Thanksgiving Housewarming

Thirteen of our friends came over to our place for a traditional Thanksgiving feast.  The festivities started around 11am when our friends Josh & Marilyn showed up at our place with their oven and a 15 lb turkey brine-ing in plastic bucket filled with a salt bath & spices.  They brought over their oven so that we could have two ovens going at once. So at this point you might be wondering to yourself,  "How in the world did they bring their oven over?"  Well out here nationals don't use ovens, and so apartments only have stoves but no ovens.  As a result many expats end up buying really big toaster ovens to use as an oven. Our ovens are just big enough to fit a 15 lb turkey in it - meaning the sides of the turkey were literally almost touching the sides of the oven, and the top was almost hitting the heating element.  Not a lot of breathing room.

For the next 4-5 hours they worked on roasting the turkey while I made chicken pot pie from scratch.  I had actually started doing some cooking the night before because I knew there'd be a lot of traffic in our kitchen on Thanksgiving Day, so I had already made homemade brownies and prepped a green bean casserole the night before.  One awesome thing about celebrating Thanksgiving in a foreign country is that you end up having really delicious meals because you have no other choice but to make everything from scratch if you want to eat it.  There's no frozen or canned green beans, so I had to use fresh ones.  There's no pre-made pie crusts, or frozen chicken pot pies for that matter, so I had to make the crust, sauce, and make all the filling from scratch.  Our friend who made pumpkin pie had to make her own pumpkin puree from a pumpkin because we couldn't find canned pumpkin puree.  The result is that you spend way more time in the kitchen prepping meals, but the outcome is well worth it because let me tell you, we had a feast and it was absolutely delicious!  

Sweet potatoes, salad with homemade dressing, 2 kinds of mashed potatoes (garlic and sour cream/bacon/chives), homemade bread, apple cider, egg nog, turkey, chicken pot pie, green bean casserole, stuffing, 2 pumpkin pies, a sweet potatoe pie, and brownies - all from scratch!  Our friend who made the stuffing actually had to buy baguettes, dry them out in the oven, and them crumble them by hand because you can't just go out to the store to buy croutons here.  To make sour cream you have to add vinegar to heavy whipping cream until it thickens.  There's no such thing as instant mashed potatoes, or apple cider from a packet.  You've got to add all the spices to a crock pot and let it simmer.  And boy is it good.

Even a turkey is hard to come by.  Usually we never eat turkey out here, but since there are so many foreigners and I guess specifically Americans in our city, around Thanksgiving it is possible to order a turkey, but you have to go through some great lengths to get it.  Our friend Josh and my cousin Jeremy had to travel over an hour by subway to the other side of the city to pick up our frozen 15 pound turkey and lug it back along with other foreign ingredients they picked up for the rest of us at a foreign food market.

The other interesting thing about celebrating in another country is that B and I didn't have the traditional wedding registry where we got things like place settings for 8-12 people.  As a result we had to scrap together every last plate and utensil in the kitchen to have enough place settings for all of us to sit around the table to have a sit-down meal all together like a family.  Some people were eating off of Christmas decorated plates and little tiny plates.  We managed to find enough knives for each person to have one (between the 4 regular knives, 6 steak knives and other small enough knives in our knife block, and a couple of paring knives we had) but unfortunately our fork situation wasn't quite up to par.  So, being in another country, we improvised.  People who didn't have forks got a spoon and...a pair of chopsticks.  I was one of those people and it actually worked out quite nicely.  You could use the spoon to hold the turkey while you were cutting it, and then use the chopsticks to pick it and other things up that were too hard to pick up with a spoon.  Yet the spoon also came in handy when eating the chicken pot pie and green bean casserole because you could get maximum sauciness in your mouth with the spoon.  One of our friends, Matt, who was sitting next to me actually had a fork but went to get a pair of chopsticks just so he could say he ate with chopsticks on thanksgiving, something he had never experienced on Thanksgiving day in his previous 28 years of living.

Heart & Seoul

This past weekend we went to Korea because B needed to get a new visa, and it gave us a great opportunity to make a trip out of it.  Last time B had to leave the country for his visa, he went to Korea by himself, but had such a great time that he wanted me to come along this time.  We had so much fun and I'm so glad we got to get some quality time together exploring Seoul.  

Seoul is a really fun city, and thanks to some friends of ours who had either just recently been, or who had grown up in Korea for part of their lives, we had inside tips on lots of places to see and fun food to try.  I think what we were most impressed with was how incredibly extensive and convenient the subway system there is.  We could take the subway absolutely everywhere, AND almost every time we got a seat!  (This is NOT the case in the city we live in, it doesn't matter what time of day it is, the subway is always crowded.)  And not only did we get to sit, but the seats were heated.  Yeah, you know like how some fancy cars now have heated seats for the winter?  Well in Seoul there's a heater under the subway seats that keeps 'em nice and toasty.  

I often found myself wondering if I was meant to be Korean, because between the obsession with warm seats/floors and all the food seemingly construed to not only be served hot but to stay hot while you're eating it, I was in my ideal world.  (If you don't know this about me, I like my food piping hot - I'm talking, if it doesn't burn my mouth, I don't think it's hot enough.  And in Korea, they serve many soups and other dishes in stone pots that have been heated to extremely hot temperatures - resulting in your food not only arriving boiling before your very eyes, but staying hot basically throughout your entire meal!  It's absolutely ingenious.  And not only that, but the other alternative is Korean bbq where you order a bunch of meat and grill it right there on your table as you eat.  Again, fresh hot food your entire meal.  What more could I ask for?)

For the first day and a half we tried to re-live B's last 2 day visit, which coincidentally was a year ago.  He took me to all the cool places he had seen that he wanted me to see, which were mostly all along this walking tour he had found online put out by national geographic.  The first night we went on a search in a market for this place to have dinner that he had eaten at last year, and we were so excited when we found it!  It was basically a tent set up in the middle of the street with all these meats you could choose from and then they would cook it for you right there and you could sit down on some little stools and a table to eat it. 

We stumbled upon a photo exhibition commemorating the Korean War and the 58 countries who supported South Korea and helped them to keep their freedom.  As you can see in the picture above, at the front of the exhibition was a Korean flag and an American flag.  The memorial especially highlighted US involvement in helping South Korea to retain it's independence.  It's funny how you don't realize how patriotic you are until you no longer live in the country you are a citizen of.

In the photo to the right you can see that the exhibition commemorated each country that helped South Korea in the war by flying a flag from each of those countries.  We were touched to see that the US flag was the first flag, at the start of the photo exhibition.  It made us feel so proud to be Americans.

We also happened to find supposedly one of the only Starbucks in the world whose sign is not in English. So of course we had to take a picture of it.  But wouldn't you know that about half an hour later we were walking along and spotted yet another Starbucks whose sign was also written in Korean.  Oh well, guess you can't believe everything you hear.  Another fun thing we discovered was that they were having a lantern festival along one of the smaller rivers in the city, which just happened to be near our hotel.  The festival was supposed to end before we got there, but luckily they extended it until the day we left.  We discovered it on the first day and on our last night we went back when all the lanterns were lit up.  It was pretty impressive, and below is one of the better shots we were able to get.

 

Cable Knit

This is Bree, and she is wearing the hat and scarf I knitted for her :)  The scarf was the first thing I tried to knit when I started knitting again this time around. To make it more interesting I decided to try to knit cables for the first time.  Unfortunately I didn't make the scarf wide enough, and after B making fun of me for it, I slowly came to agree.  That was when I realized it would make a perfect scarf for a little kid.  When I finished the scarf, I thought it would be cute to try and make a matching hat.  So there you have it, a cable knit scarf with matching cable knit hat complete with a pompom.

Bree is the daughter of our good friends Jason & Angie, who we used to live across the street from.  We would often go over to their place to hang out and to see the kids (Bree has a little brother, Jesh) who we absolutely LOVE. They are SO cute. Before we moved, we used to go over to their place every friday night to have dinner and play games.  J&A also love playing games so it was the perfect set-up. We miss being right across the street from them and being able to do random everyday life stuff together.  They came over to our new place a couple of weeks ago to see it and to have dinner, and that's when we took this pic.  I also took a picture of the hat and scarf by itself so you could see my great handiwork =P

Merry Halloween

I'm not sure what the weather has been like in your neck of the woods, but out here it SNOWED on Halloween.  Ahem.  Yeah. Well, that's not a good sign when you live in a country where heat doesn't turn on until a certain date, regardless of how cold it is.  And it's especially not good when that date is not for another two weeks. But at least we don't live on the other side of the river down south, where there just isn't any heat at all for that part of the country.

On October 31st we went out to an italian restaurant for dinner and then to a friend's apartment to celebrate his birthday, which had been the day before.  Three of our friends showed up at dinner dressed as robots and an iPod made out of cardboard boxes and covered in tinfoil.  Considering no one out here even knows what Halloween is, they had quite a few people staring at them and wondering what in the world they were doing.  

But anyway, back to the point.  We ended up staying at our friend's place until about 1:30am.  Why so late?  Well...we didn't get back from dinner until around 9pm and then a few of us embarked on trying to fry bananas because it was the birthday boy's favorite dessert.  By the time that was over, we had to play a traditional game of BANG! for his birthday (kind of like Mafia but with cards, fun if you like games, especially cause you can play with lots of people).  The game ended up lasting forever but in the end it came down to me and the birthday boy and I won!  Pretty sweet considering I didn't even want to play because I was tired from frying bananas, but ended up playing anyway hoping that I would get killed off early so Bryan and I could go back home.  Ok, that was another side note. I do that a lot if you didn't notice.

Anyways, I'm not sure if it was worth it to stay out that late even if I did win, because by the time we got on a scooter to ride 20 minutes home, it was snowing out.  Riding a scooter in the snow in 20 degree weather isn't a good idea, let me tell you that.  It was FREEZING!  But also sort of fun. Part of the reason we had stayed was because it had been raining and even sleeting earlier in the night and I was kind of hoping it would let up.  But it didn't, and continued snowing all through the night and into the next day.  

When we woke up it was still snowing and the ground was covered in snow. On November 1st.  I remember being ecstatic as a kid when it would snow on Thanksgiving because I used to think that was early for snow.  Well, I always joke that Fall out here lasts for about a blink of an eye.  It always seems that as soon as the sweltering heat of summer is over, we get about a month of cool Fall weather before jumping straight into a blistery cold winter.  And I guess that's exactly what happened this year because less than a week ago we were having highs of 60-70 degrees and this week it's been in the 20-30's.  *sigh*  At least some kids in our apartment complex got to have some fun making snowmen.  I guess that's universal.  Funny how some things are the same no matter where you are in the world.  Snow falls and kids make snowmen and have snowball fights.  Here's a pic of B posing with one of the cuter snowmen. I guess that makes it official.  Goodbye Fall.  Hello Winter.  And a Merry Halloween to you all.

These are a few of my favorite things...

I have found myself randomly singing the words to that song from the Sound of Music. You know, the one that starts off going "raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens..."  (Bryan likes to make fun of me because I totally sing the wrong words for most of the song, but oh well.)  Whenever I start singing the song, it makes me think of the things I've been especially enjoying recently.  It's the simple things in life that bring me the most delight and pleasure sometimes.

Bubble baths.  Pink grapefruit scented bubble bath soap, a candle, quiet, a good novel, and over an hour to just soak in hot soapy water in a bathroom that feels like America.  I have taken more baths than showers over the past two weeks and am loving it!

Candles.  There's something just so peaceful about a lit candle that brings calm to my soul. I have been trying to remember to light candles and not be so stingy about using our stash from America =P

Plants.  When we moved into our new apartment, we inherited quite a few plants, both big and small.  We already had two of our own that were hand-me-downs of sorts from others who had moved back to the US.  And within weeks of moving in, we discovered a plant & flower market, where we bought two really cute little plants and two orchids.  I've really been enjoying watering them and watching them grow.  Is it weird that I take such delight in watching little sprigs pop out one day, and then over time turn into full blown leaves? 

Sometimes I don't really know what I'm doing, like how often to water them or how much water to give them.  And I at times worry they will die.  But there is something comforting in knowing that really all I can do is hopefully give them the right environment -  sunshine and water - and that beyond that there is nothing I can do in my own effort to make them grow.  And yet they do.  We even bought some sweet pea seeds (one of my favorite bath & body work scents - wouldn't it be awesome if that scent was always being given off by a plant in our home?) and some soil so that I could try planting them and see what would happen.  I haven't tried it yet but I'll let you know how it goes.

Orchids. Some of you may know the story of my first plant, which happened to be an orchid.  For our first Valentine's Day as a married couple (which coincidentally happened to be just 2 weeks after we got married) Bryan got me a potted orchid.  He knows how much I like flowers, and so it seemed like a good idea because it would last longer.  I had never taken care of a plant before so I was worried everyday that I was going to kill it for about the first month or so.  Then I got the hang of it and it became fun.  Everyone told me that orchids are hard to care for, but for some reason ours flourished and continually bloomed new flowers for an entire year.  A year after we got married, we moved out here, and so I had to part with my orchid.  It was sad.  And so, I asked Bryan if he would get me another one after we moved out here. 

We had been on the search for the past year and a half, and with no luck.  I saw orchids everywhere - in bathrooms, at pizza hut - but never in a setting where they were for sale.  So you can imagine my excitement when we found the plant & flower market near our new apartment, where Bryan and I promptly bought two orchid plants.  Sadly though, I think they have both already died, true to most everyone else's experience with trying to care for orchids =(  I'm not sure what was so magical about that first orchid, but I'm still glad for the experience because I think it made me feel more comfortable with caring for plants, and maybe someday I can get an orchid to live in our new apartment.

Knitting.  This is the 3rd time in my life I've 'started' knitting.  The first was when my grandma taught me as a young child.  The second was in college when my roommate re-taught me and I really got into it then.  And about a month ago I re-learned for the 3rd time - not doing something for years will make your brain rusty and forgetful, but luckily it's like riding a bike.  Since we had limited luggage space when we moved out here, I opted to leave my yarn, knitting & crochet needles, and other knitting stuff in the US, in hopes I could find that stuff out here.  I have been on the lookout for them for the past year and a half, with no luck, and I had basically given up hope.  About a month ago, a friend who recently moved here decided she wanted to find yarn and learn how to knit.  Within half an hour of searching online, she had found a location of a yarn store that just so happens to be - yep you guessed it - right around the corner from our old apartment. *sigh* Of course, leave it up to me to live right around the corner from a yarn place and yet not find any yarn for a year and a half. 

Anyway, another friend found a website that has videos to teach you how to knit and I re-taught myself that way.  I learned how to cable-knit for the first time and made a cute little scarf and hat for our friends' 3-year-old daughter, Bree.  I'm currently working on a scarf for Bryan, with two more orders for a friend in our small group and my cousin Jeremy (who used to live with us up until we moved).  Sadly though I think I went a bit overboard on knitting because last weekend my left arm started to ache pretty bad and Bryan put me on a mandatory break from knitting.  I waited 5 whole days to knit again, but to no avail.  After knitting just 20 rows of the scarf, my arm started aching again.  But I'm not ready to give up yet.  I've still got at least 2 more scarves to make!