Back to Site-Seeing

Because it felt pretty much like summer on Wednesday this week we decided to get back into our Sight Seeing mode. We remembered seeing some brown signs on a previous scooter drive that we hadn't checked out yet, so we decided to go check them out. Here's some pictures of what we found. If you read the writing on the plaque sign writing below you can see that these statues are over a thousand years old.

Now at General Cho Ho's Grave, a General during The reign of King Seounjo.

Yea for he warm sun. It really was so hot. By this time, was feeling way too hot and overdressed.

There's quite a bit of bamboo here and Liji decided that it would be fun to try and jump into them and hope that he didn't get hurt.

Pancake Banana Bread

With no oven I have been getting very ancy to be able to bake, so I had to get a bit creative. I thought, "I wonder if banana bread would cook on the stove on low heat covered between two pans, to make a small oven." And guess what it worked just great! So yummy, and hit just the right spot for both Liji and I.

Happy New Year

Yea, Yea, I know this has been the longest we have gone so far without posting. Very poor blogger I know. Sorry, Sorry. But there should be plenty to keep you going for awhile as I try to fill you in on all the fun stuff we have done over the last two week. Last week it warmed up and since then it has really felt like Spring. We are really hoping that the nice weather is here to stay. Some of the days have been pretty rainy, but at least it is now warm rain. So February 14 was the Lunar New Year, which is the biggest Holiday here in Korea though they didn't celebrate it quite like what you see them doing in China, but we did get a 3 day weekend, which was superb and we have another one coming up this weekend as well.
The Saturday of that holiday weekend was our ski trip and then Sunday we had the morning free, due to the Korean ward pushing back their sacrament meeting until 4 pm so people could have time to celebrate the new year with family in the morning. So Liji and I got to spend a nice relaxing Valentine's Day morning together resting from our previous day of skiing until it was time to go to the Air Base for church in the afternoon. Monday we spent the morning cleaning up our apartment that was in desperate need of it. In the afternoon we got to go out to the Air Base to play some wolleyball with the other branch members. It was so much fun of course. For dinner was pretty much the only time we got any feel for the New Year holiday because we went to the Korean Ward Bishop's house and had a nice evening with some of the other members there. Here in Korea they don't gain a year in their age on their birthday, they do at the Lunar New Year. Everyone eats the special rice cake soup called Dukgu; that is supposedly representing you eating up into your next age. Interesting right? Well, Tuesday was back to work and back to some rainy weather.

Here's Handsome Liji all ready for Valentine' Day Sunday

These next few are at our Bishop's house on the New Year.

This Last Sunday it was our turn to cook the meal at the Air Base so on Saturday we met our Branch President at the Base to help him do all the shopping for the meal the next day. Then he treated us to some lunch on Base which of course is a treat for us to get some American Fast Food. So Yummy! After that the weather was so sunny and nice we decided to go up to Oh Sun Sang mountain here in Gunsan where you can get a really great view of the city. Sadly we were greatly underestimating he smog in the air and didn't exactly get the clear view from the top that we had been hoping for. Still, so warm and nice to be outside again, enjoying the fresh air. Then to take advantage of the sun for as long as we could, when we got home we walked over to the field across from our apartment and played some frisbee till we were nice and tired! Finally we walked over to E-mart to get some yummy samples to hold us over till our late dinner.

These are all ducks out on the river, but they were too far away to ever get a good picture.

On Sunday Liji and I talked together on Coming unto Christ through Temple Marriage. I focused on Love in your Marriage and Liji focused on more of the Marriage Covenant. I think it worked out well and afterward a male member that was actually visiting from another city sought me out to let me know that he had been having some troubles in his marriage and the things we shared were just what he needed to hear. Hearing those kinds of things always make all the preparation time so well worth it. After church we finished up on the meal preparations to serve all the different religious services on Base. I planned the menu according to what I've been craving since being here. Ritz Chicken, baked potatoes, broccoli, a salad and a Very Yummy Ice Cream Cake. Everything turned out just right and I think I enjoyed my meal more than anyone. And of course getting to take home leftovers always makes all the preparation worth it:-)
Monday was a really foggy day, so we stayed in but Tuesday was perfect again and so we went out and played frisbee again for awhile. While we were out there was a man who looked to be in his 90's practicing some golf on the field with us. After watching us play for awhile he wanted to play, so I tossed him the frisbee and then he tossed it to Liji. His first throw wasnt that great, but Liji showed him how to throw it better and he ended up doing really well, He had a harder time catching them, but certainly put his all into trying. I was a bit worried he was going to fall over because he would almost jump up to try and catch it, and he was pretty feeble, though still in good shape for his age. It was pretty fun to play with him and after a little while he went back to his golf and just Liji and I tossed back and forth again. When he finished playing golf he sat down on a bench to just watch and would clap and cheer for us when we had a good throw or good catch. He was such a fun old man. As we were leaving he kept telling me that I was #1!

Muju Ski Trip

We had so much fun skiing at Muju Resort on Saturday. Our friend In Su is a big skier and snowboarder and was our Resort Guide.

Christina on the lift in the middle of some strangers.

Christina and In Su heading up the lift.

Liji with some icicles in his beard.

At the very top of the mountain is was so windy, foggy and freezing, but it sure made this big building look beautiful. It looks like an ice castle to me. So Cool!!

Us with In Su

Christina and In Su

Looking up at the slopes from one of the two resort bases.

Just Trying to Keep Busy

It has been a very rainy and dreary week. We have not seen the sun shine since Sunday morning, but it has been warm enough that it has been raining and not snowing. We are glad though because we will be going snow skiing tomorrow and hopefully it has been snowing a the resort this whole week and we will have some nice powder. We heard that they mainly make all of their snow so if it hasn't been snowing for awhile you can get some pretty icy spots. Last Saturday we went on another Branch trip to the Temple in Seoul. It turned out to be our smoothest trip so far. It was our new Branch Presidents first time driving the trip, so I was a little worried, but we only turned the wrong way two times and were able to get back to going the right direction fairly easily. We were able to do sealings and then an endowment session this time even though they were pretty crowded, so we were happy. Then we went and got some lunch and headed back to Gunsan.
Since we have been cooped up in our apartment due to the rain we have had to occupy our time with some other things. Liji has been working really had at improving his typing skills. He claims he never learned how to type because only had to take one computer class in school and it just so happened that he broke one of his wrists that semester so he couldn't ever do well. (I don't 'claim' anything, that is what happened! And just for the record, I took two typing classes, after I failed the first one because I couldn't type with my wrist in a cast (That's gotta be some sort of discrimination, failing someone with a disability?) they made me take the class again the next year, and wonder of wonders, I broke my other wrist. At the time I thought I was pretty lucky, but now I am paying for it.) He has developed this really unnaturally way of using only 2 of his fingers on each hand to type. Well since he's going to be going into a Masters program soon he decided he'd better learn to type the correct way. He has been doing really well too. Just in the last couple of weeks he has gone from about 14 wpm to about 30 wpm; YEA!! He is also studying a textbook that will prepare him better for his masters program, that one of the professors recommended to him. I have been trying to keep busy with practicing the piano so I can play for Sacrament meeting without too many errors. I have also been busy studying the Conference Ensign, that we were finally able to pick an English copy up of, when we went to the Temple on Saturday. Thursday morning we had some workers come and spend a few hours in our apartment again. This time they pretty much re-did our whole kitchen area. We got all new cabinets and a new sink. It does look a lot nicer, but we aren't sure if we like the setup as well. I think it's just a matter of getting used to it.