Korean/American Thanksgiving!

HI THERE

It's Day 173. 어머나~ This might be my last post for 2014... I've got a lot of things to do from now on. I'm going on vacation this Saturday and won't be back until 2015! But first I need to write something for you all right? You are going to miss me right?

Now since it is the holiday season, I promised you some holiday stories last time right?

Let's talk about Thanksgiving!
Amelea, Leanndra, and I, the three Fulbright teachers in Hwacheon, decided to cook our own Thanksgiving dinner for our Korean host families. We all had some recipes from home, family and friends (and some Internet) secret recipes to help make a fabulous feast!
I was in charge of pumpkin pie and candied sweet potatoes (thanks for the recipes Mom!). There was also apple pie, macaroni and cheese, broccoli casserole, stuffing, chicken, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, fruit salad, and even more food (while I bragged to my host family about what a grand feast we would prepare, Amelea and Leanndra were a little more modest/apprehensive about the whole thing, and Leanndra's host mother starting thinking there wouldn't be much food at all, so she baked breads and made vegetable wraps before knowing that we would make so much food). We had quite a feast!

We had a challenge making everything because, actually most Koreans don't use ovens, any many homes don't have any. Actually Amelea and Leanndra's respective apartment and house don't have an oven at all. My host family's apartment has a small gas one, but they have never used it! Not once! They have lived in Hwacheon a couple of years, but still, personally, coming from a home where my mom was the baking god to everyone who had the good fortune to taste her baked goods, and baked at least once a month, this was preposterous to me.
Side note: My host family's apartment in Tokyo didn't have an oven either, so this non-baking culture is not limited to Korea.
Furthering this anti-baking notion, when I tried to buy a cookie sheet (flat sheet pan) to do some test baking for the oven, I couldn't find one in any of the main shopping complexes. Thus my hypothesis that Koreans do not bake cookies (what deprived souls!) was formed. The only cupcake pans I found at first were weird shaped too:

In the end I did find normal cupcake pans in a different store. Tested the oven. It works! But it is very small, and we could only use it the day before, since the dinner itself would be at Leanndra's house. So we also used some "portable" ovens as well. All in all, it was an adventure to bake/cook all this food. Here are some photos!

The Day Before (baking pies!)

Mother's pinching technique. Still not quite mastered yet by yours truly.

The best baking assistant ever. Opening cans. Crushing cloves. You name it. She does it.

The frustration upon discovering the ultra powerful "portable" oven burt the top of her pie^

Pumpkin pie success!

 

 

The Day Of (cooking rest of dinner)

Pose for the camera Amelea!

The above two photos were taken by Leanndra. They were our oven we used to cook almost everything.

Most importantly: OREGON CRANBERRY SAUCE!! I TASTED THE TASTE OF HOME





 THE FEAST!! (sans pies)

Impressive, right?

 

 

 

 

Finally, I would like to share another lovely, English named company, that seems like a rip-off copyright lawsuit waiting to happen (just like REDFACE, remember this?) I give you CROCODILE LADIES

A store I saw in the nearby city, Chuncheon. Look familiar?

So maybe it's not that similar. But this is what instantly popped into my head after seeing this storefront.

 

It is also a Korean clothing brand (actually started in Singapore) with signed models and official websites. Actually one of my favorite actresses, Ha Jiwon, is their current model!

 

 

 

This store would totally not fly in the USA. But Korea is a magical place <3

 

Now I have to run away and finish booking/finding hostels. Hope you all have a lovely end to 2014!

Thank you for reading! 2015 will have even more amazing and riveting blog posts! So please come back!!!!!

 

FAREWELL uh oh. Here we go.

"Wherever you fare till your eyries receive you at the journey's end!"

That is the polite thing to say among eagles.

 

(I'll wait for your response. It better be the right one.)

CAPTAIN GABIOSSA







School and Hwacheon festivity

Hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi!!

It's Day 166~ wow~
I just drank some lovely mix coffee and feel very energetic!

Yes. This is how happy I am. And how much I care about what other's think of my face. (for you Morgano!)

 



What's mix coffee? Just a lovely Korean invention for instant coffee. Any coffee critic (cough snob cough) would be devestated with this invention. It honestly isn't even real coffee. It's a power you pour hot water on and then BAM! it's ready for consumption. Looks like this before you add the water:

mmmm sugar

 

Most of them taste incredibly sweet with only a slight hint of coffee flavor. Some are a bit stronger. Learn more here! (remember pink equals link!)

Now for some very overdue introductions. First I would like to introduce my school:

wow what a great photo right?

 

Aaaaand that's the only photo I have I my school. Eheh. ^^;

The colorful building on the left is where all the main classes, cafeteria, gym, etc are. The other building has the preschool, a computer room, and a few 6th grade classrooms (I think... I've never actually explored that building much). The big dirt field is where students play and do sports for PE. There are some play structures around Hwacheon, but none that are officially part of my school. And students don't have American reccess anyways.

 

If you'd like to see many more photos and some great descriptions, check out my friend (and the other Fulbright teacher at my school) Amelea's blog! She actually takes photos and stuff.

 

But Gabby~ why don't you post more photos??

... Whelp. I honestly feel uncomfortable taking photos of my students, because I don't feel like they are accessories to display to my friends back home. I know there are many people who take photos without that intention, and earlier I even posted one of the photos my students took themselves with my phone, so this makes me seem kinda hypocritcal and all. Well I'll just stop talking about that. In short, sorry but you won't get many chances to see my adorable students. THEY ARE MINE MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 

And for more photos of the beautiful town of Hwacheon.

 

We are more than a little obsessed with fish, because of the super awesome ICE FISHING FESTIVAL!! Less than a month from now it will start! Every day, for the past few weeks, people have been working all day putting up fish light decorations. Even Seoul subway advertisments are flaunting our amazingness:

 



There are a few places in town that actually have some Christmas spirit instead of fish festival spirit:

It's Leanndra! In a coffee shop!

 

Speaking of the holidays, I have some very exciting stories to tell you. But I have decided to keep my blog posts shorter so you'll have to wait for the next one! heh heh heh

 

Come back soon okay?

Okay I love you bu bye~ (KIDS WB FOREVA!)

 

~ 가위바위보! (another name students have given me... because Gabby sort-of-not-really sounds like the Korean for Rock Paper Scissors)

Short and simple

Hi everyone,

It's Day 153~*

Welcome to December!~

*This '~' is used very often in casual Korean writing to give a softer feeling. (It's actually kind of hard to explain~)

I just wanted to write a short something, and this won't be packed with many jokes (Oh no! What is Gabby's blog without the jokes? Nothing.)

Yes, I can feel your outrage as I write.

Writing is very restorative to me. Writing a blog like this, with no formal audience, does make my sentences more twisted, sarcastic, and humorous, because I don't want to bore myself while I write. I do not have much reason to be my silly self at the moment, yet I'm afraid I've gotten into the habit and can never write somberly here.~

December has brought the absolutely serious-no-nonsense end to our "warm" weather. This entire week our temperature gauge has been from below freezing (high) to SUPER below freezing (low). We won't be above freezing again until next week (forecast 39 degrees F woohoo).
And the winds have come. The even-superheroes-will-wet-their-spandex terrifying Siberian winds. This wind makes you stop caring what the temperature is. You stop caring about anything other than covering all exposed skin, and putting one foot in front of the other.

My poor host brother, who is the skinniest little elementary schooler (he looks a year or two younger than he actually is) was walking home the other day, and the wind got so strong on the bridge out of town, he said he could barely stand, much less move foreward!~

I will tell you more about my host family soon.
For now, I think I'll wrap up this post.~

Finally, I have a secret message that most of you will not understand.~ That's okay. It's for me and not for you.

G Hay, Lily, and Rose, (since I was young, I thought of you all as a trio). I will always love you. Thank you for the books, warmth, and never superfluous care.

Forever and always,
Your little Gabby

Military overload and Seoul stuff

Wazzup!

 

It's Day 145~

Life in Hwacheon is normal... actually the weather became a little warmer last week, so we haven't been dropping below freezing all the time. It's usually around 40 degrees (10 degrees celcius). So I only have to wear around 3 layers these days!

Like I've mentioned before, Hwacheon is s super army town (we are basically on the border of North Korea, you know).
I have a feeling there will be many more photos to come, but this is just a introduction for you.

Life in Hwacheon:

Soldiers drive around in jeeps and various other camouflage army vehicles. On the weekend, which I think is when soldiers get time off and can go visit their girlfriends or just hang out with friends, soldiers flood the streets in Hwacheon. When I go running there is always one or two soldiers (I could tell because they were still in full uniform) out on a walk with their parents or girlfriend.
When I get on the bus to go to the nearby city, Chuncheon (where you can take the train to Seoul), the bus is always full of soldiers (or at least half full). Here is a creepy photo I took waiting at the bus terminal, but it's not very good, so I'll try to take another one later. ;) Stay tuned!

Usually they all look so young to me (most soldiers are in the army for their mandatory 2 year military service, and they usually do this in their college years, hence younger) so I am not "scared" by them. Many of the random grandmas who warn me of all the soldiers and men in general just make me smile, because I think the soldiers are really not any sort of danger to me, and in fact avoid me more than anything. It's very obvious adversion. Nothing subtle about it.

For example, I was at the bus terminal in Chuncheon one evening and walked up to the platform for the bus back to Hwacheon. Normally there is a very big line full of soldiers so you have to line up early. There was a group of about 8-10 soldiers already there when I walked up. They were just standing in a clump and talking with each other. When I walked up and stood behind them around where the line usually forms, they become quieter, nod in my direction, steal glances, and then shift their entire clump away from where I am standing. It doesn't particularly bother me, and they moved only slightly, so I just kept standing where I was.
But then, all at once, five to six more people arrive in succession and line up behind the shifted soldier clump, not where I was standing.
So I then have to move to stand behind all these people.
That was a little frustrating.

There was also a repeat from the running incidents of this summer, Leanndra and I went running one day and a small unit of the army also was out running on the same trail. Their squad captian (or whatever he should be called) was yelling at the poor little guys, and kept running past us to look tough and powerful and silly-man stuff, but then he would stop, pose with his hands on his hips, look at the group of soldiers wherever they were behind us, sigh, shake his head, then run back to them all .
The soldiers started desperately sprinting just to get past us at one point, so I'm sure he must've threatened them, à la, "If you can't make it past two girls running you aren't a man. You will have to clean all the toilets and wash my back and crawl around on your hands and knees with a tattoo on your forehead saying "a girl beat me" " (my imagination of what these type of "real men" do).
It was funny becuase Leanndra and I were just running at a steady, easy pace for long distance, and then they all did this super sprint past us, but as soon as we followed them across one bridge, they all resting, stopped around their jeep, bent over, catching their breath. Leanndra and I continued running, while they all drove in their jeep back into town. Silly men.

Other army things in my life: a tool to battle the cold are "hot packs" 핫팩.  You know those little packets you shake to mix the powder inside for a wonderful, warm chemical reaction. Well, even those are army-themed in Hwacheon.

 



 And even our stationary store, Alpha, has more army clothing for sale than actual stationary.



 

It's especially funny because I'll go in a see soldiers debating which shirt to buy when they all look basically the same (camouflage).

 



 

Now let's travel away from Hwacheon a bit. Two weekends ago I went to Seoul with all the Fulbright program for a very wonderful Thanksgiving dinner provided by the embassy!

Photos stolen from Kristen O'Brien~ thanks!

 

The US embassy is so nice to us. They really support us and foreign service officers have spoken to us at the summer orientation as well as the fall conference we had a month or so ago in Gyeongju.

Our dinner was held in the Korean National Folk Museum in Seoul, a place with lots of traditional buildings and museums. Micia and I arrived really early (but got lost... so we actually arrived on time). Here are some photos from when we were happily unaware of how lost we were:

 

The hostle we stayed the night at was very cheap, only $14 for the night, but it was kinda smelly and weird... but it had a rooftop!



 

Micia and I are a little obsessed with rooftops... you must understand. Every other Korean drama has a main character living on a rooftop house or multiple dramatic scenes take place on a rooftop. So Micia and I have fantasies about anything to make our lives similar to Korean dramas...

 

 Rooftop = drama

 



They totally look just like they're in a drama now right?

 

And to deepen my psychological obsession with rooftops, Japanese anime/manga also has endless rooftops scenes (particularly at schools). But since I already went way too long with the Korean drama gifs (I could keep going but I had to stop myself there) I won't make you stare at more gifs...

 

 

Jessica (who I don't think I've introduced to you all yet, but she's our other cohort in all the above photos) and I went to a cat cafe to end our Seoul weekend. I went to a cat cafe in Seoul two years ago, and the cats were all very moody and uninterested in the people unless they had food for them... but this cafe was completely different. The moment Jess and I walked in a cat jumped onto her shoulders.

 

The cats kept rubbing against our legs, jumping onto our laps, or even the table we sat at. My theory, other than that the cats are just nicer, is that since it's fall/winter and very cold the cats want to snuggle more than in the hot summer weather (when I went to a cat cafe last time).

just wanted you to see that cat's face. I know the rest is blurry... but look at it's face!!

 

There was one cat in particular, I wish I had more pictures of. It was the softest, fluffiest little cat, with very short legs. While another cat was in my lap, this cat kept walking around my legs and looking up at me longingly.

You can see the little cat in the corner here, waiting for my lap to be free...

 

I tried gesturing, "come up!" and she did try once, but could only jump about half the height of my shin. As soon as the cat in my lap left, the mini cat came back. This time I lowered my legs more, and she immediately jumped onto my lap. I praised her for making it and she nuzzled into my elbow and my heart just melted.

 

 and also rolled into a perfect fuzzy ball of fluff

 

She proceeded to take a half an hour nap on my lap, and would have slept longer if I didn't wake her up when I had to leave to catch the train.

 

 

And finally some lovely terrible English for you:

 

Have a nece rest of the day! Bye!

 

~ Gabippity boppity boo