A busy beginning.

January has brought a renewed sense of things to come.  When I think of leaving the life I've created here, I am sad.  I will greatly miss all of the friends that I have here, many of whom are also leaving.  We will be scattered to the winds, each of us returning to our corner of the world, to recreate our home lives.  I am glad, though, to have come to know them and to have some friends to visit on my travels in the future.

  

I had 10 days of winter camp, with only 9 students.  It was nice to have a smaller group of students, and a little more one on one time with them.  Winter camp is finished now, but I wanted to share some of the pictures with you.

 Here are some students putting together their egg-drop challenge.  The challenge being, of course, to protect the egg from breaking when dropped from a set height.  

Here are some of my students doing an experiment to test the strength of hollow bird bones.  I think that they sort of cheated though, because they taped all the paper tubes together.  I allowed it.

My friends!  My friend You Na and I with two of the other teacher's daughters.  They're so cute!

I met a friend for boribap.  It is similar to bibimbap, but instead of just rice, there is boiled barley in it as well.  Top it with a fried egg and some veggies and it's a meal for only 5,000 won! 

 I had lunch with Hee Jung and her mom (pictured above) last week.  We ate a Vietnamese dish that is similar to shabu shabu.  They bring raw meat to the table and a pot of stock in the middle.  After cooking the meat in the stock, you wrap it up with some raw veggies in rice paper like a spring roll (below), and eat it!

Since I've got vacation and packing in my future, I've been busy trying to use up all the bits in my cupboard.  After coming across some frozen bananas one afternoon, I decided that my favorite banana bread was definitely in order.  I also found some chocolate chips that looked deserving of my banana bread, so I threw them in.  It turned out delicious! 

I had a few slices left over, so one morning I decided to 'french toast' the remaining slices.  It turned out wonderful.  :) 

I even had enough extra baking supplies for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies!  These had mini dark chocolate chips and white chocolate chips as well.  I was able to share some with friends over the weekend, so I wouldn't eat them all myself.  Thank goodness!

These, I did not make.  But, I have plans to share them with friends when I get home!  It is toasted dduk (sort of a rice noodle) drizzled with honey, sunflower seeds and sliced almonds.  Absolutely my favorite way to eat dduk!

9 days in. Going Strong.

Woo hoo!  2013 has proven to be a good year so far.  I've had lots of questions about when I will return home and my travel plans, so I thought I'd post some info here, as well as what I'm up to these days.  

Currently I'm teaching a winter camp.  I've tried to make it a little fun, by doing silly experiments.  The students still seem to find it difficult to pay attention, frequently asking me to watch the Simpsons as soon as class begins.  

So far we have done:

- a Soda Can Shake-Up 

- Pulling a sheet from under a place setting (Though I don't have any plasticware so we used books.)

- Egg drop experiment

- Testing the strength of hollow bones

Here are several students in my winter camp putting together their egg protection.  We only have camp for 4 more days.  I hope that I can keep them somewhat occupied during these next few days. 

삼겹살

Samgyupsal.  I've featured pictures of it before, but this was a particularly delicious version that I've had.  Thick slices of pork.  I believe it is the same cut as bacon, just not cured in the same fashion.  It is served with mushrooms to grill as well, and on the left is a washed kimchi.  I like kimchi (김치), but I much prefer the washed kimchi to the regular red variety.  My favorite way to have kimchi is grilled, as shown above.  It gives it a bit more of a mild flavor.  

The price of home in Korea

I'll be honest, I don't often purchase Reddi Wip at home, though I have been known to find uses for it when I find it.  I am a huge fan of running a strip of Reddi Wip down my finger for my own personal consumption.  Straight into the mouth is also a great way to enjoy it. :)  

The reason that it's here is because I saw this the other day and the price is rather exorbitant.  9,600 won is about $9.04.  Hahaha.  

   

 So... when am I coming home?

The question that's on your mind.  And what's going on after I leave Korea?  My contract is up at the end of February.  After I leave Korea, I will do some traveling in Europe and Egypt visiting friends and family.  I'm really excited to do some traveling and see lots of new places and sites!  

I will return home just in time for Easter on March 27th!

I can't wait to see all of your lovely faces! 

A New Year? I got this.

I can't believe that it's nearly been a month since I posted.  Sorry!!!

It's not that I haven't been doing anything.  I think it's mostly that I don't have as many pictures as I'd like.  In my mind, I've taken tons of pictures in the last month.  In reality, my camera has been acting up, thus I tend to leave it hiding in my purse and don't take as many pictures as I should.  I need to buy a new one, but I've sort of been putting off the purchase that I hadn't planned for.  

The first weekend in December I went on a fieldtrip sponsored by the BCMOE (they are in charge of hiring EPIK teachers in Busan).  It was the last one of the year, I was lucky enough to go on all of the trips!  First we went to the Hanok Village in Jeonju, which there are pictures of from my trip there in March during orientation.  After the village, we went to a Hanji paper museum.  Hanji is a special kind of paper that they make in Korea.  It must be made the traditional way.  I got the chance to make my own, and here I am!

Later in the day we went to a temple nestled in a valley between the mountains.  It was beautiful!

We ate shabu shabu that night for dinner.  It is a soup (center) that you add all the veggies and meats to.  The meat is just above the broth, and the seafood is in the lower right corner.  After the soup was finished, we used the last of the broth to make a sort of rice porridge that was awesome.  

A bit of bamboo in the background!

The second weekend in December, I had a holiday dessert party in an attempt to up the number of my holiday celebrations.  The food turned out mostly as planned, and people actually showed up!

So many friends in such a cozy space.  :)

I was really lucky to be invited to my friend Hee Jung's house for a birthday dinner.  She and her mom had planned it and made sure to make it a special day.  This picture is of a Korean version of Pad Thai.  

This is homemade bulgogi.

My birthday dinner with friends!

Birthday candles/matches!

Another December baby!  

Christmas dinner, we did a buffet in the early afternoon.  The ham, turkey, and the roast beef were lovely.  It's hard to find that kind of meat here, so it was nice to have something different.  

Christmas day in the evening, near busan tower.  The lights were gorgeous!

Book alley in Nampo-dong, it was really cute with all the bookstores lined up on either side.

On New Year's Eve, a few friends and I got together at Fully Booked, near Kyungsung University.  It is a great café/used bookstore.  Fully Booked was lovely enough to save us a room, so we had plenty of space.  

Ringing in 2013 with tradition, with champagne or sparkling wine.  It was a great night and I'm looking forward to all the joys of the new year.  :)

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.