Chilbo (Korean Enameling) Class

 I had two chilbo classes this week, Wednesday and Friday.  I worked in silver today and made these butterfly earrings.

                                                      I also made these flower earrings.

 On Wednesday, I worked with ceramic pieces.  This is what they looked like when I left class on Wednesday.

                                And this is what they looked like after firing and adding the findings.

 Nan-Young also gave me my invitation to my latest exhibition that will be at the Hwaseong Fortress.  I can't tell you the last time anyone referred to me as "precious."  I quite like it.

This was the inside of the invitation.  It starts next Wednesday and runs through December 10th.  I'm starting to lose count to how many exhibitions I've been in which is a wonderful feeling.

Tomorrow we are off to Seoul for a Thanksgiving dinner.  We are so looking forward to it.

Bojagi (Korean Quilting) Class

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back in the U.S!  It was just another day here in Korea for us.  But we are looking forward to having a Thanksgiving dinner in Seoul on Saturday.

I thought I had finished my bojagi homework but I was wrong.  I didn't know that I had to do all the half triangles along the border so that's what I spent classtime working on.  I finished it up a day later and here it is ready for the backing.

Hanji (Korean Papercrafting) Class

 This week in hanji class I covered the drawers inside and out with hanji paper.  I decided to go with the bright turquoise paper because I had never seen anyone use it in class.  My teacher has all her hanji paper in a pile on a shelf and I've always loved the color.
 My teacher picked the inside color.  It took me until 4 pm. to complete the drawers and my teacher wondered if I wanted to continue.  She had been hearing me cough most of the day and my voice also sounded bad.  I cut class short and decided to head home.  I had a long week ahead of me.

 I wanted to buy two of the boxes she had made using satin scraps but she made these for me and she wouldn't let me pay her for them.

She also gave this wall hanging to me.  I had given her a bunch of maedeup cording that I couldn't use for the more complicated maedeup knots.  She came up with this idea on her own using these large cardboard rolls that someone had thrown out.

I have only been going to hanji once a week because of additional chilbo classes and miniature classes.  That should end this week and I'll try to get to hanji and least twice a week.  I love going and I have a blast listening to all the conversations even though I can understand only a little.

Osan Air Base

I had heard through some blogs that the area around Osan Air Base was a great place to shop for American food.  It is south of Suwon in the city of Songtan and was eight long subway stops from Suwon Station.  When we arrived, we took a taxi to base which was only about a mile from the subway but we had no idea where we were.  The front entrance to the base is right across the street from the main shopping area.

We decided to start with a look at the front of the base.  See that ROK soldier at the bottom left of the photo above?  Rocketman had just shot this picture when he ran up to us telling us to NOT take any pictures.

There was a constant stream of cars and people in and out of the entrance to the base.  I saw this sign and told Rocketman that we better get out of there.

Here is the shopping that is right across the street from the base.

It was all Americans except for the shop vendors.  I was in shock at all the foreigners I saw.  I don't know what I was expecting but I wasn't expecting all that we saw.

               There were a lot of shops selling these slippers.  They must be the new must have item.

                                                        We found a couple of hanji shops.

                                                       And interesting sweatshirt shops.

All kinds of different things we saw for sale.

Hmmmm.....

                  Actually, I took this picture outside of Suwon Station as we made our way to the subway.

                             This ajumma was very comfortable as she waited for customers.

            Of course, Rocketman got hungry (I did too) and we decided on this Mexican restaurant.

 It was pretty empty except for a table of American serviceman who sat opposite our table and this picture.

                       We were excited to get some authentic Mexican food.  It's one of our favorites.

               I was so excited to get the food that I forgot to take a picture until the end of the meal.

                                            We saw a pretty good line at this kebab place.

         As we made our way out to try and hail a taxi, we noticed a man  taking these cages out of his car.

It just broke my heart.  I wanted to buy them all.

I did find a couple of stores selling American food but the prices were outrageous.  A bottle of Ranch dressing was 10,000 WON ($9USD).  I just wasn't going to pay those prices and in fact, I found prices in Itaewon to be cheaper.

We are still glad we went and we had a blast wandering all the side streets.  We did have to wait almost a half hour for the subway to come to take us back to Suwon.  But we passed the time talking to a young man who knew quite a bit of English.  He said he lived in Suwon but when the subway finally came, he said goodbye to us and didn't get onto the subway car.  The cars were really crowded so we ended up standing the whole way back.  It was great to get out and see a new part of Korea.

Budae Jjigae Restaurant

 After shopping last weekend, we met Hannah for dinner.  She's been working long hours including weekends and we hardly see her anymore.  Since Rocketman still had his cold and wasn't feeling too well, we decided to meet at Sadang Station which is where we catch our bus to Suwon.  There are a million restaurants in that area and we decided on a budae jjigae restaurant.  It was packed with lots of ajosshis (always a good sign) and we found a place to sit.

 The side dishes included my favorite, kimchi!  But then all side dishes over here contain at least one form of kimchi.

The budae jjigae looked and smelled wonderful and it did not disappoint.  It was the best I've had in a long time.  Different than my favorite, Nolboo, but still very good. 

It was also soooo loud in the restaurant so while we waited, I took a little video to give you folks a home an idea of what it was like.  I just wish the video had smellovision: