More bread and a Juicer!!!

Oops, I forgot to rotate this photo before I posted it. This is the two loaves of bread I got to bake this time with my new baking pans. The really big loaf is from the new pan I got at a kitchen supply store. It's actually a buffet "serving pan". It makes a really huge loaf of bread! I am so excited. I got it for only W5,ooo! About $5... I can make two loaves and it should last a week or more! This is the pan all by itself!

This is our new juicer we got from Costco this week. It's not as impressive as I was hoping for, but we knew that for $100, we would get what we paid for. It doesn't pull as much juice from the fruit as it should. I feel like it wastes too much. But it is really good for getting the kids to get more fruit (and veggies) in their diet and they don't even know it! They are just excited because they are getting juice. Now we just have to keep enough fruit in the house to make the juice.

Bread Pan!!!!!

Since finding good bread is nearly impossible here and when we do it's over $4 a loaf, I decided to start making my own. With the cost of whole wheat flour I guess is probably costs 1/3 or 1/2 the price of buying it, but I am really having fun making it. Today I got a really good deal on some whole wheat flour. I got 4,250 grams for $12. Actually, it was W12,000. :) Anyway, I have been adding many things to my bread. I have been grinding my own flax seed, millet and brown rice. The brown rice is a little corse, but it works in the bread. I also have been adding soy bean powder, and pumkin and sunflower seeds. Millet grinds pretty nicely and adds a nice nutty flavor. The bread is really hearty and heavy. We really like it. This is a photo of some rolls of dough that I baked in a nice round cake pan. In my later morning classes I have many ladies enrolled. I have been asking them if any of them have seen bread pans in the stores because I have had such a hard time finding them. So far I have been unsuccessful, so all of my loaves turn out wide and kind of flat. Today one of my wonderful gals brought me a bread pan and this round cake pan. They are really great! I came right home and baked a batch this afternoon! The pans are amazing! The silver one doesn't seem to be teflon, but the bread came right of it! It is my prized possession right now. I asked her where she found it and she said, "Near my home." But didn't offer up any other information. I will work on getting more info out of her later. For now I am taking her a loaf of fresh bread to show my appreciation.

This is the lovely and amazing bread pan before I even took the tag off. I had to take a photo of this momentous occasion. :) It looks smaller than a normal sized bread pan, but it's not really.

A view of Daejeon from Above

This Sabbath, I got together with some teachers from another one of our schools here in Daejeon. Their church took us out on a little outing. We were supposed to go hiking to some mountian, but there were too many of us to fit in the van, so we ended up going to this hill behind the Pastor's apartment building. It was a short hike, not what I was hoping for, but the view from the top was interesting. This is looking down one side of the mountain. These are the miles and miles of apartment buildings. And this is just one part of the city where we live. Remember, most of those tall buildings are nothing but apartments. Again, I get claustrophobic just looking at the photo! This is Fred, one of the new teachers at Seodaejeon. This is his first term in Korea. He is a funny guy!

This is me...

Here is the view of the other side of the mountain. I like this one much better!

More of the other side. It's still city, but nothing like the first photo!

"Hiking at Donhoksa"

Last Sabbath was our last day to rest before this new term started. This term is a very busy one with no days off, and only two weekends without duties. So we decided to head to the mountain for some relaxing time hiking and being out in nature. Boy, were we surprised when we got there and had to dodge people all the way up the trail. It was like being in an amusment park with no rides. The "line" never ended! But the scenery was really beautiful and we got to see a Buddhist temple that was started in the 6th century! There were buddhist "nuns" there and everything. They shave their heads, so the kids kept saying, "What is he doing?" everytime one of them walked by. We also saw people who came there to worship. They were really bowing down to idols in the temple. It was a good lesson for us to share with the kids. Most of these photos don't really need much explaination...

Under one of the eaves of the building...

This is the temple where people were worshipping.

This was some of the beautiful fall scenery we got to see. What's amazing is that there are no people in the photo!

If you look carefully there are people in this photo :)

By this point I had carried Grace on my shoulders for quite awhile and we were debating whether to keep going because the trail got steeper and it was large rocks that made up the path. But not only that, there were still so many people to dodge! And they didn't move out of the way for me even when I had Grace on my shoulders. They just pushed right through and I was going uphill! And, there's no 'right side' when you are on a sidewalk or stairs or hiking trail. Everyone walks where ever they choose.

This one gives a good idea of what it was like all the way up and back! It makes me claustrophobic just to look at this photo!

This was over the path at the beginning where the trail was still really wide and paved. I thought it was really pretty with the trees all around it.

Playdate for Peyton and Ice Skating

Two of the other ladies from my religion class had kids who are around the same age as Peyton and Grace. We decided to get our kids together and go to zooland. Gracie had a really rough morning that day, and so she lost her chance to go. I took Peyton and we had a great time. Grace stayed home with Daddy and had a good nap and a good day with him.

This was a sign at zooland that I just had to take a photo of. If you are a "preson" who is "Prednant", you should take note!

The bear had a Dunkin doughnuts box(?)

He got to ride a few of the rides. I enjoyed the animals, but I think he preferred the rides.

This was the first Sunday of our term break. We went ice skating with one of the church members and her daughter who is a little older than Peyton and speaks really good English. Her and Peyton get along really great. I didn't get any photos of Peyton or the little girl because I was so busy doing what you will see in the next photo...

I spent the entire time with one or the other of the kids. Shane had never been ice skating before, so he was still learning too. Peyton and Grace couldn't even stand up on the ice without one of us holding them up. I was exhausted at the end of the time there.

A Day Out With My Students

Some of the ladies from my religion class wanted to take me out to see some of the interesting sights. They knew that I like the history, so they took me to this traditional village. It was moved up on this hillside when the Daejeon dam was built. It had been in the bottom of the valley next to the river which is now underwater. It was really interesting! This house is the house that the women lived in. In the traditional homes of the upper class, there were two main houses. One for the men and one for the women. This included the grandmother and grandfather and so on. After seeing the set up, I thought it was kind of a cool idea :)

This was fed by a natural spring. The Koreans just go up and drink out of the community cups. I don't think that is something I will be doing, but each to his own...

Here I am in front of the gate into the courtyard of the traditional home. Each family's area is enclosed and has sheds and alot of space for all kinds of stuff. The homes were heated from underneath they built fires and the heat would travel in tunnels under the floors. Pretty cool!

This little stove was in the blacksmith's shop. He still built traditional tools and made many different things in his little space there. I thought this stove was really cool.

Here we are!