seoul part I

I finally finished my pictures from Seoul.  Little late but oh well. Andrew and I are going back up April 8th so I'll have a lot more to edit.  300 photos slimmed down to 115.  I don't like all of them, but thought for those that have been waiting would want to see all of them.  Here's the link to my flickr account to see them all.

korean haircut

Since I got to Korea I regretted not cutting my hair before I came.  I don't know what I was thinking.  I thought I could go 12 months and not cut my already extremely long hair.  Getting ready for school was a chore: washing, blow drying, curling, and often resulted in me being late everyday.  I couldn't put it in a pony tail because the thickness gave me headaches and I often experienced neck pains from the weight.  

I had planned to get it cut when I was in Seoul for New Years, but everyone we crossed was  closed.  Andrew and I are planning to go back to Seoul in less than a month and I was going to get it done then.  Wednesday morning I woke up and decided, I don't care, it's good as gone this weekend.  I decided that I would get it cut longer than wanted and if it was horrible I would get it fixed in Seoul.  

So Jinyeong is a very small place.  No one speaks English or understands it here, so Glen came with me to get it cut.  I had asked for layering and thinning because I have so much hair that without it, it would just get frizzy, especially when the rainy season starts.  My friend Choi said to have the director of this one shop cut it.  But the director wasn't there and apparently is the only person in the shop that knows how to cut layers.  So we waited an hour for the director to come.  

I'm glad I waited.  He had me very worried for a bit and cut a little shorter than wanted, but it looks great, I don't have to go to Seoul to get a hair cut! And it was less than 10 dollars.  Here are some before and after photos.

Cooking

I miss cooking.  Even though it stresses me out, which Andrew has pointed out after trying to help in the kitchen, I like being able to put all the things together and in the end taste something DELICIOUS!   Today we have off of work because it's some holiday.  It's a Tuesday, which is weird but we'll take it.  

The other day I said I was going to start editing photos, but instead I started finding all of these great recipes that I would love to cook but can't.  In 8 months when I am back home I hope to try them all but until then YOU can try them and let me know how they are, or you can drool over the photos with me.    Click on the name and it will take you to the web page with the recipe.

CHAI LATTE

CHEESECAKE STUFFED CHOCOLATE DIPPED STRAWBERRIES

HUMMUS

GRILLED CORN, AVOCADO AND TOMATO SALAD

 


FRENCH ONION SOUP

CHUNKY GUAC

SOFT PRETZEL BITES

 

THIN MINTS

 

MAPLE BUTTERNUT SQUASH

 

POTATO SOUP

RAVIOLI

 

MOLTEN CAKE

MONGOLIAN BEEF

 

BLONDIE BARS

TOMATO GOAT CHEESE TARTS

BAKED PASTA WITH SPINACH AND ARTICHOKES

NUTELLA RAVIOLI

I can't wait to be able to cook again!

what's next

So I'm behind in everything form about 2 1/2 months ago.  My next project is editing all of my photos from Seoul.  This could take a week.  There are a lot.  Here is a preview, and one of my favorite photos.  I went inside of a traditional tea garden house courtyard at the top of an old city.  A traditional neighborhood that has all of the wood houses with the funny roofs.  I quickly snapped this panorama of the neighborhood with a view of Seoul beyond it, before the lady came out and glared at me. I did think it was public space but apparently only for what she was offering.  I think it was worth the scold though.

you can't help what you love

My first inspiration in a long time. Living in a small town where there isn't a lot of cool things to take pictures of - I find my calling in the mountains.  

As Andrew puts it "a bunch of dead plants"... you can't help what you love!   Check out the rest of my roll on flickr.

Costco

 On Sunday we went to Costco with our friend Kang.  I have never been to a Costco but it's exactly like a Sam's club.  This is the only place we have even seen most of these items. We stocked up and spent a good few hundred thousand won.  But we easily could have spend around 1 million won if we had the space for everything, and the money, and a way to get it home.  Costco is in Busan and took us close to 2 hours to get there. 

 

Everything we bought from left to right -

6 pack of pasta shells. 6 pack of french bread. champagne (for our 2nd year anniversary). 3 boxes of q-tips. 15 boxes of mac & cheese. fresh bakery cookies (oatmeal raisin, double chocolate, and chocolate chip). 5 pack of "satin" dental floss. Earl Grey tea. massive tub of sour cream. 2 bags of bagels. 2 boxes of (58) packs of oatmeal *korea doesn't own oatmeal*. few pounds of mozzarella cheese. vitamin B complex. 2 pack Aveerno body wash. 48 pack of trail mix granola bars. 15 pack of combos. few lbs of sharp cheddar. 2 industrial sized prego sauce containers. 2 large bottles of salsa (with no chips).  Parmesan cheese. 5 pack of lint rollers *no dryer = dust everywhere*. large bottle of parsley, basil, and Italian seasoning.

never too late

It's never to late to share a little love.  This year was extra special being in Korea for Valentine's Day.  I sent my mom and Brittni, and even Andrew's Valentine's day present through the mail using Etsy.  Etsy is my new best friend.  People make amazing handmade stuff and then sell it online - on Etsy.  

I got Andrew Lego Cuff links and  a tie pin for work.  All of his shirts are the buttoned ones so he can't use the cuff links but he hasn't shut up about how much he loves Legos since I met him, so I couldn't resist.

Valentines for me was pretty great too! I got flowers!! and a locket pocket watch necklace (from etsy). 

 

And then we woke up and it was snowing Monday morning.  The most snow in Jinyeong in 75 years! 7 inches.

And then school got canceled. And I finished my book.  

"Yay," said the snow man!

secret project complete

After 2 1/2 months of working on a secret project, I have finally finished the final revision and it is up and running.  Here is a small preview of the actual thing I will be ordering.  love you bubbie.

Use the box with arrows to make full screen and left or right arrows to navigate pages.  It's 224 pages just to warn you

B E A R by Amanda Alexander | Make Your Own Book

Let's Go. It's Green.

Hello all!



It's Tuesday night here. We are still at work but I have a break now, my first one I have been able to enjoy since my last post at work January 13th! Things are finally starting to come together. The schedule is still a little confusing for everyone but at the end of the month I'm sure it will make sense to us. Hopefully it doesn't change too much come March. It's February 1st and we currently are teaching 31 students, so keep your fingers crossed for our You & I school.



Last weekend Andrew and I chilled around the apartment, not very exciting but much needed after the busy and stressfull work week. Sunday we went to Changwon with our friends for Kraze Burger and Lotte Mart shopping. And here we are on Tuesday and we have the next 5 days off! It's the Lunar New Year this Thursday and a national holiday where everyone spends lots of time at their families house's. First they go to their parents house for 2 days and then they go to the oldest child's house of the husband (i think, it is all very complicated). Lots of family time. We have been told by Glen and Kang that lots of things will be closed for the holiday and the traffic will be very bad from all the traveling, so we may not venture to far from home. I think maybe Friday, Andrew and I will walk around Changwon or Masan just for fun, but other than that we are just laying low to save some money.



My personal goal is to get all my photos up on Flickr and finish my project. So we'll keep in touch during this much needed 5 day weekend!

Saturday afternoon.

Hello all,

It's Saturday afternoon here.  This wont be long, but I just thought I would give a few updates on Korea.  I still haven't been able to do any regularly blogging due to my top secret project.  It is a computer project and my file crashed last week.  So I had to start over.  I will be close to finishing  this weekend and then next week/weekend is our 5 day weekend and I will have lots of time to finish my project and upload the last month of our lives in Korea.  

Recently our school has hired a new teacher for the computer courses that Andrew and I were doing every 3 days.  We now have about 30 students.  It's been a little tense since our school was under the impression that we would have 100 students by this point.  Andrew and I will miss these computer days for they were very easy on us, and they are now replaced with more classes.  We now have 4 spring classes and 5 red classes.  So almost a 1/3 of our classes are just beginner kids.  Our schedules have been slowly changing from the recommended schedule of our classes and school.  But next month  we will only be teaching 5-6 classes a day.  

On a more interesting note we ate live octopus last night!  It was still moving, but conveniently cut into small pieces. We also had Japanese style sushi and raw fish, salmon, oysters, and some other stuff I didn't know what was but wasn't cooked.   Andrew got a couple of pictures on his iphone so you can look for that soon.

Okay back to work.  Anneyong