A VERY Early Christmas Gift. . .

So, Christmas is already in full-swing at the Woogies' house this year. Yes, I know its not even Thanksgiving yet.

Anyway, we have discovered that Oskar is VERY particular about the type of Christmas music we play. Take a look. . .

Happy Korean Fall!

I absolutely LOVE fall. It's my favorite time of year. I love bundling up in jeans and hoodies. I love hayrides and wiener roasts and hot chocolate. I love the Covered Bridge Festival and my birthday. ;) But, unfortunately, I haven't been able to experience most of that stuff in several years (okay, I've had my birthday, but you know what I mean). Luckily, though, there is one thing I do get to experience, and that is the LEAVES! Now, granted, a South Korean fall is not an Indiana fall, but it still has some BEAUTIFUL colors. Oskar and I took a walk around base to snap some pictures for you all . . .

This red color is one of the most striking I've seen in a long time. GORGEOUS!

I love these little gingko leaves that fall. They are such a pretty color, and they stack pretty well. Oskar likes to run through them like a mad man!

I love this orange color too. BEAUTIFUL!

Yesterday, I joined some friends to celebrate fall in the perfect way--a visit to a Korean apple festival! After getting lost for about an hour, ending up in a field, and ultimately following the one person in our party WITHOUT a GPS ("Hey guys--I bet it's where all those flags are"), we FINALLY arrived!

The apple trees didn't quite look like the ones in the States. . .

But, apples are apples, and they looked delicious nonetheless!

The apple festival was small, but extremely cute! The Koreans were so friendly, and there were lots of things to do!

There was basket-making and games for the kids. . .

And, of course, all the apples you could eat!

We discovered a place where you could make apple wine. Did you really think I would pass up THAT? ;) First, you had to dump apples in a grinder. We actually got to throw our own apples in, but I could hear Jonathan's voice in my head as I got close to the grinder: "Baby--don't you DARE drop your camera in that grinder." So I put it away :(

After grinding, the apple pulp was dumped into large buckets. . .

. . . like these.

Bless this guy's heart. He was our "instructor" but didn't speak a word of English. As you can tell by his face, I think he was getting annoyed by this point, but he stuck it through! We had to take the apple pulp and put it in our jars. To that, we added two cups of sugar and a teaspoon of yeast and then LOTS of stirring.

The wine has to sit for a month before its ready for tasting. I'll let you know how good of a wine-maker I am. ;) Next up, making apple jam. We were given this little pan of jam on a burner. . .

Stirring, stirring, stirring the HOT jam. If it looks like I am leaning back, it's because I am. Between the bees flying around and the hot jam splashing up on me, I was ready to be DONE with this whole "jam-making" experience. . .

FINALLY, the Korean ladies poured out the HOT jam into jars. VIOLA! Homemade apple jam! (Yes, it was a scary experience, but the jam is DELICIOUS, so its worth it!)

Koreans have some of the most unique handicrafts I have ever seen. I got such a kick out of these. Check out the one with snot running down his face. . .

Before we could go home, we had to let the little ones pick some apples. Because of the language barrier, we couldn't really understand if we had to PAY to pick the apples. So we told the kids to just "pretend" they were picking the apples. . .

. . . that didn't work so well. So we just took the apples and walked away. . . quickly.

And a blog post is never complete with a cute picture of Oskar. In honor of fall, I threw him in a pile of leaves and snapped a picture. You can almost SEE the loathing in his eyes.

Happy Fall, everyone! :)

Happy Halloween!

It's been a heck of an October. Jonathan's been TDY, Oskar's been extremely sick, and I've been battling the never-ending head cold. I promise to up-date soon. In the meantime, Happy Halloween! :)

Pyeongtaek Port-Silk Road 5k

This past weekend I participated in my first ever international 5k. Now, I haven't run competitively in. . . well, in a very long time and, even though I run a 5k three times a week, I found myself almost sick with nerves on the morning of the race. Luckily, however, a fabulous group of Lady Draggins (and about 500 Koreans) joined me for the race. This is the LD 5k team pre-race:

Heading for the start line. Yes, all the Koreans were wearing their light blue race shirts, and we were all proudly screaming 'AMERICAN' with our bright green 'PIL SUNG' shirts. Isn't there an AFN commercial about this type of behavior?

The race began like a nightmare: imagine yourself the midst of Korean rush-hour traffic. That's EXACTLY how Koreans run, too. Either really fast with sudden stops or extremely slow with no direction. All of it with absolutely NO situational awareness. Awful. Especially for someone who needs to get into a groove to run. But, eventually, the pack thinned out and I was able to finish. The race actually ended up being almost 6k instead of 5, but I finished it with a respectable 29 minutes, with the rest of the LD 5k team not far behind. This is all of post-race (and yes, we all got medals):

Signing up for the race, we were promised food. Little did we know that "food" meant the Korean staples of kimchi and rice. Not exactly what I crave after a race. Luckily, USFK came through with boxes of BK Whoppers. I love being a fat American.

Fantastic job, Lady Draggins! Can't wait for the next one!

Osan Air Power Day 2010

This year's Osan Air Power Day was actually two days--a Saturday and Sunday. However, since I had signed up for my first international 5k on Sunday (more on that later) and had a TON of homework to do on Saturday, I made a decision NOT to go. Plus, the Thunderbirds weren't coming this year. . . it was the ROK's Black Eagles (Korea's version of the Thunderbirds). But, to my delight, I realized I could see most of the action from my balcony while doing homework in between demonstrations. The pictures aren't as good as they would be if I was on the flight line, but you can't beat watching a world class air show from your front porch.

The show started out with some parachutists from the ROK's Air Force

Next up, those insanely loud "lawn darts." ;)

Now, THERE'S some sexy airplanes. . .

Even though I get to see the A-10 fly almost every day, I never get tired of watching it. . .

Next up, the ROK's Black Eagles. They were actually quite impressive.

This is one of the several times they went screaming past my balcony. . . I thought my windows were going to shatter.

Oskar watched the air show with me. . . he was NOT a fan of the Black Eagles. This was right before he jumped down from his chair and cowered between my legs.