his eyes rolling back in his head, and he's grabbing at his heart. He collapsed right after I took the picture, and this 90-year old lady who could barely walk had to give Johan her seat on the subway. It was pitiful.

Later, we went shopping in Dongdaemun, where I attempted to find a sewing machine. I failed miserably, so I consoled myself with some shiny new converse shoes:

Do you get it? My tongue is hanging out, just like the shoe's tongue. & that's where the title of the post comes in. There's got to be something better involving Soles and Seoul... I take my job of coming up with innovative, yet hilarious, usages of Seoul seriously, but unfortunately, that doesn't make up for my lack of talent.

Oh yeah, we also ate green pizza:

The line of yellow stuff, after the crust and the line of cheese is sweet potato. Yum, yum. It's called a "rich gold" pizza. This is the first one I've had that's green, which made me quite happy.

Seoul Train

2006-07-30T19:29:00.000+09:00

Hello! We are Morgan and Johan, two regular people who hopped on the Seoul Train (meaning we moved to Seoul, South Korea (duh) about 3 or 4 months ago). We knew everyone was dying to find out more about our fascinating lives here, so we started a blog. Johan started his own blog, and Morgan was very envious, yet lazy, so she didn't want the responsibility of her very own blog, so we're doing one together. Plus Morgan thought that Johan's blog was boring and that she could make one way better.
It's going to be tough to keep coming up with these wonderful puns on the word Seoul, but there are challenges in every relationship. We'll write about the fascinating things we do together, maybe about what we do when we're not together, and anything else we darn well feel like. It's our blog, we can do whatever we want. So there.