Fifty-two adventures

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure #8: Lunar New Year and Treat Yo Self 2015

Last Thursday was the Lunar New Year in Asia (also called the Chinese New Year). Well, technically, it was the Lunar New Year everywhere, but it’s mostly celebrated in Asia. We had three days off from work, which only happens twice a year – in the fall for Chuseok (which is like Korean Thanksgiving) and in the winter for Seollal (the Korean name for the Lunar New Year). We wanted to take advantage of the days off and take a short trip, but even several months ago plane tickets to anywhere during the holiday were prohibitively expensive. We settled for spending a few days in Seoul just to get away from home and relax a bit.

You’d think the Lunar New Year would mean lots of special cultural events in Seoul, but in fact, Korean holidays are kind of lame (in my humble opinion). Everyone travels to their family homes where they make and eat an elaborate traditional meal with special foods like ddeokguk, a soup with disk-shaped rice dumplings in it.They also perform bunch of ceremonies to honor their ancestors and many people will dress in hanbok, traditional Korean clothing. When I asked my Korean coworkers about the holiday they always just complain that it’s so much work.

Little boy in hanbok. Flickr creative commons image by petergarnhum

The New Year is associated with getting older. Koreans count their age differently than the rest of the world does. Everyone born in the same year is the same age and rather than getting older on your birthday, everyone gets older together on New Year’s Day. For some reason the ddeokguk is associated with getting older and traditionally, you have aged a year after you eat the ddeokguk on New Year’s Day.

[Koreans also count the time a child is in the womb as the first year of life, so when a baby is born it is already 1 year old. So, although I am 27 years old, when I give my age to a Korean I say I am 29 – one extra year for the year I was in utero and one extra year because I was born in 1987 and everyone born in 1987 just turned 29 regardless of when in the year their birthday falls. Since I was born in December this means that if I had lived in Korea when I was born, I would have turned 2 years old when I was only 1 month old by the rest of the world’s standards.]

Because more than half of Seoul’s population is not from Seoul, the city empties out for the holiday, so it was much quieter than usual there. We looked to see if there were any special events we could attend, but many cultural attractions are actually closed for the holiday and the ones that were open (the palaces and folk village) were places we’ve already been. We’ve learned that the biggest Korean holidays are family affairs that are celebrated privately, so unless you have an invitation to join a family for their celebration, there isn’t that much to participate in.

The air pollution in Seoul during our trip was off-the-charts high (300 + is considered “hazardous” and it was in the 900s) so being out and about wasn’t particularly pleasant since it was too hazy to see anything or to take any decent pictures, but we were happy to have a low-key time just enjoying being away from home and not having to cook or clean or do other normal life activities for a few days.

We dubbed our trip to Seoul “Treat Yo Self 2015” which is a reference to Parks and Recreation, one of our favorite shows. (If you don’t watch Parks and Rec, stop reading this now and go catch up). In the show two of the characters are really into fancy, luxury items and experiences and once a year they do a “Treat Yo Self” day where they indulge all their extravagant wishes. We decided to do the same. I live tweeted/Instagrammed the experience for those who follow me there.

We didn’t have any truly extravagant wishes, but we did have a few treats in mind:

1. Stay at a hotel with a bathtub (we normally go the hostel route to save money and even if you get a private room those generally have shared showers). Take all the bubble baths.

2. Go to Taco Bell. I know you’re judging me right now, but I also know you are secretly jealous. It’s amazing the things that seem like a treat when you’ve gone without them for 19 months.

3. Get pies from Tartine. This is a little pie/tart shop in Itaewon, sort of the expat center of Seoul. It is the only place in Korea I have found pie that is proper pie. And they have a ton of flavors. Mmmmmm.

We had butterscotch and lemon meringue.

4. Visit the English bookstore. Since both of us are huge readers, visiting an all-English bookstore is heavenly. What the Book (also in Itaewon) has a big selection of both used and new books. It’s a little pricey since everything has to be imported, but they do offer free shipping within Korea if you order online.

Jonathan got Margaret Atwood’s book Oryx and Crake. I’m on a no-buy because I have 17 unread books on my kindle right now. (Oops).

5. Butterbeer and Chili fries. We found a delightful English pub with the most enchanting menu of all-time. Harry Potter inspired Butter beer (similar to what you can get at HP world except this one was alcoholic), a range of different hot dogs, and fries covered in chili and beef and bacon and cheese and mayo and grilled kimchi on the side (because this is still Korea). Yes, that was heart attack waiting to happen, but you know what…Treat yo self.

6. Shopping. I went into this trip prepared to do some shopping, but it ended up being one of those weird times when I was planning to buy all the things, but couldn’t find anything I wanted. I felt a little cheated – after all, I held up my end of the bargain, going to stores with money – and the stores let me down. (I know, I know, first world problems).

The Myeongdong central shopping area in Seoul. So many stores and I couldn’t find a thing to buy.

In spite of our lack of unique cultural experiences, we are calling “Treat Yo Self 2015” a success and I hope it’s a tradition we keep up every now and again.

All joking aside, self care is really important and while that doesn’t have to mean doing anything expensive or extravagant, it’s important to tend to our souls by building in time to rest, relax, and do the things that rejuvenate us, whether it’s bubble baths or window shopping or going to a baseball game. You can’t pour out to others if you are completely empty yourself.

I had one more really big adventure in Seoul, but you’ll have to check back next week to hear about it!

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.

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure #6: Grown-up Perfume and Board Game Cafe

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!

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure #5 : Making a King Cake

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.

Click Here to Add Your Link.

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure Link-up Adventure #4: Singapore and Kuala Lumpur

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' apartment. Not too shabby!

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!

Heather’s salsa dancing

Angela’s trip to Milan

Pradnya goes parasailing

Jenn takes a pizza-making field trip with 4-year-olds

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.]

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure Link-Up: Adventure #1

Over the weekend I discovered Brenda’s blog Embark: Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure. Brenda invites readers to join her on fifty-two weeks of adventures for 2015.

“Embark with me as I take fifty-two adventures and re-discover the joy of ordinary life being lived to its fullest.

I challenge you to find a way to learn, to grow, to care and to breathe, each day, for fifty-two weeks. Nourish your mind, soul, heart and body. And each week, go on an adventure. “

Seriously?! An adventure EVERY WEEK FOR A YEAR?! How will I contain the awesome?!?! I don’t think I have the words for how excited this made me. Maybe this picture will help explain it:

Needless to say, challenge accepted, Brenda. Challenge Accepted!

I will be posting here once a week (probably on Mondays or Tuesdays) about that week’s adventure. The cool thing about this challenge is that nobody decides what counts as an adventure but you. Some adventures may be big and exciting and some may be as simple as trying a new food or intentionally learning about something I didn’t know before.

This practice is not about doing extravagant things or trying to impress anyone with how adventurous I am. It’s about living with intention and making the most of my one wild and precious life by seeing and seizing the opportunities of each ordinary week. It’s about pushing myself to live a little bigger, to breathe a little deeper, to open my eyes a little wider.

Interested in joining? There are a few ways you can be involved. First, you can head over to Brenda’s blog and download her adorable Embark Journal and follow her adventures there. And if you write about your adventures in a blog, you can also link your posts here on Such Small Hands. I will host a link-up each week when I post my own adventure of the week. The link-up will be open for one week and will close when the next week’s post goes up. You can participate in all of them or pop in and out throughout the year. If you post once there is no pressure to post every week – I just thought this would be a fun journey to take as a community.

So that’s the deal. And now, without further ado…

Adventure Numero Uno

I started writing my book.

I actually sat down in front of my computer and I wrote “Introduction” and then I wrote an introduction!

This may not seem like a big deal to some of you fancy, big-time writers, but it was a huge step for me. Because while I have been thinking about the book I want to write for some time, I’ve been a real pansy about getting started. I’ve talked about what I want to write and I’ve even whined about how hard it is, but have I actually sat down and tried to do it? No. No, I haven’t. Until this past Saturday.

As part of my pursuit of wholeheartedness this year I am trying to be courageous. I need the courage to be vulnerable and to do hard work, even if it’s never rewarded. I need to stop talking about what I wish I could do in life and start living it. So for me, starting my book was the beginning of a very big adventure.

I’m headed to Thailand for our winter vacation on Friday so my next few adventures will probably be travel-related. They also might be late depending on how reliable my internet access is. I know that’s not a great way to start a new series, but it’s also giving me a chance to practice another of my wholehearted commitments, self-compassion. 🙂

In the words of the great Disney/Pixar movie, Up! :

“Adventure is out there!”

Please click the button below to add your link or to read other people’s links! When you link up, be sure to link to THIS POST from your blog so your readers know where to find the rest of the link-up!

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Lily Ellyn

Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.

Fifty-two adventures

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure #8: Lunar New Year and Treat Yo Self 2015

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure #6: Grown-up Perfume and Board Game Cafe

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure #5 : Making a King Cake

Click Here to Add Your Link.

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure Link-up Adventure #4: Singapore and Kuala Lumpur

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure Link-Up: Adventure #1

Adventure Numero Uno

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Adventure Numero Uno

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