Holiday Wrap Up

We stayed in Louisville for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. While this meant missing out on seeing family, it also meant some much needed recharging time. In fact, not just the holidays themselves, but the months of November and December were basically all about rest and restoration. I guess that's why they passed by without any thoughts of posting here. So here is a quick catch up.

This picture of Cookie summarizes the past two months for us. We bundled up against the cold (and life outside our 2BR/1B apartment) and just kicked back.

My friend Rachel drove up here to visit. The three of us gobbled up delicious meals and enjoyed catching up as we piddled around at various places - examining knick knacks in antique malls and picking through rocks and fossils at the Falls of the Ohio.

Sifting through the stones reminded me of the countless rock cairns we saw at parks and temples in South Korea. I imagined that if this place was in over there, it would be covered with tiny towers and unspoken wishes. I made a little cairn of my own, topped off with a fossil like a star on a Christmas tree, carefully stacking a wish between the teetering stones.

The past two months have of course involved working too. This is the first time in my short education career that I've worked with such young children, being in a Kindergarten classroom. One of the perks of working with this age is the adorable drawings students make. My phone's picture gallery is speckled with their creations, one of my favorites being the stick dinosaurs below.

Autumn passed without much appreciation. The trees seemed out of sync, changing their leaves at different times. We didn't get the chance to escape for a mountain hike. Some of the prettiest fall colors we saw were in the mall parking lot (directly below).

One of the most adventurous things we did was try Starbucks' Zombie Frappuccino. It was pretty tasty - caramel candy apple with raspberry frosting.

Despite extremely chilly weather, we ended up using the grill for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. I cooked traditional dishes like sweet potato casserole, roasted vegetables and sticky date pudding, but for our entrees we chose our favorite proteins - steak and salmon. These were grilled to perfection by Isaac, our resident master griller.

I couldn't talk Isaac into a picture with Santa at this Christmas party, but thankfully my friend obliged. This may be the skinniest Santa Claus I've ever seen.

Staying home for Christmas meant gifts arriving via post. We loved this detailed packing list, I hope you can see it all right in the picture. In the end we had an admirable pile beneath our minimalist (apartment friendly) tree.

Christmas Eve there was sleet in the evening and then snow in the night, which I thought totally qualified as a white Christmas, especially since it remained on the ground for a few days afterwards.

The amount was negligible, even a snow-loving Southerner like me must admit. But it was still enough to make me feel very excited about it. We went for a drive on Christmas Eve in the snow, looking for nice Christmas lights but also just enjoying the festive flakes float by.

There's an Icelandic tradition called Jólabókaflóð (Jule Book Flood) that involves books and chocolates on Christmas Eve. We thought that it may be a nice tradition to start, so we both picked out a book and I made some fancy hot chocolate. Then we got comfortable in our pajamas and read, the silence punctuated by the occasional sip of the richest hot cocoa ever.

So we chose to end our year without much fanfare or much of anything really. Sometimes it's just better than way. I feel incredibly grateful and blessed to have spent it with Isaac, who grows even more amazing in my eyes everyday. We have big hopes for 2018, and a few plans already in the making. I'll do my best in the new year to keep this blog posted, about once a month like I've been doing. I think I'll try harder to take some pictures of Isaac and myself too, because I'm still not very good at that, am I?

Art Fair and Friends

Ever since last October, I've looking forward to repeating this experience - going to the St. James Art Fair. This year, the weekend was extra special because our friends decided to come in town to visit too! I was so excited about the fair, that I ended up going twice. Once the moment it began on Friday morning, and again on Saturday with our full crew.

Just like last year, the scenery was distractingly beautiful - century-old houses that are treasured and manicured to perfection.

We all left empty handed, because besides buying something like homemade soap or iced tea, prices are pretty high. There are some amazingly unique and memorable artists and creations here, but nothing we couldn't live without.

One house I always admired is the brick red with multi-colored trimming pictured here to the right. It just so happens to be for sale right now. And while I have to admit it's more of a DIY than we can handle, it's still nice to dream and look through the photos. Like so many houses in Old Louisville, it's bones and trimming are gorgeous. Have a look here at the listing.













Spending the weekend with friends was an even better investment. Since our apartment is pretty small, we rented a house through airbnb just over the river in Indiana for our party of 6. The place was just what we wanted, somewhere comfortable to just hangout and catch up with each other. There was a trail to a river to stretch our legs, a grill to cook together and a firepit to gather around in the evenings for long talks.

And the best moments from the weekend were those low key moments at the house together. After 7 years together and being guests to our friends, we were finally able to reciprocate and host them all here at our "home". Cooking and eating dinner and breakfast together, fawning over their adorable two-year-old, watching the fire dance and talking about life and miscellanea.

It felt like a three day recharge. Mentally, we relaxed more than we have in a while. No planning or thinking ahead towards big decisions to come. It was such a carefree time that without much urging Isaac stood beneath this gap in the interstate bridge above getting pummeled by rain water.

But as we often say to each other while trudging up the steps to our second floor apartment, home is the best. We loved playing host to our friends in a rented house, but returning back to our own cozy place can't be beat. It's the little things like my grandma-ish seasonal decor and our own velveteen-rabbit-come-to-life Cookie.

Spicy September

A month went by and I've forgiven myself for being a truant blogger. This is my favorite time of year after all. Frequent rain makes candy colored sunsets and cool mornings beg to be stretched out and savored.

Isaac and I have just been enjoying our time recently. On the weekends, we fall asleep in the living room and laugh as Cookie takes turns hopping around and over us, cuddling with us and completely ignoring us. I put on my fuzzy jacket, sat on the balcony sipping hot tea, doodling and painting. We work out and enjoy free Chickfila breakfast entrees on Saturdays thanks to coupons galore.

I've been making soups and Korean food non-stop these past weeks. Soup just makes the heartiest and easiest lunch to take to work and Korean food always satisfies some craving.













One treat we enjoyed a few times in September was a classic rainy day combo - kimchi pancake and makeoli. It's fun just to alternate tastes between the spicy savory pancake and the sweet fermented rice drink. Inspired by a cookbook we bought in Korea, I started adding a handful of sweet corn into the typical kimchijeon batter. When we tasted the new and improved kimchi-corn-pancake that first time, it felt like I had leveled up my cooking skills.

And then dakgalbi - a spicy stirfry with chicken, chewy rice cakes, sweet potato, carrot and cabbage. Wrapped up with the kkaetnip leaf, it tastes perfect. I used a recipe I found online and loved it, but the next time tweaked my ginger usage since Isaac is not keen on the stuff.

September is also Isaac's birthday month, so I cooked the traditional Korean birthday meal miyeokguk (seaweed soup). The leftover kimchi-corn-pancake went well with this calming, not spicy soup.

But of course we weren't going to celebrate his birthday with just one measly home-cooked meal! We went to Bonefish Grill for dinner on Friday, and also went to Fresh Market over the weekend where he picked out a beautiful steak specimen and grilled it to perfection.

Isaac's birthday cake was a special rendition of the J Cake - a tasty chocolate cake that my family has savored since first befriending the Jones back in, gosh, 1993 maybe?

The past weeks also featured treks to pretty woodsy places like these.

But there's plenty more of that to come, hopefully with some fall colors to speckle the sky lines.

As you can now see, we have been doing well, just enjoying our days one after another.

Fossils at the Falls

There's this park just across the river from Louisville called Falls of the Ohio. From what I heard and read, when the water is low you can see fossils all along the riverbed. It seemed too exotic and cool to be true, but it is.

It's a quick 20 minute drive - a bridge over the Ohio River, then west along the water. The riverbank falls away by the time the park sign is within sight. The Falls of the Ohio State Park has an impressive building all its own, with a mastodon skeleton statue, special exhibits and theater room. But we walked straight through and out to the back deck, which provides an easy descent into the fossil beds.

I learned the gist of this place from a plaque along the sidewalk:
400 million years ago this land was the bed of a warm tropical sea just south of the equator. What's left from that Devonian Age is a fossilized coral reef which extends from Louisville to Indianapolis. This stretch along the cascades known as the Falls of the Ohio is the only exposed bit of the reef. More than 600 fossil species of animals have been identified here. A few famous Americans ventured to the falls including George Rogers Clark (of Lewis and Clark), John James Audubon, Mark Twain and Walt Whitman.

In the visitor's center they provide brochures that show the various types of fossils, so you can enjoy finding and identifying them all as you go. On most weekends they have free guided tours of the reef too. You are not allowed to take fossils from the bed itself. But you're welcome to take away driftwood or any fossils found in the large piles brought in from elsewhere just for visitors to dig through.

There's nothing else to say besides it was just really cool. And I wish that I'd brought lunch. Those giant rocks in the shade are perfect for sitting beneath and picnicking. Next time.

I think this place is one of Kentuckiana's magical little gems. I love parks - and the Falls is one unique and very well-done. It made me very happy to find a place like this now, when we have lived here for over a year and are feeling quite settled.

First Year Teacher Reflections

Tomorrow is the first day of school for kids around here. A new start to a new school year. And it’s a fresh start for me too. This year I will work a different position in a different elementary school. I am trying my best to gobble up various experiences of elementary education. And somehow I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have supervisors who believe in me and mentors to teach me as I teach kids.

Before this school year officially starts, I want to share some reflections about my previous year. And just like when I was a student, I have mulled this over endlessly in my head, taken detailed notes, but waited until the final hour to actually get it done. Procrastination is such a harsh word, it's more like finish-phobia I'd say.

My first year as an educator in a public elementary school was a marvelous adventure. I had the unique opportunity to work with students in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grades. Sometimes I worked with small groups to reinforce math skills, and other times I led STEAM-centered challenges (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics). There are so many specific stories and moments to flood my mind looking back, but here I want to boil it all down to just a couple key things. These are the most resonant pointers from my 2016-2017 school year, the stacked moments I choose to transform into lessons to learn from and be inspired by.

Curiosity-driven learning

I’m lucky that my elementary education internship was within a hub of inquiry learning. It just makes sense to let questions and problems inspire the quest for knowledge; let the kids find it out for themselves instead of pounding it into them like the outdated teacher stereotype we all often imagine. I can’t pretend to have a grasp on the whole facilitating inquiry learning thing yet, but the overall concept has stuck with me. I want my lessons to be interesting and invite students into learning with a question or a way of applying it to their own lives.

I remember some average weekend near the end of winter; during the long stretch in February where there are no holidays to look forward to on the school calendar. I spent many week nights and a big chunk of my time on weekends planning and revising lessons. How could I hook kids into an engineering design project? What examples would best illustrate converting improper fractions to proper fractions? While stumped on some question like these, I came across a quote that made this planning perfectionist pause.

Students should be working harder than the teacher.

This thought reaches back to the heart of inquiry. I was working so hard to plan and have detailed examples. I needed to get my hands off of white board markers and props, and let those ten to twelve smaller hands take over. Keeping this at the front of my mind made the spring a lot more fun for both students and teacher. It’s something that is true for humans big and small - natural curiosity and relevance increase interest and engagement.

The power of stories

Because I mostly taught math and led smaller projects, reading books was not a regular part of the programming. Apart from math story problems (which most students do not count as enjoyable literature), there just weren’t enough minutes with my small groups to squeeze in storytime. Until it was time to say farewell.

For my goodbye lessons with each small group, I chose to share a book I love with the kids. Because I’m a total bookworm, and because I believe that stories and art can convey a desired message way more effectively than a blubbery teacher. I read Jennifer Berne’s “On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein”. Students all know his name and perhaps an equation or notorious weapon associated with him; but more than those things, this story highlights that Albert was an unusual person and a daydreamer. With quirky illustrations and bits about the famous scientist’s equally eccentric mindset, it relates a special message - never stop dreaming and wondering.

From wiggly 2nd graders to apathetic 5th graders, I saw students captivated by this picture book. After finishing the story, my students began spilling out questions about life and the world around us. Why doesn’t the moon fall down? Do birds remember the nest where they were born? Where did God come from? It was a shining moment and even with my affinity for reflection and improvement, I still can’t think of a better way to conclude the year with my 90ish students.

Sitting in this moment on the eve of the first school day, I feel the many things. The nerves and excitement of something new about to begin, the regret that summer has ended, and the certainty that my students and I are about to learn a whole lot together.

Chicago

Summer is slipping away like condensation on a waxy paper cup. I'm just so glad that before it totally evaporates into muggy air, we had a chance to enjoy ourselves in Chicago.

I'll share some about our first day of vacation, and then I will try my best to let the pictures do most of the talking.

The drive north was about five hours including Indiana's ceaseless highway road work, the windy city's typical clogged streets and our one gas station stop (so much cheaper north of the Ohio River!).

The stretch of I-65 between Indianapolis and Chicago was most memorable. Flat farmland and huge low skies racing out towards the horizon, rows of chic and stately wind turbines, and an incessant barrage of pings and splats on the windshield. Bugs and raindrops. Mostly bugs we think.

We self-parked our car in a nearby parking garage, settled into our hotel and then prepared for dinner. It was our two year anniversary and we had a reservation at what would be our favorite meal of the whole vacation.

From our hotel, Momotaro was a relaxing 15 minute stroll west across the Chicago River's south branch. We were welcomed warmly for our early dinner, and for a moment I felt embarrassed at the empty tables, maybe making a reservation was overkill?

But it proved worth it after all. We were treated so well in our corner booth, and with such detail and care, beginning with their warm welcome and the "Happy Anniversary" printed on our menus.

Momotaro is contemporary Japanese - combining the freshest ingredients with creativity and painstaking attention to detail.

One no-brainer was to order otoro, a fatty prime cut of tuna that is Isaac's favorite and that is not served at your average sushi restaurants. The rest of our meal took a little while choose, deciphering the Japanese headings and their minimal descriptions on the menu and narrowing down the finalists.

The tastes were immaculately paired. Like the description of the appetizer below described it simply as "Maguro Nuta - bluefin tuna sashimi, wakame (seaweed), miso dressing" which does not sound so special. But its taste was totally new, nutty and refreshing and indulgent and crisp.

We also ate the zuke salmon roll which was described as "citrus soy, ginger, smoked skin, ikura". It was like a flavor roller coaster, with crunchy nutty puffed rice pieces, a minty zing, a smoky after taste and salmon eggs the size of pearls that pop in your mouth.

The highlight of the meal was the nigiri omakase, which was the chef's seasonal selection of nigiri (fish on top of rice). Nine different pieces, each one carefully assembled with unique and contrasting ingredients.

Even right after our server described each piece to us, we began to forget some of the details. Below is the first piece I tried: scallop topped with sea urchin, salmon eggs and tokyo scallion. Other ingredients included candied yuzu and pickled garlic.

After so much food (and a lot of it just slabs of protein after all!) we could barely contemplate the dessert menu. But the restaurant staff wanted to make our anniversary extra sweet, and so they surprised us with this dessert below, an off-the-menu treat. Two pops of salted caramel ice cream sitting on top of a thin chocolate cake, dipped in chocolate. Laying on a crunchy bed of cocoa nibs! We both made a wish, blew out the candle and blissfully enjoyed our anniversary dessert.

Now I hope you see why our anniversary dinner was so special, and my retelling so verbose. If I continued to share about our trip chronologically, you would lose interest and I will be aching from sitting so long and writing.

Now I will try to share our trip's highlights in larger chunks, mostly pictures with short descriptions and okay, maybe a short story or five.

Our Favorite Hotel

We stayed at two different hotels for our trip. I thought it would be fun to try out different brands located in different parts of the city. One was our clear favorite.

The Kimpton Allegro welcomed us warmly and with style. It's in the theater district of Chicago, with a modernized-1920's kind of personality and an intimate lobby that makes you want to hang around for a while.

Their complimentary coffee and tea bar helped with that too. There were extra little details like iced coffee and unique tastes like cinnamon roll syrup and hojicha tea.

Below: "It's surprisingly comfortable," he said as we took in the hotel the first day, relaxing and sipping our complimentary iced tea.

Traversing the City

By the time we left Chicago, our feet were aching so much. And for good reason. Even in comfortable shoes, after so many hours on your feet, they start to hurt. But some of my favorite photos from the trip were taken while putting in those miles as we explored the city on foot.

Below are the city, state, and national flags. Chicago's flag is proudly displayed all over the place.

Below - the only shot featuring my shoes that looked oh so cute but were totally crushing my toes after a couple of miles.

The next four photos are shots along the Magnificent Mile, the stretch of Michigan Avenue just north of the Chicago River famous for shopping. Besides what was inside the buildings, the architecture was fantastic - such a variety and range of styles all squished together.

Obligatory picture in front of the famous bean (really called Sky Gate). The underside really was kind of cool.

I love river cities. The night we arrived, there were fireworks on the Navy Pier, on the far east edge of the city where the Chicago River meets Lake Michigan. We walked to the river's edge near Michigan Avenue and had the perfect view. It put the size of the buildings and city into perspective too.

Delicious Food and Design

Food was of course one of our top priorities for this mission. Also for me, picking places with unique designs and atmospheres that we don't usually get to see.

We had a very fancy brunch at The Allis. Our plates may not look like much, but they kept us full for an unbelievably long time. I almost met my match with that mountain of avocado. And the interior was so lush and cozy, lots of muted velvets, polished metals and exposed wood.

We each had our own individual sized Chicago-style deep dish pizza at the local chain Lou Malnati's

9 o'clock ramen at a place near our hotel, because after having Chicago pizza for linner (lunch/dinner) we were craving something Asian and spicy to cut through all that cheese and bread.

The only time we used our car while in Chicago was to drive 30 minutes north of the city to Han Bat restaurant for the one and only seolleongtang. The beef broth breakfast soup that I learned to love while in Korea and have been craving ever since did not disappoint either of us.

One of the best sushi rolls ever laying on a bed of greens (basically a free salad complete with ginger dressing), with shiitake mushrooms, spicy tuna, asparagus, avocado, cucumber and more greens. Isaac ordered it and loved it, then after trying a piece myself, I immediately stood up, flagged down the nearest worker and asked to order another roll, pointing at our table with rice still in my teeth from the last bite.

Isaac tried a Chicago-style hotdog which is loaded with peppers and pickles and tomatoes and onions and lettuce.

Reading signs on the windows as we walked by a cupcake shop after dinner convinced me to rush in and buy a raspberry white chocolate cupcake as we rushed back to the L train station. The store was Molly's Cupcakes, apparently a winner of the TV show Cupcake Wars. Back at the hotel room, we sank into what was undoubtedly the best cupcake either of us have had, and we usually don't care for the typically overly sweetened things. It was rich and subtly sweet, with tart jelly filling, airy frosting and unbelievably moist cake. Just as important as the pizza and the hotdog, if you're in Chicago I think you should try this.

Fancy cocktails at a rooftop bar called Apogee.

A perfect iced coffee to pep us up for all of that strolling down sidewalks and city streets.

The Fields Museum

One of the hardest decisions was choosing which museum to visit: the art museum or the natural history museum. Whenever we travel, somehow we always end up in a city's art museums (which are of course awesome!). Isaac and I talked about it, and decided to change it up and do something else this time. Besides, visiting the art museum gives us another excuse to go back to Chicago.

The Fields Museum was incredible - especially their vast collection of natural specimens. Bugs, animals, birds, skeletons, rocks. Once we were well into the maze of glass encased mammals, it began to feel kind of eerie. But considering that Chicago has been a gathering place for learning for a long time - thinking specifically about the World's Fair - it makes sense that they would have such an extensive old collection of taxidermied animals. A plaque in the foyer next to the elephants explained this idea well. It said that the two looming African elephants are in fact real elephants. Back before cheap world travel, video and high quality pictures, animal taxidermies were considered a wonderful way to teach and share about animals from around the world.

Sue is the largest and most complete T-Rex skeleton in the world.

Can you tell how big the place is? I tried taking this panorama of the bird hall, my favorite of the animal exhibits. The halls stretched on and on, case after case of delicately modeled and lit animals.

Another amazing discovery - the meteorites collection! Neither of us had ever seen so many meteorites together, or seen them so closely. It was unreal.

These look like they could have been part of some alien space craft made millions of years ago!

One final shot of the gorgeous Fields Museum. We paid for the basic admission without access to special exhibitions and 3D movies, and it was plenty to take in.

Reflecting on our trip with sore and throbbing feet, we may have squeezed too much into our three night vacation. Something about traveling puts me in adventure mode, and Isaac always happily complies. There was just so much to do and see and eat! I guess regretting having little downtime is better than regretting not doing enough. But during our drive home, we both agreed to try and build a little more relaxation into our next vacation.