Snow Day

We finally got snow.

An inch.

Not a lot, but enough, right?

Enough for a snow day.

Especially a snow day in Washington.

Especially a snow day in a private school because you don't have to make it up.

Did we get a snow day?

Nope!

We finally work in a private school and now we live in a part of the world where an inch of snow isn't enough to require a snow day.

Bummer.

And, I was too busy at school this morning to take a picture. By the time I had a free period, they had shoveled all of the snow.

Bummer.

Well, I have tomorrow off whether it snows or not.

That's good news at least.

Sunday Lunch

Sundays tend to be a busy day for us. In the morning, often times we Skype with family. Then we just barely make it out the door to get to church on time. Good thing this is Korea. In Korea no one starts anything on time. Least of all church.


"Dad, do you see this?! Look at this, Dad!"

Then, after church we usually go eat some lunch at one of the nearby restaurants. Actually, most of the time we only have about 45 minutes before we have to be back at church, so we just get sandwiches to go (the only good place we know of for sandwiches is right next to our church). We take it upstairs at church and eat in one of the Sunday school classrooms where it's quiet and we don't have a bunch of people watching us eat. For some reason, this really bugs Eric, though. So whenever we think we have the time, we eat in the restaurant.

This past Sunday, we went to a different restaurant. It has a typical American menu...breakfast items, hamburgers, salads. But, it's got a little different take on all of these items. For instance, in a typical American restaurant one could order mozzarella sticks right? At La Vert, you can order "Fried Brie Cheese served with chips and fries and green salad". I could not pass that up. I can never order it again, but seriously fried Brie?! Does it get any better than that? It was delicious! I really wish I'd taken a picture of it, but I didn't think I was going to actually admit that I'd eaten it. I guess I couldn't help it. Fried Brie served with french fries (not sure why they listed french fries and "Aussie" chips...but that tends to happen with Korean translations) and a mixed green salad with an indescribable dressing. I really don't know what was in it! So good. Now I can say I've had it, but if I want to live another year, I'd better not have it again!

The kids also got something extraordinary. First of all, we should know this by now (and I had an idea, hence the camera-readiness). A waffle is not a waffle in Korea. It is not a standard breakfast food. It is a dessert. Calling it a "fruit waffle" does not change its status as a dessert. It just means that you have to pile more whip cream, chocolate syrup, and vanilla syrup on the top.

Needless to say, they enjoyed their lunch! Eric's burger? Well, it wasn't anything to write home about...

Then we headed back to church where we spend an hour and a half with another couple and their two daughters. Right now we're on Ephesians...who am I kidding? We've been on Ephesians since we started in September! But we've really enjoyed getting to know them and right now we're praying that they get jobs somewhere in the world. (We're hoping for Korea, but they're actually applying for a position in the Skagit Valley...seriously small world since they've never even been to Seattle!)

Lunar New Year

Well, we've had two weeks back at school, so it's about time for another break, right? Of course, those of you back in the Seattle area have all had a nice long break with the snow, but we have not been so lucky. No snow at all in the last week or two, so we needed a different excuse. It warmed up enough to rain one day last week, getting up to about 40 degrees. But it's back down to 10 F today. It literally dropped 30 degrees overnight!

a traditional hanok

This weekend we have a four day weekend for the Lunar New Year or Seollal (살릴). Seollal is probably the biggest holiday in Korea and another one of those holidays where the Koreans escape the city and travel back to their homes and families in the countryside. Seollal is like a birthday of sorts in Korea. A Korean turns one on their first Seollal (technically after they eat their tteokguk or rice cake soup), so Kennedy wouldn't have technically turned 5 until after this weekend if she were Korean. Interesting, huh? You can read more about Seollal here.

Hanboks are traditional clothing for Seollal

We had decided that since we didn't make it down to Busan over Christmas break, we would try for the four day weekend. I started looking for a hotel down there and realized quickly that everything is booked. Shortly thereafter, I realized that the trains are going to be packed this weekend and Busan will be busier than normal, so we're back to staying here in the city. Another weekend of awful traffic and travel outside the city, but a "ghost town" here in Seoul. You might remember, that over Chuseok we were excited to experience that emptiness and were a bit disappointed to not see a big difference. So far, I can't say that I've seen a big difference.
Yes, you might recognize these pictures from the Chuseok Weekend album. No, we have not ventured out in the 10 degree weather to do anything tourist-y. I'm not sure if we'll get motivated to do anything in the next 2 days!

Red Velvet Cookies

Today, Kennedy and I have a baby shower to go to for both my job share partner and the maternity leave I'll be covering. How did I get so lucky as to be the substitute in a school with two maternity leaves this year?! No, I'm just kidding. It could be worse. Their maternity leaves could be one after another rather than overlapping!
Anyway, one of those fishbowl affects is that everyone is invited to all of the baby showers (there is another one if a couple of weeks for a baby that was born 2 weeks ago), and everyone pitches in so that no one person is responsible for all of the food.

So, I set out to make Red Velvet Cookies. Here's my story about those:
First of all, I have never had anything red velvet...all I know about red velvet cake is how annoyed Julia Roberts was in Steel Magnolias when her fiance wanted a red velvet armadillo for the groom's cake! A friend of mine posted the recipe on my wall on Facebook and wanted to know if I thought we could get the ingredients here in Seoul. A "certain someone" who just recently sent us a package saw that post and was intrigued by the cookies. She made them herself and decided she would send me the cake mix since that is the only thing we can't get here (thanks again--no matter what I say here, I still appreciate the thought!). I decided that the baby shower would be a good excuse to make these cookies. My original plan was to make a batch for my friend, too, but as it turns out, I'm just going to bring her the ingredients...she can make them herself (she won't mind!).

It turns out these cookies are pretty labor intensive, and on a day when Cade decides he's not going to take a nap, that is just too much for me! In the morning, after I baked my bread, I made the cookie dough. That was really easy. Refrigerate for 2 hours...no problem. Then I made the cream cheese filling. Also easy. Form into little balls and freeze for 2 hours...I can handle that.

I knew the labor part would come when I actually had to bake the cookies, so I decided to do that while the kids napped. After 2 hours of trying to get Cade to take a nap and trying to get Kennedy to be quiet enough in her room that Cade could actually sleep, I gave up. So I ended up baking the cookies with both kids staring at me intently. Ugh.

You take a spoonful of the dough and press it out flat in your hand, then you put the little ball of cream cheese on top of the dough and fold up the dough around it, so you end up with these little balls.

For the recipe, she only made 10 really big cookies. And I can see why. She put 3 on a cookie sheet. Because I'd already decided these were for the shower, I knew I needed to make more. I ended up making about 30. A lot of work. I can see how if your kids were older and liked to bake, then this could be fun. The kids could help. It would be done quickly. And while my kids do like to bake, they are not helpful yet. This was not done quickly. As it turned out, I skipped my workout to bake cookies. How ironic.

This morning, I finished them by drizzling melted white chocolate over the tops. I'm quite sure that I will never be making these again, but if you're up for the challenge, then here's the recipe! They do look really pretty...even if they are both having boys...

Week 3: Dream a Little Dream

I'll admit it. The novelty has worn off a bit by week 3. And the theme: Dream a Little Dream? That didn't do much to help me out. So my pictures this week are definitely less than inspired. But, I continue to get out my camera and that is my number one goal, so I guess it's still a success. I think the fact that all of you back in the Pacific Northwest with all of your beautiful snow and so many reasons to take pictures has me a little jealous and depressed too. We haven't seen any snow in a few weeks, yet it has barely gotten above freezing and the skies remain cloudy. If I'm going to endure freezing temperatures and clouds, I feel it's only fair to get some snow along with it! Suffice it to say, I'm jealous of all of your beautiful snow and the pictures I've seen on Facebook; my pictures were all taken inside this week with very little inspiration. WaWa.

Day 13: the fruit bowl on our counter...it's weird to me that satsuma oranges have been "in season" since we arrived here...

Day 14: the kids "swimming" in the living room

Day 15: Cade had lined up these cars and trucks in the living room...thought it was cute enough to snap!

Day 16: the only thing I could think of to photograph that encompasses the dream that we are living. These are the flags flying in front of the school. I was lucky enough to be able to get a shot when a slight breeze lifted the flag of South Korea.

Day 17: the Wednesdays that I have off (only one more until May!) are really busy. I snapped this picture of the first potato chips we've had since arriving in Korea while the kids napped. Don't feel sorry for me, we could pick up Pringles at the store down the street if we really wanted them, but I finally broke down and bought Kettle Chips at Costco last week. I have been missing them.

Day 18: playing in the tent...

Day 19: no knead bread...

It should go without saying that the only one that even begins to represent the theme is the flags. I suppose there are many ways to interpret the theme and I could always use one of the pictures of the kids because they are always dreaming up something new. I could say that I dream of becoming a baker one day. But you would all know that was a lie. So, Tuesday is my pick of the week. Here we are. Seoul, South Korea. Living our dream. Whether the picture is creative or not!

If you'd like to see more others' work on Project 52, check out the links:

www.styleberryblog.com