100th post... Ni-Suh!

It only took me foooorever and year to get here, but woot, woot to being 100 posts-old! You can send your congratulatory presents to my personal assistant in Asialand, a Mr. Lee. He's super cool, he lives on all things rice, and he hates, hates, hates, fruit and chocolate. He eats all my rice gifts and gives me any fruit or chocolate that comes his way. It's a perfect working relationship. If only he had an avocado tree, I might marry him.Well in all my excitement of being 100, I decided this was a perfect opportunity to cook a feast for myself (but who do I kid? Like I really need an excuse to eat). The celebratory menu?Spring Banchan, Spicy Mackerel Stew, Spicy Squid Muchim, and Candied Lotus Root! Spectacular. Breathtaking. Marvelous. Excellent.. So, So Awesome. Euphoric!. Ok. you have the permission to punch me now, but punch the left eye please, because the right one already has a nice bruise that came from my last annoying blog post. And it would just make my face look so much more level, if I had 2 black eyes instead of one. I really look like the dog from the little Rascals today. It is just not a very attractive look for me. I much prefer the raccoon-look. More chic., stylish., and you know, I am very chic. ;)But back to cooking. Well, I've been knocking out so many of these recipes that I'll be done with my Korean Cooking List in no time. Or more likely, I'll just get hungry and then I'll have to extend my list longer and longer.. oh darn!Here are the recipes and I have again modified some of them, and taken them from delicious to uber delicious land :) Yes, humility is not my strongest of suits.The Spring Banchan, Candied Lotus and the Squid Muchim (O jingo Chae Mu Chim) were not very modified. I have just a little extra garlic here and there, but the bigger heresy came from the recreation of the Spicy Mackerel Stew the recipe's below.Spicy Mackerel Stew ~ the original with my modifications is below... My modification? I've added chopped pumpkin and carrots along with the radish and I put 4x the amount of fresh ginger and put extra garlic. Next time I'll add  mushrooms to the mix to see what happens!

1 can (14 oz) Mackerel, strained and the juice reserved
1/2 lb Korean radish, diced into 1/4" thick slices
1/4 lb pumpkin
1/2 large carrot
1/2 onion, sliced
2 garlic clove, chopped
2 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce
2 tsp Korean soy sauce
1-2 TBS minced fresh ginger
1 tsp Korean chili flakes
1 Tbsp Korean chili paste (gochu jang)
1 Tbsp rice wine or Mirim
1tsp honey
8-10 cabbage leaves for wrapping, optional
Put radish, pumpkin, carrots and onion slices in the shallow pan, and place mackerels on top.
In a small bowl, combine the reserved canned mackerel juice with garlic, soy sauces, ginger, rice wine, and chili flakes. Sprinkle the sauce all over the mackerels in the pan.
Bring them to boil and reduce the heat to low. Simmer for 10 minutes, covered, until the radish gets tender. Serve hot with rice and steamed cabbage leaves.
For the cabbage, Tear some leaves from the cabbage and cook them in the boiling water with some salt for 3-4 minutes until they get soft. Drain and rinse. Use these leaves to wrap around the mackerel, radish, and some rice.

Happy Cooking Everyone! And yeah for my 100th birthday! I look pretty good for 100, eh? That's what cheap plastic surgery does for you! and you wondered why I've stayed in Korea for so long? The surgeries, of course. They're cheap and fast!Oh and for those of you curious here is how the list is shaping up :) √'s mean I've successfully cooked it1) Kimchi (√cucumber, √cabbage, and spinach)2) √ KongNamul Banchan (Bean Sprout stir fry)3) √ Yuk Gae Jang ( Spicy Beef Stew) Probably my new favorite soup!4) Kamja Tang (Pork Back and Potato Stew)5) Dak Dori Tang (Spicy Chicken Stew)6) √ Kimchi Jjigae (Kimchi Stew)7) √ Seaweed Salad8) √ Sauteed Sea plant 9) Soondubu Jjigae (Spicy Soft Tofu Stew)10) √ O jing chae muchim (Seasoned dried Squid) So delicious you don't even know!11) √ Pan-fried Tofu12)√ Spicy Mackerel Stew13) JangJoRim (장조림)14)√ Spring BanchanLet the cooking continue!view my portfolio here

Just Fail.. It's cool ;)

Fail!!! What!?!? Yes, just do it! Fall flat on your face! Why? WHY would I say a terrible thing like that?? Well you see, I have had this realization recently that the world (well, maybe just me) is so terrified of falling on our faces or doing something not quite perfect that we don't try or we don't jump as high as we could, we hold back, and don't challenge ourselves to go for those all the things we love because we are just scared of failing.And this is frankly, dumb. What's so wrong about failing? Really? I mean what is going to happen, if one day my pictures are crap, if I look stupid on the dance floor, or if I get a 'B' on my exam (yes, I admit, I was one of those annoy 'A' student)?If I fail, the world won't end, everyone won't hate me. I won't have to give away my camera, burn my dance shoes, or ride the short bus for the rest of my life. No one wakes up just taking amazing pictures or composing musical masterpieces. You have to learn, and you learn by trying. If you try hard enough to learn you will fail many times, and that is OK. It's awesome actually. It means you have pushed yourself so hard that you could fail and when you fail you have this incredible opportunity to grow! Just like when you lift weights. The goal is to push your muscles so far that your muscles can't lift anymore, and in that instance when your muscles are too weak to lift any more, when they fail you, they are too tired for any more, this is the point when your muscles actually will become stronger.So I know we're in April, and the whole new year's resolution is so 4 months ago, but who cares? There are still 8 more beautiful months of this year left.. So this year, I want to propose a challenge to myself and everyone who is holding themselves back because of fear of failure.. Please just let go and fail!!!!Push yourself, scare yourself more and more, take yourself to that point of failure and let yourself fail. Then do it again. We'll still love you. Go learn to dance, cook a souffle, travel to Europe, or better yet invent a pineapple tree that grows in the arctic (OK, that last one was my selfishness coming through). You'll probably be terrible at first, and your souffle will look like I jumped on it, or you'll look as graceful as an elephant with four left feet on the dance floor, but you'll get better and better and then you'll be Fred Astaire. So Just Fail!So my first point of this challenge? Well I only have 4~5 months left in Korea and I have made a list of what I want to accomplish in these next months of my life... All of these are scary things for me to attempt, and even scarier to put them online. I tend to keep my goals all locked up in my journals, so if I don't ever get around to attempting them, I only know. However, this is a new year of going toward my fears. No more excuses!Challenge #1 Be more open!So here is the dastardly list. Short, Sweet and Scary. What would your list look like?1) Submit my pictures to a magazine that I like2) Collaborate with another artist(fashion designer, make-up artist, etc.) on a Photography Shoot3) Do a Fashion Shoot in Seoul4) Start a CREATIVE bi-weekly self-portrait series (all turn the camera around/in the mirror pictures are banned!) with Mandolyn McConaha in May.5) Finish learning to cook all of my favorite Korean dishes.6) Continue and Finish a Medium Format Portrait Series on my little Orphan Boys (Much more on them later)Finally this is my first attempt at using a Medium Format TLR Camera! I got a lot of uh blurry, underexposed, fail pictures, but I got some that I liked too. Using the camera was such a challenge, a totally foreign experience, but really fun all at the same time. Expect more TLR Pictures in the next few months. :)

Father, I have Sinned..Kimchi Jjigae My way!

Yes, it took me 3 whole weeks of cooking Wednesdays to finally deviate from God give Perfection or in other terms, the Korean recipe! I did it my way this time AND because I did, I have committed a sin, and I shall never be forgiven. No matter how much Kimchi I eat or how many times I finish my entire rice at school. I have committed the ultimate sin. God will have no grace for me.This sin is almost as bad simultaneously walking under a ladder, opening up an umbrella indoors, throwing away your rice and then cursing your mother to her face. Ohhhh! it's bad.. but OH! it was worth it!. I'm surprised it took me this long to sin. ;)So I have deviated from the right way to make Kimchi Jjigae, a most sacred fermented stew that is sipped all around wintry Korea, day in and out. Legend has it that it keeps you not only healthy and happy, but it also gives you mad chopsticks skills so that you can attract the proper mate and then marry in 2 months time. I swear it's true!How did I manage to mess this soup of the matchmakers up? You see, I have not only added mushrooms, but I also added Pumpkins! Yes, I'll never marry! I'll be an old maid for life. Gasp, yes! You have permission to Gasp again! ::Inge, pauses to hear the crowd gasp, again and again:: I should be slapped in the face, thrown out of the country or worse, be forced to clean a Kimchi factory with a toothbrush.Expect more delicious unholiness from me in the future. What will I do next? Perhaps make riceless bibimbap..?  ::all the Koreans in the room gasp and say "You wouldn't dare, Inge!" "Ha, just watch me! Muahahaha!" So here's the Traditional Kimchi Jjigae recipe from www.maangchi.com and just throw in some delicious Pumpkin and Mushrooms to take it up a notch!Ingredients:* 200 grams of Pork belly (about 1/2 pound)* 4 or 5 cups of chopped kimchi* 1 tbs sugar, 1 tsp of hot pepper flakes, 1 tbs hot pepper paste* onion, green onions* half a package of tofu* sesame oil and waterOk, let’s start!1. In a shallow pot, put some chopped kimchi and juice.2. Add sliced onion, hot pepper paste, and hot pepper flakes, sugar, and green onions.3. Pour water until all ingredients are submerged.4. Close the lid of the pot and boil it 25 or 30 minutes. (first 10 minutes will be high heat and then turn down the heat over medium heat)5. Add some tofu and boil it 5 minutes more and put some sesame oil right before serving.Ta Ta for now!

Famous in Seoul

Sunday afternoon in the middle of the Yeouido Cherry Blossom Festival a mass of Koreans began to form, mouths were gaping, hundreds of cellphones were out, all busily snapping pictures, and they weren't looking at beautiful cherry blossoms.. Oh no, they cared nothing for the millions of flower-filled trees, they were more enthralled with the massive blue eyes of all the Taylor children. You would have thought that the Olsen twins had arrived or perhaps Hannah Montana had just come on stage... All the grandmothers wanted their pictures taken with the beautiful waygooks (foreigners) and the grandfathers wanted to shake their hands. And the funny thing is that all this madness is just a normal Korean day for the Taylors. Korean made celebrities. :)Want your Korean life documented? contact me @ ingekathleen@gmail.com view my portfolio here

My Crazy Cooking Mission ~ Part 2!

 

It was a mad Wednesday morning! I had had no coffee; I had just one hour before I had to go to work to create 3 different Korean masterpieces; and I hadn't even gotten out of my pajamas!This  Wednesday Cooking Mission? Bean Sprout Panchan, Sauteed Seaweed and Fried Tofu.Could I, would I make it? or would I fail and be miserably late for school and be sent to the principle's office to stare at his white concrete wall? Please God, NOooooo! ::inge shudders as she thinks of the last time that happened!:: I had no time to dilly dally, fart around, smell the roses, nope. none of that crap!. There was no time to quench my thirst or to run to the loo! I barely had time to swallow my own spit, but lucky I managed that task because drool is just gross.So as I was furiously washing, chopping, frying, and crossing my legs and jumping up and down so I wouldn't need to go to the water closet, my computer rang! Low and behold it was my sister Emmy calling all the way in Amer-i-ca land. She was making an Indian curry for dinner at that very moment!Sigh, my heart melted! In fact, it melted straight onto the floor. What a mess! So as I was cleaning up my heart from my floor, thank God it's linoleum!, she proceeded to ask me of life and how to cook her curry.As I made up fantastical stories of my Korean life full of daisy picking and the proper method to follow her recipe (basically recipes are dumb), I scrambled to chop pounds of garlic, onions, bean sprouts, sea plant and whistle in order to distract myself from using the powder room..Somehow in that hour, I managed to not only talk to her,  but make all of these dishes perfectly (ok, ok, you're right, one dish was over salted~it tasted like I a glass of sea water ~ but sea plant is supposed to taste like that, right? ), then I managed to eat everything in record time.  I'm a champion food chewer, but my jaw is still sore from all the bean sprout chewing, I put my shirt on frontward and got to work on time! It was a rock star kind of Wednesday. Well except I never found time for the whole bathroom break...Ok, so here's my list of Korean food that I have committed to cook before I leave the land of Kimchi and Visors.. And my progress so far!My next mission? Well my Napa Cabbage Kimchi is getting quite fermented. In fact, it is almost 2 months old... I am so proud, my little baby is growing up! So I am thinking about a nice pot of Kimchi Stew.. What do you think?1) Kimchi (√cucumber, √cabbage, and spinach)2) √ KongNamul Banchan (Bean Sprout stir fry)3) √ Yuk Gae Jang ( Spicy Beef Stew) Probably my new favorite soup!4) Kamja Tang (Pork Back and Potato Stew)5) Dak Dori Tang (Spicy Chicken Stew)6) Kimchi Jjigae (Kimchi Stew)7) √ Seaweed Salad8) √ Sauteed Sea plant 9) Soondubu Jjigae (Spicy Soft Tofu Stew)10) O jingo Chae Mu Chim (Seasoned dried Squid) So delicious you don't even know!11) √ Pan-fried Tofu12) Spicy Mackerel Stew13) JangJoRim (장조림)14) Spring BanchanLet the cooking continue!view my portfolio here

French Toast and Funny Faces

Sunday Morning, just as we were getting ready to eat massive amounts of French Toast at BUTTERFINGERS, the best breakfast place in all of Seoul, Seo Yeon marched up to us, a group of 6 very funny, very strange foreigners, and decided to join us for an hour long chat about life., Well actually, all she really wanted to do was laugh at us and our funny faces. :) I can't blame her because our faces are ..eh...Well. there IS a reason, I don't put my face up on this blog very often. I'm protecting the little ones. You should thank me and send gifts to show your appreciation. *Don't worry, the gifts don't need to be in the form of money, just fruit. I have a gift registry at fruitisamazing.com ~ I'm not picky, Pineapples, Pears, Mangos, let your imagination run wild! :)view my portfolio here 

Three Cheers for Fermentation!

This past week I moved one giant step closer to becoming Korean! No, I didn't dye my hair black, and I haven't suddenly become good at math. It is much more serious than that! I am both proud and ashamed to say I am have made Kimchi all by myself. Kimchi for those of you that don't know, is Korea's miracle food. Akin to Manna from Heaven, butter on bread, hot fudge on cake, but in a very healthy, garlic breath sort of way.They (the Koreans) say it (kimchi) will cure any aliment from a cold to the worst of cancers. This is perhaps why Korean hikers pack in pounds of kimchi from Korea when they go on treks up the Himalayan Mountains? You know just in case one of your limbs falls of due to frostbite or the werewolves, you can always rub some kimchi on it, then you'll be fine! This stuff will regenerate limbs! Incredible. Watch out doctors, you'll be out of business once the Kimchi mania spreads to the West!Every Korean meal by law.. er practically... must, I repeat MUST have kimchi.. So what IS this 'kimchi'? Well simply put, it is a mixture of Garlic, Chile Powder, Onions, Soy Sauce all smash together and then slathered onto a poor unsuspecting head of Napa Cabbage. The cabbage is then promptly thrown into airtight Tupperware, refrigerated for weeks or months on end in order to properly ferment and sour. The more fermented it is, the better chance of re-growing limbs and having 10/14 vision.. Errr.... on second thought due to the massive amounts of bi-focals I see in Korea, kimchi must not help the eyes. You think maybe they should consider fermenting carrots instead?p.s. If you're up for the Fermentation challenge here is the recipe --->http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/kimchi-kaktugi it's so easy and delicious, in a special fermented kind of way.

Oh! how I love the Mountains and Pumpkin Pie too!

The mountains in Nepal are pretty much the next best thing to dark chocolate and pumpkin pie. If I could have had the foresight to bring a pie with me to Nepal, I could have eaten it while hiking the mountain then I think I would have dropped dead on the spot from happiness, maybe next year. Have you ever been to a place where you felt just an overwhelming sense of peace and clarity? For me this was the Nepalese mountains. and imagine if I had brought a pumpkin pie with me on my journey to Everest Base Camp? Wow, I think I could have found the cure for cancer!I even tried to take a mountain back with me to South Korea, but the guy in airport security said that it clashed with my outfit and the fashion police in Seoul would not have such a lapse in fashion sense enter their country. I rolled my eyes better than a teenager, but gave in and allowed him to take my precious hunk of rock from me. ::sigh:: Next time I think I'll wear more of a neutral color and see if I can sneak it past the guard. I've just got to figure out how to fit it through the airport scanner.. hmm. any ideas?Before I'm off to start my Saturday morning here in Korea, I wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving! It is really the best holiday of the year, and I'm am really very sad that I missed the opportunity to stuff my face in the USA with my beautiful family. ::inge proceeds to shed 2 tears:: <---- See I even shed virtual tears - 2 of them! - to let you know that I am not lying..I'm such a geniune person..::inge sighs and then sheds yet another tear:: I hope it was a lovely day for you all, and that you entered into a proper food coma., and that you ate more pumpkin pie than I did. [for my Thanksgiving day breakfast I ate 1/16 of a pie-it's like eating gold, delicious gold!]. But this begs me to ask? Where was my airmail package of pumpkin pie? Huh, huh? I'm not bitter.. NO.. not at all. so NOT hurt for not getting ANY pie not even a pie-scented card. rude!On Thursday here in Korea, it was a coincidentally the day of my school's fall festival. Can you guess what I made my kids dress up like, and perform for the entire school? 10 Little Indians. That's right. I was going for the most politically incorrect song possible. I would have dressed them up like 10 little pumpkins pies, but unfortunately there were no songs about pumpkin pie to justify my infatuation with the decadent dessert. Next year I'm writing a song to honor this golden, sweet, custardy disc of deliciousness. It will be a mad bestseller. I can already feel it. Ohhh... it's going to be good :)  Well that's all for me now, please have a lovely black Friday in the States, score brilliants deals at the stores, but more importantly make me proud by eating loads of leftovers for breakfast, lunch and dinner, ok?

Sumatran Life

So it's that time of year. You know the time of year that you clean out your closets or in my case clean out my hard drives, reorganize my life, build a website and conquer the world with a crazy fancy 'To Do' lists. What is this time of year called, I forget? Oh yes, Spring cleaning!. oh, uh..er..Shucks, I'm a little late, huh? Ahhh well, we'll just have to call it 'early' spring cleaning..Look at me and all my overachieving ways! I'm just that good. ::Ok ya'll, quit laughing at me. I'm trying to make myself feel better about my superhuman ability to procrastinate::

As part of my Spring cleaning, I looking through pictures of my Indonesian escapades from last winter that never made it to the light of day because of that superhuman ability that I mentioned above. So here is the first a 2 or 3 blog posts series on Indonesia/Nepal and the warmth of these beautiful countries that has currently vanished from Korea-land and will never return again! Ever! My toes will be amputated this week due to the state of the Korean winter and next week my nose will go too! Ok, maybe I am being a little dramatic, they are only chopping off 4 of my toes and half my nose, but you don't understand what it is like to go through six months of straight winter and have to wear long johns and wool coats in May! In May, people! I brrrrreaks even the strongest of spirits.

As part of my attempts to psychologically trick myself into thinking that I will not die during this winter, I am drinking Indonesia coffee by the gallons, turning on the sun lamps, buying a new swimsuit, and listening to Hawaiian music, oh and I even ordered sand for my apartment floor! What do you think? Do you think I'll survive? Ha, Bingo! You're very, very, right dear readers. I'm toast! Burnt toast, so burnt that even the butter knife scraping technic won't help my situation. I'm doomed! No more toes or fingers for me, and I might as well say goodbye to my whole nose too. I can just think of it as cheap plastic surgery, right, right?. ::Happy thoughts, Inge. Happy thoughts!::

"When Life gives you Lemons, make Lemonade" or in my case....

In the great continent of Asia, or probably more accurately in the country of S. Korea there is a disheartening lack of one of the best foods know to man.... Cheese! Yes! I know how do I, Inge, cheese lover, live here????? In a land where the only cheeses people know are plastic mozzarella and powdered orange cheese food?!? I don't know! I have pondered that question daily. And I was coming to a breaking point.

So you seeeeee, I was about to move back to a land flowing with bread and cheese, until 2 days ago a beautiful and painful thing occurred. An angel came down from Heaven and smacked me over the head with a broom stick and then in a booming voice said.. "DUH!, Inge! If you're so hung up on not having cheese make your own cheese. gosh darnet!" He said it just like that too! and then Heaven rang a bell because this messenger angel just received his wings for fulling his earthly mission..  His name was Bob. Congratulations Bob, your wings look good on you, but you got a little mustard/ketchup stain on your right wing-man. You might want to think about doing a load of laundry. Just sayin.

Anyways so the bruise on my head got me to a thinkin'.. Cheese. you say, Sir Bob?.... Can I really make, cheese? and then I remembered WikiHow.com! Oh joy.! It has all the answers to life and more! and guess what article it had "How to make Cheese!" Oh man, I practically died and went to Heaven!

And above in the milk picture, Yes, that does seems like an exorbitant amount of milk, a little bit overkill, but cheese is so good, and I am so deprived. Like a baby without milk, a chef with no knife, or a ballerina with no tutu!

At this point you might ask how the heck did you get all of that milk? Well you see in Asia, I practice thievery and bribery. Basically, I like to take the bone building milk from any unsuspecting Korean child. - aka - We play switch-a-roo at the lunch table.. I bribe them for their milk with candy and stickers. muahahaha :) It's a somewhat shady means to a udderly delicious end... CHEESE..

And for all you doubters in my ability to make cheese or tell the truth, it was delicious!!! Legitimate amazingness, and if you feel like a science project yourself, here is how you make your very own cheese --->

http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/Recipes/Cheese-Making-Recipes-304.aspx http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Cheese-at-Home

P.S. This post is dedicated to my dear friend Hannah O. You told me to take pictures and make a blog post of anything I wanted just because, so I made cheese for you and lived to tell about it. You're fresh delicious cheese is in the mail..

The Great Escape!

Mandy and I did it! We escaped Korea for a few short weeks to experience the beauty and intricacies of Nepali life.. How did we manage the escape, you might be wondering? Well see there is this new crazy invention, called an air-O-Plane. Have you heard of it? You see it wonderful! And by-golly it took us all the way from Korea right to the heart of Nepal.. Snip-Snap. Like a dream - BoooooM - Bamb! - Well quite dreamy other than 2 super long, food-less layovers in a China and then a very hearty frisking at the Tibetan border.. Ummmm, can you say Awkward?... as in awkward Turtle - (for all of the high schoolers who know the turtle well).During the Escape, I managed to grab a few photos that I thought maybe you'd want to see or not, depending on your general mood and your current Starbucks intake for the day.Below are photos from Kathmandu the capital city of Nepal, we were held captive by the city for over 4 days until the weather gods allowed us to fly our way  into Lukla, Nepal - by a sweet helicopter! - to start our 8-day, 75 mile trek to Everest Base Camp and back., but more on the mountain later. There will be more Nepali photo craziness on the blog this next week that is coming up. I Swear. Pinky-Promise, spit on my knee and then I'll even kiss my elbow. :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I made it out! Plastic Surgery and all.

Sooooo just in case you really missed me, or might have wondered if I might have died during my (our Mandy's and mine) 70 mile - 8 day climb, 18,192 ft high in the sky - to a place called Everest Base Camp in Nepal?... Did you even ask yourself where I was? Well don't feel bad because -- no, no, I didn't die - almost died- but death and cremation is too expensive, and you see, I have bad health insurance so I decided life was a cheaper option... Lucky for you, Mom, death is a pricey bugger... And even more lucky, I included a photo of myself  in this blog post to prove my 100% alive-ness - see my portrait below --p.s. I may have gotten a wee bit of plastic surgery while in Nepal. It's uber cheap there, and I was having an ugly day so I thought some plastic would cheer me up! It did, but the plane ride back to Korea was surprisingly more difficult, and I'm always so hungry now. I could almost eat a c---... or maybe just a horse... hmmm strange., or is it?

Farewell Korea - Hello Arctic!

Ahhh in a short few hours, Mandy and I will set out out on a crazy adventure of a lifetime! We will go all the way to Antarctica to ride the back of killer whales and polar bears! We have been training for the past 3 months by diligently going to the local Korean zoo every night and feeding the polar bears. This increased our polar bear karma. We have managed to feed the bears over 1,000pds of Rice and kimchi. We believe that our by the time we get to the Arctic the polars will think that we are brothers er um sister-wives perhaps with them and then they will give us a rides from north to west.  Getting to know Killer whales was a bit more of a challenge for us. You see, the Koreans don't have them in their zoo! I was surprised and frankly disgusted when I heard this. But it has been my dream since I was a wee lass to ride on the back of a Killer so I thought really hard.. For almost an hour! I know, I know.. That's about as hard as geniuses think! My brain hurt for hours and hours afterward.My brilliant plan? Well, we watched Free Willy 1,2,3, &4 every night for 3 months absorbing every word and sound made by Willy and his owner, Jesse, we now know the script by heart and will conquer the hearts of all the whales with out graceful whale dances and sweet voices.. And they will bow their heads and let us walk on their backs and ride them through the arctic circle...okkkkk... so maybe the above is a bit of a lie.. or a lot of one... (Sorry God and Mom) And maybe I'm not going to Antarctica.. but polar bears and lil' killers are really quite cute, so squeezable, and I would go, but you see I'm an English teacher and therefore have no money to fly all that way..  So sadly all of our hard work was spoiled, and now we must settle for a 3 week trek across Nepal. A trek that consists of eating loads Indian, Nepali, Tibetan food; meeting Sherpaa, kissing llamas, taking too many pictures, asking a Tibetan to be my pen pal, playing rock, paper, scissors till our hands fall off during layovers in China, buying loads of beautiful jewelry and clothes, OHHH and yeah... um climbing 18000 feet upward to see... that mountain --- Everest? :DAhhhhhh I'm so excited.. I couldn't even sleep last night.. probably due to the nightmares that I would forget my wallet, passport, get in a knockdown drag-out fight with Mandy, and my beautiful camera would blow up.. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, ---> Boom! Like burnt toast! Done! haha.. so I decided that the sleep wasn't worth it.. Too scary. I am off to finish the last things on my list...1) Pack my passport And wallet2) Make Mandy breakfast in bed3) Go have a love chat with my camera4) Fly to NepalSee you all in a few weeks well via this blog at least :)Won't you miss this beautiful face??? huh, huh? Nepal won't know what hit it!and you can send your love or hate mail to my friend Juan for capturing this brilliantly accurate depiction of my face. :)   You guys miss me, won't you? kisses and hugs for everyone! :)

Bow-ChiCa-Bow-Wow!

Imagine if this was how you made your money... hahaha... I would for sure blink and twitch and break into cold sweats all at once.... and then I would be fired. Done for. Sent back to the States. And sentenced to a life of eating only Spam and kimchi..  :: Inge shudders and begins to twitch uncontrollable for 23.4 mins:: ........ Ok, ok.. I'm back! Whew.... remind me never to apply for a live manikin position... ever...  Dog food and fermented cabbage just aren't for me.. I might just cry and cry and cry.... and then the smell of my breath! Oui, It would be bad... yikes! You don't even want to know! My mouth would be like a small dark hole (or big dark hole depending on your personal opinion... but keep that to yourself thank-you!) of death..... death I tell you, that nasty 5 letter word ::shudders again::

Random wondering of the day: Do you ever wonder why "death" has 5 letter instead of 4 letter? I mean, Really.. Lets be honest... All bad, ugly words in the English language have 4 letters.. you know like the words... um...er...ish...

::Inge suddenly remembers, just in time, that she should stop her typing right NOW and only silently count off all the naughty words she knows... so she doesn't end up in a big dark hole of Death herself... then looks around to make sure no one heard her thoughts... wowzers! she's twitching again... and...ewww! she's sweating.... I swear, there is something seriously wrong with her, but don't tell her I said that.. See, she's a wee bit self-conscious, and might beat me if she knew I was talking behind her back..And I am a peace loving commentator and have no other employment options so this will be our little secret, yes? ::

But really... Why does death get 5 letters? does it just feel like it's better than the other big bad words like...... Such a snob! If Death went to high school, she would for sure be a Mean Girl and hang out with Rachel McAdams and her possy.... Esh! where does Death get off -- thinking it has the right for 5 letters? And with that I will end my thoughts... ---twitch, twitch, twitch, twitch, twitch, twitch..... :: see what I mean? Something is for sure wrong with her..::

Ajummas, Asian Speak, and Hand Towels

Yooowzers! It was an intense day of battling little Korean munchkins, saving the world, flying to Venus on a magic carpet , and then, then my proudest accomplishment of the day, I ate more food than for lunch than all five of my male teachers. I'm a beast! (I'm training for a food-eating competition in July). Don't worry Mom, I'm not really too large from all the extra food, yet.... uhh.... you see large is not really the proper terminology, I'm just a little plump, well-fed, well-rounded, maybe robust or possibly husky? ... I don't know English isn't my first language anymore, no, I've given up for a more appropriate global language. It's called "Asian Talk"..  Have you not heard of it? Why it's all the rage here! Everyone speaks it! You guys are so behind the times! Get with it ....

You know they say ("they" meaning those smart people, who live in the smart people town, and make smart people money.... you know "them" right?) Well "They" say English will be obsolete in 5 years. So get on the stick, Move to Asia! Go, go,  go! What are you waiting for?!? leave your life of stupidity and mostly English. Sell your house, buy a big towel (Tip:: uhhh..... So we only have hand towels here in Korealand, and what's more awkward than the combination of a shower + roommate or random neighbor + hand towel = red face.. or worse..... oommate IN hand towel + you eating breakfast = the involuntary loss of your breakfast.

After you buy the towel, give away your dog (there's no room here), and buy a box of chocolate, (why the chocolate?) Ummm... the chocolate is for me.... I could go into some long diatribe about how you won't be excepted into Asian culture unless you bring expensive, dark, delicious chocolate, or how there is a tax for chocolate-less visitors, or you'll turn into a pumpkin wear a dress unless there is a box of chocolate in your hand, but let's be honest, I'm selfish.. I want chocolate... So stop by Mr. Ghirardelli's, spend a month's salary, and I'll see you soon... Remember dark chocolate, none of that weenie milk chocolate stuff!

Oh yess.... back on track.... hmmm, where was I? oh yes, my intense day! Well after many a hardships, I went to the little market in my town... And the Ajumma's (grandmothers) were out in full force today, so I wandered through the food stalls with sad, hungry eyes hoping to get handouts. It worked like magic! ::I'm not going to lie...I'm a pro. I've got skill-Z:: Not only did I get free berries, the ajummas gave me free Korean lessons to boot! It was a sweet, sweet day in Asialand for sure....