Annyeong haseyo

I've been searching high and low for baking stuff to make cupcakes for Lucas' upcoming birthday.  He's having a Mickey Mouse party and it is impossible to find red cupcake liners.  So I turned to facebook.  There are a few facebook pages for spouses of service members stationed in Area IV (Daegu is considered Korea Area IV) and a few people recommended sam won, a baking and decoration store in Daegu.

As we were walking up to the second floor where the retail store is located, we passed a nun.  She said, "an yong" to Lucas, which means "hi."  I said to Lucas, "She said 'hi' to you.  Don't you want to say 'hi'?"  He replied, "No, she didn't say 'annyeong haseyo' only 'an yong' so I'm not going to say 'annyeong haseyo' to her."  So formal.  As a side note, I've seen annyeong haseyo spelled about 12 different ways and I'm not sure which one is correct.

Right outside Daegu Station Exit 4- go to the right and it's about a block down the street on the left-hand side.

Big selection of, well, everything cooking/baking-related.

I went in looking for red cupcake liners and left with red and black food coloring, a bundt pan (!), silicon cupcake liners, and tongs.  And left without, you guessed it, red cupcake liners.  They simply cannot be found.  So we'll be improvising and hope the cupcakes turn out well.

I was so spoiled in the US as far as finding whatever I need easily.  Here, it's much harder for me to get around.  I always enjoy the adventure getting places even though I find being a passenger terrifying.  The roads are pretty narrow and the drivers are insane.  Adam always drives or I take the bus or a taxi.  I like that.  Of course there's the language barrier so I can't easily ask someone where something is located.  The positive side of that is I really get to explore by going up and down every aisle.  I'm normally super high strung and straight to the point but I've found I really enjoy just looking around.  At everything.

After the trip to sam won, we headed to the Market in search of quilt batting.  I believe I will never tire of going to the Market.  I didn't find any quilt batting so I'll have to find a place online that will ship to an APO.

Ahhh, the Market.  I love the Market.

As we were driving back to post we passed a few furniture stores.  We've been looking for a piece of Korean furniture for our entryway so we stopped at one.  After months of searching, we finally found it!

Here it is!

Beautiful fish carved in the doors

The top

Close up of the drawers- I love all the different wood grains!

This mirror goes with it.

We think it might be a dresser, especially since it came with a mirror, but it's not very tall.  It's a little bit wider than what we were looking for initially but all three of us really love it. 

Seomun Market

One of my absolute favorite places in Daegu is the Seomun Market.  Anything you can imagine can be purchased there- purses, clothes, food, housewares, etc.  There is tons of fresh produce and seafood.  And there's a lot of dried fish, too.  I believe the dried fish are used for making broth for soups but that's something I probably won't try.  There are even dried bugs for medicinal purposes.  Another thing I probably won't try.  You can get a hanbok made and they are beautiful.

There tons of booths where you can have a hanbok made.  You can choose any color and any fabric you wish.  Amazing.

Not surprisingly though, my favorite part of the market is the fabric!  Daegu is a large textile manufacturing city and many of the fabrics I bought in the States are actually manufactured in Korea.  That excited me before we moved here and it has certainly lived up to my expectation.  The fabric at the market is pretty random but if you look hard you can find lots of good stuff. 

Lots of good stuff- about 10 yards worth of good stuff.

I can't control myself and usually leave with yards of random fabric.  Most recently I bought about 3.5 yards of fabric to possibly be the backing for a quilt I started a year and a half ago.  I made that quilt out of scraps and have been waiting for the right backing to come along.  Everything I found felt like I was settling.  That was the first quilt top I made just to make and use up scraps.  I didn't have a recipient in mind but I'm thinking I'll keep it.  My husband made me an awesome quilt rack and it needs more quilts!

Hello, Quilt Back!

I think I finally found my quilt back!  Now I just hope I can find time to finish it.  I was worried about being bored during the day while the Lukester was at preschool but as it turns out I've got plenty of stuff to do!

Every trip to the market has been very successful.  I realize I use the word "amazing" to describe a lot of things here but there's no better word for it.  I was really worried about moving to Korea because I'm a homebody and always liked being a quick plane ride away from home.  This is definitely out of my comfort zone but I'm grateful for the opportunity to explore this part of the world.

I can't go to the market without buying some adorable pajamas.