Full Moon

Yesterday was "Daeboreum" (or Great Full Moon), the Korean celebration of the first full moon in the Lunar New Year calendar. Several of my students asked me if I had eaten ogokbap for breakfast, which is a five-grain rice mixture. Other traditions on this day include cracking nuts with your teeth, which is thought to keep your teeth healthy all year. Or climbing nearby mountains, in order to catch the moonrise... which is said to give you good luck all year, if you're the first person to see it. Fun and games.

Pretend Like It's The Weekend

That, my friends, is a banana pancake stack with french vanilla ice cream sliding off the side. Brunch with The Marrieds was on my menu today... at one of our favorite little cafe's called The Lemontree. It's a miniature place with only three tables, so you have to hope there isn't another crew of people with the same idea as you on a Saturday morning. It's cosy and quaint, with sunlight streaming in the front windows and fresh herbs growing quietly in the corner. Jason Mraz was crooning away in the background, and the most delightful concoction of smells was tumbling out from the tiny kitchen. Two Korean girls dream up the most amazing food creations, one of them slipping out every now and then to purchase fresh ingredients on a particularly busy morning. The result is this mouthwatering table display... Jen's gluten-free salad with homemade dressing, AJ's western-style burger (not always easy to come by in Korea) and my Jack Johnson-esque banana pancake dream of a breakfast. Gotta love the organic combination of tasty food and cozy conversations with friends... are you hungry yet?

Rainy Day in Asia

When it rains, the street vendors, who sell everything from fruit and fish to toothbrushes and slippers, open up these giant rainbow umbrellas that remind me of summer at the beach in North Carolina. They sit beneath them, amidst their wares, chatting with their neighboring vendors, as the deluge pours down. I pass them on my way to and from work. The rainy day commute can be quite dangerous at times! Being a good head-and-a-half taller than the majority of the Koreans I meet, it seems my eyes are directly aligned with the pointed edges of their umbrellas, which fill the streets in a colorful pedestrian rainbow. I have suffered, on one such occasion, a tiny slice on my cheek, just below my eye, from the clawing edge of a pink-and-white Hello Kitty rainshield. And as umbrellas have a way of obscuring vision, both of the carrier and the raincoat-wearing individual, my walk to work involves more than the usual share of bumping and jostling, I have to duck and dodge as well!

Treading Water

I am, in fact, still alive. Contrary to popular belief. For those of you (ahem) five or so blog stalkers of this site, I would like to extend my apologies for the lack of posts. January is winter vacation month for my students, which in another country might mean they take a break from study and actually enjoy a much-deserved rest, but here in South Korea, they sign up for extra morning academies... Math, English, etc. Which means, I have been teaching morning classes, as well as my usual afternoon and evenings. Not much spare time/mental energy left for blogging at the end of the day, I'm afraid. I feel like I've been treading water all month, just barely staying on top of my work. We finished morning classes on Friday, however, so I am back to the usual routine tomorrow... and here's hoping... surfingsundays.blogspot.com is back in business too! More to come. Stay tuned. Peace, love, and kimchi. Out.