BIS Kids!

Thankful Thursday

We are very thankful for...

• an extra day off for Chuseok!!  We will have a six day vacation in September!!
• sleeping in 
• The Reading Teacher's Book of Lists - a must have for any teacher
• hard work and dedication
• they yummy new sandwich shop in our building - they deliver but we refuse to be that lazy :)

A Fishy Taste

A few weeks back we joined some friends of ours for another fish market visit to dabble in the tastes of raw Olive Flounder (광어), amazing King Crab, and of course some slippery, slimy, sucking, slithering octopus!

And nothing goes better with some fresh fish than a night of singing at the Noraebong!

Lauren's 26th

August 19th is certainly a special day for me. I wanted to post this letter on Lauren's birthday, but figured I would wait until I had some birthday pictures to go with it.

An open letter to Mr. and Mrs. Gilmore,

Thank you. God trusted you two to raise Lauren up to be an amazing woman. You guys took on that task and gave her the opportunity to become the woman she is today. I couldn't be more thankful! I look forward to celebrating her birthday every year for the rest of my life.

Love, Christopher


On August 18th the kindergarteners piled into my room asking what Lauren's favorite fruit was...ashamed I wasn't sure.  I guessed and told them strawberries, peaches, and kiwis were the fruits she really loved.  Then they rushed off.  I figured they were off to make a list of fruit gifts their mommy's needed to purchase.

Even better, this favorite fruit was supposed to be the topping on the cake they were making for her.  When we arrived at school on August 19th I found the kindergarteners like this...

When Lauren tried to come have a peak, there was quite a disturbance and she was promptly rushed back to her room and locked in it.

They didn't want her to ruin her surprise...

That afternoon we enjoyed this beautiful cake (well the children enjoyed it...the staff purchased a sanitary cake from the bakery for the adults) and had a little party.

제주도! Jeju-do!!

During our week off in the first part of August, Lauren, Derek, and I subwayed, trained, taxied, and ferried our way down to Jeju Island off the southern coast of mainland Korea.  This is a popular destination for many Korean citizens as well as foreign visitors.

The island, known locally as the "Korean Hawaii", was formed entirely from volcanic eruptions.  It is now host to beaches and beautiful island scenery.

It was a bit of a journey to get there because we waited so long to make our summer plans.  Flights were all booked so we went the ferry route.   Sidenote, we are so thankful for our frined Allen (Younghwa) for all his help and assistance during our multiple cancelled legs of the trip.

Our ever changing Itenerary

 We left our apartment early Tuesday morning to hop on the subway in order to make it to the KTX (high speed train) station to catch our train for Mokpo (Southern coastal city) where the Ferry leaves from.

We arrived in Mokpo approximately 90 minutes before the ferry left and figured we could walk to the ferry terminal (an easy 20 minute jaunt).  This would have been no problem had it not been 85 degrees, 90% humidity, and pouring rain.

Never the less, we boarded the ferry not sure what to expect.  We purchased the "general seating" tickets for this trip.  These tickets are great for the budget conscious traveler who is familiar and comfortable with sitting on the floor...not so much for our chair adapted American bodies :(  It was a long 5 hour ferry.

We arrived in Jeju around 9:00PM without accommodation, hoping for the best.  We happened upon a shabby motel with vacancy and accepted it as such, Korean floor style and all.

The journey to the island and the first night was no doubt a task, but the next 2 and 1/2 days were quite wonderful as we saw beaches, checked out the largest lava tube cave in the world, tried our luck at the casino, and visited the loudest club on the planet... with 12 patrons including us...


Overall the trip was quite a success.

Some locations:
N 33°14.718 E126°30.524 - World Cup Stadium
N 33°14.669 E126°33.716- -Seogwipo Hotel
N 33°31.758 E126°46.273 - Entrance to Lava cave
N 33°31.758 E126°46.273 - Beach

And the exhausting trek home...

** Editor's Note **  

I wanted to add that Christopher didn't really feel comfortable with Derek and my "get on a bus and see where it takes us" mentality for this trip.  So after about half an hour of that adventure, Chris got us in a taxi headed for well-known beach.  He, being the incredible "plan man" that he is, was then promptly on the phone with the free foreigner service (an awesome service here in Korea - just dial the area code you are in followed by 1330 and you can get free English help with practically anything) and had booked us a two-night stay in a very clean, inexpensive hotel in the much more agreeable part of the island.  I love my husband's go get 'em attitude!  I'm so thankful for his dedication to keeping us coordinated :)

A Friendly Gesture

A number of weeks ago, we were watching the World Cup at the chicken joint on the bottom floor of our building.  There were only two tables of people there watching the game:  Our table, and some inebriated businessman.  The men saw our enthusiasm for our team so they cheered right along with us.  They enjoyed cheering with us so much they demanded I do a traditional Korean cheers with them...

And then offered us this as a gift....yikes.

Thankful Thursday

We are thankful this 2nd week of August for...

• A reliable mail system
• Our creative and talented family members
• Seoul's public transportation
• Apps

Mandu 만두

Korean Dumplings - I finally made them.  I'm not sure why it took me so long to attempt one of my favorite meals (seriously, ask me what I feel like for dinner and 9 times out of 10 I'll say "Mandu!!").  Maybe it's because it is such an inexpensive meal at any kimbap shop (only about $3), or I thought it would be too complicated and time consuming.  Well, not the case at all!  It only took about an hour to prepare and it was super easy.  Now we have ten expedient meals in the freezer ready to eat (let's be honest, they'll probably be gone within a few days).  We got all of the ingredients for 50 mando-sized, pork and beef-filled, mandu for about 20,000 won - good deal for us!  I followed Maangchi's recipe almost to a T, although her mandu is much prettier - I guess I need more practice.  If you're interested in cooking Korean food, this is a really good site.  She has tons of recipes and videos to help out. 

After cooking them with some oil and water in a pan for about four minutes, we enjoyed our very first homemade mandu!!