Sixth Wedding Anniversary, Second in Seoul.

I just re-read what we did for our anniversary last year because I was going to post the link for reference here, but now it's made me want to go do those things again. We have talked about and attempted returning to Seonyudo, and we will have to make certain that it happens. I know we're in a different way this year than we were last year, but I don't want to leave this country any sadder about leaving than I'll already be.

The sixth anniversary is for gifts of candy. Because I am just a house lady with no job or children to speak of (yet), I made for Dan some peanut butter joke taffies. I'd asked him his favorite candy, and, though I'll never understand why, his savor favor rests on Laffy Taffies. The first batch I attempted crystallized, and I was so sad and considered giving up, but I read some tips, tried again two days later, and, boom, old fashioned American taffy pull right here in my South Korean Billa.

Dan bought me a decadent box of truffles (i.e. real candy) from the chocolatier down the street. There really is a little Paris-trained chocolate maker right on our street, and she is so cute and accidentally talks to us in French sometimes. She threw in a free macaroon since it was our anniversary. For real, you guys, Koreans are always trying to give stuff away. The best thing I ever did in this country was get pregnant. Friends bring you fruit, buy you ice cream makers. Coffee shop owners bring you free orange juice. Sample vendors give you whole chicken nuggets instead of thirds. Greek restaurant chefs make you your own gyros. It is blissful (and will end now so soon).

Mixtape Advice.

All I have for you from our easy weekend (Dan was in training for school all day Saturday, and all we did on Sunday was take some street food (twigim to be specific, which is basically tempura fried vegetables and sundries) to Starbucks and complete Salsa Sundays by eating dinner at Taco Bell) is one picture, then supplemented by a picture I took from our window today. So, before I show both of those pictures, I am going to make a blog recommendation. Though we could never get Dan to write much here, something (this baby in my belly) inspired him to start a blog elsewhere. It is called Ultrasounds: A Mixtape, and he writes it to our baby. Let all your awws out because it is very sweet. Every day, he thinks about a song to share, and then we pop the headphones on my stomach and wait for the kid to start kicking.

And now for the pictures.


We ate Greek Food and played portable board games and had ice cream with our friend Esther. All on Friday night. Baskin Robbins made claim that their color is good. I don't know what color or why it's better than other ice cream's colors, maybe they've recently recovered from the flu, but they were very braggy about it.


An across the street neighbor was moving in today. I spied at them from inside my home. This is how they do it on the fifth or so floor. We are also about to move. Hurray! Sometime early next week we'll be moving closer to Dan's school into a nicer apartment. We've had some mold/smell/door/plumbing problems here. It means we'll have to change markets, though, and I am quite sad about it. I'm a loyalist when it comes to consumerism, and our market has the nicest people. We'll have to decide if they are worth hoofing it for when there will be another shop only minutes away. I suppose whoever has the cheapest watermelons will win.

-Serenity

Buddha's Birthday, Our Picnic.

Korea celebrated Buddha's Birthday on Tuesday. He was kind enough to provide a day off for Dan, and we'd planned a picnic at Seonyudo Park. It's an island. It's a park. It's great. But rain was forecast for the whole of the day, so we had to brainstorm other picnic venues. We decided to take advantage of our Lotte World year passes and lunch in luxury. I made some snacks, and we packed up some portable games and spent the afternoon walking around Lotte World and hanging out in Jamsil.

Another Birthday.

I am now 28, still 32 years from the age at which I determined it is appropriate to start feeling old. I spent my second birthday in Korea in almost identical fashion to the first. Maybe one day I will have some sort of life crisis and start doing outlandish things to celebrate the passing of time, but, for now, I am happy to have dinner with my husband and, while we're in Korea, to eat a cake from Sticky Fingers Bakery. We had that dinner at Suji's Deli in Itaewon, in search of tasty sandwiches. They were out of turkey, so I tried pastrami for the first time. It was very meaty, but a good experience for me. And the Russian coleslaw proved an unexpected delight.