Mak tasting at the Folk Village

Last weekend (I've finally caught up), was a festival at the local folk village in Asan. S and T were there sampling their special makgeolli with their academy. It was fun to wander around - there were scarecrows everywhere dressed up like people, there were straw games (tunnel and slide - I both all of them), they were sending little paper boats with wishes down a stream, there were corn ball things, and then we made our own makgeolli! (I still don't know if mine is finished yet...? It's been fermenting for a week and looks the exact same.) After we mixed our own, we sampled more mak (my favorites were S's apple cinnamon and a cardamum), cooked some meat over the fire, and played funny games with everyone. We then slept on the floor of the hanok! Heated floor with pad and very very flat pillow.  Met some very cool people! To get home: taxi to Onyang station, coffee (necessary), subway back to Shinchang, and walk back to apartment.. It took a while. 

Results of our mak photo shoot (Thanks, S). 

Happy.

This must've been the third week of October...

This week: 

S made breakfast. Cinnamon and nutmeg buttermilk pancakes with apple butter, yogurt, almonds, cooked apples, honey, and syrup to top. A feast. 

Drinking salad at school... is actually juice.

Got to Facetime Virginia!!! Thanks for waking up at 5 in the morning for me :) :) 

And don't kill me for screenshotting...

Water Festival in Onyang celebrating... water in all its forms? 

Highlight of my day: police punishing their fellow policeman. 

Police can have fun too. 

I described the exact same person... 

either my descriptive skills need work or their drawing skills need work. 

Snapchatting all day every day. Love this girl. 

Fall Beer Fest 2013

Such a fun day! Went with S earlier on the Saturday and "helped" her mix in her fruits into her makgeolli (she added apples, and T added pear). Then afterwards we trekked over to the fest. It was such a perfect Fall day. I ate pizza (real pizza!), drank homebrewed and craft beers, found solo cup (Yay, Dad!), was amidst the largest number of foreigners thus far, and found Founders Brewing, GR! (Man wearing it and wife were from Saugatuck, so I reminisced about how perfect Holland, MI is and how much I miss it). 

My favorites: oatmeal milk and honey stout, peppercorn amber, and pecan porter.

I was so spoiled this day. So thankful. 

Second week of October

During the second week of October: 

I found a cute coffee shop after church one day that sounds like a sneeze. 

It's called "Cafe Ahiszle" and there are many plants. 

We sat here for an entire hour because we missed the subway by literal minutes. 

But it happens, and we laughed and we drank yummy coffee instead.

On a Tuesday night during the second week of October, S, T, J, and I went out for some dducktoritang (I'm sounding it out, ignore spelling). All I remember is that it was REALLY spicy so I ate a lot of the sides (including the omelet thing bottom left). Pictured bottom right is makgeolli. 

The Thursday of that week, my school had their English festival. There were acts from third through sixth grade, my favorites being Do-Re-Mi (below) and the Cups song from Pitch Perfect! (Somehow I influenced this). It was loads of fun and Julie and I were the intermission entertainment with our quiz show. There were a LOT of children stuffed in a gym, but they had good attitudes and I think they even understood some of the English! 

A busy week, but we did have a holiday on the Wednesday so I can't complain. 

Hey, Fall

There were a lot of (well, a few) welcomed national holidays in October and that is what I blame for the lack of blogging (my apologies, Mrs. Stoskopf!). The first was Foundation Day (a Thursday) and the second was Hangul (the Korean alphabet) day on the following Wednesday. Little days off of school in the middle of busy weeks make me thankful.

Independence Hall was one of my favorite places to visit. We began in the morning and took the subway to Ssangdon (I think..) then walked to Shinsegae (a big department store) and caught a bus out to the site. It was a beautiful place. You walk in the entrance after getting off the bus and are greeted by this rather large two-pronged.. thing. Apparently it's 20 stories high, and the perspective from ground level is very skewed (it was really hard to stand at the bottom and try to look at the top). Before walking through this arch-like building, you cross a bridge with happy, yellow flowers on both sides. There is a coy pond on one side where the monster fish battle for the generosity of strangers while a fountain gracefully pours forth gallons of water. Quite the scene. Here, we met men in uniform! From both Australia and Korea. Of course we got a picture with them, and of course I can't find it. Ah, just found it - see below! 

There is a building that resembles Lincoln's memorial in DC, and the Koreans claim that the statue within is, in fact, larger. Don't believe it, Lincoln is definitely bigger. Luckily, the children here like taking pictures with strange foreigners. And behind the "memorial" are six buildings.... six parts of a museum of Korean history... It was really interesting for the first three (very in depth) buildings. But by the fourth... I needed a latte. And I had my first churro! I don't remember much about buildings four through six.

After wandering around the lovely place, we went back to Shinsegae and got a BURGER. A real BURGER. It tasted SO good. So good, I went back two days later. 

Sometimes you just need a good burger. Something you crave and can't stop thinking about. Something you miss. Simple things like burgers.