Guys Be Quiet!

Hello Hello, another week down here! Countdown til I'm back in DE for Christmas break is currently at 40 days. Catching you up on this past week- it was a bit of a crazy one here. We had a lot of grades and progress reports to get finished. I usually got home from work in a bit of a zombie stage and didn't want to get up early in the morning to get the gym out of the way. A bit of a bad cycle, but hopefully with those tasks done I can focus more on more important things, like studying Korean and sleeping. Friday was a cooking class for our kinders. We made sweet potato cakes, aka mutilated sweet potato lumps with sweet cake mix crumbs and a squirt of whipped cream. Sounds appetizing, does it not?

ingredients

peeling

smashing to bits

still mashing

add some whipped cream to the mush

sprinkle cake mix

squirt of cream

fit for a queen....

Not the most appealing nor delicious recipe the kids made for cooking class. I think they are running out of ideas. Maybe I should give them some that make more sense than smashing a potato in a paper cup.

Also this Friday, and more importantly than sweet potato cakes (I know...close call)-- It was Kaitie's birthday!!

Naturally, she got the cake, birthday hat, and song that comes along with teacher's birthdays at Little America. The kids loved reminding her that in fact today was her birthday many times throughout the day. You know, just in case she forgot. She had her sister Robin skyping in as she came to school. The little ones were so excited to see her! If you come and visit, I promise you will go home with 30 new #1 fans.

For Kaitie's birthday this year I had a sneaky plot going with all of our friends here. I planned a dinner out in Hongdae on Facebook, but in reality I invited everyone to my apartment for a surprise dinner for her. The entire week I had been so excited planning and hoping I didn't accidentally send her the message about the party instead of someone else. We scheduled an appointment to decorate another cake at Darling's Cake in Hongdae, which we did previously for a picnic over the summer if you remember! Super Korean, super awesome. We arrive at Darlings and choose our icing tip, as well as any decorations for the cake. Kaitie, Tarah, and I practiced our designs, nervous about messing up this gorgeous, dent free chocolate cake in front of us. The owner of the shop (I wish I could remember her name, she's incredible) came and helped us out whenever we looked like lost puppies.

lovely birthday girl

Our materials and sustenance

Us practicing....be mature....

Tarah holding the hair back- thanks!

Kaitie killin' it

OOh the concentration

Final Product

This is such a fun thing to do here in Korea if you have a birthday, or wedding, or dentist appointment to celebrate. Just come in, choose a cake, and get going. The owner of the shop has a whole album of example cakes to use for ideas and inspiration when you begin planning your cake. Last time, our cake was a bit of a crazy mess, and it didn't make it into this album. This time, however, I think our design was clean and simple (Korean) therefore she took a picture of it for the example book! We were way too excited about this. A bit competitive aren't we. Anywhoo- after a little shopping and browsing in Hongdae, including a Macaroon-pit-stop, we headed back with the cake to get ready for the evening.

Getting back to Bucheon it was time for me to go into crazy cleaning and decorating mode. Kaitie still had no idea at this point, and I needed to make my apartment presentable for people arriving in a few hours. Putting up balloons and a Happy Birthday banner, I got it all set up as friends drifted in to surprise the birthday gal. Tom had the excellent idea of everyone hiding up in the loft and surprising Kaitie from above. I agreed and once I convinced Kaitie and Katrina that I was going to need "some more time to get ready, and they should just come to my place" I shooed everyone upstairs to await her arrival. Unfortunately, as she waited at the door for me to let her in, I told the hundreds of chatting people upstairs to be quiet and she heard me outside, thus ruining the surprise. She said she was surprised outside the door though...so slight win, I suppose. I was disappointed that it wasn't a huge shock for her as she came into the apartment, but overall the party was a success and we had SOOO much food! I want to say a huge thank you to everyone for 1. keeping quiet about the party and 2. making it such a fun evening before heading out on the town later that night! I'm so lucky to have such a great group of friends here, and now I have lunch for the week with the food that was left over...

hiding

Kind-of-surprised Kaitie

Happy Birthday, Kaitie! Hope it was a great one, I know we all had fun. Next time I'll get the surprise right. As for this week, nothing too exciting going on. We have graduation pictures on Thursday, meaning the 7-year-olds who are leaving kindergarten in March get dressed up in horrendous outfits that look like they were from some Jane Austin book and have been used since about that time period too. Always a fun day of trying to keep a straight face. xoxo Until next time.

Korean of the post:
그 착빙은 똥처럼 보이는
(keu chakbingeun ddongcheoreom boineun)
That icing looks like poop.