Bad Diary Keeper

So, as I am sure you can tell, growing up I was never any good at keeping a diary. I am sure when they demolish the house hundreds of journals with the first 5 pages written in will come tumbling out. Anywho I will try to fill you in as best I can without boring you to death, and maybe I'll start forcing myself to write more often, even if I don't have pictures. Maybe I just need to marry a photographer so I can have someone take pictures for me; and after this past weekend that's not such as far-fetched an idea as it used to be :D

Ok, so to start off, after kicking myself for not updating since HALLOWEEN(silly silly girl)! I reviewed my life and realized I have just been a wee bit of a hectic mess. My room and kitchen and everything are in far worse disarray than ever before, and it is thanks to my craaazy schedule and my laaaazy bones. So let's rewind approx two weeks, a wee bit more. In Jeonju, about mid-October is a most splendid of days. This day is the Bibimbap festival. What is bibimbap, click on the link provided to find out.


This first one is of me and my friend Jenny just before the big rush. We are in a crowd of hungry people waiting for free Bibimbap. When they started serving, you should have seen the old ladies. They ripped through the "do not cross" tape and attacked the tables of Bibimbap like hyenas. We only make it out alive because one kind woman grabbed us each a bowl and spoon and we ran, ran like thieves.

Later in the day we met up with some friends and discovered it was someones birthday! So of course we hung out and agreed to do whatever she wanted...regret set in the moment I watched what we were about to do. I'm glad I can say that I did it, but being the only tall white blonde on a ride in Korea doesn't exactly say "I'm from here". The guy running the ride picked on us, to see what kind of hell we went through, watch this video and wait until about a minute forty into the video. That was us for a good fifteen minutes throughout the ride. Mind you, your body is pushed off the seat when it jolts forward, so you're hanging on with your legs dangling down. O_O

Halloween! My favorite holiday! Not much to be said, we had a lovely time, the locals thought we were crazy, and everyone got home safe :D


Here is what I did the first weekend in November. It has been so stupidly warm that I went with a group of friends to the highest peak on the mainland of South Korea, in Jiri-San National Park. National Park you say? Why yes, they have national parks in Korea :D This weekend in particular made me homesick for Acadia. First thing I do when I get home, aside from seeing my friends, is go to Acadia and hike my favorite peaks!!

Finally to get you all caught up on my life, this past weekend I went to a wedding! My friend Monica's co-worker was tying the knot and she invited me along as her plus one. That is why I said it's not as far fetched as it used to be for me to get married. Obviously I'm kidding, but the wedding was amazing! First, there was a traditional style wedding.


That is me and Monica with the lovely bride. She was so pretty, and the wedding was so amazing. The most interesting part was probably the venue. They have the weddings in a big wedding hall that has multiple floors. The first two floors have about 3 rooms each where weddings take place, so as many as six weddings could be going on at once! Then once the wedding is done, you go upstairs to the third floor where they have an all you can eat buffet O_O AWESOME! They have to provide food for all of the guests for all of the weddings, all day, so they put out a TON of food.


After the modern ceremony and before the eating, was my favorite part, the traditional wedding. Though she looked beautiful in her wedding gown, this was the one that made me smile the most. She was stunning in her traditional dress, it makes me want to get married in Korea to a Korean boy. Seriously, maybe it's because I'm foreign, and it probably is, but I found this part to be SO much better than the other. It was interactive, with the children pouring tea for the parents, and the parents tossing some kind of nut or fruit into a linen that the children were holding. So new, but what got me was that they were smiling and talking the whole time. That's how I think marriage should be. Not being silent and waiting for your turn to speak, but having a good time with one another, appreciating this new step in your life.


Well that's it for now. Hope I didn't bore you too much. I have to go to bed early tonight so I can make kimchi tomorrow. Since the blog is (albeit incorrectly) named after said food, I suppose I will have to take pictures and do a blog :D Until next time, I hope the world is good to you!

-Sara

Andong Mask Festival Weekend!

oh hello again, short post today because I'm lazy and though the weekend was fun, it's back to school time and I'm busy busy busy. Recently started working on a painting :D I don't expect it to be great or even good, but it'll be mine, and it'll be a baby step. After starting that I dragged myself to Andong for the Mask Festival! It was an excellent time...let's begin!

I kicked off the weekend with my usual buddies, living it up in Jeonju for the night, and one of my friends(who is a claw machine god, as you probably saw in the last post) won me this little guy :D


Everywhere I go Antoine seems to follow :D here he is beautifully scrolled out on the stairwell wall <3

Next we got some WAFFLES! However...we mayyy have devoured it before it was even possible to take a picture of it...here's the clean plate!


I don't remember WHY this was taken but here is my favorite dairy treat in Korea. This lil guy is a fish shaped cone/crust with vanilla ice cream and a layer of sweet red beans, YUMMM!


To continue our tour I promptly hopped on a bus and spent near 8 hours travelling...it usually takes about 5 :/ But I then finally made it to Andong and got a falafel type thing. NOM!


Then curious George was located, being the curious monkey of childhood lore it was more than necessary to photo with him.


The Mask Festival stage, all lit up and ready to go!


Some cool lanterns that were GIGANTIC! I think they were made out of paper, but I could be wrong...but I'm going to say that they were made of paper.


then I got home and made awesome goodies :D Here is my first attempt at making the filling for my apple crisp. It came out awesome, so I made some for my neighbors later after they brought me this...


...a gift basket filled with goodies! I may or may not have eaten them all in one sitting :D They were delicious.


So, there's life in Korea so far. I'm going to do a post sometime soon about some of the things that have changed a lot since coming here i.e. clothes and hygiene. Hope you stick around for next time! And I hope the world is kind to you :D Peace

-Sara

Chai, graffiti, and waffles

Ah, finally, getting back on top of the whole blogging wagon. This one is going to hopefully be less blab and more photos :D Kicked off the weekend with some ladies from the coast and various other parts of the country come spend the night. One arrived especially early, and going to the hairdressers was going to take too long, so we just found a cafe and had our minds blown.

OK, so I had my mind blown :D I'm still a pretty big waygook^ _^. Aside from the adorable design in the cups, this was hands down the BEST chai latte I have ever had. I am going back there tomorrow for breakfast and I WILL take EVERYONE there.


Next, all of us ladies went to a BBQ buffet right by my house and we met up with the boys. One of the best meals I've ever had.


Then I took a trip into Seoul with some friends for a big fat american weekend and we LIVED it UP! First stop? Mexican resto by the University, yum num!


Look at that peppered chicken wrap! My mouth is watering just looking at it.


Some of the funniest things are found in Seoul. They're ALMOST on the mark with their signs, but it's never quite there.


I have been searching for graffiti all over the place, and in Seoul I found it.


The buildings are so crazy awesome over here ^_^ I want to decorate the more I see such cute buildings.

After wandering the streets for a while we came to a park. We stopped to listen to the music playing and these guys were freesyling next to this awesome wall.


AND we came across some girls selling homemade sangria in the center of the park next to a live band. super cute!


The hostel we stayed at had the nicest owner, and we stayed in "tents" meaning we camped on this sun porch on the top floor of a building and slept in pink tents!! Definitely going back there the next time I'm in Seoul.

That evening was a bit more laid back. We shopped around and decided to end the weekend a very American way. What is more American than sparklers?


A HUGE breakfast maybe. The entire time we were in Seoul my friend Monica and I were on a mission to find waffles with ice cream. We saw them but never actually got them. We could have gotten them at restaurants, but it's far more satisfying to come across a street vendor. Anywho, the end of our trip was filled with waffles. Waffles for breakfast by the third of a dozen...


In between waffle comas we went thrift shopping *DROOL* but the thrift stores were more vintage, less thrift. On the lower level was the boys section though, and I found this silly painting that I WANT to do to one of my walls, oh if only!


Finally, the last noms of the trip were some waffles. They advertised with ice cream but alas had none to spare :'( So we ate ones that were freshly made, dipped in chocolate, and with fresh cream piping.

I am so hungry after writing this blog, which I shouldn't be since I had a very yummy and filling dinner. I have decided it is time to hop back on the cooking bandwagon (since I'm already on one I might as well catch the next one too right?) as well as the cleaning, arts and craftsy. I have a splendid weekend in Andong coming up where I will be going to the Mask Festival with some friends :D After that I have a super special weekend to share with you, but you'll have to wait and see what spectacular adventure unfolds as the world moves forward.

Until then my friends I hope the world is kind to you and, in turn, you to it.

Sara

Awesome Day Off

Whew, Practically a whopping two weeks! What have I been doing? Honestly? I'm not too sure. Oh there are the days that stick out (specifically the weekends) but mostly it has all been running together like a blur. The weekend that I missed updating was very boring. I went out, slept in and then went to the craft store. The craft store was a nice little adventure but NOTHING compared to this past wonderful weekend with my "family". My group here in Korea is a tight little pack :D We get along famously and we all love spending time with one another. Time for a short photographic overview.

Let us begin here. Pizza! After a long night of reuniting with friends we decided to recuperate with some greasy, delicious, pizza! We ordered a supreme, with all of the trimmings, and a bulgogi (marinated beef) pizza. YUM!

Then we went on a romp about town after a short burst of shopping and found this quaint little coffee shop that I had to get a picture of. I have to say, the fact that we passed this shop wasn't as big a deal to me as how proud I was of this nighttime shot :D

Then we went by a place you will be seeing more of very soon. Take a good hard look. Why yes, that IS Darth Vader, why yes he IS holding a sandwich, and why YES he IS in the Swiss Alps. Why? Oh no, you do not question why; you see, the focus for everyone upon viewing this (at least for the Americans, myself included) is the burger, not the Vader.

It being that the "Vader Burger" shop was closed, we decided to roam about and find...BBQ! I LOVE me some Korean BBQ. More likely than not you will be seeing BBQ pop up in the delicious feed of posts that are to come (heh, food pun). No more words, just admire...

Then my lovely family, who I actually do not have a decent photo of so what you see are actually only a few of them, and I decided we would make the most of our night out and watch the sunrise from a coffee shop nearby.

And we watched the sun come up over the buildings :D


Ok, skip forward a few days and I have the day off, YAY! Today I had the most splendid day off. I slept in late without worry about class or planning for the day. I picked up my apartment for a bit before meeting up with my friend Yo-Han to have a day on the town. After we ran an errand to pick up mugs and pottery made by our friends we went for coffee. Well, tea I suppose since that's what we got.

Next I was introduced to the most delicious and hazardous thing to my health, the Korean corn dog. Take a good look friends, it's a double battered stick of practically pancake batter, topped off with panko breadcrumbs and ketchup. It is my new favorite weakness.

Remember the Vader Burger poster I showed you? Well during coffee the burger was brought up and immediately we had to seek it out. I knew it was near the Dakgalbi restaurants but could not for the life of me remember exactly where. So we set out down the four side streets lined with food and shops. Finally, third try being the charm, we found it. Crying with joy we looked over the menu, and prepared for a most epic feast.

The place itself, we observed, was actually a very quaint little shop, quite my style. We were baffled that no one else was there, it being dinner time, and this place being clearly superb to all other places (to us at least, who were craving burgers). The walls are lined with old school memorabilia consisting of Etta James' "At Last", Lucille ball, Audrey Hepburn, and retro adverts for all sorts of products. The only hint of it being 2011 was the TV blasting Kpop in the background, I tried my best not to be too mesmerized.

Next, our luscious burgers came. I bought a bacon burger with cheese, special sauce, and a fried egg! Just look at how pretty it is. Oh, and the onions aren't raw, they're practically caramelized in a beef stock-like sauce. YUUUUM!

Needless to say, not a morsel was left behind.

We still had some time to kill so we hit the arcade. They are everywhere, and you will never hear me complain! I love doing the shooting ranges, and I'm not too shabby I must say. The drawback is that there are always those damn crane machines that steal all your money and never give you a prize. Well today we had had just about enough, and Yo-Han looks at that crane machine and he says "I'm going to get one of those bears". Once the coins were fed into the machine his concentration was such that it would make a large child cry out in fear. The first few tries were a no go, but he was just playing with the machine, lulling it into a false sense of security when BAM! He whipped that crane claw around so fast it swung down and around the bear with a grip like an anaconda, squeezing the bear's fluff stuffed torso to the point of bursting. But Yo-han was too quick for that, he whipped the crane around and sent the bear FLYING through the air towards the drop box. The box was in sight now, the bear clearly going in. Suddenly the bear made a plunge toward the ground as if propelled by some sick, cruel magnetism. Just before the bear reached the box it fell, teetering on the edge between victory and damnation. As if it were meant to be, a subtle breeze broke the silence around us, up into the crane machine, and as it whipped around in a clockwise motion to escape the machine, it blew the bear from it's perch into the sweet abyss of the PRIZE drop box. A victory was won, a hero was born, and a legend was written.

All in all things have been pretty spectacular. Heading to Seoul this weekend so hopefully I'll have more to tell you after. Not sure what we're doing yet but talk of a mexican restaurant reached my ears and suddenly the word "chimichangas" popped into my head, and my smile got juuust a little bigger. We'll see what happens, you never know what's out there until you go explore it right?

Until next time, this has been a lovely time, and I have thoroughly enjoyed writing this blog. I keep forgetting how nice it is to write, even if no one reads it all :D I hope the world is being kind to you, catch you on the flip side.

-Sara

Mountains and Chuseok

Again with the slacking off! Well, I can't blame myself entirely, I've been keeping busy and exploring the world :D I'm going to try and squeeze in something like 12 days of not posting to recap all of this. I apologize if it isn't very detailed and such but, alas, so it goes.

OK, starting with my first weekend in Jeonju by my onesie, no errands to run, sleeping in until when I like, staying up to whatever time suits me ( a choice that has come back to bite me), and generally having a lackadaisical attitude letting the wind blow me where it may. I decided that I was going to walk around my city for a day, since I had no money for anything other than food, and see what I could find.

Well, I took one good look around, and one short stroll outside of my home and realized that I needed to go find the base of that mountain over beyond the bridges, and climb it.

And so I started on my merry way down the stream, making small detours down the streets lined with restaurants and run down apartment buildings. When suddenly I happened upon this sign. One would think that a NASA sign would signify some cool space museum or important site...
...but alas it was neither of these. Turns out NASA is Na Sa Sushi, a sushi Restaurant about a fifteen minute walk from my place. Silly? Yes. Will I probably go back for sushi? Most definitely.

After my sushi discovery I found the bottom of the mountain. Granted in order to get there I needed to cross the street (something that can take days in Korea), go under a sketchy bridge (mostly sketchy because it was for cars but could just barely fit one at a time), and pass some farmland filled with elderly people staring at me as if I were not from around here, go figure. Anywho, once all that was conquered I finally got to the top, and here's what I found.
A temple! One of the prettiest temples I have seen so far, mostly thanks to the picture below. Not a very old statue as the placard outside said it was a recreation of one that exists(ed?) somewhere else. Still gorgeous though, the photo hardly does justice to seeing it in person.
Next it was time for the hike down. I had made a friend who was telling me all kinds of nice little tidbits about cheap food in Korea when the people who live at the temple offered us water, some of the most refreshing and clean water you can find. Turns out they have a natural spring which you can drink from. It literally is a watering hole in the ground and you are given a ladle to scoop up the water. For safety/sanitary reasons they placed these metal tops down. Don't want someone washing themselves in your drinking water!
That was the end of my adventure that weekend, but the next weekend was CHUSEOK! Which, if you don't know, Chuseok is like Korean Thanksgiving but WAY better. We had 5 days off for Chuseok, so I went to visit my friends in Gunsan. Expensive? Yeah if you call $5.20 bus fare super expensive. Either way, well worth it in the end. Turns out it was our friend's birthday! So we ate cake and celebrated his birth the only way we know how.
Delicious dinner, cake and candles, and then Norebang. As I mentioned in my last blog Norebang is "karaoke" but way better. So we went, we sang, and by the time we were done it was like 2 AM! So, of course, we had to get second supper. And what better place to get second supper than at Lotteria? What's Lotteria you ask? Think McDonalds, and then add Korea. So now you're ordering "set"s not meals and you get things like the "Lady Burger" (I got that one ^^ ) instead of a Big Mac. SO. GOOD.
After a night of fun, and watching the sun come up on Chuseok morn, even though it was overcast and we didn't get to see it come up, we slept into the early afternoon; only waking for lunch and an exploratory afternoon. We went to Eunpa (sp?) Park to see the longest wooden bridge.
When viewing the bridge I noticed that there was a cathedral on the other side of the lake. Now, I'm not a particulary religious person, but I'm a sucker for a good cathedral. So I asked if it would be alright if we went to explore the area, specifically the church. All in agreement, we set off to find the Cathedral, and find it we did.
It was about a quarter of the way around the lake and we decided, after finding and exploring the cathedral, that we might as well go all the way around the lake, and so we did. Finishing the entire route talking about upcoming events, climbing trees, taking pictures, and generally having a pleasant afternoon.
Tomorrow, or today I suppose, is the start of yet another weekend. I don't plan on doing much other than cleaning my apartment thoroughly and possibly starting to decorate it, so maybe I'll post some pictures :D I hope all is well wherever you are in the world, and I hope that the world is being kind. Until next time.

-Sara