It’s that time for…Adventure Number 6! I admit, this week’s adventure isn’t all that thrilling, though I did try some new things and to me, that counts as an adventure. (Remember, you get to decide what counts as an adventure to you and it really doesn’t matter if it’s adventurous to other people or not!) Next week we are headed to Seoul for a few days so I hope to have some more unique experiences to share.
This past weekend we met up with our friends Josh and Laura (and baby Genevieve) and Matt and Di in downtown Daegu and went to a board game cafe together. Board game cafes are fairly popular in Korea. They are, just like the name suggests, cafes that have tons of board games you can “check out” and play. Most cafes have an hourly rate per person for playing games with a special price for “unlimited” game time.
Noriteo Board Game Cafe. Photo by Abbi Sauro for Touch Daegu.
It was our first time at this particular cafe and we were surprised by how intense they were about their games. There was an actual menu of board games which we looked through at our table. Once we chose a game we had to call a waiter over and “order” it. The “waiter” was the only one allowed to go over to the giant game wall and get the games down for us. (And if you looked like you might touch something this kid with a skull-print hoodie who looked like he hated his life would rush over and glare at you).
Noriteo Board Game Cafe. Photo by Abbi Sauro for Touch Daegu.
This is the wall of games Thou Shalt Not Touch! Noriteo Board Game Cafe. Photo by Abbi Sauro for Touch Daegu.
We played Puerto Rico, a game I’d never played before. In the game, you are settling Puerto Rico and have to build plantations and produce goods and settle colonists and ship your products – you know, basically real life. I ended up winning so based on that, I think I like it!
My other adventurous act was purchasing a bottle of real grown-up perfume. That may not seem like a big deal and in the grand scheme of things, of course it isn’t, but it’s something I’ve never done before and it felt like a major life moment for some reason. Buying a bottle of perfume felt like a very adult thing to do. (And as you know, I have a very tenuous relationship with adulthood).
I’ve never worn perfume before – at most I wore some body splash back in high school. One of my good friends and sometimes roommate in college suffered with migraines that were often triggered by smells, so I got out of the habit of wearing even the body splashes during college. By the time we graduated it just wasn’t a big part of my life or routine anymore.
I’m not sure how it started, but over the past month or so I suddenly decided that I might like to try wearing perfume. I like pretty things and perfumes both smell and look pretty. During our travels I sampled lots of scents in the many airports we went through, but it felt like a big commitment and since I’ve never worn perfume before I wasn’t really sure what I liked.
Last weekend after lots of deliberation I got this adorable bottle of Daisy Eau So Fresh by Marc Jacobs. It’s smells similar to his original Daisy scent, but more clean and fresh and the florals are a little lighter. It’s probably best suited to spring and summer, but as I only have one perfume I will be wearing it all the time. 🙂
So far I feel pleased with my choice and Jonathan seems to like it too (though I’ve always heard that lots of men prefer really sweet scents on women and this one isn’t super sweet). It makes me feel sophisticated and fancy, two things I am decidedly not, which is part of why wearing it feels so adventurous to me.
If you have a favorite perfume, let me know in the comments!
If you have an adventure to share, add your link to the link-up by clicking the button below. You can participate in all of the adventures or you can just do a few – no pressure. If you missed last week’s adventure you can find it here. And if you are new to my Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure project you can find out more about it here.
In Leaving Church Barbara Brown Taylor writes about a time she was asked to speak on the topic, “What’s saving your life right now.” Taylor says she realized this was a good question to ask herself from time to time.
My blogging friend, Cara Meredith at Be, Mama. Be, recently wrote a post answering this question (which was inspired by another blogger, Modern Mrs. Darcy) and I decided to join in.
I struggle with seasonal depression and February is often the hardest month of the year for me. The holidays have passed and we’ve returned from vacation, but it’s still cold and gray with nothing to look forward to in the near future and spring still too far off to see over the horizon. February is a month where I fight hard for the good things in my life. Writing this list of what’s saving me is a way of recognizing to the ordinary graces that get me through these days.
My Yoga Pants. Yes, I know, I’m stepping into something of a hot-button area here. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t worry about it, it’s not worth it). Here’s the thing – There was Thanksgiving, then my birthday, then Christmas, then vacation and now my regular pants are like a fabric prison for my thighs and belly. But my yoga pants always love me. They stretch over my new jiggles without judgment. They whisper, “Go ahead and eat that King Cake. We’ve got you covered.” And I love them for that. (Can I just say, for 99% of women yoga pants are not about showing off our legs and butts. Yoga pants are about finding something that stretches over our legs and butts without cutting off our circulation. Amen.)
Common Prayer. I started using Shane Claiborne’s collaborative book Common Prayer in my devotional time back in the fall, but I find myself clinging to it even more lately. Though they are designed to be used in a faith community (it’s called “common” prayer after all) I read the morning prayers myself each day and I find that this has helped to ground me. The book is inclusive and attempts to piece together parts of many liturgical traditions rather than just one and I really enjoy that. It has given me words to pray when I’m too tired or the days feel too heavy to find the words on my own.
Broadchurch. This is a BBC show that just slays me with how good it is. It’s a melancholy murder mystery kind of show that just haunts you in the best way. The second season is currently airing in the UK right now (don’t know that it’s available in the US) and thanks to using a VPN for our internet anyway, we can access it! It’s a bit torturous but so incredibly well done.
My Beauty Blender. I’ve heard rave reviews about this product for a long time, but I was always kind of like, “Eh…it’s a sponge. How special can it be.” But since I’ve always wanted to be able to do my makeup to where it just looks like I have flawless skin I finally asked for it as a present for my birthday. My mother-in-law sent it to me, but the box got lost in the mail (first time this has ever happened). Finally, two months later, it showed up! I started using it. I cannot explain why this is the best thing ever, but it is. It feels like memory foam for one thing. You use it damp and just sort of pat in your foundation or concealer or whatever and it makes your face look absolutely flawless and not cakey at all. It’s seriously miraculous. I did try some similar products that weren’t the brand name beauty blenders (like the Real Techniques one) and to me there was a huge difference in the results. The real deal is worth it. I’m just bummed I didn’t find it before now.
Edible cookie dough (doesn’t have raw egg – does have raw flour but I’ve eaten lots of dodgier things so that doesn’t bother me). Don’t tell my husband, but I secretly make just a teensy tiny amount of this sometimes and eat it really quickly while he’s at the gym. (shhhhh!) I admit, this is probably contributing to my needing #1 so much in my life right now.
As many of you know, I’m a bit obsessive passionate about books. Since many of you are also readers, I’ve decided to start a Friday Book Chat series to create a space to write about some of my favorite books, to share reviews, and to let you know about any great reads that are currently on sale.
To kick this series off I wanted to share my most anticipated new releases of 2015. If you aren’t interested in this, you can skip to the bottom where I mention some current Kindle deals.
Fiction
A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson. (May 5th)Ok, Kate Atkinson is just fantastic. Her Jackson Brodie mysteries are maybe the best literary mysteries I’ve ever read, but her non-mystery fiction is also terrific. This book is a companion to her most recent book Life After Life which followed the life (lives?) of Ursula Todd as she is born and dies over and over making different decisions in each life that drastically change the events of her life and even of history. It’s a masterful, fascinating book. The new novel centers on the character of Ursula’s brother. Teddy, an ordinary man living in extraordinary times. The novels are set in England before and during the WWII era.
The Lake House by Kate Morton. (October 13th) Kate Morton is an Australian novelist whose previous books (The Forgotten Garden, The Distant Hours, The House at Riverton, The Secret Keeper) have all been huge hits for me. The setting plays a huge role in each of Morton’s books which read like gothic mysteries – old houses full of old family secrets. I haven’t seen a synopsis for this book yet, but I don’t even care. I’ve enjoyed her other books so much I’m willing to buy this one blind.
Non-Fiction
Searching For Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Churchby Rachel Held Evans. (April 14th)Evans is a well-known Christian writer and blogger who often writes about feminism and patriarchy and other hot-button issues. While I sometimes find her blog a little aggressive, I’ve loved her two previous books. In fact, her first book, Faith Unraveled, is one of my all-time favorite spiritual memoirs because I relate to it so much. I also really enjoyed A Year of Biblical Womanhood. This book is organized around the seven sacraments and takes readers through Evans’s journey from cynicism to hope in being able to make peace with the Church.
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fearby Elizabeth Gilbert. (Sept. 22nd) Gilbert is, of course, most famous for Eat, Pray, Love(which I mostly enjoyed as a book and adored as a movie) but she’s also written some really great literary fiction as well (The Signature of All Things). I’m mostly intrigued by this book after reading this TED talk she gave on the topic of your elusive creative genius.
Out of Sortsby Sarah Bessey. (August 11th)I’m going to include this even though I’m not entirely sure how much I’m anticipating it. Bessey’s first book, Jesus Feminist, was a good book with some really good things to say about how being a Christian and being a feminist go hand-in-hand, but ultimately it was more about women in the Church than it was about feminism in general. I also expected it to be more relational because her blog is so beautiful and personal, but it turned out to be more exegetical than I expected. My friend, Karissa, described it as being mis-marketed and I think that’s true. (You should still read it, though!) The publisher describes the new book this way: “”As she candidly shares her wrestlings with core issues—such as who Jesus is, what place the Church has in our lives, how to disagree yet remain within a community, and how to love the Bible for what it is rather than what we want it to be—she teaches us how to walk courageously through our own tough questions.”
Addie Zierman has a new book coming out sometime this year (haven’t seen a title or publication date announcement on this yet) which I am thrilled about because her debut book, When We Were On Fire, is the reason I got up the courage to start working on my own book. Because i resonated with her story so deeply it made me feel like mine just might matter too. Also, she is a STUNNING writer.
What are you looking forward to? Anything I should know about?
Kindle Deals
On Sale as of 2/06/2015
*Note: I use the US Amazon site – it’s possible that prices are different if you are shopping from elsewhere.
Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis, Lauren Winner ($1.99) I just finished this book recently and it was one of those books that didn’t stand out as a whole, but there were certain bits that were very, very good.
Big Little Lies, Liane Moriarty ($3.99) Wrote about this here. Really love all of her books.
Do you remember the day that you and I became “us”? It was Super Bowl Sunday, 2007. You were in Indiana watching the Super Bowl at your best friend’s house, a tradition I wasn’t yet a part of. I was in Chicago with my parents who had spontaneously flown up after I’d called to tell them I wanted to date you.
I remember hanging up with my mom and thinking, “How can I possibly explain to this nice 19-year-old guy that my parents are flying all the way to Chicago because he wants to date me?” It was intense. I didn’t know how to tell you they were coming. I was certain it would freak you out and scare you away forever.
But you didn’t miss a beat. While I stammered apologies all over the place for how dramatic this was becoming, you smiled and said it was fine, that you weren’t changing your mind. (Though I do remember you asking, “They know I didn’t propose or anything, right? I just want to date you”).
I think I knew you’d be my one and only right then – because of the way you took some serious crazy in stride.
Super Bowl Sunday holds special significance for a lot of people – there are traditions, parties, special foods, and friends that come together for this event. For some it’s about the game itself and for others it’s about the social ritual – the shared experience, the sense of togetherness. As far as the football goes, I could take it or leave it. (Ok, to be honest, I could just leave it). But Super Bowl Sunday is heavy with memories for me.
On February 3, 2007 I said goodbye to my parents and as they drove away I called you in Indiana to say, “So…do you still want to date me? Because you totally can.” You told me later that when you hung up the phone and told our friends we were officially dating the whole room cheered.
We spent the next three Super Bowls in Indiana, surrounded by college friends who packed the Henderson’s living room to the max so that we had to have the game projected onto a sheet hung up across one wall so we could all see it.
The first year we were married we spent the Super Bowl at a party at a pastor we hardly knew’s house in Naperville with strangers who would become our friends.
We spent two Super Bowls in North Carolina – the one in Raleigh when we’d had a huge fight just before the game, and the one in Charlotte where we crashed a party for friends of our friends.
These past two years we’ve been in Korea and the Super Bowl hasn’t been a Sunday night event shared with friends, but something you had to stream on your computer Monday morning around your class schedule–something I was only aware of because of the date and the memory of that Super Bowl Sunday that changed the course of my life.
Eight Super Bowls later and you are still my favorite. You are still my one and only. Never once have I wished for a life apart from you. Never once have I wanted out.
People say that marriage is hard work. That love is a choice we make even when we don’t feel like it. I agree with those ideas. Marriage does take effort and commitment. Love is more than a feeling. But, Baby, you make loving you SO EASY.
Sometimes I look at you and wonder how? How did we grow a love so big and beautiful between two broken, imperfect people? And how did I get someone like you to love me in the first place? And the answer seems clear – we didn’t. I didn’t. We are living a miracle. Every good and precious bit of our marriage is a grace.
You and me, we’re nothing special. We’re just a Southern girl and a Plain-Toast Midwest boy. But somehow, we ended up with a miracle. On Super Bowl Sundays I like to remember those two 19-year-olds, giddy with infatuation, with no idea that this thing between them would grow into a love big enough to rattle the stars.
I was born and raised in South Louisiana in the very heart of Cajun country (though many people are surprised by this because of my lack of Cajun or otherwise southern accent). Although I haven’t lived in Louisiana for eight years or so, my roots are still there and in Louisiana this time of year is King Cake Season.
A King Cake is a traditional Mardi Gras/Pre-Lenten food that is basically a Danish or sweet-bread type dough with a filling (commonly cream cheese, cinnamon pecan, or cherry bourbon) that is baked in the shape of a braided circle and topped with a glaze and green, purple, and yellow colored sugar. Traditionally a small plastic baby, representing Baby Jesus is baked into the cake and there are various traditions for the person who gets the baby in their slice of cake. The name “King Cake” comes from the biblical three kings who followed the star to Jesus at Epiphany. Although my family wasn’t all that enthusiastic about Mardi Gras, we always had at least one King Cake. I especially remember the smell of them and the way the scent seemed to flow out of the bakeries and into the streets themselves in February and March.
I don’t remember the last time I had King Cake in Louisiana – it’s probably been eight years or more. So for my Week 5 adventure I decided I’d try to make one.
I’m an avid baker, but I’ve never attempted a King Cake before. Here in Korea I don’t have a full-sized oven, just a large convection/toaster oven. I’ve also had a lot of trouble with yeast here – something about the dampness/dryness and temperature fluctuations seems to make it extra finicky. But I decided to give it a go. I followed this recipe as closely as possible though I think I’d try a different one in the future.
First I made the bread dough and put it near the space heater to let it rise. (We don’t have central heat so it’s hard to find a spot warm enough for the yeast to activate).
Next I made a cream cheese filling which I admit to sampling generous amounts of before using it (I’m a sucker for anything sweet and creamy). I rolled the dough into three pieces and spread the filing over each piece.
Then I rolled each piece up long-ways and sealed the edges. I braided the three pieces together and formed them into a circle. I let it rise a bit longer. It rose sort of unevenly and closed up the hole that was supposed to be in the middle, but oh well! I painted an egg and milk wash over the top after it was finished rising and then baked that sucker!
In the end, it was hard to get it cooked all the way though the center without burning the edges cause my little mini oven isn’t the greatest. But I was still pretty proud of how it turned out.
There was a lemony icing that went over the top, but I didn’t get a picture of it. I also didn’t have any colored sugar crystals so it didn’t look that impressive anyway.
Overall it was a good experiment, though kind of a lot of work. The whole process (with rising time) took about 4 hours. It wasn’t as good as a King Cake from home, but it was a decent first try. If I make it in the future I might try a different recipe for comparison. After several weeks of traveling I knew my Week 5 adventure would be low-key, but I’m proud of trying something new and finding a way to connect to my home from far away.
As we say in Louisiana, “Laissez les bon temps rouler!” – Let the good times roll!
If you have an adventure to share, add your link to the link-up by clicking the link below. You can participate in all of the adventures or you can just do a few – no pressure. If you missed last week’s adventure you can find it here. And if you are new to my Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure project you can find out more about it here.
I am linking up with Leigh Kramer for the very first What I’m Into post of 2015!
What I’m Reading:
I read 61 books in the year 2014 so this year I’ve set my sights high and set my goal at 60. Since we’ll be moving back to the US in the fall and I’ll have a few little things to do (like finding a job and a home and basically starting life over from scratch) I thought I’d be doing pretty good if I could match this year’s reading. If you count not-yet-published books (and I think we should) then I am on track so far.
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain. I love food books and I really enjoyed Bourdain’s TV series, Parts Unknown which combines food AND travel in a completely addicting way. I enjoyed this book, though Bourdain is pretty rough around the edges. I will say, it makes me never want to work in the restaurant industry and gave me some nightmares about what’s going on in the kitchen when I’m sitting at the table of my favorite restaurant, but it was entertaining and informative and I enjoyed reading it. Be warned that it’s a little crass and vulgar at times.
Lizzy and Jane by Katherine Reay. I read some positive reviews of this book and actually read it because it was on sale for $1.99 and a book club on Goodreads picked it for their January book so I thought, why not? I was very underwhelmed. It’s got this very interesting set-up with the potential for a lot of emotional depth and tough and nuance. Lizzy and Jane are two sisters who have been estranged every since the death of their mother 15 years earlier. Lizzy, a chef in New York, comes home to Seattle for the first time in years to visit her sister who has just been diagnosed with the cancer that killed their mother. Unfortunately, the book itself falls very flat. The characters felt shallow and not well-developed for such a heavy plot. It’s not an awful book, there’s just nothing outstanding about it.
The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty. I would seriously read the back of a cereal box if it was written by Moriarty. I think her writing is technically very good and her stories are always unique and interesting and the characters are that perfect mix of relate-able and eccentric. Sophie Honeywell is 39, unmarried, and starting to wonder if she’s missed her opportunity to have a family when she unexpectedly inherits a house from her ex-boyfriend’s Great Aunt Connie – the woman who discovered the Munro baby. This book revolves around the secret of the Munro baby – a (fictional) famous unsolved mystery where the Munro couple mysteriously disappeared from their home with the tea kettle whistling and a warm cake fresh from the oven leaving their 2 week old baby behind. The story takes place far in the future and is centered on the family who raised the baby (now a grandmother herself) and her children and grandchildren who run a family business that capitalizes on the unsolved mystery of the Munro baby. At this point I only have one Moriarty novel left to read and I almost don’t want to because I’ll be so sad when it’s over.
Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith by Barbara Brown Taylor. I had been looking forward to this book for a long time and I was not disappointed. Taylor’s story of her call to the Episcopalian priesthood and later her decision to leave the priesthood and become a professor was full of beautiful thoughts about how the world and the church need not be enemies – separate entities that are necessarily opposed to one another. She writes beautifully about the ways she encountered God and grace outside of the church as well as inside it. Among many great quotes, here was one I particularly enjoyed since it describes my current faith journey so well, “I wanted to recover the kind of faith that has nothing to do with being sure what I believe and everything to do with trusting God to catch me though I am not sure of anything.”
Storm Frontby Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files Book 1). The Dresden Files are the sort of books that most people either love or hate. They star Harry Dresden, a wizard who is also a private detective living in Chicago, and involve lots of paranormal activity and mystery solving. What’s not to love? I wold describe these books as a mixture of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods (with the modern myth and the fantastic woven into the ordinary) coupled with Buffy the Vampire Slayer (extremely campy until you fall in love with the characters and then the camp simply adds to the charm). If you can’t stand completely unrealistic campy books, this isn’t for you. If you can buy some of the ridiculousness in exchange for the entertainment of a detective wizard who battles vampires, demons, an the occasional gangster, you can’t go wrong with this. And the great thing is, this is an ongoing series that is already 14 books long!
Love in Fast Cars (working title) by Briana Meade. I got to read this beautiful book in manuscript form – a first draft that my dear friend Briana has just submitted to her agent (!) and that will hopefully be published later this year. I am so incredibly proud of Briana and I think her book is wise and funny and tender and resonates deeply with me and I expect many of us millenials. This is a book about growing up as a millenial and that constantly shifting line between childhood and adulthood and how we reconcile a childhood faith that doesn’t seem to fit with our adult worlds. Be on the lookout for this book and in the meantime, follow Briana’s blog and show her some love!
i, church by Brett “Fish” Anderson. I got the privilege to read another book this month that is not yet in-print, but will be self-published very soon (how amazing are my friends?!) Brett is passionate about the Church while being completely honest about some of the very real flaws with it. He writes with conviction and wisdom and what it could look like for the Church to change and grow into what it is intended to be. His book strikes that perfect middle ground between criticizing the Church’s faults and praising its virtues. I’m so proud of all the work Brett’s put into this book and am excited to see where it goes from here. I will let you all know when it is available to purchase, but in the meantime you can reads all kinds of good stuff over at Brett’s blog.
If you are on Goodreads you can follow me to see what else I’m reading.
What I’m Watching:
Our internet (read: television) has not been working well this month and we’ve been traveling, so I’ve watched less TV than usual. I normally “watch” shows while I’m cooking, doing laundry, washing dishes, etc. so being on vacation cut out chore/tv time (not that I’m complaining!) I did manage to see a few episodes of Nashville, Parenthood, New Girl, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the Mindy Project, and Parks and Recreation now that it’s back on. We also watched the first few episodes of Friends on Netflix, which Jonathan has never really watched (though I think I’ve seen every episode).
We saw three movies in the past two months, but I don’t remember if it was December or January since I didn’t do a December What I’m Into post: The Hobbit (it was like watching the 20 minute final battle scene from a better movie stretched out for 2 hours), The Theory of Everything (cried buckets) and Into the Woods (I’d never seen it before so I can’t compare it to the play, but I liked it even though it’s a little weird).
What I’m Eating:
Mostly I’ve been eating out a ton since I’ve been traveling. But I did take a cooking class while in Chiang Mai, Thailand and learned to make cashew chicken, chicken in coconut milk, papaya salad, khao soi (a northern Thailand curry with egg noodles), and mango sticky rice. So delicious.
Khao Soi
Cashew Chicken
Mango Sticky Rice
Chicken in Coconut Milk
Papaya Salad
On the Internets:
This post from one of my most favorite writers, Addie Zierman reminding us that change is slow work:
“And I wonder if coming to your life is a little like coming to the page: open-hearted, brave, bringing everything you have, knowing that some days you’ll get it wrong, some days you’ll get nothing done,some days it will be the wrong words…but that it’s all part of the process. You don’t know exactly where you’re going, but you have the general idea of what you want it to feel like when you get there. So you come back again and again and again. Keep trying. Keep writing. Keep going.”
This beautiful post from my friend Karissa about death and grief and the need for people who can share our pain. “A real live person is better than a Scripture verse any day.”
Loved this post from my friend Meredith about putting up an empty frame and imagining what you’d like to fill it with.
Really needed this recent post from Ann Voskamp about letting go of perfectionism and celebrating your life.
My friend Ashleigh really inspired me with her words about how a wild and radical life doesn’t have to mean living in an exotic place.
“I tend to love extremity so then I start thinking, “Oh, we just need to move to Costa Rica. Or Hawaii. Or Australia.” I’m sure pretty much everyone who has spent an hour on instagram has thought the same thing. But that’s not the right answer for me. It’s taken me a lot of slow-growing to realize that it is also wild to stay put. It’s also radical to build a good, quiet life.”
And I just loved this fantastic clip from Dax Shepard talking about Kristen Bell’s C-Section on Ellen. (I think Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell are my all-time favorite celebrity couple, btw. Her sloth video is still my favorite thing on the internet).
On the Blog:
I started the month by writing about my One Word for 2015: wholehearted and was touched by the many comments I received from readers who were inspired to choose their own One Word for the year. I was also honored to have that post featured on Freshly Pressed.
I completed the first 4 weeks of my Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure challenge. (Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4)
I wrote here about how faith can be so slippery and tough to hold onto at times and here about friendship and social anxiety.
I also just created a writer page on Facebook to help people who are interested in my writing and writing-related news keep up with me. If you are on Facebook, you can like my page to connect there.
Beauty Bits:
So, I don’t usually write about these kinds of things because, well, they seem really shallow and materialistic, but it occurred to me recently that admitting that I’m interested in makeup does not discredit anything more serious I want to say. Do I think makeup is super important? No, of course not. But I enjoy it the same way I enjoy movies and tv shows and reading. And maybe some of you do too. And if not, you can skip this section. 🙂
Since the beginning of the fall I’ve been experimenting with lots of Korean makeup because Korea is known for its fabulous cosmetic and skincare products. If you are in Korea or elsewhere in Asia you can probably find these. If not, you can order them online if you really want to try them.
Etude House Precious Minerals Any Cushion BB cream – benefits of a BB cream (sun protection, anti-wrinkle, moisturizing, etc.) with pretty good coverage, applies flawlessly, and is not messy since the bb cream is in that sponge and you just press the sponge with the little to get the product out and basically stamp it on your face. So easy and it looks beautiful. Korea is where BB creams started and they are very different than western bb creams that are more like a tinted moisturizer. These BB creams have much higher coverage and work instead of a foundation.
Aritaum honey melting tints. These smell and taste amazing and go on like a very pigmented lip balm (more pigmented than the Revlon Lip Butters below). Very moisturizing which is important for me because my lips are like a desert!
Also, during our trip to Thailand/Singapore/Malaysia I had a chance to pick up a few Western products that aren’t easily available in Korea. Some of my favorites have been the Nyx matte lip creams and butter glosses. The lip creams are like a liquid lipstick with a matte finish – they are so soft they feel like you have nothing on and stay put all day. And the lip butters are beautiful glosses with good pigmentation that go perfectly over the lip cream if you want a little shine or need some hydration. In the US they are very affordable – $6 for the creams and $5 for the butters – and I think you can buy them at Target.
There is a huge color range – this is only half of them. I have #03 Tokyo, #04 London, and #08 Sao Paolo.
And these Revlon Colorburst Lip Butters which are like a very tinted lip balm – great for moisturizing your lips and you can wear them very lightly if you just want a little bit of color and nothing too dramatic.
You can get these at Target or any drugstore. The darker colors are more pigmented than the light ones. My favorite one that I own is Lollipop.
What I’ve Been Up To:
At the beginning of the month I finished up teaching winter English camps at school and then we spent 2.5 weeks traveling in Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia which I’ve already told you all about.
Other than that, we’ve started to get some news on the “What Comes Next” front regarding what we’ll be doing after our contracts end in August. I’m not going to announce anything until we’ve made an official decision, but I can say that it’s looking like we’ll definitely be back in the US, at least for a while.
I also re-discovered instagram and have been trying to use it more in spite of my phone’s pitiful camera because I think it’s a fun way to document. You can find me there with the user name lilyellyn.
Sorry this post got sooooo long, but thanks for sticking with me!
Today I’m participating in Cara Strickland’s synchroblog on friendship. I thought about reblogging my Friendship in 7 Movements post from last year, but it is long and specific and also, I wanted to do something new.
I’ve never been good at surface friendships. I guess I don’t have a lot of interest in talking about things that don’t matter. I don’t like conversations where you’ve spent an hour talking to someone and walk away feeling like you don’t know one another at all. I want to skip the getting-to-know-you part of the relationships. I want sweatpants and you snorting when you laugh and me accidentally breaking into song without noticing from Day One. But as it turns out, most people don’t want to talk about family histories and their biggest dreams and how afraid they are of being a mother (and, equally, of not being a mother) fifteen minutes after meeting someone.
I’m a classic introvert – I greatly prefer one-on-one interactions to groups of people. Parties both terrify and exhaust me. Most people would never guess that 9 times out of 10 I have to push myself out the door to keep a social engagement. The night of my junior prom I got all dressed up, hair and makeup done, and promptly burst into tears because I didn’t want to go. I suppose you’d call this social anxiety.
But unlike some introverts I know who fade away into the background at a gathering, I’ve always tried to combat my social anxiety by acting self-assured. Ironically, it is in social settings where I am least comfortable that I am loudest. I try to be the funniest, the friendliest, the most interesting. It’s like watching a train wreck from above where I can’t seem to stop myself from blurting out the first thing that pops into my mind.
Believe me, the irony of trying to make deep connections with people while putting on this party persona is not lost on me. I know that it makes no sense and is even counter-productive. But sometimes I feel like something comes over me and I can’t stop myself even as a part of me watches in horror. I am desperately uncomfortable, but something in my subconscious screams that if I give in and stand quietly against the wall no one will like me and I’ll never have friends. And what could be worse than having no friends?
***
As a child I fell in and out of best-friend-ship on a yearly if not monthly basis.
My problem with friends wasn’t the cattiness or pettiness that ruined so many other playground friendships. It was the intensity I brought to friendship that seemed to overwhelm my peers.
I loved too fiercely. I chose someone and I clung to them with a loyalty that sometimes frightened us both. I wasn’t possessive – wanting to be their only friend—but when I chose someone I longed to show all of myself to them and to have them choose me back. And often, who I was was just too much.
It wasn’t that these friends didn’t like me – they just weren’t prepared to or maybe even capable of putting as much into the friendship as I did. I cared about all of their details. I wanted to show that I loved them by learning as much as I could about them. And inevitably, the day would come when I would realize that I knew all their favorite songs, their middle name, and what kind of sandwich they brought for lunch, but they didn’t even know my favorite color even though I’d told them three times. My feelings would be hurt and they would be freaked out that I had a notebook where I recorded all of their preferences (just kidding!) and we would move on to different friends.
***
Eventually, I learned to be self-protective in my friendships. I learned to expect that others would not love me with the fierceness and loyalty I felt towards them. I learned to guard myself from sharing too much too quickly and from expecting that everyone I chose would choose me too.
And then, in college, I made a new kind of friend – the kind I’d longed for growing up and nearly given up on. I found my people, the ones who will forgive you when you’ve hurt them and will join in when you make up a song about your toothbrush. And I learned something crucial about friendship – you can’t make it happen the way I try to at parties.
True friendships are divine. Yes, they require attention. They require effort. But mostly, they are gifts. Like love letters from God himself.
A friend isn’t a possession. You don’t collect friends like souvenirs from places you’ve been. You can’t make friendship happen. But when one comes your way, you say thank you. You treat that friend like a spectacular sunset or a stunning concerto – you thank God for its beauty and for letting you experience it, even though it’s something you can never wrap your grubby hands around.
I have a friend I’ve known since high school. She’s a few years older than me and we didn’t do a great job of keeping up once she went to college. We have seen each other only a handful of times over the past decade. We don’t talk on the phone. We only occasionally chat online. I try to see her when I’m in town visiting my parents. But she is precious to me beyond words. She is a friend of the heart –someone I trust completely and admire deeply. She is one of the first people I think of when I need support and one of the people whose encouragement means the most to me. I cried when I saw the first pictures of her daughters and on my wedding day she gave me a handkerchief she’d used at her own wedding to use as my “something borrowed.”
This friendship is not the work of my hands. It’s not a credit to my engaging personality or a testament to what a good friend I am (because, as I said, I am rubbish at keeping up with this particular friend). It is pure grace. And all I can say in response to that kind of grace is, “Thank you.”
Early Sunday morning we returned to Korea after a fantastic two-week vacation in southeast Asia. We had such a wonderful time with equal parts rest, relaxation, and excitement. All of our actual travel went really smoothly as well without delays or complications. If you travel much, you probably know that that almost never happens so it was a true blessing.
From Krabi we took a short 2-hour flight straight to Singapore. We went to Singapore in part to visit some friends who are living there. (Actually, it’s the family that I used to work for back in North Carolina – the same family we visited when they were living in Shanghai last year).
This is the view from our friends’ living room. Not too shabby!
We fell in love with Singapore. Everything in Singapore is so nice and clean and beautiful. It is a city built right in the middle of a jungle so there are lush gardens, trees, and flowers all around the skyscrapers and busy streets. Since it’s a tropical climate, it is green and warm all year round, something we are desperately missing in Korea.
English is the common language in Singapore which made it incredibly easy for us to get around. We found that people here were friendly and very polite. In Korea (and China in our experience) there is more of an “everyman-for-himself” mentality which comes out in the way everyone pushes their way to the front instead of waiting in line for things as well as the lack of personal space. In Singapore, while public transportation could be very crowded, people took care not to actually be touching those around them – and if they did, they immediately apologized. They said, “Excuse me” when they needed to pass instead of just pushing people out of the way. These little things really stood out to us and made us feel that if we ever moved to Asia again, Singapore would be at the top of our list of comfortable places to be.
Besides a truly enormous number of shopping malls, Singapore has a lot of other interesting things to do and see. Since the weather is so nice, many sights and activities are geared towards being outdoors.We went to the Botanic Gardens and had lunch at the top of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel – an iconic building overlooking the harbor.
The orchid garden at the Singapore Botanic Gardens
The Marina Bay Sands is the three towers with the cruise ship on top of it. Also pictured are the bridge designed to look like a double helix and a museum that looks sort of like a clam shell.
Very artsy picture by Jonathan. That statue is of, I kid you not, a “merlion,” as in half-mermaid, half-lion. It is the official symbol of Singapore.
We also went to Gardens by the Bay, super cool man-made gardens that are an interesting mix of plants and flowers and futuristic architectural elements. I think it would look really cool at night when it’s all lit up, but we unfortunately weren’t there for that.
Welcome to the Future!
Singapore Selfie!
One night we went to Singapore’s Night Zoo – a special zoo that’s only open at night to allow better viewing of the many nocturnal animals at the zoo. Everything is dark except for some perfectly placed spotlights to help you see the path and to illuminate the animals. It was a unique and fun experience, though not great for taking pictures.
Here I am walking down the dimly lit path.
The Night Zoo was not good for pictures since you can’t use a flash, but here’s on OK shot of a spotted hyena.
One of the things we loved most about Singapore was how truly international it feels. Singapore’s population is about 5.5 million people with nearly 25% being foreign-born or expats. Walking around Singapore felt like walking around New York City – a true melting pot of races, cultures, and religions. The only downside to Singapore is that everything is VERY EXPENSIVE so it was a good thing we were only there for a few days.
On Friday night we took a sleeper train across the border into Malaysia. We thought the sleeper train experience might be fun and it was a very cheap way to travel. While it wasn’t great for getting a lot of rest, it was still a fun experience.
We spent the day on Friday seeing a few things in Kuala Lumpur before heading out to the airport where we flew overnight back to Korea. Our general impression of Kuala Lumpur was very positive. Malaysia is a Muslim country which was evident in lots of ways – women wearing head coverings of course, but also things like signs in the subway saying “No Smoking,” “No Littering,” and “No Indecent Behavior” with a picture of a man and woman kissing. While we were only there a short time, the people in Kuala Lumpur were probably the friendliest we met on our travels – even strangers smiled at us if they made eye contact and everyone we interacted with was very polite, helpful, and welcoming. It would have been great to have more time there, but we were thankful that we at least got to spend the day.
The Patronus Towers. Apparently these were the tallest buildings in the world until 2004.
Elaborate Chinese New Year display inside one of the huge shopping malls in Kuala Lumpur.
Today was my first day back at work and next week’s post will start the real challenge – finding adventures in my everyday life. It’s easy to feel adventurous while traveling, but it’s much harder when you are back to the rhythms of ordinary life.
By the way, here are some of my favorite adventures from the posts you’ve shared over the past few weeks. Check them out!
Brenda decides to join a small-group (just loved how honest this one was – I can relate so well to that feeling that everyone else has it all together).
[If you are new to my fifty-two weeks of adventure project, you can read my introduction post and Brenda (the original creator)’s blog for background. You can participate in this link-up by writing your own post about your adventure and mentioning/linking to this post. Then simply use the button at the bottom of this post to add your link to the collection. Be sure to check out the other links for inspiration from your fellow adventurers! As always, you can add a link here even if you didn’t participate last week or aren’t planning to do all 52-posts. This is a no-pressure zone.]
Since I’m still on vacation, Week 3 flew by with lots of adventures big and small to embrace. If you are new to my fifty-two weeks of adventure project, you can read my introduction post and Brenda (the original creator)’s blog for background. You can participate in this link-up by writing your own post about your adventure and mentioning/linking to this post. Then simply use the button at the bottom of this post to add your link to the collection. Be sure to check out the other links for inspiration from your fellow adventurers! As always, you can add a link here even if you didn’t participate last week or aren’t planning to do all 52-posts. This is a no-pressure zone.
Adventure #3 – Elephant Riding and Island Hopping
After Bangkok, we headed north to Chiang Mai. I was especially excited to see Chiang Mai since a dear friend of mine (and fabulous writer whose blog you should go read NOW) grew up as a missionary kid here. It’s a totally different perspective to look at everything and imagine my friend calling this place home and wondering what it must have been for this place to be home and yet to never fully belong to the people and the culture.
Chiang Mai is a nice place to visit because the Old City (where there are about a bajillion temples and lots of touristy things) is quite small- just 2km by 2km square – so it’s very walkable. It’s much smaller than Bangkok, so even though it’s become very touristy in the past few years it still gives visitors a better idea what life is like in Northern Thailand. Chiang Mai is also very close to the border of Laos and Myanmar so it’s a popular stopover for people traveling to and from those countries.
Temple in Chiang Mai
I was wearing shorts which was “disrespectful to the Buddha” so I got to wear this sweet Harry Potter robe inside.
The Buddhas I was disrespecting. I believe the sign said these were the Buddhas in the posture for preventing family members from fighting.
Pathway up to the mountain temple
Temple on top of a mountain in Chiang Mai
Our biggest adventure in Chiang Mai was probably elephant-riding. Elephants are some of my favorite animals. They are so expressive and beautiful and graceful in spite of their size. There are many places that offer elephant riding and shows in and around Chiang Mai, but we researched a lot to find a place that we felt wasn’t just exploiting the animals or treating them cruelly. The group we went with is actually an elephant rescue facility. Their elephants have been rescued from villages further north and across the border in Myanmar where they were being used for hard labor. The trainers at this camp only use verbal commands with their elephants – no hitting of any kind – and the elephants spend most of the day freely wandering around the camp, not tied up or in pens. Tourists come in and ride them for 30-45 minutes a day and you ride bareback, not on one of those chairs which are bad for the elephant’s back. These elephants are not taught to do tricks like painting or any other unnatural elephant behaviors. I know there are people who feel like riding elephants at all is exploitative and I understand that, but we felt like this was a once in a lifetime experience and the money we paid for the experience went to paying the caretakers and providing food for the elephants who all seemed very happy.
Our elephant was a spunky 14-year-old female named Pui Pui. Like most teenagers, she mostly wanted to not listen and eat everything in sight. We had many (terrifying) moments when she charged off the path to pull a small tree up by its roots and munch on it. 🙂
See where that other elephant is down in the corner? That’s where we were supposed to be at this point…
The only thing she seemed to like more than eating was bath time. What a cutie!
Another popular attraction in Chiang Mai is the Tiger Kingdom where you can pet and play with tigers of all ages. While it killed me to miss an opportunity to pet a tiger cub (I would have died with happiness), we felt like this was more exploitative as these animals are all bred in captivity for the sole purpose of being a tourist attraction. I was a little disappointed since tigers are so awesome, but ultimately I think we made the right decision.
While in Chiang Mai we also took a Thai cooking class that was delicious and loads of fun. We ended up being the only people who signed up for our time slot so it was a private class. We each learned to make 5 dishes. This was especially entertaining to me since Jonathan doesn’t cook at all. If you follow me on Instagram you’ve probably already seen some of these pictures. My favorite dishes were the khao soi and the mango sticky rice.
From Chiang Mai we flew down to Krabi on the south coast of Thailand for some beach time. We are staying at Ao Nang Beach and did a day trip out to some of the nearby islands and other beaches. It’s achingly, breathtakingly beautiful here. Today is our final day in Krabi and tomorrow we leave Thailand and fly to Singapore for a few days before heading back home to cold, gray Korea.
Maya Beach, only accessible by boat and most famous for being where the movie The Beach was shot (although that’s not a particularly good or well-known movie). As you can see, it was VERY crowded, but still stunning. This photo is a raw image – no editing at all – that’s how vivid the colors are by themselves.
Look at that stud! At Railay Beach
There’s nothing more satisfying than a coconut on a hot day.
Pranang Beach (or Phranang – I’ve seen it both ways)
Food Boats! Like food trucks that float.
Seeing places like this makes me feel overwhelmed with gratitude that such beauty exists and that I get the opportunity to see it. This afternoon we were swimming in this crystal clear water beside these limestone cliffs and I grabbed my husband and said, “Look around! We need to remember this moment forever!” Because there will be days when Korea is freezing and our students are little brats and our coworkers are making life difficult. There will be moments when we are back in the USA when we are stressing about getting the car fixed and paying our rent. There may be moments someday in the (distant) future when we have a baby that keeps us up all night crying and we can’t believe how exhausted we are. But these moments we are sharing here now can never be taken away. And I hope that in the mundane, stressful, and even exhausting days in our lives we can look back on these moments and remember that the world is so much bigger than whatever our current problem is. I hope these moments can be a reminder that we have been given a life filled with more beauty than we deserve. And if I’m ever having trouble seeing that in the present, I hope I can look back to these moments and remember that all of life is a gift.
What were your adventures this week? Click on the button to add your link below or to view other bloggers’ posts. As always, this link-up is available for one week.
I can’t believe it’s already time for my Week 2 adventure! If you didn’t catch last week’s introduction to my fifty-two weeks of adventure project, go check it out here. Also, be sure to check out Brenda (the original creator)’s blog about her week’s adventure and the blogs that were added to last week’s link-up (you can find these by visiting last week’s post and clicking on the button at the bottom of the page). Like last week, this is a link-up. If you have an adventure to share, you can add your link by clicking the button at the end of the post. You can also see other people’s links by clicking that button. You can add your link here even if you didn’t participate last week. There is no pressure to do all fifty-two posts.
So, on to Adventure #2. This week I got to visit Bangkok, Thailand for the first time. We have two weeks of vacation from school right now and wanted to travel somewhere warm and exotic and cheap. Thailand wins on all three counts.
One of the first things that struck me about Bangkok was how strange it felt to be in a place that was both tropical and a big city. I’ve been to places with a distinctly tropical feel (like Bali) and I’ve been to plenty of big cities (Seoul for example) but I think this was the first time I’ve been to a huge city that also has such a distinctly tropical feel.
While in Bangkok we got to meet up with a friend of Jonathan’s from high school who has been teaching in Bangkok for the past few years. It was great to see a friendly face and get some inside advice on what to see and how to get around.
Our first night in Bangkok we actually found a restaurant that had s’mores you could cook at your table. I know – it’s weird that we went to Thailand to get s’mores – but Jonathan and I realized that our experience traveling there as expats is so different than it would be if we’d come from the US. Because we live abroad and don’t have access to a lot of familiar foods and other things, finding some of these things in Bangkok was a treat. For example, I freaked out when I found a Sephora at one of the ENORMOUS malls that are a huge attraction in Bangkok and wanted to buy everything, but restrained myself to two Nyx matte lip creams and two of their butter glosses – if you haven’t tried these, get them. They are the best! And only like $6 in America. (Also, OK, I admit that I only restricted myself to two because they only had two colors in stock…)
S’mores over hot coals with homemade graham crackers, bananas, strawberries, apples, chocolate sauce, and butterscotch sauce. We ate every single bite.
Don’t worry, we’ve also been eating loads of pad thai and curry and all that good stuff.:)
We finished the night with a trip to the Red Sky Bar, one of many rooftop bars at the top of some of Bangkok’s tallest buildings. It was kind of surreal and totally beautiful.
While in Bangkok we also checked out some of the main tourist attractions – namely the Grand Palace and Wat Arun (the Temple of Dawn). We traveled by boat to the Grand Palace and then took a ferry across the river to Wat Arun for a mere 10 cents.
Wat Arun, an incredibly old temple with a terrifyingly steep staircase.
Aforementioned steep staircase
Made it to the top and struck a pose.
Yesterday we traveled to Chiang Mai in the northern part of Thailand, so next week’s adventure will take place here and [spoiler alert] will likely include elephants.
Jonathan and I keep looking at each other and asking, “Is this real life?” The travel we’ve been able to do from Korea has been such a gift and we are truly, deeply thankful for the opportunity.
What fabulous adventures have you been having this week?
*To participate in the link-up simply write your post, mention that you are joining this link-up and add a link to THIS post. Then use the button below to add your post to the link-up. This link-up will be open for one week.
Lily Ellyn 