Johnnie and Angela

Fields of Rice

I grew up in the Pennsylvania countryside where corn fields are a common sight. After college, I lived in a few different states and was fascinated by seeing huge fields of other crops. In eastern Tennessee there were lush fields of tobacco, in southern Georgia there were fields of fluffy white cotton, and here in Korea there are bright green fields of rice.

The rice fields are rectangular sections of land surrounded by low earthen embankments. When I first arrived here, these fields were nothing more than dry dirt. Once the temperature started to warm up, these fields were tilled, smoothed, and flooded with a few inches of water. The rice plants are grown to young seedlings before they are planted in the fields. They look like small sprigs of tall grass. Some of the fields are planted using a 'rice transplanter' machine and others are actually planted by hand. The rice is typically planted in May and harvesting begins in October.

The photos below are in order to show the growth of the rice over the past couple months. Currently, the fields of rice look like carpets of tall, thick, soft grass.

An aerial view of a nearby village surrounded by rice fields - Google Maps screenshot.

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"Rice is a beautiful food. It is beautiful when it grows, precise rows of sparkling green stalks shooting up to the summer sun. It is beautiful when it's harvested, autumn gold sheaves piled on patchwork paddies. It is beautiful when it's cooked, pure white and sweetly fragrant."

~Shizuo Tsuji

What Dulce Wants

We've created a monster... but at least it's a cute one :) We taught Dulce some new tricks since we moved to Korea that have led to a new behavior. First of all, we taught Dulce to pick things up off the floor and give them to us. This is so incredibly helpful because we don't have to bend down to pick things up anymore! Next, we taught Dulce to fetch our slippers. This is yet another very helpful (and awesome) trick. Finally, we taught her to fetch the TV remote control for us. Again, a helpful and pretty darn cool thing to do :)

Then things started to change... It began with her bringing us our slippers without us asking for them. Not a big deal, right? Then she started bringing us all of the slippers in the house (we have three pairs). If we don't put them on our feet when she brings them, she grabs them and gives them to us again. Who can wear three pairs of slippers at once? The slipper thing is funny and still makes us laugh. Especially when she starts growling at the closet because she knows the slippers are in there and she can't get them to bring to us :)

Okay, on to her new behavior. When I'm working at the computer, Dulce brings me all the slippers on a daily basis. The other day, she brought me two slippers and then left the room so I grabbed the camera to snap a picture of the next slipper coming. (Note: no flash and quickly moving dog = fuzzy photos)

And here is the slipper I was expecting...

She gave me the slipper, looked at me for a moment and left the room again....

This time she came back with the TV remote control! I can't see the TV from here but thank you!

She looked at me for a few seconds and left the room again...

This time she brought me the air conditioner remote control! A little slobbery but a nice gesture :)

She looked at me for a little while and left the room AGAIN...

This time she brought me the guitar tuner! In the mood for music? Not quite...

Laughing out loud at this point, I followed her out to the kitchen. She was super excited that she finally got my attention and led me straight to her food/treat cabinet. She didn't want any food, she wanted a new rawhide bone to chew on! What a dog - bribing me with things to get what she wanted!

You may be thinking, this really isn't a bad thing... it's kind of funny and cute, right? Uhh, yeah... until she started doing this EVERY day. She brings us everything that she can reach such as shoes, pens, papers, books, remote controls, cell phones, etc. She doesn't bring us her toys, she only brings us our things. I feel like we have to baby-proof the house now! Thank goodness she can't open doors... yet :)

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"Properly trained, a man can be dog's best friend."

~Corey Ford

A10 on a Stick

No, it's not a popsicle but that would be really cool, wouldn't it? The air base that we are stationed at flies many aircraft including the A10, F16, and the U2. However, there is only one "jet on a stick" here and that would be the A10. The A10 Thunderbolt II, also known as the Warthog, is the best jet of them all :)

I was recently asked to take a photo of the A10 on a stick for a wives group project. It was a great opportunity to try out my new ultra-wide angle lens. I was laying in the grass practically under the jet and still got the entire thing in my viewfinder with room to spare! Awesome :)

**Note - The A-10 at Osan is dedicated in the memory of Capt Stephen "Syph" Phillis who was killed during Operation Desert Storm in 1991 when his A-10 was shot down over Iraq. While I never knew him I know plenty of people who did. He is always remembered by his fellow Hawg pilots along with the others that went before and after him. A link to his obituary is found here and for more on the story I recommend reading, "Warthog: Flying the A-10 in the Gulf War" by William Smallwood... him, him.

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"Off we go into the wild blue yonder,

Climbing high into the sun;

Here they come zooming to meet our thunder,

At 'em boys, give 'er the gun!

Down we dive, spouting our flame from under,

Off with one, helluva roar!

We live in fame or go down in flame. Hey!

Nothing'll stop the U.S. Air Force"

~Air Force Song

Cartoon Restaurant Signs

Cartoon signs are very common here, especially on restaurant signs. I snap photos of them once in a while and have a little collection going. Notice how many of these characters are giving a thumbs up? I can't say that any of these signs increase my desire to eat at the restaurant... except for maybe the chicken and beer :)

This could be a dumpling or an onion...

Hot

Hotter

Hottest! Not sure I want to eat here...

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"Red meat isn't bad for you. Now blue-green meat, that's bad for you! "

~Tommy Smothers

Yongsan Electronics Market

This past Sunday, Johnnie and I took the train up to the Yongsan Station. Here there is a lot of shopping, including the I'Park Mall and Electronics Market. The trip took less than an hour and the shopping is amazing. It makes me realize that there are many great parts of Seoul that I don't know about yet and that I'm running out of time to find. It's hard to believe that our year here is already half over!

We ate lunch at the newly opened T.G.I. Friday's :)

There was floor upon floor of shopping for practically any electronic gadget you could want.

Coming down the escalator to find paradise... an entire floor of cameras and lenses!

I had my DSLR with me so I stopped at different vendors and tried out some wide angle lenses...

...and I tried out some zoom lenses. It was sooo much fun!

I shopped around for a while, getting prices on various lenses before I found a vendor who had something I wanted at a price I couldn't pass up.

Say hello to my 17-40mm f/4 USM L lens :) I am beyond excited to own an ultra-wide angle lens!

Outside of the station, there was a really good Mexican band playing! They were from Mexico City and were touring South Korea. We stood and listened to them play a few songs and actually bought one of their CD's because we liked them so much. The Koreans in the crowd didn't seem to know what to think of this type of music which is so incredibly different than anything you'd normally hear in this country.

This guy was constantly switching instruments!

I loved their boot and matching belts :)

We always find something interesting and "not quite right" when we're out and about. Today we found a Butt Lightning Letter Opener and Paper Weight! That's right, it's a little guy resting on his belly and getting struck by lightning in his butt. Ahhh... Korea :)

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"Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on..."

~The Beatles

Mexican Flag Cake

Last week some of the pilots' wives got together for a potluck taco dinner. The evening was full of good company, good conversation, and great food :) I love to bake so I made a festive Mexican flag cake to take along.

Nothing made from scratch this time but it still turned out great :)

Rockin' my Air Force apron (thanks mom!) and using a power converter box for the mixer. Dulce was unimpressed by this process; notice her reflection in the cabinet :)

A layered cake cutter is essential for making flat, uniformly cut layers. I bought this at Michael's Craft Store for less than $5 last year - it does the job.

I bought this "Mega Lifter" at a Pampered Chef party a few months ago and I LOVE it! It's essentially a giant spatula (roughly 10" x 10") that is perfect for lifting and moving pizzas, cakes, large pastries, a whole tray of cookies at once, etc. It made stacking these cake layers so easy!