It's burning up!!!

We are burning up here in South Korea! In India and Pakistan many people were killed due to long heat waves. I am sure we will hear in the news about some elderly people who have expired due to this humid heat. The temperatures are about the same as they are in Lucknow India. The thing is it is a mixture of humidity, and heat. Witth so much moisture in the air, humans have a hard time cooling off. Exessive sweating but no real cooling, means that you lose even more fliuds with no benefit. 

I am a bit worried....in this kind of heat it might be best to stay off of beaches. Many people are heading to valleys where there is a lot of natural shade, cool winds from the surrounding mountains. 

Oh  yeah and don't forget the mountain streams, and small rivers. I need to talk to my best friend but...we are all so busy. In the evening when we finally do have time..we are so tired. This heat saps strength. Usually I play eve for about 1.5 hours, sometimes 2 hours. Now? I can barely stand 30-40 minutes. Also I find that I am sleeping more. Usually I sleep 4 to 5 hours, now 6 to 7. I think my body likes this new change, but I do not. 

The boys are taking it well. Both of them walk about with out a shirt on (copying me). They sleep soundly, and their patterns have not been put off due to this heat. Today I will get a haircut....this hair...ugh I feel like I have a sweater on my head!

So take care out there, it's hotter than hell!!!

/Tata

I can't wait till the winter rolls around!

Vacation time.....wow

So here we are with a couple of days off in a couple of weeks. So once again the urge to hit the road is upon us. I really want to return to the east coast and grill some meat on the beach, while sipping a gin tonic with a slice of lemon in the glass. We have a better tent now. Last trip our older tent had many issues basically the tarp kept failing. Now with our newer tent that should not be much of an issue. I am thinking about buying a larger tarp that I can place over both tents. One tent will have our supplies and space for the boys. While our other tent will be for Yogita and I. Boys are well..boys they get really really dirty and I don't want that in the tent Yogita and I will be in. 

I know they will want to have a tent they can relax in (even though they will likely spend very little time in it). 

Supplies

we will treat this like a camping trip, so we will bring a grill and other veggies, and a nice cook out on the beach. Well basically thats the plan but you never know....we might just stay in Gunsan, or maybe take a short trip to the west coast.

We will see!

/Tata

My journal....

Wow did I used to sound like that? Today I picked up my 20 year old journal. The poor thing is falling apart with frayed edges, and the pages becoming very soft. I feel like I have do it a diservice. I did not update it as much as I should have. Well, at least it is still with me. It has been everywhere I have been.

And here it lies before me, a 3 subject notebook with a spiral thingy (I forgot what they are called and I don't feel like "googling it") 

I guess I should not feel too bad I mean using this nifty app I can take pictures and boom it's included in my post. I will digitalize it perhaps next week I will start on it. Now that I am a man, I can see that I have learned a lot. Heck I am still learning. I am thankful to my partner in crime Yogita Hogan. She is awesome, and even though she might say I have taught her a lot, that is a two way street! 

I am teaching a pair of twins some basic writing skills, they are coming along nicely. I hope they can find joy in writing things down. I know in school, and university it's a part of life, but...it can be so much fun, and insightful when you look at what you wrote years later! 

/tata 

Camping!

Just some pictures from our camping trip.

Here you can see both our small tents I the for ground.

Heavy rain...our older tent....failed.

Steak! 

Actually I am using a new app to publish blog post....I'm loving it so far! 

/ tata

Cooking results, crap picture.....

Well the picture will not do it justice.....I need to work on taking better photos. Yesterday I was so hungry and the beans smelled crazy good! The end result was that I forgot to take a proper picture and ended up taking a crappy pic. I blame the picture on my hunger. 

Taste I wanted to use the chile peppers and wow it was so good a nice heat. We used a mix of ground pork and beef, and other spices. 

So there it is the beans were fresh not dried very very nice! I used potatoes and some corn starch as a thickener. Next time I want to use a mix of black beans, and white beans along with chunks of pork.

/tata

Time to get back to cooking

In our family usually Yogita cooks, in fact in this blog if you look back over the years you can see some of her creations. However, I too love to cook! Its just that after 15 years of marriage I just...stopped. Well it is time to get back into the kitchen. I LOVE cooking and I am going to start with one of the first dishes my mother taught me that is bean stew done. From there I want to head over to steaks, and fish, and even fried chicken!

Tonight I put together with Yogitas help (I do not know how to operate a pressure cooker) Kidney bean stew. I added a nice little handful of chili peppers for some nice heat. The chili peppers are dried thai peppers that we bought in Iksan. I love the dry heat they have. It isn't an oily kind of heat but a nice dry burn!


I will take pictures of it...well Yogita will she loves taking pictures of the food that she prepares. Hopefully the LG G pro 2's 13 megapixel camera will show it in all of its glory.

/tata

Time for a bit of change!

I have really learned to enjoy my job. Other teachers in gunsan usually say things like "wow teaching at Hyundai is hard!". They would be correct. Our curricula is based on not only conversational books, or phonics. We focus on other appliciplable skills in which English is at the core. For example, presentation English, or teaching business style English at factories. Actually the latter is quite a challenge as some businesses require a certain focus, in which case the teacher must be flexible.

We also teach test prep like toiec, teps, toiec speaking, and toiec writing. Well this week I will be teaching prose, and basic writing skills. A real change in the usual routine! Time to put our thinking caps on! 

/tata

Summer fun?

Spring was very expensive family entertainment wise. We basically did things we normally do I the summer...in spring! For example going to beach, and camping...well that was early summer. 

Actually buying the tents and additional supplies, and gear was an investment. So actually I am happy about that.

Now we are actually in the summer, and peak vacation season is breathing down our necks. Well in a good way of course. We have decided to give camping another go. However for our summer vacation I am thinking about toning it down this year. Perhaps it's time to just take it easy.  We will have to see. The mers outbreak in South Korea has really put a lot of people off from visiting and traveling. I am hoping this results in cheaper prices for accommodations so as to attract vacationers. Usually the prices are stupidly high. If that is the case this year...then I will not head east. If not....I'm outta here! 

I have a new smart phone it's more like a phablet a smart phone plus tablet. It's screen is 5.9 inches. It's a lg G pro 2 

It's a monster of a phone but it's not bad. It's take some time to get used to it. I will post pics of it next to my iPhone 4 in a later blog post. Oh well another busy day, with new classes next week! 

/tata