What did we do today?

I'm so glad you asked....let me tell you what we did today....

We started by going on a walk in our apartment complex to look for some sticks...

which Cade loved, of course...

 ...enjoyed running and jumping in the leaves

 ...and when we'd found all of the sticks we needed, we headed back inside

 ...and we ran across this rose on the way...isn't the 2nd week of November a bit late for blooming roses?

 then we assembled our sticks in a jar to resemble a tree...

 and my children were gracious enough to pose for me...

... next, we wrote things that we are thankful for on die cut leaves

...and finally we put them in our "tree"

...and there you have it...our "Thanksgiving tree"...a free morning of entertainment that adds some life and color to our apartment!

While we're on the topic of food...

Oh wait...were we talking about food? Maybe it's just because I'm always thinking about food...

I feel that I must tell you about our first overseas Thanksgiving. What's that? You haven't celebrated Thanksgiving yet? Well, that's okay. We've celebrated it 3 times now, and American Thanksgiving hasn't even happened yet. The first 2 didn't really count. One was the Korean Thanksgiving, Chuseok, and the other was Canadian Thanksgiving and we didn't really celebrate either one. But we did have Thanksgiving on Sunday.

Our church decided that they would celebrate Thanksgiving between the Canadian Thanksgiving and the American Thanksgiving, so we had lunch after church on Sunday. It was an interesting spread. We started with the traditional turkey and mashed potatoes. The gravy was see-through, so I didn't go for that. We moved down to the stuffing and here's where things started to get iffy. It didn't look like any stuffing I'd ever had because you can't buy cubed stuffing here, but I went ahead and tried it anyway. Then we ran into the 4 green bean casseroles and one of them even had french fried onions on it! Next up was the kimbap (complete with Spam and processed cheese!), so I opted out this time. This was followed by spring rolls, fried rice (also with Spam), and kimchi. Then came the Indian samosas (which taste good regardless of the meal...I mean fried dumpling with curried potatoes and peas...what's not to love? Seriously, I really like these), mint chutney, and tomato sauce, followed by the plain white rice (this is what the kids consumed the most of). The dessert table was pretty typical actually--a lot of pumpkin pies purchased at Costco, as well as rolls, and several bags of American style chips. What a feast! If only I had pictures!

While we're on the topic of food, I must share the fact that I finally made cooked my own bulgogi last night and it was delicious! You can actually buy already sliced and marinated meat for bulgogi in all of the local markets here, and it is so good! Then all you have to do is cook the meat, saute some onions and mushrooms, throw on some rice and you have dinner! We even wrapped it all up in lettuce leaves while eating with our chopsticks...we're so Korean! The only downside is that I had planned to have that for dinner without looking at the school lunch calendar. It turns out I got to have for lunch and dinner yesterday. Lucky me! Eric went for the Western side at the cafeteria with the "piccata milanese". Since I wasn't sure what kind of meat that was, I went with the Korean side. If you haven't checked out our school lunch calendar yet, you should really do it. It's very entertaining!

Making a House a Home

I had originally titled this post "Household Improvements", but I just wasn't sure that the few things that we've done around the house can be classified as "improvements". I know that the things I've done here I never would have classified that way in the States, but here where we have white wallpapered walls that we can't really do anything with, anything we do seems to be an improvement, just with a different definition.

To start, a few weeks ago our nanny brought some stickers for the kids to put on their walls. Now, I will admit this may be the reason I had to change the title of the post. Because while the kids were thrilled with the new additions to their rooms, I can't help but think they are absolutely hideous! They are so excited about them, though! It was a cheap addition (that we don't have to worry about bring back with us!) that made them feel a little more at home in their rooms. That's really all that matters.

Last week, she brought some materials to make them mobiles out of an art show program we had laying around. She let the kids pick out the pictures and then strung them up in their rooms. Again, they love it and it was really cheap. Me? I could take it or leave it.

This weekend, we were finally able to get a shelf for our kitchen to put the microwave on. We have two little countertops in the kitchen and one of them was nearly completely covered with the microwave. It was driving me crazy. So, we got this ridiculously plain metal shelf that looks like it belongs behind closed doors in a pantry or garage or something, but instead it's front and center in our kitchen with cords shooting out the side. But, I have now doubled my counter space and honestly that is all I care about! Well, that and not spending too much money on making life just a little bit easier.

It is extremely hard to try and make this little apartment a home we have found. A part of me just wants to dive in and buy window coverings, toy bins, bookshelves, and picture frames. I know that someone could be blessed by inheriting some things to make their place a little more homey when we leave here in a few years. But the other part of me, doesn't want to pay outrageous prices for things that we're just going to be giving away sometime soon. So I'm trying to balance. The good news is, the other day Kennedy ran into the house and said, "I love our apartment!" I was so happy to hear it; she's come so far in the last few months!

Fall in the Park

The weather here has been amazing! It's been around 70 F every afternoon, so the other day, the kids and I spent the afternoon at the park...

sliding...

looking at Seoul Tower....again...

and playing in the leaves!

We are loving the November weather in Seoul!

Chili Night

Yesterday I decided I would make chili for our Lost night. Not a big deal. I have all of the supplies to make a big pot of chili, but I thought I would break it down for you as far as price just because it's so surprising to me still.

1. Ground beef--First of all, it comes from Australia. Ground beef from S. Korea is really expensive. They don't eat beef from the US here because they worry about E. coli, etc. Anyway, I only buy it at Costco, so I got about 4 lbs for about $14. So, we'll say it was about $5 for the beef...not too bad.

2. Onion & garlic--these are pretty cheap compared to other foods here. You can't buy a head of dry garlic, though, which is weird to me. You can only find already peeled heads of garlic...not that I'm complaining! We'll say it was about $2 for both...again not too bad.

The following ingredients have to be purchased at an international market:

3. Chili powder--I was surprised to find this for about $4 in a decent sized container at the really nice international market in Itaewon. I stocked up on several spices here a few weeks ago, but I'm still unable to find cumin. So, I'll say the price for the spice in this recipe is negligible.

4. Tomato sauce--2 cans at $2.50 each

5. Tomato paste--1 can at $2.80 each

6. Kidney beans--2 cans at $2.80 each

7. Diced tomatoes--3 cans at about $2 each (I buy these at Costco, too)

8. Toppings--diced onion (negligible), grated cheese (it's about $12 for a baby loaf of cheddar cheese at Costco and we probably used about a 1/8 of it so about $1.50), Fritos ($6 for a small bag).

So, a large pot of chili (enough to feed 10 people) costs about $34.00 to make here in Seoul. And that's why we probably won't have it again until next fall! I will probably never do a price breakdown again, either!

A note about the international markets: There is a large one in Itaewon that has some great products, but it's a long trek for us, so we don't go there very often. There is a small one in our neighborhood. They both sell a lot of the products that you can get at Costco, but they take them out of the package and sell them individually. Nothing is cheap there, though. They do have chocolate chips for about $7 per package. The one in our neighborhood is called "Happy Store". When Kennedy went in for the first time a couple of weeks ago, she was so excited about all of the American food items that she said, "This store has so many things that make me happy. Is that why it's called the Happy Store?"