Korea has been such a pleasant time so far! I feel like I'm in a magical time in my life, and I'm trying to embrace it while it lasts. After all, I'm new to this country, in my honeymoon phase, and I'm new to this life. This is the first time I haven't had to balance my life between multiple circles and activities and jobs, and it's probably the healthiest and happiest I've been in a long, long time. So, besides the lesson planning and apartment decorating, what have I been up to?
- The French Macaron Ice Cream- Greatest thing Korea's ever come up with so far. This particular beauty was made with green tea ice cream, vanilla ice cream, and yogurt ice cream. As much as I'm freezing right now, I'd still eat this.
- Kyuhyun's Solo Album- We all have our ultimate celebrity/singer/actor crushes, and he is so mine. I love Leo, but Kyuhyun is my celeb crush. I like to think that I've reached adulthood because I didn't jump on the next bus to Seoul when I found out he was giving a surprise mini concert one Friday night. Self love, right? Why put myself through the travel and the cold to be one of many fan girls seeing him? To listen to him sing songs I can listen to in my own apartment with a cup of tea?
- Pajeon- My friend, Amar, has introduced me to the church community here. We went to one of their lunches as it was an open market style to raise money for charity. It was so cute and clever as we bought "street" food and feasted on pajeon and ddeokkbokki and steamed sundae. It's kind of nice, this church community. I never really had one at home.
- Thanksgiving Burgers- Another friend, Karina, had us all over on Thanksgiving as a sort of thank you for watching her dog for her when she's gone. She made delicious burgers, and Bunny made awesome pasta salad to go with it. We just sat around, ate, and gabbed. Considering the last Thanksgiving I spent abroad was in my room, Skyping my family over frozen grapes, this was quite a welcome change!
- Orphanage Visit- As a sort of homage to my own adoption anniversary (22 years in the US!), I visited an orphanage in Jeonju with Amar and Lauren and some other Jeonju teachers. We basically played with kids around the ages of 3-5, and I might've given my heart to one quieter little girl. Orphanages are a little different here than what you might think--often times the kids are from families who can't afford them or single mothers. All I know is that I have always been an advocate of adoption, and I will adopt in the future (in reality, I plan on giving birth to one kid and adopting afterwards), but this trip really cemented it.
- Ddeokkbokki Love- Can you believe this is in my local grocery store for 3,000 won?! Amar and I trudged out into the snow to get it because we were both too lazy to make dinner for ourselves. I'll never get enough of this beautiful food.
- Winter in Namwon- Speaking of snow, winter is definitely here, and I'm already quite miserable with it. I do have proper winter boots now, so it'll probably get better. At least Namwon is much prettier covered in snow than Pottstown. Or Chestertown for that matter.
- BBQ FINALLY- I finally consumed my second favorite Korean food, samgyeopsal, recently in one of the goodbye dinners to one of the teachers leaving.We went to a BBQ restaurant literally a minute from the villa, and I was so happy I could have died right there.
- New Booties- I've been eyeing some booties for a while after realizing how inconvenient riding boots are when I'm constantly taking off my shoes and changing into slippers. I got these off G-market because it's one of the places I'm sure my Korean bank card will work at. I can't wait to wear them properly!
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