Category Archives: Travel

Good, Bad, Everything in Between

Many apologies, lately I feel like I’ve been rather inconstant with keeping up on our blog. I know it’s only been a week or so since the last update, but it feels like months have went by that I’ve left you all hanging. Life has certainly been fast paced here for the bees. Travel, wonky work hours, and life, just plain life. Now I’m left trying to catch up on my e-mails, blogger friends, pen pal, books, and the heaping pile of laundry that’s bursting at the seams every time I open our walk in. The only real comforting fact to subside my OCD is that i know my grandma’s advise would be, it’s not going anywhere, you will get to it when you can get to it. She’s sweet! I won’t even get started on the fact I haven’t put any thought into packing for my trip to Cambodia yet. Eek! Yes, that’s this Friday…more on that later.

Lets start with the good! I like to jump off on a positive not anyways.

Over the weekend we decided to get more adventurous and try out another new restaurant. Sweet victory! We loved it! Excellent duck and outstanding sides. Of course I included photos for you, even threw in a bonus video too. Sorry for the iPhone quality guys. Can I just point out how ingenious is that table with the built-in rotisserie! Oh Korea, you make being foodies so easy!

Onto the bad…no sugar coating…the place below was the pits. Period.

So whats everything in between? Planning to leave for my Habitat for Humanity trip in Cambodia this FRIDAY!

I wasn’t kidding, fast track life lately! I feel like it was just yesterday kicking off my build fundraising for my team. Here we are almost $2,000 later and boarding a plane soon. Everyone keeps asking me if I’m ready, if I’m excited, if I’m worried. Yes, yes, and yes!

I find myself soul-searching a lot, looking for ways to give a piece of myself, my heart, to something meaningful in this world. What an opportunity with Habitat! I get to build a home for a deserving family, give them a forever place. In so many ways I know this will fill my heart temporary. I’m ready to give my all! My sweat, my energy, my manpower. Oivay, sweat…did you see those temperatures above? I’m thinking there will be plenty of sweat to give.

I’m excited to learn about the Cambodia culture and way of life, work hand and hand with the people, be a tourist, and disconnect completely from all the technology that bogs me down. Yes, worry, had to mention that of too. What can I say? I’m a worry wort. With any trip outside of the norm there is always the element of worry, right? Mr. B made me make two deals. One, come back alive, and two I cannot bring any children back with me. Does this man know me or what? Shushhh don’t tell him I admitted that openly.

Cherio! I’m off to finish up and finalize all the in between things before leaving on my trip, but I’ll be back soon with lots of exciting things to share!

Splendid Extended

How was your weekend? I hope it was splendid extended weekend!

Ours surly was!

Some of the highlights from the weekend included:

-Juicing. I’m getting more creative, trying to incorporate sweet potatoes, ginger, etc. so delicious! I can’t help myself. Mmm! If you have a juicer, please share your thoughts and favorites with me. Pretty please and thank you!

Sweet potatoes, carrots, pineapple, red grapes, and jeju oranges. ( I loveed this one! )

Apples, cinnamon, and fresh ginger. ( Mr. B loveed this one! )

-Hair trim. Goodness, my mop desperately needed one! Fuzzy ends…need I say more? Pretty typical trip, except….drum roll….I drove myself for the very first time! No train this time around. If you ever get the chance to drive, or take a taxi in Seoul, you will know why this act in itself was quite the accomplishment! Mr. B was so worried about me driving alone for the first time. He made sure I had a GPS hooked up ready to go, with the route pre-programmed in too! What a guy! Thankfully
I also had a co-pilot. My dear friend accompanied me on the journey. (Girls day!). Woo-hoo! We successfully made it there and back, safe and sound!

-Skype session with my lovely Grandparents. My family always makes me feel so grounded. I treasure all the moments I get to chat with them via Skype, almost as good as being in person.

-Mr. B came home from being away on the East Coast…Hallelujah! Miss that guy a smidge when he’s away.

-Tied up some more of the loose ends of the Cambodia trip with Habitat for Humanity in March. Visa, plane tickets, a bit of research…check, check, double-check.

-Cooked up some fantastic homemade beef stew with Mr. B. Sometimes the best creations come from on the whim ideas. We had left over beef stock from a roast, it was just fitting to make soup. Plus, we’ve still got a white winter backdrop here from our little South Korean living room windows.

Here’s to many more splendid extended weekends in 2013!

Huge News!

I’m super excited, I’ve got huge news to share! No, no, I’m not pregnant, sorry family.

Why so excited? Well, MY BEST FRIEND IS ENGAGED TO GET MARRIED! Yes! I got to hear it straight from her mouth in person while home on Christmas vacation. How lucky am I? What a wonderful memory and celebration to be involved in.

All the years of waiting for each other has truly paid off! I couldn’t imagine anyone else for you Rebecca. Josh, I just adore you too! We wish you both nothing but the best.

They were just so cute to watch together. Both beaming ever so brightly, how beautiful!

While home, our days together were mostly spent, reminiscing, sipping tea, cooking together, taking photos, breakfasting, giggling over old inside jokes, shopping, checking out the outstanding possible wedding venue, admiring the gorgeous ring bling (great job Josh!), and of course girl talk. (Check out some of our fun below)

It was wonderful!

Time together was nothing short of pure perfection!

Love you B!

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January 6th 2013

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Three families, visits with close friends, pounds of cookies consumed, and six beautifully decorated Christmas tress later, we Bees have made it back safe and sound to our little humble abode in Korea. We truly cannot express or thanks enough to our dear families and friends for all that they did and helped us with during our stay.

Okay, who’s coming over to visit us next?

Upgrade Me

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I’ve must admit… the flight home was really nice! I mean really, REALLY, nice! We upgraded to business class. I’ve never flown business class before, so it was an eye-opener. Flatbed seating and leg room for days. The in-flight meals weren’t shabby either. I’ll take it!

Have you ever flown business class? What were your thoughts? Wait… is that even a question?

Bacon Strips and Bacon Strips and Bacon Strips

Really America? Deep fried snickers wrapped in bacon? Triple patty cheeseburgers with slices of bacon? Panera Bread serving a simple salmon croissant sandwich to include a slice of bacon. Oy… America…our society is already in such an extreme obese state and now we have this brilliant idea to top everything off with a bit of bacon. Eek… I’m curious, what are your honest feelings or thoughts on this?

I can’t fib to you, we have been no exception to the rule with our food intake. To be frank with you all, we’ve gained collectively around five to ten pounds since landing back on our US soil. Everything has revolved around food on our trip. I felt like we barely would be finished with one meal and we’d be planning or chatting about our next. Truly the American way, right?

I wish I could tell you that we stuffed our little bellies to pure bliss, however while yes we did stuff our bellies, we honestly didn’t find the same satisfaction or fulfillment that we thought we’d have afterwards. Food now tasted much more rich, sweet, salty, all around different.

Poor Mr. B ate a Wendy’s cheeseburger on the way home from our flight arrival into the airport. The first thing out of his mouth was that it tasted like eating a stick of butter. I never did get a burger from Wendy’s while I was home so I really couldn’t concur or deny his thoughts.

Has the food really changed this much over the past two years? Or, is it us that has changed so much in our taste and diets while living abroad? Whatever the case, the best meals to us were our good old fashion families home cooked meals. Our central Pennsylvania Dutch and polish cuisine roots. Yes, pork and sauerkraut, chicken corn soup, chicken and waffles, pittsburgh chicken cheesesteak salads, raisin filled cookies, shoofly pie, sweet lebanon bologna sandwiches, hot lettuce, whoopie-pies, fresh beef burgers from my families livestock, soupies, capicola ham, Troutmans ham spread, dry beef gravy, and ice-cold birch beer. Mmmm Mmmm!

Prepare yourself for the following… these are just a few fun food photos we got to savor while home.

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Thanks Brad for the blog title inspiration from your tee.

Sight & Sound Theatre

Christmases past we Bee’s have given our grandparents tickets to attend the Sight and Sound Theatre, typically accompanying them. Since we have been away almost two years, sadly we haven’t been able to uphold that tradition and go with them. So this year because we knew we’d be home, we purchased tickets to go!

Sight and Sound brings the bible to musical theater. This trip marked my third performance. Each time we attend I walk away even more touched by the story, music, performance, and stage production. It’s truly quite a sight to see!

This performance we all set sail on the extraordinary journey with Jonah and the whale! When we got to see the whale float over the crowd, and the glowing lifelike jellyfish drop from above our heads, our mouths all dropped in amazement.

I’m looking forward to the future when we get to see another show.

Interested in seeing a show for yourself? Click here for further details.

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A horse and buggy is a pretty familiar and common sight for those of us that grew up in Central Pennsylvania, especially Lancaster. But, there are many visitors that vacation or travel through the state that come for a glimpse or experience in the Amish lifestyle and practices. I thought it was only fitting to include some photos of a tourist attraction that we passed along the route from seeing our show that day.

Doesn’t the countryside look so peaceful? Bloggers, this is my Pennsylvania.

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James’ Pizza

Speaking of another place that hasn’t changed, we visited James’ Pizza. You know the type of place where all of the locals know each other and when you walk in the whole place turns and looks at you, they know you are an outsider. It’s okay.. we figured they don’t get to see many Korean’s in this part of the world. Just kidding.

James’ is known for their hot cheese pizza. We know you are thinking, what makes this hole in the wall so special? Three words, hot, cheese, pizza! Not just any cheese, but spicy american cheese served on a rectangle shaped pizza.

Mr. B and his family have such fond memories of James’ and have been frequenting for years and years. I was lucky to get introduced to this dusty coal region gem when I first met Mr. B. In the summer we’d swim and run up to James’ pizza and order a half-baked hot cheese pizza, take home bake the rest of the way and devour it. Those were the days!

Yes, the menu is very small and hasn’t expanded very much over the 50 some years that the doors have been open, but that’s okay with its crowd. James’ knows what they do well, and boy do they really do it well!

This time our friend Scott tagged along with us, this was his first time. He’s now hooked and is already planning his next visit. Unfortunately Scott also learned the hard way about James hot cheese pizza fresh out of the oven. Molten lava temp’d cheese! Eek! Watch out for that! The melting of the roof of your mouth will be with you for days, but the experience is well worth it in the end. Just ask Scott!

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2013

How did you spend your New Year’s Eve? Did you take time to stop and reflect on your past years triumphs and downfalls? Did you take sometime to remember the promises you made and may not have had time to fulfill? Did you catch the countdown in time square on TV? Snag a sweet midnight kiss from someone special? Set your new year resolution? Say out with the old and in with the new? Eat your good luck meal? If you said yes to these all, go you!

We bees have set our resolutions, took time to reflect on our prior years triumphs and downfalls, said out with the old in with the new, and ate our good luck pork and sauerkraut meal too. Unfortunately, we both crashed due to jet-lag before the countdown began, and only I made it up and out of bed to the kitchen moments before midnight to toast the new year. I shared hugs and kisses with my family and had to sneak a little peck on the man of my dreams lips.

I have a feeling about 2013. It’s going to be a year of growth and changes, all and all a really good one! So many fun and exciting things to come all of our way. All to include engagements, births, and marriages, oh my!

Cheers to you and the new year, 2013!

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We are so goofy!

Korean Night

While we were home we craved Korean rice. No big surprise there, huh? I mean if you think about it…we eat it almost everyday with one of our meals. Hopefully the ladies from work are not reading this, ha-ha! Or else right about now I’d be hearing a big TOLD YOU SO! Mind you these are the same ladies who were absolutely baffled at the fact that Mr. B and I could not get rice at every restaurant in the US. Gosh, how can you not just love them?

My sister in-law loved a Korean restaurant that she tried out some time awhile back. She asked if there were anyway to show her or teach her about Korean cuisine. Mr. B jumped at this opportunity!

This would usually be an easy task, however we are from central PA where there is really no large city for miles in either direction. Trying to cook up some Korean food posed a bit of a snag. No H-mart or Lotte Mart… We really had to think outside of the box and imprivise a bit. A little Korean-American fusion. It was fun!

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“Are you trying to burn the baby out?” My sister in-law commenting on all the wasabi that Mr. B had in his soy sauce and forgot to mention to her before she took a nice dip. We forgot not everyone likes the feeling of burning your nose off. Oopsie.. sorry baby A

I love the next few photos. My father in-law was such a wonderful sport. He rolled his own kimbop and ate it too. Now the chopsticks on the other hand…. that was a different story. he-he-he. Just needs a wee bit of practice before he comes for a visit.

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Brad, Sorry you missed out! You will just have to have Lynds show you in the meantime and then you two come over and visit us too!