Monday, December 1, 2008

Thanksgiving in Korea

What a busy Thanksgiving weekend we had! On Thanksgiving itself, not much happened. We had our final Korean class and exam, which was very short and not too difficult. Keegan and I went out to dinner at an Indian restaurant - about as atypical a Thanksgiving dinner as you can get, but tasty nonetheless. They had the restaurant decorated for Christmas, and it was quite festive.

On Friday evening Glenda and I cooked up some Thanksgiving favorites at our apartment, and we invited Daniel and Marina to join us for dinner. Glenda made chicken and stuffing, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie. I contributed corn, carrots, and garlic mashed potatoes, as well as whipped cream for the pumpkin pie. Daniel contributed a homemade game of Twister, which gave us at least an hour of raucous, muscle-straining good times. Then we played some rousing hands of Ligretto (a fast-paced German card game that's lots of fun with a bunch of people). A good time was had by all.

On Saturday afternoon, we had our second Thanksgiving dinner at the apartment of another American ABS family. They had invited around twenty people over for dinner, and there was tons of turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. I made my first pumpkin pie ever (it came out great, if I do say so myself) and a green salad with spinach, lettuce, dried cranberries, walnuts, and a strawberry vinaigrette. There were also two large pans of green bean casserole, which I think I devoured a large portion of, as well as clover-leaf rolls, which I hadn't had in a long time. Mom used to make them all the time when I was a kid, and I was so excited to see them at Thanksgiving dinner this year! (Thanks, Jackie!) For dessert there were pumpkin and pecan pies, pumpkin cheesecake, and an apple crisp. We stuffed ourselves silly and were ready for bed by about 6 p.m.

On Sunday, my Thanksgiving was completed with a bike ride to burn off some tiny amount of the calories contained in the mountains of green bean casserole I ate. Keegan had gone riding with some of the guys on Saturday, so on Sunday it was the girls' turn. We drove out to our favorite bike route on Chilcheondo, an island off the coast of Geoje. It was my first ride with my new clipless pedals, and I think it went really well. At first, I thought the hills were much easier with the new pedals, but by the time I had finished my first lap of the island (about 13 km), my legs were burning. By the time I finished the second lap, I was absolutely bushed. After dinner, my legs were so tired that I lay on the floor and moaned for a while. I guess my dad was right that starting with the new pedals would require building up strength in new muscles, since with your feet clipped in you can both pull and push on the pedals. Fortunately for me, I have a wonderful husband who gave me a post-ride leg rub, and today I'm not sore at all.

Of course we missed friends and family quite a bit this Thanksgiving, but we are also very thankful for the chance to spend Thanksgiving with the new friends we've made here, who are not only good company, but also terrific cooks and workout partners!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds Wonderful!! I was thinking about your Mom's pumpkin bread and all of our childhood Thanksgivings past. We, of course, over-ate too but got our exercise by braving the shops on Friday. I'm really glad that your pie came out well, now you'll have to try with REAL pumpkin (Kim can probably help you out with that!). =)

KIM! said...

how many pounds did you gain? :)

HOORAY for your pumpkin pie!

KIM! said...

btw real pumpkin and canned pumpkin are very similiar (canned pumpkin and canned pumpkin pie list are a lot different). scraping pumpkins is time consuming - so out of the can most of the time is just fine.