Amanda Takes Off...

I finished the second Pippi book (꼬 마백만장자 삐삐) today. I'm still below where I should be (if I'm perfectly on track to reach my goal), but hey, I'm trucking along. That's what matters.

I'm going to start the third Pippi book next. I'm on a roll with these books and I've gotten into the translator's groove. No reason to quit now!

Good Man and I are celebrating the one year anniversary of our legal ceremony in less than two weeks. We're debating between going somewhere and doing something around here. What complicates it (slightly) is that I have a class on Friday nights until 9:30 and Good Man has class on Mondays, so making it a three-day weekend is impossible. Plus, Mother and Father are coming for Good Man's graduation ceremony in May and I'd like to keep my two remaining personal days for his graduation. And we're going to Mom and George's at the end of next month, which sort of make me "ehhhh" about going somewhere else for just one night.

I was missing Korea today. Korea's rice cake looks bigger than America's.

Yesterday, we went to register our marriage at the gov't office. Good Man wasn't sure that we had to do it, but I thought we should. In fact, before our legal wedding in America, I argued that I was sure there was something he needed to do at the Korean Embassy and he (and I!) searched the Korean Embassy website, as well as others, but couldn't find any information.

Well, it's a good thing we decided to register the marriage because it was supposed to be done within 90 days of marriage! Obviously we're way past that, so he has to pay a 50,000 won fine. If he pays it before the 14th, he gets a discount and it's only 40,000 won. Minor problem: we can't transfer funds because both of us left our bank cards at home. Oh well. His parents will pay it for us.

We filled out the Korean form, using the sample instructions they gave us. The sample instructions were intended for Koreans marrying foreigners in Korea, and in their sample, the groom was automatically the foreigner. An American, in fact. Good Man needed his father's birth address and he was supposed to be able to write the birth city of his father in Hanja. What? Is that like the Korean version of "Mother's maiden name?"

It took forever to get the marriage registered because he needed to translate the entire American wedding certificate. By hand. On A4 paper. Poor guy.

When we finally finished, the clerk was concerned that the wedding certificate wasn't valid because it said "copy." Yeah, it says copy from the court and has the county clerk's signature and a raised, embossed seal on it. I made that clear and luckily, the clerk's boss agreed.

They had a sign up that they do "Traditional Korean Wedding Photograping." (Yes.) The sign said they only did it on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It was Wednesday, but I asked if we could do it, since I'd seen two foreigners have it done twenty minutes earlier.

Then we were told that it's only for marriages where both people are foreigners, because there are too many Korean-Non-Korean marriages.

I patted Good Man's chest and said, "하지만 제 남편의 마음 속에서 미국 사람이에요." But in my husband's heart, he is an American.

She laughed and said since it wasn't busy, she'd do it. So they took us over to a corner with a traditional Korean screen and put traditional Korean wedding hanbok costumes on us (one size fits all!) and took our picture.

I was thankful. A gov't official bending on two rules? Taking a photo of a Korean and American on a Wednesday? Thanks, lady!

So now we have legal wedding photos where I'm in a cotton dress and Good Man is in jeans, family wedding photos where we're wearing hanboks, and Korean registration photos where we're wearing traditional wedding costumes. All that's missing is a white dress and tux photo, which you can get done at photo studios in Korea. Maybe for our anniversary. ^^

Good Man asked if I would be put on his family registry. Nope. Because I'm foreign. So I'm not family.

Sigh.

Korea.

Good Man and I met Master's family last night. Of course, on all counts, it was great.

On the way to the studio I passed two of my studiomates. They walked by, not immediately recognizing me, and I turned. They turned their heads, too, and sort of slowed down. "Hey! Do you remember me?" I called out in Korean.

They looked surprised and starting hitting each other. I said, "It's Amanda!" They nodded quickly, bowed deeply and said hello and we chatted for a few minutes. It was cute. They're in middle school now.

We brought some small gifts for Master and his wife and some for the kids. I decided to put them in three separate gift bags. We gave the kids their gifts (a pajama set and top for each). In Korean culture it's rude to open gifts in front of the giver so they ran into their bedroom, opened them, and brought them back out.

Master's Son in His New PJs

Master's Daughter in Her New PJs

He gave me a gift and asked me to open it. I did and it was another gorgeous box made out of hanji (traditional Korean paper). His mother made it. Inside? Korean socks!

We went out for samgyupsal and had soju (of course). Master hasn't had soju in ten days because he's been so busy. He told me that and I said, "I don't believe it!" (I really didn't believe it because I misheard him and thought it was ten months!)

Then we went out for patbingsoo (Korean shaved ice) and had coffee at his house.

His son didn't remember me (of course, I wasn't expecting him to) but apparently his daughter checks out my Cyworld all the time, so she remembered me (which was a nice suprise). At first they were both sort of shy, but they warmed up really quickly.

In fact, his daughter was hilarious. When we were eating patbingsoo, she wanted the exact same spoon I had. She looked at my spoons, looked at the rest of the spoons, and chose the one with the same handle decoration. Then she took both spoons and compared them very carefully to make sure they matched.

When I ordered a chocolate banana patbingoo, she whispered, "Amanda, we will share, OK?" (Of course...it's Korean culture!) She wanted to sit next to me (and made me switch seats with her since she's left handed and I'm right handed), she wanted to hold my hand, she wanted to chat and chat. She learned (sort of) how to use my camera and wanted us to take photos of each other taking photos of each other.

It was wonderful. It was like nothing had changed and I'd never been gone.

Nothing except Son and Daughter are so tall! And Daughter can write in Korean! (She wrote me a little Christmas card telling me she loves me.)

We spoke a ton of Korean (and a little English) and reminisced about different things. I was finally able to tell him how much I hated the octopus (squid?) I ate really early on in Korea after mountain climbing. He laughed and asked why I ate it. I said I didn't want to be rude. He said he and his brother kept giving me the biggest pieces because they didn't want to be rude. We all got a good laugh out of it.

He told me that my Korean was really good and he could tell I'd been studying in America. When random Koreans tell me my Korean is good, I know they're just being polite. But I trust it coming from him. And in traditional form, the more soju we drank, the less Korean I spoke and the more English he spoke! I really enjoy speaking Korean with Master and his family. It's so easy with them.

We also talked about my studio in America and I told him why I'd been refusing to test. (Too expensive, owner makes up tests to make money, not in any hurry to get another belt, etc.) He said as long as I plan on testing in Korea again one day, I can put it off. I sort of needed to hear that. Despite being at my new studio for a year and a half, still feel, in my heart, that Master is my instructor and Tongil is my home. I don't want to disappoint him, so getting permission to put off testing was nice.

I found out some bad news. A new studio moved into the neighborhood—right at the end of the block. That's why he hasn't been drinking. He's been spending his time renovating the front of the studio to compete.

We spent about four hours together and it just reaffirmed that I will always be friends with Master and his family, no matter where we all live and how long it is before we meet again.

Normally on Tuesday nights I go to a math class. However, tonight it was canceled.

Good Man also had class tonight, so we had decided to celebrate his birthday (which is today) tomorrow (which is his legal birthday and the date I have to remember for all immigration paperwork). Since class was canceled though, I decided to make him a nice dinner.

Good Man asked for 돈까스 (deep-fried pork cutlet) about a month ago. I told him I don't deep-fry things. Then I saw Jeanny's post about it and decided that maybe I could deal with deep-frying something. It is, after all, his birthday.

So tonight I made 미역국, 옥수수, 밥, 돈까스, and 초코 게잌 (seaweed soup, corn, rice, deep-friend pork and chocolate cake).

I only got a photo of the 돈까스 part of dinner.

돈까스

For dessert, Good Man claimed he wanted a "crappy cake" from Safeway. Well, that just would not do. I found a recipe for a chocolate cake made in the slow cooker. When it's done, you get a sort of runny, gooey sauce at the bottom of the pot. I served it with vanilla ice cream. It was very good.

Crock Pot Cake

Crock Pot Chocolate Mud Cake
(with my edits)

1 cup all-purpose flour (I used 1/2 C whole wheat and 1/2 C white)
2 teaspoons baking powder
6 Tablespoons butter
1/3 cup chocolate chips
2/3 plus 1/3 cup white sugar
3 Tablespoons plus 1/3 cup cocoa
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup milk
1 egg yolk
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cup hot water

cooking spray
vanilla ice cream

Generously coat the inside of a 2 1/2 to 5 quart crock pot with cooking spray or butter (I used butter).

Whisk together the flour and baking powder in a medium bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, melt the butter and chocolate chips in the microwave. Whisk in 2/3 cup of white sugar, 3 tablespoons of cocoa, vanilla extract, salt, milk, and egg yolk. Add the flour mixture to the melted chocolate mixture and stir until thoroughly combined.

Pour this batter into the crock pot and spread it evenly (or...just kind of leave it lumpy...)

In a medium bowl, whisk together 1/3 cup white sugar, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup cocoa, and hot water. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Pour this mixture over the batter in the crock pot.

Cover and cook on high for 1 to 2 1/2 hours. (I started cooking it around 6:30 and it was ready around 8:00 in a 4-qt crock.) The larger the crock pot, the less time this cake will take to bake. (I don't know what that line means. The more surface area, perhaps?) Check the cake after one hour. The cake is done when nearly all of the top is set and the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pot. There will be a layer of molten chocolate on the bottom and around the edges. (I let mine cook past the done mark with no ill-effect that we could find.)

When the cake is done turn off the power of the crock pot and remove the lid. Let it cool in the crock pot for at least 30 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

Makes 6 to 8 servings. (Or 4 servings if you're like us.)

This is how Good Man felt about his birthday dinner:

생일 축하합니다!

At the July 4th party a week before the wedding I realized that we could probably do a group shot on the lawn. The photographer agreed, and I'm so happy he did!

Everyone at the Wedding I

Everyone at the Wedding II

Mother and I were comparing our thick, traditional socks.

Mother-in-Law, Daughter-in-Law

The day after the wedding, waiting for a bus in DC with 10 of our family members, exhausted and cranky, I said to nobody in particular, "This is not how I envisioned spending my honeymoon."

Well, who cares? We're going to Stockholm in October for eight nights!

Wha-hooooooo!

I've been to Sweden once before. It was my first international trip and I went alone in March 2002. I've done every international trip alone, in fact. (Actually, I wasn't alone the whole time. After about a week in Stockholm, I met my pen-pal Stina in Skellefteå (and Umeå) and we spent a week together.)

It should be interesting to go to Sweden a) with Good Man and b) with more travel and life experience under my belt (read: I'm not afraid of the subway).

Now, we're just assuming his interview on the 27th will go well. If it doesn't, we can't go to Stockholm. But if it doesn't, I'm guessing Stockholm will be the last thing on our minds.

At the yarn store, I held up a skein of purple yarn. It has bits of blue and red spun throughout it. "Do you see that? How would this be for a sweater for you?"

Good Man nodded, "OK."

"But the flecks? Are those OK?"

He peered at the skein. "I can't see what you are saying."

I held up a skein of solid purple yarn. "See how this is plain and this one has flecks?"

He peered closer. "Yes, OK."

"You're lying, aren't you?"

He nodded and smiled, "I'm a damn good liar!"

We got our wedding certificate back from the frame shop today. Total Framing did a great job. We put it on the wall across from the door—you can see it as soon as you enter our apartment. It's almost 20 by 20 inches.

We received a crock pot from my aunt and uncle for our wedding. It has interchangeable crocks in two-, four-, and six-quarts. Tonight I used it for the first time to make cranberry-apple chicken. I served it with brown rice and it was delicious. The photo is bad, in large part because I was shooting JPG instead of RAW. Trust me, it was good.