New president, Rodman in North Korea - end of February 2013

What a wholesome week of new and surprising events.

Korea now officially has a new president to run the country for 5 years.

Park Geun Hae parading in an open car

We will see how much (or not) Korea will change.

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Rodman came to entertain and hangout with North Korea's leader KimJungEun.  For a country that teaches their kids to kill Americans - I see this event very mind boggling (it has so many - or not many meanings)  hmm hmm hmm

Rodman in North Korea

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Exciting event.  I went shopping for a new cutting board.  I am replacing my "plastic" boards and replacing them with all wood for health reasons (BPA - hormonal..etc).   I found the cheapest and smallest wooden board for 7900won.  I got it and it is a piece of 7900won board...

Is BPA exposure a cause of autism spectrum disorder?

Dr. Liedtke's latter comment, of course, implies that widespread BPA exposure through food can linings, thermal paper receipts, plastic water bottles, and other sources may be a direct cause of the epidemic of neurodevelopmental diseases that are occurring all around the world. Such disorders include conditions such as Type I diabetes, Down Syndrome, and of course autism spectrum disorders, which have increased inexplicably by about 78 percent over the past decade.

"Our study found that BPA may impair the development of the central nervous system, and raises questions as to whether exposure could predispose animals and humans to neurodevelopmental disorders," added Dr. Liedtke. "Our findings improve our understanding of how environmental exposure to BPA can affect the regulation of the KCC2 gene. However, we expect future studies to focus on what targets aside from KCC2 are affected by BPA."

Even the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is now admitting that predisposed genetic factors are more than likely a red herring when it comes to explaining away the continuing rise of neurodevelopmental disease. As quoted in a recent Huffington Post piece, Diana Schendel, a CDC scientist with the agency's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, admitted that the widespread assumption that autism is largely a genetic condition "was perhaps made in error."

Sources for this article include:

http://www.dukehealth.org

http://wunc.org

http://www.naturalnews.com/035452_autism_vaccinations_children.html

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/039309_BPA_developing_babies_brains.html#ixzz2MTn2TqoO

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I saw this cute cartoon print/post on our apartment building informing the residents to check for efficiency of electricity in housing/apartments/buildings.  This is very useful to know because we highly praise efficiency - especially electricity - this info would be useful if you are considering moving/buying a new apartment.

 

We are lucky because we barely turn our lights/heater in our house - efficiency to the max - and our electricity/heating bills are much lower than what it could be.   Thanks to our "green" apartment building!

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I think this was my first time having soju and lunch :)   Good kimchi jjigae and jjim at Seodaemoon (station).

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These are my new additions to my nursery.  One day I want to build my own garden/green house/nursery of plants and trees :)  one day!

Those are some of the excitements for the past week (sarcasm not!).

successful apartment contract renewal!

We were handed down the ultimatum(?) from our landlord.  They wanted 100,000won increase in rent - and we wanted 50,000won and no more.  Our 2 yr contract is ending on the end of March.  We had to make the decision by the end of this month. 

So to cut the story short, they came over last weekend to check up on the apartment, but we were confident that they would be impressed.  It's a 2yr old apartment - us being the first tenants.  We kept it very clean and they were pretty happy.

It was a nerve racking day.  I've never had to do this 2 yr contract renewal for apartments and it was a serious matter.

Thankfully, my husband's good friend came over to help us.  We call him our "lawyer" (he's not a lawyer) friend.  He wanted to make sure we got what we wanted - an increase of 50,000won and no more for 2 yr renewal on the apartment.

We all sat down to negotiate the deal on the apartment and price - it was very intense.  I can speak enough Korean - but not enough to make negotiations.

We can't still believe our friend came to help us that day.

We can't thank him enough~~ because he made his moves and talks and we got what we wanted!  A 50,000won increase in rent each month for 2 year renewal!

We still can't believe we got what we wanted!  Moving is painful - and being the only tenant in our apartment is hard to give up... we are so very very thankful for our friend....  We would never be able to make such a deal without him!

And to actually think that, our apartment runs  for 200,000won more in rent (than what we pay now) - as priced by the realtors.  I still can't believe he got us to just 50,000won..  We joked that he should make it a part time side job to make deals happen ;P 



So to congratulate the successful deal - we ordered jajangmyun that day.  I heard it's a common meal to eat on moving days (too tired to cook?).

our delivery meal

We got a small "tang-soo-yook", "gan jajang", and "gochu japchae bap".  All delivered in less than 30 minutes with a free fried mandoo!  

my husband's "gan-jajang" - a heavier sauce

I got "gochu japchae" meal

 My meal above was very good!

If you are in Gongdeok area - you can call 02-702-1007 for this chinese delivery place.

we got a complimentary "mandoo"