야식 (Late Night Dining)

There's a word in Korean that means "late-night dining," which is 야식 (ya-shik or ya-sheek). I think this is just one more point to show how much Koreans love food!

The photo above shows the 24 hour boon-shik (flour-based food) restaurant that's on the first floor of our building.

And this is what they serve (or part of what they serve, anyway- they also have dumplings (mandu) and some noodles and things). On the left is deep-fried goodness, called "twigim" (튀김) in Korean, and on the right is "tteokbokki" (떡볶이), which is rice cakes in spicy red sauce. Their tteokbokki is not that good, but at 1 a.m., it's all delicious!

We had this last night and I'm all bloated from having too much salt now. The price we pay for deliciousness!

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Crazy Coastal Weather!

It's supposedly summer here in Busan, but it's been cold and rainy lately! What's up with that?!

I appreciate this English weather, though, since I grew up with insanely sunny days in LA.

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Weekend in Incheon

Hello, blog!

Update on the weekend:

We decided earlier in the week to go to Incheon, where my parents-in-law live, because it's my father-in-law's birthday today (Sunday).

The confusing thing about my in-laws is that while they celebrate their sons' birthday on the day (regular solar calendar), they celebrate their own birthdays according to the Lunar calendar. Neither my dad's or mom's families use the Lunar calendar for anything, so this is completely bizarre to me.

Anyway, we took an afternoon KTX (the super fast train here in Korea that makes my ears hurt) yesterday, Saturday, and went up to Incheon.

Though his birthday is technically today, the same day (solar calendar!!) as my great-aunt, we celebrated last night. With a cake that we bought on our way to the house:

Aww. He's so cute, even though he's 68 (Korean age)! Another funny thing is that according to the Chinese zodiac, he's a mouse and she's a snake! (My mom and mother-in-law are the same age, by the way.)

This was dinner last night. My mother-in-law just discovered Vietnamese spring rolls and loves them, so that's what we had. Pretty dang good, actually, but no Sriracha sauce, which was a bit sad for me. I love Sriracha sauce!

And here's brunch this morning. The seaweed soup (미역국) is traditional on birthdays for Koreans, so we had it and eels (that grilled stuff behind the soup). I don't much like eel because it's too soft. I have finally figured out that for me, texture is king! If something is harder, chewier, or difficult to get down your throat, I'm much likelier to like it. 

And now we're headed back to Busan, back home. 

This is inside the train moments ago! I realized that I'm so used to Korea that I don't really take many photos of everyday life here, but I'm going to try to change that. 

And! AND! Happy Father's Day!! To my dad, father-in-law, and to all dads out there, including my husband, to-be-father to our future babies ❤️

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Catch-Up!

Wow, it's been a long time. So long!

So far, in 2015, I have:

- Moved back to Korea.
- Gotten married! (In Hawaii, to boot!)
- Re-entered the job market (in my old job, no less!)
- Moved to Busan, where my now-husband ran around like a headless chicken for the couple weeks before my arrival looking for a place to live (he had previously been living in the company barracks- er, dormitory).
- Turned 33 (34 in Korea... sigh).

I want to get back into blogging again, if for no other reason than because someday, when I have kids, I want them to see what their mother went through and see my life through my eyes. Which means that I need to have kids ... and that I need to teach them English! Haha.

Obligatory photo from the wedding, which my brother-in-law took:

He's twins with my husband, so imagine two of those guys at the wedding and you're pretty much set!

Here's our house (well, officetel) here in Busan:

... Okay, so it's just a wall. I haven't really taken any photos of the whole place yet, mostly because it's a weirdly shaped little home that's hard to photograph. I do have tons of photos of our veranda, which is enormous (so out of proportion with the rest of the house!) and which my husband adores, the smoker that he is. Sigh.

I'm back at work, as I listed above, and it's crazy busy! I'm trying to stick to coming into the office only twice a week, but so far, it hasn't worked very well. It's only Tuesday and it's already my second day in the office this week! (Though in all fairness, I came in super late yesterday for a conference call and left after about an hour and a half in the office.)

Here's hoping that I will blog more regularly~

And in case you're curious as to what I'm up to, please take a look at my Instagram, where I do post more regularly! Very random things, from food to husband to planner!

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