*Valentines Day~ Korean style*

Korea is very big on holidays that celebrate love, but most of all, the giving of snacks :) Remember this one:

Pepppero Day? Well Valentines day is no exception.

Valentines day here in Korea is celebrated a little differently to other, 'western' countires. Here, Valentine's day is when the girls are supposed to provide the guys with gifts, and spice and all things nice; and on White Day (14th March, one month after Valentines Day) the opposite happens. Guys who recieved prezzies/chocolates,   on Valentine's Day are expected to return the favor by giving gifts, usually more expensive. Traditionally, popular White Day gifts are cookies, jewelery, white chocolate, white lingerie?! and marshmallows.

And then, just to make sure no one is left out, there is also Black Day (April 14. Black Day is a South Korean informal tradition for single people to get together and eat jajangmyeon (noodles with black bean sauce), sometimes a white sauce is mixed for those who did not celebrate White Day. The idea is that those who did not give or receive gifts on Valentine's Day (February 14) or White Day (March 14) can get together and eat jajangmyeon (자장면), white Korean noodles with black bean sauce, to celebrate their singledom. So in Korea, theres something for everyone :)

Keeping with the tradition, Christina (you might remember from a post a awhile back about getting your nails done in Korea ) and I headed out to do some Valntines shopping the day before the the actual day ~! Big Mistake! Not only were the stores stuffed full of young Korean girls all scrambling for the cutest cards/boxes/wrapping but most of the stuff was sold out. Anyway, we did manage to find a few things to make our respective loved ones some yummmy home made chocolates...isn't Korea great!

Getting our ingredients ready...

The soon to be 'full' trays

And the finished product...

But, it wasn't just a Korean Valentines...I was surprised with my own little packages of specialness to open too...what a lucky lady :)

*Just for Just's* Giveaway :)

So, it's T-minus 18 days and counting till Farmboy and I touch down on South African soil ~yipee and a little bit *sniff sniff*. We are realy going to miss Korea, from the amazing public transport, to the the fact that I can walk around by myself at night and feel 100% safe...but you never know, we may even be back in August :)

So, we are in high spirits and thought we would organise another giveaway, can I get a whoopwhoop...ahem, moving one...we have been really enjoying MTV's new series, "The Buried Life":

The series follows four friends (Ben, Jonnie, Duncan, and Dave) as they travel across North America in a purple transit bus called "Penelope" to complete a list of "100 things to do before you die." For every item they try to complete on their list, they help a stranger achieve one of their dreams and encourage others to go after their own lists.


So...keeping with the theme, we're gonna ask you something similar:

click here to stand a chance to win an awesome parcel from South Korea!!!

Getting your **nails** done in Korea

Today marked a very special day for Citygirl here in Korea. It was "treat" day whereby Roxy and her awesome Texan buddy Christina,  headed off to get their nails done (something they swore to do every 2 weeks but have actually only done  so twice before).

Getting your nails done in Korea is really really cool, with loads of designs and colours to choose from and for only W15 000 a pop (about $15), it's not too bad :) Of course mine ended up being a little more,  owing to the fact that I just had to try the  "gradient" design  and I may have had a nail that needed fixing (they do this here too, super cool) ending up rounding off to W30 000. The cherry on the cake for me? Cashing in my "nail voucher" which Igot from Farmboy for my birthday...what an amazing boyfriend hey *:)*

We go to a great little nail bar at our local HomePlus supermarket, they seem to have them at every Lotte Mart & HomePlus...

Choosing the right colour can be a stressful process you see...

The "gradient" painting process :) *yes, it is a process involving layers and layers and sponges and sponges!*

But in the end...totally worth it!

So what are u waiting for! Go and treat yourself ~you deserve it!

"Hey Christina, how was my Texan rally girl impression??"

:)

*Korean Friendships*

One sunny afternoon while making my way to Korean class on the always stuffy and crowded bus, I felt a light tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see a very smiley face clutching a cellphone and pointing it in my direction. I wasn't quiet sure what exactly i was suppose to do with the phone, so I took it and saw that   a long message had been typed on it for me to read. In English. Feeling slightly intrigued I began to read...

"Hello. I hope you don't mind but I was hoping that you could be my friend. I would really like to chat with you and improve my English skills and it would be a great pleasure to speak with you. If you are free, lets meet together"

And that was the start of a wonderful friendship with my new friend Sohee! She invited me to her new house a little while ago where she feed me the most delicious food! Not only does she get the opportunity to practice her English, but I have gained a lovely friend and am learning a whole lot more about Korean culture too :)

And the winner is...

Thank you to everyone who entered our Christmas Giveaway! It was wonderful reading all of your stories and sharing in those special moments with you.

I don't want to be lame and say what every competition host says after the judging phase, but it really was hard to pick just one :) So we picked 2!

So......Congratulations to

Wally and Estelle Swart from South Africa (for their wonderful Balito holiday escape story)

&

Matthew Bula (for his magical Mongolian tale)

This post was posted on our site (farmboyandcitygirl.com) last week and so I have already emailed the above people to get addresses, and the packages will be on their way shortly :)

And the winner is...

Thank you to everyone who entered our Christmas Giveaway! It was wonderful reading all of your stories and sharing in those special moments with you.

I don't want to be lame and say what every competition host says after the judging phase, but it really was hard to pick just one :) So we picked 2!

So......Congratulations to

Wally and Estelle Swart from South Africa (for their wonderful Balito holiday escape story)

&

Matthew Bula (for his magical Mongolian tale)

I will be emailing you shortly, to get your addresses, and then your packages will be on their way :)

Farmboy's new toy...

This weekend, while waiting in anticipation for our 4D Movie at Say Department Store here in Daejeon, Farmboy and myself headed downstairs in the gorgeous Say Department to check out the cute and funky stationary section on the basement level.

And, well the only way I can describe what happened next when Farmboy saw what gadgets were displayed, is to ask you to imagine the look on a little boy's face on Christmas morning, when he see's that long awaited 'bicycle' shaped present, with the huge ribbon, parked under the tree...ok, ok, I think you get the picture.

Anyways...here is the outcome of what caught his attention:

These pictures were taken with Farmboys new Lomography FISHEYE camera. Cool hey?!

In photography, a fisheye lens is a wide-angle lens that takes in an extremely wide, hemispherical image. Originally developed for use in meteorology to study cloud formation and called "whole-sky lenses", fisheye lenses quickly became popular in general photography for their unique, distorted appearance. Wikipedia

Prices for these cameras range from W55 000 to W88 000 (thats +- $55 to $88), and they take standard film which can be found at any camera shop or Lotte Mart/HomePlus/Emart.

*Click here for a link to the Gmarket site where you can buy them online :)
*Click here for a link to Amazon*

Braai by the Bridge

The weather here in Daejeon for the past 2 months has been *unbearably* hot, with temperatures reaching above 30C, coupled with at least 70% humidity led to most of us here not daring to leave the comfort of our air conditioned apartments. Luckily for us, it seems Summer is drawing to a close and Autumn is fast approaching (*sigh of relied*) which I'm sure will be short lived as the icy cold Winter is sure to hit soon.

But to make the most of the cooler, gorgeous weather...we decided to have a 'braai' down by Gapcheon river here in Daejeon, and not just anywhere, but under a bridge :) *For those non-South Africans out there, click here for a more thorough description of what this strange sounding word means*

So enough with the waffling...I now present...Braai by the Bridge :)

the boys getting the braai area prepped

Fellow South African Teacher Devon, getting his chow ready!

pretty

The braai in full swing!

It's till summer, so cooling off in the river has become a favourite past time. Jono and Farmboy...

You've seen our braai...no here's our fridge!

Us girls preferred the "Im just here to relax" approach...This is me and another awesome Saffa~ Claire

All of us South African Teachers for a group pic! Me, Claire, Devon, Farmboy, Jono.

Braai by the Bridge

The weather here in Daejeon for the past 2 months has been *unbearably* hot, with temperatures reaching above 30C, coupled with at least 70% humidity led to most of us here not daring to leave the comfort of our air conditioned apartments. Luckily for us, it seems Summer is drawing to a close and Autumn is fast approaching (*sigh of relied*) which I'm sure will be short lived as the icy cold Winter is sure to hit soon.

But to make the most of the cooler, gorgeous weather...we decided to have a 'braai' down by Gapcheon river here in Daejeon, and not just anywhere, but under a bridge :) *For those non-South Africans out there, click here for a more thorough description of what this strange sounding word means*

So enough with the waffling...I now present...Braai by the Bridge :)

the boys getting the braai area prepped

Fellow South African Teacher Devon, getting his chow ready!

pretty 

The braai in full swing!

It's till summer, so cooling off in the river has become a favourite past time. Jono and Farmboy...

You've seen our braai...no here's our fridge!

Us girls preferred the "Im just here to relax" approach...This is me and another awesome Saffa~ Claire

All of us South African Teachers for a group pic! Me, Claire, Devon, Farmboy, Jono.

"Braai" what?!?!?!?

Throughout this blog, and any other South African blog/website/ etc you will come across the word braai. For those non-South African's out there, here's a little post to get you familiar with the word and what it means.

Pronounced "br-eye",

the word braai (plural braaie) is Afrikaans for "barbecue" or "roast" and is a social custom in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Zambia. It originated with the Afrikaner people, but has since been adopted by South Africans of many ethnic backgrounds. The word vleis is Afrikaans for "meat".

The word has been adopted by English-speaking South Africans and can be regarded as another word for barbecue, in that it serves as a verb when describing how food is cooked and a noun when describing the cooking equipment, such as a grill.^[1] The traditions around a braai can be considerably different from a barbecue, however, even if the method of food preparation is very similar.

While wood formerly was the most widely-used braai fuel, in modern times the use of charcoal has increased due to its convenience, as with barbecues elsewhere in the world. There has however been a renewed interest in the use of wood after the South African government started with its invasive plant species removal program. An important distinction between a braai and a barbecue is that it is fairly uncommon for a braai to use gas rather than an open flame. Wikipedia

Here are some pics of the braai's we have had/been to while being here in South Korea:

 

Braai's are not to be confused with BBQ's, although some people would say they are very similar...South Africans NEVER call a barbeque a braai :)

So here's to many more braai's with good friends!