A Very American Thanksgiving- In Korea!

For Thanksgiving the whole group got together and we had our own version of a very American Thanksgiving here in Korea!  We all chipped in to rent an apartment to have our dinner at.  We needed the use of a fully stocked kitchen to cook everything, and SK Global House isn't the most festive of locations.  The apartment belonged to an older Korean couple who went to the States to visit their daughter for the holiday.

Jim and Rosie did almost all of the cooking.  They made delicious stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, and many other things.  With the money that we all contributed, we bought many "American" items like dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, etc. from the American base, as well as an American grocery store that's in Itaewon.  Also, we ordered our turkey from the American Base.  I even made a cheesecake, which despite the doubts of some particular family members, came out great!

I went with my friend Steve to pick up the turkey and the pumpkin pies at the U.S. Army base in Itaewon, Yongsan Garrison.  It was very cool seeing the base.  We had to show our alien registration cards and get checked in.  We ordered the food from the hotel that's on the base.  It was a very nice hotel, very Western looking, with a beautiful lobby and restaurant inside.  It was nice not to be the minority for a little while; we were surrounded by fellow Americans.

When the turkey came it out it was a lot smaller than Steve and I were expecting, we were a little nervous at first, but it ended up being the perfect amount for everybody.  We were 14 people total and we did an excellent job of demolishing all the food, no leftovers for us!  As we ate we all went around and said what were thankful for.  I said I was thankful for my amazing family encouraging me and affording me this excellent opportunity.

Later on in the evening we watched the movie "It's a Wonderful Life".  We all stayed the night since the apartment was still ours until the next day.  The next morning we made scrambled eggs, pancakes, and banana bread, continuing with the American theme.  Around 11:30 we snapped into gear because realized we had to be out of the apartment by noon and we still had a lot of cleaning to do.  We got it all done though, and after a million dishes (the apartment did not have a dishwasher!), many remade beds, and a thorough vacuuming, we checked out of "Hotel Nice-Korean-Couple".

It was a lot of fun spending Thanksgiving with all of my study abroad friends, and it was so much fun organizing our own little American holiday.  I definitely missed Thanksgiving with the family though, and it made me a bit more excited to go home.

Our delicious Thanksgiving dinner made by Rosie and Jim

Jim carving the turkey

Jeju Island Day 2

I usually don't dream about food unless it's Cinnamon Toast Crunch or pancakes of course, but when I woke up on the second day of our trip to Jeju, I thought I was dreaming about warm, homemade bread.  But I wasn't!  Andrew and I went into the kitchen and Ilene was slicing a loaf of fresh bread that she had just taken out of the bread maker.  Talk about Korean hospitality!

We made breakfast for ourselves with the ingredients that were set out for the guests' use; bread, eggs, milk, jam, coffee, and tea.  I had a delicious egg sandwich and Andrew made a fried egg.  We knew we wanted to head out early so we got ready fast and then spoke to Ilene about our plans.  She recommended a beautiful beach for us to go to that would be far less crowded than Jungmun beach, which is where we went the night before.  She wrote out the bus numbers for us to take, as well as the name of the beach, Hypeojae, so that we could just show the bus driver our slip of paper and not worry about memorizing the Korean.  Without even planning it, we ended up going to the same beach as one of our housemates, Ginger Puffer, and yes, that is her real name.  Like Bree, Ginger's from California and teaching at the international school in Incheon.

The beach was beautiful!  There was plenty of white sand and seashells, and we got to walk around the lava rock that remains from Mt. Halla's last eruption in the year 1007.  Mt. Halla, or Hallasan, is a large, inactive volcano in the middle of Jeju island; in fact, the volcano's eruption is what actually formed the island.  The volcano is visible from virtually any part of Jeju, but typically the summit is covered by clouds or fog.

Sitting on some lava rock, enjoying Hypeojae beach. 

And so it begins, my strange obsession with adorable Korean families. 

We were reminded immediately by the wind and temperatures in the low 70s that it was certainly not summer anymore!  We didn't let that stop us though, we walked through the sand, got in the water (to my knees at least!) and laid out on our towels.  I even managed to get a little sunburned!  It was incredibly relaxing and the scenery was absolutely breathtaking.  We only stayed a few hours because there was so much more to do!

Our next stop was the O'sulloc Tea House Museum.  We were pleasantly surprised when we got there, it ended up being far more beautiful than Andrew and I were expecting.  It was a small, but beautifully architected building, with a cafe, observatory room, nature walk, paths through the tea plantation, and even samples and demonstrations.  We were starving at this point so we went straight to the cafe.  We shared a piece of green tea cake roll and some green tea ice cream.  Both items were delicious!  We then walked around the museum and went up to the observatory; we were shocked to see that the green tea fields stretched as far as the eye could see, but it makes sense though, since green tea is a Korean favorite.

O'sulloc brings a whole new meaning to fresh!  Here museum workers are packaging the green tea that Andrew and I bought.  

Andrew and me on the observatory floor; that's a lot of soon-to-be green tea!

Smells like tea!

After walking through the fields we decided to head back since we wanted to go back to Jungmun to have dinner at the Lotte Hotel.  We took a cab back to the guesthouse to get ready for dinner.  After showering Andrew and I both came to the conclusion that the sun is still extremely strong in September and that perhaps sunscreen would've been a good idea (we were looking a bit lobster-ish, more so me than him).  I was so excited to go to Lotte for dinner!  Lotte is a huge Korean company that owns supermarkets, amusements parks, department stores, and hotels.  The Lotte Resort at Jeju is a staple of the island, and by far the classiest hotel there, so naturally I was dying to check it out!  I wore a pink silk blouse that I had bought while shopping with my friend Rachel (she bought the same one) before we both left for abroad.  When we bought it we knew we'd wear it to something special while studying abroad in our respective locations, Seoul and Copenhagen.

Andrew and I had 8pm reservations for Lotte's Volcano Buffet and Lightshow. We arrived a little early to walk around the lobby and check it out.  The place was beautiful, and like the Hyatt, it reminded me very much of being at Disney World.  Everybody we encountered was incredibly nice, and it was just so nice to finally be there.  We headed outside to the buffet and were absolutely stunned.  Everything from the beautiful swimming pools, the hotel's "volcano" structure, the sushi bar, and the tables and tables of food, was just amazing.  We were seated right away and perhaps the most surprising, but nice thing was that we were surrounded by so many families!  We had forgotten for a bit that it was still the week of Chuseok, and often this is the only vacation time each year that Korean families get.  

The entrance to the Lotte Hotel

View of the Volcano Buffet from the lobby terrace. 

Andrew and I ate a ton!  Everything was so delicious we just couldn't help ourselves.  I'm sure that the Korean families at the table next to us began to stare after plate six, but that didn't stop us.  Some of the highlights were the sushi, roasted duck, filet mignon, rice cake filled with red bean paste, blueberry cream tart, and green tea gelato.  I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!  At 8:30 it was time for the Volcano Lightshow, the event that the buffet and hotel are known for.  The volcano went dark and then all of sudden a flash of light appeared and it began!  There were flames, streaks of light, flashes of water, and even holographics!  I wish I could do a better job explaining it, but it's just something you have to see in person.  Although it only lasted about 15 minutes, it was an incredible show and it certainly made the whole night worth it.  When the lightshow was over, a group of Korean drummers performed, and although they were quite talented, nothing could compare to the lightshow.  We continued to stuff ourselves, and when we couldn't possibly eat another bite, we walked around the patio and pools some more and then headed back to the guesthouse.  

Volcano lightshow, pictures just don't do it justice.

Andrew and I still going strong, not quite stuffed yet!

Heart and Seoul gets a makeover, and I get pancakes

Happy half birthday to me! I was in the mood today to spiff something up and since I'm not allowed to decorate the walls in my room, I thought I'd play with the design templates on my blog. So here's the new Heart and Seoul!

Today Andrew and I went to Gangnam. Gangnam is one of the more modern districts of Seoul, many more skyscrapers than Sinchon, and more western style chain restaurants and stores. Also the Ritz Carlton of Seoul is located in Gangnam. When we got out of the subway station, we both said "Ahh, this feels like New York". We came here once before a few weeks ago for a Mentors Club party that was held at a bar on the 23rd floor of the building, so we had an awesome view of the this part of the city at night. But we wanted to see it during the day, so we jumped on the subway around 2pm and explored.

Some highlights of our afternoon were walking through the Ritz Carlton, going to Artbox, and eating at Paris Baguette. Andrew located the Ritz Carlton right away; he told me has a "natural ability to sniff out luxury hotels". Something tells me he's not kidding. We walked through the lobby and looked around. Needless to say, it was beautiful. Also, they were in the process of building a marble fountain outside the lobby, which I'm sure will be really nice once it's finished.

Artbox is a Korean stationary store that has many shops all over Seoul. It's really not just stationary though, it's much, much more. They sell so many "Asian-style" gadgets (a.k.a. bright colors, hello kitty, strange quotes) that you could just look around that store for hours. Korean students are completely obsessed with school supplies. Even university students have matching pens, notebooks, binders, pencil cases, all themed of course. And in Korea, you're never too old for Hello Kitty, or any cartoon character for that matter! Artbox also had a candy section, but Andrew and I resisted because filling up those bags of candy and paying by the weight is a rip off everywhere, even in Korea. We still had fun looking around though and I will definitely be returning for some gift shopping!

We ended up getting a late lunch at Paris Baguette. PB is a coffee shop/bakery cafe all over Seoul, but the one in Gangnam is especially big. They have a "brunch all-day" menu and a large outside sitting area along with all of their usual cakes and baked goods. It was the first place I've seen so far that had PANCAKES on the menu and so because after all it is my half birthday, I treated myself! Waiting for my buzzer to go off felt like the longest 10 minutes in the world. But when they were done it was worth the wait; they had banana slices and maple syrup on top and in between each pancake. Delicious!

On our way back to Sinchon we stopped at Grand Mart, which is our home grocery store, and Andrew and I bought some items to make ourselves fried rice for dinner. He bought pork and I bought chicken, and we both shared some onions, broccoli, eggs, and garlic. The fried rice was delicious and although I still hate to cook, perhaps if you ask nicely, I will make some of my fried rice medley for you when I get home.

A very cute and Asian Artbox sign: