Seollal (Lunar New Year)

Lunar New Year was celebrated in full force here in Korea earlier this week.  It's a three day holiday: the day before, the day of, and the day after.  The holiday is spent traveling to be with family, eating tons of food, and playing games.


Many times, people also gift their friends and/or coworkers with gifts as well.  Talton received this gift from a coworker.

 

The insert that came with this box of Korean goodies said these are a mixture of: "honey pastry, cereals, chocolate honey pastry, various fruits preserved in syrup, starch jelly coated with grains".

Here's what I found when I broke one of these open.  Interesting.  Very interesting.

And he received this as a Seollal gift from his company.  It's pretty neat that his company gives gifts on Korean holidays.  We also received a gift for Chuseok last September.

A big thing to do on the actual Lunar New Year day is to watch the sun come up, because it's the first sunrise of the year.  It was entirely too cold to do so from outside on the beach, but fortunately for me, we have big windows where I could stand and watch the sunrise.  Look how lovely!

While I waited on the sun to come up on this day (yes, I made the effort to get up early before anyone else....on purpose!), my favorite two little guys joined me.  Parker was reading to me when Connar woke up and sat with us.  :)

Oh, and did I mention that my hubby had two days off of work for this holiday?  Score!

dakgalbi

I tried another new Korean dish this past weekend called dakgalbi.  It's spicy stir-fried chicken with vegetables (cabbage, greens).  Take a peek!

This place stays pretty busy from what we can see.  People were piling in with us when we arrived, and there was a group of people waiting at the front of the restaurant waited to be seated when we left.

We got the boys all set up with their movies and dinner.  When we go out somewhere like this, I always pack their dinner of pb&j sandwich with lots of fruit and snacks.  With this combination of stuff to occupy them, they usually do a really great job of sitting still while we eat. 

This place did not have high chairs, unfortunately, so Parker figured out that he was able to stand and move around a little while in to dinner.  It was about that time when he mosied on over to the table next to us that we quickened our pace and finished dinner so we could head back home.  :)

They started by heating the grill in the middle of the table to get the chicken and cabbage cooking.

Then, they placed a barrier around the grill to prevent the food from falling out while they quickly stirred it and so the meat/sauce didn't pop out toward us.  This was great considering Parker was within arm's reach of this baby.

Next, they added in this heaping plateful of rice.

The man stirred it and let it sit over and over again until the rice and chicken were all cooked and fried up.  Those spatulas they use to stir and flatten the rice are pretty nifty!

From start to finish, the meal was ready in less than 10 minutes.  So easy and fast!  I thought the dakgalbi was good and was happy that I tried it.  It's not my favorite dish I've tried since living here, but I'm definitely willing to go back and give it another shot.  For me, the picky eater, I'd say that's a pretty big deal.  :)

As we walked home (check out how the boys are all bundled up and keeping warm....lucky!), I took these quick shots to show how there is very little room to walk around on these little streets in between buildings.  We have two double strollers....this one that is front to back and another umbrella stroller that is side by side.  This back to back stroller has been down some tiny alleys and seen some pretty crazy/cool stuff since living here!

 

Yay to another new experience!  Thank you, Korea, for forcing me to get out of my comfort zone every now and then to try something new.  :)

Why?

Here's what I want need to know.

Why?  Why can't a mother use the restroom in peace and quiet and without an audience?  I mean don't get me wrong, it's lovely to have my own personal cheerleader ("You going potty, Mommy?  Good job, Mommy.  I so proud of you, Mommy.  I told you you tummy feel better, Mommy.  You want a treat?"), but sometimes I'd like to do my thing alone. 

I tried that tonight.  I tried to go in here by myself.

Thinking I was outsmarting them, I didn't turn a single light on that led to the restroom, nor any light IN the restroom.....you know, so they couldn't follow me..  And just as I'm sitting down and giving myself a pat on the back for coming up with such a great idea, I hear, "Where's mommy?  MOMMY!  Where are you?" 

Aw crap.  They found me.


Again, I pose this question... Why can't a mother use the restroom in peace and quiet????  I'm positive this is an age old question, but if anyone out there has an answer to this, please reply away.  Thanks in advance.  :)

Betcha can't play with just one!

You know the Lays potato chip slogan, "Betcha can't eat just one!"?  That's exactly how my boys feel about playing with cars, trucks, planes, and helicopters! 

Instead of taking out just a couple to play with today, they took every single vehicle out of their nice, neat home in a box.  Talk about making me go bananas inside!  Not outside....just inside....I didn't want to squash them playing so well together BUT I'm not gonna lie...I did want to grab a broom and round 'em up! 

Just this morning I had Connar shimmy his way under the couch to fetch tons of cars that he intentionally put there.  And now, I'm in the other room and hear, "BOOM! SLAM! CRASH!"  I'm thinking that's the sound of either (1) cars slamming against each other OR (2) boys slamming against each other.  Because I know how many little vehicles these boys own, I was kind of hoping that it was #2 and not the entire box of cars that we had just cleaned up hours before.  Don't judge...there was no crying so I figured if it's the boys wrestling and getting a little too rough, at least there's only two of them to clean up versus the 89 cars.  ;)

Well, as you can see from this picture, they were playing together but the loud crashing was from all the cars running into each other and the wall.  I guess I should be happy that at least he didn't slide them back under the couch.

These two have been playing together like best friends lately.  I guess Connar thinks Parker is old enough and worth his time to play with now and Parker realized he's big and tough enough to hang with his older brother now.  Seriously, they wrestle like they're the same age.  Parker can totally hold his own.  I love watching them play together!

Know what else I love to watch?  This.....

This is Parker randomly leaning over and hugging his big brother.  He adores him.  Connar said in such a gentle voice, "Thank you Parker."  I just want to eat them up!

Then, of course the next logical place to play with their 89 vehicles was on my bed...in a tent.  :) 

They make a tent together nearly every day now.  I've learned the hard way to not even worry about making my bed because that's pretty much an invitation for them to come and make a mess of it.  Sometimes they don't even have toys under there.  It's like they're having a secret pow-wow about brotherly stuff that I'm not invited to, because as soon as I open the "door" to check in on them, they scatter like roaches.  They crack me up!

"C-O-N-N-A-R"

Today was the first day Connar has spelled his name correctly!!!!!

We've been working on it for what seems like forever, and he's always gotten so close but always included like four extra N's.  :)  Not today!  Today, without being reminded, he spelled it correctly!  And then he did it again and again and again!  I was in tears from being so beyond proud of him.  What a moment!

Because I never want to forget this, I took several videos of him today.  Here are my two favorites...

You've been heart attacked!

I love doing this for people!  My mom did this for us growing up on our bedroom doors, and I even incorporated it into my teaching by having each of my classes choose someone in the school to be heart attacked.  They'd write that person a small note on the heart, and we'd sneak to that person's office or classroom door, stick them all over the door/wall, and scamper away giggling because we felt like we got away with something.  It's so much fun, AND it teaches kids to do something nice for someone else "just because".

As we were taping the hearts on our friends' door this morning, Connar said to me, "I love doing this for _____ , Mommy."  I asked him if it made him happy to make _____ happy, and he said, "Yes" with a big 3 year old smile.  Now that made my heart smile.  :)

  

You don't have to go all out like this (although it really didn't take too much work and was so much fun for the boys to color the hearts...older kids and adults can write words or a personal message on the hearts), but I encourage you to do something nice for someone else "just because".  I promise it will make your heart smile too.  :)

Red Velvet cupcake cafe

We hopped on the subway on Sunday afternoon and headed to try a new cupcake place!

I wish all subway stations had the rails blocked off with glass, but until they do, these guys will stay strapped in the stroller.  :)

This location of Red Velvet is the second in Busan, but this one is MUCH closer than the original shop (one subway stop....or about a 15 minute walk from our condo, now that I know where it is).

Directions to this location: Take the subway to the Jung-Dong subway station.  Go out exit 2 (or if you have a stroller like me, go out exit 4, go left on the sidewalk when you step off the elevator at street level until you get to exit 2, then follow the rest of these directions) and take an immediate left down the street.  Red Velvet is in the strip center ahead, off to the right.  Very easy to get to.  They're open from 12 pm-10 pm every day except Tuesdays.

Just like at Good Ovening, the first cupcake place we tried, Red Velvet's cupcakes are decorated to the nines.  And they're 4000 won ($4) each!  (I believe I read somewhere that the Good Ovening in Seomyeon is closed now, but there is another location, as well as a few other cupcakes places in Busan to try.),

 

 

 

  

 

 

We tried out the red velvet (of course, you have to when that's the restaurant's namesake), the choco & vanilla, and the strawberry.  Now that we've tested out many different types of cupcakes in Korea, it's safe to say that they just make them different than we're used to in America.  Duh, you might be thinking, but a girl can wish for a moist cupcake, right?!  I knew going in that it wouldn't be the same, so I didn't go for that.  I went for the experience and also because it's neat to see how another culture makes one of my favorites from back home.  I will say that the red velvet cupcake has been the best cupcake we've had in Korea, hands down.  It was the most moist and most flavorful, including that cream cheese frosting.  While we didn't love all of them, we'll go back for more red velvet in the future.

 Connar also tried out the candies on top of the cupcakes.  :)  Of course he did, he's 3!

 

Aside from the adorable cupcakes, the cafe itself is so darling!  It's quaint and has a retro feel with its random decorations that somehow all go together.  Super, super cute!

This place even has a nail polish station where you can give yourself a manicure while you snack.  :)

Handwritten notes and drawings cover a wall....

 

   

I thought this one was cute because the paper is personalized for that family....now that's so up my alley!  In the top right corner it says "Lovely Twins" with pictures of their twins at the bottom.  Adorable...the personalized paper AND the twins!

This was my favorite by far.  Not only does this person compliment Red Velvet on its interior design and cupcakes, they also manage to squeeze in this gem: "We are gonna get married in November.  Plz congratulate us."  Ha!  I couldn't make this stuff up, people. 

 We came across these interesting names of places and even a daycare.  Only in Korea.  Love it.

Dennis the Menace Golf

Wiz Island Daycare

Mafia Bar

Best Shop

Oh, and here's another great thing about the location of this Red Velvet... It's right down the street from the Mexican food place, Artista, I tried a few weeks ago.  It's a neat feeling when you start to recognize places in a foreign country that is currently your home.  As I stood outside Red Velvet, I looked around and suddenly thought, "Hmmmm.  This sure looks like the area where the taxi driver dropped us off when we were lost that one night looking for Artista."   :)

If you've yet to try this place, you need to come here to the Jung-Dong location and swing by Artista while you're at it.  You won't regret it.  :)