Monday, August 18, 2014

Celebrating 10 Years

Our first week of school is always a short one, as we celebrate Korea's Liberation Day at the end of the week, and this year was no different. So, the kids only had three and a half days of school, but it's nice to ease into it.


That Thursday night was actually our anniversary, but good friends of ours were having a post-wedding shower, so went to that instead. We rarely celebrate our anniversary on the actual day, anyway. So, we went out the next night. Last year on our anniversary, Eric was starting to get sick and not eating much. Shortly after, we found out that he had pneumonia, so I don't think we ever really went out for our anniversary. Since he was making up for last year, and we were celebrating year 10, he decided to go all out!


He talked to one of our Korean friends (who is all about finding new and exciting restaurants!) and ended up with reservations to a nice what I will call "Western style Korean restaurant." I'm still not quite sure what it was. But, I do know that it was expensive, it was the first six course meal that I have ever eaten, and that we were both starving again when we finally made it home an hour later!


As always, it was an experience getting to the restaurant. I had originally asked Eric to find a place that we could drive to, but those are few and far between. So, we planned on a taxi instead, our only concern being how to communicate to the driver where we were going (since we didn't know anything other than the name of the restaurant). It turned out that he couldn't read the address from the website, as we'd hoped, so after a ten minute conversation and multiple phone calls, Eric decided just to follow the directions on the iPhone maps and tell the driver where to turn. It actually worked out pretty well, aside from how angry the driver was with us. It was just a short walk from where he dropped us off, through an alley, and a weird little gate. iPhone maps saved us again!


The dinner itself was pretty incredible, though we felt pretty out of our element. We started with abalone, followed by pistachio-crusted scallops, there was a salad, a pasta course, a main dish of beef tenderloin with roasted garlic and bleu cheese, as well as dessert and tea. It all looked and tasted amazing, but we were served the world's smallest portions in huge dishes!


The real fun began after we left the restaurant. Right away, we noticed that streets were closed and there wasn't much traffic. Soon, we were walking through throngs of chairs and people setting up what appeared to be a major event. It didn't take us long to remember that the Pope was in town, and clearly we were right in the middle of where he would be speaking the next morning. There was no way we were going to be catching a cab or a bus without a long walk. After walking about 45 minutes (by this time it was almost 10:00), we stopped to get something to drink and rest for a few minutes at Dunkin' Donuts. Both of us were hungry, but donuts didn't look appetizing. After walking another block, we finally came to an intersection with cross traffic and were able to find a taxi--what a relief! We finally made it home, and then Eric headed out to get kebabs from the late weekend night cart that was in our neighborhood. Another adventure that we won't soon forget!


These pictures are from our week spent with Evan, Jen, and Graham after we left Whidbey Island. I think I've already mentioned that I did a terrible job documenting the events of our summer with the camera, and this is a great example. We spent the week shopping, seeing relatives, playing Legos, watching the World Cup, and hanging out at the park, and I didn't document any of it! For our anniversary, Eric is paying for me to take an online photography class for the next month, so hopefully I'll start being a little better about documenting life again!

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