The Family Month: Holidays in Korea Part 2

May is often referred to as the family month in Korea. Parent's Day, Children's Day and Teacher's Day all fall in this month.

On Parent's Day, children give their parents red carnations. Some students told me their schools have special performances, also.

As a child, I remember asking my parent's why America didn't have a Children's Day. My mom told me that every day is Children's Day. Schools and academies are closed on Children's Day. A good many students told me they received school supplies from their parents .The majority, however, told me that their families took a trip to somewhere like an amusement park, zoo or waterpark to celebrate.

Throughout the year my students bring me gifts of candy and fruit. On Teacher's Day they were especially generous with perfume, cheesecake, candy and lots of handmade cards and letters. I especially loved the note from a little boy in opening class. We were just learning out letters when Teacher's Day arrived. He made me  a card and scrawled "I love teacher!". So sweet!

This is part 2 of a series on the holidays I've experienced in Korea. To read the first part of the series, Candy and Spam, click HERE.

A Day in the Life

Since my life has changed dramitically since moving here I thought I'd give you an average play by play of my day.

8am-9:30 Wake up and walk the dog. Make Mike a sandwich for lunch and me a sandwich for dinner. Pack the lunchbox for Mike to take to work. Bible and devotional reading. Check email


9:30am Mike leaves for work and I shower

10am Dishes/ prep for lunch and dinner/Laundry

11am Eat lunch

11:30-12:30 Get dressed/Bible reading/ writing time

12:30 Walk the dog

12:50-1:20 Finish anything that didn't get done earler/ relax

1:20-1:50 Walk to work

2:20-9:45 Teach English classes. Involves copious amounts of Rock Paper Scissors. I have younger kids in the afternoon the older ones in the evening. My students range from 6-15 years old. We recently switched from a games heavy to a study heavy system so I also reject multiple requests for games in a 40 minute period. Between my classes I eat the sandwich/pickles/chips/yogurt combo I packed. I also have 40 students to call once a month and do telephone teaching. On Wednesdays work is finished around 6:30pm. Mike and I use this time to go to dinner together and go to Costco once a month. Otherdays, Mike finishes at 6pm.

9:45- 10:15 Walk home

10:15-11:30 Watch TV with Mike and head to bed

What does your day look like?

Meal Planning Monday

We went to Costco this weekend. Despite the membership fee and the transportation costs to get there I think it will either
 A. still save us money
 or
 B. allow us a choice wider variety and higher quality foods for approximately the same amount we were spending elsewhere

We stocked up mostly on meats and cheese. Here's what we plan on having the next two weeks.

Monday  Lunch: Sausages and Peppers
               Dinner: Turkey and Cheese Sandwiches
               Lunch: Shrimp and Fried Potatoes
              Dinner: Sandwiches

Tuesday  Lunch: Hamburger Steaks
                Dinner: Pork with Ramen or Sandwiches
               Lunch: Pork with Veggies
               Dinner: Sandwiches

Wednesday  Lunch: Beef Tacos
                    Dinner: Chicken Stuffed Peppers
                    Lunch: Duck and Hashbrowns or Duck Gumbo
                    Dinner: Tuna Cakes with Fried Rice

Thursday Lunch: Duck with Twice Baked potatoes
                Dinner: Frozen Pork Chops with ??
                Lunch: Cordon Bleu Style Chicken with Veggies
                Dinner: Sandwiches

Friday    Lunch: Breakfast
              Dinner: Sandwiches or Brats
              Lunch: Breakfast
              Dinner: Sandwiches or Leftovers

Saturday Lunch: Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes
              Dinner: Out or leftovers

Sunday: Lunch: Sandwiches
              Dinner: Chicken Wings




  

Week 2:

Here is our menu for the upcoming week. It will probably be tweaked here and there, due to the upcoming holidays. I know we are going to a western style buffet Christmas day but as for New Year's I'm not sure of any food related plans yet:

Tuesday- Bacon, Eggs and Pancakes
Friday-Pork Chops with Rosemary Bacon Potato Hash (prep Saturday's chicken)
Saturday-Broccoli Carrot Chicken Ramen
Monday-Pork Chop with Bacon Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Tuesday-Chicken and Dumplings
Wednesday- Vegetarian Chili

Homemade Chicken Stock

I made my own chicken stock for the first time. I made the stock on Monday night, froze it and used it Friday at lunchtime to make Duck Gumbo (link to follow!). The chicken I boiled to make the stock was used for tacos in Tuesday's lunch.

Makes 3 cups of stock. I made so little because we are very limited on storage containers and storage space. This recipe adjusts easily. You need to make sure you have enough water to keep the chicken covered throughout the cooking process.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb chicken
Water
1 onion, cut in half
2 stalks celery (including leaves), cut in half
1 Carrot cut in half
sprinkle of s&p (optional)
bay leaf (optional)

I had just over half a pound of skin on drumsticks so that is what I used. If you aren't using a whole chicken, I recommend using dark meat as it tends to be more flavorful. If you use more chicken adjust the veggies accordingly.

Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, covered, for 3 hours. If you use more chicken and it isn't cooked at this point, simmer until the chicken is done.

Be sure to discard the veggies and the bay leaf if you used on. I didn't actually use the bay leaf when I made the stock but used it when I made the gumbo. However, I saw several recipes called for the bay leaf in the stock.

Upcoming Meals

I spent the weekend pouring over recipes trying to come up to add some variety to our diet.

I need roughly 4-5 unique meals a week. This week we'll have less because I wasn't able to grocery shop until Monday night. We usually eat these for lunch and then have leftovers or sandwiches for dinner. We also eat out Thursday lunch and during the weekend.

Tuesday-Chicken Tacos (leftover chicken to go to the freezer for chili)
Wednesday-Hot Fried Chicken with Fried Rice
Friday-Duck and Sausage Gumbo (using homemade chicken stock)
Sunday- Cheesy Tuna Cake with Broccoli


Successful recipes to follow!

2 Easy Peasy Semi-Healthy Desserts

Not having an oven, I miss baking a lot. A super duper lot. A lot of the baked goods I purchase over here aren't half as good as what my taste buds desire.

To satisfy my sweet tooth, I've been playing around with ways to turn yogurt into a sweet dessert.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Yogurt

Ingredients:

• 1 small container of strawberry yogurt
• 1 small container of plain/Greek yogurt
• 1 hot cocoa packet

Note: You can substitute the strawberry yogurt for another container of plain yogurt with diced strawberries, sweeten a little with honey. Strawberries are currently $5 for a small container here so, I went with the pre-flavored yogurt.

1. Pour the plain yogurt into a bowl. Mix in the hot cocoa.
2. Pour the strawberry yogurt into the center of the chocolate yogurt. Swirl gently.

Tropical Caramel Parfait

• caramel sauce (store bought or homemade)
• 1 small container of plain/Greek Yogurt
• 1/2 cup fresh chopped pineapple

1. Layer yogurt, pineapple and caramel sauce in a small glass.

What I'm Thankful For..

So far Korea is teaching me a big lesson in gratitude. Here's a short list of things I've become newly aware and/or extremely grateful for.

1. New friends. We've made great friends out of the two Korean teachers and Chinese teacher at work. We hang out on the weekend and go out for lunch every Thursday.

2. Old friends (and family). I'm extremely grateful for old connections. I love being able to stay in touch and continue to share our lives together despite the many miles between us.

3. Salvation Army I bought a brand new bright red Ralph Lauren down coat at the end of winter last year, anticipating another cruel Pennsylvania winter. The jacket has served me well in Korea's windy city.

4. Crossword puzzles They give us challenging English after a day of repeating, " I like the smart queen. No, I do not like the stupid mouse."  Also, it gives us time to bond together as a couple when we work on one.

4. The fact that I'm from a country where I don't have to physically take my gas pipe with me. Apparently, when you move, you take the piece of pipe that connects to the gas line outside with you. I'm not sure if this is to discourage squatting or what. Why can't they just shut off the gas?

5. That I'm from a place where I don't have to boil or purchase drinking water. 'Nuff said.

6. That God lead us out of the USA during a particularly rough time. We didn't have to deal with the stress of the government shut down or the health care fiasco. Hopefully, when we return, America will have a new, stronger, Christian leader to lead us out of the mess we have created

7. I have a God that cares for me. Me, individually. He provides meals, warmth and even a kind person here and there to translate an extremely large Korean menu.

Let's remember to always give thanks!

Its Chili in Daegu!

The winds a blowing and I'm missing the comfort foods of home.

So, what better to do than brew up a nice hot bowl of chili!

The recipe differs slightly from what I make in the States do to the availability of certain ingredients. Anyway, here's what I concocted.

Serves 4!

Ingredients:

2 cans pintos in chili sauce
1 can red kidney beans (drained)
2 dangcho (spicy peppers) chopped
half an onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 carrot, grated
1 orange pepper, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 packet taco seasoning (from overseas)
pinch of red pepper powder
baby spoonful of butter
s&p to taste


1. Mix beans  with taco seasoning and red pepper.Set over low heat.
2. Meanwhile, sauté all vegetables except the carrot, in the butter. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Add veggies to beans and increase heat to medium.
4. Stir in grated carrot.
5. Simmer for hald an hour

My God is an AWESOME God!

So do not worry ,saying, "What will we eat?" or "What will we drink?" or "What will we wear?" For the pagans run after all these things and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and these things will be given to you as well. -Matthew 6:31-33

When we arrived in Korea we learned that we would be paid on the 15th of each month. This meant, on October 15th that we would be paid for a weeks worth of work and would not receive a full paycheck until the middle of November.

We had several unexpected  out of pocket expenses such as physicals and alien card fees. We also needed things for the bathroom, like a shower head an a toilet seat.

We'd saved money to bring with us but these unexpected expenses cut in quite a bit.

Now, we come to the week before payday.

We got down to our last several thousand won (I can't remember but I think it was around $50ish). (1,000 won is just under $1) This had to get us each 2 meals a day  for a week and a  six pack of 2 liter water bottles. We also usually buy a small snack to get us through the afternoon. 8 hours without eating gets to be a long time!

Our cupboards were down to 2 slices of bread, 3 slices of ham, a couple slices of processed cheese, onion, a box of cereal (no milk)and 3 packs of ramen. We also didn't have enough water to make it a week.

We've slowly learned that in this country it is usually costs more to buy groceries than it does to eat out. We could easily spend $50 on groceries and not make it a week.

Mike and I prayed that God would get us through the week and that we wouldn't be miserably hungry. We usually purchased snacks to get us through the 8 hour shift, but it looked as if we wouldn't be able to afford them this week.

On Sunday we bought a pizza box. It included a pizza, chicken tenders and fries and spaghetti. We were able to eat all day Sunday and lunch on Monday from this box. Monday we stopped and bought drinks for later in the afternoon.

However, the amount of spaghetti we shared left us hungry part way through work. It was Pepero day. A day devoted to cookies sticks covered in chocolate and other toppings like nuts. Teachers and students often exchange these treats. We didn't have any to give out, but God blessed us greatly by having students gift us with a couple boxes of them. We were able to have our snack after all! I truly felt has if God had had some marketing guru suggest Pepero day just to help Mike and I out of our hunger!


Monday night we ate more leftover pizza and left over chicken from Friday night. On Monday night Mike calculated our cash in hand to be 20,000 won (just under $20)

Tuesday morning, Mike counted our money and determined we actually had 40,000 won. It was as if God had come into our apartment and slipped us a $20.

Tuesday we went out to eat for lunch. Mike had a rice stirfry type dish and I had a noodle soup. Our typical orders at this restaurant. Usually, it costs us 8,000 won. This time it was 7,500 won. This allowed Mike to buy a Pepsi, for a pick me up. Another food related blessing came today. We had been helping a student prepare for a speaking competition. Her mother dropped off two loaves of coffee and nut bread for the teachers to share.

Wednesday, we ventured to McDonalds and discovered that (Praise God!) they were running specials. We both ate full size meals for the same price as two Happy Meals. Towards the end of the work day, I was starting to get hungry. Suddenly, I began to smell cinnamon. One of the managers had gone out and purchased brown sugar cinnamon pancakes from a street vendor. Knowing my love of sweets, she graciously shared with me.

Wednesday night, our next door neighbor and former boss dropped off a bunch of extra bananas. I ate mine for dessert with melted pieces of chocolate that were a gift from my student. We have enough bananas to each eat one for a snack tomorrow afternoon.

Tomorrow, God has provided enough money for us to keep up our traditional lunch with the teachers at the food court across from out school. I'm so looking forward to a warm bowl of curry.

We've yet to see what God has in store for the rest of the week but I am confident he will provide. Ever since we've started tithing we have never needed for anything.

I feel as if I am living the story of Jesus multiplying the loaves and fish.

 

What We Eat When We Don't Eat Out

Eating out in Korea is fairly cheap, and in some cases definitely cheaper than buying groceries. It tends to be healthier than a lot of restaurants at home too. Nonetheless, we still enjoy eating from the comfort of couch.

Here's a look at the types of meals we've enjoyed thus far

• Ham and Onion Omelets with Fried Potatoes
• Ham Omelets with Cereal
• Ham and Cheese sandwiches (the bread is thicker and almost stale, the cheese is uber processed and the ham is not the best quality)
• PBJs
• Cereal with Bananas or Apples
• Sausages and Fried Potatoes
• Ramen (spicy, beef)

Coming up on the menu...

Precooked Spaghetti
Sausages and Mashed Potatoes
Ham and Onion Omelets with Cereal and Fruit


Notice a theme? Yeah, its eggs and potatoes.

Home Sweet Home

After 3 days of hard core cleaning, unpacking and organizing our new home is almost in ship-shape.

Our bedroom...abstract pink and green wallpaper

I brought artwork from my friend Ginny to spruce up our apartment. Check out her website HERE.

The view of our living room from the bedroom.

leaf print wallpaper

TV  and dart board!

 Our storage table...seasonal, water, tp and recycling

Kitchen

Kitchen + washing machine

His and Hers clothes racks...princess wallpaper in the spare room

Drying racks in the spare room

Mirror, Air Con and Dresser in spare room

Spare room

Bathroom....no shower/tub space just the shower head

Two Meals in the Life of an English Teacher in Korea

There is a bakery that seems pretty popular here- Paris Baguette. By popular I mean there is one every couple of blocks.

In addition to baked goods and pastries they also serve sandwiches, preassembled hot dogs, smoothies, coffee etc.

We stopped and picked up lunch today.I picked out what was labeled as "onion toast".

I opened it at home and found a club style toasted sandwich. The first layer contained pizza sauce, cheese and ham. The second layer? A very mayonnaise-y(like) corn salad. They must have been out of onions.

Anyway, I did not care for the corn salad but once I scraped it off I enjoyed the rest of the sandwich.

For dinner, Mike and I stopped at a chicken and beer restaurant. Most restaurants in the S. Korea are not like the ones in the USA. For instance, you could usually go into a restaurant and have your pick of the type of meat for your entrée: chicken, beef, pork, etc. Here, the restaurant usually specializes in a type of meat (pork, beef, chicken, seafood, rice etc) and you can order different cuts or at least a couple of different sauces for it to be drenched in. You pay for the meat and receive unlimited refills on the side dishes.

We ordered the spicy garlic chicken wings. It was accompanied by a side of cubed pickled radishes (not my fave!)

While we waited for our chicken we received our other 3 side dishes:

Yeah. You're seeing that correctly. Those are sea shell...creatures still intact, a bowl of cold corn and corn chip Styrofoam half-breeds.

Neither one of us could muster the courage to try sucking something out of the shell but we did eat the other two to quench our tongues.

All in all, out dinner (over two dozen wings, 2 beers and 4 "side dishes") cost about $19 bucks.



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