2014 Updates!

I started writing a Facebook update and realized it was more than a few sentences and didn't want to bore anyone's news feed with my ramblings. It then occurred to me that I have a blog that I have neglecting for the past six months (with good reason, life has been crazy!). This is going to be more writing than everyone is used to because I have a lot to explain, so bare with me!

First of all, when I left you last I am pretty sure we were discussing our move to Germany. Well that never happened and as much as I would have loved to move back to Europe I am happy now that we didn't. So since we heard news that we weren't able to move to Germany we decided to stay in Korea for another two years. Honestly, the last few years we have spent here have been the best. When I started writing this blog I was only about 20 years old, it almost feels like I was a different person then. I remember being that newlywed girl going on an adventure of a lifetime, living all over the United States in hotels and temporary apartments and then finding out that life would next be taking us to live in Korea. I have always been open to changes and I remember being in awe of the prospects of living on the other side of the world.

Now, four years later, I can't believe it is coming to an end. I really can't. As I sit here now I only have a little more than three weeks left in this place that has become my home. A lot of people come and go, most only staying for a year, which barely allows you the time to scratch the surface of this beautiful country. I can honestly say that I have grown up so much here and couldn't have wished for a better place to spend the first half of my twenties. I met many of my lifelong friends here and I happy to know that we will always have that special piece of memory to share. Now where do I/we go from here?

Zak and I took a leap of faith the past couple of months and after visiting home for the holidays we decided that we wanted to own a little piece of home and embarked on the adventure that is home ownership! It was a really long and tedious (and not fun at all) process but we are happy to say that we achieved one of our HUGE life goals that we set years ago, and that was to own a house on the beach. We are overjoyed and still waking up wondering if it was all a dream (im sure it won't be once we start making the mortgage payment next month!) and can't wait to start this new chapter of life. Unfortunately this means I have to move back to occupy our new home without Zak while he finishes out his commitment to his position here in Korea. But, if you know us or have been reading this blog for a REALLY long time you know we are always up for the challenge of a long distance relationship, after all, that's how we started!

We still have our crazy street dog if anyone is wondering :) She is going to stay here in Korea with Zak until later in the year when he is able to fly to the states to visit and then she will be a permanent US resident! I figured she could keep him company while at the same time I can do some renovations on our house without worrying about stepping on her.  Plus, I don't know how she will react to pooping on sand instead of grass so she needs some time to warm up to the idea of change! Ha!

I don't know if I have missed any major updates, but alas, I want to start posting here again to keep everyone in the loop of our crazy lives now that I have some extra time in the day to think. For now I will be stuffing my face with tons of Korean food, taking in all of the sunshine of the beautiful Korean spring and enjoying these last few weeks with my love!

Until next time, thanks for reading xxxx

Boseong Green Tea Festival

Back in May I had the opportunity to take a trip to Boseong. It was a pretty long trek from Pyeongtaek but it was worth it since I probably won't get the opportunity to make green tea (녹차) the traditional way again in my lifetime. The area was beautiful, I never imagined green tea fields would be as breathtaking as they were. Not much else to say about this trip aside from having a really cool experience. Here are the photos I snapped on my day trip to Boseong:

























And here is some information on the festival if you want to go! Boseong Green Tea Festival

Our trip to Bali!

For our anniversary in March, Zak and I decided to book a trip to Bali for an extended weekend to celebrate our four years of marriage. It was a 7 hour flight, we booked a direct flight to save on time since we were only spending a few days in Bali. We arrived really late at night and scheduled a car from the hotel to meet us at the airport which was great because there were about 1,000 taxi drivers hawking for a fare. Another tip, be sure to make a b-line straight to your luggage as soon as you see it or else a helping hand will grab it all for you and force you to tip them for their 'help'. You will also need to apply for a visa at immigration so have some cash on hand to pay.

We had a few weekend night certificates from Hilton to use up so we chose to stay at the Conrad Bali because of its amazing reviews. We booked a lagoon room which I would highly recommend! The Conrad was even nice enough to send us a bottle of champagne to celebrate our anniversary. I don't have anything negative to say about our stay there. I will let the pictures do the talking!









Bali is incredible. I am still in awe six months later about the beauty of this island, it even smelled beautiful! On our first day we explored the area around our hotel and walked the streets with mopeds zipping by. Riding a moped is an art form in Bali, I saw one with a family of five on it and others stacked so high that you couldn't see around them. Just down from our hotel was a great little restaurant on the beach called Kendi Kuning. It had really great reviews so we had our dinner there and we were not disappointed, their prawns were HUGE!!





The next morning we took a taxi to the other side of the island to spend the day at a private beach at the Nammos Beach Club, which is part of the Karma Kandara Resort. The trip to the beach took our breath away! The resort itself is situated on top of a cliff which overlooks the Indian Ocean. To get to the beach we had to take an elevator down the side of the cliff to the beach club, the view from that short ride could not be beat! It is still my computer backdrop :P

Here are some photos of our time at the Nammos Beach Club:











For our last day we hired a driver to take us around the island. My good friend Lisa recommended that I try out the local hot spot for babi guling at Ibu Oka, so this was our first stop! Here is the special that I had:



And you can't go to Bali without a stop in the Monkey Forest! The particular one that we went to was the one in Ubud. The monkeys at this forest were actually really chill and nice to be around. I have heard horror stories about the monkeys in Bali so this was a great surprise. Our driver was known pretty well by the monkeys so we had groups of them following us and climbing us up and down!











Next we visited the rice terraces, now I see a lot of rice living in Korea but these terraces were beautiful! It was so interesting to see that rice is harvested all year long since the temperature remains the same. The terraces were all at different levels of growth and more green than I have ever seen!





Our driver also stopped by a temple for us on the way back, it was pretty neat to hear about all of the history and learn about the sacrifices and ceremonies that still take place.







If you are staying in the Nusa Dua area of Bali and need a driver I highly highly recommend Agus! Here is his website: http://www.agusbali.com/


After our tour we hung out in the departure lounge at the Conrad, washed up and caught a red eye back to Korea. Although our stay in Bali was short, I will always remember this trip for its beauty and would love to return one day. If you live in Asia like we do, do yourself a favor and book a trip to Bali. You will no doubt create memories that will last a lifetime.

Thanks for reading xxx

Wolchulsan Sky Bridge

Back before I went into hibernation for the winter, Zak and I went to find the suspended sky bridge in the Wolchulsan mountains in the South Jeolla province. He described this hike to me as being "pretty easy" but it was more of a moderate hike in my opinion. It was at a pretty steep incline the whole way but also has been traveled a lot so there were hand rails and ropes at the more difficult sections. If I remember correctly the hike took us a little over an hour to get to the sky bridge and would have been another hour to the summit. We were unable to summit because the sun was beginning to set and we still had quite a bit of a drive home.









The sky bridge itself was definitely worth the hike up. It is incredible to see in person! Although it is quite unnerving to be standing on the suspended bridge with so many people. Here are our photos, but I would definitely recommend to see it in person:







It was such a beautiful fall day and as always I recommend visiting here on a weekday, we decided to go on a Sunday because the weather forecast looked better but we ended up hiking like ants in an ant farm. See below:



If you are in Korea and would like to visit the Wolchulsan National Park for a hike to see the sky bridge, here are the details: Wolchulsan National Park

Our Adventure in Making Kimchi!

In November Zak and I took a trip with our neighbors to make Kimchi in Seoul. The winter months are typically when kimchi is prepared and ready to be fermented. We took this trip with a group called WINK, it is a tour group based primarily out of Seoul that has trips available with English translators. This was the second trip I had done with them and I am overall satisfied with this organization aside from being a bit expensive for the quality of the tours. 

It was a cold and rainy day and we ended up waiting about an hour for our bus out of Seoul to where we were making the kimchi but the rain eventually subsided and makgeolli appeared just in time for us to enjoy the experience! It is hard for some people to get past the fermented aspect of kimchi but if you give it a chance you just might fall in love with this sour spicy cabbage like I have. 

The act of making kimchi is easier than I had previously thought. All you need is a salted cabbage and ingredients such as, salt, ginger, garlic, powdered red pepper, sugar and radish. Just rub your mixture of choice onto each cabbage leaf section, let it sit at room temperature for at least 48hrs and there you have it... home made kimchi! (Caveat: Kimchi must be prepared while under the influence of Korean rice wine)

(this is me keeping a look-out for the old Korean woman who pops up just to remind you that you are doing it allllll wrong)

If you want some live action checkout our youtube video:

We were lucky to have a great photographer with our group who has kindly allowed us to share his photos, if you are interested in visiting his blog it can be found here: Kimchibytes

Thanks for reading xxx

2013 Update!

Happy new year to you!! The end of 2012 went by in a blink for us and the whirl wind of the holidays have come and gone. We have a few bits of exciting news to share with you all! First things first, I have finally finally completed my bachelors degree and certification. It has been a very long 5 1/2 years trying to get my degree done with all of the adventures and moves we have had during that time period. But I am so relieved to be done! And now as equally as exciting, we are moving to Germany in the summer! Up until the last couple of months we thought we would be staying in Korea for at least another two years but things come up and opportunities presented themselves and we are very much looking forward to moving to the EU. I am in the process of renewing my EU passport and still can't believe we are getting the opportunity to live near all of my family in Europe! 

I am also looking forward to being able to blog more now that I have lots of free time between learning to speak German and my new project, cooking through our cook books! I thought it would be fun to blog some of the recipes that I encounter and find interesting. Currently I have just started cooking through Alton Brown's "I'm Just Here for the Food: Version 2.0" I figured this would be a good place to start since it discusses various cooking techniques.

 Aside from my cooking adventures we plan to visit and share some of our favorite places in South Korea that we will miss when we leave. I still can't believe we will be leaving the ROK in less than six months! We have knocked a few things off of our bucket list recently that I will blog for you all in the coming days. Until then, I leave you with my lesson in searing from last night:

I cooked with the pan I fear the most, the cast iron skillet. I don't know why I have feared it and left it in the bottom of the cabinet but now I see its true purpose, to sear! I got a cheap cut of skirt steak, brought it to room temperature (very important!), and rubbed it with some peanut oil, salt and pepper. I then heated my skillet over high heat for about 3 minutes, set the steak on the hot pan for another 3 minutes without messing with it (also..very important!) and flipped for another 3 minutes. Once you have seared both sides, let it rest on a rack for no less than 5 minutes, slice and voila! Perfect skirt steak and so easy! 

I chose to pair my steak with a simple salad of arugula, red onion, cherry tomatoes and bleu cheese. I feel that this salad paired really well with the vinaigrette that I mixed up which included:

1/3c Olive Oil

2tb Red Wine Vinegar

1tb Dijon Mustard

1/2tsp Honey

1/4tsp Worcestershire

A piece of advice with searing however is to have your exhaust fan ready because your kitchen will get smokey and if it doesn't, well.. you must be doing something wrong! Don't be intimidated by the smoke but use your judgement to decide whether it is "yeahhh im searin' now" smoke or "oh shit I think I might burn the house down" smoke. 

Let me know your favorite dish to use skirt steak in or if you try this salad! You won't be disappointed! :) 

Thanks for reading, be back with more soon!

xxx

Cruisin' in the Caribbean

Writing these posts and seeing all of our pictures really gives me the traveling bug again and it has only been 3 months since our vacation o.O

After Ohio we flew back to Florida, which I hardly remember because of too many cocktails.. well except for the part when I realized we were sitting next to the local weather man.. that was, interesting. I still don't understand how I got starstruck by a weather man on the local news but we will blame that on the cranberry vodkas. *Anyways* we were at my parents house for a night or two to drop Pip off since they were watching her for us while we went on the cruise. 

Before the cruise we managed to squeeze two days in at Universal Orlando before heading to Ft Lauderdale. Being a Florida resident sure does come in handy down in south Florida where they like to rip off tourists. We were able to get a pretty sweet deal staying at one of the on site hotels with a two day pass to the parks. A perk of staying at the on-site hotel is that you can enter the theme park early..which we did..and it was aweeeesome!

Harry Potter!

We then traveled from Orlando to Ft Lauderdale to catch the cruise ship. The ship we went on is currently the largest ship in the world, Royal Caribbean's "Allure of the Seas".  Here we are ready to hit the seas:

Our first port was Nassau, Bahamas. We don't typically go for the overpriced 'tour' packages while on cruises and instead prefer to tour on our own. We were only in Nassau for about half the day so we decided  to go to Junkanoo Beach which was about a 15 minute walk from the dock.

After the Bahamas we cruised to St Thomas! If you ever needed new diamond jewelry here is where to find it! One of the jewelry capitals of the world. I had a ring that we purchased on the ship re-sized here for only about $20 and it was done within two hours. I had this done at Diamonds International and they were very credible, I was a little reluctant allowing them to take my new ring but trusted in the fact that they had a good reputation and it paid off. After shopping around and waiting for my ring we negotiated with a taxi bus driver to take us around the island and drop us off to snorkel at Sapphire Beach.

Our last stop on this itinerary was by far our favorite, St Maarten. We did do a tour from the ship on this island as well as going on our own adventure after. The tour we did was called "Sea Trek" and it was such a fun experience, albeit short for the price. I was actually very reluctant to do this because I am a bit claustrophobic and wasn't completely comfortable to rely on this mechanism to supply me oxygen on the sea floor. But alas, I managed to suck it up and do it and I am glad I did!

After our Sea Trek adventure we hopped in a cab to see the low flying planes over the famous Maho Beach! Words can't even begin to describe experiencing this, what a sight! 

Here is a video I was able to get of a plane coming in for landing:

And now for some random photos aboard the ship:

As always, thank you so much for reading!!! xxx