The First Week of Winter

Winter has officially arrived.  On my preschool classroom wall there hangs a canvas board full of pockets that allow students to talk about the date, days of the week, weather, and seasons by placing appropriate cards in the corresponding pockets.  On Monday morning one of my little students presented his reasons for wanting to change our season card from Fall to Winter and, after a class vote, we changed the card.  How fitting, since on Wednesday we had our first snowfall (see right) and the temperatures have continued to drop ever since.

Last night I ventured out into the bitter 18 degrees F weather to see Christmas lights that we were told were located at City Hall.  What we found was a huge Christmas tree and very few lights.  Frankly, there have been too many disappointing moments in Seoul thus far to elicit excitement from me; of course the lights were lame.  However, of the little bit we had to see, they were pretty.

However, after a night of frozen toes, I have kept myself warm in my apartment today.  I only ventured out this afternoon to get one my favorite treats, fish bread, to accompany my delicious afternoon Stumptown coffee.  After walking around in a big coat and slippery shoes, the latter of which I blame for my embarrassing slip on the ice that sent my feet flying out from underneath me, I found my Kimbop Lady.  She is always happy to see me, thus I had to buy lots more fish bread than necessary. Note that there is no fish in this fish bread; it's simply batter filled with sweet red bean.

While my coffee brewed I took my camera and slippers up to the roof to snap a few photos of Olympic Park across the street.  The snow is so pretty on the hills of the park.

Oh, Stumptown!

Last weekend our friend, Elyse, came back from visiting her family in Vancouver, WA.  Since we are from the same town and she knows my passion for coffee, she was a dear and brought us back a bag of Stumptown.  I could have kissed her.

My coffee is one of the few things I desperately love every day.  It is my favorite drink, my favorite way to wake up, and my favorite way to pass the time.  I honestly don't know what I would do without it.

Is this an addiction?  Oh, well.  It's Stumptown.

Thanksgiving in Seoul

 

 

I will not bore you with all the details of our every gathering, but I feel that our progressive-style Thanksgiving party ought to make the cut.  Living in Seoul means living in tiny apartments with (at least in our school-provided dwellings) the most basic amenities.  This makes having a party, let alone a Thanksgiving feast, quite a challenge.

To solve our logistical dilemma, we had our feast spread between three apartments.  First we visited my friend, Alison's, apartment for appetizers and drinks.  We then mosied our way over to our apartment for dinner.  We had so much food!  I don't think I snapped a shot of just how much we had, but we fed 25 people comfortably with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, milk gravy (my parents would be proud!), corn, rolls, salad, pasta, vegetables, and cranberry sauce.  

Here's, of course, the most important part:

This became...............................................

this.

 Though it was a squeeze to fit us all into our apartment, equivalent to the size of a large bedroom, we had a blast.

 Finally, after eating a ton and sitting on the floor, we dusted off our knees and clothes and walked over to another friend, Lisa's, apartment.  There we dove into the myriad deserts.

 It was awesome!

 Then we all played movie charades.  That may have been my favorite part.

 

 Oh, and we did a photo shoot, of course. 

The three hostesses: Amie, Alison, Lisa

Three boys illustrating our state of energy throughout the night.

Alex was probably being ridiculous...

and I had to take action.

 All in all, it was a successful evening.  I even made cups and cups of turkey stock from the leftover bones, which are currently frozen and ready in my freezer.

Success!

November Thoughts & Images

 The fall here has been beautiful.  Everyone said that we would love the fall here, and they were right. The colors are gorgeous and the rain fall is light, thus more often than not you can bundle up and venture outside to enjoy the cold sunshine through the leaves.  

I'm thankful for the beauty of my area.

A few weekends ago we wander across Seoul with some friends to explore new areas and foods.  We started with subway food.  Though I can't remember the name, I can say that the custard-filled balls of dough were a tasty treat after our subway ride to Anguk St.

In a neighborhood near Insadong, another neighborhood that is a popular tourist spot, we found great shopping, little alleyways, lots of street food, and beautiful buildings.  Everything felt crisp, clean, and busy.

We even found a free art studio open to the public.  They were featuring the works of a Dutch artist.  Alex found them quite interesting.  Here is one example.

 At times Alex and I felt we were wandering throughout the Pearl District of Portland.  It didn't exactly look like the Pearl, and naturally there were many differences, but we felt happy nonetheless.  Perhaps we are still a little homesick for Portland.

We found strange art everywhere, I suppose.  Alex liked all of it.

We saw this tiny restaurant and had a take a picture.  Consider that the past four months has felt like an experiment in both life and food, I'd say this is more than appropriate (despite the name spelling).

Later on in our evening we found a marvelous, hole-in-the-wall coffee shop that took us quite a while to locate.  But once we did, it proved to be a delicious way to warm our hands after our cold afternoon.

 Then we found dinner.  I regret to say that I have forgotten the name of this dish as well, but it was absolutely amazing!  We have had only a few such experiences with food since our arrival. 

 Then we walked along the stream in the middle of Seoul where the Lantern Festival was located.  For many city blocks these lanterns were set up and lit on top of stands in the stream as a way of celebrating both the tradition of lanterns and the history of Korea.  It was pretty amazing.

At the end of our night, on our way to Itaewon, Magpie Brewery, and a round of Portland-style beer, we walked past the new Seoul City Hall.  The building you see in front is the old building.  The glass building behind it was recently finished.  Look closely at the right side - the entire wall is curved.  

I love cities.

Halloween: It's for the kids

I teach kids, which requires that I set aside my personal opinions and fear of embarrassment long enough to do what's right for the kiddos.  This year the right thing to do was to dress up.

Yep.  I'm a panda.

At our school, Halloween is a big deal.  There are far more foreign teachers who love Halloween than who don't, thus for this one day we set aside class time and fill our Halloween day with pumpkin festivities, games, songs, a costume fashion show, and trick-or-treating.  Since Halloween is not a commonly celebrated holiday in Korea, the kids received a special treat thanks to all our efforts.  I felt I had to contribute, thus I planned on being Mary Poppins, or a classy gypsy, or something easy and fun for me.  But on the night before Halloween Alex insisted that I try on his panda suit.  Then Alex and Sam, his sister, proceeded to convince me to wear this get up for my entire teaching day.  Thus, as I played with little ones, graded homework, and taught my elementary students, I was dressed as the cutest darn panda you've ever seen.

My kids were also pretty darn cute. Here is a collection of my preschool students in their best Halloween attire:

 And here is the happy pumpkin we (I) carved.  The kids told me what they wanted, and this was the best I could do in 5 minutes with Korean teachers fussing over pumpkin guts, seeds, sharp knives, and excited children.  

Doesn't he look so happy?

We had a lot of fun on this special day.  And even though I truly dislike Halloween, the excitement from others proved contagious and I found myself loving my student's reactions to trick-or-treating and singing spooky songs.  And when we were done having fun, my kids posed for their best Halloween smiles.  Take a look.

 The kids weren't the only ones who had fun. Our teacher group also had a blast in our lunch-time photo shoot and costume contest.

Peace & Happy Harvest/Halloween!