Year of the snake

So that not taking too long thing didn't really pan out too well did it? Whoopsie. I feel like I had lunch with someone last week, but I actually don't think I did. I was supposed to meet one friend, but she got sick and canceled. Now I'm all paranoid trying to figure out if I did...

We're going to go with I didn't meet anyone last week for lunch. Last week was also the first full week of late nights at work. I met Dallas on Wednesday night for coffee after work and we chatted about random things and we split a brownie and some Korean snacks (little pastries filled with a walnut and red bean paste that I got from my boss, who I think got them from a student's parents). We left at midnight when it closed and he walked me home with plans to meet up on Friday.

I caught up on some TV shows (Suits and White Collar especially) Tuesday and Thursday nights and made plans for next weekend with Cindy and Liezle (yay for a mini reunion!), but didn't do too much else. I talked to my siblings Thursday morning for close to 2 hours and it made me realize how much I really do miss them, not just by being in Korea, but by being all over and growing up some. We had a good couple of years when we lived less than an hour away from each other and regularly met up. Just knowing they were that close made me feel safer or something. Then I talked to my mom that evening and she told me about her awesome trip to visit my aunt in Florida for her birthday. I still haven't sent her card or present, which I had for months. Double whoopsie.

This past Sunday was Lunar New Year which is a pretty big holiday in Korea (although you really wouldn't know it). Most Koreans go back to their home towns and spend time with family, honoring their ancestors and eating traditional food. Many stores were closed on Sunday, but lots of places were still open and just about everything was open on Monday. There weren't any big celebrations that I was aware of like there was for regular New year, but we got Monday off, so I am all for it!

I spent basically the entire weekend with Dallas, so there is a good chance I am mixing up events and/or days things happened, but I think I've got most of it in the correct order.

On Friday my boss gave all of the teachers wine for Seollal (New year's), which was really nice. Dallas met me at work and we went to his house and watched this season opener to "Smash". I think I mentioned this when I first met him (almost a year ago - wow) that he is close to 10 years younger than me and sometimes when he doesn't get a musical or cultural reference it just makes me feel old. While we were watching the show, they sing a cover of an Annie Lennox song (Would I lie to you) and not only did he not know Annie Lennox, he had never heard the song before! I am pretty sure we just went to bed at that point.

Wine in a fancy box

On Saturday Dallas made chocolate chip "pintrest fail" pancakes. Even though they were slightly burnt, they still tasted good.

sideways pancakes

After breakfast, we went over to Brandon and Jamie's apartment. They are out of town for 2-4 weeks, respectively, and Ilani and her boyfriend (who is South African, but currently teaching in Vietnam and visiting Korea for 2 weeks) are taking turns staying at the apartment to watch Stella (their dog). A handful of other people came over too and they ordered delivery chicken. I didn't eat any because I was still full from breakfast and knew if I started eating it, I would feel sick. We talked a lot while everyone ate and I really like that group of people, so it was fun. Then we played one game of 30 seconds, which is one of my favorite games. We made Ranier and Ilani split up since it's a South African game and having the only 2 South Africans on the same team didn't seem fair. The teams ended up being me, Ilani and Dallas versus Ranier, Lance and Michelle. It was a close game but we won by 3! The 2 Koreans who were there asked to sit out early on because the speaking is really fast, but they said they had fun watching. I hope so. Then we played Catan. One person left, and we had 2 new players (Dallas and Michelle) so I decided to be the banker and not play, but instead help them. So it was a 5 player game (Ranier and Ilani played as a team because he was jet lagged and starting to get a cold). The game was really fun still and Dallas had beginner's luck and ended up winning.

He went home at that point and Lance and Jungwha also went home. The four of us left (Ilani, Ranier, Michelle and I) went to the meat buffet and ate a good amount of stuff. They have some of the best salad and kimchi bean sprouts there! After dinner I went back to Dallas's where he made mimosas for him and blinis for me (I don't really like mimosas). Then we watched Gnomeo and Juliet. After the movie we goofed around on the internet for awhile and I made him start playing "songpop" on Facebook so we played that for a while too, then went to bed.

On Sunday morning(ish) I went to church where we sang and listened to a recorded sermon from Brandon. After that I went to lunch with 8 other people and we talked for a long time. I like going out with the Korean girls from church because we are comfortable enough with each other now to ask questions about culture differences and know it's in a respectful way. I have learned a lot from them. After lunch I went to Brandon and Jamie's house to do some laundry (thanks guys :) ) since they have a dryer now and nobody was home. I walked the dog for a little bit, then read for the 180 days Bible reading while I waited for laundry to dry. Ilani and Ranier came home with about 15 minutes left of drying time, so I talked to them while my clothes finished, then I cabbed it home. I did another load of laundry at home (socks etc. that dry ok on the rack), then went to Dallas's around 10ish. We watched "burlesque" because I had never seen it and he insisted that I do. He made grilled cheese sandwiches and we drank one of the bottles of wine my boss gave me and part of another. I'm not a huge fan of wine, but a few sips into it and you can't really taste the bitter anymore, so it ended up being pretty decent. We also ate some peppero and strawberries. The strawberries tastes weird to me and when he ate one he said, "that's because they're rotten." Then he found a cool tie knot on pinetrest and we spent 20-30 minutes trying to figure out how to tie it - we got close but it just looked a mess. We played around on the computer and chatted some more, then went to bed around 3:30-4.

On Monday, we woke up around 10, but didn't actually get out of bed/move anywhere until around noon. We tried to go downtown for soup, but that place was closed, so we had cone pizza! I'm not sure exactly where it originated, but there is a place that serves little pizzas rolled into a cone shape. They are pretty good - Dallas had 2 (margarita and vegetarian) and I had chicken and mushrooms.

Cone pizza

After cone pizzas we shared ice cream. He ordered mint chocolate chip but got something with oreos in it and just decided to eat it instead of trying to change the order, which gets complicated with the language barrier. Then we walked around and went to a new store where he bought some pants. We went to a couple of other stores, but it was really crowded. Then we had coffee and walked to e-mart to get stuff for dinner (and a can opener for me). After e-mart we walked to Brandon and Jamie's again to borrow Catan because Dallas really liked it. We took Stella for a short walk then got the game and headed back to his place. We stopped off at my house so I could get some socks and drop off the couple of things I had bought.

The only reason I am posting this awful picture of me is to show you the hat. Dallas put it on me, then took this picture, but the hat is very common for middle and high school students to wear. And not in a funny, ironic way either.

Panda notebook

We dropped off the food and game at his place, then took a bus to p-dong so he could return some rental videos and get some more. It's easier if he wants to show his students stuff because these have Korean subtitles already on them, instead of trying to find a version online. Then we decided to all pumpkin porridge to our dinner. He thought about going there for lunch, but we didn't, so when we passed the place, we just went for it. I had never eaten it before either and it's on one of the lists of food to eat while you're in Korea. We just got one bowl to share (since they are huge) but the couple who owns the place was nice and put it in 2 take out bowls for us. Then Dallas grilled some kimchi and tofu and we ate dinner while watching "Pitch Perfect".

Sideways dinner. Lettuce and peppers at the top, pumpkin porridge on the left side (it's really good - like a really thick butternut squash soup) and kimchi and tofu on the bottom.

After the movie and doing dishes, we set up Catan and played 2 games. He won the first and I won the second. It obviously goes much faster with 2 players instead of 5. I went home around 11:30, checked 3 days worth of email and facebook messages, then wrote this post!

Mwahaha! I have converted another to the dark side of Catan!