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.