Snow and Food Poisoning

Well the big news here is that is snowed! We got about 5 inches total yesterday and it was magical...until the cars started driving and turned the city into a gray-brown slush pool. But anyone who knows me knows how much I LOVE snow so I was excited to see the first snowfall!

My new wind/water/snow-proof jacket arrived just in time!

Snow from my office building!

On the bad side, I spent the entire night up with a grueling case of food poisoning. Not sure if I got it from the restaurant I ate lunch at yesterday or contaminated kitchen stuff cooking chicken last night, but either way today has been a lay-in-bed kind of day.

Lucky for me, the new instructor arrived last week and because today was pretty light on classes, she was able to go in and teach them for me. Its so nice to have another foreigner in the office to talk about Korean-isms that can be frustrating. She's also my roommate and things have been going great so far!

So what have I been up to the past few weeks....  Well I've hiked a couple mountains (surprise surprise) and explored Seoul a lot. I spent one Sunday with a friend shopping for Christmas presents in Insadong, an area known for its traditional handmade crafts. We also visited an English bookstore in Itaewon (the 'forgiener section') which I will now make many pilgrimages too as they sell used English books at a great price! I also explored another adorable area called Samcheong-dong after a hike where I finally tried honey bread- a monstrous dessert served in coffee shops here. For some reason, Koreans think this is an American dessert, which, to my knowledge, it is not. It was ok, but for 1000 calories I would choose to indulge in something with a little more substance!

Honey bread...really only something you can appropriately order in large groups.

So that's been life in Korea. Not too exciting I guess. Sometimes I forget that I am living in Asia. My life has become somewhat routine, just like it would anywhere. Work, friends, hobbies. Sometimes, usually on the bus ride home from work, I have one of those moments where I think to myself "God I LIVE in ASIA. I have to remind myself that I am living in a completely different culture and I need to go out and see more of it. Other times, I think of all the time I have left here and how I want to focus on building a life with good friends and adventures, not building a photo album of tourist pictures. The key is to find a balance, which I will hopefully strike one day. But in the end, I think life is life anywhere.

xo Julie