Food for the Seoul

Anyong! First off, sorry for the terrible pun in the title. Actually, that's not true; I'm not sorry. As you probably know I'm now one week into a 3 week stint in Korea for work. It has been a good experience so far. I came into the airport near Seoul last Friday afternoon. It was a 14 hour flight from Chicago but I was able to travel in business class, so it wasn't too terrible. If you ever get the chance to let someone else to pay for a business class ticket for you, I highly recommend it.
This was the view from my hotel room.
The next morning. See that tiny little tower on the horizon just right of center? We'll get to that later.

On Saturday morning my friend and colleague Gib, who had been here for two weeks before me, came into Seoul to head home the next day. Gib is transferring to our plant near Austin, Texas and will be gone before I get back so this was going to be the last time I saw him for a while. We had fun exploring the city.
This was at dinner with Gib. They give you these sweet apronbibs to keep the spatter from the food off your clothes.

On Sunday morning Gib had to go to the airport to head home and I had to go to Icheon, about an hour southeast of Seoul.
This is the view from my hotel in Icheon (where I am right now, actually). That lake down there has a nice little path around it that I like to run on in the mornings.
Here is a can of Mountain Dew. What's funny is that those symbols literally say "mountain dew", not the korean words for mountain dew. I spent some time learning the alphabet so that I wouldn't be completely lost. They spell out the syllables mah-oon-teen-doo.

Nothing really happens during the week, just work mostly. So I'll skip that part.

Saturday I decided to head back to Seoul and explore a little more. The have a really nice public transit system here including lots and lots of buses that run all over the country. I can hop on a fairly nice bus in Icheon that leaves every 30 minutes and be in Seoul in an hour for about $4.
This is the Changgyeonggung palace. It was the first place I visited and was quite the site to come out of the metro to see.

The next place I visited was the Olympic Park, built for the 1988 Olympics. Some of you might be old enough to remember that. I didn't really get many interesting pictures there, but it was a pretty cool place. It's a huge park with lots of grassy fields and trails as well as the event venues from the Olympics.

My next goal was to visit the N Seoul Tower, on Namsan Mountain in the middle of the city (remember that tower I mentioned earlier?) There is a cable car that runs up there, but I decided to go the hard way and take the stairs. It's a long way up there, but it was actually really nice.


Once I got to the top of the mountain, I bought a ticket and took the elevator to the observation deck of the tower. It was one of the most amazing views I've ever taken in. I just wish the air had been a little clearer. It's amazing how big this city is.




On the way back down the mountain after the sun was setting, the city really started to light up. These were some of my favorite pictures.


After coming down from the mountain I wanted to go see Myeongdong, a famous shopping area. To be honest it wasn't really my thing. It was insanely crowded and I don't really like shopping anyway. I grabbed a bite to eat (at Outback) and headed back to the bus station. I was sure to check their website to find out what time the last bus back to Icheon left and it said 10PM. So I figured that leaving for the bus by 7:45 should give me plenty of time. I got to the bus station by 8:20 and found a big sign that I hadn't seen when I first arrived that listed the departure cities. I was a little shocked and surprised when that sign said the last bus was at 8:40. So what I thought was plenty of time ended up being the skin of my teeth. Thankfully I didn't have to spend an unplanned night in Seoul or fork out for an $80 cab ride.

Well, that's too much typing for one sitting. I'll try to update a little more later if I do anything interesting. For now it's time to go get some food.

Big changes

Life changing events are afoot in our house these days. As you probably know, the plant where I work is closing and I'll be laid off in a few weeks. Before that happens, they are sending me to Korea for 3 weeks to provide some technical support for a machine that has been transferred over there. Last week I got a job offer for a job that would be acceptable, but not ideal. That same day, I got a call about an interview for another job so we drove up to Roanoke, VA and had a great interview on Monday. Today I got a call that they want me to come back again to talk to some more people there. It sounds like it's my job to lose, but that still isn't a solid offer. Unfortunately the solid job offer that I do have wants an answer asap. Oh, and I leave for Korea in 11 hours. So now I have to decide if I want to turn down the job that I have but don't really want in the hopes that I can land the job that I really want, but don't have yet.

and my car has a flat tire.

Cruisin': Episode 1 "Catalina Island"

A couple weeks ago, Kris and I went on our cruise to Mexico which we had been planning for for months.  We went with my old roommate Taron and his wife Sam.  It was four days and we stopped at Catalina Island and then Ensenada, Mexico.  It was ALOT of fun.  I took well over 400 pictures but I'll only put a fraction of them here.

"That's ma boat."
~Forrest Gump

There's our beds.  Mine folded down.

Here's my little friend...that I ate.

And here's Kristen's little friend...that she ate.

Yummy in my tummy. 24/7
I may or may not have eaten alot.

Taron and I bought these little $6 plastic watches cause
we didn't want to have our cell phones on during the trip.

We also bought these AWESOME shirts and hats.

There was a new towel animal every night after dinner.

This is the shuttle boat taking us from the ship to land.
(Taron is a little excited)

Those tiny holes at the bottom are the portals where we walked from
the ship to the shuttle boats.  Just to give you a little perspective.

And there's Catalina Island.

The whole town had such cool little details like this.

Our first excursion was to go sea kayaking.

We would group up like this occasionally so our beach bum
could tell us various tidbits about the island.

It was so fun.

Except for the blister on my thumb that opened up.

After that, we went snorkeling.

Kristen was a little nervous at first cause she's not too
keen of water but I think it eventually grew on her.

Hi Kristen.

We bought these cool underwater cameras that came in handy.

Our guide would take a bag of fish food and dump some of it into the water,
which would cause a feeding frenzy.  We had to watch our fingers or they would get nipped.

Bye Bye Catalina.

Fall on Cedar Mountain

On Monday the 27th, Mom and I decided to take a drive up on Cedar Mountain to see some of the fall colors, so we loaded up a picnic dinner and headed up the mountain. I had been up there last week and it was starting to get pretty good. I wanted to show her one of the trails that we groom in the wintertime. It runs through some pretty impressive lava beds and sinkholes. We got up there and here are some of the sights that we found.

We also took a few of us – this might have to be our Christmas picture this year.

The contrast of the yellow quakie leaves and the green firs and the blue sky was pretty spectacular.

We stopped in at Cedar Breaks National Monument and I got a picture of Mom at the overlook.

We decided it was too cold to sit out there and eat, so we found a pretty place to park and ate our picnic in the car. On the way out, there was a pretty spectacular sunset, thanks to a bank of smoke from one of the wildfires in the area. But it was a fun afternoon/evening and we wanted to share it with you all. Don't forget to take a little time to enjoy life. Dad

Idaho Trip

Ok, so I’m slow. At least I’m getting some kind of blog posted. Most of you haven’t had a lot to say, lately. And it’s not like there’s been nothing to talk about. (Todd-cruise, Kimberly & Jennifer-back to school, Keith-ok, you posted your Glass Ear trip, Bryce-surely you’ve been doing something this summer, Sarah-you’ve kept us up – thank you). Anyway, enough ragging from your father. I actually have two posts to do so I better get started.
The Wednesday after Labor Day, we loaded up Kimberly and all her stuff and headed north.

And it was a load! Our poor little Subaru was wondering what hit it! And yes, those are two duffle bags on our redneck roof rack (2 ratchet straps threaded through the doors). We would have bummed another night on Keith and Rachelle’s floors, but they already had company, so we drove a bit farther north to beat the morning traffic and spent the night in a motel. A reasonably early start got us up to Rexburg in the early afternoon, and we got Kimberly moved into her apartment. Mom and I stayed in a motel in Rexburg, and Kimberly had classes on Thursday and one on Friday. We did some running around for her on Thursday, and were able to meet up with Jamie and Lynn Wood (Todd’s inlaws) for lunch and a tour of their farm. We got to see some of the elk on the property as well as the potato and grain fields in the area. Much fun.

After Kimberly’s class on Friday we loaded back into the (much lighter) car and headed for Boise to see Aaron and Sarah and the kiddles. Kimberly hadn’t yet met Finnley, so she was pretty excited. We got there and were able to spend Friday night and Saturday with them. There was a big art show in Boise for the weekend, and Aaron’s brother Justin had a booth there, that Aaron was helping him with. We met Sarah and the kids for dinner Friday night and went to the show for the last half hour before sunset. But on the way, I somehow screwed up my knee. So on Saturday, when everyone was getting ready to head back to the art show, I decided I should stay home, and either rest my knee and take it easy or babysit Finnley, or both. So he and I stayed home while the rest spent the day in the park. Probably worked out best for everyone. Sunday morning we drove as far as Twin Falls, put Kimberly on a shuttle bus to Rexburg and headed for home. We stopped in Salt Lake for lunch with Keith and Rachelle. Somehow the trip home always seems to take longer than the trip out. But we stopped in Cedar to see Jennifer for a minute, too. Had lots of fun and put in about 1700 miles in 5 days. We’ll have to do it again sometime.

Thought you'd like to know...

You can now buy Pirates of Penzance on DVD !!!!! (<--- click the link or go to Amazon.com)

FINALLY!

Kimberly Is Home!

Kimberly flew in to the Salt Lake airport on Thursday (August 26th) and was enthusiastically greeted by Mom (me), Dad, Rachelle, Grandma Anderson, Mommer & Popper!

We didn't know that Grandma Anderson would be coming until she made last minute arrangements just a few days before!

I kept getting teased by everyone else because I must have looked anxious as I stood at the bottom of the escalator, watching for a passenger in a skirt & missionary name tag!

I had a wonderful video to insert here (and Rachelle did such a nice job), but alas, I have tried three times to download it here at the library, to no avail. Saddness... Just try to imagine Kimberly spotting me at the bottom of the escalator and trying to run down those stairs while managing her shoulder bag and carry-on luggage! At first, I thought that she was going to abandon the suitcase and let the Elder with her carry it the rest of the way!

It suffices to say she was excited to see her family!!

After the rest of us changed into dress clothes, Grandma, Mommer, Popper, Dad, Kimberly and I went to the Salt Lake Temple. This was something she had asked to do months ago!

That evening, we all met at Keith & Rachelle's for dinner. Todd & Kristen drove up from Orem and Jordan rode along with them--what a family reunion!

On Sunday, she spoke in our ward in Orderville. In addition to Jennifer (home for the weekend from SUU), Grandma, Dad and I, we had Uncle Bart and Aunt Jane there. Their daughter Mandy is starting at BYU this year and they stopped by the 'sands' on their way back to California.

Kimberly is still getting used to answering to her first name and not answering the phone as 'Sister Anderson'. She has a long list of movies to catch up on and is enjoying using the internet anytime she likes (though our dial-up makes her want to scream).

Our new RM will only be home another week and a half before she goes back to BYU-I and makes the adjustment back to being a college student. After that, you can call Dad and I official "empty nesters"! :)