Seeding Rain???

Hwang-sa are back again--in full force!!!

Can't even see Seoul Tower today.

...

Actually, this photo isn't a picture of the Yellow Dust storm that hit yesterday but rather the remnants of the fierce rain storm that hit overnight. Notice the road lined with pink blossoming cherry trees that meanders its way up to Seoul Tower? You can just make out the pinks midway between the clouds and the buildings.

...

We spent the past 2 days indoors because the dust from the Hwang-sa was so severe. We anticipated its arrival as the massive dust storms hit Beijing rather severely on Sunday making the news outlets. Since Beijing is just about due West of us we knew it was only a matter of time before it arrived here in Seoul (depending on the weather patterns). What was odd is that overnight we were pounded by this intense thunderstorm. One of those 'crack open the roof of the building' type of rain & thunderstorms. They're not uncommon around here but it hasn't happened in a while so we were wondering what the deal was. When we awoke this morning we learned at Drudge Report that China had actually seeded rain clouds to help purge the dust from the atmosphere so now we're left wondering if that massive thunderstorm with pounding rain was a result of China's attempts to 'create' rain. How odd??? If it was, then that would have been our first experience being pounded by a 'seeded rainstorm'. ;)

...

The Yellow Dust has become annoying. Not only does it make it difficult to breathe when you're out and about but it creates this gritty 'mess' on everything. The apartment we're staying in has double sliding glass doors & windows with a 4" gap for insulation and the dust still seems to penetrate the windows and doors. Odd--quite similar to our El Paso sand storm experiences from 6-7 years ago. So, instead of getting out and about to explore more parts of this incredible city we've been stuck indoors--becoming more and more stir crazy every minute.

...

To help quell the stir craziness, we've dived full force into rnrB's homestudies, played catch up on our reading and movie queue, enjoyed watching all sorts of television shows either in Korean or with Korean subtitles and are currently researching our upcoming trip to Thailand and Cambodia.

...

rnrB's studies have us finishing up Ancient Egypt, halfway through Human Anatomy, 2nd grade reading & math, basic Korean (she's currently learning the numbers and the Hangul alphabet/characters) and we're just about to 'formally' start cursive (rnrB's already using cursive but she taught herself so we're going to backstep a little and review the mechanics of it before she has to 'unlearn bad habits').

...

Movies: just watched Robots which was fun. While channel surfing the Korean cable system we've caught Vanity Fair, How to Lose a Man in 24 Hours, Jany Eyre (perfect timing as I just finished the book about a month ago) and a few others I never quite 'figured' out the English name of. We've also amassed a queue of DVDs we picked up at the library. Pryamids & Mummies: Egypt & Beyond (a little on Egypt but WAY more on Peru which was unexpected), Weeping Camel (a Mongolian Film we can't wait to watch about a tribe that tries to nurse a young camel to life after its mother abandons it), Firefly Dreams (this might be a Japanese film--can't quite tell from the outer sleeve but it's won some cinematic awards and it looks captivating), Cinema Paradiso from 1990 & Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius.

...

Television: I'm not much of a television viewer because it never seems to keep my attention for very long but when I do watch I have this awful habit of enjoying television shows that have been axed (and only learning about the shows after they've been cut). :( My all time favorite show is the British Comedy 'Chef' (usually found in reruns on PBS stations now). Well, there's another show that appeared last year and permeates Korean cable at the moment that seems to have a similar flavor: 'Kitchen Confidential'. So, we've caught a couple of episodes of it. Then, we also found this cooking show called 'Sugar'--which seems to hail from Canada's HGTV network--it's totally dedicated to desserts (now who wouldn't like a show about sugar?). Finally, I've fallen in love with 'Oblivious'!!! Love it, love it love it!!! This show has me rolling on the floor laughing uncontrollably!!! It's got to be good for your health! ;) Regan Burns totally makes that show & I only hope that it's still in production. Oh, I almost forgot, Korean TV saves its commercials for the gaps between the shows so you don't get interrupted every couple of minutes for 'captive audience sales'. It's an awesome approach--something we enjoyed with TV in Germany when I was a kid. This might be why I actually watch TV in Korea and can barely make it through a single episode of anything in the US. ;)

...

Books: finishing up 'The Scarlet Letter'. Midway through a copy of Dave Ramsey's financial management/life motivator 'More Than Enough' that I stumbled on at the library.

...

Travel books to prepare for our upcoming trip:

Culture Shock: Thailand (absolutely love the Culture Shock series of books--if you're traveling to a location that boasts a culture quite different from what you are used to then definitely look for these books--LOVE THEM!!! I've used them for Korea, China, Japan & have several others for places we'd like to explore in the future),

Lonely Planet Thailand,

Chiang Mai: Thailand's Northern Rose, and

The Rough Guide to Cambodia.

...

We're heading to Thailand for 8 days and then Cambodia for another 5 days. With travel times and such we'll probably have about 8 'complete' days on the ground. We'll be exploring Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket & Angorwat. I've been wanting to visit Thailand for years and years but could never quite figure out an appropriate time to go. When the tsunami hit a year and a half ago I just felt that we really needed to help out the area (we donated then to aid the recovery effort) but if spending travel money there now will help a little more then that would be a small way to assist in their rebuilding efforts. So, Thailand & Cambodia are where we're headed. We really wanted to visit Vietnam, too, but it just became too burdensome with the stringent visa requirements and for some reason it's quite a bit more expensive to visit Vietnam than other parts of Asia. So, we'll have to try to visit Vietnam on a future trip.

...

So, now I've got a bunch of research to do to prepare for our trip. My knowledge of Thailand extends only to what I've seen in the King & I and I know absolutely nothing about Cambodia so I've really got my work cut out for me. Hopefully, we'll be able to create and plant some letterboxes there, too. We've been digging and digging for clues to letterboxes in the area but just can't find any. :( We've found a couple dozen geocache clues but hopefully we'll be able to 'change' this glaring omission in the letterboxing world shortly. ;)