November Holidays

November is almost gone! There were two holidays this month that stick out in my mind:

11.11 Ppeppero Day (Veteran's Day)

About a week prior, special displays started popping up in the grocery stores featuring the stick shaped ppeppero cookies. Long skinny cookies dipped in chocolate or sometimes other sweet flavors like strawberry yogurt. On Korean Valentine's Day, you give these treats to those you love.

So Isaac and I seized the holiday as a reason to go to the movies and check out the new James Bond flick. The theater near our house is a comfortable 20 minute stroll through parks on a brick-paved walkway. The place is so nice, so I snapped a few pictures of the theater to share.

Cinemas usually occupy the top floors of buildings in Korea. Isaac and I went to one theater that took up the 18th, 19th and 20th floors! The theater near our house, called Mega Box, takes up the 5th through 7th floors of the building, I took this picture of the floor index below.

The bottom floor is the main hub, where you buy tickets and snacks. There are also several other attractions on these three floors, including an arcade, TGI Fridays and a fruit smoothie shop.

Here's some shots of the main floor. The elevators and escalators are to the left of this photo, TGI Fridays is to the right. The glowing white wall is above the ticketing office, about in the middle are the concessions and on the left side is a cafe.

As soon as you arrive on the floor, the scent of caramel popcorn possesses your soul. It's warm and fresh; salty with a thinner shell of caramel than the classic Christmas tin variety. I've never been a fan of caramel popcorn, but I am now a convert. Caramel popcorn at the movies is a necessity.

Oh, and there is always some cute gimicky cups they try to rope you into buying. I couldn't resist and we got this cute set based upon a kids' cartoon show called canimals. Sometimes we catch this show on the weekends. There are no words, just the animals grunting and doing cute things, so we can both fully enjoy it.

Our theater was very nice too. Isaac paid a little extra for this deluxe style theater. It had wider, more comfortable chairs which were also cute rainbow colors.

Below I was trying to show perspective of the screen size. In the bottom right is golden light, the exit of the theater with someone walking out. It's too hard to see, huh?

11.26 Thanksgiving

Nothing about this past Thursday felt especially Thanksgiving-ish. It's no surprise that Korean stores are void of any turkey day memorabilia since it's an American holiday. But it still felt a little odd that it passed almost without notice. I don't have an oven to bake holiday dishes. Which is a wonderful excuse for me and my amateur cooking skills, but also means I have to do without my favorite sweet potato casserole.

But one thing made Thanksgiving very very special, from the moment we woke up.

Wow-wee! What a surprise! My first ever White Thanksgiving. The entire day prior had been dark and rainy. Yet overnight the air had become just perfect for forming lovely snowflakes. Thanksgiving day's weather was a high of 33 degrees F, a low of 23 degrees F.

I ran out with Isaac, walked him to his bus stop and then took off to explore the winter wonderland that had formed overnight.

I walked the familiar paths between apartment buildings and parks. Everything seemed so beautiful and new. It was hard to believe that just last week I was admiring the fall colors here.

Well, there were still a few colorful trees trying to hang on to their leaves despite the chill.

When you saw the picture above, didn't you imagine putting colored lights on that perfectly shaped Christmas tree? I know I did. And every other similarly shaped evergreen.

I went to my favorite mountain park. Gorgeous. Who wouldn't want to get lost down this snowy path?

I just can't get enough of these steps.

By the time I returned home, my fingers were barely functioning from all of my enthusiastic picture-taking. Remember, the high for the day just barely scratched above freezing!

But what a beautiful treat! The wonder of our White Thanksgiving was a sort of ice-pack (teehee couldn't resist), easing the ache of being so far away from family back in America. We missed the sitting around and eating with loved ones, followed by naps and then more sitting around and eating. But our first Thanksgiving together was still very memorable and special thanks to the snowy weather.

I feel like these snowy trails need a good poem to do them justice!

Very Fresh Fish

Ever since I learned I would be moving to Korea, I've tried to assemble a mental bucket list of things to check out while here. One of those items got crossed off my figurative to do list without effort, the result of a wonderful dining suggestion made by Isaac's dad.

So here is the seafood restaurant. It does not have any special curb appeal, but I guess often the best hole-in-the-wall places are this way. You walk inside and are greeted by your dinner. The various menu options are swimming around in their tanks. There were many different fish, squid, octopus, sea anemone and some other things I didn't want to think about eating.

So it's simple. You decide what you want, get in line and then place your order.

The man retrieves the fish from their tanks and puts them in a red bucket just for you. Isaac's dad decided upon two of the fish from the large blue tank above. This particular fish is in season now so it should be extra delicious.

After you pay, you go upstairs and are seated at a restaurant and the fish you just chose are served to you in whatever way you want. We saw some people cooking shrimp at their table, a cooler beside them with the live shrimp and a gas burner and pot before them.

That is the fishy kitchen in the top left corner of the picture above, where many heads are looking down busily prepping seafood.

There are our two fish awaiting their turn with the chef. And a shot of the restaurant. It looks like a typical Korean sushi restaurant, you take your shoes off at the room entrance, where the sliding screen doors are, and then sit on a heated floor upon little square cushions.

Bring on the food! Korean food is famous (and wonderful) because of the many side dishes that are given for free with each meal. Casual restaurants will often serve only one or two basic side dishes like kimchi or pickled radishes. Going to specialty restaurants like this seafood place is always fun because you're sure to encounter different side dishes. Here's what we received.

So just for fun, that's: steamed pumpkin, soybeans, egg hotpot, potato salad, fried vegetables, assorted sushi, grilled fish, small sea snails and salad. I think I listed everything. The small sea snails (in black pointy shells) were neat to try. You just hold it by the end, press your lips to it like a straw, suck and a tiny salty bit shoots into your mouth. The pointy tips of the shells are broken off to ease the process.

There was a moment, just before I took the last picture shown above, when I felt a little overwhelmed. My stomach already felt full, and I had leaned back against the back wall for some digestive support. I asked Isaac "So they brought out one fish grilled. Will they bring the other fish out raw, as sushi?" Isaac responded by telling me that we had yet to receive either of our fish, and that all of the above were just the free side dishes provided.

And then this appeared. There was more meat on the fish than even Isaac's dad anticipated, and we all felt a little overwhelmed. Piece by piece, we dug in.

So below is my preferred method of Korean sushi consumption. Fish, garlic and dwoenjang paste. Dwoenjang is one of the essential tastes of Korean food. It's made from fermented soybeans and has a unique flavor that I can't describe. It is a magical substance with many health benefits, perhaps most famous for flavoring stews. It always leaves you feeling refreshed and it is quite addicting. This particular leaf is my favorite too. I still remember the first time I tried it at Isaac's aunt's house. It is very fragrant and reminds me a bit of licorice. It's shaped like a jagged heart and its Korean name sounds a lot like "cat nip" which is cute too.

You ball it up and stick it in your mouth. It's a sign of affection to make leafy wads of meat and flavors for loved ones. So I can fix one up and then shove it directly into Isaac's or Apa's mouth and it's totally okay.

We ate about half of the raw fish and felt defeated. But with this type of dinner, it is customary to have a stew afterwards. If you notice, of everything we have eaten so far, there is very little carbs, just mostly vegetables and meat. It is pretty nice because you get full slower and can eat more. But still, we were already stuffed. For obvious reasons.

So after eating sushi, we were served maeuntang, which is literally means spicy soup. They put the leftover bits of the fish not served as sushi in the soup and it gives it a rich, complex flavor. And of course it is pretty spicy and always makes my nose run.

Isaac came up with a battle plan to finish all of our fish. He dumped the remaining fish meat into our spicy stew and cooked it.

It was the best maeuntang I've ever tasted. I couldn't believe it, but we ate all of the fish.

As we stood up to leave, I took a final shot surveying the overall damage.

This type of traditional style meal is one of the best experiences of Korean culture I've enjoyed. You will surprise yourself with how much food you can consume, and there are countless different flavor combinations to enjoy so it never gets boring. Korean people have many good reasons to take pride in their traditional foods.

I feel pretty confident saying that eating is one thing at the heart of Korean culture; in a similar way to how people associate Italian culture with their food. You spoil those you love with good food, expressing your care through cooking for them or treating them to a tasty restaurant.

This Saturday night, at this seafood restaurant, I was feeling the love as I leaned back against the wall, face flushed and thoroughly stuffed.

More autumn leaves at Dobongsan

I seized a Wednesday and went to Dobongsan, part of the large Bukhansan National Park that sits just above Seoul. It is nice location to visit because I can take the subway all the way there. I hopped on the subway which is a two minute's walk from our apartment, and bought a one-way ticket which is just over $1. I had to switch trains only one time, and two hours later I arrived at Dobongsan station.

From the station it was about a 15 minute walk to the mountain. The way is easy to find, just follow the stream of people in hiking gear and the line of shops selling hiking equipment. Since I went on a weekday, the place was wonderfully not crowded, so I snapped a few photos of the walk from station to park.

I don't think I've properly explained yet how much of a "thing" hiking apparel is in Korea. It has its own style category, and people carry the hot accessories like bags and poles even if you're only doing an easy, paved hike. It seems like as soon as November arrived, half of the ads on television became celebrities wearing hiking jackets.

There were several familiar brands like Merrell, Columbia and The Northface. And also some I've never heard of, including my new favorite, The Redface.

Onto the hiking! I hiked for a total of 4 hours, up to the mountain top and then on the trail that runs along the ridges of several mountains, then down again. It was that wonderful mixture of rigorous and rewarding.

Of course it wouldn't be hiking in Korea without passing a few Buddhist temples. I passed 5 on my loop, and although I didn't explore them, they were very picturesque.

The temple in the last picture was brand new (or else getting major renovations!), and parts were still being finished. You can see how the white stone seems so perfect, almost glowing. I purposely didn't include the construction work going on to the right of this scene.

The mountain trail started wide and smooth, and it snaked alongside a stream for a while.

The further I walked, the narrower and steeper the path became. I especially liked how the trails were kept as natural as possible, using tree roots and litters of stones as steps. Some places were very steep and railing or ropes were provided to help you climb up and drop down easily. Below are a few shots of the trail I took. Just as beautiful as the trees, so were the leaves scattered between rocks. I spent a lot of time looking down at my feet, taking careful steps, so it's a good thing the ground was pretty too!

The shot just above to the left, with the rope in it, was the final ascent to a very satisfying vista. I would say it was breathtaking, but truthfully my breath was already gone from the trip up.

This panorama shot above was wider than 180 degrees. Very lovely.

So many buildings tucked in between strong, towering mountains. What blows my mind about the photo above and the city within it is that I don't even think this area is considered Seoul. It's some smaller city. I'm looking out to the east, and on any map Seoul is labeled directly south of this park. Also if you look along the horizon, in the distance you can barely see the blue shadows of some even taller mountains. Over in that direction is where the next Winter Olympics will be held.

I chose this rock facing west to rest on and eat my peanut butter sandwich. The wind was fiercely cold, even though I had a heavy jacket, it still stung my face and hands. But I was determined to enjoy the view.

This shot is of the trail along the top ridges of the mountains. I love these scraggly windblown trees that sheltered me on both sides.

The Korean word used for the colorful autumn leaves is 단풍, "dan-poong." This word is also the name of the type of maple tree in the picture above. Everywhere we have gone to see 단풍/fall colors in Korea, these red maples live up to their name and shine so brightly. It is no wonder that the tree is synonymous with fall colors.

Footnote from the "reckless" youngest child of a family: Yes, I went to the mountains alone and felt safe and nothing bad happened to me. Due to the concerns of those close to me...No, I will not go out alone again. :)