Observations

Thursday last week President and his wife, the branch president of the Kyeong Ju Branch, took us out for dinner at a nice restaurant.  We ate bul gogi, which means fire meat.  It is not spicy hot, it is cooked on the heating element right at your table.  I think when it says meat it means beef.  We have had bul gogi at other restaurants but each time it tastes a bit different.  They kept bringing out more and more small dishes of side dishes.  I hardly ate any of those.  I tried some sort of pumpkin with a mildly sweet sauce sprinkled with sliced almonds.  I wouldn’t try the ones the assistants told me not to try.  If something is red I won’t try it.  It will be way too spicy for me.  I like medium salsa back at home but the spicy level here is different.  The potato side dishes are safe to eat; taste good sometimes.  There was eggplant, tofu, mashed potatoes (that don’t taste like our mashed potatoesŠ-Elder Min tried to convince me that it was ice cream).  I try to have Elder Min sit next to me because he can eat and eat and eat, then I will have him finish what I can’t.  We sat at a table with chairs around; in the other room they had tables with pads on the floor for sitting on.  It was nice of President and his wife to sit on chairs for us; Šthey probably would have sat on the floor if it was just themselves.  Dad and I can sit on the floorŠbut it takes a little stretching afterward to move my legs.  And it is tricky getting down and up if I am wearing a straight skirt.  Each restaurant we have been to has small wet hand towels, at the table, for you to wash your hands with (one restaurant served COLD towels; nice on a hot day).  They don’t pick up the towels after you wash your hands; just set them aside because you will most likely need to wipe your hands throughout the meal.  There is a small box with small flimsy napkins/almost like tissues.  Sister Bowcutt (office senior couple) was telling me that they have noticed Koreans don’t mind that feeling of having food on their face (like how we quickly wipe our face with a napkin- they don’t).  At each table there is a small box with long handled spoons and chopsticks to be passed out to those sitting with you.  Most times a soup is served so the spoon can be used, or bi bim bop.  We ate lunch at a restaurant with the missionaries following the interviews/training.  This one restaurant owner made a special dish just for his favorite missionaries and then the rest of us ordered like we usually would.  But this owner/woman hovered over Dad stirring his bi bim bop for him (teaching him and Ben how to do it properly using the spoon and the chopsticks in a certain way).  Ben thought the red stuff on top was a vegetable; not raw beefŠwhich the missionaries highly recommended.  I ordered the soup that had small beef bones inside.  That same woman showed me how to take the bones out, use the special shears for cutting the meat off, dipping into the sauce, etc.  Each dish is served with a small dish of rice.  Sometimes the elders ask for two bowls; that’s probably what Dad should do.  I was fine adding just rice to my soup, no spicy red sauce.  I’m glad I had my spoon.

If you click on this photo to look at it more closely, to the left, you will see a woman transporting her belongings in a wheel barrow type vehicle.  Every once in a while you will see one of these vehicles, or the bicycle type that carries much stuff, on the road with regular cars.  Roads narrow down to a single lane so you have to drive very carefully.  You have to be able to put the car in reverse and maneuver…I’m constantly amazed.  I catch/hold my breath each day and am impressed with how well the assistant drives through such tights spots!

After the very nice dinner with President and his wife they drove us to a park; National Park called GyeongJu.  It was the burial place for a number of kings so each of the huge mounds/hills holds one king with his treasure.  There were many of these signs posted telling us the grounds/park was beauliful/beautiful.  It reminded me of the time, back at home before we came to Korea, when Ben’s study buddy told him he did a rearry rearry good job speaking Korean.  We walked through the grounds as quickly as we could; they did not join us for the walk.  But they really wanted us to be able to visit the park.

Here are the tombs/huge mounds where kings have been buried.  The tombs look like mini versions of the mountains in the background.  The mountains are so steep and close together and lush covered with trees and vegetation.

Across the street from where we were parked were some planters(some were brightly colored).  I asked Ben and the elders to go get in the picture, on the go.

Fascinating to see these fields planted/ready to harvest nestled in as part of the national park (walking toward the street where we parked, going away from the tombs and monument.  People were there picking the garden over.  They use every part of land to garden.

After a long day of two sessions of interviews/with instruction we stopped off at McDonald’s to get gas for the car and to go inside to eat (gas station/burger place combo).  The burgers and french fries were not quite like what we would get at Beck’s Prime, Fuddrucker’s, or Five Guys? or Tornado Burger, Smash Burger, or Prince’s even.  But since we haven’t been able to get anything like that here, in Korea, were were excited for McDonald’s food (we had a different opinion from when we picked up Ben and Blake after AFY, we were definitely not humbled yet!).  They had quotes on the table tops and hanging on the walls.

We sat upstairs at McDonald’s with a view out across to the other skyscrapers, interesting.  I had never eaten at an upstairs McDonald’s before. The milkshake was served in a clear plastic cup, since we ordered to eat there.  They are reusable. I don’t know if they have a dishwasher in back or what, interesting.

Ben and Elder Bingham

When we are driving between sessions of interviews/instruction we have seen many pizza delivery mopeds.  I was able to capture this shot but we have seen Pizza Hut ones too, zipping in and out of traffic.

Last week we had to hurry from one building to another for interviews…without time to go to lunch with the district of missionaries.  So the elders ordered pizza for us to pick up (one of their former locations to serve in that area) from Pizza Academy (who knows if the students have learned how to make pizzas yet!).  It was interesting/fun to eating it in the car as we traveled to the next stop.  We got one potato pizza (none of the pizzas have much sauce) that had thinly sliced pieces of potato, onions, and corn(in the center).  It was ok.  Then we got a pepperoni pizza (that didn’t really taste like a pepperoni pizza).  It was ok.  But I’m not sure we’ll try pizza again.  Dad had been telling us the pizza here isn’t good…but it wasn’t covered in kimchee like I thought it would be.