Becoming a Snow Bunny

One of the things I heard about Korea long before I ever got here was the wonderful ski resorts they have. Now, being from Florida (and yes Kentucky as well) I've never been much of a snow person. I love it. I really do. It's beautiful and I love to play in it, for one day. Then it gets old because, well, it can be a pain. It starts to melt and gets all slushy and muddy. Not my cup of tea. But when I was in high school, I was lucky enough to go skiing over a vacation with family. There were no broken bones, no complete mishaps (that I remember) but that was also about 8 years ago. So when I forked out a large amount of money for a weekend of skiing, I didn't know if it was a good, or bad, idea.

Day 1: Before heading to the slopes (and before the weather turned ugly)

There were about 200 of us headed to the ski resort, the best ski resort in Korea. The condos we stayed in also had an awesome hot spring pool area, which was a definite plus. When we got there, we grabbed the clothes we rented, got skis and boots, and then had no idea what we were doing. Some of the gondolas were shut down, and this resort was a lot bigger than I had anticipated. The runs were FOREVER long, so as a beginner you definitely got tired.

Made it down my first run!

Notice the horrible weather

For our first run, my group decided to hop on a quick beginner slope. HA. Said beginner slope was up at the top, and there was no way down since the gondolas were shut down. And a "quick" ski lift trip later took us to the very top of the mountain. Not what we were expecting. I began freaking out about 2 minutes in. What if I don't know how to get off this thing? What if I break my leg right here, right now!? All the while Sarah (a girl from my EPIK intake) is sitting next to me cheering me on. You can do it! It's easy, you'll be fine! So we found a quick little slope and practiced for a bit, Sarah giving me a few instructions here and there. But it actually came back pretty easily. I remembered how to turn pretty well, though I would get really scared when I would get going fast. Please God, don't let me get hurt. After practicing for a bit, we decided to try to find a way down the mountain because we had to get our room keys. And the weather had gotten pretty ugly, so we were all pretty tired, and hungry. I ended up having to ski down an advanced slope that was said to be an intermediate slope. But I made it down without crashing or breaking anything. That night, I decided to forgo the night skiing and head to the hot tub, which was shut down about 15 minutes after we got there (2 hours early) because we were foreigners. Great. Later that night, we headed to the party with a live band and DJs. The night was fun and we all had a blast.

The next day was so much prettier. The sun was out! There was no snow coming down! And we happened to find the beginner side of the mountain. Good to know. We skied down a beginner slope to the other ski house, where we could grab breakfast, then headed up the ski lifts to the real beginner slopes. It was a really great day. I found a slope that I really enjoyed (probably because I actually made it down, but I could also take my time and actually enjoy it, rather than feeling like I could die at any given moment). Again, I didn't fall, but I didn't really push myself that much. Note to self, try harder slopes next time and don't be afraid to get a little snow on your butt.

I had a great time and can't wait to go again... hopefully I can make it back twice, but we will see!

I've got a lot to be thankful for...

Our beautiful Thanksgiving table

It's the time of year when I begin to look at my life and reflect. Not only on the past year, but my life in general. I think about my friends and family, I think about my job, I think about my past and my future. And I think about food. Yes, food. Who doesn't think about food when it comes to the holiday season? You're lying to yourself if you claim you don't.

I have to admit that Thanksgiving dinner (or lunch, or whole-day meal, whatever you want to call it- and don't forget about the left overs) is my favorite meal of the entire year. And it is interesting because I never really knew why, until 2 weeks ago. Yes, it's great to be surrounded by family and friends, but this post isn't about the mushy part of Thanksgiving, it's about the FOOD. I learned that Thanksgiving food is the best because: 1. You really eat it any other time of the year, but you could, 2. There is just so much to choose from, and 3. Carbs. And cheese. And more carbs. I realized that Thanksgiving food is unique because you really eat a TON of carbs and cheese (which I love, by the way). If I have anything to say about it, if there is something that could remotely be considered healthy served at Thanksgiving, you've done it wrong. Broccoli? Throw some cheese on that shiz! Green beans? Sugar, salt and bacon please! Turkey? What's turkey without gravy?

A Thanksgiving toast- no judging on the brand!

But when you live in a country that you struggle to find things that you need for all your yummy homemade recipes, cooking for Thanksgiving can become-- interesting. I remember Skyping with my family once and they asked me what my friends and I would do. I told them we were planning on a pot-luck style dinner. When they asked about the turkey, I told them it is REALLY difficult, and expensive, to find turkey in this country, so we were planning on getting chicken. Do you plan on roasting it yourself? Seeing as we have VERY limited oven space, we will probably just walk down the the corner and get one out of the trucks. Apparently this isn't a normal response in America (it seemed totally normal, and logical to me at the time). I then had to explain that there are several trucks/cars that park on the street, open the back, and it is a full blown rotisserie! And the chickens look and smell delicious! Even though I was totally serious at the time, we ended up not getting a out-of-the-back-of-a-truck chicken, just a normal chicken from the store. Already roasted.

Chicken

Thanksgiving took a little more planning than I thought. I knew exactly what I was going to make. Broccoli and cheese casserole. My absolute favorite casserole. But when you can't find cream of celery soup, nor Velveeta cheese, it becomes a little difficult. OK, I'll do a different casserole. Cream of mushroom is at Costco. FOR $20 for a few cans. No dice. OK, then I'll have to do something else. I'd been put in charge of vegetables, so Adrienne and I decided to take a stroll to our local market and bought random veggies- zucchini, broccoli, corn, peppers. So I asked my parents and asked what I could throw together with what I had. It seemed like I was missing at least one ingredient for all the recipes they were suggesting. So I got online, chose 2 random recipes and decided to try to combine them.

When recipes go wrong

Goal: Yummy stuffed Zucchini. I had 4 halves of zucchini, peppers, garlic, sausage (technically beer and cheese bratwurst but you deal with what you have), cream cheese, onion, Ritz and Parmesan. So I just randomly threw stuff together. All 4 were different. 2 had cream cheese, the other 2 had Ritz and Parmesan on top. Some had bell peppers, some had garlic salt, some had Italian herb seasoning. I had no clue how they would taste, but it was a shot. So I baked them up, and headed over to Kaleena's to cook the rest of the veggies closer to cooking time (there was also an incident where Adrienne decided to launch one of my zucchinis across the street, therefore we had one zucchini with a little less filling).

The food ended up being amazing. And we had waaayyyy too much! We had the zucchinis, broccoli, corn, green beans, carrots, stuffing, mac n cheese, sweet potatoes (with rainbow marshmallows haha), fresh baked rolls and breads, pumpkin cream cheese dip, SWEET mashed potatoes with no gravy (apparently English people don't know the importance of this key dish in an American Thanksgiving, we still love you though Lauren, maybe) and chicken. For desert we had pumpkin pie, apple pie, apple crisp, brownies and ice cream. OMG it was amazing. So delicious.

My plate

I spy food comas!

We had games too. Jenga, Pictionary and a whip cream fight (that was only between Kaleena and Kieran). You know you've eaten a ton when the punishment for losing Jenga is "BROWNIE! BROWNIE! BROWNIE!" Also, when multiple people are down for the count in food comas!

Kaleena lost the whip cream fight

Concentration

Korean-style Jenga?

Adrienne lost- open wide!

Kieran thought she needed a little whip cream with that brownie

She got me back

Won Eyk and his (lacking) drawing skills

The group, minus 2

It was a great time with great friends. Hopefully next year will be just as great!