Thursday Market

Every Thursday there is the weekly farmers market. This is a great place to buy fresh stuff really cheap. You can even purchase live pigeons for your weekly meals!

Anyways, we love learning about the local culture, so we had a great time shopping for veggies and plants when we were there.

Fresh Camel meat too!!

Camel Farm

Our school is very good to us in that they provide free transportation to and from school, the grocery store, the mall, and even weekend trips.

This past weekend we went to a camel farm. We got there and it was very hot and smelly. Just imagine being in the desert with camels in 117 degree weather and you will get it.

While we were there we took some great pictures and learned a lot about camels. . . . we also learned about some of the old men in Saudi.

Traditionally, Saudi people were nomadic people who raised camels and other animals. These people were not that religious. We call these people bedouin.

We met some of these men in the cattle farm, and they tried to buy me from Chris for a Lexus. Let me note, this is NOT normal. It is crazy even for Saudi's.

Here, there is a bride price paid for women, but it is paid directly to the women as a gift, not to their parents. It is basically a wedding/engagement gift.

What this man was doing was crazy, and everyone, even Saudis, think that. Anyways, it is a funny story. Hope you enjoy some of the pictures from the trip!

Two children

Saudi men

The man beside me is the one who wanted to "marry" me

on a camel

This camel was crying. . . . he was going to the slaughter house . . .

We made it!

We have arrived in Saudi Arabia!

Over our summer holiday, we were very busy moving houses, traveling, packing, sorting, boxing, visiting and what not. It was good, but definitely busy. If you think moving houses is hard, just try to do it between 3 countries!!

Anyways, we have moved into our apartment and have really enjoyed getting to know all of the people who live on our small compound. (similar to apartment complex, but way smaller! Below are some pictures:

Baking!

One of the things that I have really loved about living in Korea is that I have learned to cook and bake from scratch out of necessity. I have learned how to experiment and play with ingredients and have developed some really great recipes. One of the things that I never made before was pie. I really don't like to eat baked fruits, so I never tried to make one before. However, I do have a pie pan and decided that since I had tons of blueberries I would try to make a blueberry pie. Everyone said that it turned out really well, a picture is below.

Anniversary

After we went to Nami Island, we went into the country and mountains more to a great pension. See, Koreans don't typically stay in hotels they normally stay in what is called a pension. Pensions are little condo type houses that you can rent. They come fully furnished, and are great getaways. We stayed at Sunnyside pension which included an in house hot-tub and a huge deck where we could grill out. The deck was larger than our first apartment in Korea! It was great, and I swung many hours in the porch swing. I was really happy! Chris just loved the hot tub and stayed in their most of the time. It was really fun to get away though, and it was the first time that we saw stars in 2 years! I know many people take that for granted, but when you live in the second largest city in the world, you don't get that many stars. Above are some pictures of where we stayed.

Nami Island

Chris and I had a long weekend at the beginning of June, and so we decided to celebrate our anniversary a little bit early. For our trip, we took a speed train out to the where Nami is. Nami is an island that is actually located in the middle of a river in Korea. It is really nice, and basically is a big part with biking and walking trails, and cute little shops and restaurants. While on the island, we ate at a nice Italian restaurant, and then rented some bicycles to ride around the island. To give you an estimate. It takes about 20 minutes to bike full-circle around the island. Pictures are above.

Zip Line to Nami Island

Above you will see pictures from the Zip Line at Nami Island. We went up this tall tower, and then rode down a zip line, over a river, to Nami. It was really high up and defiantly an interesting experience. Yet, truthfully, I think our hopes were set too high and we were a little disappointed with the ride. It was an experience though! Next time we will just take the ferry boat.