Capturing Motherhood: A dog and her ball

There's not much 'motherhood' happening at 519 Wookyeong-bil. No children. Each of the Harrington's mothers are currently thousands of miles away and close friends who are mothers are also thousands of miles away.

Fortunately, the Harrington's live with a dog who is full of personality and quarks.

A dog who loves her tennis ball. A dog who makes sure she is close to her precious ball. That the ball is protected and feels loved.


We at The Harrington Times, do believe that Lady Annyeong is a shining example of motherhood.
Wouldn't you agree?

Jindo Island: Photo Teaser and Youth Captured

A photo teaser regarding the happenings of the Harrington's and their dear friends the Callaway's on the weekend. Full story and additional photos to come, however for the time being, we at The Harrington Times leave you with a few photo collages of a great and glorious moment in Korean life.

This post also doubles for You Captures theme of Youth.

Youth ~ The Time of Life when one is Young

If you'd have been in the presence of Melissa Harrington the days prior to the Jindo Sea Parting or seen her at the event you would have recognized the youthful joy that is apparent in these photos. Not to mention, The Harrington's recognize that these days, are the days of their life when they are young and that means 7 hour road-trips with friends on hazy days, stopping in to eat favorite meals, grabbing ice cream and joining thousands of foreigners and Koreans alike to 'walk on water'. The Harrington's are happy to claim that they are making the best of 'this time of life when they are young'.

Friends of the Harrington's; H&K Callaway

Complete with Love Tees, The Harrington's

Jump Sequence

For more shots of Youth, head on over here. And for a more detailed recap of the Jindo Island adventure, check this out!

Fingers and Faces, Captured

Once again, the Harrington's have made their attempt at participating in a photography challenge designed by Beth at I Should be Folding Laundry. This weeks challenge was body parts. While The Harrington's would love to show you to lovely snout of Lady Annyeong, or the sweet smiles of their students, this week, readers must settle for fingers and faces.

The Mrs. at '519' Galma has been on a roll whipping up some delicious treats and snacks. Recently, a bag of multi-colored marshmallows were discovered in an underground-subway convenience store for less than two-bucks. The Mrs. didn't hesitate a single moment to purchase these treasures and pair them up with Korean Binch cookies (half cookie, half chocolate bar) to make some 'oven-roasted-Binch-S'mores'.



Marshmallow Fingers



S'more Fingers


Later in the week, the Harrington's made their way to their favorite coffee shop just 3 minutes walking distance from their front door, OEC Coffee. Here the couple did a bit of reading before meeting with a couple of Mr. Harrington's students to play a couple rounds of Rummi and offer the students a more relaxed environment to work on their English language skills. One huge benefit of the OEC is the sweet and talented Barista behind the counter who put together this work of art on Melissa Harrington's Caramel Cafe Latte.



Latte Face

Getting There: If you live in Daejeon, South Korea and want an opportunity to have a beautifully designed latte simply make your way to Galma Subway Station, exit #2 and right behind the Blue 24 you'll find the sweet and comfortable OEC Coffee! Good music, great hot choco!

Find more body parts here.

Capturing Ladies and Love

Back in the swing of the things, the Harrington's are back on track to participate in a weekly photo challenge known as You Capture. The most recent challenge was to capture Things that begin with 'L'. Fortunately, the Harrington's chose to postpone their Valentine's day celebration so this week were able to provide not only a few photos of Lad(ies) but also some images of the Love they share for their annual Valentine meal prepared together, at home.

The Lady: Watching The Man and Wife prepare dinner



The Lady of the house working on dinner preperations and wine consumption





The Man of the house showing his Love by helping prep 'Valentine's' Day Dinner

Head on over to Beth's Place for more images and blogs regarding things that start with 'L'

The Harrington's Capture Red on a Staycation

In the Land of Kimchi and in many other eastern lands the Lunar New Year has just been celebrated. For the Harrington's this has meant a bit of a holiday or vacation. Rather than touring Asia or the peninsula, the couple has enjoyed a staycation involving much TV time, computer time, book time and a bit of cooking/baking time.

Fortunately, the Harrington's '519' home provides a few opportunities to Capture Red as inspired and directed by Beth at I Should Be Foulding Laundry.

So it was that Melissa Harrington spent a bit of time working the flour, eggs and other myriad of ingredients in the 'red' kitchen as well as enjoyed the simple sights of being home, such as this cactus, a Thanksgiving gift from a Korean co-worker.

The Harrington's Capture Happy

As readers may or may not know, the Harrington's have been occassionally participating in a 'link party' or 'blog carnival' or some other blog terminology for 'doing a similar thing weekly across the gamet of numerous blogs' known as You Capture. The couple has done such photo projects as capturing sweet, kindred and holiday magic. This week, the Harrington's bring you happy.

If you've been keeping up, you know the Harrington's recently adopted a little ball of fur. They call her Lady Annyeong. And she has brought the couple such great joy and happiness in only a few short days.

Teepee Doorways

This week at Nameson Middle School, Michael Teacher has been instructing his second week of 'Survivor Camp'. Being the primary photographer of The Harrington Times and the Harrington family, it was a welcome surprsie to see that not only did his recent shots from Survivor Camp capture the good times had by his students in the process of learning English, but a couple shots even managed to fit the weeks You Capture theme in which the Harrington's have made decent attempts to participate in.

Without further ado, here are two shots of Doorways as seen on English Camp-made Tepees and in instructions for making Tepees.



Michael Teacher is lucky to have a fabulous Artist in his class to whip out images such as this

for the classes 'Survival Guide"



Each Teams Teepees, lined up in a row.

Find other images and interpretations of Doorways here.

A Year in Review: Top 10 (approximately) Photos of 2010

As part of the You Capture challenges which Mike and Melissa Harrington recently begun accepting and attempting, participants were encouraged to choose their Top 10 photos from the year 2010. Considering the amount of adventure, travel, joy, and first-time-wonderful experiences the Harrington's were fortunate enough to experience during 2010, finding 10 favorites was a bit of a daunting task, however rewarding in the process of reliving great moments the couple shared together and with friends during a very spectacular year. So here, in no particular order, are some of the Harrington's favorite photos of 2010:



The Harrington's love EACH and EVERY moment they get to see this precious face.



Nature's Valley Hike: Garden Route, South Africa - July 2010




Favorite wildlife shots from touring South Africa



Wine Cellar: Wine Tasting South Africa - July 2010



View from Table Mountain: South Africa 2010




Tombstone in Christian Graveyard: Penang, Malaysia - August 2010



Traffic Lights: Penang, Malaysia - August 2010




Dragonfly: Gubongsan, Daejeon, South Korea - September 2010




Backstage Mask Dance Festival: Andong, South Korea - October 2010

Finding Fall: Daejeon, South Korea - November 2010



Stairway Graffiti: Seoul, South Korea - November 2010




Geryeongsan National Park: Daejeon, South Korea - December 2010



The Harrington's Capture Holiday Magic

As our regular subscribers know, last weekend was a total dream. The Harrington's and a dear group of friends enjoyed some utterly magical moments, from The Nutcracker, to Burritos, to Night Scenes and Romantic Dinners the day screamed of holiday magic. Two shots which capture the magic most closely associated with the holidays are shown below: the closing bow of The Nutcracker and a Holiday Light Show played out on a city building in Seoul, South Korea. For the Harrington's these two moments rang of the holiday season in a way they've been missing this season of living in a far away land where Christmas just isn't the same. Holiday magic however, is always in the air, if only you look for it.

For more shots of Holiday Magic, head over here.

The Harrington's Get Outside

This week the Harrington's, namely Mike, took on the challenge from "I should be Folding Laundy" to capture some outside photos. Currently, there is no snow in Daejeon, there are only a few holiday lights strung primarily on Department stores and in the already well lit streets of bustling Daejeon and the air is crisp if not bitterly cold. These factors plus a relatively full schedule, including South Korea's opening night of Harry Potter 7, had the Harrington's enjoying the majority of their week 'inside'. However, last night, as Mike waited for the arrival of a friend to come play Settlers of Catan and enjoy some spiced Pear Cider, he  captured these shots outside of 'the Harrington's' Subway stop.

Outside of Galma Station: Exit 2 -- Waiting.

Outside one can find many 'vending' machines: including the claw.

For more outside images head over here.

Capturing and Sending a Sweet Gift

The Republic of Korea is not lacking in 'sweetness'. The ROK is amongst the leading nations in things which are adorable, cute and particularly sweet. This set of sweet springy character pens will arrive, perhaps after the holidays, to a group of sweet children in Wyoming that Mrs. Harrington can't seem to forget.



The sweet face of a sleeping 'bobble' cat pen

A sweet gift, for sweet friends.



The sweetest pen combination.

Find other sweetness here



The Harrington's Capture Kindred

This week after hosting a Thanksgiving meal for our Korean co-teachers, Mike Harrington did the dishes.

Choosing to travel and live abroad means being way from ones blood relatives, ones kin. Even during the holidays.

Choosing to travel and live abroad with ones spouse, ensures a kindred and kind spirit to be a constant companion.

This week, The Harrington Family of two served guests in their home, a meal prepared by the Mrs. the clean-up accomplished by the Mr.
The Harrington's, kindred spirits in Korea.

The Harrington's Ate This

As an English Teacher in Korea, one often finds they have a bit of extra time. This time can be used in a number of ways, studying the Korean language, reading the news, learning a new instrument, taking an online course or two. Prior to their arrival, the Harrington's had considered various hobbies and activities they hoped to pursue upon settling in South Korea. One hobby the couple, particularly Mike Harrington, wanted to offer more attention to was that of photography.

It is under these desires and the availability of the time that the Harrington's have decided to tag team photo ideas and photo taking. One form of motivation to pursue this hobby will be received from a blog titled: I Should Be Folding Laundry. Weekly, the blog author presents a You Capture challenge. Most recently, the challenge was You Capture -- I ate This.

Here, the Harrington's present their first photos which are part of the You Capture challenges.





Thanksgiving in a foreign country is simply different. Unfortunately, the Harrington's didn't have a five day weekend, and the 25th of November was spent teaching students English then going seperate ways in the evening to prepare for various upcoming Thanksgiving meals. Unwilling to settle for a cup of Ramen or quesadilla, Melissa opted for her favorite Walnut Cookies after school and a bacon toast sandwich from a nearby sandwhich shop. Mike Harrington on the other hand made a trip to Costco, encountered a few foreigners hoping to snag a pumpkin pie and ended the shopping trip with a Costco hotdog. Two acceptable ways to enjoy Thanksgiving in a foreign nation.

Family, friends and readers should note that the Harrington's did have more than one opportunity to enjoy Thanksgiving in a more traditional manner, stories to be published in the coming week.