Holiday season in South Korea!

Its that time of year again and I am more excited than usual about it this year!!! Just being able to be together, have a nice home, and live in such an awesome country. This has definitely been a great year for us.. excluding Zak's time in the hospital..!

Thanksgiving was spent with friends, and although North Korea tried to ruin it, our plans worked out and we had a great time. I have been wanting to put up the tree since..um.. the beginning of November but Zak made me hold off until after Thanksgiving and im glad he did. Often times people forget about Thanksgiving and move right into Christmas. So the day after Thanksgiving our tree went up!!! :) We haven't had it up in two years and every time I look at it I get such a warm feeling inside.

So lets rewind a bit to the weekend before Thanksgiving. We met up with our friends in Seoul and shopped till we dropped! Myeongdong is a whole shopping district with everything from shoe stores, clothing stores (even stores like H&M, Forever 21, and Zara!) By far my favorite part was discovering that they had a Lush store. I have never been happier to set my eyes on bath bombs and body wash! :) By about 4pm Myeongdong gets VERY crowded, when exiting a store you are in heel to toe walking.. its like black friday madness every day of the week!!

Here are some pictures we captured along the way!

Zak decided to try on some native wear...

(By far the funniest picture of Zak that I have!! Every time I look at it, it makes me laugh!)

And then came the arcade.. Korean arcades are far better than American! 

And of coarse.. Zak has to beat my high score ;)

The mall has a beautiful Christmas display outside, Koreans LOVE the holidays just as much as I do!!!!! 

So in all we have had a great week, still pretty busy learning the Korean language.. distinguishing between the "proper" way and the "known" way to speak. 

On another note.. our dog Pip is still a a crazy nut. She was spayed about a month ago and is slowly coming out of her "mothering" stage. We have put away most of her toys for now because she just protects them to much and I can tell she is unhappy feeling like she has to watch over them. I don't know where she found my cat ear headband from Halloween.. but she did.. and its fuzzy.. so naturally she thought it was her baby..

I hope you have a great week! We are spending next weekend at the Hilton Millennium in Seoul for my birthday, I am so looking forward to it and will take plenty of picture to share! 

Thanks for reading xxx

Finding the Beach in Korea!

I have been missing the water lately, and living on a peninsula I knew the beach couldn't be that far away! Zak and I found a strip of national beaches about an hour or so away, and with Pip in tow we headed out. The drive was not bad on the way there, but it is easy to want to drive fast on Korean highways and they have strategically placed speed detectors along the roads. So without a handy GPS that locates all the radars for us, we continuously speed up and slow down when I yell "CHECK YO' SPEED!" You see, in Korea no one really follows traffic laws, they are just a guide.. so if you drive slow you will get rear ended or get stuck behind the man driving a plow while everyone else is overtaking you... needless to say the purchase of a GPS is in our near future. :)

Upon arriving to where our directions landed us, we quickly deduced that we were in some sort of a fisherman's wharf/ boat dock.. not the beach! But we did walk out on the sea wall and get a beautiful view!

(Click to enlarge panoramic)

After leaving the first stop we drove a bit further north and the road ended at the beautiful Cheongpodae Beach. It was so cold out by the sea, I think in the low 40s with a nice wind chill! Pip was very confused as to what she was stepping on and decided to lick the sand to get a closer investigation... hmm not so tasty?? Here are some pictures from the beach!

I will definitely be visiting this beach again once the weather warms up!!! On our way home we thought all was swell, until we hit the dreaded traffic. Our 1 1/2 hour drive turned into 4 hours of stop and go! It was terrible, but we did get a few laughs when we saw vendors set up all along the route selling beer and food! 

Next week is Thanksgiving!!! YUMMMMO! Hope everyone enjoys their week!

PS. Want a custom coat like Pip's for your pup? Visit WarmWags , I highly recommend them for big dogs or small! 

Celebrating Zak's Birthday!

So this past Monday my wonderful husband turned 26! I am so thankful that he is healthy and we are enjoying our life, every time a birthday rolls around you can't help but think what you were doing this time last year. We were living in Pennsylvania in Keith and Julia's basement and Zak was getting ready to unexpectedly head to Afghanistan for the first time as a civilian. I remember thinking and wondering if we were ever going to make it out to Korea, and the thought of it just seemed surreal. And now, here we are in Korea! Most people I have met do not like it here in Korea, but Zak and I had a choice to come and we don't regret that choice at all. I grew up knowing that there was more to the world than the 48 contiguous states (and the other two.. as well) lol. I am so happy to share my love of traveling with someone who enjoys it just as much as I do. My grandma told me that when you look back on life you don't want to think "We should have done that" but rather "Maybe we shouldn't have done that!" ha ha. If anyone reading this blog ever has an opportunity to travel and experience a world outside of your own, I would definitely take that opportunity and enjoy it. Don't waste your time worrying about what if's, just do it!

Now on to Zak's Birthday... ! For a few weeks now Zak has been wanting to try making a quiche, and what better time to dirty up the kitchen than your birthday. We now call this, the birthday quiche:

It was filled with egg, cheese, potato, bacon and onions! YUM!

Later on in the evening I surprised Zak with an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins! I love the Korean Baskin Robbins so much more than the ones in the states. They get very creative with their flavors and cakes!

The Panda cake was too cool to pass up!

So in all I think Zak had a pretty delicious birthday! Now we are getting ready for the holiday's and the weather is definitely starting to cool down here on the peninsula! Thanks for reading! :)