Thursday, March 31, 2011

a week of double dates

we had so much fun with ryan's parents.  it was nice to have a full week of double dates every night.  one night we took kim and gayle to myeong-dong.  as soon as we got off the subway, it started to snow lightly.  it was very romantic to walk the neon-streets as snow fell and busyness was all around.  as claustrophobic as i am, i can't help but love the busy energy of seoul.

please notice in the last picture that kim finally tried using chopsticks.  he ate the full meal with them.  we were all very proud.




Wednesday, March 30, 2011

the nielsens

kim and gayle, (ryan's parents) came to visit us in korea!  they were our first visitors.  we had an eventful week full of all of my and ryan's favorite things to do in korea.  most of the events were planned around eating our favorite foods.






more to come...

Sunday, March 27, 2011

from scratch

we made chicken, garlic, carrot and broccoli stuffed dumplings with sweet mustard chili sauce for dinner.  it was quite the process but so delicious.



Monday, March 21, 2011

sights

we went to a part of town that is new to us over the weekend.  here are some sights we saw:


our cab driver was watching tv while driving.  meanwhile, he was running red lights and weaving through cars.



this whole street was lined with horses and carriages on cobblestone.  the cobblestone street runs over a stream.  it's all very romantic.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

fills the void

as we have been thinking about extending our contract in korea, we have been weighing the pros and cons of living another six months here.  we found one more thing to add to the list of pros.




these burritos don't hold a match to the california burritos we get in san diego, but they definitely fill the void that has been empty in our hearts and stomachs.  they are a lot more spicy, and the avocado sauce has a few chunks in it, but all-in-all we are satisfied.




Friday, March 11, 2011

shopping solo



over the weekend i went to myeong-dong by myself.  myeong-dong is a shopping district in seoul.  it is huge with narrow streets lined with big-name stores and crowded with people.  i have to be a little honest, i get a somewhat claustrophobic in the midst of all the slow moving people bumping into me, but for the most part, it is fun to visit.  i did a little shopping without ryan, which was enjoyable for the both of us.  when we go shopping together, it usually goes something like this:

i say i'm going to go into a store real fast, i end up wanting to try something on, and ryan sits outside and watches a movie or tv show on his ipod.  and the whole 5-10 minutes i'm inside, i'm worried about ryan waiting for me, bored.  as soon as i come out of the store he says something like, "i only have about 5 minutes of this left in me."

it's usually ok with me when he says that, because i'm not a big shopper in the first place, but it was nice to have a little afternoon to walk around and grab a little lunch by myself.


not only are the streets lined with stores, but they are also full of local vendors selling everything you could think of, from onsies to shoes to fried korean street food.  most of the street vendors sell really cheap goods.  i ended up buying a dress and a cardigan for under 10 u.s. dollars.





Sunday, March 6, 2011

our song





for the longest time, ryan and i didn't have a song.  we weren't really looking for one, but we happened upon this song last summer and used it in our wedding.  it fits us perfectly.  i love listening to it.  enjoy!