A view from today.

I was talking with a friend of mine recently, discussing our dinner and drink plans upon my return and how I'm enjoying life in Korea these days.  I described life here as good, but glad that there is a plan to come home in the near future.  He responded that it can't be all that good, when I'm so looking forward to getting out of here.  

Now, some of you might take his side, that life can't be that great in the now if I permanently have the future in the back of my mind.  

I, however, have a different perspective on this.  Having a short-term-future plan to look forward to keeps my mind in check.  If I didn't already have this planned, I would be constantly racking my brain as to what I'm going to do and when and how I'm going to make that happen.

This may be a personality flaw.  Maybe it's a good thing.

Focusing on my exit strategy and my vacation plans has so far kept my mind out of the you-have-no-job-set-up-on-your-return-to-MN-life freaking out stage, as well as the where-am-I-going-to-live and will-I-even-have-any-money-left questions.  

I have short-term-future plans, including all of the things above, traveling, job hunting and hopefully obtaining, apartment.  Hopefully the money part will just sort itself out.  It usually does one way or another!  I would say that the short-term-future plans include the Taylor Swift Concert that I want to see in September.  Run at least 1 half marathon next year, maybe 2; and a full marathon in 2014.  

I also have future plans.  A trip to California to visit friends.  A trip to Ireland and the UK in 2015 (which I should perhaps remind my friend as it seems to be approaching quicker than I expected).  A trip to Machu Picchu in Peru, a lifelong dream.  Working at a job for several years to build my employment history.  Volunteer or be involved in some way with the Irish Fair of MN - I really enjoyed being involved in '11 and can't wait for next year!

And there's the long-term-future plans.  This most likely includes being abroad for an extended period of time again, much to my mother's (and whole family's) chagrin.  Potentially buying a house (this should probably come before the time abroad, right?).

My point is, this eye on my future helps keep me grounded in the present.  In this way I can enjoy each day for what it is and also know that tomorrow will bring me where I need to be.  :)

Hey good lookin', what 'cha got cookin'?

I'm still enjoying things here in Korea, and don't worry - I promise I'll be posting an update before the end of the week with some pictures from the weekend.  

But I've been dreaming about all the things that I'll be able to bake when I come back to the good ol' US of A.  

Last night was my first attempt at a roast on the stovetop.  I am not sure if it was due to the cut of the beef, or if I didn't cook it long enough, but it definitely wasn't as tender as I'd prefer.  It had excellent flavor though, it cooked in a mix of tomatoes, onions, red wine and some beef flavoring in place of a proper stock.  I added some carrots and potatoes for the last 45 minutes or so. Mmmm.  I could barely keep away from the roasted vegetables while it was cooling enough to go into the fridge!

I've been perusing this website A Year of Slow Cooking today and I must admit that the idea of using my crock pot every day sounds lovely!  I'm always pleasantly surprised at how delicious things smell and how well they usually turn out.  Hopefully my friend Jaime is taking good care of my crock pot and that my mom won't mind letting me take advantage of hers often before I find a new apartment!  

It doesn't seem like it's so far away, but yet it might take forever to happen!  Just try to remind myself to treasure each day, because you can never get it back!

Merriment and Tricks

I apologize for the lack of photos in my posts below.  It is a problem that I am trying to get sorted, but I haven't had a response from Blogger yet.  I may have to figure out some other option for my photos if it continues.  :(

 

Our trek towards Gwangali beach on Saturday was cold, wet and disappointing.  We ended up at Angel-in-us for the bulk of the afternoon.  When the fireworks were canceled, we devised another plan which included dinner and drinks!

 

Dinner and drinks.  Kiwi soju blended right at the table!

 

We played with some of the Halloween decorations at Thursday Party.  

 Yesterday I went to the Trick Eye Museum here in Busan with some friends.  It was a fun time, trying to figure out how the photos worked and posing with funny faces!

 

I had heard that there is a Charlie Brown Cafe in Busan, but not been there yet.  For those of you who are not from MN, you may not know that Charles M. Schultz was born in Minneapolis and grew up in St. Paul.  According to Wikipedia his cartoon Peanuts first appeared in 1950.  So, I had to check out this cafe, and my friends were good enough to join me for coffee.  :)

 

On Friday, October 26th, Tom Rhodes made his first appearance in South Korea.  My friend Dan was one of the openers, and they both made me laugh so hard my face hurt.  After the show I got a chance to speak with Tom Rhodes and was surprised when he talked of how much he enjoys Minneapolis and tries to do a show there every year around September.   It was a great night, and I can't wait to see him at the Acme Comedy club next year!

 

The benefit of squat toilets in winter.

As the winter cold edges closer, I have heard my friends tell of using the bathrooms at school, where they often have the windows open.  My school is no different, the hallways are chilly and there is usually a window open in the bathroom.  But in my school, there is an advantage.  We have squat toilets.  This means that even though the room is cold, I never have to sit on a cold toilet seat!  It also means that I have become very good at using them, which was not the case when I came to Korea.  :)

To help you learn to use a squat toilet. (This helped me!)

This week was Halloween!  I like Halloween, but it is not my favorite holiday.  Therefore I generally try to do something, tag along with a friend to wherever they are going or make some sad attempt to come up with a costume.  This doesn't generally call for purchasing a cheap flimsy costume from a store, my crafty mother brought me up to create an original flair with my costumes.  The big night out here was on Saturday the 27th, and it was supposed to be the night of the Busan Fireworks celebration.  We woke up to rain, and it only got worse from there - progressing to high winds, lightening and thunder.  My costume was to be an angel, and it consisted mostly of a headband with a halo on it.  Alas, by evening, I was too soggy to even care about putting it on.  We had spent all afternoon in a coffee shop, moving on to dinner and drinks after that.  It was a crazy night, disappointing because the fireworks were postponed and tiring from the rain.  

On the day of, the 31st, I decided to stay in and watched a scary movie with a friend.  I made homemade tomato soup.  It was a combination of two recipes, one for homemade chicken stock and another that is my favorite recipe for tomato soup from Michael Chiarello of the Food Network.  

As you can see, I didn't fully blend the soup and I didn't add the cream.  I prefer some vegetable bits in my soup and cream doesn't treat me very nicely.  Cream is also very expensive to obtain here in Korea, so it is easier on my pocketbook.  :)  I also added some extra carrots, to make up for the celery that is missing.  I miss celery!!!

Delightful Chicken Stock/Noodle Soup Here

My favorite Tomato Soup Recipe

While I'm on the subject of food, I wanted to share with you one of my new favorite things.  Persimmons.  I have tried these before, many years ago.  But having them again here in Korea is delightful.  They gave us some as a treat last week at school, and also shared a bunch that were cut up for everyone to eat.  At first they seemed a little strange, but after going back to get more several times, I realized that I'm hooked.  The persimmons that they eat here are typically hard, similar to an apple.  I believe you can eat the skin, but I'm not entirely sure.  So, I trim the skin off and cut it up to have as a snack at work!  

Persimmons!

I used to play MASH with friends on the bus home from school and decided to play it with a friend of mine here. I forgot how much fun it is to imagine that I will get married to Bruce Willis, live in an apartment, be a firefighter, wear a black wedding dress and have 6 bridesmaids in green!   There was a bit more in there, but I forgot the rest.  

Still Green.

These recent weeks have been busy.  I had a friend recently ask me if I am always such a social butterfly.  I sheepishly replied that yes, I do tend to be a bit busy.  Often I am out meeting friends for dinner or drinks or just coffee.  I have friends from many different places and times in my life, who often don't know each other.  I enjoy spending time with everyone, and it takes time.

But it's completely worth it.  My friends and family help make me who I am, and I have never regretted time spent with any of you.  

A few weekends ago I went to Gyeongju with some friends.  It was a great night!  We left after work on Friday and got there by bus.  We had time to grab dinner and then went to a noraebang.  We ended up having to go to another noraebang because they wouldn't let us have another hour and it was a bit upsetting!  

On Saturday, we rented scooters and drove a ways out of town.  It was a bit tough to get used to, but after a few miles I got the hang of it.  We had a gorgeous day and I enjoyed taking advantage of it.  

Last weekend, I celebrated my friend Hee Jung's birthday with some of our friends.  It was a great night, we had Thai food for dinner and then some drinks at a local foreigner-friendly bar.  I think we all had a great night, laughing and making new friends.  :)

The birthday girl on the right!

On Saturday, I went to Carlifornia Burrito with some friends.  It nearly satisfies my burrito/taco cravings.  I can even get my burrito bowl with the best chips that I've had in Korea.  I really miss good chips!  

After leaving California Burrito, we went to a local hangout Fully Booked.  I love Fully Booked, it is a cafe filled with books where one can get wine, sangria, coffee, sandwiches and cookies. They also have board games!  We played scattegories all evening!  

Looking forward to this weekend, some standup tonight and tomorrow the Fireworks Festival!  

Have a great weekend everyone!

Life is always busy.

Hello!

I hope this post finds you well.  Thanks to you for reading, I don't update as often as I'd like, but I've been doing my best!  

Fall has arrived in Busan and I've been enjoying the cooler temperatures and nights.  I have been sleeping better, but still seem to be on vacation time.  By that I mean that I can barely drag my butt out of bed in the morning and don't generally feel like I should go to bed until at least 1am.  I should just go to bed you say?  Yes, I've tried that and it doesn't really work for me.  I end up laying awake and being angry that I'm still awake, just laying there.  So I have been trying to settle down earlier and maybe do a little reading or... well, it's not working all that well.  

The 30th of September was Chuseok, which is like Korean Thanksgiving.  It is much different than our Thanksgiving back home, it is typically celebrated early in the day at a grandparent's house, with the main meal being consumed about 9 or 10am.  My friend invited me to celebrate Chuseok with her family, but knowing that I would be out celebrating a friend's birthday the night before, I politely declined.  When she called me in the afternoon, I was surprised that the principal of my school had called her to invite us to his home for lunch.  I told her that I could be ready within the hour.  

The food was delicious, and I felt so lucky to have such a caring principal at my school.  I don't know any other foreigners who had such an experience of Chuseok.  

There was steamed fish, which was the most wonderful fish that I have eaten.  My principal told me that he bought the fish from his hometown and that his wife prepared it in a traditional fashion - it was steamed.  It was flaky and not too fishy, easily pulled apart and eaten with chopsticks.  I didn't know if it was appropriate to ask how it was prepared, but I will before I leave Korea.  

The spread.
There was steamed fish, seasoned radish root, some fried snacks and bibimbap accompaniments.
Delicious!

The pic above shows my favorite rice cake.  I have met many a rice cake that... aren't my favorite.  But this one is for celebrating special events, it is two thin layers of rice cake, with a layer of red bean paste between them.  The whole thing is coated on the top and bottom with ground nuts.  It is not really sweet, (according to most Koreans, red bean paste is sweet and a treat) but it is a great sweet-ish snack.  

My French Toast Bar

The weekend of the 6th & 7th was pretty low key.  I had dinner on Friday night with a friend, we finally got to go to the Thai restaurant that I have been telling her about for months.  Saturday I stuck pretty close to home.  Sunday, I had some friends over for French toast.  My original plan was to just have the French Toast with caramel, but then I changed it up so that we could each choose our own toppings.  I set out cream cheese, butter, caramel, nutella, blueberries in their juices and peanut butter.  It turned out delicious!  I was so glad, it had been forever since I prepared French Toast.  I didn't even miss the syrup.  

I have found some fun nail polish here and been exploring
different styles.
This is probably one of my favorites so far!

I often complain about the hill that I live on.  I was heading out on a walk a couple weeks ago and decided that I should share my walk down the hill with you.  It's a bit shaky, sorry about that!  Just to specify, going down isn't the chore, going up is.

Oktoberfest, Camping and Chuseok!

Wow!  September was busy.  It got away from me, which is quite alright.  It was a good month, I was able to get out with friends quite a bit.  It helped to counteract the back to school blues.   

At Oktoberfest!  Lots of beer to be had.  

I decided it was time for bangs and
 took matters into my own hands.

Goulash at Tulla, the Eastern European restaurant in Hadan.
Delicious!   

We returned to Geoje-do to camp.  Determined that we would make it the night.  We had amazing weather, though I will admit that it got a bit chilly in the night.  

A starfish that I found on the beach.  

It still moved a bit, so I helped it back into the ocean.  

 

Thought I'd try something new.  I wanted to try a peanut butter stuffed burger.  It was quite delicious, but most of the peanut butter oozed out so there wasn't much left in the middle.  

 

Friday I went on a Ferry out into the East Sea, and saw Tajongdae from the sea.  It was beautiful!  

Afterwards I went out for my friend Sean's birthday (see below).  It was a lovely day. 

 
On Saturday, I went out with some friends to celebrate Steven's birthday.  We went to a beautiful restaurant that is brimming with delightful smells as soon as you walk in.  

 We had beef, I'm not sure what it was precisely, because Steven ordered it...  But it was delicious!  

 After the awesome restaurant that we ate dinner at, we tried to go to the cave bar.  Alas, we did not stay long because they were adamant that we not only order food with our drinks, but that we order the most expensive dish on the menu, times 5 because it was for 1-2 people and we had 10 people.  So, we did what anyone would do.  We went somewhere else!  

There are many places in Korea where it is not acceptable to only order drinks.  It is expected that you will order food as well.  Sometimes, like in the case of the Beer Factory where I was last night with some friends, if you order a coke at 1am, the server will give you a nasty look and let you know that you're at the Beer Factory, before everyone even orders.  This is not my favorite part of Korea, can you tell?  I would think any customers should be welcome, but such is not often the case here.  

Inside the cave bar, there was a dragon!

 I am told that soon the fall colours will be out here in Busan, but I am not holding my breath.  I have been keeping an eye out for the ones posted on Facebook by friends and family back home.  This one lovely and currently my desktop background.  Thanks Nicole!

Photo courtesy of Nicole Zimmerman

What is family?

I understand that some people don't believe that Gay Marriage is something that is completely normal and they just can't understand it.  What I don't understand is this man's view of a family.  (I really do not want to share his article, but I am infuriated at his discussion and lack of insight as to what constitutes a family.)
This man thinks Leave It to Beaver is the only family style.

"Sadly, we don't always live up to this ideal, and most have experienced the trauma caused by a breaking family. However, we know of marriages that practically achieve the ideal, and we see the happiness that children find in a supportive family structure. Even though some traditional families are breaking, it doesn't mean the ideal of traditional marriage is broken."

I would really like to share my family with him.  I am, as some would say, the product of a 'broken home'.  However, I do not see it as a terrible thing.  My life is filled with family and the amazing relationships that I have with my mom, dad, stepfather, stepmother, and my half and step siblings are something to be joyous about.  Not to mention the extended family that I have who are amazing and all of my family is supportive even from the other side of the planet.

My life is rich with love.

I've learned that family is something worth fighting for, yes.  But it is also what you make it.  I have brothers and sisters that have never met each other (some have only on Facebook).  I am an only child who has 11 siblings.  My stepsister and stepbrother have beautiful children and I am happy to have been an aunt for the last 10 years and see my nieces and nephews grow up.

Some might feel that this is terrible and feel sad for me.  I have had a different kind of childhood and continue to have a different kind of family, yes.  But I have been told that I am a well rounded individual.  I have many friends who come from two biological parent households, and to be honest, they are not always glowing examples of what Riley Balling calls the "happiness that children find in a supportive family structure."  Often times, they have difficulty getting by because they are in competition with their siblings, have low self esteem, have difficulties dealing with stress, have little self-reliance, have negative views on sex, etc.  This isn't to say that I have never had any problems, but to show that children who have grown up in this so-called perfect family structure are not any different than others who have not.  They have the same issues that children of other kinds of families have.   The key word here is 'children'.  Growing up is hard work and living in a two biological parent family doesn't ensure that you will not have any problems/difficulties/issues.

"Same-sex marriage falls short of producing safe environments for children because it, at the very least, reinforces changes to the marital definition."

Who decides what a 'safe environment for children' is?  I know some heterosexual couples who I have often questioned whether or not they should have a family?  Questioned their parenting style, or lack of one.  I knew a girl who at 19 already had 2 children (of mixed race, I'm sure Mr. Balling would have something to say about that.), and had had more than one abortion.  What about the married couples who can't afford the lifestyles and the children that they already have?   Mr. Balling doesn't mention these couples, because their sexuality doesn't scare him.

Children in a same-sex couple/household are not generally the result of a fling or a... surprise.  Perhaps they are adopted or there is a surrogate, or artificial insemination.  But in these cases, a child is prayed for, sought after and celebrated.  Two loving parents?  What more could a child ask for?

"Many studies show that single parents struggle to provide the safe environment provided by a two-biological-parent home." 

Isn't two better than one?  He describes single parents as struggling, which may be the case.  Especially in this economy.  In my experience, it's better to live in a household with only one parent who is happy, than in a two-parent household with both parents being unhappy.  (I have experience with this, I assure you Mr. Balling).

I am nearing the end of my rant, with one last thing to say.  Whether or not you like it, because I can see that Mr. Balling obviously does not, the family is changing.  It is no longer only the ideal 50s style family where the wife stays home and does all the cooking and cleaning and raising the children.  (If you want that, you should come to South Korea, because it seems to be much closer to that than anything we have in the US).  The family is now whatever it wants to be.  You cannot squash it to be what you want it to be, it grows with the time, just like children.  Now it has grown up and it can be a two biological parent household, a single mother household, a single father household, grandparent/s raising children, a two mother household, a two father household, a mother and a stepfather household, a father and a stepmother household, an aunt/uncle household, etc.  I'm sure that I missed one, but I assure you that I accept it as a family.  

This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:
"In a full heart there is room for everything, and in an empty heart there is room for nothing." Antonio Porchia

To read an article that makes me happy to be a Minnesotan, look here:
Something I can stand behind.

Ready for Autumn

Hey!  

Check out my newest update from the weekend and first two weeks of school.  

Here I am last Tuesday, prepared to brave the winds of "typhoon" Bolaven.  Pretty much just wind, not even lots of rain.  :(

I got pretty excited when I went to the store last week and found asparagus.  But alas, it was not to be so.  It looked okay, but was only 6-7 stalks for 2,290KRW which is about $2.00.  So I decided that I should skip it and have other veggies instead.  

I bought a new eyelash curler, after needing one for months.  It was definitely amusing when I found one that said, "Beauty makes happiness.  The first present nature gives to women."  Now, all people are beautiful no matter what.  But it just seems strange to find it on makeup packaging.  

Today we visited Gamcheon Cultural Village.  It was very picturesque and had lots of artsy bits to seek out.  

A floating poem.  

A sly wolf peeks around the corner, waiting to surprise the goose!

 I found a recipe on pinterest for crockpot chicken with taco seasoning and salsa.  Not having my trusty crockpot here, I decided to mix it up a bit.  I also didn't have salsa, but used some bell pepper instead, and it turned out delightful!  For dinner I had it in a flour tortilla with rice and fresh slices of bell pepper.  I even forgot the cheese, I was so excited!  When I had the leftovers, I just had the chicken over white rice and put cheese over the top of it.  It was delicious!  I will definitely make this again sometime!

 My Korean friend took me to a Japanese soup restaurant.   It was quite small, and we waited for about 40 minutes to get a table.  We ordered as soon as we sat at our table and they brought out our soup (below) to cook.  They also brought out some pork (left) which I could not really figure out what it was.  It definitely looked like pig skin on the one end, but the rest of it, I am pretty sure that I don't want to know.  I didn't really like it.  The soup was much spicier than we anticipated, but had great flavor.  I was surprisingly not surprised when my friend told me that there was intestine in it, along with the pork sausages.  I tried every part of it, and it was pretty good, though I was sweating up a storm from the spices.  :)

Having tortillas and cheese on hand makes it very hard to not have quesadillas all the time.  Above, my taco chicken quesadilla and below my breakfast quesadilla with egg and cheese that I had with salsa.  Delicioso!