Just a little something I have to share my house with during the rainy season.

Back in our Ft. Hood days, I would occasionally enjoy a lemon drop martini from Texas Land and Cattle, my hands down favorite steak house in Central Texas.  Once here, I started missing that drink, so I decided to try to mimic it.  I think I did a pretty good job.  If you like the basil-lime martini, you are sure to like the lemon drop martini as well.  I used basically the same recipe I use for the basil-lime martini, just switching things up a bit.  The result is pretty good, that is unless my memory has failed me.

Friday night in Seoul is always exciting.  This past Friday night was no exception.  We started our night out at Once in a Blue Moon, yes, the restaurant where Hubby and I got food poisoning.  It is such a cool jazz restaurant/club that we felt Twin & SIL needed to see it.  The only catch - we DID NOT eat AND we had a bottle of wine which was opened at our table.  The only way we could get sick is if the glasses were not washed properly. We took the chance and it paid off, we were not puking at 3AM.  Whee.....

One thing the girls really wanted to do was get a manicure and pedicure together.  This isn't a tall order since we do it every couple of weeks anyway; I mean who can resist getting a manicure and pedicure every 2 weeks when they only cost 27USD FOR BOTH?!?!  (I know, we are spoiled, thanks Hubby.)  The girls had a fabulous time and they got the royal treatment!

I'm pretty sure most of you are tired of hearing about the fish market.  Sorry about that, but I feel it needs to be mentioned one more time. You see, I really thought my SIL would never in a million years want to go to the fish market.  I thought I was going to have to drag her there kicking and screaming.  To my surprise, she went willingly, and even seemed to enjoy herself (ok, that's a stretch).  She never once pinched her nose to keep the smell away, and the only time she flinched was when she saw a fish monger "taking care" of a fish.

So really, the monsoon rains have not slowed us down one bit, however, I have never seen so much rain.  Some days it rains ALL day long, and when I say all day long, I mean ALL day long, sunrise to sunset, and then some.  The nice thing about the rain is that it cools things off here, on the flip side, the humidity is a killer!  Here are a couple of picture of the Bampo Bridge on our way back from Osan the other day.  I had heard for several sources that the bottom level of the bridge gets covered in water, but I had never witnessed it till this day.  A friend told me the markers showed that it was 9 feet under water!   In the first picture you can see part of the lower level....look at the end of the black car, then up and to the right a tad..see the blue?  That is the high part of the lower level, the rest of it is totally underwater.

It has been over a year since I have been wanting to meet Dr. Fish and have him nibble on my toes.  A couple of days ago while shopping with the in-laws in Osan we ran across Dr. Fish, so I KNEW we had to go inside to meet him, or them, and here they are a whole little tank full of Dr. Fish.....

You only get the details of the amazing race from one side, that is unlses someone else (Hubby or Twin) decides to write their account of the amazing race in another blog. 

I was the observer for Team 1, the team with Boy Cousin and SIL.   Here were the rules:

•       Total Score
–Best Time wins!
 –Total Time is arrival time minus penalties for hints plus rewards for scavenger items

•       •Equipment
–Each team must carry a camera.
–Each team member can pack a backpack with food, clothes, etc.
–Each team may bring a ‘travel publication’ with them.

•       •Receiving Help:
•       –Teams can use the internet for as long as they like after receiving the first hint, but can only print  one page.
•       –If you want a hint during the race, the observer will provide one but will assess a penalty (after arrival at the finish line).A hint is defined as providing enough info to reasonably relieve the immediate difficulty, but not so much as to solve future related problems:

•1st hint:  FREE
•2nd hint: -5 minutes
 •3rd hint:- 10 minutesEach additional hint penalty increases by 5 minutes

They also had a scavanger hunt list.  For each item they found the had 5 minutes removed from their final time.
1.Bad English’ T-shirt
2.Street food
3.Something made in USA
4.FC Seoul Item
5.Korean Candy
6.A piece of jewelry
7.A pirated DVD
8.Tourist Map
9.Picture at an exercise park
10.Religious Item
11. Something from 7-11

The first clue they received was:
Make your way to the observation deck of Namsan Tower.  Point out the direction of the USA for your next clue.

SIL & Boy Cousin hopped in a cab to head out to Namsan Tower, this was a good move!  Cabs are normally the fastest way to get to Namsan, however once the cabbie found out they were in a race and they wanted him to go fast, he started thinking...he was very excited because he knew a 'short cut'!  So, he pulled the cab over, put his flashers on and thought about the short cut for at least 5-6 minutes!  AUGHHHH!! Finally he cut through post to go out a different gate.  In the meantime, I am the observer, so I cannot say ANYTHING! I was having a cow!  This was the slowest and most expensive cab ride to Namsan I have ever taken! 
 

It is exactly what it sounds like, mud, mud, mud and more mud!  We've been waiting for over a year to go to this festival, and it was well worth the wait!   This was the 12th annual mud festival on Daecheon Beach, about a 2.5 hour drive from Yongsan.  We loaded a bus at 7AM on Saturday morning and headed out.  If you are looking to go, there are many ways to get there, you can drive, take one of the many tours offered on post (if you are military), or you can take the train or a city bus.  If you want to go, check out their website here, to figure it out. 

Here are Hubby and his brother on the bus being themselves....