Anthology

This blog has no theme at all. It is a just collection of pictures that I just happened to choose.

As you probably don’t remember, these are the stairs that we used to climb to get to our meeting house on Sunday. They were so quaint, so old-world, and so Korean.

Well, we now have some new stairs to climb. They are not nearly as fun, but much safer. You will notice the bright pink bag that Elder Biesinger is carrying. We bought some Baskin-Robbins ice cream. They put it in this very adorable bag. The bag has become our “lunch box” and our “tote bag.” (He looks cute in pink, don’t you think?)

Notice the great picture of the Blue House on this sign?

Now notice that there is no way you could take a similar picture. Security is very tight around this area preventing people from getting close enough. The Blue House is Korea’s “White House.”

This is our house. This is what we look like as we leave for the office each morning. In this picture, the pink bag is our “lunch box.”

We really haven’t seen very many bugs in Korea. There are some huge yellow spiders with black stripes, but they don’t come indoors. I saw a smaller spider in the bathroom at the office. Thankfully, Elder Biesinger came to the rescue. We have seen an occasional ant in our apartment. They are much smaller than the ants in the US. They are also very light in color. They are almost impossible to recognize unless you notice them moving.

One night we had wrapped two pieces of homemade (not mine) bread in a piece of foil and left it on the counter. The next night, I fixed a salad for dinner and put a slice of the bread on each plate. I was eating my salad and my bread together. Elder Biesinger was eating his salad first. When he was about done with his salad, he picked up his piece of bread and, you guessed it, found ants under it and all over it. “Hey, there are ants on my plate!” Needless to say, he didn’t eat the bread. He did finish his salad though. As for me, I figured I had already eaten most of my bread…so. No, I didn’t eat any more of it. My salad was too good to leave, though, so I just kept on eating. Oh well, I guess if I can eat jellyfish, I can eat a few ants.

This building is right next to ours. The man that owns it is very nice. He knows about five words in English, but he is very happy to say them to us whenever he sees us. You are looking at a restaurant in the picture. The couch out front is holding bags of Korean cabbage, 18” green onions, and boxes of other vegetables. Deliveries are made early in the morning for the days
preparations.

We walked out our apartment door one morning, and this car was parked in the driveway. Notice the cute bandage on the bumper.

We frequently catch the Number 11 neighborhood bus. The bus driver was listening to the Mamas and the Papas, Anne Murray and Andy Williams one day last week. Sweet. The Koreans on the bus kept looking at me because I was singing along with the music.

This advertisement is hanging inside some of the buses. If you want some free chili cheese fries at Kraze Burgers you just need to show them a picture of this advertisement. I have this picture on my office computer so the missionaries can easily get a picture of it on their cell phones to take to Kraze Burgers.

We bumped into this movie on television. Do you recognize it? Isn’t their Korean so cute? If you watch closely, you might see something scary at the end.

Now for the food portion of this blog. This is a picture of a restaurant. Yes…it IS. I am standing in the doorway.

Now talk about quaint. This is the inside of the humble restaurant. Our little party filled it up. I especially liked the curtains. And the food was good, too.

We were walking down a small street looking for a fruit market and look what we found instead. They look so happy.

We went to the east coast with President Cho and Sister Min. After stopping to eat at another very quaint restaurant, Elder Biesinger took this picture of one of the many similar shops. What else would you expect in a small coastal town? Squid, squid, squid. Sister Min bought some dried squid and offered me some. I ate it, of course, and to my surprise, it was good.

This small restroom has an interesting sign on the side of it. Just in case you can’t read it, it says, “Restroom for untieing worries.” I’m game.

President took the missionaries to an Art Center to see a wonderful Korean production. I will probably tell about that in a later blog, but before the program started, Sister Min and I went to see the “lucky pouches” being made by these Korean women. Sister Min asked me if I wanted one. “Sure.” She bought us each a pouch. We picked our colors and watched them being made. When they were done, we happily took them to show our husbands. Sister Min held out her “lucky pouch” and President put a bill inside. Okay, I thought, I like this game. I opened my pouch and held it out to Elder Biesinger. He quickly filled it with some coins. I was thinking, “Hey, where are the bills?” Sister Min reached over and jingled my bag. Then she tried to jingle hers, but no sound. She reached into her purse, pulled out several coins, and put them into her bag. Now both of our bags jingled. We laughed and laughed. She speaks very little English and I speak no Korean, but laughter is definitely the international language.

I LOVE to see the missionaries at work. It gives me such a thrill to see them spreading the gospel.

This Elder didn’t have his coat on and was cold. Sister Min took off her shawl and wrapped it around his shoulders. She is so-o sweet. The Elder wore it the rest of the afternoon.

This is a small branch on the East Coast. We had some spare time and were hanging out inside to keep warm.

These two Elders started to sing and when President heard them, he hurried in to join them. He loves to sing and has a beautiful voice.

Seoul is a BIG, exciting city. There is so much to see and explore. Thanks for humoring me and letting me wander. I will (maybe) get more organized next time.

This beautiful sunset is where the Han River meets the ocean.

I am going to eat ice cream now.