Sunday, 11 January 2015

A few of my Favourite Things: Aquariums and Eating

We enjoyed two short weeks thus 2 long weekends over Christmas and New Years.  HR was very kind in giving us this time off as it is not mandatory here in Korea!  Although it wasn't a long break, it was still much appreciated and enjoyed.  Many of our friends had to work the Fridays and Saturdays following Christmas and New Years.

On thing we did during this time was go to the largest underground shopping mall in Asia, COEX Mall. It was gigantic. There, we visited the COEX Aquarium, which was super cool.












One thing that people are still regularly asking us about is the food.  Eating is one of my favourite things to do, so I don't mind talking about it and I love sharing the new things we've been enjoying.  Here's another food post!

I've been happy to hear the news that Kitchener has opened a Korean BBQ place!  This is the most popular and social way of eating out here. Nothing better than paying to cook your own food at a restaurant.


























Its not uncommon to see things like this in grocery stores... fresh.



This is my all time favourite new dish, 감자탕 - Gamjatang!  A spicy pork dish...its made from the spine and rib meat.




I'm going to miss the amazing variety of Ramen Noodles available here, paired with Kimbop this is a go to meal that will cost about $2.


Gimbap!  - Loads of different combinations of vegetables and meat rolled in rice and seaweed


One of Ben's favourites, spicy pork rice ball. $2.50 with egg.


Soups!

Ice Noodles, not my favourite but interesting choice for hot days.
+ Galbitang - Beef Bone Soup

Spicy Seafood Soups

Noodles! 

























Korean Pancake + Traditional Lunch box with Tempura Veggies



Miscellaneous!









We've been cooking more at home too!  Ben got me a slow cooker for Christmas and whole chickens are available for less than $3 sometimes!


Our next few adventures will feature our house guest.  Tigs arrives tomorrow for the three week stay in the ROK.  He should keep things interesting.









Sunday, 4 January 2015

Goodbye 2014!

December was an eventful month with Ben's birthday, Christmas and New Years. Our weekends have been full of activity and we make the most of our weekdays too! Having been teaching these kids for nine months now, its been wild and awesome to see the progress and growth in them.

Here are some re-caps of what we've been up to since I have not posted in quite some time!

Working with children includes its fair share of germ exposure.  Daily we are sneezed on, coughed on, getting weird snack foods shoved into our mouths and various other forms of sharing.  Needless to say we've both suffered from a few colds but otherwise we've been lucky.  During a particularly stuffy week, our Korean co-worker, Miki, told us to try doing shots of soju after boiling it with hot peppers.  Soju is already deadly on its own.  Ben has taken a liking to this $1 bottle of Korean liquor, I have unfotunaly been turned off after a not so pleasant experience. We tried it, survived.  I think the process improved the flavour...not too sure if if improved our health.  Korean medicine. 



We celebrated American Thanksgiving at our favourite bar in Seohyeon, Pub 210!  Turkey dinner and all the fixin's was much appreciated.  Pictured is our friend Amber from Colorado!

I really wanted to get some Traditional Hanbok Pictures taken to send home, which was a huge success.  The hardest part was not posting the pictures online immediately with hopes to surprise our families on Christmas!  We started the day with a tour of a tradition Korean village.  Our tour guides were amazing. They were really nervous but so cute.  It was one of the girls' first tour so at the end she gave us both small gifts!


























This is a huge Time Capsule which was buried in 1994 to commemorate Seoul's 600th anniversary as the capital of Korea.  Outside those responsible for its burial, no one knows what is inside of it.  The girls were really sweet with their speculations and guesses.  It won't be opened until 2394...so I guess we'll never know.

















The Traditional Hanbok Experience!  We paid a small fee to get our pictures taken in tradition Korean garments.  It was really fun and we both had some good (respectful) laughs.  I tried very hard to get Ben to shave his moustache for the photoshoot, but he was dedicated to the Movember cause. We opted for the Korean Royalty look opposed to our only other option which was wedding attire.




December 12th was Ben's Birthday!  We celebrated at work with cake from our boss and a fried chicken dinner and drinks with friends afterwards.  One of his favourite classes surprised him with candles in choco cakes and they invited me ! :)



Dinner. This was our first day with the "Selfie Stick", we are still practising. 


Much different than any other year of our lives, we celebrated our First Christmas together and alone.  After work on Christmas Eve, we went out for Indian food and did some last minute running around for the following day.  I was pretty proud of our cute little "tree".


We started the next day with coffee and mimosas! Presents from each other and some graciously sent from home were opened and we had a lovely morning/afternoon! THANKS EVERYONE xoxox


In the evening, we ventured two buildings over to our fabulous and extremely generous friend, Gabrielle's house for a Christmas pot luck and Secret Santa gift exchange. We brought Mac and Cheese and there was plenty of food to go around, drinks too!  Gabrielle was a fantastic host! Her decorations alone were so cute, especially the montage of 2014.  Almost all of us pictured in this collage did not even know each other at this time last year! 





We had a fairly low key New Years! Again spending it at Pub 210 with our nearest and dearest friends we've made in the past 9 months!  Cheers to 2014 AND 2015!  I resolve to blog more...  

HAPPY NEW YEAR! MAY ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE!