The red chili pepper harvest has begun. Mesh nets full of peppers are everywhere. These ones are on the sidewalk that goes around our apartment. There are more behind us and more on the other side. There is a bit of open space here, it won't be for long - pretty much every available space is covered with drying peppers as soon as the early morning humidity has dissipated. Peppers line roadways, empty spaces in parking lots, walkways, and, as you can see in the photo below, rooftops too. The pungent, spicy smell reminds Sarah of the chilis and the harvest in northern New Mexico. Red peppers are a dietary staple here in Korea, and are used to season many dishes, especially kimchee. Sarah figured that, being from the southwestern US and aquainted with spice and chilis, Korean food would be similar. Well...not exactly. The food here can be really spicy. The other night Layden was on his way home from work and saw a shop with an interesting-looking noodle dish, so he brought some home for dinner. It looked good and smelled great so we tucked right in. After about 2 bites our eyes were watering, our noses were running, and our lips were blistered. It was quite something! Underneath it all we figured there had to be some flavor, so Layden put it all in a collander and rinsed and rinsed. Eventually he got it to a mildly spicy stage, and it was good. But we have learned - if it is red it is HOT.
This week was exciting because our household goods were delivered. We were wondering just how long it would take to get our stuff upstairs in the small elevator, especially the digital piano. We soon learned that the movers would not be using the elevator. Instead, they used an elevator lift mounted on a truck and brought everything in through the balcony window. It was quite amazing!
Here is the ladder hoist being raised up to our apartment. The red truck is the elevator truck. The truck with the neat-looking tiger on it is the moving van. Once the hoist was in the right location (this accomplished with much shouting up and down and dramatic hand gestures) the movers secured it to our balcony railing with, of all things, packing tape.
After the hoist was in place the movers loaded boxes on to the platform and up they went! It should be noted that the platform has no side rails and the boxes are not secured with any sort of tie-down - that sort of gave an interesting edge to the whole process. But everything made it up safe and sound, including the piano.
Once the platform reached the top, the upstairs crew would unload the boxes into the apartment. They had a pole with a hook that they used to move the boxes to the edge of the platform where they could reach it. They were fast and careful.....
and daring! Just to add to the suspense, if something seemed fragile or was heavy or awkward, this agile mover would hop onto the platform and move it by hand! Do remember that we live on the 16th floor, and these guys work without a net!
We were quite impressed and asked to take their picture. They thought it was pretty funny that we wanted this - I guess they don't usually get asked to pose. We are grateful to have our things - I now have more than one little cooking pot, and Layden has his handsome hats. Dash likes this part of moving the best - stacks of boxes to climb and paper to play with. But there are boxes and boxes yet to unpack and I must get to them. See you all in the next post.
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