Tag Archives: 2012

A Baby Shower

You know what?
Baby Showers are kind of the best…
You get to decorate your special location party place all whimsical and what not,
Stuff it full of fun people.
Eat sweets
And gush over the baby and parents to be.
What a wonderful twist of spirits ending a hectic work week.

Tonight we celebrated with the M family as they eagerly await the debut of their sweet boy A.

2012_03_30 Baby Shower

2012_03_30 Baby ShowerMar 30, 2012Photos: 7
 

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!

Scenes From The Weekend

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…

2012_03_24_Weekend Fun

2012_03_24_Weekend FunMar 18, 2012Photos: 22
 

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!

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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!

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Patience

Sometime…I just don’t have it.

What an interesting and busy weekend it’s been! Mr. B had meetings all day Saturday, and I had a hair apt in Seoul. The day started early, catching the train at 7:30AM in Dongducheon to make it down to Seoul by 9:30AM. Made it onetime no problem! That’s the greatest thing about Korea, you can almost set your clock to arrivals and departure times of the public transportation methods. I used knowing the departure times to my advantage and after my appointment I had some time to kill before I had to get back for a St. Patricks Day work function. Perfect for a nice leisure walk around the Myeong-dong shopping area. (sorry no new pictures snapped of the hustle and bustle of the shopping district).

Sunday, no rest for the weary. Okay, maybe just a teeny little more for me than for Mr. B. We headed down to Songtan Saturday night to grab a hotel room so that we didn’t have to wake up as early. Mr. B. continues to move full speed ahead with his PADI certifications, he had to assist with instructing newbies. I had all intentions of joining him in the pool, however when the alarm went off at 6:15 my body had other plans. I was tired, exhausted, drained! Whew, is this getting older? Ha Ha! Just kidding! I think the go, go, go from the week and Saturday finally took it’s toll. I casually woke up at 8:00AM, ate some breakfast, walked to Mr. B’s car to fill up on gas, and picked up some groceries.

We’ve been watching the weather back stateside. It sounds like Spring has truly sprung! As for the weather here… Well…that’s a bit of a different story. We have been all over the charts with our temperatures.

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Last weekend We were in wool sweaters, winter coat, ear muffs, and mittens. This weekend it is oddly warm and sunny, no complaints here! Saturday made for a beautiful St. Patrick’s Day! I only wish we could have seen more green, yes…besides the green shamrock attire, beads, and beer. I’m talking about the leaves, grass, and beautiful spring flowers!

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Sigh…see, patience…I’m missing that one particular gene.

Hope everyone had a wonderful St. Patty’s weekend!

Soyosan on Sunday

2012_03_11 Sunday Soyo Hike

2012_03_11 Sunday Soyo HikeMar 11, 2012Photos: 10
 

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!

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Woot-Woot!! Check out that weather forecast!! Okay, don’t look at the snow folks..it’s the 50’s we are digging!

Accumulation

2012_01_31 Snow

2012_01_31 SnowJan 31, 2012Photos: 12
 

Hip Hip Hooray! We FINALLY got some actual accumulated snow today. I looked out the window at work and saw large flakes slowly falling. I didn’t think it would actually accumulate to anything really. We have had a few random snow squalls that end as soon as they begin.

This really wasn’t anything major or really anything to write home about…well, I will rephrase that… to us, it’s blog worthy! We were excited to see some actual snow! Mr. B on the other hand, driving home from Seoul = not so fun.

I snapped a few pictures to share our experience with you all. I want to try to snap some of the snow covered mountains that surround the community we live in because they are just so picturesque as a backdrop when we drive to and from work.

How is the weather where you are? Is it unseasonably warm or have you been getting hit pretty hard with snow?

New Years Day 2012: Wishing You Good Fortune in the New Year!

2012_01_01 New Years Day

2012_01_01 New Years DayJan 1, 2012Photos: 7
 

Happy 2012! It is now the year of the dragon in South Korea. What does the dragon stand for? It all boils down to representing the year of empowerment. (We like that!)

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(At 2 pm today we got to watch Time Square drop the ball live in the comfort of our living room).

Since we’ve lived in Korea, we’ve been exposed to many customs and cultures of friends from all over the globe. We’ve learned that all of these cultures have various traditions and superstitions when it comes to the foods served in the first hours or day of the New Year.

The one thing in common all these cultures have is, they all say the best and luckiest of foods to eat, will help you to live long and prosper in the coming year.

Almost all Of these traditions surround foods that symbolize money in the hopes that the New Year will bring promises of new wealth.

Greens are popular because of their similarity to stacks of green paper money. We Bees are from central pennsylvania, our PA Dutch traditional food to eat on New Years Day is, pork and sauerkraut. We throw in some hot dogs (turkey to keep it healthy, and also because Mrs.B can’t stomach normal dogs) and of course mashed potatoes.

When we lived in the south we learned that they too eat a similar meal, but they throw in black-eyed peas. These symbolize the rich wealth of coins.

So what does our meal exactly mean or stand for? Well we’ve grown up being told that the cabbage (sauerkraut) represents money, but the pork also has significance as well, pigs are sturdy strong creatures, they root in the ground with their snouts, it is always in a forward direction, symbolizing a year of progress and moving forward. Yes, it really is as simple as that!

What is your traditional “good luck” food in the New Year? Well, whatever it is, we wish you good fortune in the new year! Cheers, and Happy New Year!