HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

For Ellen...

You can barely see us, but you can sure hear us! We did this song for you, Ellen! Happy Halloween!! We miss you so so so so much!!!!!!

Limited Desaturation

We've been playing around a lot with photoshop and love the look of these photos! We actually use a program called Pixelmaker and it's really easy to do, but so much fun and kind of addicting, especially because we've really started to enjoy taking photos! I guess this is what happens when you only work 20 hours a week...we're also going to try an experiment when our groceries run out: No Western food for one week, only Korean. We will either start to really enjoy Korean food or we'll lose a lot of weight! Stay tuned for the results!!!

Halloween in Korea?

We are trying to think of Halloween costumes for a party on Saturday. Koreans don't celebrate Halloween so costumes are really limited. If you have any ideas, please send them our way!!

Getting a Colonoscopy in Korea...Viewer Discretion is Advised

You're looking at some lovely colour wallet-sized photos of my colon, which is normal and healthy with the exception of a few hemorrhoids (I said viewer discretion was advised!). I got to the doctors to have the usual pre-op stuff which included blood pressure and checking my heart. I've had this done at home before where the nurses put a small suction, bandaid-like thing on you for a couple minutes. The only thing I can use to accurately describe the "clamps" placed on my ankles and wrists are car jumper cables. This was the 1st sign that the quality of care I'm used to at home may not be the same here.

Next, I was given these short pants with a trap door in the back and told to lie on a bed where my feet dangled at the bottom (the beds were either very short or I have grown since being in Korea). The nurse placed an enema inside and instructed me to wait 5 minutes and then go up a flight of stairs and I'd find the bathrooms. The public bathrooms I was using weren't even connected to the doctor's office in any way. They were also really dirty and (obviously) smelled like sh**! It didn't help that I could hear a grown man grunting and farting in the room beside me or the woman in my room grunting every minute.

I was finally taken to the operating room and placed on a bed with a leather blanket and leather pillow. That's a first. The nurse then put a tight elastic around my head and stuffed this piece of plastic into my mouth. She said "to help breathe better." It actually has the opposite effect and I felt like I was in some 1950s psych ward.

Anyway who knows how coherent this will sound in an hour. I have already made several typos because I'm writing with one eye open -- think that means its' time for the night nightsl

Liquid Diets in Korea....gag me!

I am currently on a "liquid diet" in Korea because I'm getting a colonoscopy tomorrow. Korean food has not been very kind to my colon these past three months so hopefully after tomorrow, we can figure out what the problem is! Anyway, I'm supposed to be eating liquids and the doctor recommended something called "jook" which translates to porridge but tastes nothing like it. Imagine small pieces of overcooked rice mushed into baby food with a fishy sort of taste.

Soup is very common in Korea, but unfortunately, clear soup broth is not! All the soups are cream based so I think I will stick with fruit juice and try to choke down this jook, although it is honestly one of the most repulsive things I have ever tasted.

Seeing a Korean doctor whose English is very limited is a unique experience! He had to look online several times to translate an agreement which I had to sign.

This is the most vile food I've ever tried and am really just writing this blog as an effort to distract me from actually eating it. I think I may just have to stick to fruit juice

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