November in Korea

I seem to have completely missed any updates in November, but I blame it on being so busy. The weather was apparently unseasonable warm, but I’m not complaining. We got to enjoy many days outside in just t-shirts so Andi, Cortney and I made a trip to Seoul Grand Park. This is the same location as the zoo, but we just took the ski lift up to the top to see the changing leaves.

I also celebrated my 27^th birthday Korean style. I invited some friends out for dinner and reserved a table for 20 at a local dak galbi restaurant in Bucheon. We then went back to my apartment for a few snacks, a cake and some drinks before heading out in an area populated with many foreigners called, Bupyeong.

Judy, Sophie and Cortney

Andi, Aaron, Jeff, Jenn and Cortney

my Korean friend from my yoga class, Sophie and Cortney

With the holidays coming up, I’m getting my first taste of being away from home during typical family events. Luckily I have some great friends here in Korea so we planned to spend Thanksgiving all together. On Thanksgiving day we went to margarita night at an ‘On The Border’ restaurant in Seoul. It was all you can eat tacos, burritos and margaritas so we stuffed our faces until we could barely walk out of the restaurant.

Bucheon friends in Seoul

Then, that weekend we took a trip into Seoul to spend the night eating a delicious Thanksgiving meal with a When in Korea tour group. Cortney and I took a bus to a beautiful log pension where we met up with Aaron, Andi, Andrew and his girlfriend, Gem, along with about 80 other people. We had a great meal of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin pie and various other great Thanksgiving foods.

In the morning, Andi, Cortney and I took a trip to myeongdong, which is yet another superb shopping area in Seoul. This area has a lot of western stores, like Forever 21, H&M, GAP, Zara, among many others, as well as typical Korean shops and stands set up. We spent the afternoon shopping until we thought we couldn’t shop anymore…and then we went to Insadong for some more shopping. Talk about a dream come true for a bunch of shop-o-holics! We then got dinner and went home when we were so exhausted we could barely stand up anymore.

Also, November is kimchi making month. Apparently, Koreans like to eat more kimchi during the winter. I know, I know how can they possibly eat anymore of this disgusting fermented cabbage than they already eat? But apparently it is possible, so they make a ton of it during November that will last them through the winter until they make some more come winter’s end. Therefore, we took a trip to good ‘ol Yeawon farm so the kids could each get a giant head of cabbage!