Current favorites:
Kara Remembers written by Bear McCreary
Grey Street by Dave Matthews Band
Love Today by Mika
Butter
Surfaces in my apartment to put things
Being creative in the culinary category with Kels
So many many Happy Birthday wishes on FB 
Getting my birthday PACKAGE from HOME on my BIRTHDAY!
All the goodies in it – COOKIES, GRANOLA, BANANA CHIPS AND TAMARI ALMONDS.
Everyone needs to watch this. It will make your day. I guarantee it.
The newest Middle East Cross Cultural from EMU is currently in Cairo, Egypt. Currently walking in places where I was two years ago. Really? Was it really two years ago? Has it really been two years since my life was tossed around and upside down in a blender of despair, darkness, love, adventure, joy and pain? Some memories are so fresh. I can literally feel the atmosphere of breakfasts with Sarah in Beit Sahour. I can hear the Call to Prayer in Jerusalem. I can feel the rough sheets from the Ambassador Hotel in Cairo. I can feel the grit and dirt in my Chacos from hiking all over Israel. I can still feel my heart breaking and my soul being crushed. I can still recall my feelings of awe and amazement while looking at Michelangelo’s David and Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus. So many experiences are right at the tips of my fingers. They are able to be summoned at a moment’s notice.
There are some things, though, that I have had trouble summoning since my return home. I lost a few things while I was in Israel/Palestine. I lost my innocence, my naivety, and hope. Yes, I lost my hope somewhere in the hills of Judea. I wonder if I’ll ever find it again.
After I returned home, I began to drown. Drown from caring too much, from feeling things too deeply. From carrying too much suffering on my shoulders, too much guilt, too much hopelessness. So I shut off. I did let go of some things that weren’t mine to carry, but mostly I shut off. And I’m still in that mode. The balance between actively caring for the world and not letting it consume you is one that I obviously haven’t found.
I knew this was going to happen. Not blogging as regularly as I had initially hoped to. And so do I give you mucho details about everything that has happened since my arrival or just fun, insightful comments and observations? We’re going to go with the latter. Starting with the flight from LAX to Incheon:
The background/elevator music playing on Asiana’s speakers was Kenny G’s Christmas album. I almost laughed out loud when it registered. And thank goodness for tylenol pm and travel size bottles of contact solution.
I was oh, so happy when I saw that BOTH OF MY SUITCASES were waiting for me at the baggage carousel. Again, I probably maybe a fool of myself when I exclaimed, YES!, and opened my arms to the heavens.
I don’t know how many times I told myself on the bus ride to Gwangju that I was actually and finally in Korea. If only the sun had been out.
Korea isn’t really a place for a person who doesn’t like her mouth to be on fire about every time she eats something from a restaurant or the smell or taste of stuff that is really fishy. I have much to work on. Chopstick skills most definitely falls under that category as well.
I’m called Bess teacher which sounds like best teacher. :)
The internet man came just when I was finishing my shower one morning. Supremely awkward.
I’ve only been teaching for a week and a half and I think I’m already putting too high of expectations on myself. Not good.
Greatest frustration: Classes made up of kids on different levels. How do I challenge and actively interact with the kids who are really getting this English thing and are exceedingly bright and at the same time give the intensive attention the other kids need because it seems like there is no comprehension going on upstairs?
Men riding motorbikes while wearing a mask to protect themselves from swine flu, but not wearing a helmet. Explain that one, please.
Everyone should go see Avatar at your earliest convenience. It is a truly astonishingly beautiful film. I swear I watched the first hour with my jaw on the floor and my mouth open in rapt fascination. It’s been a long time since I’ve responded so strongly to a film. It was thrilling and electrical and moving and spiritual.
Many people have asked me how I’m liking Korea so far and each time I hesitate before I answer. My initial response isn’t “I love Korea!” or “Yeah, things are great!”. I don’t know if things seem weird because Kels isn’t here yet or what. I’ve had great experiences, I’ve made friends and I’m enjoying interacting with these great Korean kids. Maybe I should give myself a little break and stop expecting life to be so full right away and all the time.
I miss baking Christmas cookies with Sister Sara and Mom.
I love watching Greer Garson movies on YouTube. She’s absolutely beautiful.
Didn’t sleep at all last night. A supper of pasta, beer and cheesecake, nerves, anxiousness, excitement, and the prospect of saying goodbye to my family – it was all rolling around in my stomach and my mind wouldn’t shut off. Goodbyes were full of tears, hugs were prolonged, and last looks were imprinted in the mind. Things went smoothly until Chicago; fricking snow. We were delayed for about two hours and therefore I missed my connection to Seoul at LAX. I’ll be honest; I was an emotional wreck. Found myself a bathroom stall and quietly cried and cried. I just felt so helpless and out of control and maybe like I failed myself somehow? which is dumb, of course. Thank goodness LAX chose to employ a certain beautiful older woman who answered my questions, steered me in the right direction and was empathic to the point where she almost threw in a curse word to describe United Airlines. An angel of my day, for sure. As I write this I still have to wait over two hours for the Asiana Airline desk to open; then another four hours until my flight leaves. Thank goodness for free WiFi (which I didn’t know before when I paid some moolah to use a lounge). But I suppose the money was worth it cause I ate lots of free snacks, free drinks, and took my boots off and spread out for a catnap. Which was glorious. I can’t recall how many Sukodu puzzles I’ve done in the past hour, or how many times I’ve made a fool of myself singing (silently, mind you) along with my iPod. “Le Jazz Hotttttttt”. Thank you Julie Andrews; how I love you.
I suppose this has all been an exercise in flexibility and how I apparently need to work on that. I also should probably stop trusting air travel to be so gosh darn perfect and wonderful.
Thoughts on what is ahead: I’m excited to be challenged, to have new experiences, try this teaching thing out, sharing with children and loving them, and also for the unknown. It’s been interesting people’s reactions when I tell them that I truly have no idea what I’ve gotten myself into or what’s going to happen when I got off the plane in Seoul. For me and where I’m at on my journey to become who I am meant to be – it feels perfect.
So…let’s JUMP!!!!
And suddenly I woke up one day and realized fall had decended on us. Whole fields of beans are turning, corn leaves are drooping, wagons are at attention behind the barn, Dad is fine-tuning the combine and that familiar scent is back. The scent that I have been breathing in since I was two years old. A scent that has inexplicably become a part of my soul. I breathe it in and I am home. It’s a change in the air; it has a sharpness to it. It’s a combination of diesel fuel and tractor exhaust. It’s the smell of grain turning. It’s the smell of leaves turning. It’s hard to explain.
For the first time in five years I will be home for the entire season of harvest. I am super stoked for this – more than you can imagine. To take Dad his lunches and suppers, to drive wagons around, to hopefully (!) drive a tractor and maybe even the combine (?!), to take many combine rides with Dad, to listen to Dad drive the combine up the lane when the day’s harvest is done, to feel bean stubble below my feet, to be lulled to sleep by the dryer fans, to see the leaves in the yard mingle with corn cobs and leaves, to see everything covered with red dog (the stuff you see floating in the air – it comes loose after the kernels are separated from the cob), and to run my hands through a wagon full of corn.
I can’t wait.
…as of late.
As a side note – I’m not encouraging you to go watch Grey’s. 
We have lots of apple trees at home – some good varieties and some not so good varieties. Back in July I brought boxes of Lodi and Yellow Transparent apples with me to the ‘Burg. My friend Peyton and I embarked on a wonderful applesauce making adventure with a gizmo and process details from friend G. We had a lot of fun and made 40 some quarts of utterly fantastic applesauce.
Our apples usually end up on the ground before we (my sister and I) are spurned into action. We were recently looking for a recipe to knock out a lot of apples at once. Success! And a major tasty one at that. Love when that happens.
1 1/2 c. flour
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 lb. butter
1/2 c. milk
1 egg
5 tart apples
Preheat oven to 400 F. Grease an 8-inch square cake pan. Mix flour through sugar in a mixing bowl. Melt butter in a small saucepan, remove from heat (let it cool a minute or so) and stir in milk and egg, beating well. Add to flour mixture and blend.
Spread batter in pan and press apple slices in uniform rows.
Mix 1/2 c. sugar, 1/2 t. cinnamon, 2 T. raisins (just throw in a bunch) and sprinkle on top.
Bake 25 minutes – check with toothpick test.
Notes:
We evidently don’t own an 8-inch square cake pan at the Moser homestead. Solution – double the recipe and bake it in a good ole regular 9×13.
With the doubling comes lots of apples. Use half of the batter and press some apples into it, and then spread out the rest of the batter and press in more apples. Finish with topping. My recommendation? Eat it straight out of the fridge with ice cream. Heavenly.
I love driving. Windows down, foot heavy on the gas, music up WAY up loud – love it. Especially when I’m driving in the country, on windy roads, gravel roads, or through beautiful landscapes. I would much rather be the driver than the passenger. Ugh, does this mean I have control issues? I also will be the first to admit that I have road rage. No violence or naughty hand gestures or anything, just simple feelings about other drivers on the road. I tend to give them a lot of verbal encouragement. And it might be loud, sometimes. And it might turn the air of my car blue, sometimes.
I was on my way to home #2 via I-64 E today. Wow, there was a lot of traffic. More so than I remember on past trips. There were quite a few drivers who were having mental lapses pertaining to one of the most obvious rules about driving. At least, quite obvious in my mind. There are TWO lanes of traffic on most major highways, correct? A RIGHT lane and a LEFT lane. The RIGHT lane is for SLOW drivers. SLOW drivers = people who actually follow speed limits (crazy, no?) or believe it or not, drive below the speed limit. The LEFT lane is for FAST drivers. FAST drivers = people who drive above the speed limit and want to get around the SLOW drivers. Now. It seems to me that if you are a SLOW driver and you happen to find yourself in the LEFT lane, a place where you might notice that there are a lot of cars behind you, you might want to MOVE. That’s right. MOVE your SLOW car out of the LEFT (FAST) lane into the RIGHT (SLOW) lane. I was trying my hardest to impart my road wisdom and encouragement to these poor souls, but they just weren’t getting it.
Also, I don’t care if you drive faster than I do. BUT! Please, please, please don’t pass me, pull in front of me and then SLOW DOWN. I will be very disappointed.
Moser Homestead
Sister Sara
A real thunderstorm moving in from the West
Flat farmland, storm!, my porch
An Ohio sunset
The following post is in the spirit of new lady friends J and G.
While I was home for Easter I went a little crazy with the muffin making. I think I made five (?) different recipes and some of them were already doubled. Needless to say, we had lots of muffins. The night before I left for Harrisonburg, I went through some of Mom’s cookbooks looking for some awesome/fun muffin recipes. I can’t tell you where the following is from, but it is definitely a keeper. The muffins are so fresh, light and lemon-y. LEMON ZEST is my new favorite thing. Wow.
Cherry Vanilla Ricotta Muffins
2 c. flour
1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/8 t. baking soda
1 T. grated lemon zest
1/2 c. – 2/3 c. sugar
1 c. ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1 T. lemon juice
1 T. & 1/2 t. vanilla
1/2 stick melted butter
1 c. dried cherries OR 1 1/2 c. fresh/frozen cherries
Combine ingredients flour through sugar in mixing bowl.
In a separate bowl whisk together the ricotta and eggs (one at a time, whisk after each egg). Add the lemon juice and vanilla.
Then add ricotta mixture, butter, and fruit to dry ingredients.
Mix and fill greased or papered muffin tins. Unless you like your muffins really small (boring) you won’t get two dozen. You also won’t get just one dozen. You’ll get seventeen, or some random number. Which just makes baking all the more fun. Fill your empty muffin spaces with water.
Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
Notes/Questions: I used dried currants because they are mucho cheaper than dried cherries. And they tasted fantastic. With the lemon zest and the real lemon juice, the vanilla taste seemed non-existant. What’s the point of adding the vanilla? Smearing these muffins with butter is also a good choice for consumption. :)
Enjoy!
