Thursday, February 5, 2009

Blog Guilt

I wrote the following post a few weeks ago when we were still in New York. I'm a guilty procrastinator, I know.

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I suffer from blog guilt...it's true. I thought it was time to come clean and let everyone know. I hate when people nag me about stuff and now I'm doing it to myself. In the back of my head I know I should be keeping up with this but I've been so busy not working and hanging out with people the last two months that I haven't done a damn thing. I've finally worked myself in a tizzy and got up the determination to put something on here.

So, yes...I've been loving my winter vacation. We've spent time in Wyoming, Colorado, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts (seriously can anyone spell that without looking it up?), and a quick few hours in New Hampshire and Maine. I've seen most of my family, quite a few of my friends, and a bunch of Jason's family. I don't know what I'll do when people aren't lining up to spend time with me. I guess I'll have to go to work like normal people do.

A big surprise to me is that after the initial hell of jet lag I was met with almost no culture shock whatsoever. There are only two things that threw me off on this trip so far. When we landed in Seattle for a layover I took money out of the ATM to buy a snack. When U.S. dollars came out of the machine - I flipped! They looked so strange. I guess I'm pretty used to the won at this point. As an aside there are only three bills for Korean won. There's an equivilent of a dollar bill (it's blue), a five dollar bill (it's red), and a ten dollar bill (it's green). So if you want to take out a thousand dollars to buy a camera...you'll be carrying around a hundred ten dollar bills.

The other thing was that I've gotten very used to some of the Korean customs. For example, when giving someone an item, be it a shot of soju or money at a convenience store, it's polite to touch your left fingertips to your right elbow. When receiving an item it's polite to accept it with two hands. The significance of this is that the traditional clothing had long sleeves so it was polite to tuck your sleeve back when giving something and when accepting something with two hands it was seen as treasuring it more. Jason noticed that I was touching my elbow when paying for stuff when we were in Wyoming. I've caught myself doing it quite a bit since then.

I have a little less than two weeks left in the States at this point. I'm both excited to get back to Korea and sad to leave all the people I love. Hopefully some of you will come visit soon. (Sorry Minnesota people for the lack of pictures while we were there. I guess we forgot - what with all the snowshoeing and ice fishing we did.)

This is a picture of the best behaved little girl I have ever met....which is a good thing if you've ever met her brother.

The intense concentration in this pic makes me think she might take after her mom and become an artist.

Seriously, how could you ever get mad at them?



Cute cousins.

This was a common sight in Wyoming...me buried under a load of little people.

The girls came down most mornings and evenings to climb up on our bed to cuddle. They usually brought their kitties along too.

Grandpa and his little girls.


In case you're wondering...it's a blue bird...not a penguin as Jaime thought.


I brought these hats back from Korea for the kids. They're so popular and so cute. I thought the kids would love them. Abby's a wolf, Amelia's a blue bird, Violet's a fox, Ben's a dog, and Ava is a tiger.

We spent a few days in Colorado visiting with friends.

And this is how we spent the majority of our time...drinking,

eating...

and laughing.


While in Colorado we partook in a Spanish New Year's tradition (a la Elena). We ate a cake with a plastic figurine of a baby inside. It ended up in Jason's piece. This was quite appropriate as we were the only couple there not pregnant or already parents. What wasn't appropriate was my reaction when Jason found it - I blame the champagne.



Hiking in Wyoming in the winter...what a pleasure. Actually it was as cold as a popsickle in Denmark. Sorry about that. I hate using cliches. I'm obviously not going to be coming up with any great sayings on my own though.


I've never seen Big Horn Sheep this close and I lived in Wyoming for years. Jason took these photos one day when he was out driving on his own.


Apparently it's an American Bison...not a buffalo. Who cares? I'll call it what I want to call it...I'm from Wyoming after all.

Kids in hats!

An idyllic Wyoming scene.

Ava celebrated a birthday while we were in Wyoming. Theresa put together an impromptu party for her in only a few hours complete with guests, presents, balloons, cake, and party bags. It was Ava's most fun day ever!

Little Amelia cracks me up. She's a year old so there's only a few things that she does right now. One of them is finding things on the ground to eat.

The other is to put panties on her head and laugh. She already has a great sense of humor.

Grandma and the birthday girl.
Nicole, one of my bestest friends, flew to Minnesota from Vegas while I was in town. That's what I call sacrificing for someone you love.
Nicole and I have progressed from discussing the differences in brands of Tequila to differences in brush techniques. (yeah, right!)

Carley - Sarah, Sarah - Carley. Can you guess who's who? Raina's the one on the leash...if that helps any....

Aislyn had a blast sledding even thought it was a bitterly cold day.

I had a bit of fun too.

This is Jason's parents home in New York. I told Lara I'd post a pic so she could finally put a picture in her head. I hope this helps.
Even I have trouble picking out where we were in our pictures since everywhere we went was covered in snow. This is NY by the way.
Jason (posing in his cool jacket he got at a smokin' price from Sierra Trading Post) overlooking the Hudson Valley.