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N Seoul Tower

2/28/2015

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Finally, we were able to take another weekend adventure!  The weather has been getting warmer lately; definitely better than the weather I'm hearing about at home!  It's been in the high 30s, low 40s recently, but it still gets very cold at night.  We originally planned to go to the DMZ, Saturday, but we didn't book it in time, so we went with plan B... A trip to N Seoul Tower.  
Started out "early" Saturday morning heading for the train station.  I say "early" because we were supposed to leave BY 9, but this certain man that I live with has trouble waking up early on the weekends haha!  At the train station we ran into some other Americans who had just arrived in Korea and had no idea how to get to Seoul.  They kind of attached themselves to us like leeches, unfortunately.  See... these two people asked if I could tell them how to get to Seoul.  Well... Yes, I can tell you how to get there, but where are you going in Seoul?  That makes a huge difference!  I made the same mistake the first time we ventured to Seoul; you think there's going to be ONE place to go, but Seoul is huge and there are hundreds of places to go.  So, I asked where they were trying to go, and they told me N Seoul Tower [insert wailing emoji here].  I told them that's where we were going (mistake) and explained how to get there.  They asked if they could follow us there, and I said sure... THINKING they would you know, venture off on their own once we got there.  NOPE!  I really shouldn't sound so mean about it, but when you go on an adventure with your husband, you really don't want to have to be a tour guide for two randos.  Feel me?

The train ride was the most unpleasant two hours we've ever experienced on public transit!  JAM PACKED with people, no open seats, and it was hot hot hot from so many people, the heater, and wearing winter clothing.  I really miss my car and being able to drive places on my own!  (See you soon, cute little Focus.  See you soon.)  Anyway.  We finally made it to Myeongdong Station and quickly went from sweating our butts off, to freezing our butts off!  We super overestimated what the temperature was going to be in Seoul.
From the station, I led our little group to the cable cars that took us up Namsan Mountain to N Seoul Tower.  Originally, Drew and I had planned to climb the mountain to the top.  However, with our two tag-a-longs... we were sort of forced to take the cable cars up to the top.  I'm still a little bitter about that part, but whatever.  We bought ONE WAY cable car tickets; if I couldn't climb up, I was certainly climbing down, and headed up the mountain.  
Once at the top of the mountain, we made it to the base of N Seoul Tower and the Love Locks!
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N Seoul Tower sits on top of a huge mountain in Seoul and can be seen from basically anywhere in the surrounding areas.  At the bottom of the tower are hundreds of thousands of locks that people have placed on the fences.  Drew and I bought a lock MONTHS ago and decorated it in order to put it on the fence, but of course we forgot it at home.  No worries though!!  They sold locks right there, and even had Sharpies to write on them.  We bought our lock, wrote "Olivia + Drew" on the front and "2015" on the back, locked it on the fence, and threw our keys out onto the mountain.
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After walking around and looking at all of the locks, we climbed up to the very base of the tower to get tickets to go up to the very top!
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The elevator to the top of the tower only took 30 seconds.  Once at the top, the view was AMAZING!  There were windows all around the tower so you could see out.  There are even a few restaurants up there that you can eat at while enjoying the view.  We chose to just walk around and take lots of pictures.  Even though the day was super gloomy and smoggy, we were still able to get some awesome pictures from the top!
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This is where we put our Love Lock!
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Busses can drive all the way up the mountain with tourists.
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A cool bridge way off in the distance
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Looks like a Folk Village... We might have to go there next time we're in Seoul!
I kept trying to picture what Seoul looked like before all of the high-rises and apartments.  Probably much, much clearer than today!  And a lot like the mountains in front of us.
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They had distances to cities all over the world written on the windows. We were 10,031 km from Denver, Colorado.
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And only 246.9 km from Pyongyang, North Korea!
We walked all the way around the inside of the tower many many times.  I kept taking pictures of the same thing and thinking I was still on my first rotation around!!  It was just so awesome being up so high and being able to see so much of Korea at once!
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The inside of the tower was a big gift shop.
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We wanted to send post cards to everyone at home from the highest post office, but we didn't have enough Won to do it!! You will all get post cards soon enough, though:)
After taking pictures for about an hour, our tag-a-longs finally headed in their own direction!  Drew and I rode the elevator down to the bottom of the tower and people watched a bit.  As promised in my last post, I was on the lookout for MATCHY-MATCHY!  I was so sad that I only saw ONE instance of matchy-matchy yesterday.  What a let down.  BUT it was a pretty good example.  A family of four was all matching in the same, puffy winter coats and grey sweat pants.  Drew stood in front of me and pretended to pose for a picture while I actually took pictures of them!  HA.  Only, I was super obviously and everyone probably knew what I was really doing.
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Brother and sister matching.
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Got the whole family in this shot! Mom, dad, daughter, and son all in their matching clothes.
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Maybe if the Air Force ends up not working out he could go into modeling? No? You don't agree? hahaha
After we put enough time between us and the tag-a-longs, we started our climb down the mountain.  This made me even MORE mad that we didn't climb all the way up.  It would have been the easiest mountain climb we'd done since coming to Korea!
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Oh wow.. please ignore that terrible posture!
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Drew took a break on the walk down to lift some weights haha.. I love that Korea has outdoor workout equipment every where you go! This is something America needs for sure.
Once at the bottom of the mountain, we explored the area and looked for a good place to get lunch.
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As opposed to fake coffee, I suppose.
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Coffee Academy!
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This was an awesome sign, but look closely and it says "handmade steak". I'm not sure how you home make steak, but apparently Korea has it figured out! ;)
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And Drew found this sign pretty hilarious. The city we were in was called Myeongdong, but this store was MYoung Dong. hehe
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ALLLLLLLLLL the fried food!
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Korea always has the cutest socks, but these are by far the best I've seen. Had to buy a bunch since they were so darn cute!
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Macaroon ice cream cakes... they looked so delicious.
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These hammer cookies were being sold in the train station. They put them inside a bag and smashed them with a wooden hammer. We bought a white chocolate one, but they weren't very tasty!
That's about it from our trip to N Seoul Tower!  Our ride home was even more unenjoyable than the ride up to Seoul!  We got lost somehow and ended up having to pay for our train tickets twice.  BUT we made it home and spent the rest of the evening snuggling with these two cuties.
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No, Hoosier is not as big as he looks here. Rooney was all rolled up like a little crescent roll, and Hoosier was stretched out to the max. He's gotten much bigger, but hopefully he still has lots more growing to do!
Next weekend we are hoping to go on another fun adventure.  To a Folk Village or a city we haven't been to yet!  The following weekend is FINALLY our trip to the DMZ!!  We are so excited for that.  For those that don't know, the DMZ is the Demilitarized Zone, the border between North and South Korea.  While we're there, we will get a chance to actually cross the border into North Korea!  We'll be in a building, but still.. I think that counts, and I'm totally adding it to my list of countries I've visited!  Can't wait to post about our trip there:)
We're down to about 10 weeks until we leave Korea and head back to the US!  So incredibly excited to come home and see everyone!  It won't be long!
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Happy Valentine's Day!

2/14/2015

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Not even in Korea can we escape the awful tradition that is Valentine's Day. In fact, it's surprisingly a much bigger deal here in Korea than at home! Koreans celebrate Valentine's Day for three whole months. (Essentially) Each month of the year there is a "love day" that is celebrated. Most of these love days don't really matter, but Valentine's Day is the first of the three most important ones!

Valentine's Day in Korea is a day when women give gifts to men. They buy chocolates and other small gifts to give as a sign of affection. The convenience stores set up tables and special displays full of Ferrero Rocher, Twix, and tons of other chocolates. These girls go nuts. At Emart, girls were picking and choosing through tons of different kinds of chocolate for their lovers.
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Convenience store display.
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Here is one of the chocolates I found in the giant display. We bought it just because it was so unusual, and it's AMAZING.

In addition to chocolates, there were also displays of fruit gift boxes, and of course Spam gifts boxes!!! But, these were for the Chinese New Year next week, not Valentine's Day.


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$50 for just a few Asian Pears!!
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15 apples for $40!!! I mean, I love Drew, but no. That's ridiculous.

While all of the Korean women are going crazy over chocolates for their lovers, the men are waiting, and maybe preparing, for next month.

One month after Valentine's Day, on White Day, it is time for the men to reciprocate and give gifts to the women. This day is called White Day because the gifts used to be all white chocolates and lingerie. Now, they stray a little from those gifts, but they still make sure to get something! Apparently there is a sort of unspoken rule, The Rule of Threes, that says the men have to spend 3 times as much on the White Day gift as the woman spent on his Valentine's Day gift. I'm not sure if people really follow that rule, but I read about it!!

So anyway. The girls get the guys stuff, the guys get the girls stuff a month later, and if a guy buys a gift for the same girl that bought him a gift the month before, it's happy ever after for them.

A month after White Day, on April 14th, is Black Day. A kind of depressing, but hilarious holiday for ALL THE SINGLE LADIES and men, but they weren't in the song. Apparently, on this day, single people get together and eat jajangmyeon, which are black noodles. Maybe they all get together in hopes that they will meet another desperately single person and fall madly in love? I'm not really sure. It sounds like an awesome holiday though; wallowing in self pity with a bunch of other losers!! ;) kidding. Sort of.

After that, there's a bunch more love days, but those aren't widely celebrated or advertised. Diary Day, Rose Day, Kiss Day, Silver Day, Green Day (lol), Photo Day, Wine Day, Movie Day, and Hug Day. 


Koreans are super into coupley things. You can spot a Korean couple from a mile away; not because of PDA or anything, but because of the matchy-matchy!

In Korea, public displays of affection are kind of taboo. You rarely see couples holding hands, and I've NEVER seen anyone kissing! The way couples display their affection for one another is by wearing matching clothes. This ranges from wearing the same hat, to wearing the same colors or patterns, to matching your entire outfit; hat to shoes!! It is so common to see a young couple wearing the same shoes, pants, shirt, and hat. I have also seen lots of older couples wearing the same coats! Matchy-matchy is huge here. They say it's a way to connect with your significant other; something they share just the two of them. This video explains, and shows, matchy-matchy perfectly. It's 6 minutes, but it's worth the watch! It's funny to see just how many couples are matching. And yes, you really would see that many matchy-matchy couples in a day! 

I will try my best to start taking pictures of couples I see so you can enjoy seeing t45q45this trend as much as I do!


I got a bit sidetracked there, sorry. Let's get back to Valentine's Day. Let me tell you about mine.

I woke up, snuggled with all three of my favorites: Rooney, Drew, and Hoosier (in order from most favorite to least favorite hahaha) Then, Drew agreed to go explore the 4/9 Market with me! This is a market that happens on all days that end in a 4 or a 9. Since today was February 14th, it was open! I planned to get some fruit, eggs and meat scraps for the dogs, but prices were way higher than I expected, so we just walked around and took lots of pictures. Oh, we also bought one single apple from an old woman who would not let us leave without it.

Here are some of the awesome/interesting things we saw.
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Fruit is so expensive here, especially in the middle of winter. I hoped to leave the market with a bunch of fresh strawberries, but couldn't justify spending $15 for one box of them!
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They were butchering animals all day at the market. This dude was so fresh he was still steaming.
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These pig heads were cooked.. Idk why you would want a giant head, but to each his own.
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Still confused about this. They brought the chicken's feet up and tied them inside their beaks...?
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I wanted to get these pig feet for the dogs, but they were SO expensive!!!
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Cow foot
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Pig spine... Yummy.
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Sharks!
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Closeup of the sharks.
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Giant lobster.
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Korea has the biggest fruits ever. These grapes were freaking huge.
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And these Asian pears were the size of a small child's head haha. So big.
I love going to the market, but the prices yesterday made me want to cry. I can't wait for spring so I can actually afford some of the things they'll be selling! 

My Valentine's Day ended with dinner at Meat Restaurant, a buffet full of Korean foods. Because, nothing says Love like a never ending supply of food. (There was a much more inappropriate and hilarious line I was going to use to end this, but my mom reads this. As do my grandparents. Yikes.) I hope you all had a fabulous Valentine's Day back home. Love and miss you all. See you soon!
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Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

2/9/2015

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I almost felt like I was in a dream, walking around the Ice Fountain Festival near Chilgap-san and hearing all of the songs from Frozen played in English AND Korean. If you know me, you probably know I love to sing. If you know me really well, you definitely know that musicals have a special place in my heart (and my drunken repertoire). If you're my husband, you know I will sing these songs endlessly until I am forced to stop:) I LOVE FROZEN! I've never actually watched the movie, but the songs rock. Also, some slightly drunk comedian called me the brunette Elsa a couple weeks ago, so that made me like it even more. ANYWAY. So not the point.
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Let it gooooo, let it gooooo!
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On Saturday, our realty family took a trip to Chilgapsan (Chilgapsan Mountain) to spend the day at the Ice Fountain Festival.
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This is an ice fountain.
At the festival, there were tons of different winter activities you could take part in. Sledding, tubing, zip lining, ice bobsledding, ice fishing, sleigh rides.. Lots of stuff. 

When we got to the festival, we all had an early lunch that included rice (of course), soup, and fried.. uh.. minnows? These, I did not try. 
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Yummy.
Once lunch was over, we were free to explore the festival on our own. First, we went inside a super fancy igloo. 
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My dad would be proud to know all I could think about was the thing collapsing on me. (He always worried about that when we made igloos or snow tunnels!)
We also walked around and looked at the ice fountains and snow sculptures. 
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Next, we caught some minnows, probably where the ones we were supposed to have eaten at lunch came from, with our bare hands. That was weird..
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And then, we went on an "ice bobsled!" It was so much fun!!
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After that, we went tube sledding down a hill a few times. 
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The Korean kids in their adorable snow suits were killing me.
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Especially this one.
After sledding, we walked around to see what else was going on. There were some cows...
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There were some sheep...

And there were some Hoosier puppies that all of the Koreans were tormenting and trying to pet while the puppies just wanted to stay warm and huddled up. They're going to be some pretty mean dogs one day. I wanted to save them all. Shocking, I know. 

After we walked around, we went back to the front of the festival to roast chestnuts, OVER. AN. OPEN. FIRE. (Just for you Momma Lisa.) 

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Chestnuts roasting on an open fiiiiiiire.
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Peeling chestnuts and drinking chestnut makgeolii. (Mixed with Chilsung Cider cuz I'm an infant.) Yum.
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Sharing with the adorable Korean boy whose mom wouldn't let him eat our chestnuts.
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Hahahaha love Sara's face in this.
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We also ate some roasted corn, WHICH IS NOTHING LIKE INDIANA CORN. Oh, how I miss Indiana corn. :(
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Then there was this guy who had dead minnows in his water bottle. Still confused about that.
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Our landlords, Mr. and Mrs. Soe and all of their tenants. Well. There are two people I don't know in there, but whatever. (Drew apparently didn't know what to do with his hands!)
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Realty family!
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Errbody
After the ice festival, we all had dinner together. Bulgogi, rice, quail eggs, some pancake-y things, and lots and LOTS of soju.  (And my 80-something-year-old landlord pouring beer into my cup every 5 seconds.  Which resulted in Drew drinking twice as much beer as he normally would have haha.  NO family, I still don't drink beer.)

As always, the bus ride home was karaoke central, with your girl carrying the team. LOLOL I'm totally kidding. I just really wanted to say that. We started out with our regulars, Wannabe and Titanium. And from there, Shit. Got. Real. (Thankfully, there were no BUZZKILLS on the bus with their puking children this time, so we were actually able to act like adults [or not] and have a good time.)

Me and the greatest rapper of all time, Megan, performed Super Bass. Drew rapped some Snoop Dogg too, but none of that is on video :( We were all awesome. Okay, Megan and Drew were awesome. I just pretend. Ray, our downstairs neighbor, was rockin the freestyle rapping. Really, all of our friends are just super talented when it comes to drunk karaoke. So, enjoy the following videos. Make fun of us, be impressed by us, be jealous that you didn't see it in person, whatever.  Just enjoy. 
Clearly, Sissy always makes sure everyone has a great time!  Can't believe we only have a few months left here to enjoy all of the fun and excitement (and alcohol) Sissy provides!!!

BY THE WAY.  Since I know my grandparents and Drew's grandparents read this, let me explain that we have not become alcoholics in Korea.  Basically, being in Korea is like being in college.  For those that didn't go to college, it's their one year to pretend they did.  For those who did go to college, it's our one last chance at pretending we're still there.  I blame the soju.  And our bad* influences of friends.

*AWESOME

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All About Food

2/1/2015

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This weekend was all about food in the Shavlik household. We've enjoyed trying all of the delicious foods Korea has to offer, and we decided it was time to learn how to make some of it ourselves! Let me start by explaining the foods we made, and then I'll show you!

Food is everywhere in Korea. Anywhere you go, you can find some food stands, markets, and obviously restaurants where you can eat AMAZING food. We always take full advantage of these opportunities ;). (Somehow we've managed not to gain 100 pounds each in the last 8 months.)

Let's start with street food!

We are TOTAL fans of Yaki Mandu! This is our go-to drunk food when we're downtown haha! Mandu is a dumpling that's filled with noodles, veggies, sometimes meat... I don't know. But then they're deep fried and sprinkled (okay covered) in salt. They can also be boiled, but obviously anything fried is way better!! We didn't make these, but we plan to someday! Mandu costs about ₩5,000 (less than $5) for a huge bag of them. We usually dip them in soy sauce, but they can be eaten just as they are and they're still delicious. Here's a Google image of some Yaki Mandu. (I didn't make any because I'd rather my whole house not smell like fried food for a week.)
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We've eaten enough Mandu this year to feed an entire country, but whatever. So yummy.

Next, is Hotteok! OMG YUM. Hotteok is a fried dough filled with "jam" made of nuts, cinnamon, honey, sugar.. Whatever. They're like pancakes, but better. We've had regular Hotteok and green tea Hotteok (which taste the same to me but they're green instead of golden brown). They're the best when it's cold, because you buy them straight off of the griddle! These are usually ₩1,000 each. We've made these twice now with a boxed mix we bought from Home Plus, the Korean Walmart type store. They're definitely not as good when made at home, but I'll figure it out!

Here's a Google image of Hotteok. (I don't have my own picture because we devoured them before I had a chance to take one.)
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That's the inside filled with goodness.
There's tons of other street food in Korea. They fry EVERYTHING. We've had fried peppers, fried potatoes, onion rings, fried cuttlefish, we've even seen fried hard boiled eggs! One street food that isn't fried, though, is Odeng. I prefer to call it fish bologna, but that's not appetizing at all; and Odeng is SO GOOD. I really don't know how to describe it. They're flat, yellowish strips of fish, but they don't look like fish at all. They don't even really taste like fish. But, they taste amazing. I was always afraid to try them, because I had no idea what they were, but omg am I glad I finally did! Odeng is sold everywhere and usually cost less than ₩1,000 each. They're boiled then they sit in this fish broth until you buy them. The broth might even be better than the Odeng! Both are great when you're drunk and cold.. Or just cold haha!! They can be eaten plain, or dipped in soy sauce or red pepper sauce.

Here's a picture of Odeng.
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And mine after I ate half of it haha
Okay, so they don't sound appetizing OR look it, but just take my word for it. Delicious.

That's my crash course on street food. Now some other foods we love in Korea.

KIMBAP!!! Kimbap, or Gimbap, is super popular in Korea. It looks like sushi, but it's a finger food, that has no raw fish in it (so I'm all about it). It can be filled with many different things, but we usually get the ones that have fish cakes, egg, cucumber, pickled radishes, ham, and carrot. Sometimes it has imitation crab instead of fish cakes. They can be spicy, savory, lots of different flavors. They're like sandwiches for Koreans; altered to fit anyone's preferences. These are cheap too, about ₩1,500 for one roll. If you haven't figured out, food here is pretty cheap. We bought all of our ingredients for or homemade Kimbap at Home Plus and I was SO excited to make it!

Here's a Google image of Kimbap.
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And here is my homemade Kimbap!!
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Not. Too. Shabby. This was my fourth or fifth attempt, but even if they didn't look pretty, they still tasted awesome!

Here's a bunch of pictures of the process.
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All of our ingredients and Drew cutting fish cakes.
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Seaweed "wrapper"
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Spreading out the rice.
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Layering the insides.
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All rolled up. This was our very first attempt. Not pretty in the slightest. Rooney wanted to eat it though!
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A much better second attempt.
We made SO MUCH KIMBAP. And still have left over ingredients. Our friends and neighbors got to enjoy some of the deliciousness, since we couldn't eat it all ourselves! I'm really hoping to find a Korean, or at least Asian, market at home so I can make these!!

The next thing we made was Samgak-Gimbap, or rice triangles. These can be found in any convenience store in Korea. Drew has always been a huge fan of them. These, like regular Kimbap can be filled with many different things. Spam, tuna, bulgogi, kimchee, squid, the possibilities are endless. We found a Samgak-Gimbap mold at, none other than, Home Plus and were so pumped to make it! Like Kimbap, this stuff is seaweed, rice, and fillings.

Here's a Google image of Samgak-Gimbap in a convenience store.
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They're super cheap. Depending on the fillings, and where you are, they cost between ₩500 and ₩1,500.
Here is the process of making our Samgak-gimbap
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Fill the bottom of the mold with rice.
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Add your filling. I chose tuna and mayo, Drew did Spam.
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Add more rice on top. Then you put the lid on and compress it all together.
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Pop it out of the mold like this.
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Lay it on the seaweed wrapper.
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Fold it all up.
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And there you have it.

I'm not a HUGE fan of these, but they're much better when I make them myself and know what is inside! I usually end up picking a gross one from the store!

That does it for all of the Korean food we made this weekend. In the past, I've also made bulgogi and bibimbap (rice, meat, veggies, and egg in a bowl. I just need more practice with everything so I can come home and cook it all for you!

I'll end with some puppy pictures so you can all get your fix.

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Hoosier's first night of crate training resulted in me wanting to throw him out the window. We couldn't even last 10 minutes listening to him SCREAM, so we let him out. Rooney was all about sleeping in there!
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He's almost too big for his little baby bed!
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Sleepy baby.
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Falling asleep under the teacher's desk is only okay if you're a 6 pound puppy.
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Snuggle buds.
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HE SMILES!
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The dog has 3 beds, but would rather sleep in my school bag.
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Also, we got a selfie stick.
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    TheCrazyLife
    Hi! I'm Olivia! I'm an Air Force wife, dog mom, daughter, sister, friend, teacher, nanny, and crafter. I love all things cheap. "DIYs" is my favorite four letter word. I love animals more than I love most people. I'm emotional. I'm messy. I clean when I'm mad. I love music and babies and everything summer. I love creating and being busy. I'm living this crazy Air Force life and making a home where ever they send us. I hope you'll join me on my adventure!
    Head over to my About page to learn more about who i am!  Head over to my About page to learn more!
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