Christmas!

Christmas Tree with presents..

Christmas day lunch

This year's Christmas was wonderful..
great food and great company.. and we'll always remember Dad.. He'll always be in my heart..

hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas this year.. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas day dinner

rapidly changing world

Just had to share this with you all! "Mailed Memories: Your Cherished Letters"

 We live in a world that's changing so rapidly with high-tech gadgets and advanced technology that even though the time I used to write to my friends and loved ones or take a picture with a film camera was only a while ago, it seems like that was in another life time. Don't get me wrong I am an early adapter and love the gadgets and everything however, there are times I miss the good old days. Some of the students I used to teach didn't even know what a film camera was or what developing films meant. They were just amazed at it when I explained to them.

 After reading the article it reminded me of how I wrote to a total stranger asking to be my penpal, wrote to my friends and family that were half way across the world. Mailing it with pretty postages, waiting and checking the mail box everyday. Oh, the mixed emotions I experienced during those writing, mailing and waiting… well, only the ones who had the joy would know what I'm talking about.

I, too, still keep some of my old letters boxed up and once in awhile scoop them up and read them all over again. Of course most of them are written by others but there are few that I've written and never mailed.

 I think I'll be sending this year's season greetings the good old fashioned way. :)

 Anyways, it was great reminiscing. Hope that you enjoy it as much as I have ;)

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Wouldn't it be lovely...

"All I want is a room somewhere..
  Full of lots and lots of books.."

I was browsing on the internet and looking up some picture of books and bookshelves and was totally impressed by these libraries.. These settings would be my DREAM house library.. let's hope it does come true one day... ;)

This is from an interesting article from The Telegraph

This is a die for.. love how they installed the shelves.. impressive but then again.. I don't think I'll be living in a house this big... (found it on this site)

Now, this one's very modern and it's an unique design.. but I think I'll have a hard time cleaning the shelves... imagine all the dust settling on the edges.. but STILL it looks great, doesn't it?
got the pic from a blog post

Very cozy looking yet, well organized with lots and lots of room to shelf your books. :) Got this one from one of Oprah's articles

This one's amazing..totally loving the settings.. This rooms a bit big but it's still I'd love to sit on that chair.. lay back, relax and read! (source)

Fell in love with this one.. I like it because it's so bright! I could read ALL DAY in this room .. not that I couldn't read all day.. but seriously.. this room is gorgeous.. AND love the shelving because it's a cabinet style!

I don't remember where I got this one from.. but it's a building I'd love to visit.. where is it anyway?

a great selection of books

People Are Talking ... About These Five Books
So was browsing on my phone NPR app and found this article with some great selection of books that I'd absolutely be interested in reading in the future..

And one was already mention by one of our Bookleaves memeber, Sandra: Freedom by Jonathan Franzen.

Wish that books will come out quicker in paperbacks and get here in Korea faster! :( Sucks to be in Korea in these situations...

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My very first carrot cake

slicing up the carrot and preparing everything to be mixed in a bowl...

The mixing part hurt my arms a bit.. but worth it ;)

 So, I used a mixer to help the process along ;) ha!

 and voilá!

mini Muffins & Rye bread

Muffins turned out to be the size of cupcakes... guess that's what happens when you make it in a cupcake tray...

This was my first rye bread... and so proud of myself that it turned out fine!

Movie with MOM!

Yes that was on September 21st.. I'm "a little bit" behind on uploading pics and writing on my blog.. but that's nothing new now is it :(

Well, that was the week of Chuseok(추석). I was going to explain but I think wiki does a better job than me so there's the link for those of you who aren't used to Korean holidays.

Well, usually for Chuseok, which lasts for three days, family and relatives gather around at the eldest son's house but since our family is a bit of here and there and we don't really get together Mom and I went to see a movie and my sister was somewhere in Gangnam studying for her graduate school exam.. The movie was great. It was a Korean movie, which I'd go into details but not really feeling like it so I'll skip the details..

Anyways, when we came out it was rainning, no that's not the correct term, it was POURING and it was really hard to drive. See the picture on the left that's my car's windshield, you can practically see the water flowing down.

After the movie, since we had to wait for my sister to finish up her studies, we went to the bookstore and just spent some time browsing around, killing time.. And like always, I just couldn't resist the temptation. Yes, I laid my eyes on some books and I had to get them. This time they were cooking books. I've been wanting to make some real nice yummy breads and I saw these books, I just couldn't resist.

Drive home was just horrendous, I think it was the longest drive ever. Usually it takes about an hour or less to drive home from Gangnam area but because of the rain some of the roads were blocked because it  was flooded. I think we've made the most u-turns in one trip and when we finally got home it felt like we've been on the road for days and just got back from a long road trip. Lesson learned, NEVER drive in a weather like that.. EVER!

Mushroom Shabu-shabu (버섯 샤부샤부)

I've been going to this restaurant near my place for as long as I've lived in Sanbon. The name of the restaurant is Beoseotchon (버섯촌), which means Mushroom Village. It's a cute name... The owner is really nice she and her husband actually cooks the ingredients that they have prepared and it's to die for!

So, as you can see in the picture here on the left.. we ordered 3 servings though there were 4 of us.. and you may think that might be not enough.. BUT it definitely is enough. See with the soup.. you get 3 servings of veggies you get 3 servings of meat and some side dishes; home made pickles, home made jang-tteok(장떡), which is like jeon(전) but with red pepper paste(고추장), plus don't forget kimchi(김치).

 After you're done eating the soup and veggies, they serve you noodles and then fried rice. No, you don't choose noodles or rice but you get both and without extra cost. And on top of everything.. the price of the food is just 9,000won per serving. Though it used to be only 5,000 when I first went to this place but people, it's been years.. and you know that cost of everything went up.. AND if you were to compare it to the price you pay for a shabu shabu in seoul it's way over 10,000won, actually I think it's more like 12,000.

 You can't beat the taste OR the price.. :D I just love this place..

I know there are many who don't like to soak their food but well, I'll practically eat anything.. (well, reasonably anything..)

a new place

[Sept. 11, 2010]
So, a friend of our family invited us out to dinner and I got to find another great place to eat.
It's always great to find new places and try different food.. I particularly liked this place because on the roof of the restaurant they had a little patio where you can just hang around and have coffee.. ;)
Great place I tell you..

AND the food was excellent...

Their specialty was the ribs.. of course Korean style.. and  Korean Cold noodles (냉면: Naengmyeon, both 물냉면mul-naengmyeon and 비빔냉면 bibim-naengmyeon) Too bad I don't have pictures of them. I'll have to take one when I go next time ;)

 so This is the little patio, you'll see some benches and chairs and tables. It was drizzling a little bit but not a biggie since we were under a little pavilion..

Scone? or STONE?!

Ok, don't kill me but it was my first time at trying this.. I mean my muffins turned out fine.. but the scones! DISASTER.. I guess I felt like cooking something or rather baking. I knew I had some flour lying around in the pantry so gave it a shot..besides, reading Julia Child's 'My Life in France' got me all mouth-watering for French food and food in general. and end result was DREADFUL!

You would think following the recipe would get you a real nice, delicious, hot scones straight out of the oven.. NOT! well, it was totally my fault since I did add more flour at the end thinking the dough was too watery.. I mean how was I to know? there wasn't any 'Chef Bugnard' to coach me through this.. I was on my own on this.. no one to tell me and advise me.

So the dough turned out to be very elastic, don't ask me how, but I do believe adding more flour would get you that result. and when I baked it it just got harder and harder.. you wouldn't believe how hard it got.. :(
Well, the picture looks pretty good AND the taste wasn't actually bad.. it's just the texture. I wanted that soft crunchy scone but instead I got a hard stone! I guess this taught me just to buy one rather than attempt in baking a bunch.. =P

Oliva

This was the second time I've visited this restaurant and I must say I really do love this place.. The first time was probably about 3 or 4 years ago.. anyhow, it's near Gyeongbok-gung station(line#3) I didn't realize it was that close to where I worked until our team went to eat lunch.

The food's pretty good and I love the whole place, very nicely arranged. They even rent the place for family events and weddings and such.. I didn't know they had lunch sets but I guess most restaurants usually do.. anyway their lunch cost 18,000won plus 10% tax but you get the whole course: bread, soup, salad, main dish of your choice, desert, and coffee/tea/soda. I though it was worth it. AND they give you more bread, soup and salad if you want more. Totally worth the price! me thinks.. ;)

 [Soup of the day was Hungarian Goulash. I had the Fruite de Mare with cream sauce(Seafood cream pasta) for main dish, had my Earl Grey for my after meal tea and the dessert was Orange panna cotta. YUM!]

It must be the weather...

As I'm sitting at my desk at the office.. I feel my eyelids drooping down heavily ..
and my heads pounding!!!

so.. I'm guessing it's probably because of the warm, nice weather outside that I'm feeling so drowsy..
and probably my head's being pounded because this ridiculous cold will just simply not leave me alone.

good thing that it's a holiday tomorrow.. though I have tons of overdue work piled on my desk waiting for my attention :( ah... C'est la vie!

being overwhelmed with work just makes you go the opposite of getting things done, don't it?

I just hope I'll get at least half of the things done then, I could be in peace (only a little, I imagine)

I don't know why, but these days, thoughts of dad is constantly on my mind.. and I miss him dearly..
maybe it's the one year thing.. though it has been over a year.. or maybe it hasn't been long enough..
Maybe I'm just thinking too much :)and need some entertainment in my life!!!

<-- not really a picture I took today.. but the weather is just like it. That's the side gate(not open to public, I believe) of Gyeongbok-gung (palace) and it's right opposite my office..

Chung Wa Dae Sarang Chae

Since I've been working at Korea.net I've come across great information on and about Korea. It helped me a lot in the sense of getting to know this country and what fun things are happening throughout the country.

I probably wouldn't have realized that there were so many things going on in Korea on my own. I did know there were various kinds of fairs all over the peninsula but it didn't really drive me to actually want to visit one..

No, actually until the trip I took early this year down to Geoje and Tongyong I just had ideas of wanting to travel around here are there but action always failed me. But now, I think I want more.. enough of the excuses, it's time to just up and leave for the places that interest me.

One of my interest is photography. I love to take pictures and to see them. When I found out that there was a photo exhibit on Korean War and in colors well, I had to go.. I was planning to go with bunch of friends but that didn't really pan out and since it was only a 10-minutes walk from my office, I decided to go during one of my lunch breaks.

The location was in Chung Wa Dae Sarangchae right across from the blue house(Chung Wa Dae) and I thought they did a great job in organizing everything within the exhibit. Though the building itself, well, I thought it could have been a bit more traditional in the design, but nonetheless everything was clean, neat and modern.

When I first learned of this exhibit I imagined it was going to be just the exhibit however, they already had the place set in different sections: on the first floor there were exhibits and information displaying about the city of Seoul and Korea. Great touch screens that shows you information on parks, markets, and so forth; on the second floor, there was the Hall of the Presidents and G-20 hall. and in the lobby John Rich's Korean War photographs in color.

I had a great time and I'm planning to visit more often.. hopefully I will have enough time to do so. The photo exhibit will be held until the end of June so if any of you are interested you should make that visit soon. ;)

Oh, and on the day I visited they had tea tasting (they told me they have it every Wednesday and Saturday, but should check the schedule on the Chung Wa Dae Sarangchae web page to be sure [only down side is there's no English version]) Loved the tea, especially the green tea that they fermented and made into a round cylinder block shape.