Fa-a-all

Fall is by far my favorite season.  Scarves, tea, carrot soup, the welcome chill in the air after months of perpetual sweating (too far?), and THE COLORS.  I love the colors.  Like, whoa.

I love how unexpected it all is.  The uncertainty of when Fall descends on Korea can be frustrating, confusing to get dressed in the morning, but oh so beautiful and so, so quick.  You really have to cherish it when it arrives because it's not staying long.

The colors really popped on Friday and I spent my short walk home in the early afternoon (2:00 - thank you club activity / field trip Friday!) taking photo after photo on our ginko-lined street.  Walking up a mountain to work everyday is kind of a treat - my calves think so too - especially (or maybe only?) during the Spring and Fall when everything is lush and colorful and beautiful.  And with the sun shining just so, well, my rambling tells you that I really enjoy it.

I made pumpkin muffins when I got home (from this recipe, though I didn't include all of the ingredients (no raisins or evaporated milk and I had to use weird flour (half corn bread mix, half whole wheat flour) because I couldn't be bothered to walk to E-Mart!), and they turned out just beautifully), put on some comfy lounge clothes to enjoy a little pre-weekend relaxation before my (now weekly :) !!) Friday night date (more on this new phenomenon later - promise!) and cuddled up with some spiced cider and a muffin.

Yayyyyyy Fall!

Lily Festival 3.0 - Two Weeks Later...

Two weeks ago, our school held it's annual Lily Festival in which we have an hour long all-inclusive church service that sort of honored Chuseok a couple weeks late and then an extravaganza of dancing, singing, parodies, and special performances.  This year, the weather was beautiful so it was held outside in the school's coliseum, Kyunghwa Bowl.  Pretty awesome.

The foreign teachers sang an offering song during church and the rest of the day was spent drinking tea and taking pictures of the fantastic performances in front of me.  Gangnam Style count: at least seven, maybe 10 times.  Intense.

There was also a special Tae Kwon Do performance from a nearby university.  All the girls went wild when one of the performers show the crowd his cut abs.  Girls.  Wow.

Chuseok with the Husteds

Last week was Chuseok, one of the two main Korean holidays.  Chuseok is a lot like American Thanksgiving, celebrating a bountiful harvest, but also honoring their ancestors and family.  And, since we all like to eat and we've come to be each other's Korean family, and one of the two days was on a Monday, which is a night we always get together to watch the latest episode of Downton Abbey, we decided to have a little Korean potluck while we watched our show.  Best. Idea. Ever.

Desiree steamed some meat dumplings, Diane made some fried zucchini, I made kimchi pancakes and the Husteds made different kinds of fried vegetables like Diane's, my favorite Korean noodle dish japchae, a famous Korean beef dish called bulgogi and a tofu and mushroom soup with fermented soybean paste as the base.  We ate like kings and queens while watching a show about the English nobility circa 1920.

My Korean Birthday 3.0

Almost a month ago, this girl turned a quarter century old.  It's been a pretty rad 24 years, and I'm sure number 25 will continue in the same tradition.  My birthday, itself, sure lived up to the hype.  Here's what happened:

Friday: I arrived to school late (which really seems to be more like on-time for me), just in the nick of time to fill up my water bottle, grab my fan and Bible and make it to church.  After church, I noticed a beautiful plant on my desk from my parents, procured by Dionne and Scott.  A delightful start to a delightful day.  After lunch, the English department sang to me and gave me a delicious cake.  Aaaaand, Dionne hauled out a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake, too.  NICE.

Saturday: Desiree had created a Facebook event for my birthday dinner to be held at my favorite sushi restaurant in Gangnam.  Some people told me why they couldn't come but most people didn't respond at all, and I'm not going to lie, I was feeling a little disappointed.  Desiree even called me out for being in a funk.  But, as soon as Desiree, Ben and I got on the bus to Seoul in pursuit of Dos Tacos, I was on the mend and as soon as we arrived in Seoul, I realized that it was going to be a beautiful day: two of my best pals and I got tacos, burritos, nachos, etc., and had one of those great conversations that makes you understand why you're friends in the first place.

Post-tacos, we got a couple of drinks close to where we would eat dinner later and continued our conversation.  Desiree kept leaving to take phone calls, and later explained that there was something wrong with her car at home that needed to be figured out pronto.  Right around the time we had planned to get sushi, Desiree announced that she was super hungry and that we should go get our sushi NOW.  I thought that was a little weird since we had just eaten lunch not three hours before, but who was I to question Desiree's appetite?

We walked up the stairs to the second floor restaurant and as we walked in, I noticed a big group of people seated in the corner.  Upon a little closer inspection, I realized that that large group of people were all of my close friends here.  Every. Single. One.  Desiree and Ben pulled off one of the biggest surprises I've ever experienced.  As we sat and enjoyed our sushi, talking and making plans for later, I was continually blown away by what I had just experienced.  I couldn't believe how much planning, effort and time went into pulling off such a surprise about which I had absolutely no idea.

After sushi, we had some time to kill before it was a reasonable clubbing hour, so we set up shop at a chicken restaurant to imbibe a few beverages.  A couple of hours later, and a couple of people added to our motley crew, we made it to my favorite club in Apgujang, Bunker.  And, oh, what a birthday commenced.  Since my actual birthday happened at midnight, at 12:05, Ben, Vanessa and I (all Iowa State grads) shared a shot of Jack and I told the bartender it was my birthday.  I came away from the bar with a bottle of champagne, a birthday hat and a birthday song ringing throughout the club.

We danced the night away, got home at 5:30 AM and I spend my actual birthday completely, and believe it or not, delightfully hungover.  Diane made me dinner that night and I rung in my 25th year in my pajamas with a bottle of water by my side, rehashing how fantastic a birthday was created for me by some of the most fantastic pals for which an expat such as myself could ask.  A month later, I'm still smiling about it.  Fantastic.