Kimbap

One thing I will miss when we move back to Canada is a common Korean food known as Kimbap. It is definitely one of my favourite Korean foods.

It looks a bit like sushi. But my favourite variety has no fish (some have crab). It usually consists of rice, ham, egg, carrot, spinach, radish, and something else wrapped in seaweed. It is really good and healthy too! And all that for only a buck.

My students explained to me that "bap" means rice, and "kim" means seaweed. So, literally, it is "seaweed rice."

It's great when you're on the go and don't want to settle for fastfood. We don't really have cheap, healthy options like this at home, so I will miss my kimbap.

Mini-Vacation

Last weekend, we went to Seoul. We stayed in an India-themed hotel room. That was my choice. Cheesy I know, but I've never stayed in a themed room before, so I thought it was cool!

It was actually a so-called "Love" Motel, which are fairly common in these parts. As the name suggests, these rooms can be rented by the hour. However, westerners often stay in such places because they are cheaper than other hotels (which tend to be quite "uppity") and they are actually quite nice. They usually have a computer with internet access and a huge tv. Unfortunately, this room didn't have a jacuzzi like some do. But the toilet had a room of its own, with only a fogged glass door separating it from the rest of the room.

On this visit to Seoul, we went to some areas of the city that are more commonly frequented by westerners. And we found some stores and markets that sell more western products, such as poptarts and deodorant, which can't be found anywhere else. Some of the products looked a bit old and dusty, but it was still exciting to see them. We even found Reese's peanutbutter cups! So, we bought some of those as well as a couple cans of A&W root beer, Kraft's Ranch dressing, and some Mrs. Dash.

We also went to one of my favourite places in Seoul, the CO-EX. It is a huge mall, all underground. There aren't really many stores I like to shop at there; I just like it because it looks like a real North American mall! And I miss wandering around malls and window-shopping. Most shopping places here look nothing like shopping malls at home. They are all either small, individual stores along the streets; open markets; or huge, expensive department stores with 8 or more floors. But no malls.

The CO-EX also has a really big bookstore that actually has quite a large selection of English books. (Most bookstores here only have a couple shelves dedicated to English books.) So I enjoy looking. I even bought myself a book last weekend.

For supper, we went to Jackie's Kitchen! It was really good.

In the western part of the city that we were exploring, we wandered onto a street that had some pretty interesting bar names.

This was my favourite.

We even found the Moulin Rouge!

And notice the name of the bookstore. I love it!

It was a fun weekend getaway!

Birthday

Another birthday has come and gone. And the next day came my sister-in-law's birthday. (Sorry I'm late!)

Happy Birthday Cara!

I had a good birthday. I like birthdays. They always seemed to be a big deal when I was little, at least to me they were a big deal, so I've liked them ever since. My parents would always make me a unique cake in the shape of something special. I can remember having a princess cake (with a real doll in the middle and the cake was her dress), a dog cake, birdcage cake (I had two birds at the time), an organ cake (with white chocolate keys), and I know there were others. This year, Mom promised to make me a Great Wall cake, but it hasn't arrived in the mail yet.


This was my first birthday as an old married woman, and Jordan treated me very well! He made me breakfast (although that's not unusual) and gave me my presents. As part of my present, he even gave me special Chinese tea and M&Ms from China! I don't know how I missed that one! And for those who are wondering, Chinese M&Ms do taste different.

He took me out for lunch at a really nice new restaurant. There was even English on the menu, so it wasn't a guessing game as to which dish has squid! Now it's my new favourite local restaurant.


At school, one of the other teachers brought me a cake! I shared it with my "favourite" class.


And later that night, after classes, we went out with our fellow teachers to a Korean restaurant. It was really good!