Monthly Archives: June 2012

Day 3 of R&S Invade South Korea

We got off to a late start today, but thats okay because we had no real formal plans in place. Typically I’m notoriously known as a planner, I drive Mr. B nuts needing to know or have some sort of back up plan in place. Since Rebecca’s been in town I’ve really surprised myself and we have been taking everything day by day.

Today Rebecca was interested in checking out some Buddhist temples near our home. We decided to hike up to the Soyosan Temple. The hike was really nice, we lucked out with another day of gorgeous weather in Korea.

We snapped some photos, people watched, and hiked our way up to the Temple.

We all laughed and giggled at the air machines that the hikers were using to to spray off their hiking boots with. We also couldn’t get enough of all the little Korean children running around enjoying their summer weekend. What fun we had just people watching.

After our short 2 mile hike we went to Lotte Mart and exposed Rebecca to a Korean grocery store. Rebecca described it as sensory overload, you know I’ve got to agree with her on that one. There are just people everywhere, loud speakers blasting with Korean, free samples of various foods, not to mention the endless amounts of foreign grocery goods to explore.

A shopping cart full later we purchased our dinner for the night. We decided to have a fun cook in Korean night.

Mr. B cooked, Rebecca chopped, and I stirred, prepared the tofu and cleaned up around the kitchen. We sipped on Soju and some wine. Made Kimbap, pickled quail eggs, chopchae/japchae, Bulgogi, fried tofu, and grilled garlic chips. What a feast! We may have went a tad bit overboard…quickly realizing that we cooked entirely way to much food. Plenty of lunch leftovers to go around. Rebecca can now proudly say she knows how to cook chopchae/japchae and roll some kimbap. Memories I know I’ll never forget, I don’t think she will either.

We cleaned up dinner and all watched Despicable Me. He-He-He! What a cute movie!!

Another great day to add to the books.

2012_06_17 Rebecca's Day Three

2012_06_17 Rebecca's Day ThreeJun 17, 2012Photos: 92
 

Day 2 of R&S Invade South Korea

We all woke up around 8ish-9ish this morning. We didn’t have a real plan in place. We wanted to keep the decisions of what to do up to Rebecca and how she was feeling. Mr. B whipped up some south western egg whites and I cut up a nice fresh Korean watermelon for breakfast.

Eventually we formulated a plan to see all the marketplaces in Seoul. We got everything together and were out the door around 11:30 with the GPS set to direct us to Seoul.

Please disregard the worst farmers tan ever that I’m sporting in my photos. Come on folks, I’m trusting you now!

We hit Namdaemun Market, Dongdaemun Market, Myeongdong, Cheonggyecheon Stream, and walked down the center of Seoul as the sun went down outside of Gyeongbokgung Palace.

We spent the afternoon lunching on street vendor food, shopping, exploring a bit, snapping photos, and soaking up the sunlight. The weather was gorgeous, we traipsed our little butts about 8 miles around the city.

As the sun went down, Rebecca said the city started to really take on a different vibe. We agreed, we love Seoul during the day, but really love Seoul light up shining brightly at night too.

Even after being here for over a year, we still get the same feelings of excitement while wondering around Seoul. Needless to say we were all thoroughly enchanted.

We ended our Seoul Backpack Bees tour in Itaewon over a delightful Thai dinner. We never ate at the restaurant, My Thai, it turned out to be rather delicious! We ordered pineapple fried rice, a spicy Thai noodle dish, and pad thai with shrimp.

It was getting late, we still had to drive home, we were all pretty exhausted. An hour and a half later we arrived home at midnight and all decided to retire to bed.

What an amazing day! Can this week not ever end, pretty please?!

2012_06_16-24 Rebecca's Visit

2012_06_16-24 Rebecca's VisitJun 15, 2012Photos: 95
 

Day 1 of R&S Invade South Korea

It’s FRIDAY! You know what that means!!

SHE’S HERE!!!

Yes! Rebecca’s flight landed a little after 3:30PM today, Mr. B was such a doll and drove to the Incheon Airport to pick her up for me while I finished out the work day. (I know, I know, I’m so lucky!)

Within 15 minutes of each other we all arrived at home. Two words, pure bliss! As soon as I heard the code getting entered into the door, I immediately had to run over and give her a big long overdue hug! I keep having to pinch myself to make sure she’s actually here! Actually sitting at our bar, sipping her drink, chatting about life! It’s reality!

SHE’S HERE!

Rebecca, having the amazingly caring Seoul she has, came baring gifts. Things from back home, Tastycakes, and a copy of the Real Simple magazine. Does she know us, or does she know us?

We took it easy, had a very low key relaxing night. Rebecca unpacked, we showed her around our place, and she decided she was up for something of lighter proportions for dinner after her incredibly pork filled flight. Lol, long story.

We all decided bibimbop would serve as an excellent meal choice. Plus it was one of our favorite places that we wanted to share with her. Needless to say we were pretty excited!

The restaurant changed some of the side dishes because of the seasonal changes. It was fun getting to taste the new mix-ins.

We asked Rebecca how she liked the bibimbop, she said she really enjoyed it, however she was used to it being served directly to her with everything already in the bowl. We explained that most places do serve it that way here in Korea too. This restaurant is just a fun experience allowing you to pick what you would like in your dish.

After dinner, Rebecca could no longer keep the sleep monster at bay. We decided to call it a night and head back home so she could get some sleep and prepare herself for the rest of the week.

Goodnight everyone!

One More Sleep

Until my best childhood best-friend arrives in Korea for a visit. By best-friend I mean the kind of friend who would go all the way to KOREA to visit you. I’m so blessed to have the most amazing people in my life.

I cannot express how excited I am for her to be here! I think I’m just excited to share all the things that Mr.B and I fell in love with since moving here. Most of all just having her to make me feel sane, have that familiarity and major part of my US life with me again.

AhHH!! One whole week!

I’m envisioning lots of exploring, shopping, touring, eating, oh and we signed up for a Korean cooking course to do too!

20120615-231702.jpg

20120615-231710.jpg

20120615-231717.jpg

20120615-231725.jpg

Look out Korea! You are in for it 🙂

Eat’taly

In the land of grilled meats, kimchi, and rice…sometimes we find ourselves craving other cuisines..Sometimes, just not exactly sure what cuisine it may be.

Take tonight for instance..

Mr. B: “What are you hungry for?”
 

Me: “Doesn’t matter”
 

Mr. B: “just pick something”
 

Me: “Oh it doesn’t matter to me”
 

Mr. B: “Dino Meats?”
 

Me:”Doesn’t matter”
 

Mr. B: “You know what….na…no Dino meats”
 

Mr. B: “Grilled chicken?”
 

Me: “Sure” “Doesn’t matter”
 

Mr. B: “Na…”
Eventually we end up with deciding on a newer restaurant located in New City. Eat’taly. The restaurant opened a few months back and ever time we passed we though to ourselves, we will go back and check it out. You know you always end up saying something like that and forget about it when it comes time to eat. You end up going to the places you know very well, you know what to expect, it’s comfortable.

20120615-214942.jpg

Tonight just happened to be one of those nights, we craved something different.

20120615-214954.jpg

Eat’taly is a very quaint little place. The food delicious, the service superb, we were delightfully surprised.

20120615-215017.jpg

20120615-215055.jpg

20120615-215120.jpg

20120615-215105.jpg

20120615-215037.jpg

20120615-215027.jpg

20120615-215131.jpg

20120615-215046.jpg

After looking over the many possibilities of pasta or pizza decisions, we ended up going with a shared set menu item. Gorgonzola pizza with honey, a garden salad, garlic bread, and pasta carbonara. Yum!

20120615-215003.jpg

20120615-215154.jpg

20120615-215146.jpg

20120615-215212.jpg

20120615-230545.jpg

20120615-215139.jpg

We ended the night with a shared pot-bing-su from Lotteria.

20120615-215256.jpg

Grab the map coordinates here!

Isn’t Summer time so sweet?

Give Me 50!

Laps that is.

20120610-122750.jpg

20120610-122830.jpg

20120610-123623.jpg

20120610-123944.jpg

Today, for the second time in a row this weekend, I woke up with Mr. B and went to the indoor pool. Yesterday I swam 30 laps, today I pushed myself a bit harder and did 50. Mr. B jokingly said that he needed to buy me a wet-suit for the pool because my lips were turning blue by the time I got out. When he said that, it instantly took me back to childhood memories, the days of swimming until my lips were blue, teeth chattering, convulsing shivering, but not daring to admit it’s time to get out and warm up.

20120610-123451.jpg

Those were the days!

I stuck around a bit longer this morning to watch the Scuba students in action. Don’t tell Mr. B that I said this, but he’s such a natural! He loves scuba and it truly shines through when he’s helping to assist the students, or explain something more in detail. It’s just so darling watching him light up.

20120610-124037.jpg

20120610-123350.jpg

20120610-122912.jpg

20120610-122926.jpg

20120610-122939.jpg

20120610-122952.jpg

(Well, Hello Mr. B!)

20120610-123006.jpg

20120610-123025.jpg

20120610-123040.jpg

20120610-123115.jpg

20120610-123136.jpg

20120610-123746.jpg

20120610-123916.jpg

20120610-123928.jpg

Happy Sunday.

Thirty-Two Sucks…

Or, does it?

20120609-162630.jpg

Nevertheless, it never tasted so sweet!

Today is June 9th. June 9th marks a very, very special day of the year for me….

Yes, today I cheers another year of having the sweetest man I’ve ever known to call my own in my life. I know, I know, every wife under the sun says that about her husband. But honestly, for me, he really is.

Mr. B has shown me what real love is in its truest form. From the very first day we met, Mr. B has continually portrayed what a friend, a man, and a partner is. I swear this man has such patience, an incredibly understanding heart, a faithfulness, a forgiveness, and the most genuine love just for me. How blessed am I to have him as my best friend?

Mr. B threw a bit of a wrench into the birthday weekend festivities. He has pool classes all day today and all day tomorrow. However, I don’t think there is another way he would want to spend his birthday, well besides being with his family, naturally.

20120609-163119.jpg

20120609-163149.jpg

20120609-163212.jpg

I had to do a smidge of improvising with how to celebrate Mr. B’s special day from the hotel location. Did you check out the ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins?!

20120609-172814.jpg

20120609-172847.jpg

20120609-172927.jpg

Happy Birthday, my dearest Beebs! You’re nothing less than my dream come true. Only you!

Perfect And Not So Perfect

What is your definition of perfect?
Sometimes I follow blogs and think to myself, “wow, that bloggers life comes off as almost perfect”. Think about it…you get to choose what photos make it on your page, your topics, your comments, etc.

Life is made up of so many perfect and imperfect moments. Eventually we realize that each happens for a reason one way or another.

So here’s a run down of the perfect and not so perfect moments of our 5 year anniversary weekend happenings.

First, many people asked, what did you do for your anniversary weekend? How did you celebrate…well we went to the East coast…naturally.

Some of the new dive students said,”Mrs.B, you don’t dive”, “You are okay just hanging out for the weekend?”

The answer is, I enjoy it. Getting to watch Mr. B totally in his element, reading a good book I just downloaded, relaxing, and snapping pictures, chatting with friends, meeting new people. What a perfect gift! Hmmm well… minus the stomach bug that’s been plaguing me for the past 2 1/2 days. If you didn’t already assume, chalk that up to the not so perfect moments.

Saturday morning started off a bit rocky. We wanted to be on the road at 4:30am…however… Father time totally worked against us. Yes, that sounds about right, blaming him! That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Aka.. Didn’t hit the snooze button, turned the alarm completely off. Oops….

Still made great timing, no traffic. Everything worked out rather perfectly.

Saturday afternoon the skies sort of matched my stomach. Gray. Luckily the dives were going well for the eager group of 30. Unfortunately on the opposite end of things I was still on the fence, stomach not feeling 100% like itself.

In between dives I made myself get up and take a walk. Convincing myself that the crisp beach air would do me some good. I ended up leaving my camera in the car with final thoughts of it will just be a short walk, no need to carry anything extra.

Aren’t those your famous last words? Ah! I didn’t think I’d walk around as much as I did. I really should have took the camera with me.

Again, convinced myself to go back to the car and then If I felt up to it again I’d go back and snap some photos. Eventually that is exactly what I did.

Yes! In my flips! Did you really think i’d have something different on?
Sometimes all you need is a little mind over matter. (EEk! Little did I know I’d pay for that when retiring off to bed).

Anywho, I enjoyed my walk up…

up….

up…

and finally over and down…

a mini mountain that hugged the harbor area the divers were using to practice their skills. It was pretty neat to look down on the ocean below to see if I could spot them.

I stumbled upon an elderly Korean couple singing to one another and taking in the oceanic views. Also on the walk I found a temple, and laughingly watched a Korean family with two children that were being playfully teased by their father for being afraid of the metal grated pathway affixed to the mountainside. I guess you can add to my list throughly enjoyed my people watching too.

Sunday morning the sun poked right out behind the gray skies. It turned out to be an absolute perfect day for the divers. Plus while my stomach continued to remind me I wasn’t going anywhere I had ample opportunity to catch some rays.

Ahhh…What an incredibly peaceful place!

I’m convinced even though the beaches here on the East coast are bare compared to that of one stateside, a beach is a beach, the feelings of calmness, peace, and relaxation still loft in the air. Heaven on earth.

Hope you all had a truly perfect weekend!

Five Years

Today, five years ago, we both made a special promise to each other. A promise to love and respect each other unconditionally into eternity.

Never did I ever imagine that I could continue falling more and more in love with this man each day as much as I do. Wow, But…I do…

And HE makes me feel like the luckiest girl on the planet!

There is no if, and, or but about how marriage is work. Yes, you both have to be willing to put in equal efforts to continue to make it grow stronger and stronger for the future. The good times will help you forge together and navigate the rough times. Once you weather the storm, and the sky clears, your relationship is that much stronger, that much more sweeter. AHH! You come on folks, you know that amazingly complete, whole, fulfilled feeling I’m talking about. A special bond that no one else holds within you.

Marriage and love make you realize quickly that all you want to do is put the needs and wants of your partner before your very own, wanting always to make sure they are cared for, happy, healthy, and feel unconditionally loved, empowered, and safe. You make a commitment to yourself that for the rest of your life, that is your endless goal.

This is my endless goal, I’ll never give up on and throw the towel in.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, Mr. B I’ll be side by side with you no matter where or what the crazy world decides to dish our way.

Bless this man! Happy Anniversary! Cheers to many, many more!