Test Results

Okay, I hid this blog for a while. I'm not sure why. November has been an interesting month for me.

November is a stressful month for Korean high school seniors. They have to take the college entrance exam. This all-day-test somewhat determines their fates. I say somewhat because I'm sure that there are a lot of kids out there who get bad grades on the test and turn out fine, maybe they start their own businesses or figure out that trade school they went to is good enough to get them a job somewhere and they can start making money while their colleagues are in college.

I had a few of my own tests. First was my Kumdo 1 dan test. I messed up one part of that test, but managed to pass. That test was overshadowed by something else though.

The Kumdo test was on a Saturday. The Thursday before the test my wife told me something. Back in August we found out that we were pregnant. The week of the Kumdo test, my wife had one of her check ups with an ultrasound, and the combined screening/blood test. They found that there was a high possibility that our kid might have downs syndrome.

The week after that we went back to the hospital for an amniocentesis, after that we spent the next three weeks worrying about the results.

In that time I looked on the internet for information about down syndrome. I saw some pictures of kids with down syndrome. In doing so I came to realize that having a kid with down syndrome isn't bad at all. I got myself ready to smack the shit out of anybody who would call my kid a retard. Lastly I read a bunch of cool stuff on the internet about things that people with down syndrome have done.

There were still times when the anxiety of waiting got to me though. Just that feeling in the stomach of, "What the hell am I going to do?" But there were other comforting things. A student in our school has some kind of problem like that. I don't know what her problem is but, nonetheless she is a lovely young lady who likes to stick her tongue out at me and call me a pig in Korean as she giggles. A daughter like that would be pretty awesome to have.

We got the test results back and they were negative for downs syndrome. It seems our baby will be perfectly healthy. My wife called me with the news as I left for lunch today. I couldn't tell if her tone of voice on the phone was happy distraught. It turned out that she was happy. I was relieved as well. I don't know if I was relieved that it was good news or relieved that it was news at all and that I could stop worrying. But then I realized that we were having a baby, this was probably just the first of many other worries. I was also more optimistic about the prospects of having a kid.

More Korea Times Greatness

There is an article in the Korea times about American police departments wanting to use Jindo dogs as police dogs.

Jindos are pretty cool dogs. They are well mannered, smart, and the puppies are cute.

A family that owned a monk fish restaurant across the street from my apartment building had a Jindo puppy for for a while. It was a super cute puppy. My wife nicknamed it 아구 (ahgoo - monkfish)

Somebody stole that dog.

Anyway it would be interesting to see how well the dogs can do. But this sentence at the end of the article summed everything up nicely:

“If the Jindo becomes one of the official American police dogs, it will be a great opportunity to promote it and Korea simultaneously to the world,” a group spokesman said.

WTF? Nobody said anything about the breed becoming the official American police dog. There isn't such a title for any breed? The police don't really care about where the dog came from, they just care about finding drugs.

What about Korean police? What kind of dogs to Korean police use? It wouldn't be surprising that Korean police already use Jindos, but why does something have to be exported to America before it becomes special. (Side note: Koreans do highly revere Jindo dogs) And why do dogs even have to become international ambassadors of good will? Why does everything from Korea have to represent Korea?

There might be two or three people who might be moved to come to Korea because of the Jindo dogs, but there are already too many people who associate Korea with dog soup.

Any way, I wish the best to the dogs who get selected. I hope that they can help to fight crime. I also hope that they don't get too stressed out by having to represent Korea, in addition to storming meth labs. Maybe Kim Yeon Ah can drop by the dog training place to offer some moral support.

Another NY Times link

I really enjoyed this article by Maureen Dowd last Wednesday. It's about how there is a segment of America that basks in being ignorant. Check it out.

Hell Yeah!

Just googled "Ring Pang Donuts"

Fun Times in South East Korea has the third hit for "Ring Pang Donuts."

Thank you google for once again proving that "Fun Times in South East Korea" is the most important food blog in the Korean expat bloggosphere about fine dining in Jinju's Geumsan Myun.

An Americano For the Ages

Fun Times in South East Korea, the Korean expat bloggosphere's #1 authority on fine dining in Jinju's Geumsan Myun.

Thursday, lunchtime.

I made my way over to Ring Pang Donuts. They seemed to be in the process of opening. I asked the guy if they were doing business. He said that they weren't selling doughnuts yet, but I could get a coffee.

Score!

I tried to get a double espresso but the lady talked me into a strong Americano. They had a tray of doughnuts sitting out and they offered me one for free.

Double score!!

They gave me the coffee and I left.

I ate the doughnut on my way back to school. It was just a soft chocolate ring doughnut. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't impressive either.

The Americano had a nice strong coffee smell, and it tasted a lot like a fairly strong brewed coffee. It was by far the best Americano that I had had in a long time. At 2,900 won I think I can use Ring Pang as a good substitute for Cafe Bene (Cafe Bene, good coffee, but you gotta take out a loan to go there.)

I'll be interested to see if the Geumsan branch starts to carry sandwiches as well. The website has info on their doughnuts. They have a fritter looking thing that they call a sweet cinnamon.

As they say in Korea. Ring Pang doughnuts, I expect.

Han Il Restaurant

Fun Times in South East Korea. The Korea Blogosphere's most important blog about fine dining in Jinju's Geumsan Myun

I took a vacation to the lake lands back in August. When I came back all I wanted to do was eat Kimchi Jjigae. My wife told me about a place that her dad goes to called Han deul restaurant. We went there a few times and I loved it. Eventually the the Kimchi Jjigae jones died off.

Last Monday, I checked out a Jjigae place in Geumsan called the Han Il shick dang.

It was okay. They were a bit heavy on the black pepper but the Jjigae was decent.

I really like how old Kimchi can make good pork really sing. The best part of the Jjigae at both Han-deul, and Han-Il restaurants was the tender and buttery bits of pork. I'd take that over 3gyupsal any day.

Han-Il restaurant, an alright place for Jjigae, Han-deul restaurant a freaking awesome place. Long live Jjigae.

Milyang Dweji Gook Bab

Fun Times in South East Korea. The Korea Blogosphere's most important blog about fine dining in Jinju's Geumsan Myun.

A few weeks ago I was walking around Geumsan Myun. It seemed that Geumsan Elementary school was having some kind of festival. I wanted to go to Lotteria, but the place was packed with kids and their parents. I tried to go to Mom's touch, but that was full too. I walked down the road to Jin Oodong, but alas my luck was running out.

I got all of the way down the street to Geumsan Gook Soo, but even that place seemed infested with townies. I was really hungry. While I was standing across the street from Geumsan Gook Soo, I happened to look up and notice Milyang Dweji Gook Bab.

All I can say is, holy shit that was good.

The pork in the soup was super tender. The side dishes were plentiful, and the soup was yummy.

A week later I stopped by again and had Soo Yook Baek Ban. 8,000 won bought me a bowl of rice, a big plate full of Kimchi, a smaller dish with moo kimchi, some Korean chives, a bowl of rice, a bowl of soup broth and a big ass plate of boiled pork. Again the pork met the tooth like a goddamn piece of sponge cake. Good stuff.

If you ever make it over to Geumsan for some mountain climbing or for stalking famous actors or popstars doing their military service over at the air force base; Milyang Dweji Gook Bab puts the heart in hearty.