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!