Baking Frenzy

This holiday season, I decided I wanted to go all out. I couldn't just pick one Christmas favorite, I had to pick several. These are clearly the musings of a crazy woman with one tiny toaster oven and one tiny baking sheet. I rolled out cookie dough onto the back of a dry erase board (cleaned of course!) because we have no counter space. I washed the same large pot over and over because we have no bowls big enough to mix cookie dough in. I lost all feeling in my back after standing huddled over the low counter tops in the kitchen for two days straight. I definitely lost my mind, but was rewarded with some delicious treats!

My previous job was just as low hours and low responsibility (the same pay even) as the one I have now with one exception: my new employers and coworkers are not Jehovah's Witnesses who bah humbug at the holiday season. While they don't really celebrate Christmas, I know they will be excited to receive these awesome holiday tins.

I originally wanted to make little goody bags for the co-teachers and boss but I didn't realize I had made so many things. There wasn't enough room in the bags unless I wanted to give each person several bags. So I looked around our apartment and found two cookie tins that were eaten up long ago.

The head teacher and boss received the big tin with nearly twice as many goodies.

The small tin was for our coworker. She teaches the other half of the classes.

My holiday goodie collection includes Christmas tree sugar cookies, raspberry star cookies, snickerdoodles, chocolate crinkles, magic bars, peanut butter balls, and chocolate dipped pretzels. Each one is amazing since they contain a little bit of America in each bite. It's unfortunate that Koreans have not quite attached themselves to baked goods as desserts yet. Maybe someday there will be ovens in all Korean kitchens (probably not).

For the kids, my mommy was generous enough to send treats and goodie bags for them. They all received a pencil, candy cane, chocolates and stickers. Most were thrilled to get Christmas presents although a few wanted to "trade" their pencils in for different ones.

I can't believe it is Christmas Eve already! Our students had their last day of school until February and we had our last day of work until January! We are officially on winter vacation as of 8:45 pm today. We'll keep you all posted on our vacation activities.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!
Love, Lisa, Michael and Gizmo

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

How quickly the time flies in December! Michael and I went to Seoul on December 7th in search of some cultural familiarity. Chuncheon does not decorate for the holidays. This saddens Michael and I because all we have to look at is our tiny Chistmas tree, which kind of resembles Charlie Brown's.

We accidentally slept in Saturday morning, but were fortunate to make it to the train station at 11:17; the train's departure being at 11:20. We rushed to the ticket counter, impatiently waiting behind an older couple purchasing what felt like 20 tickets. We had to wait for them to count out the money and put their tickets away before they finally walked off. I ran to the counter, told the clerk "Cheongnyangni" and fingered 2. He took my money, thrust the tickets in my hand and we flew to the train. We got onto car six and walked across cars to get to ours: car 3. As we walked in to our car, the train started moving.

Cheongnyangni was decorated with trees inside and out. I couldn't help but smile. We looked around for a couple of minutes and then hit the subway. Our first destination was the Wolfhound Pub for some much needed western food. Michael got the burger, I got the veggie burger. Both were served with fries. They had Strongbow!

Who serves beer on ice? The Wolfhound Pub does.

After stuffing ourselves silly, we went over to Dongdaemun market. I was in search of some baking products and heard they could be found here. We arrived to find several tiny shops filled to the brim with flour, chocolate chips, cookie cutters, sprinkles, cute little boxes, you name it. My favorite shops were bread garden (the best supplies, but the most expensive!) and Bake King. I am really excited to try out my new cookie cutters, chocolate and food stampers this weekend!

Finally, we went to the electronics market in I-Park mall. We have been to Yongsan countless times now, but had never checked out this area of the mall. It was filled with salesmen trying to sell us cameras, computers, and TVs. There were also some game stations where I picked up a new Sims game.

While at the mall, we hit up Baskin Robins for some ice cream. The flavor of the month is Santa's Cookie Crunch and it is fantastic. I was overwhelmed with cookie bits and chocolate chunks. Michael got his usual standby: Love Struck Stawberry which has stawberries, cheesecake bits and chocolate chunks. We were in ice cream heaven.

By then we were ready to go. Its nice to go to Seoul even for just a few hours. On December 21st, Chuncheon will be opening a new train line that connect with the Seoul Metropolitan Subway. This means that we will be able to go to Seoul for Subway prices (2,600 Won) and we will be able to get there in just 89 minutes. Shaving an hour off of our total train time will definitely encourage to travel to Seoul more in our last few months here.

Snowy Day

There was an ominous chill in the air as we walked to work this afternoon. It had rained a couple hours before, and the roads were wet and the air was damp. Despite the humidity, it seemed blisteringly cold. I had to take out my gloves and bundle up tight in my coat.

It rarely snows here, because it's not supposed to get very cold (we're pretty close to a coast). Yet, this is the second time it has snowed already this season. These pictures are from the last snow two weeks ago. We enjoyed feeling the soft flakes fall on our hair and shoes and coat us in a thick layer of snow. The snow won't last more than a day, but the kiddies will try to cling to the snow for all it's worth. They will attempt to make snowballs and miniature snowmen out of the centimeter of snow that manages to stick to the ground.

I'm glad to be inside and see the snow falling, because it is cold out there. At the same time, it makes me oddly nostalgic of Iowa winters and blizzards of years past. As much as I hate the cold and winter (thanks to upbringings in the warm, dry desert and moderate climate of northern Texas), there is something magical about snow and I get excited whenever I see it. I think I've pointed out the window for Michael to look at the snow falling three times now, and I will continue to do so until it stops falling.

One Fish, Two Fish...

Six fish!

One of the perks of living on Seumasup-gil is being in Chuncheon's "Food Alley." There are restaurants flooding the streets and there are three food stalls lining the sidewalk on our way to and from work. We actually have only been to two of the restaurants in our area because I'm a pescatarian that cannot read Korean (bad move in a country whose national language is Korean, I know) and Michael, who does read Korean, albeit very slowly, cannot translate anything that he reads into English. When the menus don't have pictures on them, we get into a scary situation. We either order something that we think we might like, or we end up leaving the restaurant, embarrassed.

So yeah, nights out aren't too common for us. We are discovering the food stalls though. In Korea, the food stalls are only open during cold months. They serve soup, fish on a stick, sweet egg bread, ddeokbokki (a spicy ricecake dish), delicious pancakes and what I like to refer to as fish.

These cuties are shaped like fish but do not contain any fish at all. They are made with pancake/waffle batter and filled with either custard or red beans. I've been wanting to try one since they first set up the food stalls in October.

Last night we were super hungry coming home from work. Luckily the food stalls are available for instant satisfaction. We pulled up the the stall and pointed to the fish. I asked for one, thinking Michael and I could share and since he does not like red beans (I must be the only foreigner to like these in sweets) I asked for a creme-filled one. The man started filling a bag with 3 fish. I was shocked. I only asked for one! Confused, I figured it must be 3 fish for 2,000 won. I try to hand me the money and then he filled up another bag! Ahh! Fish overload! It turns out that you get 3 fish for a dollar. Oops.

Not wanting to cause anymore miscommunication with the poor vendor, we took off with our six fish. We happily indulged in two fish on our way home. They're delicious! Much tastier than real fish and now we have some left for dessert tonight!

A Gizmo Post

Michael's parents so generously sent Gizmo a present in the mail this week. The contents: a hollowed-out mouse to put catnip in and like a year's supply of catnip. Our cat has apparently developed the taste for the buds over the past year. Maybe because she hasn't had any for 9 months or so she's having a surprising reaction to it. I'm not sure. What I do know is that she is a crack head now.

She could smell the catnip before we even opened the package. Michael had to keep pushing her back while he tried to open it up and stuff the mouse. She wasn't liking the waiting part of presents. Surprisingly, Michael does not either. So, we presented the catnip to her in pure form sprinkled on the floor and also stuffed in the mouse. She licked up every morsel she could get her tongue on and then proceeded to go nuts with the mouse for about an hour. She is officially in love.

After her little romp, she was in a state of ecstasy causing Michael to worry that she was overdosing. She contentedly napped on the edge of the bed with her mouse carefully tucked under her belly for safekeeping. Every so often, she would wake up and attack her mouse for a while.

I have never seen her react like this, so it was quite funny for us and we had to take a zillion pictures. Enjoy!