g-burg

i think everyone can look back on times in their lives that had a great influence on who and where they are now. and one of those times for me was the summer after my freshmen year of college. the place: gatlingburg, tennessee. i had barely even heard of the place when i packed a suitcase and headed over the smokies. i spent 10 weeks sleeping on a pull-out couch. i worked at no way jose's mexican cantina. i went running in the national forrest. i grew a lot in my faith. and i did a lot of things that would prepare me for my life now, which 8 years ago i couldn't have planned in a million years.

and yesterday, for the first time in 8 years, i went back. i think jarred was a little taken aback this spring when i told him how excited i was to get to go back to g-burg when we were in tn this summer. but i actually think he was interested as i walked him around the whole town to show him where i worked and lived and went to church. (actually, i think he was most interested in seeing the elevator at oak square where rusty proposed to kat.) jane, jada, dee and i had lunch at no way jose's and they gave me extra corn masa. and we stopped by the donut friar where i got a friar special. we walked down the parkway and the river road. it was such a nostalgic experience to go back. even if it is the myrtle beach of the mountains.

camping

this week we are in tennessee on vacation with jarred's family. and on our way here jarred and i escaped away for a night of our own. and we went....CAMPING! and if you know me AT ALL you know how shocking this is for me. jarred told me he would wean me into camping with just one night to make sure that i had a good experience. and you know what, i did. we got to pisgah national forrest and first hiked 3 miles up to looking glass rock in an hour and fifteen minutes.

since this storm was headed our way we quickly headed back down.

we headed to the campsite at daniel's ridge that jarred had picked out and set up camp. thanks to kat and rusty we had lots of camping gear, including this great tent:

then we headed out into the woods to collect wood for the fire. i'm serious. here is jarred chopping up the wood:

happy man after he got the fire going:

cooking hot dogs over the fire:

after the evening thunderstorm:

the next morning before we headed out, we hiked just a bit up to this awesome waterfall:

us at the waterfall:

here's to the first of many jung family camping trips!

hun cal?

While in Durham, Kathryn kept telling us about this great frozen yogurt place called Tutti Frutti that we had to check out. Previously (as in 2 years ago), my sister took us to Pinkberry's in New York City. At the time, that was the only frozen yogurt joint out there. I tried it and thought it was gross. I didn't realize that frozen yogurt was literally yogurt put in a soft serve machine. I thought my ice cream had gone bad. Here I am 2 years later, and there is frozen yogurt on every corner. Apparently frozen yogurt has joined alcohol and Chinese government bonds as a recession proof market, because so far I have been to 3 different shops and they all have a ton of people. This has to be one of the greatest business ideas I have ever heard of. Here is how it works-

You can get all the yogurt and toppings you want, no matter what flavor or what toppings and you sit your yogurt cup on a scale at the register and pay a flat per-ounce fee. My friend Mark put it well today- "They basically have based a whole business on the fact that Americans are fat and their eyes are too big for their stomachs." BRILLIANT! They got me... 3 times so far. Even smarter is that they have 1 size of yogurt cup to fill up, but a 3 year old could crawl up and take a nap in the bucket that they give you. So, not only do you have no way of knowing how much you are buying until you get up to the register, but you are tricked into thinking that you are serving yourself less than you are. Just because a swimming pool is only filled with 3 inches of water doesn't mean there is a small amount of water in the swimming pool.

This is what I love about this country. It is go big or go home. Last night I went to Moe's with my sister and her friends for "Moe's Monday." It is a deal where for 5 dollars you get a burrito, chips, and a drink. Being out of the country really allows you to put into perspective the size of portions in the US. This burrito consisted of a tortilla shell the size of a large pizza crust steamed so it could be as pliable as possible to hold what was coming next. Enough chicken, sour cream, rice, and black beans to feed Uganda. They roll it up so tight that the goods inside the burrito are just screaming to get out, like some kind of embryonic Mexican alien in a pod, wrap it in aluminum foil, and hand it to you to take home to do bicep hammer curls.

This made me think, what if they made pay by the ounce burritos? That would be even more brilliant than yogurt I think. Because honestly, you can do without fruity pebbles and chocolate syrup on yogurt, but a burrito with no sour cream? That is the glue that binds the caloric behemoth. You already start with a placemat sized tortilla, much like the cooler sized tubs at frozen yogurt places. You would have to add sour cream, meat, rice, beans, and cheese to the burrito at a minimum to make it palatable. And, each of these burritos ends up weighing the same as my sister's pug/terrier mix. The fact that our stomachs have been adjusted to handle one of those things is a miracle in itself.

All this to say that if you see a little restaurant called "Jarred's Burritos and Yogurt" one day, swing in. It'll be delicious, and as American as you can get!

it's not wrong, it's just different

it's a phrase we say sometimes in asia, sometimes out of exasperation to remind ourselves that things like peeing on the sidewalk or eating cicadas (seriously, that happened 2 weeks ago when i was with some friends, along with dried mini-fish- i managed to dodge most of the strange stuff) aren't wrong, just different.
and last week we were supposed to return "home." but home nowadays is a strange concept. family, friends, and our home culture are here in the states. our apartment, car, dog, and other friends are in asia. and after living in asia for 4 years there are a lot of things in our life now that are mixed of the different cultures.
so the past week has been a mixture of the greatest things america has to offer with a bit of reverse culture shock thrown in. my hope is throughout the summer to fill you in on my perception of the great things of american culture, the different/strange things, and the overwhelming things.
here's my take after being here almost a week:

great:
1. jets- the cubs game had a fighter jet flyover. jarred said, "this always reminds me why i don't think anyone could beat us in a war."
2. roads- as we descended into chicago, the 2 asian college students behind us said, "look at all trees. wow, there are no cars on the roads!" after having a car in asia for the past few months, this was the most peaceful part of coming home. i did drive us to charlotte yesterday bc we are both pretty sure jarred would have been cutting people off like crazy after driving in asia.
3. cereal- laura and kat both stocked up for our arrival and we have already gone through 3 boxes. yum.
4. washer & dryer- not only are they ginormous, but the dryer dried a load in 36 minutes. a load half that size in my dryer in asia takes 2 hours to dry.

different/strange:
1. lady gaga- cra-zy. i just don't get how she has become the definer of american culture. seriously weird. i about want to say she is not just different, but wrong.

overwhelming:
1. the grocery store- i about fell over standing in the chip aisle as laura grabbed a bag on our way to a cookout. i had to remind her how overwhelming
2. loudness- i know this is probably the most ironic thing i could say, but americans (especially a lot of americans together) are really loud. it is shocking even to me.
3. advertisements- maybe it is because reading them or listening to them in asia takes such concentration to translate and understand so we just subconsciously block them out or maybe they actually are just everywhere here. either way, we constantly feel like we are being bombardment with ads for every product you could imagine.

more to come...

Gillian!

a couple days ago we flew down to good ole north carolina! i haven't seen jarred so happy in a long time. he loves this place more than anything in the world. and after my brother-in-law rusty picked us up from the airport we headed straight back to meet our niece! for the last 10 months we have just seen G in pictures and on skype video, which just isn't the same. meeting G in person was one of the most exciting parts of coming back to the US this summer...and it was amazing! she is adorable. jarred and i kept Gil all day on friday and she is SO easy. she never really cries, is really flexible, and super cute. i can't wait to spend more time with her this summer and watch her grow up over the next few decades. love. her.
(we took some pictures of us with our little niece but they are on my mom's camera, so i'll post them whenever i get them. here are some of just her to tide you over.)

chicago

we landed in chicago at 6:40 am and my sister laura was waiting right outside of customs wearing an awesome t-shirt welcoming us to the land of freedom. we took the L into the city, dropped our stuff at her apartment and took showers, and headed out to see the windy city. jarred had never stepped foot outside of o'hare despite the fact that he has been through that airport a bajillion times. we headed to the john hancock building, oak street beach, and walked down michigan avenue. the only purchase we made on michigan avenue was at payless shoe source. after checking out millenium park and seeing the bean and the fountains we headed to a cubs game! no better place to be on memorial day, especially if it is your first day back in america. between a bald eagle flying around the stadium during the national anthem to a jet plane flyover later in the game, we experienced all things american. over the next few days we got to meet a lot of laura's friends, see her office, see our friend james, visit a grad school, and spend an evening at navy pier eating some famous popcorn and eating at harry caray's restaurant. we loved the few days we got to spend with laur!

meeting baby harvey

since we have to fly through the capital on our way back to america anyways, it worked out PERFECT that we could spend a night with josh and danielle and BABY HARVEY! another example of great couple friends. they have been away since april 22nd waiting on the arrival of their first little baby and he finally made his entrance to the world on may 20th. so at 8 days old we got to meet the little man. i think he is the youngest baby i have ever held and man is he tiny! he is adorable and has already won our hearts! here is momma and baby:

visiting aaron and stacy

the week before we left asia we started our transitional summer. in the span of 5 nights we slept in 5 different beds. old apartment then new apartment. we then got to spend our last night in our city with some great friends, david and marianne. after 7 years in asia they are moving back to the us this summer. we then flew to a different city to see our friends aaron and stacy on the way out of the country. it was the absolute perfect way to start a break! i am so thankful for the couples that we are friends with where jarred and i equally love them and the time we get to spend with them. such a blessing. and it just happened to be stacy's birthday weekend so we got to go out to a french restaurant to celebrate her turning 28!

us getting ready to head out to dinner!

happy birthday, stacy!

they are so fun! i love laughing with them :)

the number one reason we love our new apartment

this is the view from our balcony:
those red buildings in the distance are our classroom buildings. campus is SO close!

yay!

home improvement

our new kitchen is tiny. so my husband had a solution. this is a desk that cost 30 dollars. This is my husband taking the top off the desk.
this is our neighbor that has woodworking tools helping my husband prep the desktop to turn it into a bottom shelf.


this is jarred taking the desktop and putting on the bottom to make a shelf.


he painted it white and added wheels to the bottom

put a granite top where the desktop used to be for 15 dollars,
and you have a rolling island counter! i am so thankful for jarred's creativity. this doubled the countertop space i have in our kitchen, and we can unlock the wheels and roll it out to the dining room for a buffet table.

our new apartment

After 2 months of waiting for our apartment to get ready, we moved everything in 2 days before we left for the States. Here is a tour of the finished product (minus the pictures hanging on the wall, which will wait for the fall).

The office

The dining room/entry area

The kitchen (the oven is not installed due to an electrical problem)

The balcony

Another picture of the office

We call this room "Shelley's room." It has her sewing machine and chair.

The guest bedroom

Our master bedroom. Note Shelley's painting the lampshades to match the wall.

Max thinks he has found his spot in the house. He is very mistaken.

The living room.

Its still dusty since construction went on literally up to the day before we moved in, but we're excited to get back settled in to the new home.