"Wife" in Korea
A description of life in Korea by a Canadian Wife. Tips, hints, recipes and some everyday events.
100 day party! So I made all the calls to the family and the party is a go!! I am super excited that it’s going to happen. Now I just have to get all the food together. I chatted with my husband and we figured out our menu.
beef barbeque with lettuce and sesame leaves
Myeokguk - seaweed soup
spinach and bean sprout side dishes
Japche - stir fried noodle dish
white rice
sausage
and shikye - sweet rice drink
I also have to figure out dishes to feed everyone… I think I’ll ask my sister in law or my mother to bring some. But woo hoo I am excited that we are going to have a big family party and that I get to cook for everyone. I love cooking for the family ^^ Can’t wait for next weekend. Oh I’ll try to take pictures and post recipes for you all. I’ll also recap the event for you all.
my gift! He bought me a pretty horse purse :) what a sweet husband I have.
my husband is being seriously cute this week, not really sure why. It is kinda out of right field, I mean he is always a good husband but he is acting differently. Earlier this week he noticed it was rose day (May 14th) a day we have never done anything for and I really didn’t know was a holiday until he reminded me. But he bought me this cute LOVE figurine. And yesterday he said that he got me something else “just because”, but he won’t tell me what it is… I’m just waiting for the delivery guy today. Also he keeps checking on me, like out of no where stop what he is doing look to find me and just smile. He even got up from his game yesterday and came into the bed room to see me and our son sleeping (I was still awake that’s how I know he was there). He said he just wanted to see us. Super sweet guy, but I’m not sure where it is coming from. Ahh well I’m not complaining, I’m a very lucky girl to have a husband who is so much in love with her ^^.
next Friday is my baby’s 100th day of being alive and I need to figure out something to do. I am thinking of having the family over for dinner. But honestly since this isn’t something we do in Canada I have no freaking idea. People keep showing me pictures of a table and things all set up for the 100 day event, but I don’t have any of that stuff and I don’t want to buy it so that I can use it once. I hope that dinner is a good idea… my husband isn’t really being all that helpful with this. EErg, I have some hanu (Korean beef) we can grill, and I was thinking I would make Japche, kimchi jjigae, and a few side dishes. And then have some cake. It’s my nephew’s birthday too next Thursday so we could celebrate both events together.
Tomorrow I am going to start taking Korean classes again, I was supposed to start on Tuesday but I was waiting for them to call me and let me know I got in and they didn’t. So my husband called them and they said “oh we just expected her to come in”. So I guess I will start tomorrow, I took a level test and stuff like that, but I am not sure what level I will be in… I guess I will find out all the details tomorrow when I show up. I’m excited to learn in a structured environment, I thrive in that situation. And the bonus to this all is, the classes are free and they will even take care of the baby while I am learning SCORE!!
Every day I try to get out and take a walk with the dog and the baby. A- for exercise for the two of us who can walk and B- so that I don’t go crazy being cooped up in the house. Today I met another mom who does the exact same thing as me on my walk. Her baby is 8 months old and we live in the same apartment complex. She speaks English but isn’t really confident in it, I guess her English level is on par to my Korean level. But it was nice, we talked in both languages together. I hope that I see her again since it is nice to walk with someone and it is always nice to talk to someone who can answer back (the baby’s conversation skills aren’t great >.<)
ladies and gentlemen, if you don’t have a kid I would advise you to stay home on this day. It is the busiest craziest day of the year, hands down. If you do want to go out try to avoid any place that kids might want to go, like the zoo, park, theme park or even the lake near my house (not sure why there was a huge weekend long even there). I went to an art museum once, it wasn’t too busy quite nice actually (until I got bored, it happens).
I do have a child, and even though he is still too young to even know what children’s day is we went to the park with some friends. Luckily we found parking and a spot under a tree in the shade. There was lots happening at the park, big jumpy castles and slides, jump ropes tied to exercise equipment, crafts and a k pop dance thing. But as someone who doesn’t love crowds I was happy to get out of there after a few hours. I have another year where my son won’t know what children’s day is, then I’m doomed to the craziness… I think I will bargain with him and offer to do something fun another day (like he gets a day off school and gets to do something awesome instead of doing something on Children’s day).
Keep your finger’s crossed that my kid will also hate large crowds, waiting in lines and general madness and want to do something awesome another less crazy day.
This is a super simple dish to make, I think it might take 10 minutes at the most. My pets go crazy when I cook it too, they both like dried seafood.
Dried Shrimp side dish
2 cups of small dried shrimp
1tbs soy sauce
1tbs water
1tbs sugar
1tsp corn syrup
1tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp salt
sesame seeds to finish
On medium heat mix the soy sauce, water, water, corn syrup, sesame oil and salt together in a frying pan and bring to a boil. Turn down the temperature to low and add the shrimp and cover with the sauce. ** The shrimp burn easily so if you are worried you can completely turn off the heat.** Add sesame seeds to finish.
to my followers, so sorry I haven’t been posting any food stuff recently and mostly just baby things. I tried cooking two recipes from my new cook book and planned on blogging them (took the pictures and all that jazz) but when I ate them they weren’t any good. So I am going to have to tweak the recipes so that they taste good. I wouldn’t want to post anything that I don’t find appealing. So I will work on the recipes and once they are delicious I will put them up here for you all to enjoy.
Baby Jake’s 50th day photo shoot.
Today we got to have a photo shoot with the baby, it was so much fun. I’m kinda excited, we are going to go back for his 100 days at the end of May/beginning of June. Cute photos of my baby boy!
Lately I have been thinking a lot about the “what ifs” in my life, they aren’t really regrets but more like what would my life be like if I had made different choices during my life. Like would my life still be similar to the way it is now if in high school I had dated SD instead of JR? Now my relationship with JR was never bad, but would my life be any different now? SD was more adventurous, he was into dirt bikes and snow mobiles (two things I have never tried but I could have) and JR was a little more chill, but he was in a band. Would dating SD have made me more adventurous or less because I would have had my fill. I just wish I could see my life in an alternate universe and see what would have happened if I had done things differently. Mostly just to have peace of mind I guess… because really I am happy with where I am now. I also know that I will never see the alternate me, and I should forget it. But I think it would be cool.
“Ice Cream Orgy Time”?
I recently downloaded some songs from my childhood to play for my baby, hoping that he would enjoy them and I would not go crazy. I downloaded the car tunes album from Sharon, Lois and Bram an album that I listened to often as a child up to an age that is probably too old to be listening to it (my mom just didn’t buy me any more tapes…) And one of the songs is called Ice Cream Orgy, now I never noticed it when I was young but what about my parents I’m sure they knew what an Orgy is. And I’m sure Sharon, Lois or Bram knew what it was before they named the song, so why name a children’s song Ice Cream Orgy? Also (now the song doesn’t really elaborate on the orgy part - good) but what is an Ice Cream Orgy? Is it a bunch of different types of ice cream coming together? Or is it an actual orgy with ice cream involved, like what people do with chocolate sauce or whipped cream.
Either way, just thought it was a strange name for a children’s song no matter what type of orgy it is.
My baby smiling at his mobile.
Even though I am frustrated that my husband isn’t home on this holiday it’s still been a pretty good day so far. I got laundry done and folded, noticed that the trees out side my terrace window are cherry trees and will be covered in pretty blossoms soon (^.^) and got my baby to take three naps in his bed and not on me. I also managed to go for a walk with the baby and my dog.
Yesterday too went well, I got my Visa renewed (but holy crap the wait was long, they amalgamated all the sections together, so make an internet appointment before you go). I don’t have to do any more visa stuff for 2 years though (yay). And a bunch of stuff we ordered on line came so it was like christmas opening the boxes. We now have a nice new mat on the floor for the baby to play on and I have a new carrier that makes taking the baby out and putting the baby in easier.
All and all this week is shaping up to be a good one!
