2009....

Well what can I say. It has been a wild year for me, well us. 2009 was so busy, yet it all seems to have flown by. Omorro's has completed alot of his music. I remember hearing he as he was fine tunning his work. Now on facebook it is there for all to listen to. Yogita and I have had adventure after adventure. Actually thinking back on this year....it all seems like a blur. I was in Seo-chon earlier this year and now I am back in Gunsan. I feel that my Korean has improved, and as a teacher I feel I have improved as well. This year we were much more organized. Yogita is on a roll. She started a introductory packet for new teachers. I remember when she started, and only our Boss and I were behind her. Other teachers looked at it as a waste of time. However, it proved to be to so helpful! Teachers are now more well informed than before.

I like the changes that have come latter in this year. Our work environment has not been this tension free in years. We actually have fun.

Many changes will come next year, some are to be expected.

Ok well I am going to log off now...next I will post some picts of 2009.

/Tata

Mulitasking

Yeah another boring computer post. Basically I working on Yogita's dual core laptop, and must say doing about 3 different things with no noticeable lag is awesome! Here I am downloading open office, updating this blog, and running Eve Online in the background....I am mining. I am able to switch between applications seamlessly. SO if you are still using a single core cpu, look into a mirror and slap yourself. First generation dual cores (My old 6300 core 2 duo) still does well. This cpu is clocked a little slower but has a 2mb cache memory. Think of cache memory as a type of hyperfast ram. I will get into the importance of cache memory later. Basically the more the better.

Wait...let me check on my Exhumer class mining barge....OK, now that I am done with that...no noticeable lag. I am now seeing the limitations of my dual core intel. It is time to switch to quad core.

Oh another thing! Graphic cards....I really need to look into that, which Eric informed me that the power supply needs to look at too.

I really want a quad core, plus dual gpu's.....we will see.

/tata

2 4 day weeks coming right up!

It has been perhaps 13-14 weeks since I wrote about having a long holiday-less period. Now that is over. This month, January, and February, including March we will have days off! Yes!

So now comes the question what to do with the extra time. Traveling might be a good option. Snow will fall this evening, into tomorrow tomorrow morning. I heard that Friday it will snow with showers. This could be a blessing in disguise. The rain could wash away the snow.

I want to go over plans with Yogita perhaps this Friday over lunch.

Ok I gotta go!

/tata

Nice fun!

Well we finally found a good notebook pc at a great price. Yogita and I need a more mobile pc that what we currently have. My desknote (desktop/notebook hybrid) is just too large and bulky, and nows lacks the humph it used to have. I mean its a dual core turion cpu. It gamed ok but with the tiny 500k L2 cache memory being shared by both cpus, while at the same time clocked at only 1.6ghz. It was time to look for something new or used. New is out of the question at this point. I am not eager to purchase new notebook pc's. They become dated so fast! Better to save a buck and get a nice older model.

The notebook we now have has a duo core centrino cpu! Centrino cpus really made a name for themselves due to thier low power consumption, with fairly good performance. When I first heard of duo core centrino cpus I really wanted to get one. Now, I have one.

RAM is always important and this notebook comes with 2gigs. We are running winxp (32bit) and it should fly once I get rid of the bloatware. It has a multi optic drive. I would say it is a super drive which are really becoming very very common these days. Burns cd, dvd's, and has a RW for both mediums as well.

Battery well we got real fortunate on this. The previous owner bought a 12cell upgraded battery. We can still get about 3-3:30hrs charge from it. Also we got a nice docking station with a bulit in subwoofer. Docking stations turns a notebook into a mid to low end pc usually this is the case. Unless you shell out loads of money for a high end notebook. Docking stations are great for this type of pc at home. Docking stations expands usb ports, allows better cooling, typing becomes easier with less stress on your wrist.

We also got a wireless mouse, and keyboard with it as well. There is also a built in webcam. This pc has a remote for presentations, or movies. The hard drive is nothing special only 120gigs with a 5400 rpm. However, since we have the terabyte drive on my system our storage needs have been taken care of for now.

We got all of this for about 270 bucks! Sweet!

/tata

New Pics!!!!

Some new pics. of the boys...thanks Abu!!!! Love you!!!

And how about lunch?

Today we went to a nice grill meat place for lunch. It was wonderful but I had to do myself in by eating 2 great tasting pieces of raw garlic. Now I can feel it....now I can actually feel it move through meters and meters of small intestine. The major issue is when it hits the large intestine....boy oh boy I hope I am home when that happens.

It is a cloudy day, and Yogita is feeling a bit overworked so we got some coffee. Coffee would solve so many issues if people would just stop worrying about caffeine.

Ok I am going to put a picture up....

Blue skies!

Today was wonderful blue skies, even if it was on the cold side. This weekend I think I will take Yogita out. She has been very busy managing things. A major change from the way things were done in the recent past. The toll on her is considerable. So I think she needs a well deserved break. If I do not get a chance now then I will try to make sure she gets a nice break at the end of this month.

Today we had a normal day well no it was not normal for me. I could get any rest today so I felt a bit tired. Seeing my little lady cheered me up though.

I was thinking today if I could do it all over again knowing what I know now. Meeting Yogita here in Korea, making the choices that I made. I can only say I would have made them sooner. Next year will mean that we have seen almost 10 years together (yogita 11 years).

I need to put some end of the year post up!

Abu I will get your special pictures up here soon.

/tata

Friday!!!!

So um it is like...nice today. Well all is not so well but I am happy anyway. Health wise we are all ok, but well my car...it needs some TLC. I think a bolt might be lose so I will see if I can take it over to my friend Hwa-Nil and see if he can hook me up. I am tired of the rattling noise coming through the steering column. Ugh.

Tomorrow we will...Dun dun dun duuuunnnnnnn....EVE TIME!!!

My schedule is very busy but that is ok because many people are understanding. Today is a light day so I am loving it.

Tonight we will have a staff dinner that should be nice. Tomorrow well we will see, we will see.

So tired now....nothing to do.

ok i am going to post on fb...

/tata

Terabyte time!

Last weekend I bought a 1 TB hard drive....1000 gigs...well 931.51 after formatting. But still....950 gigs! Sweet! At the same time though I feel that even that is not enough. We are watching er now, and even though I have a 250gig drive on my desknote (think large laptop), it fills up very very fast.

In this day and age information overload is a very real concern. Sometimes I get lost delving into the Internet. Logging on, and logging out of life at the same time. Internet surfing is like a good conversation that bounces from topic to topic. It is here where my dilemma begins. If I am looking at World War 2 information, I search for and download documentaries on WW2.

If I take a trip down memory lane, say looking at comic books. Well even those can be downloaded.

With this abundance of information comes the need to storage it. I...well I like to hoard this data.

If I go back to what I mentioned above about ER....I am going to download it...and keep it.

Lets do some math...currently each season is about 7.5 gigs x 15 seasons = Oh my goodness! My 1 terabyte hard drive is going to need a 1.5 or 2TB sibling!

/Tata

WOW!!!!!

so its already tuesday and i can officially declare this week CRAZY!!!!!!!!

monday was tiring.....today was busy...tomorrow will be hectic...need i go on...i think not....

anyways, like Jemal said, we love it!!! we would rather take a CRAZY week than a week without anything to do..been there..done that...we enjoy our work...we love our free time but its worth it when we have a Crazy week to look forward to after that time off!

And fast forward 5 days...

I want to comment on our weekend. It was...unusual. We spent alot time together outside. We went for walks in the freezing cold. We did things like that...due to one reason. We had no car for the weekend. It is not the repairs where so difficult and complex. It was a simple of a corroded bolt, and the needed tools had to delivered. SO we took taxis and walked. It was nice. We saw the movie 2012.....uh it was....interesting. Another world ending epic with a twist...LOL.

Now is it Tuesday, Monday went well for me (no snow!), now? IT IS COLD COLD COLD. I feel it in my bones, in my massive muscles! Uh...yeah they are like...um...well...big.....pectorals, biceps, triceps, and uh well my tummy...

Ugh another busy week. I need to take a chill pill!

P.s this is post number 499......duh dun dun dun!!!!!!!

/tata

oh uh robot chicken rocks!!!!!!

Monday...that went really well!!

It was strange.....it is a Monday I had to get up really early for class...yet...it all came together today. It was so nice. I really like Monday nights. I feel free...like I have made it past the toughest day of the week. I actually feel weird on holidays where Monday is a day off. So strange.

Well my count down is getting smaller and smaller....about 6 weeks..till 2 4 day weeks!!

Tomorrow promises to be very interesting. At one company where I teach..there is one person...he wants to control everything. Well....his efforts have been trashed. So that means I might have to deal with him tomorrow.

Basically he is a joke. I hate to get personal here but....I don't care. I have taught at several companies in the Gunsan area. I am respected in what I do. No one questions me, I am trusted. This ONE dude however, what a control freak! Tomorrow will be very interesting. You see Korea is an export driven economy. That means if America stops buying, then well Korea goes bankrupt.

It is not that simple...the EU, and North America not buying Korean products....terrible for Korea.

Anyways, this dude does not see that a little humbleness goes a long way. He will have a hard time if he joins the class tomorrow. We call him by a special name that I will not post here.

Ugh tomorrow, lets see what it brings....^^

/tata

here we go again...N1H1

So while we have spent many years in Korea we have seen and weathered many epidemics here. SARS, AI, Mad cow...which really wasn't a epidemic...just plain old politics. It is still funny to this day when people tell me in class that they buy American beef...why? Cause it is dirt cheap compared to Korean beef.

Now we have H1N1...and well let me tell you...this one hits close to home...well the workplace. We both feel that we have already contracted the illness. I hope so cause we did get sick and we had flu-like symptoms. However, now...students have it...schools are closed in our neck of the woods. In addition one of our teachers family has it. So yeah...this is different. I really do not want to get sick because well..I have to work, and with 4 company classes (in the past I have had 5), no one can cover them. So I am left to do what I can....I just can not afford to get sick.

Ok well..back to mining in Eve...

/tata

12 weeks minus 4....oh yeah!

Well holiday season...thats 2 4 day weeks are approaching fast! Yeah! So um what did I want to comment on...the weather! This weekend was looking so nice, then clouds came in...then wind, of course rain!

It got soo cold. Now it feels like winter. We are both feeling it now. I am having car woes again. This time it is in the suspension system. I really have fallen in love with my 2 ton beauty.

Soon the busy winter season will be upon us. I need some coffee. I am ready for my classes for today...and will get ready for the early morning class tonight. Our key word (one of a few this week) is hectic!

This week and the next will be hectic, new teacher coming, new classes starting up.

Ok I gotta go...it is Tuesday but I am feeling tired.....strange.....damm winter.....go away and come back another day!

oh uh....I guess it is about 7 weeks till our 3 day weekend....so um like cool dude?!

/tata

Crazy day for us!

Yeah so we have a little extra work to do. One teacher has an interview at a company, another teacher is out of town for a couple of days. The good thing...this crazy week is almost over. Next week I will have a little breather due one company having to shut the class down for a week.

Oh...good news! We are free for the afternoon!

Ok now time to think about lunch.

/tata

My wife....

Yogita, she is amazing. Many overlook her due to her small stature, and how cute she is. Shame on them. She has many attributes that make her...awesome. I know it sounds cheesy but I do not care. I think that couples should be as positive about their spouse as they can. I mean if we focus on the negative then that is the end result: Negativity. We all know where that leads. I love the song of sol. We are taught to view the wife of our youth in the same way. Well, I know how it feels within my heart to do that. Problems arise and I am better able to meet them when viewing my wife in a positive way. That means fighting assumptions, this is not easy and takes regular prayer, and real effort but it can be done.

I have had women in Korea try to come on to me. It is so different here. Different rules, people are still people but cultures color things in a different light. It has caused strain on our marriage. I can say this, speaking only positive things about your spouse helps to waylay most of the nonsense. Even better it leaves me in a stronger state to stay away from what is bad.

Oh well...just some stuff on my mind...

Melah I hope you get a chance to try out eve, especially with Nick. You both might really like it!

/tata

Holiday count down.....

Yup...10 weeks.....2 down and 10 more to go. We are planning to really get away from it all this time. There is a nice hotel ner Dae-gu I want to stay at. This morning I just did not want to get up. I need to get over that feeling because early morning classes will back. This weekend we will try to visit Iskan. No...I promised we will go to Iskan. There is a nice store there with South Asian food, even goat meat! Also the phone cards we buy there are best around! So now it is Tuesday and my week will be on fast forward until Friday.

/tata

A Unique Post!!!!

It was very windy..one of those nights where the chill just gets to your bones..she wrapped her jacket more tightly around herself trying to keep away the wind..but what was more dis concerning was the howling sound the wind was making and the way the door kept creaking as the wind tried to pull on it against its will as if trying to rip it off of it hinges.....

the whole area was dark at this time, although it was only a little after 10, but people in this small city tend to sleep early and tonight especially was one of those nights where most people were headed for the safety and warmth of their houses....

she had not wanted to come out herself in this weather but the man sitting next to her on his computer, the man she loved... whose will was her command.. had made a simple request to have some beer..he had not asked her to go down and get it but she wanted to...she liked him and loved seeing him happy and satisfied..

so she had decided to leave the warm cozy interior of the small apartment they shared and had come out in this dark cold night.....as the elevator door opened with a jerk she noticed that it was quiet except for the shrieking sound of the wind...everything was dark except that low flickering light bulb in front of the store where she was headed.....


This is actually is me describing my trip to the store downstairs...i went down to get some beer for Jemal and i was making these observations and thought hey i can make a post...actually i really want to write a story so i think practicing writing like this helps....any thoughts?

Fish...

We just finished some raw fish...so good! Raw ginger, and garlic. Have you ever tasted raw garlic with Sam-jang sauce? Oh it is wonderful! Sure it burns and is full of fire...but that is the point! It was sooo good. Now we have a place that we will order from them on a regular basis.

Tomorrow is monday, I am going to get Yogita another pair of jeans. She has this pair of jeans that looks so nice. Comfortable, yet durable, and good for the winter which is bearing down on us.

Today Yogita laughed at me. In our apartment I tore down the curtains.....cause I tripped, and grabbed at them to stop my fall. SO i jury rigged a way to have the curtains up. The only drawback is that it looks...kinda ghetto. So I sang Akon's song Living in the Ghetto.

Oh boy....

/tata

Simmilarities!!!

Tortilla
Roti
Cumin/Jeera
Coriander
Cilantro


I have been thinking about it for the longest time...Mexicans and Indians are so similar in so many ways...Well looks for one...our features are very similar..in the States everyone assumed i was a Mexican and would start using Spanish...but there are many more examples.....tortilla is the same as roti in India...even the same recipe and ingredients...both use cilantro (Coriander in India) and cumin (jeera in India)...people from both countries love spicy food ...just to name a few...take a look at these pictures and look for yourself...In the end we are all the same..not so different.....

Face book and Twitter vs blogging

I will be damned. I think I know what facebook has taken the world by storm. It is a super fast way to stay connected with people in a mini blogging sort of way. You are joined to primary, secondary, and tertiary social networks. In other words you can get to know many more people, and keep in touch with them, in a more streamlined way.

I love blogging and we will continue Yogita and I. I must say though, I am glad we finally jumped on the bandwagon. I will be looking into getting us iphones in the coming months. I will be able to stay a more connected than with our LG KS 20's. Larger screen a more powerful cpu (using apps will be seamless). I have heard that the Iphone has a built in beam projector! (i-beam).

Well today is thursday....oh about my new tranny, it shifts into drive very very roughly. So I am going to have my friend check it out and see whats what. I will be piloting the Enterprise into drydock tomorrow at ...err....6 o'clock....hmm something zero O hundred hours......stardate 5769840.2 ....uh yeah.

/tata

The first day into our tenth.

Well yesterday was our 9th wedding anniversery. We did not do anything special, the weekend is set aside for that. I am going to get my car serviced on friday evening...maybe cancel my last class, then cruise up to Seoul, or over to Pusan.

I want to talk, just talk. Eat out take a walk. Thinking more on it...I think Gwang-ju is a good choice too. Not too far from Gunsan, and has alot of the nice things that Seoul has.

Ok I gotta go....

/tata

Wow.

So I got a new class today....11 more souls to teach. It means that my week is more full. That is ok, I will do my best. We are looking for new teachers. Now we have Mrs. Cho's full backing in choosing a new teacher. We had it in the past but....it was more difficult then. Now so nice. Our new teacher settled in nicely, and is having no problems.

I have gained a new nickname: Company teacher. Why? well Now I have 4 different classes in 3 companies, and a 5 in a another company is opening up soon. I'm loving it. I have so much experience at what I do....that....it seems almost effortless.

I do try to fight that feeling though. It is easy to become lazy thinking like that. I want to help people. So i try my best.

On Sunday last week...we went to a new road that is being constructed. The land was reclaimed from the sea. It was such a nice drive.

Ok....feeling tired...and I need to check back on fb.

/tata

Life would be Eaaaasy!!!!!

If If We Could Party All Night
And Sleep All Day
And Throw All Of My Problems Away
My Life Would Be Eaaasy
My Life Would Be Eaaasy

So before we had issues with our car or more precisely Jema's tranny(LOL) we were listening to the new black eyed peas album and these lyrics really caught my attention....life would be easy if we could party all night and sleep all day...but it won't be exciting i think....and being constantly drunk and in a funk would be terrible to say the least....

That being said, I Love their new album..it's Awesome!!!! and very catchy...makes for some really good listening on a long drive.

Tranny woes...

Well my transmission just blew....it has kissed the dust....it is finished....gone....poof....blammo!

The cost to have it rebuilt? Only 800 bucks. I know in America remaking transmissions (especially on luxury cars that are uncommon) is very very expensive. Basically I am getting the tranny rebuilt that amount will pay for not only the taking out and putting back in of the automatic transmission, but also the actual replacement of gears, and labor involved.

So....what a day. Basically remember this listen to your ride....odd noises dont belong!

Check your Engine bay at least once a week, another thing take note of the smell of your exhaust. Of course I do not mean that you should sit there breathing it deeply like a cigarette. Just take a note of the smell and color.

Here is for a quiet weekend at home...

/Tata

More food from Korea

Well it is Friday so I can take 1 week off of our 12 week marathon...I think it is 12 weeks until Christmas, and New Years.

That will be a good time because we will have two 3 days weekends back to back. So um....11 weeks to go!

Today I want to introduce Sam gyup sal (삼겹살 in Korean). We would know this cut of pork as pork belly, and looks like bacon. Bacon is salted, Sam gyup sal isn't. So you can not grill some bacon and think your getting the right taste.

Basically in Korea many meat dishes are grilled, then wrapped in leaves, with vegetables, and other tasty side dishes thrown in. With Sam gyup sal there are 2 sauces you can dip the meat in. One is call Sam-Jang (Yogita will have to fill in the details here), and another with sesame seed oil, salt and pepper. Some universal side dishes that are served with Sam-gyup-sal is raw garlic, and green chilly peppers.

In the province we are in the sides are awesome! You get a wider variety here than in all of Korea. It is possible to get full on the side dishes alone!

Ok on to the pictures!

Eat your heart out Omorro!!!

Crazy days are a coming!

Well it is the middle of the week and I am up at 2am posting. Why not? Tomorrow will be busy and crazy, I will be restarting a 7am class....heck I need some time to just chill. Yogita has already gone to sleep. I have been reading the blog of another English teacher here. I am so glad that I did not marry a Korean woman. I know it sounds terrible. I just cant help it.

Communication goes like this, I am in my car driving a Korean teacher (lady) back to our school from a company class. She says "You looked angry when I gave you the hamburger last week".

I am like: "Huh? I liked the burger. It was nice. Why would you think I was angry?"

She is like : "Well you were frowning while you ate it"

I am like: WT....heh you get the rest.

She thought I was mad. I liked the burger. I was concentrating. Driving in Korea...is well...like driving where there are no real rules that are enforced by the cops.

Yogita looks at me...and seems to understand....

Me frowning while eating a hamburger

Yogita is like: "damm look at that fool cutting off that other fool"

I am like: Damm straight, that fool wasn't looking!"

Yogita is like: "Oh my goodness, did that girl on the phone in her car....stupid idiot!"

I am like: "Damm women here can't drive!!!"

Ugh. I am so lucky.

I can imagine.

I go home to a Korean wife.

I am like: "HI HONEY I AM HOME!"

She is like: "Why are you angry?"

The next day...

I come home late...traffic is nuts..what I can say?

She says: "You have a new girl friend!"

I say "What the @!%!@^!@^!%!%^@%!^@, then run to the nearest pc room"

It is very stressful teaching in Korea. I say this all the time, and I know it is true...besides it makes me feel better. THERE IS NO EASY JOB!

In Korea there is a kind of fantasy surrounding teachers. Young women, heck older women too, tend to take a real liking to their teachers. I did not understand this until one year a rather busty student start pressing her mammary glands into my rather strapping shoulder. I TOTALLY freaked!!!

I moved 2 feet....I will be dammed if that boob did not catch up to my arm and make contact. When I felt flesh that was not what belonged to me....I shouted for Yogita, to come over and help me help this student. I must say when she said: "Jemal teacher...I must go to Japan for a year"

I was so happy I smiled.

Another thing that is amazing is white people. They respond to racism like...black people. LOL

We are all human. I think I should shed some light on that.

I often hear white teachers complain about how Koreans treat "whitey" badly. LOL

Ugh anyways....time for night night.

/tata

p.s i still need some pictures up here.....

12 weeks.....

You know I am a joke. I talked about how we would do so many things for this holiday...yet we stayed home. It was very very very nice but...I just wasn't in the mood to battle traffic jams.

I must say this though, this year there were very few jams...if any. I have an option on my phone to check the CCTV cameras on the highways...and each interchange. It was so cool to look at traffic in real time. I saw NO jams, on the major highways near us.

So I feel kind of stupid. I will make sure to use this when we are driving. To avoid slow downs by basically "scanning ahead of us".

Ugh I have to post some pictures soon.

Darn...myface our yourface.....i gotta make a profile....

/tata

Jeyo

Internet

I remember back when I first heard of the term. It was...weird. I heard Internet, and telnet, http blah blah blah. Actually Melah Nick, Yogita, and I have some experience with telnet. It was how we played aardwolf. A mud. Wow! Text based mmorpg. It was truly exciting and even now I it gives me spine the tingles.

Now the internet has changed so much. Look at data transfer rates. I remember in the late summer of 2000, I was downloading some demo game. The file was like 70megs which was HUGE back then.....especially for a demo. I had a steady download rate of 5kb/sec I was so happy!

Today? If I see such lowly numbers I get angry and fine another website. Why now will you look at that..a 113meg file (Wolverine comic) just finished downloading took a loooong 3 minutes. LOL

To me the internet is like a HUUUGE link to the world for me. We might be traveling overseas this year or early next year. We will use the internet to do that.

My goodness...the internet...it means so much to me. But really what is the internet?

Basically it is a HUUGE network of 10's of millions of pcs across the globe. These pc's use special software which allows them to communicate. You know many of us do not realize that huge bundles of wire connecting us all. Last year an underwater cable snapped. Large portions of Asia was affected, and basically the world. I felt it here in Korea. Certain websites were suddenly 1999 ish like.

Even though we have great download speeds....it means little with out the right hardware, and with understanding bandwidth.

Ok I finish this post on this note. I do not care if you have a 5mbit connection. The Internet is a huge loong highway. So speed means little with out the right software. So if you are downloading a file and you are upset by a 50kb/sec download speed. Look to software to help you get your max bandwidth utilization.

Torrents can help, download accelerators can help too. They work in different ways but the principle is the same. They make multiple connections available to use your bandwidth to the full.

For example we have a 100mbit connection here...so I will use accelerators, or torrents to bring that 50k speed to 5000k (5mb/s).

It is the sweetest thing.

Ok now on to my comic..I have been waiting for this one for a while...

Tata

Finally a break in sight!

It has been almost 20 weeks or so since we last had some time off. I remember thinking at that time...."sheesh 20 weeks....we never get a break!". Now here it is. Right around the corner. I don't know what we will do with this time. Perhaps hit the road BUT if we do hit the road there will be literally millions of cars on the road.

In the past it was truly to follow the tradition of Chu-sok which is to worship ancestors. Now people tend to be more secular. Some people visit the grave site 1 week early. Then during the actual holiday they go to resorts, sort of like a short vacation.

One of my classes are restarting again after sometime due to the economic crisis last year. It will be nice to get back to working with them.

Ok i gotta drink some water.

LOL

Tata

Stray cats?

Well this morning a fellow teacher and friend, and her husband found a stray cat. It is a Russian Blue. They are trying to find someone who would want to take it in. You see cats in Korea are very unpopular. In the past cats were feared, perhaps it was the eyes. I will have to do some asking around and online research.

I would love to take in a kitten (it is 6 months old). Our apartment just isnt large enough, and we can not have cats or dogs as pets in our complex. I think we could get away with it at first. However, cats....they smell. Their urine is very pungent, and a female cat in heat will make the loudest noises, usually at the most inconvenient times.

Poor kitty. Today I am going to have my oil topped up, and see if some parts we ordered are here so. I love Fridays because I have less classes and more free time. Yogita is feeling like normal today. Tonight we are going to watch some movies in a dvd-room.

I remember 9 years ago when dvd-rooms were very rare, instead we went to video rooms. Basically VCR's linked to tv's, or projectors. Actually the vcr's are located at the front desk, where tapes are loaded into them. The tv's or projectors are located in separate rooms, where usually a couple, or sometimes a group of friends, can enjoy a movie. Loads of fun.

Video rooms are almost gone, now we have dvd-rooms, and even they are few and far between. Now young couples use them to....engage in..procreative activities. Very annoying when you are trying to enjoy transformers 2. Damm young people....

Oh it is very sunny today...another plus!

tata

Jeyo

Swine flu....

So it has been quite some time since I have been able to post. I like to think that it is a matter of being able to, and being plain old lazy. I am now managing 3 company classes, and I have a feeling a 4th might be around the corner. Yogita is feeling sick, not H1N1 though.

2 of the companies I go to check my temp. and have me use an antibacterial hand wash. It is funny because H1N1 is actually a virus. Perhaps the alcohol in the wash can denature the proteins in the virus. Uh...denature....it is when proteins loose their structure, or come apart. With proteins structure is everything. If they lose their shape then functionality goes as well. Heat, light, and alcohol, to name a few can ruin proteins.

Uh I am really blabbing now. Guess it has been that long since I last posted. Sheesh first post of this month is on the 17th. The boys are fine, George is improving in his school work.

In about 2 and a half weeks we will be having a big holiday here in Korea. It is called Chu-sok. This year will suck because it falls smack dab in the middle of the weekend.....which means a 3 day weekend....bummer. Some years we have gotten a very nice 5 days off!

So Yogita is doing ok, I think she actually has a case of mild food poisoning. It is my fault really, I chose the lunch menu yesterday. I think I will post pictures of Bun-sik restaurants. I love em, but sometimes they can be a bit risky. Basically fried food that sits, then is re-fried when the customer orders. Yummy!

I feel pretty good today because Thursdays sort of feel like a Friday, because one of the company classes, is only 3 days a week. Hence, today will have a sort of finality to it. Tomorrow means I will have a very nice 2 hour break ....Friday = extra sweet!

Ok well I ought to log off and call Yogita.

Tata!!

Jeyo

10 Years for me!!!!

Feels like it was just yesterday when i first arrived in Korea...i still remember the excitement...as a kid i would always look longingly every time an airplane flew overhead and ask my mother the same question every single time "when will it be my turn?" and she always ruffled my hair and answered "soon".

And then one day it was ...10 years ago....very hot day in India....it was a late night plane.....my father and my younger sister came to see me off.....it literally tore my heart to say goodbye to them....it was the first time i was on my own...just turned 20......it was exciting....

Together Jemal and I have seen so many changes in Korea....in the society, in people, in Gunsan...we are like living examples of how far Korea has come in 10 years....nothing stays the same...everything changes...change is a very essential part of life.

i have had good experience and bad...wonderful times and really tough times but it has all been good...memorable....i have been in Korea for 10 years...i like the food, the people...i am fluent in Korean ..i can relate to Korea and Koreans....i am not the same young girl of 20..i have changed and gained a lot more.......Amazing!!!!!!

We can feel the fall!!!

It is getting cooler in Korea now, well our corner of Korea. That means that frigid weather is on its way. I only hope that we do not get the kind of winter that we had last year. It was very tough...we got a flat and it was cold cold cold. Gunsan's winter is very similar to Philadelphia's. I remember catching buses to get to school, and university. Now, drive drive drive drive. It has been quite a summer. Now we are getting ready for the fall. Yogita and I met the new teacher, he is up to the task and not inexperienced. So we are happy about that. We met a few teachers in Gunsan, and let me say this...they have awaken my love for gameboy. Jeyo doing much better under moms care. George has a slight cold but we are not worried.

We have been very busy this week with work and all.

Ok tata for now...

Omorro i will get on top of the facebook thing....

August 26th!!!

Wow....today 9 years ago I first came to Korea. So much has changed for me since then. I am a husband, father, working and so many other things. I did not know that my life would change is such a dramatic way. Yogita and I have grown closer, through her I am now whole. I know it sounds cheesy to some, but for me it is real. She is my ally, co-pilot, more than a friend could ever be. I do not believe in the "do your own thing theory" that I heard when I was younger.

It is much more enjoyable to share different likes (even dislikes). It is not easy, and takes patience.

The end result? I am more than what I was when I was single. I am now in a symbiotic relationship. Two organism, that need each other to survive. Two beings that WANT each other, and LIKE each other. Love is a basic requirement in a relationship.

I am rambling.

9 years....a long time...total time over seas is almost 9 years including england....i went back to alaska for a year....so um by this winter...or early spring....9 years....for real....WOw. I dream in different languages!!!!

WOW seven days!

Well Thursday is around the corner. It has been a pretty crazy week. My steering column in my car went funky when I drove over a piece of tire on the highway. I had to no choice as traffic was high and evasive manoeuvres would have gotten us in a car accident.

Well Now I need to replace the clock spring in my steering wheel. All of the options on my steering wheel do not work UGH.

Oh well. Actually I started this post last week and over the days I have been adding to it.

Yesterday I had a chat with Omorro, and well I guess it is time for us to look into facebook. When we do not know. Perhaps Thursday night. This will be a busy week for us. The new teacher will be arriving perhaps later this week.

You know we are going through many candidates these days. We are so surprised the number of unsuitable people who wish to work in Korea. No wonder so many have negative experiences. One person had no experience living in a foreign country, another only had a month at a home stay.

I really think that if you want to come here and work, you major, work experience, and your ability to adapt to a new culture will come into play. Teaching is not easy if you are not accustomed to it. It is not rocket science, but requires a certain skill set like all jobs.

Ok...time for some Mok-Sal!!

I think I will go back to posting Korean dishes.

/tata

What is a blog with out pictures?

Ok time to show the development of our babies. Abu your camera rocks!!!

Goerge is doing well, now both kids are little sick, but they are in good hands. Abu...thanks with out your camera these would not have been possible. It sucks that the other camera went bad.

Vista and the blue screen of death...

Here are my pc's specs...

core 2 dual 6300 (1.87ghz x 2)

4 gigs of ddr2 ram

360 gigs of total hhd space

geforce gt 9500 (256megs of ddr3 memory)

a nice motherboard gigabyte with the ultra durable capacitors (uh hmm, trust me it is nice to have them seeing as how my old dual core motherboard blew a cap.....)

DVD superdrive pretty standard these days and very cheap too.

22 inch lcd's (very sweet indeed!)

YET I GOT A BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH!!!

I think it might be a bad ram chip (they are dirt cheap too). UGH. So frustrating. Today I was so busy and happy, then I come home...and low and behold...before I can start up EVE boom.

Basically a blue screen of death is when windows swtiches to a screen with a blue background stating that some serious error has taken place and that it is shutting down the pc to prevent serious damage. The a series of error codes, and info regarding what in the world happened are then posted.

It is a good diagnostic tool but still I hate it after a long day. Just this monday I repaired a pc at school, then had to trouble shoot my bosses pc which I could not fix (driver issue). UGH. Then my baby...my strongest pc....goes splat!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

On top of that...I think I need to replace our wireless router again.....damm downloading 400gigs of data takes it toll I guess.

Jemal walks to a corner then begins to cry.

Melah do you remember Aardwolf? My lvl ....uh I forgot the level character is STILL there. I think both of your characters are still there. Ugh Jemal not so happy today.

Tata

The vacation that was not....

Ugh how can I say this...

/Rant on

Well basically today and yesterday we had a short little vacation. However, one company that I go to would not allow the class to be canceled. The reason? Apparently before I took over the class in question too many classes had been canceled. It pains me sometimes that people do not think of how what they do, can affect other people. I took the classes gladly because...well we can not afford to lose the contract. Perhaps in Oct. I will see if I can take some real rest then....

Boy does this suck. We made the most of it though. We took a nice long nap, had a good walk, took some drives around town. Ordered out etc.

/Rant off

Ok I feel a little better now. We have another 11 weeks or so until our next break, guess we just gotta suck it in, and work on.

Tata!

The Things We Do...............

Have you ever sat down and thought what you would or have done for love....

Sounds funny but I once waited for Jemal outside in the snow for 6 hours....i was worried that i won't see him when he gets back if i waited inside so ...waited outside in the cold...LOL...

It is truly amazing the things we can do when we love someone. At times, we do things beyond what we thought we could...love is powerful....1 Corinthians chapter 13 talks about love ...

Love is beautiful. It's a blessing to have people who love you and to love them back.

Sky is the Limit!

I have been thinking about this today....it is so true that "We limit Ourselves"..we don't want to believe it and so we are always trying to blame someone or something else for not being who we want to be or achieving what we want...but in the end we have nobody else but ourselves to blame.

We want to do many things and try new things .....We have the money and the time to do those things, but the only reason why we are not doing those things that we so want to, is because we are limiting ourselves...maybe we are afraid..afraid of change...afraid of leaving our comfort zone and stepping into the unknown....but we cannot know the joys and the pains if we never try.

We need to free ourselves....Jehovah God gave us the power to choose what we want....Adam had a choice....we do too!

Tuesday / Thursday

Ok so it is only Tuesday but it feels like a Thursday cause tomorrow is the last until the 2 day break starts. Korea is funny like that. We have sandwich days in which a Tuesday,Wednesday, or a Thursday is a holiday. These feel so weird. You feel great the night before, but then you get the Sunday blues the following evening.

3 day weekends do happen, just not as much as I would like. I can be choosy though, I have to take whatever I can get. Of course we would like to travel but it depends on the weather. Last week we were told that about 10 days of very dry, hot weather was in store for Korea. Uh...NOT looking outside it is raining now, and it was cloudy yesterday.

Actually hot and dry is not so bad at all.

Ugh I feel tired even though I slept well yesterday, Yogita too. I need caffeine, in a very very bad way. Green tea here I come!!!!

/tata

Finally a mini vacation!

Well yeah this week we will have a short vacation. This week on Thursday is our last day of classes for this week. So it will be a nice little break for us, we of course want to travel and take pictures and post em. I hope so, we will see.

Three day weeks tend to fly by. On Thursday night I will eat something, that might not be so popular with people back in America. LOL

I will fill you in when the time comes, because well it is still up in the air. I have actually been craving it...so....

All is well so far for us. Our work load has increased, and we are actually in damage control mode. Yogita, and the other staff at our school understands what I mean. Ugh a tough week it was last week.

I am glad that Monday is behind us......now bring me a tuesday/thursday!

LOL

Tata

Jeyo

Friday....and fools...

You see we have been here for like....9 years for me (almost), and about 10 years for Yogita. Yet we see the same things over and over again. Newbies coming in and making a fool of themselves.
They make absolute comments about things. Ugh. I hate it. Fortunately tomorrow is Friday so that means we will have a nice 2 day break. Now that we are back to what we were years ago (managing) It means the fun easy times are over. We have to be the MOST flexible. I kid you not. I will make sure that other teachers are not coming here just to have fun, and bitch and moan about the culture here. It makes me sick.

Here are the 3 stages people go through when they come to a foreign land. First...they LOVE IT, next...they HATE IT, finally they figure out that they can live with the weird aspects of Korean culture, and they like it. All the time they usually have a I know all there is to know about Korea attitude, while offending people left and right.

Ugh...anyways have a good Friday....err.....

Jeyo

/tata

Already wednesday....

Time just keeps on flying by. I mean it seemed like yesterday that it was Monday morning, and I was struggling to get out of bed. Now we are at the middle of the week. Korea, wow we have been here for so long now. I have been here almost 9 years, while Yogita is almost 10 years. This is one place we know so well, that it is painful to think about settling somewhere else.

We are all human I guess. Here I am an African American, and living it up here in South Korea. Back in L.A I have heard that relations between African American, and Korean Americans are usually tense. Here? I feel none of that here. Just the normal xenophobia from time to time. It is so normal for me that I just don't give a poo.

Today in class I was talking to my students about road rage. Here in Korea this amounts to mostly just verbal exchanges, or a "mean" stare! In America if people drove like they do here, we would have road homicide! One nice thing about being here...understand the rules.

Not too long ago an English teacher got into it with a Korean man. The Korean man punched the teacher (not hard enough to do serious damage, but a punch is a punch), so the English teacher laid a big 99 pounder into the guy. He was laid out flat...with a broken nose.

You see in Korea conflicts like this are usually handled through "blood" money. So it really depends on who gets "damaged" the most. So if I am acting like an ass, and I start a fight with someone, and he knocks my block off...he pays me! Here it is a good idea to walk away, or make sure there are many witnesses if something goes wrong.

We had a car accident and it worked in our favor, there were many many witnesses, and the fool tried to run away. LOL and our car was at a complete stop. The nicest 15,000 bucks we ever made! LOL

Publish Post

Ok time to go...

/Tata

To Farewells

As Yogita put it, we have seen many come and go. It gets painful when you get to know people over time. I remember when the teacher who is leaving came to our school. (we do post names of people we are not very close too, and who we have not asked their permission, so in the early post of my students years ago, I got permission from them to post).

This teacher was a valued asset and did very good work, not just to their students, but also to Gunsan's community. I regret that I will not have time to join a farewell party tomorrow. I talk with George everyday to encourage him. I cannot skip a day. He needs DAILY guidance, that means CONSISTENCY. So I can not join a farewell party for the teacher who is leaving. I will do so here.

I will say "Thank you for all you have done." When I interviewed you I knew at that point you were right for job, and could adapt easily. I must say that I pride myself on my ability to learn about about other people, through communication, and observation. You gave with all your heart. I remember your difficult times, and some happy times. I can say this Jeyo is very glad to have known you, and will always be here for you, so we wish you the best to you and yours!

Tata

p.s WOW 3 post today....better get it off before midnight passes!

Saying Goodbye!

I hate Goodbyes! Well, tomorrow one of the teachers who have worked in our school for about 5 years or more is going to leave. She and her husband are moving to another province. When she first came to our school Jemal interviewed her for the position. Jemal and I have known her and worked together for years. We wish them both the best.

Being explorers like we are, we meet many new people and experience alot of new things...overtime we make these bonds and develop friendships and it is very hard to say goodbye when the time comes...but that's part of life..life goes on!

This is one thing i like about traveling and exploring you never know what you will find or experience but in the end you will always have fond memories to cherish!

Another day another dollar.

Today Yogita was not feeling well. It might be the weather, or perhaps something she ate. I dont think it is the latter, because we ate the same things yesterday, and I am doing quite well physically. She is on the mend as usual, we both recover very fast. Perhaps tonight if it is not raining we will go for a walk. I have been running around like a headless chicken this past 4 weeks.

Ugh. Well Yogita I will ask Yogita when she is feeling better about that word. It is so interesting that even though Koreans oops! Korean Americans live in America they bring their culture with them. However, when they come back to Korea, to settle down, or work, they often have difficulties.

Ok I gotta go...another day another dollar.....oh hum!

/Tata

Ok time for a new food post....

So it is Wednesday, and I am going to show you what we had for lunch.

I should have taken a picture. I had Man-du Ramyeon. Yummy!

We also ate some deep fried squid, pizza man-du (not my favorite...Yogita loves it!)

Ok on with the pictures.....

Basically as you can see from above there are dumplings (meat, and veg filled) with the noodles. It can be very spicy, but I have acquired a taste for spicy food....yummy! Fiery poo anyone?

Tata

Rainy day

Wow, it rained cats and dogs today. It was a normal day basically. However, the rain. Here in Asia we get the monsoon season. Picture rain that is so heavy that at times you can be completely soaked within seconds of being exposed to the rain. That is how is was today, and every now on and off.

Well I want to talk about ultra portable laptops today. In my job I need a portable solution. Current my 17" desknote is just too heavy. The answer mini laptops. These babies have great battery life, and enough power for basic needs. These needs would include web surfing, blogging, emailing, and basic word processing.

A large portion of my work is word processing. I edit papers, and create study sheets for my classes, in addition to syllabuses for my different classes. A mini note book is so helpful in this regard. They are cheap, powerful enough for the tasks, as was mentioned above. Did I mention that they are portable...ultra like portable? These bad boys are only about a 2 pounds, with the functionality of a p4 class desktop.

I am so tempted to buy one of these.

Omorro what are you up to these days?

Ok tata....tomorrow..MORE FOOD FROM THE HERMIT KINGDOM!!!!!

For Omorro Hae Mul Tang!

Yep thats right folks tonight we are going to take a look at another dish. This one I loved back in the day like 8 to 9 years ago. Now...I am not so keen on it. The name Hae-Mul-Tang means Seafood Soup. It is basically shell fish of many types, shrimp, crab, and even cray fish! (One reason I am not so keen on it now...I keep remembering zoology 1 and 2...YUCK).

Ok first we need pictures of this....it is easier to explain with it....

ok in this soup you cant see crabs, or crayfish. I think you can see what I mean. Basically it is a soup with a fish stock with red chilly pepper power, and green leafy vegs thrown in. In this dish you can see shell fish looks like a clam to me.

Ok another pic....this is a double whammy but I will handle the second dish which is not fully in the picture tomorrow...or later...you know...uh ok that sucked. Ok the FIRST picture shows another hae mul tang dish. Basically in Korea you will find many different types of dishes even though they may have the same name. I hate it when people generalize. As small as Korea is there is allot of diversity here. Some good, some...not good at all! But that is a post for another time.

Kim bab well hmmm no I want to use a separate post for that one, in Anchorage you can get spring rolls, they are Korean kim-bab people. NOT JAPANESE. The Japanese colonized Korea, and tried to take away their national identity.

Well I could not find one with the crabs, and cray fish. I might have made a mistake, OR things have changed since 2000, and 2001.

Much love to you all!

Tata

Busy weekend....

We had very little time to just ourselves last weekend. I want to change that this coming weekend...4 days from now not counting today!!!

It is raining a bit heavy these days. So we might just stay in.

Today one of my students was telling me about a young English teacher she met here in Gunsan. He is 24 and my student is in her late 20's. Age is a big deal in Korea, it always has been. This young guy comes over to Korea, and learns how to say a few phrases. It sounds cute, or nice, IF you are totally ignorant about Korean customs. He would often speak with out adding the respectful form of "yo". For example: "I am sorry" In Korean "Mee-an hae" is fine if your talking to someone who is the same age, or younger. However, to an older person "Mee-an hae yo" is the correct form.

These things seem small at first, but can cause alot issues later. It annoys me when I see people come over here, and act like they are experts on everything here. Usually they say things in an absolute way. They might say "Koreans always do this, or that", and they have barely been here for a few months. Usually the comments people like this make, are often judgemental. We usually avoid meeting people due to this, and other reasons.

Take this for instance, we are going to dinner. There are perhaps 6 people, all from native English speaking countries. When it comes time to pay the bill.....there is a huge animated (and very loud), debate on who should pay what, and for what, how much of what did you eat yadda yadda yadda yadda. Once Yogita and got fed up and paid the whole bill, and left. Everyone was thanking us not realizing we were annoyed.

Of course you have to consider that many of these teachers are just out of university, and this is their first real job.

Oh well.....

Mmmm Food. Kam Ja Tang!

Kam Ja Tang, when translated literally means potato soup. However, it is allot more than that. Usually nowadays there is only 1 potato in the dish. Is some places in ole Gunsan they serve many potato's. Ok OK enough so if there is only 1 potato what is the main ingredient in the dish? Well it is the back bone of a pig. You heard me pig back! You basically are served a steaming savory dish (uh very spicy actually) with vegetables, and clear noodles.

You have to tease the meat off of the bones, while eating the vegetables, and broth. Usually a good kam ja tang restaurant has many side dishes. So it is possible to fill yourself on just the side dishes alone! Most restaurants will refill side sides.

Now when the dish is served it is not ready to eat. The meat is boiled, but the vegetables need to be cooked while in front of you. Ok ...enjoy...I know I do!

Neng Myeon

Ok this will be the first in a long series of post about Korean food. I will start another series on Indian food too. People have the misconception that Indians only eat curry. Or that curry is only of a few types. People, India has enough diversity to be a continent. You need to visit India to truly see this.

Ok well let me tell you about Neng Myeon. Firstly Neng means "cold", and "myeon" means noodles. This dish when translated into English literally means cold noodles. This was truly unique to me. I grew up on pasta, and sometimes Ramyeon (I am using the Korean pronunciation). Those noodles were always server HOT. Neng Myeon is served cold.

There are two types of Neng Myeon. One is called Mul Neng Myeon, while the other is Bi-bim Neng Myeon. Mul in Korean means water, so water cold noodles is very mild. You see the broth that the noodles are in is quite tangy. You have red pepper paste with some wasabi (Japanese spicy paste) with vingear mixed in. Bi-bim is more spicy with more of the red pepper sauce.

When you get your bowl of Neng Myeon, you will notice that there are radishes thinly sliced, along with slices of Korean Pears, they are very different than American pears. They are more crunchy, but they are just as juicy! You might find tomatoes freshly sliced, with sesame seeds, and last but not least, a boiled egg (usually just half an egg), yogita's favorite!

Neng Myeon may have meat (beef, or pork) as well. It differs based on the region. I have heard of many types. Bi-bim the picture with the meat and noticeable more red sauce is more spicy, along with that nice tangy taste!!!!

So...enjoy, it is a strange sounding dish...but totally yummy. Tomorrow I want to have it for dinner!!!

Tata

Time Flies!!!!

It sure does especially here in Korea...i am not joking seriously i have talked to other people who feel the SAME way...it's like today is Monday and then before you know it's the middle of the week and then before you can say wow! lo-and- behold it's Friday again......i love that about Korea...in other places we have been weeks would just drag on sometimes forever but not here

Like Jemal mentioned both George and Jeyo are doing great and growing fast...George is reading these days...he is learning science and math and he loves studying...Jeyo is talking these days and has quite a few tricks up his sleeves that keeps his grandparents very busy!!

Jemal and I are busy but we enjoy our work so it's really fun!!!! we will be in July soon..it's really hot and humid here these days but we can't complain...i guess you can say we are nice and cool compared to our family in India...it's HOT there.....so i guess count your blessings huh!!!!!

Windy Korea!

Yeah I know 2 post in one day...what can I say. I thought of making this post after looking at picture in the last set of pictures I posted. OK about the wind....Korea is about 70% Mountainous.

The other 30 percent is in the form of some flat areas like Gunsan (great rice producing region), and beautiful breathtaking valleys.

So when it comes to building more highways...and trust me this little nation needs them, you come across some problems. Basically the first roads, which became highways later ran north to south. The number 1 expressway which runs all the way from Seoul to Busan takes such a winding path, that it adds hours to your trip.

Mountains mean more tunnels....I mean tunnels that can be over 1 mile in length, or almost 1 mile.

Many are half of mile. Huge valleys....well the road is raised over them....by hundreds of feet. Finally the wind. Korea is a very windy country. It is felt less in large cities due to the abundance of large structures which actually block wind. However, in the valleys there can be a very strong wind current!

Our car the KIA Enterprise is a fully loaded large luxury sedan, that weighs in at 1 ton, with a 182 horse power Engine. I think Melahs SUV is MUCH heavier, but...even at 1 ton and traveling at 110 miles and hour (180km range), when I exit a tunnel.....BOOM! I am hit so hard that I can feel it strongly in my steering, and wheels. Even the tranny will react by changing gears shifting down for more power. It is so unsettling that I have stopped speeding! Well...more like 140km/h, at that speed I am not so scared. I wonder how a Chevy blazer would handle it. Omorro your little PT.....dunno twin.....but your wheels are larger, and tires are wide.....I would so like to buy your car and ship it here! I would be like...cool...cause I have an American car. I still want to talk to you about helping me import a car over here...but maybe sometime later.

OK enough...Jemal...shut up.....drink your beer, get ready for tomorrow....

tata

Cloudy day

Yeah cloudy and a bit muggy. Our weekend was busy! We took a drive on saturday AND sunday. We drove all over the place. Nearby of course. This time I brought the camera along and took some pictures. Well we both did. We might be seeing transformers 2 today. I have heard so many good things. I really hate it when critics bash movies that are actually pretty good! Well tonight promises to be a bit busy.

Having car can be a very nice thing. Of course being in Korea that means safety is a major concern. Last weekend we saw two bad car accidents. In one the accidents it looked as if someone was seriously hurt. It was wierd. The ambulance that was to assist the injured was driving behind us, very slowly. Finally I decided to let them pass, they still drove very very slowly. Only to arrive at the scene as we were tailing them. It was horrible! The cars were crushed, and twisted, people were lying on the ground, others crying, and the ambulance slowly arrived and set about to helping them. So for me, I am going to keep being as careful as I can.

George is now 7 years old! Yogita talked to him yesterday. His teeth are starting to come out! He is very excited, and yesterday told his grandpa "See now I am strong like my Daddy" He often goes up on the roof, and picks up some heavy stones (I think they are empty flower pots, big empty flower pots!). After doing this for a few minutes he runs down stairs showing off his muscles. LOL

Jeyo has fully recovered, as has Abu, so all is well on that front.

I gotta get ready now....

Tata

Micheal Jackson.....

Well news over the internet travels very fast! It is amazing to me how some people seem to have everything but death can take it all away. This man was rich beyond peoples wildest dreams. He lost nearly all of his wealth as we all know. The scandals that seemed to follow him. I asked my students what they thought of him.

They all seemed to like him....up until the allegations of the child molestation came to light.

In this world we have a nuclear armed North Korea (in what stage who knows), who is threatening to attack. On the other hand a pop star dies. Sheesh, the news these days. People are losing jobs, losing their homes, and a pop star dies.

I am belittling him, he did alot in his field. The media took his personal issues, and aired all of his dirty laundry.

Ugh I hate the media. You can never believe what they say anyway.

Well it is lunch time. I think I will make a another post about Korean food. For those of you in Alaska....you have great access to Korean food. About 20,000 Korean Americans have settled in Anchorage alone.

Take care.

Tata

A RARE Post!!!!!!

i know i know its been a while....but i have been busy..well...sort of...ah...o.k....just lazy...but better late that never RIGHT!!!!

First of all we have had some major changes work related and otherwise..everything has turned out to be really good this far...we are planning on joining the gym and getting back in shape....

on another note...we LOVE Startrek...we are watching the ENTERPRISE these days(by-the-way same name as our humble black ENTERPRISE) and we are absolutely in love again...it's so much fun...only a true Trekki can understand...we have this teacher working in our school ...YOUNG KID...she does not now the first thing about STARTREK...CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!!!!!!

lol.....oh well...we are OLD....but as they say OLD IS GOLD!!!!

Ciao for now!!!