Thanksgiving in Korea!

This year we had a HUGE feast for Thanksgiving. It was potluck style so we all brought something to share with each other! I have to say it was a really nice feast. I didn't miss anything except my family and my mother's rolls (your's are the best mom!). We also ordered a turkey. It was delivered and already fully cooked! Amazing. Some pics of the feast and friends:

Fall Persimmons...AGAIN!

Fall has oficially arrived in Korea...The weather is cooling off quickly and the leaves are changing and all that good stuff. With the arrival of the autumn season comes the arrival of some other wonderful things: scarves, hats, boots, 호덕(a flavorful pancake that you buy and eat on the street) and persimmons. I think I once wrote about how much I love these little fruits. Well they are being sold around the clock outside my apartment buildings door now! I love these little guys and usually I eat them raw. Wanting to know what kind on nutritional value I wa looking at I did some research and found the little guys are packed with Vitamin C, A, dietary fiber and possibly betacarotine (possibly because I think I remember reading that but I'm too lazy to try to find the truth...). Anyway the point is that I decided to bake with the little suckers. Now if you've never eaten a persimmon you should know that they don't have a very strong flavor but they have a very distinct flavor. With this in mind I new anything involving chocolate would be bad. So I thought about it and thought that a persimmon pie might be good. But after looking at some recipes online I decided to go for cookies. A very basic cookie recipe (minus chocolate chips add raisins and almonds) substitute persimmon for oil and "voila" cookies. I think they are mighty tasty however if I had to do it again I would make a persimmon version of a carrot cake and add frosting. The cookies are good but they need more "uumph".

New Challenge

It was a busy weekend this week. First started with the celebration of a coworker's birthday. A lot of my new coworkers went. It was really nice to get to spend time and get to know my new coworkers. First we went to a wine bar and then we headed to a hotel with a "night club" in the top. I had a lot of fun!

On Saturday we headed to a foreigner owned bar in Korea. We were really craving burgers so we headed to a place that is known for their burgers and has one of the biggest burgers I've ever seen. It comes with a challenge. My friend tries and fails. I'm gonna try later and not fail...

This burger has 4 1/2lb patties, each covered with cheese and two pieces of bacon. The plate includes fries and chili. You have 1 hour to finish the burger and everything on the plate. The prize: 1 pitcher of beer, shot of jagermiester and bragging rights...

I'm slacking

So no recent resolution finishes this week. I have been out and about doing a lot though. I have been seeing my friends and findinf new bars and clubs everywhere. Really exciting stuff. I did eat some really delicious dukbokki but I'm told its not the spiciest so I am off questing again. Here are some pics of my recent "stuffs."

Melisa is a coworker that is leaving us soon. We have been trying (key word trying) to squeeze in all her favorite stuff before she leaves.My babies have graduated. They will enter public elementary school this year. I will still get to see them everyday, but I just can't believed they are growing up so fast. I have been these students teacher since I got here 1 year and 8 months ago. (I know, I can't believe I've been gone that long either)My boss took me and another coworker out for lunch on our day off. We were treated to dog meat. It was awesome. I just can't tell you how much I love this stuff. I found my family in Seoul!!!Cool right?

Kimchi and goodbyes

So we made some kimchi this week. It was fun, but also a little messy. Here are the pics:

I would tell you more about how to make kimchi, but I still don't really know. Basically you grind up ginger, garlic, peppers, onions and small shrimp and make a paste, don't forget the red pepper paste! Then you cover heads of cabbage. Then you have a vegetable that will be edible all year. This is sort of a fermentation process so it is okay if it gets old. In fact there is a famous restaurant (that I have yet to visit) that is known for their 3 year old kimchi.

After work we all headed down to the local barbecue joint and said farewell to our boss and Graeme. It was a good time.

Chuseok

So Chuseok 추석 Holiday was this past weekend which is why I had enough time to take a little vacation!!! Anyway, this blog post is only to show off the rockin' presents that I got!!! (and tell you a little about the holiday)
Chuseok is a major harvest festival and a three-day holiday in Korea celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. Like many other harvest festivals, it is held around the Autumn Equinox. As a celebration of the good harvest, Koreans visit their ancestral hometowns and share a feast of Korean traditional food.

In modern South Korea, on Chuseok there is a mass exodus of Koreans returning to their hometowns to pay respects to the spirits of one's ancestors. People perform ancestral worship rituals early in the morning. They often visit the tombs of their immediate ancestors to trim plants and clean the area around the tomb, and offer food, drink, and crops to their ancestors. Harvest crops are attributed to the blessing of ancestors.

One of the major foods prepared and eaten during the Chuseok holiday is songpyeon (송편), a crescent-shaped rice cake which is steamed upon pine needles. We made songpyeon together at school and then we went outside to play. Pictures below:

Updates from the Lazy Me

Ok, I'm sorry. I have no "good" excuse for not blogging. The important word being "good". I do have an excuse though...

Lets start with the last time I blogged: Sept 14th. Since then a lot of things have happened.

I decided what I will be for Halloween, Judy, Erika and I will be characters from Sesame Street. 5 pts to anyone who can guess who I will be...

Also I inherited 2 guitars for my PlayStation and have been playing Quitar Hero like I might die if I don't play.

Then Erica (from America) moved into her house and of couse recruited the most organized person she knew in Korea (and I might mention that I also am the most organized that she knows in the world...) ME!!!

Then that weekend I played soccer with 4 other coworkers and the other team was a group of 6 10year olds. We won but not by as much as I thought we would...

Bringing us to last Monday and last week. Which was sort of normal except I kind of started dating this guy and so he has been occupying a lot of my time. This of course included a couple of dates this weekend and by that I mean we were attached at the hip this weekend. His identity will remain a secret until things get more serious...then I will reveal more and maybe even include a picture. It was fun especially on Sunday when we went to the movies and we watched a movie together. It was a Korean movie. I understood a lot of the movie like 30-40% but it must've been much sadder than I thought because he was crying toward the end of it and most of the other watchers (girls) couldn't even smile afterwards. Wow, intense.

And finally that brings us to now, me finishing the loose ends of the work that I have before I go on my vacation. The destination to be disclosed at a later date. But be prepared it will be an awesome couple of days. I leave on Thursday and will be returning on Sunday night...

A group of us went to dinner at a delicious restaurant tonight also. Shabu shabu, then cal kuk su and porridge. First you get this boiling pot of spicy broth and greens and mushrooms. Next you add really thinly sliced pieces of beef. After you eat all the beef out you add the noodles. Then all the soup is gone and rice and vegetables are added. Delicious! Pic below:

Sweetness

So this week was good...Nice and tiring. I have had a cold for a couple of weeks now and I went to the doctor last Saturday and he gave me some medicine but it didn't get better so I went again Thursday to a different doctor and he said I have 'acute bronchitis'. So I am not allowed to drink alcohol and I must take a ton of medicine. I had a really boring week and weekend because of this. I did however finally go grocery shopping and made some porridge and glass noodles with vegetables. And it was the twin's (Judy and Erika's) birthday so on Friday I took them to dinner. Their birthday is really Sunday but they went home to visit their dad and older sister so while they were gone I left a surprise for them at their door...Our students made cards for Judy and Erika...I printed some pictures of the three of us...
Genie (another Korean) teacher helped me hang everything up!

There's Corn in My ICE CREAM!!!

So yesterday, Saturday, was the first day in a long time that I felt like I was in a different country. On any given day I can get by with not speaking Korean. I usually don't see anything so out of the ordinary that I am like "wow, that doesn't happen in America". But well on this particular day this wasn't the case.

First I started the day with a birthday party at my Taekwondo Gym. It was like 7 of the students birthday this month so they all came with some friends that they invited. The GrandMaster asked me to come help by taking pictures and other stuff like that. I agreed alothough I didn't really want to go... But while I was there like no one talked to me. Of course, I live in Korean so I don't expect people to go out of their way to talk to me in English but it was weird not talking...You know me, I love to talk and I wanted to talk I just well couldn't. Plus I didn't really fit in with the crowd there, it was a bunch of kids and their mothers. Anyway, must study Korean more...

Then on the way home I decided I wanted some ice cream I picked up one of those ice cream bars on a stick jobs. I don't usually take the time to read them, I like all ice cream and pretty much know all the varieties...or so I thought. But this ice cream had CORN in it...no joke so weird and a little delicious.

Then I wandered around with Dambi. While we wandering around my Korean friend called and said he was bored and he wanted to hang out. So I wandered around looking for him. Then we came to my house and played PS2 and we played a bunch of Korean games so I wasn't fully sure of what to do.

Then I was going to meet my friend, who is leaving, for her going-away-party but because I didn't really know where to go or how to ask where I should be I got lost and then I missed the boat. (We were going on a cruise on the river...) I literally figured out which boat I was supposed to be on when I saw it leave.

So then I was in the middle of Seoul by myself and bored. I knew Graeme, a coworker, was in Seoul so I called him to find out where he was. By the time I got to his area and started looking for him I totally mixed up all the directions and had to tell him to come find me when he was done eating. But we did eventually meet up. Then we got on the subway and rode too long and missed our transfer.

After all that I decided that the day would be better if I just tried to forget about everything. So I drank and ironically things got better. I met some new people and had a great time. But basically I spent the day lost, wandering, confused with the language and (because of the weather) hot and sticky. Anyway, I spent my 4th of July as far away from America as I can possibly get.

Birthday Thursday

Today my awesome coworker, Judy, took care of my preschoolers so I could spend a beautiful day outdoors with Erica. We went hiking in the morning and then got sushi for lunch.

Then I had to teach 2 classes and then I went home to get ready for the party at my house. Alot of my coworkers showed up and we ate and drank and then went to karoke. It was a really good celebration with my closest friends in Korea.

I will write about my presents later...

Monday

Today I had to work so Erica spent the day resting. Jet-lag affects everyone differently and Erica was really tired and had stomach flu symptoms. Rest was good for her and since I had to work it was good that she had some time...

After work we went to eat LIVE OCTOPUS!!! It was really weird. They take an octopus and basically just cut it up and serve it to you. It still wiggles in your mouth a little too. It was sooo crazy! Here are some pics and a video:

Tid Bits

The last week was pretty much the same as the week before. Busy with class, taekwondo and studying Korean. SO on Saturday I decided to stay home and cook. I invented a Tofu Lasagna Roll.


Looks good right? It was't bad but it just needs cheese which I didn't use.

Then Sunday I headed up to Dongdaemun for some spring shopping. I was wearing a pair of stelletto heeled boots and the heel snapped in half...:( But on the upside it means I had a real excuse to buy shoes! I bought some new shoes, a belt and a bag. I didn't want to buy too much because I feel like I will be shopping a lot when Erica gets here! Since I found a bus that is near my house that goes straight to the shopping center and a couple of other places I have been yearning to go...Finally I did it!

Today is Monday and tonight at Taekwondo I finally nailed a kick that I have been having a lot of trouble with. I am really excited! I will be getting another belt soon I think. Gwangjonnim says we may get out black belts this summer. He really wants to push us to get them sooner! I am excited and a little overwhelmed...

Yeah that is it for now!

Hmmm

So I have been pretty busy lately and I am now getting to the things that I have been meaning to write about. First I wanna talk about parking in Korea. It is a little different than back home. Take a look at this photo.
Notice anything strange? Like how the cars are double parked? In Korea it is not really frowned upon to park like this because a lot of people park thier cars like this. The nice thing is that most people "park" their car in neutral and then it can easily be pushed out of the way...cool huh?

The next thing is that I had dong dong ju for the first time last night. I thought I had had all the different kinds of Korean booze but now I have to add another to the list. Dong dong ju is a wine that is made from rice. It has a kind of sweet taste and is milky in color. It is usually served in a bowl like below.


I made chili. It was pretty hard to find all the things I needed to make it. I made it with two cans of kidney beans, can of corn, hot sauce, chicken broth, canned tomatoes and ketchup. I mixed it all together in my crockpot and it was yummy! I think it would've been better with sauted onions and celery and some chili seasoning.

Lastly is a new website I have been spending a lot of time at. It is mysoju.com. This website has a ton of Korean movies and TV shows on it with English subtitles! It is so amazing for me so I can study Kroean more.

Well that's it. How are you doing these days?

Domestic Diva

Lately I have decided to be Vegan. Not for animal rights or anything like that but because I like soy milk, tofu and I never have milk or eggs. I acctually got the idea because lately I have been wanting to bake but too lazy to go to the store when I am out of milk, eggs or butter and instead I use the handy-dandy internet to find vegan recipes. Last week I made vegan pancakes which I swear are better than reagular pancakes. Then today I tried chocolate chip cookies. I used crushed up pieces of milk chocolate that I got yesterday so technically it isn't 100% vegan. They turned out ok, (they tasted better the next day than fresh out of the oven).

I also made a loft of bread. This actually may have been the best bread ever. It was chewy and delicious and really easy.

I also had a tofu salad sandwich. Really it was better than chicken salad. So yummy!


Also, I have done a really good job of keeping my plant alive! It is actually starting to have flowers! I am excited.

Then I spent the rest of the night with friends in Hongdae for a double birthday party.(American rednecks aren't the only people who leave up Christmas lights past Christmas...)

We went to an ice bar where the whole room was ice and our drinks came in an ice glass. It was an awesome place to hang out but we didn't stay long...After that we went to another club and then went home around 6 and it started snowing!