Fall is not a season that wants to linger here in Geoje. The farmers have almost harvested all the rice, and the fields are left an empty burning mess. I swear there’s a haze that just won’t leave, as the smoke refuses to rise. We were not blessed with spectacular trees here in Geoje, although I heard there are some absolutely amazing natural fall ‘decor’ a little north of here.
I do miss the bright oranges, yellows, and pink leaves of the maple trees though, along with the pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks (who would have known that Starbucks in a different country doesn’t celebrate my favorite season with this delectable drink?!) , the sound of geese migrating south, and of course the excitement as the holiday shopping draws near.
It could just be that I’m craving another great pair of fall boots, the even paler hue of new makeup (goodbye summer tan), and the taste of winter squash that’s come directly out of my (full-sized) oven.
Yeah, fall is different here-I can already feel it slip away as the mornings start getting colder and colder. I am rather relieved for the refreshing weather, due to the unbearably humid summer. There’s nothing better than to be able to snuggle up in a warm hoodie while sip on a nice glass of tea. And who doesn’t like a favorite pair of jeans…ones that you can wear day in and day out?! Yeah I enjoy it.
I’ve mastered the skill of making stovetop kettle corn, the next easy challenge is to turn it into the ever addictive caramel corn for this fall season. To make the kettle corn, you basically do all the same things as a electric popper would do. Heat the oil, throw some sugar in there, put a half cup of popcorn seeds in, and pick up the pot shake every twenty seconds. Give it 3 minutes, and you’ve have a semi sweet, crunchy, guilt-free snack. It’s definitely my new go-to.
This past weekend we made one of our quarterly visits to Costco and bought the whole store. Cheese, grapes, cereal, cleaning supplies…we always go all out. It’s nice to have a well-stocked freezer and fridge again with foods that are more than familiar to us.
Durning our Costco (Busan) trip, we also visited Shinsegae, the largest department store in the world. It was pretty cool, just cluttered with clothes, accessories, and food. It also houses an ice rink, a gallery, a full cinema, and many other activities for the ‘indoors’ type of person.
The main attraction this month in Shinsagae is a wax museum that houses some of the most realistic wax figures i’ve ever seen to date. When I was back in college, I often would go to the wax museum located on HWY 76, Branson. Those figures can only live in the shadows of the ones we saw in Shinsegae!
Shinsagae had more in store for us than just wax figures though. A shiny new H&M opened up the other month, and we were more than successful finding a few items in this store! I even got a steal of a deal on a pair of leggings (a DOLLAR!!).
Just in case you were skeptical about when I told you that Koreans sometimes sleep on rock/granite beds. Here you go. No mattress or anything!
Derik and I will be headed back up to Busan next weekend with a few friends for the ever-so- famous firework festival. Hopefully it’ll live up to the images I have found on google. Keep your eyes peeled for that post!
In other news, Derik and I are getting ready to start completely new schedules with teaching. Derik has been hired with one of the major shipbuilding companies here DSME (Daewoo) as an english teacher. He has been hired out through the company to a partner in Changwon where he is teaching construction management for a few days. In November he will start an intensive english speaking course here in Geoje. He’ll stay pretty busy…working pretty full days (10 -12 hours a day).
As far as myself, I will also begin a new teaching schedule in November. I will be working at ECC as a full time kindi teacher (five classes a day, five days a week) as well as working a regular elementary class load. That comes to about 59 hours a week…yikes! The schedule is only till March, so at least I can see light at the end of the tunnel.
Our pet rabbit Jazz is doing great too…she’s hitting her ‘adolecent’ stage, so she’s getting into everything (not that she wasn’t before). The other day I had heard something about how you can trance your rabbit, and it makes it easier to clip their nails and do a health check up. I was able to do it immediately with Jazz…it was sooo hilarious, I haven’t seen something that funny in a long time.
We are looking forward to Christmas break which will give us at least six days off. We would really like to travel, the country we travel to is TBA.
This picture was taken the other night when Derik and I were walking back to our apartment from dinner. Every night street vendors come out and sell all sorts of things. This guy is selling molded sugar candy. Look at the detail of that fish!
And that’s it for exciting news. Happy Fall season everyone! Enjoy it while it’s still here!