Holidaze in Korea: PUMPKIN PIE STRIKES BACK

Greetings!
The season of too many holidays is coming to a close~ and before the new year I wanted to share a bit of my Korean holy jolly experience.

This year I don't have a host family, and the Hwacheon team didn't plan a group dinner like last year but that would not stop me. I would still share the joy of American culture with my students and friends. I am a cultural ambassador after all. The obesity must happen one way or another. 

(That and I cannot survive the fall without one dish...)

Never mind that winter is in full swing...

I had all the ingredients and more.
I did not have a rolling pin.
That did not stop me. I wrapped plastic wrap around an old gas can and MADE THAT PIE CRUST.

AND THEN I MADE THE PIES.

My itty bitty kitchen doesn't have an oven.
That did not stop me.

I procured an oven. It was just... smaller than what I'm used to.
So, as you may have noticed, things have shrunk accordingly.

The aftermath (plus the not pictured over half a can of leftover Pumpkin and crust dough I put in a tupperware container)

I carry my little masterpieces in by hand Thanksgiving day. No, I did not walk over an hour to school. I took the bus. And got some weird looks for carrying pies in plastic bags, but I tried my best to not be too conspicuous and return any stares with my own "these aren't for you" eyes.

I was so excited the whole day. I couldn't wait for my after school class. 

It started at 4 o'clock. 

So I naturally had everything laid out and ready by 3:30.

 

Then to finish the surprise, covered it all with a Dooly blanket to remain inconspicuous. ;)

Then my students came! I started class with a PPT full of Thanksgiving food pictures, which got my students moaning about how hungry they were. My evil plan was working. I asked what they want to eat most, and while there were a few rebel mashed potato and turkey requests, most of their salivating musings were around pie...

THEN I UNVIELED MY SURPRISE. PERSONAL PUMPKIN PIE FOR EVERYBODYYYYYY

At first they were camera shy (as always, so I don't normally force the camera upon them)

But then I started posing Jisu, and they started laughing. And right when I started standing up, the best photo I have of me and my students was taken.

\

They ate very quietly, but they ate it all. Since one of the students didn't come, I gave the forth mini pie to my American counterpart, Wei. 

I had a medium sized pie I planned to share with the teachers, but Sungmin, the solo male of the 6th grade after school class, wanted more, and ate about half of that pie as well... The leftovers I forced our Fulbright co-teacher, Sujin, to take home for her family.

Sujin and Wei <3 <3

You bet I got right back to making more pies that weekend. This time I could look out on my beautiful view of farmhouses... (and use the flour I definitely did not clean up right away to roll out my leftover dough crust on).

That next week I ate a bit of pie for myself. Gave the leftover to the family below me. And gave personal pies to the SUPER kind and helpful cashier at the market in town and my SUPER DUPER AWESOME FRIEND, Darin.

Darin just opened a really beautiful traditional tea house attached to her family's pension business. I should write a review so all of you will want to go there yourself... (planning blogs for next year, muahahahaha)

As you can see, she cut up the mini pie into mini slices and put her own handmade concoctions on a plate next to it (for me to munch on with my tea). 

And that is the end of my pumpkin pie tales (for now... stay tuned for my SECOND CAN)

See you all in 2016!

BYEEEEEEEEE

Gabbading

Flying solo - Adventures in Thailand

Like, OMG welcome back ladies!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAhaaaa


NO


We've all had enough of that, yes? Good.

From now on we'll just stick to STARWARS YEAH

...


Well~ as excited as I am for the film (THAT'S LIKE OUT RIGHT NOW AHHHHHH AND I JUST WATCHED LAST WEEK AHHHH I HAVE TO SEE IT AGAIN AND AGAIN “I like the part where Keira Knightley battles the Harry Potter villain in the Narnia forest.”).

... and as you can tell from this post's title... this post isn't about Star Wars. Sorry. I truly am.

Sing a song and let's move on.

Let's travel way wayyy back to last winter break. Almost a year ago now!
Wait. Why, Gabby? You already haven't posted for a month.. Don't you have stories from Korea?
Oh yes, I do indeed. But now that the school year is winding down, I've got lots more desk time plus winter vacation, so you can expect even more blogging soon!
But as for my winter SE Asia travels~ I never got through all of those adventures here and have some fun anecdotes for you. So settle down and read ;)

A post about make-up

Like totally hello there!
OMG It's like totally the girliest of all girly blog posts! Yay~

(I know, I know, some of you are gagging. I would too. Please stay. I'm going to accommodate you poor folk with humor to make up for the subject material (hopefully).)

Sorry maybe this post is not that funny...

This is a post about make-up, written by a person who also isn't crazy about make-up (me), but as I've observed Korea's unique cosmetic culture, I've developed many feelings... Hence this blog post about my feelings..

I don't like make up. The main reason my face looks bare 89% of the time is because I'm too lazy to spend time and put on serious make up in the first place.
However, I'm not inept with makeup. Ever since I was an elementary school-er, I had to put on stage makeup in the car on my way to perform with my dance team for assemblies around town. (DV love. Don't stop never give up!)
I know how to not look like a ghost on stage. I know what works for me (ex. eye liner on the bottom of my eye looks like death) and can do serious-effort, nice-ish make-up if I have to.
I also know that I can put on a bit of eyeliner and mascara and cover up my dark circles in under 5 minutes and look decent. Which is much easier and what I do every day.

I don't want to diss fans of make up. I think it can be empowering and look really good on people. I admire some of my friends' skills. Ms. Tasnim, Ms. Odden, Mrs. Allmer-Granat. I'm looking at you~

But back to my feelings, I don't like how gender segregating it is. I don't like watching commercials for lipstick and mascara with women, followed by guys driving cool cars. It makes me feel like since I'm I girl, I get make-up and guys get cars. That's no fair trade. Girls get giant fans blowing their hair and guys get the wind of exhilarating speeds to gently ruffle theirs? Yeah, nope.

The commercials in Korea are of course similar to the above mentioned American ones. One exception is that you'll see male celebrities in skin care commercials as well, since many Korean guys also care about their complexions.

Can you handle all that perfect skin?

Korea has a whole different beauty standard that I don't want to get too in depth with here. There's some things that are very different from American culture, and I hope to explain just to fill in those who are unfamiliar.

Here's a super super brief low-down so no one is lost:
          - Pale, clear skin, big eyes, shapely brows = good
          - Red cheeks, blemishes, small eyes/lashes, pale lips = bad
          - No make-up (mostly just for girls) = sick or tired/hungover and also unprofessional (like you aren't trying)

Now that was general, everyday standards. There's different standards for celebrities (and people who want to look like them)
          - Korean pop music = guys and girls alike with eyeliner, lipstick, foundation (not all the time, but the more you wear the more attention you can grab like:

 G-Dragon just loves to look different~

         Or if the group is going for the equally popular cute look... the makeup can be more natural

          - Korean movies, TV, news = guys also have tinted lips and foundation, but both genders are toned down compared to Kpop (I have wasted way to much time looking for photos for this post. So you can just see more here)

There's lots of material out there in the Interwebs (some more negative than others) if you are curious for more, but this blog is about me and my fantastic thoughts! So let's just get to what I think! Yeah selfishness!

Many things have happened to me as I've spent more time in Korea. Some of these are natural developments that may have occurred just the same in the US, but others are very specific to Korea.

First of all is my opinion of lipstick. I have really thin lips, and always thought that lipstick just makes people notice them even more. I like my eyes more, and always just did eye makeup if I dressed up.
But in Korea I've been converted. GO LIPS

I bought my first lipstick for myself just this spring.
SHINee made me do it.
It was a lipstick pack that SHINee promoted and I originally bought it for the box and promotional perks... But then this fall I actually opened some and started wearing it! I actually kinda like it. It actually looks nice I think. It's a miracle!

How can I not purchase lipstick after seeing this?

Koreans wear lipstick and lip stain quite often and it just looks so good~ Some of my friends back home also post pictures of themselves with lipstick, and they all look so good too. This is one of those things that I assume could've happened back home too, as I matured into an age of lipstick appreciation, but I am pretty frugal and would never spend much on something I don't see as important, so I also can't deny SHINee helped me make the leap.


AND YET THERE IS A FLY IN THE DELICIOUS SOUP OF KOREAN LIPS.
YES. A FAT, HAIRY FLY.
There is this really really hideous lipstick style that started getting popular last year or so. It's called "그라데이션 립" which is basically "gradation lip" in Konglish, or ombre if you're hip like that. It's way too popular and I think it looks like you are sick and dying. Only the innermost part of your lip is colored and the edges are paled. Not a fan.

 Here's a tutorial if you want to see how terrifying you yourself can look with this style:

And if you prefer a vampire look:

Of course there is tons of variations of this. And some of them look really cool! Like these two:

But the reason these two look good is because you can see the whole lip... It doesn't look like your face is swallowing your lips, or you're a vampire, or you are dying in the freezing ocean after the Titanic sunk.

Yeah. I went there.

This next rant isn't exactly make-up related but it still is a popular beauty product in Korea:
Circle lenses. They are contact lenses that make your eyes appear bigger by enlarging your iris and may actually be damaging to your eyes, that many girls (widely within Asia, but not just Koreans and Japanese, anyone around the world who wants to try something new or is uncomfortable with their self perceived "small eyes") enjoy wearing.
Here's an example of a normal eye vs circle lens-covered eye:

Which side would you rather look at while having a conversation?

AHHHHHHHHHHH

Seriously I am too disturbed by them. It's frightening. It's unnatural. I can't focus on drama plots when the actors wear them. I can't hear how much the cashier says I have to pay if she's wearing them. All I can do is wince and avert my eyes and try not to think about it. Okay, not a all the time. But when they are very large, yes.

Thankfully they aren't really common out in the countryside of Hwacheon, but when I go to more urban places, and especially Seoul, I am confronted with them.

Kpop often use colored lenses for new concepts to get attention. Sometimes they look fine (or in SHINee's case AMAZING because they can do no wrong).

And sometimes they're just begging for attention.

The above group, Red Velvet, was teased about this "white girl" concept for a short while.

With their popularity in KPOP, I can say I've honestly gotten used to different colored eyes, and think that they can look nice sometimes (if the diameter of the iris is more realistically sized) and I think they look better in photos than in person. In person they are seriously terrifying. I like to look at peoples eyes when I meet them to gauge their character and circle lenses are like alien armor. I can't view you as human with ginormous, emotionless eyes.

Sometimes, the above two styles (gradient lips and circle lenses) are horribly combined to haunt my dreams. The selca-taking internet famous ulzzang 얼짱 girls often combine the two. Like this:

But I rarely search through ulzzang photos so my dreams are safe... until I come upon this pairing in a drama. I love Korean dramas. But if I have to watch an actor, especially a main character with circle lenses (hello, I can't see emotion through your giant fake eyes) and lips that I can't look directly at... well I end up pausing the show a lot and collecting myself.

There's this new drama (actually just finished) called "She Was Pretty" 그녀는예뻤다... and the main lead is exactly like that.

Yes, it has a ridiculous plot, like many Korean dramas. And the female lead is an atrocious over-actor, who is supposed to be "ugly" in the beginning (yeah right. Change your bone structure and teeth, then maybe you'll fool the audience...) then poof! For no absolute reason other than she wanted a change suddenly wears foundation and straightens her hair (if that's all the world had to do to be pretty, there'd be different standards of beauty).

I'll stop myself there. I have so many feelings about this, I should really make a blog about drama reviews... There are so many other better dramas out there, so don't be fooled into thinking I always criticize dramas. I only criticize terrible acting that is very well due and plot holes.

But I can't watch dramas all the time with the shaky Internet at my place. SO I sometimes have to entertain myself in other ways. Like sleeping. Or putting on a ton of makeup for fun... (approximately 0.8% of the time)
OR I turn on my awesome old-school Samsung box set TV and watch whatever is on TV... which sometimes is shows like "Get It Beauty" 겟잇뷰티

Again, MAKEUP OVERLOAD. Sometimes it's really funny, like these two fabulous and flamboyant makeup designers, 박태윤 Taeyoon Park and 손대식 Daesik Son, with egos through the roof have to compete with each other for the audience's approval and they are so mean to each other. And while laughing I inadvertently learn a bunch about make-up.

I AM SO SORRY. This post dragged on for quite a while didn't it? I kept on thinking of more things to say and well... 

And now we've finished this monster cutesy post! Cue pretty pose:

Next time I'll write about trucks or poop or something to balance the Force on my blog...

Please come back.

-Gab-b-b-beeeeee