$ Night and Seoul

Last weekend was my first trip to Seoul! The weather was beautiful and mild which is uncharacteristic this time of year.  We took a bus from Gunsan to Seoul, which takes about 3 hours.  Korean buses are awesome! They have Giant leather seats that recline nicely and they have foot rests! It's not a bad way to travel for a few hours.  We spent Saturday night with the Pantons, pushing it up for money night! Money night consists of an awesome dinner, copious amounts of wine and booze, with shenanigans to follow.  Mark got an awesome 6 course dinner for his meal, while I opted for a steak.  The food was great by American standards, and Outstanding by Korea standards!  Check out some pictures of our night below :)

The Korean toilet is an interesting piece of technology! I never knew using the restroom required so much decision making!

 Seoul at sunset, from the window of our hotel room.

Mark's yummy dessert! 

Chilling with some after dinner drinks :)

The girls with Bill!

Following an awesome night, we regrouped the next morning over tacos and beergaritas...... Naturally booze was needed immediately after waking up, to nurse the hangover :) delicious! 

After lunch, Mark and I pushed off on our own to explore the streets.  We decided to spend the afternoon at the Korean war Museum, which ended up being pretty cool! There were tons of aircraft, tanks, and guns to climb on. The museum was huge.....you could easily spend 4 hours in it, or more if you are a real War buff.  The best part is, it's free! Here are some pictures of our exploration:

Mark in front of the museum

A mosaic from one of the memorials

Korea's ENTIRE Navy

Fun fact of the day: it seems there is an aversion to liquid hand soap here.  The preference is a bar of soap on a stick in the public rest rooms.....I have invested in hand sanitizer.

Peace out! 

The Vahle's 

Valentines Day Festivities

I hope everyone had a fantastic Valentines Day! Our day was fun and very eventful.  My day started off at school, as usual.  Because of the holiday, we had a "theme day" and we had a chance to make valentine's and we taught the kids some new games, including "hot potato".  They had a blast! Check it out :)

After a fun school day filled with games and chocolate, we spent Valentines night farewelling some of my favorite colleagues!  Our wonderful Korean friends took us out in a neighborhood known as Susong-dong.  They treated us to an amazing (and interesting) meal! Mark and I were feeling adventurous, so we tried some new things! It is popular in Korea to serve silk worm pupa as a snack.  Many restaurants give you a bowl of peanuts, and a bowl of silk worm pupa (called Beondegi).  They are earthy.....crunch with a burst of juice! Reminds me of that scene in the lion king when they are eating slugs and Beatles while singing hakuna matata...... At least I can say I ate it, but I don't think I will be doing that again!

Next on the menu? Can you guess what this dish is?

If you guessed chicken feet, you guessed correct! Also another first and last experience.  The flavor was not bad, but the texture is not comparable to anything I can think of.  Like chewing a piece of fat with some cartilage for crunch! I think you will understand our stance on chicken feet when you see the look on Zero's face....

Although some of the food was "different" by American standards, there were many delicious dishes, including this noodle and pork dish.  We were also big fans of the wine that we were fed in copious amounts!

Our Korean friends showed us an amazing time! We are so thankful to have such great Korean friends to introduce us to new food, experiences and to show us around town!  The reason we organized this outing was also to farewell my fellow 

Lady Panton and Teacher, Jessica! I wish her luck in their new assignment, and remember to always PIU!  

following an awesome Valentine's day, we headed to Seoul for my first Money Night! Pictures to come soon! 

Happy Valentine's Day from the Vahle's! #whoneedschocolatewhenyouhavechickenfeet

PIU! 

The Year of the Blue Horse

Hello! We just came off of a four day weekend due to the Lunar New Year. In case you did not know, it is the year of the Blue Horse, and I wish you all health, happiness, and prosperity in 2014! At school, our students decorated horses as an art project, and they each wrote their New Years Resolution.  Somehow, I lost the "blue" part in translation so all of my classes ended up with rainbow horses.....woops! But they were still really pretty! And I am sure all of the Korean teachers got a good chuckle thinking "silly American".  I also received this awesome Korean Wine tasting set from the directors at my school as a holiday gift! I am really excited to try them one night this week; I've identified one as a cherry wine, one as ginger, and the other two will be a surprise because there are no pictures on their labels. I love a good wine flight!

With our days off from work. ( due to our four day weekend!), myself and a few of the other wives went on a fantastic coffee/shopping date! There is a coffee shop near by that has the most amazing coffee!!! Pure happiness in a cup - and beautiful too.  Ohhhh the simple things :)

Also this week, I attempted to create one of my favorite snacks/ side dishes: uncle Chris's bean salad! It was not exactly the same, but still really good! Makes me wish we were having a summer BBQ, but instead it is bitterly cold and windy outside!

Since I actually have time to cook here, I am trying to improve my skills... In order to do so, I have found one blog in particular that has a fantastic assortment of recipes. For all of my friends who like to cook, you need to check it out! The website is thegourmandmom.com . So far we have tried the buffalo chicken potato skins - amazing and great for parties!.... And the Guinness braised beef - also really good.  I have about 20 more recipes in a holding pattern that I want to try! If you try any, let me know your favorites so I can be sure to check it out!

For our AF friends, Oscar says hi. Push it up!