(no subject)
So, the past week has been absurdly stressful, due to my co-worker disappearing from the country, leaving behind a helluva lotta work for the rest of us. Also, another co-worker's dad was having health problems and he had to miss work once day too, so that caused additional work angst.
Last week, I did virtually no homework, missed class twice, and developed an eye-twitch (the kind I had when I was teaching seniors).
But, I did manage to clean my house and deal with important things like paying bills in two countries, finish taxes, and work a lot of overtime.
I am pretty sure this week will be better than last week.
Anyway, last weekend, David and I went on a Han River cruise.
This weekend, David and I, along with my co-worker Chris and his girlfriend Blake (who is Korean) went to a pension (which is kind of like a small inn where you can cook your own food) up past Uijeongbu.
It took FOR.E.VER. to get there. I left my house at 11:30 to meet David in Ansan, to go from the Ansan terminal. We got there at 6:30. The short version is, never go anywhere on the opposite corner of Seoul from Ansan. Just suck it up and go to Dong Seoul Terminal. Chris and Blake got there in about two hours. Oh well.
It was very cute, very heavy on the pink, but somehow we shall survive.
The first night, we cooked samgyeopsal, sausage, galbi, and shrimp on an outdoor barbeque. Well, the menfolk cooked. Blake and I mostly prepared vegetables. Look we're so heteronormative.
(For some reason the LJ spellcheck thinks heteronormative is not a word.)
We also hung out in the jacuzzi on the balcony for a while.
Also, the leaves were absolutely beautiful. The weather, amazing.
I taught Blake to make pancakes in the morning, which we ate with proper maple syrup (Thanks Ooch) and then we went out to ride ATV's. Apparently Blake and Chris had ridden them yesterday too, so they thought, quite sincerely, that there was no fee. However, after the pension folks put gas and gave us pillows, and then, after riding them for a good forty minutes, they told us there was a fee of ten thousand won per person. Yeah, thanks. Nice timing, guys. You coulda said that before we rode them. Sheesh.
But whatever, it was a good time.
We make ddeokbokki for lunch. I didn't bring enough red pepper paste (oops) so it wasn't spicy enough but I was still happy. Ddeok from a Ddeok store is way better than the packaged kind from E-Mart. Go figure. So, good ddeok, mediocre spices. Someday! I shall master ddeokbokki! But Korean cooking is just not intuitive for me. Italian food is intuitive. Korean cooking you just gotta memorize things, like apparently you can't use oil to stirfry the onions cause it will mess up the taste. Interesting.
(I accidentally put in vinegar last time cause it looks like my soybean oil, and they are both labeled in Korean, which actually wasn't as bad as I feared.)
Getting home was a lot easier than coming, because it was way shorter and more direct, and also we didn't have to carry all the food. And by we I mean mostly David, who was quite literally shouldering my burden this weekend.
My life, it is full of weird problems and weird joys.
Did you know that I love escalators? I had forgotten that I love escalators.
Today I finished off my awesome samgyetang chicken soup.
I wanna make zucchini bread. Oochie, what is your zucchini bread recipe?
Last week, I did virtually no homework, missed class twice, and developed an eye-twitch (the kind I had when I was teaching seniors).
But, I did manage to clean my house and deal with important things like paying bills in two countries, finish taxes, and work a lot of overtime.
I am pretty sure this week will be better than last week.
Anyway, last weekend, David and I went on a Han River cruise.
This weekend, David and I, along with my co-worker Chris and his girlfriend Blake (who is Korean) went to a pension (which is kind of like a small inn where you can cook your own food) up past Uijeongbu.
It took FOR.E.VER. to get there. I left my house at 11:30 to meet David in Ansan, to go from the Ansan terminal. We got there at 6:30. The short version is, never go anywhere on the opposite corner of Seoul from Ansan. Just suck it up and go to Dong Seoul Terminal. Chris and Blake got there in about two hours. Oh well.
It was very cute, very heavy on the pink, but somehow we shall survive.
The first night, we cooked samgyeopsal, sausage, galbi, and shrimp on an outdoor barbeque. Well, the menfolk cooked. Blake and I mostly prepared vegetables. Look we're so heteronormative.
(For some reason the LJ spellcheck thinks heteronormative is not a word.)
We also hung out in the jacuzzi on the balcony for a while.
Also, the leaves were absolutely beautiful. The weather, amazing.
I taught Blake to make pancakes in the morning, which we ate with proper maple syrup (Thanks Ooch) and then we went out to ride ATV's. Apparently Blake and Chris had ridden them yesterday too, so they thought, quite sincerely, that there was no fee. However, after the pension folks put gas and gave us pillows, and then, after riding them for a good forty minutes, they told us there was a fee of ten thousand won per person. Yeah, thanks. Nice timing, guys. You coulda said that before we rode them. Sheesh.
But whatever, it was a good time.
We make ddeokbokki for lunch. I didn't bring enough red pepper paste (oops) so it wasn't spicy enough but I was still happy. Ddeok from a Ddeok store is way better than the packaged kind from E-Mart. Go figure. So, good ddeok, mediocre spices. Someday! I shall master ddeokbokki! But Korean cooking is just not intuitive for me. Italian food is intuitive. Korean cooking you just gotta memorize things, like apparently you can't use oil to stirfry the onions cause it will mess up the taste. Interesting.
(I accidentally put in vinegar last time cause it looks like my soybean oil, and they are both labeled in Korean, which actually wasn't as bad as I feared.)
Getting home was a lot easier than coming, because it was way shorter and more direct, and also we didn't have to carry all the food. And by we I mean mostly David, who was quite literally shouldering my burden this weekend.
My life, it is full of weird problems and weird joys.
Did you know that I love escalators? I had forgotten that I love escalators.
Today I finished off my awesome samgyetang chicken soup.
I wanna make zucchini bread. Oochie, what is your zucchini bread recipe?