Day 2609

December 21, 2018

For some reason I haven't uploaded a personal update since JANUARY.
So what have we been up to in 2018!? LOTS!



February 

brought us the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang! A common question I got was "was it close to where you live?" and the simple answer was "it couldn't have been farther away". 


Day 1 - We arrived in Pyeongchang earlier than anticipated, and decided not to miss out on the excitement. Luckily for us, we were able to catch a women's hockey game between the Canada and Russia. 





Day 2 - We woke up and headed to the ice arena to catch a glimpse of figure skating which featured the win by Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue.

We followed the Canadian win with a lunch at Canada House which, for me, was one of the highlights of the week. They had muskoka chairs, Canadian beer, and free poutine. As a Canadian spectator coming from Canada, this already would have been a great time. But as a Canadian who has lived in this country for 7 years, being able to drink Canadian beer on Korean soil was divine.

We spent the evening at the awards ceremony which featured a performance by Red Velvet.







Day 3 - We had a bit of time before our first event of the day, so we popped over to Anmok Beach to have lunch. 

Our first event of the day was a bit of a random one - bronze women's hockey  bronze game between Finland and Russia. The event we were looking forward to on day 3 was women's curling! There were at least 8 teams playing on the ice at once (which was a bit hectic) but we were there for the Canadian and Korean teams. 








Our final day! Day 4 was a day of mixed varied emotions - to say the least: the women's hockey gold game between Canada and USA. I generally don't care about sports. I don't participate in nor watch sports. But it's a different experience when you're sitting in the stadium surrounded by American fans chanting "USA! USA!"... it just really does emotional things.




March

We celebrated PHs birthday! This is how you celebrate your 32nd birthday.


We also tried to prematurely celebrate the 'oncoming' of spring with a trip to Ga-woo Island in Gangjin. 






April

A friend's son's first birthday brought us to PH's hometown, Daegu. It was actually spring this time so we made sure to check out the cherry blossom festival at the local amusement park, E-World.








We spent a Saturday in Mokpo perusing the mountain side. What brought us to this area originally was this convenience store which was used as a film set last year in the Korean movie, 1987. They had a little shop nearby that sold candy and toys from when PH was a kid. Fun!







Another attempt to embrace spring with a Sunday trip to Hwasun - first stop: tofu restaurant! It had a resident peacock because why not. This place was amazing and clean and fresh and amazing. Next we headed to Sae-lyang Lake (세량지) which was interesting because it's not often you see lakes like this in Korea. Next! Mudeung Mountain sheep farm. There were a lot of sheep.










May

We ushered in summer at the Yeongam Motor Rock Festival. There wasn't much 'motor' about this event, nor was it 'rock'. We went primarily to see Big Bang's Seungri, but opening acts were an endless number of non-descript EDM DJs. Much to our disappointment Seungri was also there to show his EDM skills. It wasn't the best 'concert' I've ever been to, but it was something. Appearances by Dok2 and Superbee were also appreciated.  




Another Sunday brought us to another city - Suncheon. Not new to either to us, but it was my first time to visit the national garden (순천만국가정원). We also discovered the 'Youth Warehouse' which is a storage building that was converted into a place for young entrepreneurs to start up small businesses. It had a very open concept with movable tables so we bought some food and ate while watching the baseball game.



"Thanks for marrying me."




June

My 31st birthday and cakes galore! 
PH had one designed with flags, and Patti made one from Baskin Robbins icecream. 



It wouldn't be summer without a trip to the best beach in Korea - Myeongsasimli in Wando!




July & August

We spent most of July and August in Canada~ My flight to Canada began optimistically with a free upgrade to business class but in the end was long and unpleasant due to delays/reroutes/power outages! This trip was centred, of course, around organizing our Canadian wedding but we were still able to visit some of our favourite places.

My amazing bridal party put together a trip for us to Bobcaygeon - it was just what I needed and it was great to be able to spend time with all of them with drinks and obscene cookies and canoes and campfires.




PH arrived and we visited a judo gym~



And just like that it was wedding time! I wrote about our wedding day here!

The day after the wedding PH and I headed to Marmora for our minimoon.


 Guest book, wedding wine, and thank you cards!

He was in HEAVEN.


So was I. 

I caught this! With a $20 fishing rod we bought on the way. 




It wouldn't be a trip to Canada without a Jays game with the fam. 




And the beach!



Trixie Mattel was in town so I couldn't miss out seeing her with my best.


My uncle Ken allowed us to maximize PH's dream of Canadian fishing with a visit to his boat. 




A quick zip to Toronto for Dua Lipa.



Another zip over to Waterloo to show PH around my alma mater. 



And just like that it was our final dinner before our departure to Korea.



September 

We headed to Muju for the Firefly Festival. As expected, there were more people than there were fireflies. We stood in line for about an hour to go in the museum where the fireflies were, but in the meantime we enjoyed what festivals are really meant for: food stalls. 

On our drive back down to Mokpo the next day, we stopped to buy apples (in the city *known for* apples) and it ended up being one of the best stops. The owner of the orchard invited us to walk around and pick a few apples straight off the trees.









For Chuseok (aka Korean Thanksgiving), PH and I headed to his hometown where we would meet up with old friends and family. We got our fortunes told ("you'll have a baby either in October of this year or next"), and had coffee in a place that used to be where PH's family lived/owned a store. Wish that was the most bizarre aspect of the place, but the decor did that.



October 

It was the first weekend in October that we found out I was pregnant (I'll write more about that in a separate post). It was about this time the the fatigue set in and I was pretty much out of commission every day after 2:30pm. Regardless! We took a couple trips.

The first trip was to Damyang (which is where PH and I went for our very first trip together in 2014). It's only about an hour away and renowned for its bamboo forest.



The second trip we took was to see the fall foliage at Baekyangsa. We had visited this place before but it was after the leaves had fallen. This time, though, we were a bit too early but it was still stunning.









November & December

As I mentioned, first trimester had me out of commission and feeling constantly fatigued so we weren't up to much. We were on the hunt for a new place in Mokpo, and PH and I also decided to take a trip to Osaka for New Years! Lots of things to look forward to for the remainder of 2018 and beyond! 

December 21 - vacation starts!
December 23 - moving day!
December 25 - Christmas!
December 28 - depart for Osaka!

🎉🎉🎉

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