First snow and downtown song tan

I wasn't sure if Korea would be more cold/dry or cold/wet.  I heard both before I arrived here.  So far it has only snowed once and it was just a dusting with a snowy haze that stayed around throughout the morning.  I heard they got quite a bit of heavy snow earlier this winter.  I was just as pleased with the dusting though.  It made everything pretty, sparkly white for a while

We've been exploring the town more every weekend.  Getting to and around the base is no problem now, and I can navigate the downtown area fairly well.  So far I haven't been outside of Songtan since I arrived, but it's nice to start to be familiar with the city.   

The common description of Korea is "not quite right".  Case in point:  The Red Face.  Ever heard of The North Face, anyone?  Yes, this would be a total and complete knock-off.  Even the products inside are almost exactly like The North Face.  Trademarks mean nothing here.  Logos are just thought of as pictures here.  You can even get a hat from a street vendor with Ralph Lauren, Nike, and Adidas logos all together on it.  The same also goes for replicating store names.  This JCPenney is no coincidence!  

We had dinner the other night at a lounge.  It was just as smokey as the picture looks unfortunately, but you never can tell quite what you're walking into here.  The meal made up for it!

Teriyaki chicken!  It was the best teriyaki I've ever had!  The snacky thing next to my drink appeared to be peanuts.  I have no idea what they actually were though...my best guess was Peanut Butter Captain Crunch.  They were tasty:)

Another night Husband and I went out with friends for beef bulgogi.  That was delicious, too!  I should have taken a picture of our table setting.  The metal pipe on the side of the picture is a vent because directly under it is a gas barbecue.  The marinated beef was cooked there.  We also had rice, salad (medium-sized green/purple lettuce leaves mixed with chili sauce and ?), and bachan.  Bachan is a variety of small amounts of "side dishes" served in tiny bowls.  They are meant to be shared by everyone at the table, and ours included lettuce leaves, soy sauce glazed and cooked strips of tofu, bean sprouts, kimchi, macaroni salad?, chili sauce, garlic, glassy looking noodles, and I may be missing others.  We also had rice on the side served in a small steel pot.  By the way all the pop bottles are glass.  They have Hangul print on them, but we still understand the Coke logo:)  

I don't know if it's this way in other Asian countries, but in Korea never stick your chopsticks or other utensils straight into your rice (or presumably any other part of your meal) and leave them there.  It is considered disrespectful.  Just thought you'd like to know:)

Husband is working LONG days.  It's so nice to get to enjoy the weekend together!

Coming soon:  Soju and other escapades.