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Yesterday Young Stumbler #1 graduated from college. The Stumbler, indeed the whole family, are so so proud of her. Here are some photos and narration...

We arrived at the gradutation creremony about 1 hour early, but as you can see the seats were already filling up! We chose some seats at the very back of the auditorium, right behind the orchestra! I worried it would be too loud, but actually it was quite nice.







Here's YS#4 and The Stumbling Father:



The ceremony began by all the faculty and graduations students marching into the auditorium. Here is YS#1 walking in. During the whole ceremony whenever she walked right by us, she never saw all the family waving at her.



Finally everyone was at their seat, and the ceremony began. We got to listen to a few speeches, then they began calling everyone's name for the graduation.



Here is YS#4 leaving her seat and heading to the stage:



And the magic moment - she receives her diploma (sorry for the grainy photo, but I was sitting so far away, I'm lucky to have gotten the photo at all):



Right after the ceremony was over, EVEYONE went outside to hook up with their new graduates. It was very crowded, but we finally found YS#1. Here she is, thinking "WHAT??? I HAVE TO GET A JOB???"



Here is the happy graduate and her family:





We went back to her dorm room, and we finished some last minute packing. We filled two cars with her things ("I will have just a couple of boxes left, Dad" she had told me the week before).



As I was packing the car, I decided to make her teddy bear (who has been around almost as long as YS#1) a college graduate, too:

I thought I was out of food for a few days, when I realized I could make fried rice! I used rice, peppers, onions, cheese and eggs. The past few times I tried to make fried rice, it looked good but tasted bad. This time, it both looked good AND tasted good! Here is the obligatory food photo:



I should have used green peppers (didn't have any) and the color would have balanced out better. Also, I think using olive oil instead of butter might have been important in making the taste better.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, the all important SPAM! I bought a box containing something like 12 or 15 small cans of SPAM from Costco last month. It has been sitting on the counter since, and this was the first time I used it.

Back in 2004, John and I always talked about going to a Korean baseball game. I can't say why, but we never got around to it. Well, when Trevor announced the "Baseball, Beer and Burgers" special event, I had to sign up. The team is the "Woori Heroes" (translates as "Our Heroes"). This is an old team, but was recently sold, given a new name and now considers the nearby Mokdong Stadium as their home field. The websites say the stadium has 16,000 seats and can hold 20,000 people (hmmm..., where do the other 4000 people go?) I would say it was nearly at capacity last night.







Everyone had a good time. The game was fun, although "our heroes" lost to the visiting team, KIA. Here are a few interesting shots.







After the game, we headed back to Beer O'Clock for the hamburgers. As was the case with the special Christmas Dinner last year, the throughput of the small kitchen is, well, small. It seemed to take forever to get my hamburer, but by the time it arrived I was starving. I think that made it taste even better! I will definitely go to another game.

I am going to officially declare my back ache over. And I have no idea what made it better. It might be the medicine, but if so, it is completely unexpected. During the 7 days or so that I took the pills, I felt absolutely no relief from the back pain. I can't say it was the physical therapy, since I only went that first day. I won't say I am 100% better, but then again I've probably not had a 100% pain-free back since I was in my 20's. Anyway, I don't miss the muscle spasms.

If flying in the narrow economy class seat with no knee room happens to have caused my back pain in the first place, then I'm due for more trouble when I return soon to the USA for Young Stumblers #1 and #2 graduations.

After moving in February, I sorely missed the built-in radio that was in the bathroom of my last apartment. I was not able to find one here in Korea. Well, that's not 100% true - one of my friends helped me search on some Korean shopping sites, and he found some that were clearly designed for children. Frog radios, fish radios, etc. So I got this one in the USA (yet it is a Japanese brand). Now I can listen to the radio again in my shower.



Speaking of showers, I think I mentioned in a previous post that the bathroom attached to my bedroom doesn't have a separate shower stall. Instead it has the common Asian-style shower - the WHOLE bathroom is your shower. I thought I was going to hate that, but it really is just fine. In fact, I've only once used the second bathroom that has a real shower stall.

I haven't had a food post in awhile. Here is something I made the other night that is reasonably healthy. First we have the main course... salmon steak (from Costco) pan grilled in olive oil and crushed garlic. Broccoli with cheese - easy too cook in the microwave oven. And mashed potatoes, just boil and mash.

Ordered a "pitcher" of beer at a new shop that opened in our office building. I guess I wasn't studying the menu closely... usually when you order a pitcher at these places, you have a choice of 2000cc or 3000cc (one place actually has 1700cc, wherever they got that number from). I ordered 2000cc, and after a few minutes they deliver this monstrosity to the table (sorry about the focus - I can't quite learn to make decent photos with my cell phone camera):