winter in korea

Happy almost New Years...after planning for our Christmas trip to Japan, New Years sort of slipped under the radar for both S. and I.  Combined with the fact that my phone couldn't even take photos in Japan (I shut it off after getting like 20 text messages in Korean that I couldn't read and there was always a picture of a plane circling the Earth instead of my usual wallpaper) I was afraid that I didn't have much to show you.  

Then I realized that since I'm such a bad blogger, I actually had lots of pics from our recent snowy days.  So, without further ado, here's what we've been up to in the snow...

 

Snow after bowling, what could be better?

 

 

We were going to stop for winter street food for dinner...hodduk (little pancakes filled with brown sugar and walnuts), odeng (pressed fish cakes in a seafood broth), pajeon (green onion pancakes), roasted sweet potatoes...but decided to have some snowflakes instead.  (Actually we ended up at a restaurant called All That BBQ which has awesome pasta carbonara - or mac and cheese pasta as O. knows it - and caesar salad.  Sorry grammy and grampy, if we had known about it when you were here, we would have so taken you there!)

 

At the restaurant, he got to try on our waitress's antlers...gee, I wonder why he thinks the universe revolves around him.  :)

Sledding Korean style....

 

 

The night before we left for Japan, it snowed the most...here's O. with the guy that we bought wood roasted sweet potatoes from...yummy and warm!

The street at the entrance to our apartment complex. 

The light display at the entrance of our apartment complex.  

It snowed so much that night, we had snow ice cream along with our sweet potatoes and juk (rice porridge).  Maple for S. and vanilla/chocolate/rainbow sprinkle for O. 

Happy New Years again - hope that 2010 (!) is healthy and happy...we are thinking of all of you and wishing you the best.  Love, S., O., and me.  ^-^

    

 
  
 

Christmas Fried Chicken

Merry Christmas to all of you out there from Japan!!  It was amazing to be on a plane for less than two hours and arrive here...

We are staying with friends - one of whom S. used to teach with back in the states.  He now teaches history and Japanese on a military base outside of Tokyo.  We arrived on Sunday morning, and then went on a three day ski trip with them...which with an almost three year old means that we rented all sorts of equipment, dressed in twenty layers, stuffed our pockets with all manner of outer wear, took two vans, got skis on, shuffled over to the baby slopes, put outerwear on, took a tentative slide down said baby slope, and then decided that was enough skiing and what the three year old really wanted to do was try that fun skateboarding thing that everyone else was doing but if he wasn't old enough to do that, he would just build some pins and a bowling ball out of snow and do some snow bowling.  S. went skiing though and assures me that the view from the top was absolutely breathtaking.  

We drove home today, Christmas eve, and went out for dinner.  KFC pulled a brilliant marketing stunt where they convinced the Japanese that it is an American custom to have fried chicken for Christmas.  Various restaurants now serve fried chicken as a Christmas special, and you can pre-order fried chickens at KFC.  Of course then for dinner, I had the Merry Christmas fried chicken special.  Hope that all of you out there are having as lovely a meal as we were able to have - and having a happy, healthy holiday.  Merry Christmas from all of us!!

on the farm

Got to go out to Asan yesterday with our friends. It was COLD, but we were able to pick apples, persimmons and ginko nuts. We also spent a lot of time with the one one-eyed chicken. Good times.

 Note that there are no longer socks on the poor boy's hand, but finished mittens.  :)

 

Just like milkweed pods, but on vines...

and just as fun to play with.

 

Picking persimmons first with a ladder.

Then the apples. 

 

 

Warming up inside doing some coloring before leaving for home.  

 

Just a quick note about the ginko nut picking. 

http://doorbell.net/lukes/a111503.htm

 Koreans are the only people I know that will look at the fallen fruits of a tree, note that they smell like the most awful smell imaginable, and then think, maybe we can figure out a way to eat them.  You pick the fruits up off the ground, put them in huge bowls of water to wash off the stinky fruit part, then do a second washing to get rid of the outer coating further, then dry the nuts until they are a lovely shade of white.  (Ours are out on the "veranda")  You then eat them in a number of ways - in soups, with rice, and simply put in the microwave then cracked out of their shells like pistachios.  

food reviews, korea style

Beer O’Clock

English: Spoken, on menu

Address: Near Hyundai Department Store in Sinchon 

Subway: Sinchon Station, line No. 2, exit 1

Hours: 6 p.m. until late on Mondays through Fridays; 3 p.m. to late on Saturdays; 4 p.m. to late on Sundays

Dress: Casual

Reading the newspaper online, I came across a review of the restaurant "Beer O'Clock." So many things to point out, so many things to wonder about.  It explains a lot about Korean culture though.  First off, the address - can you imagine listing an address like this in the states?  "Near the Montgomery Mall...good luck finding us."  Or the hours of operation?  "6 pm until late, or we feel like closing, or until something good comes on tv."  And really, the dress is casual?  At a place called Beer O'Clock?  I'm shocked.  

fall update

The beautiful weather we've been having has been quite conducive to practicing one's golf swing...

(yes, those are socks on his hands....i'm working on the mittens.  at least i finished the hat!)

 

...painting...

 

...practicing writing one's name...

 

...bowling...

 

 

...and generally being cute. Hope that you all are enjoying fall too.  Oh yeah, today is also the day that the "why's" started...good thing he's so cute. 

 

 

what happened to october?

Wow, I'm a really bad blogger.  S. worked for three straight weeks in a row - including a three day retreat for one of the weekends.  Not that it's an excuse, but that's all I have, so I'm going with it.  

So, October flew by in a rush of fall leaves and mums.  Now that we're all back to a more regular schedule, I hope to post a little more frequently (I know, more frequently would be posting at all....I'm working on it...promise!)

 

 

Bugil School's walkway - it's going to be gorgeous in the spring as well. 

Mum show at a local college.  

Map of Korea in mums

The mum show also showcased some of the fashion students' work, including hair and makeup.  

O. appreciated the makeup display

 

Breaking up beans and throwing them in front of a fan to separate the outer shell from the heavier beans.  Notice the train feet away in the background.