Traditional Korean Course Dinner

Friday night our boss took all the teachers at my school out for a Traditional Korean Meal. I don't even know how many courses this meal had but it went on forever! It was delicious - the stuff that I was brave enough to try, that is!

traditional Korean table settings - in the carafe is green tea. in the little square dishes are sauces: a garlic sauce, red pepper paste, and soy sauce with wasabi

Some of my schools staff - many had already left and a few didn't come

Some of my favorites :) Jamie, Dan, Fran

spicy kimchi and seafood, raw fish wraps, pumpkin porridge, pork and cabbage

raw fish!

cold veggies and jellyfish

A kind of Korean-style beef stew - very yummy! Along with beef there are mushrooms, dates, chestnuts, peppers, green onions...

In the middle are paper thin slices of radish onto which you put the various veggies and then wrap up and eat after dipping in garlic sauce

veggies and fish

prawns - very yummy

What Happens When You Have British Friends...

When your friends are English (as in actually from England not as in speakers of the language) you can't help but become a fan of English football (soccer to us Americans). So one of my best friends, Dan, second from the left, is a big fan of the Tottenham Hotspurs who, well, don't actually win many games but we have fun cheering for them anyway! Here we are watching the Carling Cup last Sunday night. It was a great game but sadly Tottenham lost to Manchester United in penalty kicks after 30 minutes of overtime. :(

Dan brought some Tottenham gear over and put it on my wall for the game...

Soccer holds me over sports-wise until baseball season which is just a month away... Which reminds me, if you aren't already planning to, you should watch the World Baseball Classic which started today. It involves 16 teams from all over the world including the US, Canada, China, Korea, Japan, Italy, South Africa... Japan won the Classic last time it happened in 2006 but Korea is really hoping to knock them out this year, especially since Korea won gold in Olympic baseball last year... I'll be cheering for Korea and the USA as usual and I hope you get to watch some of the games!

My Goofy Friends

So to celebrate my new apartment that actually has separate rooms (a big deal after 1+ years in a studio!) I threw a housewarming party for all of my friends. About 25 people turned up... it was a lot of fun. Here are some pics...

Me with all the food I spent two days making for the party - before it was devoured!

First few guests/my closest friends here. From L to R clockwise Fran, Jamie (Hyo-Jin), Glenn, Dan, Dickie

the party grows...

boys being boys - misbehaving (Drew, Glenn, Dan)

girls being girls and not causing any trouble at all (Marie, Sarah, Kay)

Korean girls... Green, Jennifer (Ji-Hoon), Kelly (Kyoungee)

Re-enacting something funny that had just happened so I could take a picture. Glenn opened a beer, the cap somehow ricocheted off the ceiling and right into Fran's drink! :)

Aw - Katie, Taylor, Dickie, and Jamie

Drew and Green being silly


Dan and Fran - such a cute couple!

The shoes of my friends! :)

The New Place....

Bedroom Before

Bedroom After

Kitchen Before

Kitchen After - if you're wondering about the jersey - I needed something to cover the place where I tore the ugly wallpaper from the door and it took the paint off. My Canadian friend (a big hockey fan) happily volunteered an extra hockey jersey the night of the party as a solution to my dilemma...

Living Room Before

Living Room After

Living Room 2

Hall to the Bedroom (that's a collage of my family on the wall)

Bathroom Before

Bathroom After: You might notice there is no sink and no separate shower. This is the Korean style. I was very lucky that in my old apt. it was a very "Western" style with a proper shower and sink - that is not the norm in Korea. Here it is the traditional Korean style with just a drain in the floor and a shower head. Usually the shower head isn't even mounted on the wall - you just stand there and hold it over yourself. But they attached it to the wall for me. :) And of course there's no sink - just a faucet on the wall - so I use that little basin for brushing teeth, etc. and then just pour it down the drain. It's not the most luxurious set-up but it works...

What you see when you enter - those dining room chairs aren't usually there but this was taken right before my Housewarming Party so they were there for guests to sit on. That white door goes into the bathroom. The living room is the first door on the left. The bedroom is through the kitchen on the left. On the other side of the kitchen is a storage enclosed-porch thingy where my washing machine is.

"Dining Room" before

Dining Room After - again before the Housewarming Party