A discovery

Morten complained to me that I was so boring because I haven't blogged since the 17th. 'Well, ' I said, 'at least I have a blog.' And then the truth came out--'I have a blog!' he replied. And sure enough, he does. You can find it here. He said he couldn't figure out how to do more than post pictures--apparently he's not as clever as I. And if there is in fact some sort of last post date/boring-ness of blogger correlation, I am DEFINITELY more interesting.

Not much

I don't really have much to say, but I'm tired of seeing that stupid picture of me eating every time I open my blog. You might wonder why I look at my own blog in the first place, but that's beside the point.

So I guess I haven't mentioned that we now have a fourth foreign teacher at LCI. Her name is Amy, and she started right after our vacation week. She seems pretty cool, and I think she'll be a good addition to the school.

I went to Seoul last weekend for several reasons. The second reason I went was a dress-fitting. I need a nice dress for several occasions coming up, so I found a dressmaker and commissioned a dress. I was so nervous about it in the days prior to the fitting that I had bad dreams about an ill-fitting sack-style dress of orange and brown brocade. To my great relief, I found the long flowing dress of lovely blue silkiness that I had imagined. After a few adjustments, it should be ready for me to pick up this next weekend. I also went to Seoul to meet Amy and Liz for a Park English party on Saturday night. Amy and I are both Park English recruits, and Liz has tagged along with me before to Park events. It was fun to see Niki Lee and Cessilia Park again as well as meet some new teachers.

I didn't take any pictures over the weekend, so I'm posting some that Morten sent me from a business trip to sunny Italia.

Vacation week, Seoul, January 1-7

I was very lazy during my vacation. It didn't quite have the magic of my week of vacation on the beach this summer, but it was a fantastic way to start a new calendar year and a good way to say goodbye to a waning school year (this week marked one year for me in Korea, by the way). Here are some photos from my lazy week in Seoul:

Lunch at Subway and stupid picture of me eating #43

Nighttime in Insadong

After my pathetic attempt at 'wing-it' cookies on Christmas Eve, I decided to do it right this time. I even bought measuring cups and spoons and got a real recipe. Even though the oven insisted on cooking them at 300 degrees Celsius, they came out alright with my open-the-door/close-the-door cooking method. I call this picture 'Woman ignores large plate of cookies.'

Beautiful snowy Seoul

Saturday afternoon Morten and I went to Lotte World. It's a massive shopping/activity/adventure complex, and, as it was the weekend, visitors were out in droves, meaning the parking garages were a mess. We usually refuse to participate in the strange parking rituals here, but on this day we didn't really have any other choice. So what did we do? We parallel parked in a row of cars that was blocking a row perpendicularly parked cars, left the car in neutral, and proceeded to do our business in Lotte World. On returning, we found our car in the same row merely shifted down about three car lengths. They actually had parking attendants to help push cars if someone needed to access a blocked car.

Chef Morten prepares pork roast with skin for his Danish Christmas dinner on my last day of vacation

Danish Christmas dinner: Pork roast with crispy skin, gravy, brown potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, and boiled, seasoned red cabbage

Yum!

New Year's Eve, Seoul

I kicked off the New Year and a week of vacation with Aniva and some of her friends in Seoul. After dinner we went to a tropically themed place which boasted heated sand floors and basket chairs hanging from the ceiling. When our feet started getting a little too toasty, we tried another club, but it was very crowded and had 'no vibe'. As it was nearing midnight and we didn't want to be wandering the streets for the countdown, we gave up on trying to find a place that wasn't bursting at the seams and shoved our way into a very happening little club just off the Itaewon strip. I survived the champagne hose-down at the count of midnight, the loud pulsating music, and the shoulder to shoulder crush of people, but I did not leave the club without a severe case of sensory-overload. Morten and I said our goodbyes within the midnight hour to spend the first moments of 2007 in a slightly less chaotic--though far from peaceful--environment. A very strange mix of Koreans, American military personnel, English teachers, businessmen and other various foreigners filled the streets to send 2006 to the history books. Before we called it a night, Morten bought me some flowers from the roving flower lady. I think it's the strangest New Year's Eve I've ever had.