Settling

I changed the time-zone on my computer last week. Until then it had still been on Oregon time, but at almost 4 months it seemed like the time to make the switch. This was just the first sign that the settling process was beginning. One year is an awkward amount of time. Just how settled should one get?

Saturday I bought two orchids. They brighten up my little white box of an apartment and make me very happy. It’s nice to make it look a little more like a home.

Then today I completely surprised myself. With a little pressure from my dear friend June I took the plunge and became the proud momma of two adorable hamsters! It was love at first sight and even though the cage was full of the little critters I knew exactly which two I wanted. The dark one was laying sprawled out on top of a wooden house, his cheeks stuffed full of food. He was such a chub! The light one was sleeping along the edge with a bunch of others, but he was turned completely upside down with all four legs up in the air. The man said that if I bought the cage, bedding, and food he would give me the two hamsters for free. *Sigh* okay….. So he set up the cage, checked to make sure the two I wanted were both boys, and plopped them in.

They have a nice loft apartment with an upstairs gym and it didn’t take the dark one long to find his way up to the running ball. He’s all tuckered out now from running so much. Aren’t they so cute sleeping? ^_^

I do have one problem though – they need names. While ‘dark one’ and ‘light one’ are quite descriptive I think we can do better. I’ve been reading The Princess Bride so my first thought was to name the dark one Fezzik, and the light one Inigo, but I thought it would be fun to hear some of your suggestions. So, what do you think?

Adventures In Cooking: Part 3 - You Won't Like Me When I'm Hungry...

So, after three months in Korea my culinary adventures are teaching me two things: 1) I can be VERY creative when needed; 2) I am AMAZING. This may sound vain, but come over for dinner sometime and you will understand. No really, please come over. Here are a few of my experiments some of which you may have already read about:

1. Kimchi soup – kimchi, onion, carrot, potato, chicken, rice. Verdict: Tasty, but gets boring after 7 days of lunch and dinner – Make less next time.

2. Chicken marinade composed of whatever was in my kitchen (soy sauce, mustard, apple cider vinegar, black pepper, brown sugar). Verdict: Tangy and delicious.

3. Sautéed onion and collection of Asian mushrooms whose names I don’t know tossed with one egg and served over a bed of white rice. Verdict: Yum!

4. Fried “ham” lunchmeat with steamed cabbage. Verdict: Super easy when I don’t feel like cooking and surprisingly yummy, but not very filling.

5. Mystery red pepper sauce that came with my package of mushrooms made into a soup with miscellaneous mushrooms, veggies, chicken, garlic, and soy sauce. Verdict: Not too bad. Better the second day with rice mixed in.

6. Fried Rice Snacks – Rice cooked till very soft, mashed to mush and mixed with salt, then fried in little patties in canola oil. Verdict: Delicious and, um, not so nutritious…

7. Apple sauce iced tea – After making applesauce (with a little too much cinnamon) I conserved some of the potent liquid and mixed it into a pitcher of iced tea. Verdict: It’s the little things… J

8. Banana and Peanut butter Pancakes: I sliced bananas down the middle, filled them with peanut butter and froze them. I meant them just for a snack, but mixed a few slices from one into pancake batter with chocolate chips (broken chocolate bar). Verdict: Mmmmm.

I have also started cooking soups that I can freeze in individual servings. Once the soup is made and cooled I line large paper cups with plastic wrap and ladle in a Melina sized portion of soup, cover with foil, and freeze. Once solid I remove the ice meals from the cups and place in freezer bags. This makes it possible for me to cook like a normal person without trying to figure out how to adapt recipes for one person or end up with spoiled food in the fridge. I realize this is probably kind of boring to read about, but I’m really quite proud of myself and now I can have AMAZING crème of spinach, Tex-Mex corn chowder, or southern chicken soup whenever I want (as long as I remember to take it out to thaw in time…)

Now to a recent cooking adventure: This evening Lizze was over and I announced that I would make pasta. I had angel hair pasta, chicken, garlic, herbs, and cans of diced tomatoes. Perfect. I cooked the pasta and set it aside (remember – one burner). I moved on to the chicken. It looked beautiful and smelled AMAZING. Then I opened the box containing the cans of tomatoes and I realized I had a problem. Do you see what I see?

Lizze ran down to 7-Eleven, but apparently they don’t sell can openers. My mind was racing – the pasta was sitting, the chicken was ready, and I was hungry. Oh no, this is NOT happening. I will not be stopped by this lack of a can opener. Well, let me show you a reenactment of what happened next…

"Melina, are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Stand back Lizze. This might get messy."

"Don't get in my way when I'm hungry."

Crisis averted. And guess what – it was AMAZING! ^_~

Easter: Korean Style!

First of all: Happy Easter!!! I love this wonderful day of celebrating the incomprehensible love of God and the freedom and joy that we have because Jesus. I also love the time with family and the traditions. This year I was away from family and the traditions were a little, um, different. So, without further ado, I would like to present - Easter: Korean Style!

I am blessed to have wonderful family and friends back in the States and received two Easter packages in the last couple weeks. Using what they sent (and a little creativity) I made an Easter… area, for myself. An empty Clinique bag made a perfect Easter basket to hold my yummy chocolates and my brown speckled eggs nestled quite nicely in an old mushroom container. (Just try to ignore the big ol’ TV they’re sitting on).

Sunday morning I got up early (ok, 6:30, but for my new life of working nights, that feels early) and Lizze and I went to the church to catch a shuttle bus to Suwon World Cup Stadium. For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been going to Global English Church (GEM) which is a part of Global Mission Church which is, as I have recently discovered, quite large. This Easter Service was one big meeting for all the sister churches and different services that at all part of Global. The service was mostly music, which is good because the English translation that was offered didn’t really work… we all had little headphones, but due to either faulty equipment, or the translators unfamiliarity with live translation, we got maybe every 50^th word. I don’t think anyone was using them by the time the sermon came around. Here are some pictures and amazing videos from the service. I can almost guarantee you’ve never seen an Easter service like this one… unless maybe you live in Korea…

People in each section were handed a different colored scarf as we went in. As they introduced each church group we held up the scarves to show where we were. Mine is grey.

Parade of flags

Yay USA! ^_^

Releasing the balloons from the arches.

Ok, here are a couple videos of really cute and talented kids who love Jesus.

And now... well, you'll just have to watch it... (and sorry for the shaky quality at times. This is definitely due to laughter - some of it mine, most Lizze's)

Ok, really, how can you follow that last video? However, my day was not over. After the service Lizze and I joined a group from GEM that went to the Hwaseong Fortress for a picnic and to walk to trails. Good thing I didn’t wear a cute little Easter dress this year! I did wear cute little Easter socks however (thanks Pakou!).

This way, guys!

Oh, hello!

How do you shoot this thing?

Out of the way Lizze. Let me show you how it's done...

Why are they always locked?

"We will rule over all this land, and we will call it... This Land."

I just want to see...

Gah! Bad idea!

The entire day was beautiful, which was such a blessing considering all the day’s events were outside and it had rained the first part of the week. The day was certainly different from what I’m used to, but it was a lot of fun and is certainly an Easter I will remember forever! Now I think I’m going to sit in my apartment, upload photos, and eat chocolate eggs until I pass out and dream of Easter egg hunts with Korean pop stars…