Seoul Mates

We've had a busy few months, filled with holidays and random nonsense. Back in October, we introduced Halloween to our students with pumpkin carving, costume contests and lots of ghoulish decorations. Still, there were reminders that an American holiday cannot simply be transferred to another domain. My personal favorite moment was watching Todd try to carve a pumpkin that maybe, MAYBE, reached six inches in height. The reasoning behind such girth in Korean pumpkins remains a mystery. As for our costumes, we decided to salute two mainstays of Korean culture; Soju, the standard alcoholic drink, and Samgyeopsal, a famous pork dish. We were a huge hit at all the bars, though I think the man dressed as Ramien noodles had us beat. To celebrate Thanksgiving, we intended to eat a gluttonous amount of turkey and fixins. ... read more

One week before Kristen's wedding to Todd's brother, Troy, I whisked her away to Vancouver for a girls' weekend with her future mother-in-law, Teresa, and sister-in-law, Tammy. This was to be my first visit to Canada and my first trip back to North America in over a year, so I was excited all around. My flight was actually connecting through Vancouver on the way to Seattle and our plan was to drive as a group up to Vancouver. However, the flight was delayed and I decided to break my connection and wait for everyone in Vancouver. I took a shuttle to the Opus Hotel in Yalestown, where we had reserved a corner suite. This is a superb little boutique hotel, which I recommend to anyone visiting the city. It was cold and rainy when I arrived ... read more

This blog is a random assortment of pics from this summer. Though it was technically the rainy season, we managed to enjoy ourselves and travel around the city a bit. We even got to the beach on the Western coast of Korea, though sunshine - and thus, decent tans - eluded us. We headed down for the famous Boryeong Mud Festival, which is a celebration of the therapeutic mud found in that region of the country. People basically cover themselves in mud and drink a lot. Showing our age, we decided to just drink a lot. We also went to a going away party for our friend Jenn, who moved to Mongolia after several years of living in Korea. In her honor, we crashed Canada Day Fest '08 for some "normal" food and music. We spent ... read more

Ni hao! That's hello in Chinese. In celebration of Buddha's birthday we headed to mainland China to visit Allison, who grew up in Todd's tiny town and has been teaching there for a few years. When we arrived on Friday evening, she had kindly arranged a van for us and met us at the airport. On the drive into Shanghai, our first impressions were that the skyscrapers are stunning and unique and that the city exudes a vibrant energy. We headed straight to our hotel to change and depart for a club at which her friend's band was playing a gig. There was a great mix of foreigners there, unlike Korea. It is truly an international city, much like Hong Kong. Todd and Allison reminisced about life on the farm and then we made our way ... read more

Todd's mother and sister, Teresa and Tammy, traveled from Seattle to visit us during the first week of April. Although Tammy has traveled around Asia quite a bit, it was Teresa's first time to the Orient. It was also the first time Todd and I have seen family in over seven months, so we were especially excited. They arrived late on Sunday evening, so we headed straight to Kangnam. They battled jet lag and stayed up with us for a few drinks at one of our regular spots, Big Rock, which is owned by our friend Andy. We shared their famous beer sampler and chatted with our dear friend Matty, who has been living and working in Korea for nine years. After many stories and much laughter, we all headed back to our place and went ... read more