First Week in Daejeon

Jiho and Bonnie in their front room in the married officer's quarters on the army base in Daejeon. Bonnie has decorated the apartment to look very homey, not cold and sterile. Of course, her display of dolphin posters, and the Route 66 poster we got for Jiho while in NM make it very comfortable and welcoming.
My "photo of the week", of Bonnie sitting on her couch, patiently waiting, and waiting, and waiting.
Ms. Ha, Yeon Ho and Jiho at the maternity clinic, where Bonnie had her vital signs checked, an ultrasound, and an internal exam to see if the cervix has begun to dialate (it hadn't.) She's in good health, and the MD expects the baby close or slightly later than the due date. Bonnie is eager to get the show on the road. (The photos get better, I promise.)
A photo taken from afar of some interesting architecture just outside of Daejeon's downtown. Daejeon is known as "the science city", so there is a place called Expo Park where science fairs are held. Thus, the silver tower building in the background. I thought the plane looked pretty cool "flying" through the photo as well. It's really a traffic light arm coming off a power pole.
Does your grocery look as crowded as this one in Daejeon on Saturday afternoon? This was only one aisle.
Jiho and Bonnie are shopping for cases of strawberries in the grocery store, amidst many other shoppers and sellers hawking their veggies and fruits. Produce is sold by the gram, rather than by the pound. Bonnie and I went on the bus a farmer's market, where we saw much of the same crops, as well as grains, meat and seafood. You are very lucky I didn't think about bringing my camera, because Bonnie pointed out a container of dog hind quarters. The feet were sticking up out of the box...eeeewww! We Americans tend to have such visceral reactions to such things, but have to keep our reactions in their cultural perspectives. The visit to the dollar store was great! Much smaller selection, but interesting. It's funny, they have some of the same junk we have. You could clean up on gag gifts.

Jiho, Bonnie, Ms. Ha (Jiho's mom), Yeon Ho (Jiho's brother), and I went to a department store that also had a grocery store on another level. Bonnie is displaying cute animal holders, which affix on the vehicle dashboards. They are used to carry small items. The magical event of the trip was the escalator -type of conveyor belt we rode up and down from the parking area. Can you imagine a small shopping cart not rolling up or down on the belt? Special wheels and slots in the belt held the carts, but they looked magnetized at first glance.

Here is a restaurant, which serves yummy beef and seafood! We parked close to the mushroom standing to the side of the parking lot. Jiho's friend not only backed up and over a full trash can twice, but he then backed up and ran into the side of Jiho's passenger side door of his van. Good thing the door is resilient plastic, it just bounced back. His friend needs driving lessons, and to slow down when he backs up for sure!
Pictured here are Bonnie and Jiho at a table with beef and seafood platters. One kind of broth is heated on one side of the large pot for the beef and another broth for the seafood. The guys cooked the meat, greens and different kinds of mushrooms for us. Besides being very yummy, it was fun to watch the broths cook in the same pot, with the same source of gas heat from a burner below. However, the broths were often times different temperatures, depending upon how much new meat was added at a particular time. Following the cooking and consuming of the meat, Jiho tossed in the chili, garlic, and green onion along with two different noodles into their respective pots. It was so tasty!