October

October 

(before and after our trip to S.E. Asia--those posts are still coming!)

Here we are at a local restaurant with our good friends.

Notice the waitress? She is cutting the meat up with huge scissors--this is really common here--they use huge kitchen scissors for everything! Especially in restaurants.

The hot coals they carry around the restaurant to put in the special grill in the table. You have to watch out for the guy carrying the metal container with hot coals in it!

Our side dishes on a cart. One of the great things about going out to eat in Korea, is that most every meal comes with all kinds of side dishes. Always there are several different kinds of kimchi, but often green salad, cooked vegetables and other cold salads.

The soup we ordered at the end of the meal--it was ice cold, and our friend thought the noodles were probably made of konyaku (a food made from a big root related to a potato).

It was pretty good!

Our first trip to the 4/9 Market

Our local area has a market that gets really big on the 4s and the 9s of the month (the 4th, 9th, 14th, etc.)

Here are some pictures of our first trip there:

These ladies were sitting at a machine that was pressing seaweed into flat sheets. Then they'd bundle them up for selling.

Big stacks of different kinds of seaweed. I have been told that Korean seaweed is saltier and different than Japanese seaweed. It tastes the same to me.

Many different kinds of kimchi for sale. Kimchi is very important here. Many families have a separate special fridge just for their kimchi.

We've seen these flat, toasted things in lots of locations--I have been told they are silkworms. I am OK with never knowing how a toasted silkworm tastes.

More kimchi.

Chickens!

Halloween

Sadly, I didn't take a good picture of Andrew's costume. He was "Gingka Hagane" from the BeyBlade cartoon. He was happy with his costume (which is what really matters).

Katelyn wanted to be Rapunzel from Tangled. I ordered a pattern, but it didn't get here until the beginning of December. So I had to wing it. Here is what I finally came up with:

She's showing you that she has no shoes on, just like Rapunzel in the movie.

A group of princesses at our Branch's Trunk or Treat activity.

The only picture I have of Andrew in his costume, courtesy of a friend from the Branch. This is our very last-minute decoration for our car--Andrew and Dave handed out candy through the ghost's mouth hole.