The Christmas Season

Most of you don't know that I am a list fanatic when I'm excited about something or need to get a great deal of things done. This Christmas Season was no different.  I won't go into detail of how Andrew took this, but I've included a picture so you can feel the same way.

This is how our Christmas Season started.  It didn't go as planned but we did accomplish everything on the list.  I did post the remainder of the posts in reverse order, so you should scroll down and read the posts as they took place over the weekend.  Enjoy! 

A little Christmas cheer

Andrew and I had a little time off for the holidays this year.  Christmas Eve we had off, and decided to spread a little Christmas cheer to our Jinyeong friends Kang and Glen.  The weekend before we picked up some rose wine from Home Plus and a bag of cookie flower along with vanilla, and chocolate chips.  Of course the directions were in Korean, and to add a little twist on top of that, everything was in grams.  We don't have a scale to measure the ingredients with, so using Andrew's great googling skills we attempted to convert grams to ml.  We didn't do the greatest job but at least the cookies were edible.  I also discovered that soup bowls were not going to be big enough to mix all the ingredients together (the flower alone was 1000 grams) so we had to resort to the largest thing we owned - a frying wok.  And then after all that, we cooked 6 cookies at a time in our little toaster oven - Tom.  ( I felt our toaster oven deserved a name after the great work he did this weekend, along with our ironing board - Frank, and the Hush Puppie dog - George)

Mixing: 400g of butter, 3 cups of sugar (1/2 of required),
10x more than required buttered-flavored vanilla, 3 eggs

Ditching the spoon and hand kneading the dough as I
added the 1000 g of flower 10 g of baking powder
 - in a frying wok

adding chocolate chips - 7 dollar bag of chocolate chips!

putting Andrew to work by rolling the dough

6 at a time. 2x longer to bake than suppose to.



Andrew cleaning the floor because I dropped some sugar - amateur baker



At least they look pretty.

Also check out Andrew's Blog.  He took a lot of the photos from our Christmas Season, and was nice enough to share them so I could post them on my blog.  I was too busy cooking and washing dishes the whole time to get too many photos, so I am grateful that at least Andrew was able to document our Korean Christmas. -Thanks!  And Merry Christmas

Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas!

Santa came early for us.  After baking all day (and wrapping presents) we went to dinner with Glen and Luke.  Afterwords we were pretty exhausted, Andrew still sick and I got food poisoning from dinner.  But Santa came while we were at dinner and neither of us are accustomed to opening presents on Christmas Day.  So around 10:30 we decided to have cake, open presents, and of course play sequence (my Christmas tradition).  It was quite wonderful, and it was great that we both surprised each other with unknown gifts (very hard thing to do in such a small town when you live and work together).

Andrew kicked my butt in sequence

Merry Christmas Cake from Kang, we added the candles for fun

Our Christmas tree and presents
Andrew wrapped his in clothes and blankets and tape
I wrapped mine in pretty paper
(wrapping is also a serious deal in my family traditions)

Andrew and I each got a present from Santa
we may or may have not bought ourselves something at Home Plus
 and then wrapped it for each other

I got a night stand, facewash, thermos, cutting board, and an external hardrive

Andrew got a Cafe Bene gift card, a pencil box with a little scavenger hunt for Seoul,
and Hush Puppie shoes

My favorite picture, Andrew opening his I <3 Micky mouse pencil case
 (a gag gift, though he seems to like it more than intended)

Christmas Toast

French toast may be my favorite breakfast meal.  It was a little tricky finding cinnamon and vanilla but I found them just in time for a delightful Christmas morning meal.

Merry Christmas Andrew!  After a late breakfest we climbed back in bed to watch A Christmas Story (Andrew's christmas tradition) and skype our families for their Christmas Eve celebrations.

Christmas Dinner!

Every year I demand a Christmas Feast.  Mostly because I was away at college and ate crap everyday.  The menu usually had duck or Cornish hens, sweet potatoes, fresh baked bread, and pie.

This year, given my limitations I was not able to have any of these things, but we did make out pretty good. 

Chestnuts wrapped in bacon
They were normal chestnuts so I soaked them in
 water for a full day and then soy sauce for an hour

30 mins in the toaster oven "Tom" and they were pretty delicious

I then taught Andrew how to make deviled eggs.
 Little different using Korean mayo and mustard

Andrew was in charge of pealing the potatoes
(they looked so supple using the brand new potatoes peeler i bought) 
After seeing how dangerous this device was I deemed Andrew official potato peeler.
Ironically he cut himself on the knife chopping the potatoes instead.

We chopped up some garlic and mixed it in with butter,
making them garlic mash potatoes.

pre-chopped chicken, perfect size for Tom

Rubbing the chicken down with garlic butter

making a secret orange sauce to drizzle on the chicken
 (best part of the meal we agreed)

yum!

Christmas Meal! wouldn't be Christmas without some wine and beer!

Food depressed

"I want to stay in South Korea, just so I can open my own food restaurant, and then eat there all the time - get fat and be happy.  I'm certainly not getting fat, and I crave everything under the sun about 8:30 pm.  Well not everything, definitely not anything Korean."
Well this is what I wanted to say, but as I read it to Andrew he told me I sounded too bitchy (in a nice way).  And now it fits his criteria "should sound light-hearted, ha ha, ha ha."

I want a BIG Juicy Granite City Bleu Peppercorn Burger with a tall beer, or two. But to start with I want their Ale and Cheddar soup, and a salad.   

And when i'm not eating that I want a BIG TASTY Greek Kabab from Shish -sorry no picture.


Then for snacks in between my meals, I want all the Gorgonzola cheese I can stuff my face and belly with.

And when i'm done I like to finish with something sweet.  And you can never go wrong with Target's Market Pantry Fruit Snacks. yum.

I guess for the next 10 1/2 months, I can only dream.

December 20, 1997  --  December 09, 2010

You will be loved eternally with all my heart and soul.  

I say a prayer for you as you leave this world and enter an after life of pure happiness.

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me." -Amen

May you watch over us, knowing that we will miss you forever and you can never be replaced.  I'm sorry I couldn't be there as you said goodbye.  rest in peace my beloved dog, you'll always be my bubbie. 

The Girl With the Apple Red Muffler

It was my first Korean birthday, and it was splendid.  Being an only child I announced to Andrew that it was my birthday at exactly 12:05 in Korean time (which was 9 am the day before back home). Shortly after, I discovered that it was thick with fog outside and felt the need to go take lots of cool pictures.

 

The next morning Andrew (thought he) snuck out to get me my favorite chocolates and a cake.   Both Kang and Hong stopped bye to give me gifts and wish me a Happy Birthday. We  also talked to all of our family and rushed (we were late again) to work.  After work we went to a Shabu-Shabu restaurant with Glen and Luke, and Julie (Luke's sister and her Husband Mr. Lee) . It's a cast iron pot that you boil some soup in and then meat.  After you eat the meat you put in noodles, then when that it is gone you fry up some rice in the pan.  It was all very good.  After dinner we did cake and MORE presents!  

shabu-shabu

one of my students, Xavier, gave me a birthday gift.  this was his super cute card he made me.

cake for all

After a great dinner we went to a Karaoke room and sung some great classic American and Korean songs from Brittany Spears and Aqua (very classy).  We even threw in some hard rock for Andrew and a good Eric Clapton slow song as the night ended. 

picking out songs at in the karaoke room

Saturday I managed to convince Andrew that it was STILL my birthday (mostly because it was my birthday back home).  We relaxed most of the day skyping and then went to a coffee house to do some reading and thank you cards for our great friends here in Jinyeong.  Then we went out to dinner and had San Gyup Sal.  We meant to order Won Caul Bea, but it was still pretty good. 

Sunday (still milking my birthday)  we went shopping at an outlet mall and the largest department store in the world.  I'm not just saying that, it actually is in the Guinness world book of records.  It was 7 stories tall with 4 stories of parking.  That was after another great meal with our friends Kang and his wife (Mrs. Kang) and their 7 month old Minn-Ge (we named him Henry), and a little dip in the Haeundae beach.  By dip I mean I was trying to take a picture of the waves, and instead the waves engulfed me and my shoes :(

my foot prints after falling in the water

A side note.  The Apple Red Muffler is an extremely long and warm scarf.  It's a very pretty color and was given to me as a gift by Julie and her husband. 

Thank you to everyone who made my 23rd birthday the greatest -  Mom & Dad, Grandma, Andrew, Glen & Luke, Kang & Mrs Kang - Henry and Xavier, Julie & Mr. Lee

And to everyone else for their birthday wishes!!  and I'll have my birthday posted on flickr soon.

Annyeong

Annyeong (hello) though a cell phone.  Cell phone? in Korea?  Yes we bought a cell phone in Korea today.  It took about a half an hour and Glen came with us as our translator.  We didn't buy the basic phone or plan which was 40 bucks for the phone and about $10.50 a month for the plan.  But the 10.50 is just to own a plan and then you pay for each minute you use and for each text message.  This may seem expensive but the rates here in Korea are MUCH cheaper than the US.  A text message is less than 1 cent and a minute is about 2.8 cents.  Though this would have been the cheapest route, I really didn't like the old style phone that it came with.  It was similar to my first phone I had back when I as 16.  So we asked about the next cheapest phone - one with a better way to text than pressing the number 6 four times to get one letter.  We came to the phone on the left.  It was free with our 2 year contract and we have to pay about 31 dollars a month, but it comes with 160 mins of free talking and 500 messages.  And we also had to pay a 39,000 Won foriengers fee - non refundable. 

You may be wondering about the 2 year contract.  Our plan is to either sign it over to the next pair of teachers or cancel it.  We've been told both are free.  As a gift the cell phone company gave us a free HOT PINK "leather" cell phone case to put it in.  The picture below is very similar and just doesn't do it justice.  When Glen asked me if I liked it I asked if it came in black.  Andrew said the pink will prevent me from losing it - he had a good point.

After about an hour of owning our brand new toy it rang.  I was very suprised, thinking who know's our number already?  Glen answered it for us and the conversation went something like this - in Korean.

Glen: Hello

Creepy guy in a weird voice:  Hello lady are you working today?

Glen: What?

Creepy guy:  where are you at?

Glen:  Um, where did you get this number from, it's a new number?

Creeper:  I had this number before...

Glen: I think you have the wrong number...

Creeper:  Oh okay,  good bye then.

Glen:  hmm bye

She then explained this may have been a number of a prostitue. The way he was talking to her and didn't recognize her voice, and by the questions he was asking, she said was all very wierd. 

Needless to say, in about 5 hours we obtained 5 calls from people we didn't know.  Andrew would pick up the phone and in his stern mannly voice say "who is this.. you have the wrong number.." (end of call).

So our friend Kang took me back to the phone store and we got a new number! One that hasn't rang yet!  They asked me to pick out a number but I couldn't seem to find one that wasn't in use, so they created one for us and I was told it's "cool" and "is a good one" becasue it is very easy to remember.  I won't share it all because I don't want random people to call it but a little preview is 010.*6*6.3939.

The coolest thing is writing with the stylus on the cell phone.  Instead of typing anything I can write it out in a white box and then the phone will type it for me.  It's pretty good - it can do whole words, but messes up on capitals and h's.

That's all for now, hopefully we will have better luck with this number!

Lost in Narnia

Recently Andrew and I watched both the first and second movies of Narnia.  They were quite good, and if you have never seen them I do recommend it.  I learned that there was 7 chronicles to Narnia and had to have it!  Being that I am in dire need of a good book, I ordered it online for 15 dollars.  The whole 700 page book only cost $15 and arrived in just 3 days!  That's way better than amazon ever was.  The only downside about "gmarket" is that it is in mostly Korean and flashes rapidly 100 photos at you - calling for a sever headache. (so i had glen order it, but what's the difference.)  I have been trying to read it whenever I can.  So far it is great.  But while we didn't have a kitchen I could only read in the bedroom, and since Andrew needs 0% light on when sleeping I wasn't allowed to read at night (or be on the computer for that matter).  Anyways I found myself only being able to read while at work.  In between classes I get about 2 solid hours of reading in.  To increase my Narnia intake I bought a book lamp. Andrew took the photo below.

As awesome as this book light looks, it is deceiving.  I haven't even used it yet because I'm not desperate enough to hold it up while I read.  when attached to this ~2-3 inch book it doesn't even stretch it's neck long enough to shed light over my pages. "insert sad face here".  But the point is that it is a very good book and everyone should read it.  It actually reminds be of Harry Potter a little bit, and i think it would be a great Christmas present for my cousin Jack - but maybe the version with 7 books instead of a 700 page book so he doesn't get discouraged at the look of it.  

Last Sunday Andrew and I had a great plan to climb the local mountain and sit in the new pavilion and read for an hour or so.  Unfortunately we didn't leave for our hike till about 2:30 and with the sun setting directly over the mountain I knew as soon as we got up there we would have to come back down if we didn't want to get stuck in the dark, with no light.  I followed my gut on this one and told Andrew he can continue to climb the -what seems like 1000 steps- mountain by himself and I would stay at the temple below- the beginning of the hill- and read there.  It was very peaceful and during the hour I waited only 2 people walked by.  Here is a visual!

They say a picture describes 1000 words, well what about 17 photos all merged together.  I attempted to merge them myself and it was taking so long and I wanted to post it before going to bed so the photos weren't altered much to look like one photo.   But hopefully you can see how great this place was to read at.  Until it got really cold so I ditched Andrew and walked home before he got back down the hill.

The day before we went to Home Plus.  It was quite a long experience and I think Andrew blogged about it, but my experience was it was like Christmas! We both got home and opened our goodies.  Here is what I purchased below - it's a much smaller pile then Andrew's.

You can see the book light in the back ground along with some Yerba Tea (very health and expensive tea).  Some fancy bread in the soup bowl. A bottle of cheap wine and a wine opener.  And my favorite of all nice warm ear-muffs I bought for our trip to Seoul over New Years.  They are very warm and you can see me sporting them in my posed picture reading the book above.  They were the most expensive item at 11,000 won ~roughly 9.50 dollars.  Well that's all for tonight.  Hopefully I'll get more in soon!