Since Seoul is a) a big city and b) Asian, there is a lot of street food. The most predominant street food on the street where we live is squid on a stick cooked directly on top of coals. It’s actually a smell I’ve come to appreciate.
Depending on the location and time of year there are lots of different street foods, most of them on a stick. I usually don’t eat street food, nothing about it looks sanitary and I’m a little paranoid about food borne ah.. disruptions.
But last Winter, I was invited out to see some historic temples and walk around Korea with a friend and a local Korean guide. As a treat our local guide took us to several local spots. One was a traditional Korean restaurant (I’ve had American Korean food and it was nothing like this, I didn’t even recognize anything or know if it was animal or vegetable), but I decided to be brave and try EVERYTHING on the table. And I did.
We then stopped at a street that was famous for having a ton of street food vendors. They had little tiny shop fronts (instead of carts) and there were tons of people in line at every shop, so I decided to just go for it again. I accepted the street food offered to me by our guide and was surprised because it was hot, sweet and delicious! It was Hoddeok, and brown sugar filled pancake thing.
I loved it and kept my eyes open for more the rest of the winter but none of the street food people near me were selling it. As it got warmer they stopped selling hot food and I gave up on ever having it again.
THEN I happened across a Korean woman’s blog who had a recipe for Hoddoek !!! apparently she made it for her kids all the time, and it was a common treat for house wives to make. I’ve never, let me repeat that NEVER baked from scratch like it was saying and I’ve never made dough, so it was a little intimidating. But I really wanted to see if I could make it, and I wanted to share the deliciousness with Justin so I set out and made a batch.
They were awesome. And exactly like I remembered them being. Be careful, they are hot and the liquid sugar inside is even hotter. The blog said to serve hot, but just heads up, not too hot. I re-worded the recipe, her English wasn’t the best (not the worst, but you have to be in the habit of translating), so here is the recipe. If you want to have authentic Korean street food without wondering if they washed their hands or if those car fumes can get cooked into food, here ya go!
Hoddeok
Korean street food
a flour dough pancake filled with sugar syrup
Dough:
2 TS dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1/2 TS salt
1 TBS vegetable oil
2 TBS white sugar
2 cups flour
Filling:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 TS ground cinnamon
1) Combine
Yeast, Water, Salt, Vegetable Oil and Sugar
in a large mixing bowl, stir well
2) Add Flour and Mix to combine
3) cover bowl and let dough rise at room temperature for 1 hour
4) knead dough (flour as needed) and let rise for another 15 minutes
5) flour cutting board and knead dough again, shaping it into a log. Flatten log and cut dough into 8 equal pieces. Form balls, set aside.
6)FILLING: combine brown sugar and cinnamon in a separate small bowl
7) take one ball of dough at a time, flatten into palm size piece and fill center with approximately 1 TBS of filling, reform into a ball with filling in center, pinch to close. Flour as needed. Fill all dough balls, set aside.
8) Place nonstick pan over medium heat with a thin layer of vegetable oil in pan.
10) Place dough ball in pan cook for 30 seconds or until light golden brown on bottom
11) flip ball over and flatten with spatula (to about the size of a CD) let cook for 1 minute or until golden brown
12) flip over again and turn heat to low. Place lid on pan and let cook for 1 more minute.
Makes 8 Pancakes, keep finished pancakes covered until cooking is done, serve hot.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Itaewon Global Village Festival
Saturday Justin and I were sitting in the living room when he asked if I heard a noise. I listened and thought it sounded like bagpipes! They weren’t, they were the Korean long horn drone thingy, but it’s in the genes to go in search of bagpipes if you hear them. So we hopped up, put on shoes and headed down to the main street where we live.
I’d forgotten there was going to be a festival. Itaewon is the “global village”, it has little brass plaques in the sidewalk every block or so with how to say 'Hello' in another language, I haven’t cataloged them all, but it seems to cover everything, even the pretty obscure languages. There are also tons of restaurants that claim to have different world foods, but it’s all cooked by Koreans so it pretty much all tastes the same. Besides the food, there are innumerable shops.
When I say shops, it’s not what Americans think of. There are several types of shops; the most obvious kind are the carts. They show up every afternoon and are reminiscent of gypsy carts, they have everything from socks and underwear to knock off purses and sunglasses. They fold up into closed rectangles that are then wheeled away (somewhere) for the night.
The second kind are the more normal shops, they have a sales floor, back storage rooms, clean window displays, etc. They are the most reminiscent of “American shops”, but half the time there are several floors of the same shop. I guess it’s cheaper to buy up.
The next kind seem to be the most naturally Korean. They are stuck in every possible corner, they are the size of large walk-in closets, there is no back room with extra stock, everything is hanging on the walls and ceiling so it looks like there are no walls, just stuff. Often the floors are not level and they usually just have a roll down metal door to close at night, but otherwise they are open on the front.
The last kind is the scariest and I don’t go into them alone. They are just normal shops, for Korea, but they are huge and maze-like with no way of telling how far they reach. They have normal shop fronts but the windows are so crowded with things that you can’t see into the store, once inside, the store keeps going back and back, or down into basements or up and up. I once went in one and came out a few streets away in the back ally. Every surface is packed with products, I’m betting they don’t have a back store room either. It’s also harder to walk away when the sales people get pushy (and they always do).
The remaining business on Iteawon are night clubs, I’ve never been out at night there, but we can hear the various clubs blasting their music every night of the week. And I pass numerous drunks still waking up the next morning having passed out from too much the night before.
There are always people out on the street too, I’ve never seen it deserted. There are two main subway stops at either end of the street, and the roadway is a popular and busy road. The people who drive scooters skip the roads and drive right on the sidewalk (which is narrowed considerably by all the gypsy carts). The main area on either side of the street has sidewalks, but if you go one block to either direction(and in all of Korea) it’s just a narrow one-way road that people drive two-ways on, drive scooters on, put their trash out on and expect people to walk on too.
ANYWAY, we heard music and went to see what it was. There were people lined up in the street like they were waiting to start a parade and the far end of the street was blocked off with a huge screen and lots of chairs. There were tons of people on the sidewalk and in the street (with only half of the traffic stopped I might add). There were at least eight policemen trying to control traffic at one intersection all blowing their whistles constantly. The people in the street were in various traditional costumes and most of them had either a drum or a gong and were (semi) rhythmically banging the shit of them. There was a huge knot of people crowed around the performance area and past them was the rest of the street with white tents set up on either side all the way down to the screen with the chairs.
I spotted a big gold dragon and we followed it trying to get a better view. It was one of those that was being held up by a dozen guys with sticks who would move their sticks and it looked like the dragon was undulating along. There were also two of the 2-man dragon dancers. I was pretty excited about the dragons, and I noticed that I could see pretty well (everyone in Asia being roughly the same height as me).
We followed the dragons past the big display area (where all the performers stopped to perform in front of one set of bleachers), and down into the tent area. Most of the tents were empty and the rest had food from the surrounding restaurants. I thought it was a little silly because the restaurants were right along the street. It was like having a BBQ in your front yard when the kitchen is just one room over, except that's a bad example because it's fun to have BBQs. Anyway, we walked along the street (this section being closed to traffic minus the occasional scooter) and looked at all the booths, most of them were Korean food booths. Odd since this was a global village festival, but those were the most popular booths.
The odd thing about the parade was that they didn't have the street blocked off with police tape or saw-horses or anything, AND the people didn't stay on the sidewalk. So the volunteers in the bright yellow vests were constantly telling people to step back so the parade could squeeze through. All in all it was a huge mass of noise and whistles, gongs and drums and an announcer on a loud speaker only speaking in Korean and people wandering around in the street that was only half blocked off from traffic while the parade of performers were trying to get through.
We saw everything there was to see that night and went home to dinner.
The next day was Sunday and we had to go to the grocery store, we were out of cat food and milk plus a bunch of other things, but those two items are my cue to go. The only problem was, the street was still blocked off by the festival. So Justin and I walked to the store, bought our groceries, packed our carefully selected food into our backpacks and started the trek home. It had been a little cold the day before but on Sunday the sun was out and it was warm and there were millions of little tiny flies out en mass. At first I thought they were ash falling from all the outdoor cooking, that's how fine they were. But soon we saw they were flies, and they were everywhere. They got into your mouth, your eyes and nose, they stuck to your skin. They were the whole length of the festival route, we cut up to a side street and there were fewer flies, but when we got home we had to shower to get them all off us. I took off my shirt and they were stuck to the skin of my stomach. Weird.
That was Halloween weekend, the Koreans don't do anything for Halloween and this was the first year that I didn't either. I did buy a candy bucket (it's a black cat face) and some candy in case we got any trick-or-treaters (or so I told myself) but we didn't get any. Oh no, I guess I'll have to eat the candy myself.
I’d forgotten there was going to be a festival. Itaewon is the “global village”, it has little brass plaques in the sidewalk every block or so with how to say 'Hello' in another language, I haven’t cataloged them all, but it seems to cover everything, even the pretty obscure languages. There are also tons of restaurants that claim to have different world foods, but it’s all cooked by Koreans so it pretty much all tastes the same. Besides the food, there are innumerable shops.
When I say shops, it’s not what Americans think of. There are several types of shops; the most obvious kind are the carts. They show up every afternoon and are reminiscent of gypsy carts, they have everything from socks and underwear to knock off purses and sunglasses. They fold up into closed rectangles that are then wheeled away (somewhere) for the night.
The second kind are the more normal shops, they have a sales floor, back storage rooms, clean window displays, etc. They are the most reminiscent of “American shops”, but half the time there are several floors of the same shop. I guess it’s cheaper to buy up.
The next kind seem to be the most naturally Korean. They are stuck in every possible corner, they are the size of large walk-in closets, there is no back room with extra stock, everything is hanging on the walls and ceiling so it looks like there are no walls, just stuff. Often the floors are not level and they usually just have a roll down metal door to close at night, but otherwise they are open on the front.
The last kind is the scariest and I don’t go into them alone. They are just normal shops, for Korea, but they are huge and maze-like with no way of telling how far they reach. They have normal shop fronts but the windows are so crowded with things that you can’t see into the store, once inside, the store keeps going back and back, or down into basements or up and up. I once went in one and came out a few streets away in the back ally. Every surface is packed with products, I’m betting they don’t have a back store room either. It’s also harder to walk away when the sales people get pushy (and they always do).
The remaining business on Iteawon are night clubs, I’ve never been out at night there, but we can hear the various clubs blasting their music every night of the week. And I pass numerous drunks still waking up the next morning having passed out from too much the night before.
There are always people out on the street too, I’ve never seen it deserted. There are two main subway stops at either end of the street, and the roadway is a popular and busy road. The people who drive scooters skip the roads and drive right on the sidewalk (which is narrowed considerably by all the gypsy carts). The main area on either side of the street has sidewalks, but if you go one block to either direction(and in all of Korea) it’s just a narrow one-way road that people drive two-ways on, drive scooters on, put their trash out on and expect people to walk on too.
ANYWAY, we heard music and went to see what it was. There were people lined up in the street like they were waiting to start a parade and the far end of the street was blocked off with a huge screen and lots of chairs. There were tons of people on the sidewalk and in the street (with only half of the traffic stopped I might add). There were at least eight policemen trying to control traffic at one intersection all blowing their whistles constantly. The people in the street were in various traditional costumes and most of them had either a drum or a gong and were (semi) rhythmically banging the shit of them. There was a huge knot of people crowed around the performance area and past them was the rest of the street with white tents set up on either side all the way down to the screen with the chairs.
I spotted a big gold dragon and we followed it trying to get a better view. It was one of those that was being held up by a dozen guys with sticks who would move their sticks and it looked like the dragon was undulating along. There were also two of the 2-man dragon dancers. I was pretty excited about the dragons, and I noticed that I could see pretty well (everyone in Asia being roughly the same height as me).
We followed the dragons past the big display area (where all the performers stopped to perform in front of one set of bleachers), and down into the tent area. Most of the tents were empty and the rest had food from the surrounding restaurants. I thought it was a little silly because the restaurants were right along the street. It was like having a BBQ in your front yard when the kitchen is just one room over, except that's a bad example because it's fun to have BBQs. Anyway, we walked along the street (this section being closed to traffic minus the occasional scooter) and looked at all the booths, most of them were Korean food booths. Odd since this was a global village festival, but those were the most popular booths.
The odd thing about the parade was that they didn't have the street blocked off with police tape or saw-horses or anything, AND the people didn't stay on the sidewalk. So the volunteers in the bright yellow vests were constantly telling people to step back so the parade could squeeze through. All in all it was a huge mass of noise and whistles, gongs and drums and an announcer on a loud speaker only speaking in Korean and people wandering around in the street that was only half blocked off from traffic while the parade of performers were trying to get through.
We saw everything there was to see that night and went home to dinner.
The next day was Sunday and we had to go to the grocery store, we were out of cat food and milk plus a bunch of other things, but those two items are my cue to go. The only problem was, the street was still blocked off by the festival. So Justin and I walked to the store, bought our groceries, packed our carefully selected food into our backpacks and started the trek home. It had been a little cold the day before but on Sunday the sun was out and it was warm and there were millions of little tiny flies out en mass. At first I thought they were ash falling from all the outdoor cooking, that's how fine they were. But soon we saw they were flies, and they were everywhere. They got into your mouth, your eyes and nose, they stuck to your skin. They were the whole length of the festival route, we cut up to a side street and there were fewer flies, but when we got home we had to shower to get them all off us. I took off my shirt and they were stuck to the skin of my stomach. Weird.
That was Halloween weekend, the Koreans don't do anything for Halloween and this was the first year that I didn't either. I did buy a candy bucket (it's a black cat face) and some candy in case we got any trick-or-treaters (or so I told myself) but we didn't get any. Oh no, I guess I'll have to eat the candy myself.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Dear Tomato
Dear Tomatoes,
I’m sorry I never liked you before. Maybe I just never had a good tomato and I was too stubborn to try a good one when it came along.
I’m sorry for all the BLT sandwiches I had (hold the “T”). I’m sorry that the first phrase I learned in French class was ‘I hate tomatoes’. I have always been a fan of tomato soup and Ketchup, but that was pretty much it.
I first started to like you on margarita pizzas, cooked Roma tomatoes are amazing. Then I had you on Greek salads, also a win. I don’t know exactly when I accepted you on anything you came on, but after that point I would stop picking you off my food.
I have even bought you in a supermarket and voluntarily put you on my food at home.
Oh my tomato, will you forgive me?
Love, Lucy
P.S. canned tuna fish and creamed corn, this letter does not apply to you. Other people can eat you and like you, just not while I’m in the same room. ew.
I’m sorry I never liked you before. Maybe I just never had a good tomato and I was too stubborn to try a good one when it came along.
I’m sorry for all the BLT sandwiches I had (hold the “T”). I’m sorry that the first phrase I learned in French class was ‘I hate tomatoes’. I have always been a fan of tomato soup and Ketchup, but that was pretty much it.
I first started to like you on margarita pizzas, cooked Roma tomatoes are amazing. Then I had you on Greek salads, also a win. I don’t know exactly when I accepted you on anything you came on, but after that point I would stop picking you off my food.
I have even bought you in a supermarket and voluntarily put you on my food at home.
Oh my tomato, will you forgive me?
Love, Lucy
P.S. canned tuna fish and creamed corn, this letter does not apply to you. Other people can eat you and like you, just not while I’m in the same room. ew.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Would I like some cheese with this whine?
I can't figure out how to un-mute my laptop. And it's not the normal, click here to turn the mute off and on, it's something else and I don't know what it is, or how to google for the answer.
I don't remember the password to Justin's computer, which is basically our home entertainment system.
We don't have cable because we live off base and the English programing we Did get was pretty much the same 3 CSI's on repeat.
The x-box plays DVDs but at this point I've watched the dvds we have so often I can recite them word for word.
I've already re-read two Southern Vampire mysteries (aka Sookie Stackhouse) and Twilight (too many times to count).
I don't want to cook anything, because all I would make are cookies or shortbread and I don't want to get fat. (er)
And I'm pretty sure I was having my first ever allergy episode yesterday at the park, watery eyes, runny nose (but I'm fine today).
Even Gambit is being super good and cute today, but that means he's alseep.
I enjoyed a quiet, relaxing long weekend with Justin home, but with only me and the cat, it gets a little still for my taste.
I don't remember the password to Justin's computer, which is basically our home entertainment system.
We don't have cable because we live off base and the English programing we Did get was pretty much the same 3 CSI's on repeat.
The x-box plays DVDs but at this point I've watched the dvds we have so often I can recite them word for word.
I've already re-read two Southern Vampire mysteries (aka Sookie Stackhouse) and Twilight (too many times to count).
I don't want to cook anything, because all I would make are cookies or shortbread and I don't want to get fat. (er)
And I'm pretty sure I was having my first ever allergy episode yesterday at the park, watery eyes, runny nose (but I'm fine today).
Even Gambit is being super good and cute today, but that means he's alseep.
I enjoyed a quiet, relaxing long weekend with Justin home, but with only me and the cat, it gets a little still for my taste.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
To Sum It Up
In the past Eight weeks alone I have flown SO much, here is the break down:
Korea ----------------> San Fransisco, California
Oakland, California --> San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio, Texas ---> Oakland, California
Oakland, California --> San Diego, California
San Diego,California -> Oakland, California
Oakland, California --> Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore, Maryland --> Oakland, California
Oakland, California --> Oahu, Hawaii
Oahu, Hawaii ---------> Oakland, California
San Fransisco, California --> Korea
If I had been really smart, I would have used the same airline for all of my flight and gotten a ton of frequent flyer miles. I did do that with the flights to and from Korea, but with everything else,I either got the cheapest flight, or my parents bought the tickets.
***
ALSO, EVERYONE IS HAVING BABIES!!!
Okay, not like every single person I know, but a lot of people are. For example;
My cousin Mary is due in February.
My friend from college, Caroline, is due in April.
My cousin Leslie just gave birth in September to her Second baby.
My other cousin Martha has a 2-ish year old...
My friend from high school, Nicole, has an eight month old...
I realize only two of those are people who are going to give birth, but considering my small circle of friends and family, that's a high percentage. ALSO like, a bunch of people on facebook who I went to school with have kids now, or are going to give birth soon. It's just a lot of people, that's all. But I suppose I am at the age where my peer group is the kid having age.
Korea ----------------> San Fransisco, California
Oakland, California --> San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio, Texas ---> Oakland, California
Oakland, California --> San Diego, California
San Diego,California -> Oakland, California
Oakland, California --> Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore, Maryland --> Oakland, California
Oakland, California --> Oahu, Hawaii
Oahu, Hawaii ---------> Oakland, California
San Fransisco, California --> Korea
If I had been really smart, I would have used the same airline for all of my flight and gotten a ton of frequent flyer miles. I did do that with the flights to and from Korea, but with everything else,I either got the cheapest flight, or my parents bought the tickets.
***
ALSO, EVERYONE IS HAVING BABIES!!!
Okay, not like every single person I know, but a lot of people are. For example;
My cousin Mary is due in February.
My friend from college, Caroline, is due in April.
My cousin Leslie just gave birth in September to her Second baby.
My other cousin Martha has a 2-ish year old...
My friend from high school, Nicole, has an eight month old...
I realize only two of those are people who are going to give birth, but considering my small circle of friends and family, that's a high percentage. ALSO like, a bunch of people on facebook who I went to school with have kids now, or are going to give birth soon. It's just a lot of people, that's all. But I suppose I am at the age where my peer group is the kid having age.
Hawaii, Oahu
One of the reasons we picked September to visit the states, was to have a family vacation for my husband and brother to meet in person. Since Nicholas was at his station in Hawaii he didn’t get to meet Justin. And when Nick came to Texas for Christmas Justin was already back at His station in Korea.
So Mom, Dad, me and Justin flew to Hawaii to spend a week on our first family vacation together! We stayed at the Hale Koa, it’s a military recreation hotel and if you’re military I highly recommend it. One, it’s just a really nice hotel, two they have their own beach right out back with everything and anything you want to rent for the beach plus several snack bars and such so you don’t have to shlep a cooler of food to the beach. And they have their own Luau show, it was really good.
Nick was supposed to be on leave the whole time we were there, but someone, somewhere lost his paperwork so he just had to meet up with us after work and on the weekend.
It was so much fun, we went to the Waikiki aquarium, there was a street parade for Aloha week, they had fireworks at the hotel one night, we went to the beach at our hotel, we went to Bellows beach and swam near huge sea turtles, we went to the Luau at our hotel which was really, really good, we walked around Waikiki a lot and went shopping, we got shave ice from matsumotos on the north side, we had dinner with my father’s cousin and her family at their house by Diamond head, we went to Punchbowl memorial and Pearl Harbor, Nick took me and Justin on a “hike” that made me realize, why yes, I am terrified of heights. We went to the look-out point, we went to the Army museum, Justin and I had breakfast everyday by the beach, and we got to spent some good time with my parents and brother.
It was a really great vacation. AND no one got sunburned, not really. Win.
So Mom, Dad, me and Justin flew to Hawaii to spend a week on our first family vacation together! We stayed at the Hale Koa, it’s a military recreation hotel and if you’re military I highly recommend it. One, it’s just a really nice hotel, two they have their own beach right out back with everything and anything you want to rent for the beach plus several snack bars and such so you don’t have to shlep a cooler of food to the beach. And they have their own Luau show, it was really good.
Nick was supposed to be on leave the whole time we were there, but someone, somewhere lost his paperwork so he just had to meet up with us after work and on the weekend.
It was so much fun, we went to the Waikiki aquarium, there was a street parade for Aloha week, they had fireworks at the hotel one night, we went to the beach at our hotel, we went to Bellows beach and swam near huge sea turtles, we went to the Luau at our hotel which was really, really good, we walked around Waikiki a lot and went shopping, we got shave ice from matsumotos on the north side, we had dinner with my father’s cousin and her family at their house by Diamond head, we went to Punchbowl memorial and Pearl Harbor, Nick took me and Justin on a “hike” that made me realize, why yes, I am terrified of heights. We went to the look-out point, we went to the Army museum, Justin and I had breakfast everyday by the beach, and we got to spent some good time with my parents and brother.
It was a really great vacation. AND no one got sunburned, not really. Win.
September
After I went to San Antonio with Justin for his TDY, he had to go back to Korea for work for three more weeks, while I went straight to California to be with my parents.
I mostly just tagged along with whatever my parents were doing- including but not limited to: church, brunches, museums, folk dancing, Rancho Days, running errands, meeting new Canadian distant cousins, washing cars, shopping, flying kites, you name it.
And for my birthday weekend I went to visit Allie in San Diego! We just ran around town looking at everything and having fun. I also got to be a law student for two classes, I had to bite my tongue to keep from talking in a class I wasn’t enrolled in and I had to read to stay awake in the other. I realized I had booked a PM flight instead of AM like I had intended to. But the flight got cancelled anyway, so I got to leave late afternoon. I fully intend to have more visits there, esp if I can find flight deals that cost less than it would take in gas to drive there (not to mention saving me 16 hours of my life driving round trip).
Justin flew into San Francisco, September 5th officially on vacation. We spent the first night he was in town at the Claremont Hotel. It’s this huge, historic, white painted wooden hotel on the next hill over from my parents house. It’s got a tennis club and pool you can belong to, but I had never had a reason to stay in it before, so that was fun. Then that weekend Justin went to San Antonio to visit his friends and family while Mom and I flew to Maryland for my college roommate’s wedding.
Mom and I arrived Thursday late afternoon and I don’t think we stopped driving the whole time. Luckily we had an AWESOME rental car, it was a little red Fiat. And thank god I brought the GPA, it would have been a rough trip without it. Thursday we had a girls night with Sarah (the one getting married), our other college friend Caroline, and some of Sarah’s other friends. Friday was nails, rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Saturday was getting ready for the wedding, the wedding, the reception and then a quick trip to Virginia. I know. My uncle and his family live in Virginia and we had already decided it would be too much to drive out and see them (it’s like 100 miles away from Baltimore). BUT my cousin gave birth on that Thursday to her second baby and it was pretty much the only chance we would get to see everyone for a while. So we showered, changed and drove to see them. We got there late that night, slept at a hotel and visited with everyone in the morning for like three hours before we had to turn around and drive back to catch our flight. It was totally worth it to see my aunt and uncle, my cousin Leslie and her new baby (and her family), and my cousin Thomas.
That Sunday happened to be 9/11, and we were a tad worried about flight, not because we thought something would happen, but because of how crazy other people might get. Luckily the only thing that happened was we had a plane delay for about 45 minutes because the President was flying over our airspace. So Mom and I got back to Oakland safe and sound, and Justin arrived at the same time as us and met us at our airport gate! I remember when you would see your family or whoever you were visiting at the gate instead of having to wait for them outside security.
It was a beautiful wedding weekend, it was wonderful to see our family and my college friend Caroline is going to have a baby in April! Kind of an exhausting trip but good.
Justin and I toured Cali, since he’d never been there before, looked at colleges, and spent time with my family. We spent a week in Hawaii visiting my brother (see entry ‘Hawaii’) then we had three days to pack for Korea before we flew back here. And that was September. Wow, right?
I mostly just tagged along with whatever my parents were doing- including but not limited to: church, brunches, museums, folk dancing, Rancho Days, running errands, meeting new Canadian distant cousins, washing cars, shopping, flying kites, you name it.
And for my birthday weekend I went to visit Allie in San Diego! We just ran around town looking at everything and having fun. I also got to be a law student for two classes, I had to bite my tongue to keep from talking in a class I wasn’t enrolled in and I had to read to stay awake in the other. I realized I had booked a PM flight instead of AM like I had intended to. But the flight got cancelled anyway, so I got to leave late afternoon. I fully intend to have more visits there, esp if I can find flight deals that cost less than it would take in gas to drive there (not to mention saving me 16 hours of my life driving round trip).
Justin flew into San Francisco, September 5th officially on vacation. We spent the first night he was in town at the Claremont Hotel. It’s this huge, historic, white painted wooden hotel on the next hill over from my parents house. It’s got a tennis club and pool you can belong to, but I had never had a reason to stay in it before, so that was fun. Then that weekend Justin went to San Antonio to visit his friends and family while Mom and I flew to Maryland for my college roommate’s wedding.
Mom and I arrived Thursday late afternoon and I don’t think we stopped driving the whole time. Luckily we had an AWESOME rental car, it was a little red Fiat. And thank god I brought the GPA, it would have been a rough trip without it. Thursday we had a girls night with Sarah (the one getting married), our other college friend Caroline, and some of Sarah’s other friends. Friday was nails, rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Saturday was getting ready for the wedding, the wedding, the reception and then a quick trip to Virginia. I know. My uncle and his family live in Virginia and we had already decided it would be too much to drive out and see them (it’s like 100 miles away from Baltimore). BUT my cousin gave birth on that Thursday to her second baby and it was pretty much the only chance we would get to see everyone for a while. So we showered, changed and drove to see them. We got there late that night, slept at a hotel and visited with everyone in the morning for like three hours before we had to turn around and drive back to catch our flight. It was totally worth it to see my aunt and uncle, my cousin Leslie and her new baby (and her family), and my cousin Thomas.
That Sunday happened to be 9/11, and we were a tad worried about flight, not because we thought something would happen, but because of how crazy other people might get. Luckily the only thing that happened was we had a plane delay for about 45 minutes because the President was flying over our airspace. So Mom and I got back to Oakland safe and sound, and Justin arrived at the same time as us and met us at our airport gate! I remember when you would see your family or whoever you were visiting at the gate instead of having to wait for them outside security.
It was a beautiful wedding weekend, it was wonderful to see our family and my college friend Caroline is going to have a baby in April! Kind of an exhausting trip but good.
Justin and I toured Cali, since he’d never been there before, looked at colleges, and spent time with my family. We spent a week in Hawaii visiting my brother (see entry ‘Hawaii’) then we had three days to pack for Korea before we flew back here. And that was September. Wow, right?
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