Movie and Eel for dinner!

Today was our school's "Culture Day" for 5th grade, 6th grade, and English teachers!  This basically means that we're allowed to leave work 2 hours early to go do something "culturally Korean!"  Good news is, we never actually HAVE to do something Koreanish, we just have to say and write that we are!  YAY!  So, all of us left school at 2:30pm and headed to Nampodong to see a movie!  Most of the teachers saw a Korean movie, but Loola, Hyun Jung and I went to see TAKEN 2.  There was A LOT of violence, so poor Loola had her hand over her face almost the whole movie!  

Okk, Loola, Me, Hana, and Hyun Jung outside the theater in Nampodong.

Next stop was Amnam Park, where we all met for a group photo (typical Korean style)!

*** These are all of the 5th grade, 6th grade, and English teachers.

... as we were perusing through the park, Loola asked if she could try using my camera to take a picture of Hyun Jung and I on the steps.  She took this picture, looked at it and immediately squeeled, "I want one with Chelsey too!" Awe! 

hence... the same photo, with Loola!  :)

We all headed down to a seaside seafood BBQ tent!  How awesome is this place?  There are plastic windows in the back of the tent, that were zipped down tonight so that we could enjoy the gorgeous view of Yeongdo Island across the water and the giant bridge connecting Songdo to Yeongdo!  It was one of the coolest eating atmospheres that I've experienced in almost 4 years of living here!

There are perks to eating at little whole in the wall beach side tents, like having a cozy and charming place to eat... but then there are negatives to it, too.  Like when you find a worm in your edamame!   I'm guessing there aren't a whole lot of food regulations around these parts!

After waiting about 20 minutes, the lady brought out thie GIANT tray of shellfish!  Clams with chopped veggies, octopus in a red sauce, more clams in red sauce, covered in cheese, and a giant bowl of hot pepper clam soup!

These were something I would never have touched in America!  Now they're one of my favorite foods!

When the lady brought this basket of freshly slaughtered eel, I almost threw up.  Turns out though, once eel is cooked up, dipped in a little oil and salt mixture, it's fantastic! :)

I had another first tonight!  I ate the creatures growing inside of these seashells.

Here it is, up close!  

Slimy? - You bet'cha! 

Rubbery? - Oh yes!  

A little sandy? - Yep!  

Yummy? - Surprisingly so!

The 9 of us all stayed huddled around these two round BBQ tables, cooking, eating, talking, laughing, and drinking (our table just had cider - but still!) until the sun went down and the lights of the island lit up the ocean water! 

I'd venture to say that this was my all time favorite teacher dinner in 3 1/2 years! :)

Cheers to that!

Jess and Mayo's photo shoot!

Last weekend, between eating delicious food, playing cards, drinking craft brewed beer, chatting about life and love, hiking, walking, picnicking on the rooftop, and shopping with Jess and Mayo in Seoul, we were able to sneak in a photo shoot near the Han River!  Between the two of our cameras, Aaron and I had well over 100 photos that we absolutely loved!  How could we not, with such a stunning couple who ooz so much love, passion, and adoration for one another?! 

Click below to see

Jess and Mayo

... and if you look really carefully, Jess's growing baby bump! 

Love you two!

Sunday at Beomeosa

Aaron and I spent the morning, in bed, watching college football... but with only a few more weeks of perfect California style weather, we knew we couldn't spend all afternoon in our PJ's!  So, we both threw out some places to go and explore, but agreed 100% on ONE - The lovely, charming, mystical 1334 year old Buddhist Temple, Beomeosa (pronounced: Bo-mo-sa).  You just can't find stuff like this in America, people!  Period. 

We took the subway there, line one, and got off at none other than Beomeosa Station. (Easy!) Went up exit 7, made a quick U-turn, and took the first street up the hill.  There was a small bus stop about 100 meters up, where we were able to jump on a bus (#90), which took us up the 2.5 km road leading to the temple, atop the mountain!  I can't say it enough - I LOVE living  in a city with excellent public transportation!

As soon as we arrived, we walked this lantern strung pathway...

and then did a little off-roading (or, well, we got off the main path at least), and found our way down to this awesome little stream running along side the temple!  

I'm getting pretty good at finding these heart rocks now! :)

There's a tradition in Korea that when you make a wish, you stack a stone, one on top of another. If your rock falls from the top, your wish won't come true, BUT if it stays, your wish is sure to come true! Such a cute idea, right?

We spent about an hour here, playing on the rocks, watching the fish swim by, walking through the bamboo forest, snapping photos, and enjoying the natural beauty in literally every direction! We loved this place so much that we relocated next weekends photo shoot with Chris and Stella to this exact area!  We're so excited to see what we can come up with the two of them there! :) 

Then, we headed up the path to the temple’s main gate, aka the One Pillar Gate, built in 1614.


Beomeosa is one of my favorite temples in Korea because it spreads over so much space.  I’m not sure how many buildings there are, but it seems as if the temple grounds are like a giant maze, with gorgeous temple structure popping up around every corner!  

See why it's one of my favorite temples in Busan?!

Red Lentil Lunch!

Jess sent us home with a tin can full of dried red lentils for us to use in Busan, since we can't find them here and we're trying to eat less (or no) meat when we cook at home!  Beans and lentils are our new substitute! Aaron whipped out the lentils today and mixed them with carrots, red bell pepper, onions, garlic, chili powder, crushed chili peppers, curry powder and a tiny bit of water (since we can't find broth here) and made us a delicious stew for lunch!

It's nice to have a husband who's friends with the kitchen!

Chuseok Vacation!

I love this time of year in Korea!  My sweatshirts are beginning to be pulled from my closet again and my closed toe flats are making their comeback!  It's finally FALL around here, and with FALL comes Chuseok  (Korean Thanksgiving) vacation!  We had Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off of work, so we headed to Seoul Saturday morning to hang with Jess and Carlos!

American needs a KTX train!  It's FAST, comfortable, fairly inexpensive and REALLY clean!

They even provide magazines for your entertainment!  Of course Psy (the Gangnam Style phenomenon) is on the front of this issue!  The guys is EVERYWHERE right now!  

Don't be fooled by his expressions... He loves this train! ... and loves taking pictures in the morning!  LOL

BTW, I snapped this picture on the train, with my instagram app, of Aaron's wedding ring!  I'm not sure I've ever shown the inside of his ring on my blog... That's my hidden fingerprint in there.  :)

As soon as we arrived in Seoul, we caught the subway to Myeongdong to do some shopping at the gigantic 4 story Forever 21 and the two 4 story H & M stores, two of our favorite stores!  Myeongdong also has these awesome potato thingys!

After doing some shopping, Jess and Carlos came and met us, and the four of us caught up over some noodle soup and mandu at 명동교자 (Myeongdong Gyo Ja) a famous Korean noodle restaurant that usually has a line out the door.  Fortunately, we got there right in time before the rush and only waited 3-5 minutes!  After dinner, we went back to their adorable new 600 sqft 3 bedroom home in Itaewon.  Aaron jumped right on the teak carved Indian Elephant that they shipped back from India.  Love this thing!

I'm really disappointed in myself this weekend, because while I had my REAL camera, I barely ever took it out to snap pictures and took crappy pictures with my iphone instead!  I would have loved to show you more pics of Jess and Carlos's new neighborhood (They just moved), their charming apartment, the walk we took through Namsan Park, or all the awesome places we went to for food and drinks!  Shame on me.

Aaron and I were so excited about how cool it was up in Seoul!  It's been a while since we've experienced sweater and scarf weather!  *** Thanks for the tooth-brushing-photo-bomb Carlos!

Sunday morning, we walked to the Flying Pan, an awesome breakfast joint just minutes from their new place where we feasted on veggie and pesto sandwiches, humus, pancakes with riccotta cheese and yummy soups!  This place is legit! 

Does Jess not look like she's glowing here?  (You'll soon find out why!)

 Apparently we have a tough guy on our hands, people! 

 This is my favorite picture from the weekend because it's the long awaited baby Perlaza!   Yep, Jess is pregnant and due in early March!  My mind is already turning about what I'll be making for the little one when winter comes around and I can't bare to be anywhere but inside my apartment with my warm PJ's on!  

We took Jess and Carlos out to the Han River Sunday night for a photo shoot to use in our portfolio!  They were nervous about it the whole way there, but then jumped right in, and went for it!  I barely had to direct at all, which meant I could do a bit of snapping myself!  :)  We're all so excited with how their photos turned out.  Be looking out on the blog!  They should be posted within a week or so!  We still have Meg and Chris's to edit and post first.

In case I haven't raved enough in the past about what an AWESOME cook (healthy cook) Jess is, I'll say it again... She's REALLY good!  You can even buy one of her cookbooks here, or if you live in Korea, you'll be able to pick up one at KYOBO bookstore soon, because a Korean publisher is going to be combining all 4 of her cookbooks into one coffee table sized book and selling it in KYOBO!  I am beyond proud of my Jeshi!  With that said, she made a delicious breakfast for us: an egg, sweet potato, swiss chard and ricotta cheese omelet, coffee and tea, and we all ate it on blankets, like a picnic, on her rooftop! 

... and her rooftop is not your average rooftop, because her rooftop boast an incredible view of downtown Seoul and the Seoul tower off to the right (not pictured)!  It was one of the things that sold them on the place.  

We had the best time with Jess and Carlos (and Kristin on Monday morning) and were so thankful for all the quality time and conversations we got in with them over the short 3 days we were together.  It's awesome to be close with another couple where the guys are just as tight as the girls, and the 4 of us together is always great!  I'm not sure that's very common, so we feel really lucky to have them in our lives! We're planning to meet them sometime during Christmas vacation up in Seoraksan at a cute little Pension!  If we can all get the time off, we may be able to meet for Christmas together!  

We said goodbye to Jess, Carlos, and Kristin around 1:30pm Mondayafternoon and jumped on the 2pm KTX train back to Busan.  As soon as we arrived, we hailed a taxi home, checked on Maverick, packed another small bag of warm clothes and got on an express bus headed to the other side of Busan to meet Gill and Sam for some camping on Songjeong Beach!  They borrowed a tent for us, from our friend Crystal, and had it all set up for us when we arrived!!  Are they not the best?  It would have been an interesting sight to see if we tried to set it up in the dark! 

Gill was chef for the night and cooked us some awesome Galbi on the briar (BBQ).... and Sam made us a South African specialty; grilled cheese sandwiches with a sweet chili sauce and slices of tomato. 

Aaron and I took a walk over to a hillside, near the water and gathered some wood to make a campfire to keep warm!  We weren't sure if it was allowed, but figured we'd make it now and ask later. :)  Luckily, it didn't seem to be a problem at all.  (As a side note: fireworks are sold at this beach, and an idiot shot one right at my tent around 1:30am, when I was sleeping!)  Gill immediately started screaming at him, which woke me up in a frantic state and Aaron said I went from a laying position straight to my feet in a mili-second!  Luckily my tent went unharmed, but my heart was beating out of my chest!  Sometimes I think Koreans don't really think before they do stuff... The camping party lasted till about 4:00am and we were all up with the sun by 8am!   We tore down camp and headed home by 10am to our cozy beds!  

Then, Aaron and I were up again at 3pm to head over to Okk's house for dinner!  She always invites Aaron and I over to her family's house after Korean holidays to eat leftovers with her!  Tonight she made squash chips and french fries for our appetizers before serving us with delicious dolust bibimbap! She knows me well, because that's my favorite Korean dish!

Thank you Okk for a delicious belated Chuseok feast!  

Today we're laying low and lounging around the house. It's our last day of vacation before returning to work for a 2 day workweek - the best kind of workweek!  Then, Ashley's coming over later tonight to watch the season opener of Revenge with me!  Cue the popcorn!

Happy Chuseok everyone!