An Unexpected Surprise

Tonight, Jon had planned to meet up with another POLY teacher who is also from Rochester. We met for Korean BBQ two months or so ago, but haven't since. So, we decided to get together in Anyang, south of Seoul, a bit where she lives. Well, miscommunication occurred and although we were in Anyang, we ended up not getting together. This subway station was really nice and had several shops and also a Lotte department store. Lotte is basically the equivalent to a gigantic Macy's. We didn't get a chance to go into it because it was closing, but we wandered around a little bit. As we made our way outside of the station, we saw a Krispy Kreme sign on the outside of the station. How exciting! I yelled, "Krispy Kreme" right away! I have seen them in one or two other places in Seoul, but I was always with other people going somewhere and never could stop. So, after a long day of teaching and testing, we thought it'd be a great dinner. We walked in and they had the conveyor belt of donuts being made and several racks of doughnuts ranging from original to cinnamon walnut old-fashioned glazed to green tea glazed. (Seriously, who wants a green tea, donut? Not I.) So, Jon and I got 6 donuts (2 original, two old-fashioned chocolate donuts, a cinnamon walnut old-fashioned glazed, and a strawberry filled donut). We went to the counter and also ordered a medium coffee to share. When they gave us the coffee cup, it was the size of a large at Starbucks for only about $1.80! Another wonderful surprise! Then, when the cashier was giving me my receipt, he was trying to say something and I had no idea what it was (even though it was in English). So, I looked at Jon. Jon had no idea what he was saying. But, the cashier repeated the same sentence for the third time and I heard the words "Free......now or later". I don't know what's free, but I sure want it now! So, I told him that and he ran away and came back with an original glazed donut; another exciting surprise! You all know that the original is the best, so this was major. A free donut! Wow! Okay, maybe I'm a little excited over this donut, but it was more than that, it felt like I was back in Indiana visiting my brother in college and making a run to Krispy Kreme late at night to get their fresh, off the cooker donuts. Ahhhh. All of these things together certainly made Jon's day, I know.

Oh, the other surprise, which I kept repeating but Jon didn't seem to pay any attention to was the two-story Daiso. Daiso is the 1,000 won store, so every thing's about 80 cents. We go to Daiso to get things for our class store at school and soap and what not. Where else could you buy decent Asian looking plates, bowls, cups, and pots?-nowhere. But, I had never seen a two story Daiso! I really wanted to go inside and see the glory of it all, but Jon didn't seem to have any interest. Maybe I'll just have to meander to Anyang again someday...

So, even though we traveled quite a ways, apparently just for a couple donuts and some time together outside of our one room apartment, it was well worth it. We had a good adventure and unexpected surprises together in Anyang, Korea!

If we could have anything, what would it be.....?

I don't know what it is about this last week, but I have been thinking and dreaming about food all week! So, for all of you who have these things, you should go use them immediately or eat these things for the sake of Jon and I-who cannot.

Anika:
If I could eat anything right now, it would be:

• Panera turkey artichoke toasted sandwich.
  
• a real Wisconsin hamburger with lots of grease, cheese, bacon and goodness all wrapped in an onion bun.
• Applebee's Cowboy Burger
• Culver's sourdough bread with beef, lots of cheese and onions
  
• Jimmy John's #12 Beach Club + chocolate chunk cookie
  
• Wendy's chicken nuggets w/ranch eating them at 2 a.m in the Wendy's parking lot, in the car with Jonathon, as usual.
• Dairy Queen Cotton Candy blizzard
  
• Mom's lemon poppyseed muffins and almond kringle
  
• Nona's gingersnaps
• Real lasagna
  
• Sasta's......everything
• Maggiano's lobster ravioli
  
• homemade apple sauce (with cinnamon) made with my mom or my father-in-law, Bob
  
• the squeakiest cheese curds
  
• fried cheese curds with ranch
  
• a true Milwaukee brat with ketchup and mayo
  
• Famous Dave's entire Garbage Can Lid with extra corn bread.
  
• real yogurt
• Monkey Bread
• Dominoes cinnamon sugar bread with frosting
  
• Caribou Coffee
  
• Cinnamon LIFE, Lucky Charms (oh my gosh, I forgot about Lucky Charms, how could I forget about Lucky Charms), Cinnamon Toast Crunch (now that I'm all grown up, I can eat these things because I was not allowed when I was a kid, only once a year-September 1st End of the Summer Junk Box, what a wonderful holiday in the Helquist Home!).
  

If I could have anything right now, it would be:

• some hang out time with friends and family
• a dryer
• fresh air
• a week at Camp Forest Springs
  
• bread machine
• our oh, so, comfortable bed.
  
• The view and sounds of the lake from my parents house
• Chippie Link Baby Chunky Beef Face, Mutton Chop, Pipsqueak, Johann, Honey.
  

Despite all these wants, I really am thankful for what I have here. I know my long list above does not help my case, but I am thankful for the food we have here and the experiences so far. Sometimes, I just go through big cravings and thought it might at least be an interesting and different blog post. It will be great to go home and eat these foods in a couple of months. It will also be wonderful to have an oven and be able to make things in it.

Jon:
If I could eat anything right now, it would be:

• A Chipotle burrito
• Chicken wings from Buffalo Wild Wings
• A Double Bacon Cheeseburger from Wendy's
• Wendy's chicken nuggets with honey mustard dipping sauce
• Quizno's Tuscan Turkey sandwich (Quizno's doesn't have that one here)
• Roscoe's Ribs in Rochester
• Pizza without potatoes or shimp
• Blueberry pie
• Grilled steak
• Fried bluegill fillets
  
• Walleye
• Home made honey wheat bread
• Mountain Dew
• Deli meat
• American style Chinese food
• Cheesecake
• Grandma Vork's cheesy potatoes
• Grandpa Vork's pigs in a blanket
• Roast beef with onions, gravy, and mashed potatoes
• Peas
• Split pea soup
• Roasted ham
• Roasted turkey
• Rotisserie chicken
• Applebee's Cowboy Burger
• Chicken Marsala from Maggiano's
• Crab legs
• Cool Ranch Doritoes
• Garden Salsa Sun Chips
• Culver's frozen custard
  
• Culver's Butter Burger
• Pumpkin Pie
• Caribou Coffee ice cream
• Kemp's ice cream

If I could have anything right now, it would be:

• Friends and family
  
• Dish washer
• Clothes dryer
• My car
• My trumpet
• My golf clubs
• My baseball glove
• Fresh Minnesota air
• My fishing pole
• A bedroom
• A soft bed
• A decent cell phone
• American baseball on TV

Recent Molly Adventures

Here's some Molly pics and videos because some of you have been asking for more about Molly and less about us...

When my parents came, Chippie (my dog from home) sent some gifts to Molly. The first gift was a pink baby Kong. The second....

...toilet paper and mini dog treats.

The next video is of Molly and I on a walk Sunday morning.

Now, this is probably one of my favorite videos, although I did a horrible job capturing the whole thing. Like I said in the previous video, Molly loves to look for birds, mainly pigeons.

The pigeon's flew into a young Korean couple enjoying the
weather. The screaming is from the woman when the pigeon flew at her...

Molly tried to jump over the puddles, but landed to run into a few mud piles on our walk, so she definitely needed a 'baffers'. Jon really likes it when she gets washed because she is soooo soft and smells good. Jon is so cute and will just sniff her head. He is a loving Papa.

Pre-baffers:


Post-baffers:


After having her baffers, she often shivers and so Papa always
wraps her up and holds her until she is dry.


When she is all dry, she likes to be held closely. Here, Molly is
wrapped in a ball with her feet tucked in. Molly's such a docile doggy.

Molly's getting excited to come to the U.S. in a couple of months. There are many things that needs to be done before this time, but she says she is prepared. Molly also asks for prayer because she needs to be spayed in the next two months and she is a little scared. But, her Korean vets love her and treat her very kindly. Dr. Choi and Kwon always get down on the floor to talk to her and are also impressed with how well she does with shots. Good job Molly!

Our Next Step

During my time in Korea, I have had both good and bad interactions with the Korean people. Almost all of my good interactions have been at church, which makes sense, but some of them have been on the street or subway as well. Recently, a man come up to Jon, Sarah, Michael, and me and thank us for teaching the "wild" kids. I haven't had many people thank me for teaching, even within my school. I don't really expect to hear much thanks, but it sure was nice to hear it from a complete stranger! But, recently, I have also had some unpleasant run-ins with some Korean men and I immediately became hard towards them as well as others. It has been really difficult for me to be stared, yelled at, and what not here because I don't really like to be the center of attention and feel like I'm fine without getting noticed. But, in a land with all black hair, I tend to stick out and be spotted from hundreds of feet away...so I will be happy (maybe, I think) to come back to the states and blend in. Whenever Jon and I are walking down the street, I think it's fun to see which one of us is noticed first, the tall, hairy boy, or the short blond....? It's usually a toss up.
When the main problem happened this week, I was on my way to church and soon after, I listened to Jon preach about acting on God's love. Throughout the week, I was thinking about it and I realized that despite some bad interactions and words said, I need to forgive and of course still need to treat everyone with love. Even though this is an early thing we learn while being Christians, it is easier said than done sometimes. It's easy to love someone who loves you back and treats you nicely as well, but when someone wrongs you, I find it often difficult to show a Godly love in return. It is much easier to act wronged and selfish. I don't want bad feelings to get in the way or make me view others different, so I am definitely praying for God's love and words to others. I seem to be continually humbled and encouraged by Jon as well as many others. So, Jon's message was right on time with some things I had been dealing with here. I am so proud of him and am glad that he has been able to preach and teach me so many things on Sundays as well as through our discussions during the week. I am thankful that I have such a wonderful husband and am grateful for all the things he has taught me so far as well as coming along to help me fulfill my dream in Korea. But....our time is ending and God has new plans for us!

Now, some of you already know what Jon and my plans are after our contract is complete, but some of you might have no idea so it might be good to know! Jon and I have prayed a lot about several options the last nine months, but we have decided to come back to the States at the end of October. What are plan is at the moment is for Jon to go to seminary (possibly in IL). He is hoping to start school in January, so we will have two short months to find housing and get situated. But, we are really excited for our new adventure in life. I am really happy for him and the plans God has for him and us together. So, as you think of us, we'd love it if you could pray for us and the plans God has for us!

An Independence Day Full of Seoul.

I promised I would write an update after our July 4th party and I am keeping my promise.
You probably already read my celery surprise from the night before the party, and everything with the sloppy joes turned out great (even without the gumbo).
Saturday, I made a watermelon fruit basket and salad. All of the fruit was this wonderful, fresh fruit from an alley not far from where we live. I know when you think of back alley, you don't think of good things, but this alley is pretty magical. In this alley, there's every kind of vegetable, fruit, meat, seafood, clothes, or cosmetics that you could want. All of the vendors are excited and of course want you to buy their items. When we leave Korea, I am really going to miss markets like this because the food is great and it's so cheap! I got 15 plums for 2,000 won ($1.60)! There are also great deals like a basket of 12 potatoes for a dollar. Plus, the fruit in Korea tastes so wonderful, I don't even have words to describe how heavenly it is. Anyways, I got all my fruit salad ingredients there.
I actually didn't have to make a lot of food because other teachers volunteered to share their favorite holiday foods. I was really thankful for the help and the wonderful food. We had some great cheese and salsa dip, potato salad, homemade apple pie (so rare and difficult!), veggies and dip, as well as a Costco strawberry mousse cake.
I had invited friends from church as well as teachers from our school. I was a little worried about bringing the two groups together because I've always had a difficult time combining two sets of friends. But, I think it went all right and at least we all have teaching in common. Because of this, we were able to share a lot of funny stories about our kids and what not. Molly also was the center of attraction most of the time. Most of the teachers know about Molly but had never really met her and so they were overwhelmed by her cuteness and love for everyone (especially her momma). But after a couple hours of being excited over so many new friends, Molly was tuckered out and climbed into her suitcase to have a rest, while still keeping an eye on everyone. One thing I was also glad about was that Molly did so well with so many people (12). She loves it when one or two of our friends come over and tends to sit right by them and love them, but I wasn't sure how she'd do in large groups. So, I'm glad to see that she'll have no problem at the big Enger Christmas'.

Our church and school friends.

All in all, we haven't had a relaxing, chill time like that with our teachers and so I was really glad that Jon and I opened our home for the party. Since we probably won't be here for another American holiday besides Labor Day, we might just have to have another random get together before we leave.
Oh, I almost forgot! After everyone else left, Michael and Sarah stayed and hung out a bit. One of the teachers, Steve, had bought fireworks and we wanted to shoot them off, but wasn't sure if it was illegal or not. So, Michael spent ten minutes on the phone with a Korean information woman and never got an answer either way, except that the small ones might not be bad. So, the four of us walked down to the river to a gravel soccer field to light off our fireworks. It wasn't quite dark enough, so Michael pulled a soccer ball out of his backpack (not surprising at all). So, Jon, Michael and I played some soccer, trying to avoid the massive mosquitoes: I'm hoping for no Malaria. As it got darker, we lit our sparklers and ran around the field and took some cool pictures with the camera; I saw 4th of July is one of the best times to act like a kid again. The field was right next to an walking/biking track and there were a lot of Koreans out, so I'm sure we looked odd to them. But soon, we lit the main fireworks and they were small but very pretty. The very last firework flew up in the air and made a small willow tree explosion and when the Koreans started yelling, we decided to walk away, especially since we never got a straight answer about the legal-ness of it all. But, it was a good end to the 4th of July in Seoul!

One of our first fireworks

Michael

Sarah, me, and Michael with our sparklers!

The Little Things in Life....

So, I'm in the midst of making Sloppy Joes for our Fourth of July get together, I have a taste and realize there's something missing. I add more Worcestershire sauce...no. I add more mustard...no. I add more ketchup...and no. Finally, my bright husband says, "Celery!" Of course, it's missing celery, how did I not realize that! (Well, I'm also missing Campbell's Chicken Gumbo Soup as well, but there is no finding that in Asia). But, I didn't have any celery and after a long day of work, running to Costco and cooking, I am really tired. Even so, I knew I needed to find celery somewhere! You see, celery is everywhere in America, but in Korea, it can be really hard to find. Sometimes, it isn't even at Costco, where of course, they have everything. I forgot about getting it when I was at Costco, so my options were check our close HomePlus Express market or travel on the bus and walk home for a longer trip to a bigger HomePlus market. Well, I took the elevator down and thought I may as well stop by HomeExpress to see if they have it, even though, they never do. On my way, I said a little prayer, hoping they'd have celery. I walked in and looked and it didn't look promising until I saw this bag of stalks and sure enough, it was celery! Immediately, I grabbed it and jumped up and down with excitement and a big smile. And to top it off, it was only 1,300 won (~$0.90). If a Korean saw me, I'm sure they were wondering what that crazy golden haired white girl was doing jumping with vegetables; but I didn't care I was overjoyed-now, I can (kind of) finish my Sloppy Joe's!

These kinds of surprises have been my life for the past eight months. Even though I sometimes do miss things from home, especially the convenience of getting whatever I need/want, I like these times of excitement over the littlest of things. I just hope that when I return to the U.S., I remember not to take for granted the things God has given us and the lessons I've learned.