Stitch and Bitch

One of the girls that is on Spark People and living in Seoul mentioned a group called "Stitch and Bitch" on my page about a month ago. Since I've been feeling a bit of cabin fever and slight loneliness, I decided to connect with these gals and see what they were all about. It's primarily a knitting group, but some members also crochet and one does elegant cross stitches that look like paintings.

The first outing proposed that I jumped on was a trip to Dongdaemun Market to hunt for yarn. I've been to Dongdaemun before, but mostly to the clothing and knickknack sections. I was floored by how much stuff was there. There were stalls upon stalls of fabric, ribbons, notions, buttons, beads, yarn, and anything else you could imagine for a crafty person. We spent hours just looking at different stalls and selecting yarn for future projects.

I had no idea what I was going to make so I let my eyes wander until we came upon a stall that sold Korean yarn. The brand is Hand In Hand and it's pretty all purpose stuff, but the colors are really rich. I thought it was cool that most of the other stuff was imported, but this stuff was made in Korea, so I bought some. They also had yarn made of hanji (handmade paper). I'm gonna get some to crochet. It looks really neat and you can even wash it!

The next day there was an official meeting in Gangnam and since we didn't have plans and I was so excited about starting nothing... I decided to go. All the people who came were really nice and welcoming. It was great meeting some people the day before so I knew someone there. Janeen who has posted comments on this blog also came. She knows me from a Facebook group and we just so happened to also be interested in knitting. She cast on for the first time and got so good at knitting that we taught her how to purl.

I had practiced knitting and purling and changing colors and was a bit more confident so I thought up a project. I'm making leg warmers!! Lol. I saw so many when I walked around Hongdae with Curtis and Juliet (See next post) that I thought it was a good idea. I'll put up pics of my progress and you can tell me if I should unravel or keep going! Wish me luck!

Curtis' 30th Birthday

October 18th rolled around again and Curtis panicked a bit about turning the big 30. We tried not to make too big of a deal about it, so in the afternoon Curtis and I went in search of a Toys 'R' Us in Seoul because we heard they had a pretty good board game selection. We didn't find much of anything, but it was a nice day and good to get out and explore a bit more of the city.

That evening we went out to Outback with almost everyone from work. Carrie, a fairly new member of our staff, couldn't come, but Teri, Juliet, Dave and Kate were there. After dinner, Juliet and Teri, both having been before, came to our place to play a board game. We played Notre Dame and they both though it was the best one they've played yet. That's good because it's one of our favorites at the moment as well.

Dave and Kate popped by again after they ran some errands and surprised Curtis with an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. They are always decorated so beautifully and this one was in the shape of a mug. It was just as delicious as it looked!

Something Important I Missed

In September, something else really cool happened. We had another couch surfer. For those that don't know already, I'm part of an online community of travelers who offer local travel advice, hang out time, and/or a place to rest your weary head. In September we were so lucky to have Anna stay with us. She was on a round the world trip and included South Korea on her journey.

We had a birthday party for Kenny where we all played poker. Anna hadn't ever played before and I was pretty much clueless too, but we ended up doing not too bad. Dave was an excellent coach and helped us by writing out what cards beat what other cards.

The next day, I took her on a hike and to the jimjilbang where we all got the most intense exfoliation treatment of our lives. Not a single patch of skin was missed, not one! It was amazing. Anna loved it so much that she stayed in the jimjilbang her last night in Korea. Here are some photos of us.

Autumn and Everything After... well not quite

Since summer things have slowed down considerably, but instead of being super busy, I'm super boring! There were a couple of things I'd like you to know about though.

First, in September we had another couch surfer stay with us from England; Anna. She was amazing we had great time hanging out and teaching her how to play poker for Kenny's birthday party. She left after a few days and continued on her world wide trip. It was great to have her company for a while.

Kate and Dave resigned their contracts so they took a trip back home. At school, things weren't too hectic because Director made some busy work for the kids to do while we were busy teaching the other classes. They were given the topic of writing an article for a newspaper. There were hardly any guidelines and what we got out was pure mastery! All of them are hanging on the walls at school and I can't wait to take some pics to show you! I'll get them soon so you're not waiting so long. On my breaks I sometimes wander through the halls to read a new one I hadn't seen before. The kids are also really proud of them and they always grab my hand and pull me over to theirs to show me. What a great idea!

When Kate and Dave came back we had a Canadian Thanksgiving Dinner. Around 13 other people attended as well: Shanna, Rebecca, Mitzi, John, Amy, Juliet, Carrie, Kenny, Macella and her boyfriend. It was nice and there was tonnes of delicious food. I might do something similar around Christmas time if anyone is around... we'll see.

Lately, I've been running all the way to Ori bridge and back. I'm not sure exactly how far it is, but I think it's between 3 and 4 miles round trip. I stop running only once I get to Ori and I take a little loop past there to cool down, but otherwise I run the whole way. I feel like a super star and hope I can keep it up. This week, a little bout with bronchitis kept me from running and swimming but I'm gonna hit the path tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Tancheon 2 gil Makeover Korea Edition

This is our neighborhood lately. For the past 6 months little cafes and restaurants have been popping up around our block. It's amazing! They all put out these fantastic flower boxes, so I have so many reasons to go for walks and take a look around. New things keep coming and now that these businesses are so lucrative and always are packed, they're turning some of the empty lots into residence top restaurant bottoms as well.

The strange looking Native American statue is another story. This beauty has been outside of 0ne of our favorite hang outs since we arrived. Guess what kind of food it serves? Japanese! Lol... I have no idea why they have this guy, but it's still quirky and fun. Anyway, the place we hang out closed it's doors to renovate and because I know that may not be the whole story I decided to take pics before they were closed for good and this guy disappeared permanently. About a week after this was taken, it was gone. The place has since been divided up and half of it still sits unoccupied.

Summer Fun

Here are some more summer pics that I think you'll like.

There are some of a Doosan Bears game we went to with Juliet. She's a new teacher at our school. The cheerleaders are awesome! Who knew baseball would work so well with cheerleaders! Go Kim Hyun-Soo Go!
The next ones are of our last time with Jinie and Sup. Yeah, we're pretty sad they're gone to Australia, but they seem to be doing well so far and are enjoying it so far.

China Con't

I'm not sure what happened, but it wasn't letting me type anymore in that last post, so here we are... China Trip continued.

That night after we got back to our hostel from the Temple of Heaven, we met up with Anna and Julius, a German couple that we met at the hostel in Xian. They partook in a culinary adventure with us as we wandered around our hutong looking for Shabu Shabu (Japanese hot pot.) We found a place, but could not read the menu or order well so we enjoyed a delicious meal that was about 100 times more expensive than it should have been. I felt foolish, but it would have cost around the same in Korea, so I felt better knowing we didn't waste too much money. Here are pictures of the lovely gorgeous meal and our equally wonderful dinner mates.









After a wonderfully refreshing sleep we were back on the dusty trail looking for more adventures and sights. The next stop: The Summer



Palace. It's quite a ways out of Beijing, so we didn't plan to see much else that day. Getting there was quite uneventful except for an awkward conversation with a Chinese ESL teacher who had no idea where Korea was. I shake my head. That's kinda like me having no fricken clue where Cuba is. Still shaking my head.

Well... the Summer Palace was my favorite complex in Beijing for sure. There is a huge lake in the middle with lots of boats and bridges over it. It was really hazy when we were there, so we couldn't see much across the lake, but the structures and paintings we did see were amazing. Curtis was particularly impressed by an old car they had on display. They said it was a gift to the Dowager Empress and that it is said to be the first car in China!

Some other really cool things were the Hall of Incense and a high arch that you could see above most of the other building. The Hall of Incense had an amazing deva figure in it. I think it was called the 1000 hands immortal, but I'm not sure. I wasn't able to take a photo because it's sacred to some people and I wanted to respect that. All the painting everywhere blew me away. It was much more nature focused than some of the other temples which had more designs.

After the Summer Temple we rushed to get to the Lama Temple before it closed. I really really really wanted to see a huge Buddah inside that made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for being the largest Buddah carved of a single piece of wood. I remember searching all over for it and rushing past all of the other rooms and buddahs, but honestly, I had a mission! As I stood before it, I thought two things... what a waste of a huge gorgeous tree and why the hell did they paint it. There is just something about icons that I don't get. I do not mean any disrespect to Buddhists, they're much more environmentally friendly than any other religion. I just thought the tree itself would be more beautiful than carving it into a man- like shape.

Well... that's about it. We read a lot that evening, packed and flew out the next morning. It was a great trip and it's still pretty vivid in my mind even 3 months later.