Seoul Time

After returning to Seoul very late at night on the last KTX train (since I, despite all my timing and planning, missed the original train...haha) I found myself sleeping on the couch of my new CC pastor.

I got to have coffee, great conversation, and prayer, with my old CC pastor and friend in the morning. I had lunch with my old small group leader and loved the familiar feel, like I had never left.

Then I got onto the subway to go to Seoul Forest with the best laid plans of renting a bike. But alas, when I exited the subway, it was pouring rain. However, if you ever want the rain to stop...buy and umbrella, and that is exactly what I did!

And of course, once I bought my $6 umbrella, the rain quit. Haha. So really, I didn't waste money on an umbrella but instead, I changed the weather for six bucks which is a very good deal...haha.

I then proceeded to rent a bike to explore the park...which is huge!

There was a lot to see, but most noteworthy perhaps was the deer corral. They have like this little feeding zoo just for deer. I am really not sure why. But I met a couple girls who were really freaked out by deer tongue and had me help feed them through the fence.

After that, I pedalled along the river a little and  back to the bike rental. I had a very important dinner date to catch with my friend Julie! I had missed her so much and it was good to see her in Seoul...though we were both Busanites when we first met.

Dinner conversation was great for catching up and I got to try a new soup and rice. There was this delicious homemade triangle noodle which I will not readily forget. In her Australian way, she covered the meal with a "my shout" haha, (which is just a fancy way to say, I am paying!), so I told her, I needed to "shout" at dessert...haha.

There is a place that always has a line here called "Kiss the Tiramasu" and we figured we would give it a try. We waited with all the eager locals in a red roped queue wondering what we were in for. Couple after couple would come out with champagne glasses of Tiramasu and take a selfie with the sign.

Next thing we know (video):

We are having layers of mascarpone, icecream, consensed milk, expresso, cocoa, and shaved chocolate poured into this cup.  We didn't know what to expect, and we hardly know what to call what we got, but alas, it was good! So... selfie time!

We walked around a little more and then found ourselves at a park where there was some sort of battle of the bands. We planted ourselves right up front with a group that played acoustic, bass, and gembe. We knew all the songs and it really was a neat little surprise to fill the heart.

So joyed to end my time in Korea this way. I loved it so much! But, the next adventure calls and on we go to schoolwork in Mongolia. Flying out in a few hours.

Aren't we tired of the B-word......?

I know I am tired of it.  It controls my life sometimes... you know the one; B-U-S-Y.

Yep, that one.  I am so tired of losing the only resource we cannot gain back in our lives.  Especially when I am losing it in a season where I am spending the majority of time doing things I don't even want to do.

BUT, (my favorite B-word), but I am coming up on a time that I will enjoy, very soon.  I have my field study for graduate school coming up.  This field study just happens to be in Mongolia, and I just so happen to get a few days before hand in Korea (yes the Asian nation that stole my heart).

So I will enjoy great food, lounge in jjimjilbangs, meet up with friends, and get to enjoy two services with my church. I haven't planned a lot about it, but I am going to be in Seoul and Busan.  And I am going to be so happy.

Other updates:

• The woodpeckers have fledged and after much chasing with lenses we were able to spot one of our banded ones in the wild.
• Burn season will close in the next few weeks, bringing our increasingly smaller team down to 2 people which means more fun scienc-y land management will be in my workdays.
• I am hoping to meet my dad, stepmom, and dog down in Savannah just before heading off to my field study.  I am beyond joyful about that too!

The Misadventures of Caroline in Peru

First of all, Lima is quite a city, and I think I love it quite a bit.  It is very modern and international.
  So here are a mix of stories that I will share with you from my two days here.

First of all, we went to a Peruvian Chinese restaurant with a couple of our guys expecting to enjoy a new culinary experience.  And we got it!  The man didn't speak English or Spanish.  Only Chinese so I was limited to hello, thank you, and apple.  Which I said none of because I was being shy.  Through guessing off the menu, one of our boys almost ate chicken lung fried rice.  Luckily the man brought us out a little lung before frying it up, just to double check.

After my fried rice, mixed meat, and pineapple, we met Gloria and her husband at a Duleria.  That is a bakeshop. We talked for a good hour, prayed for her, ate really good snacks, and she joked a lot with us about cooking for our missionary boyfriends.  Later the next day it turns out that she was asking other foreigners if  "Carolina" was coming back.

The next morning I had a little chat with the Lord about what it means to grow.  Growth is sacrificing comfort and control to become what you can become.  And I have to stop acting like a victim just because I am uncomfortable.

For lunch I met up with my friend Alice, who said she would eat anywhere with me given that it wasn't seafood.  She wanted an authentic little place off of the main street.  I remembered one that my team and I passed coming back from the coastline yesterday so I walked her about 20 mins away from the main town to a restaurant called "Restuarante Rusticana".  Which turned out to be a seafood place.  OOPPPSSS!  She was a good sport though and we went in for Ceviche and Lobster Fried Rice.  But, the lobster fried rice ended up being a soup with something that looked like tripe floating in it.  We couldn't stop laughing at our position of helplessness in ordering.  And we enjoyed a drink made of dark rice that smelled like potpourri and tasted like a fruit.  (PS the floating tripe like thing was an egg and we named the dish "no se que es eso pero no es queso" even though it tasted like Velveeta cheese and there had to have been lobster in it somewhere.)

After our leadership training today, we had some laundry shop mix ups where I ended up with a bag of someone else's laundry and then I headed off to a Korean Restaurant with a teammate.  I would have never expected anything like this past few days after our long seclusion in the jungle...but here you have it.  :-)  I am so blessed!