Saturday, December 28, 2013

Tis the Season!

Merry Christmas everyone! We miss you all so much and are freezing our behinds off in Korea! Christmas in Korea is definitely an experience on itself. It is more of a couples holiday then a family holiday, but at our school of course it is celebrated for the little ones! Here are some pictures from of our kindies decorating the tree. On Christmas Eve we had a party at school, where the Kindie students received presents from Santa! Guess who that was...Santa Alan!! I made some focaccia for the teachers and staff, and we got some little gifts from our students.


                                                    
This Christmas we decided to give more than anything, after all it is the season of giving! We signed up for the annual ophanage Christmas party, where we got assigned a child to bring a present for, from Santa of course. Our girl's name is Oh Bom and she asked for leggings and stationary. We got her a few other things as well, which we were delighted to see that she liked! It was a great party with food, performances by the kids and or course a visit from Santa.






On Christmas we ate Korean bbq for lunch, watched The Lord of the Rings trilogy and cooked some food. Chicken marsala and mini apple pies!


Wishing everyone a joyful holiday season!


Tuesday, December 3, 2013

A trip to Seoul!

Its December! Time is flying by here in Mokpo and it's definitely getting colder! We experienced the first drop of weather when we visited Seoul to pick up my parents. The temperature was a good ten degrees lower than in Mokpo and we were not ready for it at all. Coming off a slight cold, we both were feeling already under the weather, so the freeze attack did not help. But it was a good trip none the less. On our way by KTX (the Korean bullet train), we made it to Seoul in about three hours. Our first day in Seoul was a daze full of shopping and eating.



Our tour guide took us to Passion 5, which is a more upscale version of Paris Baguette (and owned by the same parent company), a famous bakery chain here in Korea. It was delicious! They had 5 different sections: gelato, pastries, cakes, chocolate, and coffee. Everything was so pretty and yummy, as you can see from our pictures we had a great time.

         
Alan went for the vanilla and strawberry gelato, I got the macaron ice cream sandwich! Yes, you read that right... it was awesome! We also tried a lot of different pastries including fruit tarts, sweet and savory breads, coffee and macarons.


 

 After our snack...lol we had a night of shopping. Our hotel was conveniently located near the shopping district of Myeongdong, so we spent the whole night shopping and eating from the various food vendors on the streets. 



On sunday we went to the Gyeongbokgung Palace. It was very cold and windy so it was a short trip. After the tour, we went to a famous ginseng chicken soup restaurant. Apparently, my parents have tried to visit this restaurant twice already with no success because of the long wait time. This was their third try and we got in! We tried one ginseng chicken soup, one black chicken soup, and the rotisserie chicken. They helped with the cold and was very soothing. There was no line when we got there, but when we left, the line was out the door! It was a short trip but very eventful and with great company!