I was scolded for taking pictures in the Too Cool For School cosmetic boutique. Reasoning was that this was their brand….no comment. Check out the oddly shaped mushroom puff to apply BB Cream.
We walked almost ran home once off the train because the sun set and the temperature dropped.
It took me very little time to snuggle into the rest of my Saturday night with a hot cup of chai spice black tea and some Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Tonight we celebrated with the M family as they eagerly await the debut of their sweet boy A.
All week at work the Korean ladies have been discussing what exactly a baby shower is. “How do you shower the baby before it gets here?”, “what does it mean to shower a baby?” Honestly being one of three American women at my work, we never gave it much thought that a baby shower wasn’t something typical the Korean culture might celebrate.
Tonight one of the Korean ladies I worked with decided to celebrate with us and see exactly what a baby shower was like. We played games like guess what chocolate was mushed in the baby dipper, timed fill in the nursery rhyme, measure how round the parents to be standing together are, blindfolded feed the “baby”, and see who can drink apple juice out of the baby bottle the fastest (pretty hysterical to watch!). You know, all the works.
Being a foreigner in Korea you tend to forge together and make “families” with the people you go to church with, work with, are friends with. These people help bridge the gap and make home feel a little less far away.
We ended the night with gift opening, and of course CAKE! The parents and big sister to be were so thankful and appreciative of all the love and support displayed in that room tonight.
What a terribly fun night!
Whew! Weekend recap…. Sitting here with a nice cup of tea (complements to our friend Katya and her mother for sharing her garden herbs) and enjoying a tasty piece of toast with strawberry jam.
Rainy Friday, snow squall Saturday, and a Sunny but windy Sunday…
What are the Bees to do with themselves when their original plans fell to the wayside because of mother nature’s indecisiveness?
Well, of course we just don’t let it get us down! Ha, that’s right! (Enter in a judo-chop) Take that mother nature! 😉
We celebrated our good friends birthday this weekend with dinner and drinks at Zelens (Bulgarian cuisine). We walked around Itaewon, where they showed us a hidden little gem called the Hidden Address (no pun intended). The Hidden Address is a vintage shop with a little coffee shop too. It really is a hidden address, located off the beaten path of the main street flowing through Itaewon. We loved it! Everything from the look of the building on the outside to the clean style inside called out to us. Thanks for sharing with us guys!
Throw in a morning waking up and seeing snow on the mountain! Yes! Snow! Comeeee on paaaallleeeaaasseee! Where is Spring?! The grandparents told us it’s been in the 80’s (and don’t forget this is central PA we are talking about).
Back at our place, we met up with some more of our friends this weekend and filled our bellies with some Budae jjigae. We couldn’t not think of anything more perfect to eat with the craziness of the weather. (Double negative-our high school english teacher’s ears are currently burning). The soup was awesome! However be prepared to smell like garlic the rest of the day. It worked out well for us Bees, we both smelled pretty ripe, however we smelled ripe together so it didn’t matter. If you remember from an earlier post Mrs. B ate Budae Jjigae in Uijeongbu, where the soup is pretty famous. This soup is MMmmmmm Mmmmm good!
I hope your weekend was as great as ours!
My iphone tells me…
I’m obsessed with our cat, Bean,
I’m really trying to learn Hangeul, the Korean alphabet,
I have a handsome husband,
Korea needs to jump on the whole spring thing,
and food plays a disproportionately large part in my life.
the end. <3
Sunday we decided to take a stroll up Soyosan to the buddhist temple. The last time we had hiked up there, the temple grounds had seen better days. Yes, the flooding from the heavy rains last year really did a number.
The air was quite brisk, but the sun was actually shining through the bare tree branches keeping us warm on our hike.
Once on the hiking path, we were glad to see that the grounds were in full swing of repair. The park crew already had water runoffs dug alongside of the roadway leading up to the base of the mountain.
Now…all we need is the beautiful spring weather! We just might get our request later this week!
Woot-Woot!! Check out that weather forecast!! Okay, don’t look at the snow folks..it’s the 50’s we are digging!
These are pictures from Mrs. B’s trip to the Inje Ice Festival this weekend. Hope you enjoy! The temps were quite chilly! Oh and no, she wasn’t brave enough to eat the live smelt fish….she just draws the line at bugs :).
Hope you are all warm and toasty wherever you are located.
To Songtan that is. We left Friday night after work, loaded up the car, and headed south for the weekend.
One of Mr.B’s scuba friends had a birthday dinner planned. We couldn’t imagine not going as some of these people have become like extended family.
We arrived just in time for dinner. We headed directly to the restaurant called Churrascaria Rio Grill. This place was a Brazil steakhouse and we were eager to try it out as we didn’t have the best experiences with a Dongducheon Brazil Steakhouse.
What a treat! This place we actually pretty good! The meat was great, service great, and dessert….mmm…Perfecto!
We had all sorts of meats. We learned that Churrasco is a style of grilling meat over a fire pit, that originated in southern Brazil. At Rio Grill, various cuts of meat are put on a skewer and slow roasted over hot coals to mouth watering perfection. Tonight we had choices of, picanha steak, alcatra steak, frango chicken leg, linguica sausage, baby beef, and custelao rib.
We were so busy engorged in our food that we completely forgot to snap any good food or restaurant pictures to share. Yes, folks it was that good! Well…I did manage to pry my fork from my fingers and mouth while switching for my spoon to eat dessert and snapped a quick pic with the iPhone.
Amazing, right?!
It was vanilla ice-cream with like a bananas foster sauce. Trust me, order it!
After dinner we were getting ready to go check into our hotel when I decided I really needed to bite the bullet and purchase my very first pair of long underwear. Yes, you read That statement right. Korea’s winter is no joking matter. The temperature plunges well into the 20’s and the wind just whips against your body. So yes, it was a total necessity to survive this winter without turning into frosty the snowwoman.
With my newly purchased knickers in hand, we went to the hotel and checked in. It was around 11pm and after the drive we decided to relax.
The next morning we woke up, grabbed breakfast, headed out and about to do some errands. We had fun walking to the Ville area where all the shops are located.
Nothing real eventful to report. We ate lunch for the first time at Blue Opera. Overall, a pretty neat atmosphere inside the restaurant. The tables are cozy, all seated with small love seats. The lunch menu was pretty westernized with a nice selection of teas and adult beverages. Food consisted of soups, salads, pastas, rice, etc. the cherry tea caught my eye so of course I had to order a cup.
Hmm… It tasted like they put a few sugar packets into the maraschino cherry juice jar and served it piping hot. it was awesome, at first. Then after commenting how I’ve never met my match where I’ve ate or drank something that I considered to sweet. Well, I spoke much to soon. This drink made me eat my words. I ended up with a slight stomachache because I drank half of the drink and it was just too sweet. Guess I now know the feeling that normal people have towards my candy corn and super sugary icing.
Cherry Tea
After lunch on the way back we froze out little butts off because the wind was no long at our backs. Brrrrr! Korea you are so cold!
We got back to the hotel, warmed up, and suddenly there was a wrapped gift sitting on the bed. Mr. B told me to open it. He laughed and said quickly it was the book I had been searching for over the past few weeks. I of course did not believe him because we just came from the bookstore together where they did not have my book. What a sneak! Also I have to point out that Mr. B didn’t keep his word. We agreed no gifts because we were going to the Philippines for Christmas and we had agreed that was our gift to each other. Some days I just have no idea how I got so blessed to be married to this sweet man. I love him to the moon and back, even if he is a little sneak ;).
Mr.B was tired and wanted to take a quick nap. I had big plans to finish my book and play with my new gift. We got our act together in time for our next dinner meet up, 6 PM. Mexican at La Casa Del Mexicano! Woot-Woot! We headed back to the Mexican restaurant we snapped pictures of a few weeks ago when we last visited Songtan.
I changed my order up from the last we had been here and was daring enough to order fajitas diablo. A tad bit spicy, guess the two little peppers pictured beside the dish should have been a good indicator. I still loved it! Mr. B ordered the something he had last time. No cilantro for this man. We all had birthday celebration drinks consisting of beers, frozen mango margaritas, and regular margaritas. We topped everything off with a delicious light Korean cake from Paris Baguette. What a fantastically fun dinner. The birthday boys wife gave everyone potted plants with a beautiful hand panted flower (she painted) on the pot. How amazingly sweet are these people?
After dinner was over we grabbed drinks with some new friends at a little Irish Pub called Muddy Murphy’s. This place is small but boast with plenty of comfy character. We enjoyed getting some drinks, laughing, and chatting. Eventually our new friends had to get back on the road and get home. We parted ways but decided we have to meet up again very soon after the holiday madness settled down.
How was your weekend? Anything eventful to recap that makes you smile when reminiscing?
without technology?
Ah! We are already well into the first weekend in December. Yikes! That means only 21 days left until Christmas.
Saturday afternoon we headed down to Seoul for Mrs. B’s work Christmas party. We made reservations at a nearby hotel, so that we could take the rest of the day and night to finish up our Christmas gift shopping.
We ate a nice meal with Mrs. B’s co-workers that consisted of a nice dinner buffet spread. We had a fabulous time chatting with everyone and getting to put some faces with the voice that had been on the other end of the line. You must to know that when any sort of party is planned in Korea, karaoke is an absolute must. What a sight to see! Many of Mrs. B’s co-workers had excellent voices! Mr. B hid from the microphone, saying that he had already flexed his pipes and filled his quota already this year.
While we were there a Korean women working the party at the restaurant approached Mrs. B wanting to see the back of her haircut. After chatting for only a brief moment she immediately grabbed her side and kept saying how thin and tall she was. This led right into the question, “how often do you go to the bathroom?”. Baffled we both had to have had this look on our faces, did she really just ask that?? Mrs. B, trying not to laugh and be rude, answered the best way possible, “I think as much as a normal person goes”. Something’s like this experience truly remind us were not in the US anymore…it’s Korea.. there is no personal or private questions here. She continued well into the next 10 minutes with probing questions about eating habits and using the bathroom. Yikes!
After the party we headed to our hotel, checked in, dropped off our overnight bags, caught a cab and started our shopping adventures. The first stop was to the Namdaemun marketplace where Mrs. B’s had visited the weekend prior. Mrs. B was super excited to share the experience again with someone new.
We haggled, shopped and met some very interesting characters, ha ha ha! You have to check out the photos if you haven’t already done so.
After the marketplace we headed off to Hello Kitty to pick up A good friends daughter something little. Mrs. B was in absolute hello kitty heaven!
Walking back to the marketplace we came across a street vendor selling egg bread known as, Gyeran Bbang 계란 ë¹µ, that Mrs. B had been looking for. It was soo yummy! With the cooler weather setting in you will find more and more of these warm treats being served up by the street vendors. So how can we describe Gyeran Bbang? Well, it sort of reminds you of french toast but with more egg. There is a slight sweet taste to this street snack but it’s very light. Yey! Another item to cross of her Korea to do list.
We decided to try to hail a cab to head back to the hotel to drop off our bags. We weren’t very successful at first we decided to take a break after being totally passed over by various impatient Koreans. We spotted Holly’s Coffee. The beans were pretty strong, just enough to pep us up and go back outside and give it a go again.
Much better this time. We got a cab! We headed back to the hotel and dropped off the bags. While Mrs. B waited on Mr. B, she played around with her camera and took various shots of the Seoul tower at night. We had a breathtaking view from our hotel of the tower light up.
The Greek souvlaki restaurant, known as Santorini is located in the alley behind Hamilton Hotel. Santorini is just a tiny piece of Greece located in the middle of Seoul. The owner is Greek and offers a traditional Greek menu.
Mr. B ordered the pork souvlaki (YUM!) and Mrs. B ordered the Moussaka. Appetizers cost between 8,000 to 15,000 Won, meat souvlaki dishes cost around 18,000 to 20,000.
Contact: 02-790-3474
Directions: From the Itaewon subway station exit #1, Look for KFC on your right, Make a right, walk uphill and make a left at Bliss. While walking keep looking for Santorini on your left, it’s located on the 2nd floor. It’s very easy to locate!
After dinner we were both pretty beat from the adventurous day. We originally had plans to grab some drinks at the various pubs and eat “the most amazing hot dogs ever”. However, our bodies suggested otherwise.
We walked back to the hotel. Along the way we saw some very interesting advertisements. Yes! Only acceptable in a foreign country, Ha ha! Check out our attached photos to see what we talking about.
We got back to the hotel and had to snap some cheesy Christmas photos in the hotel lobby. You know, just because! Besides, the lobby was decorated so beautifully and we Bee’s decided not to have a tree this year because we were not going be home to actually enjoy and admire it.
Lying in bed we started to talk about the holidays and how different it would be this year because we were both abroad. Mr. B is quite used to being away from family. Mrs. B on the other hand has never had these experiences. With that being said Mrs. B decided that Christmas does not have to mean a trillion lights and over-organized parties, or spending until your wallet cries out (unless, of course, you want to…that’s fine too). No, Christmas and the holidays should be about starting your own sort of traditions, your own ways of celebrating the way you want and that includes with the people you want to celebrate it with. It should be the time of year when you give everyone an extra hug, or tip the waiters more than usual, or spend quality time with your loved ones and close friends during the weekends, just because! Whatever you end up doing during the holiday season, do it with joy in your heart and everyone around you will brighter because they are in the presence of a joyful person.
Happy December everyone!
Too cute, right? Well, after chasing this little guy’s owner down for two blocks…this fashionista pup can now continue on the walk with all four cute pink booties. 🙂
