Saturday chillin'

This post is just for my dad.  He sent me no pressure sort of message letting me know that my blog is the first thing he checks in the morning.  Just to clarify, I don't expect anyone to check this regularly.  My blog was the only thing that helped me put together a decent collection of our travels last time we went to Korea.  Thus I blog because my memory stinks.  

Yesterday was a pretty chill day.  Elise and Lilly hung out with Yeju all day long so it was just the older girls with me.  We started off with a Korean cooking class sponsored by the Daegu YMCA.  We were 15 minutes late so we missed the majority of the cooking (it was an easy recipe), but we got the gist of it by finished up the food and we didn't miss the most important part. Eating it!  We made Ddeok Kalbi, which is basically korean meatloaf that is wrapped around a large piece of ddeok (rice cake).  It was delicious and I look forward to finding cheap enough ground beef to make it at home.  

After the cooking class, I gave the girls a pass to do whatever they would like in downtown Daegu.  It is crazy crowded on weekends and they opted for a lot of shopping.  There are so many options for shopping in this area so we spent some time above ground, checking out the many make up stores (korean cosmetics are really fun to explore.  Their lipsticks are different, they have face masks of every variety you can imagine and their bb cream is just superior.), we hung out in the basement of Kyobo bookstore exploring school supplies (so many cute things!  My theory is that through cute school supplies, they make their many hours dedicated to studying tolerable) and then we headed to the underground shopping area.  This is a subway mall that is connected to a subway station and things tend to be a little cheaper down there.  As we were checking out the goods down below, we heard all sorts of ruckus from up above.  When we made it up to ground level again, we found ourselves right in the midst of a protest.  We still aren't sure what they were protesting, but they were carrying Korean and American flags while marching.  Like I said before, this is a very busy section of town (especially on Saturday) and they had to shut down two lanes of traffic for this march.  I don't imagine this happens very often but it was fun to see Koreans being passionate about their beliefs.  I don't normally feel this way about protesting as it is done all.the.stinking.time in Portland.  I think the frequency of protests in Portland diminishes the impact.   I tried to get the girls to join in for a free Korean bandana but they said something about not marching when they don't know what they're marching for.  Lame.

We headed off for a cause that we knew we could support.  Gluten.  We decided to try out the Schumann Cafe that offers unlimited bread for its customers.   We weren't quite sure what level the bread would be on but we soon found out that it was well worth it.  They had a large selection of pastries and bread and it was set up so you could take small portions of each type so you could explore the different varieties.  I love my bread and feel like I've tried everything, but there were some new breads that wowed me!  One of my favorites was a yeast chocolate bread.  I've never seen anything like it.  It had a thin shell of chocolate on the top of the crust, the actual bread was a hint chocolate flavor (not really sweet) and before you hit the bottom crust, there was a little layer of chocolate truffle stuff.  It was delicious and unexpected!  We also loved their olive bread that was a light and fluffy sourdough.  After spending an hour just hanging out in this very aesthetically pleasing cafe, we went to use the bathroom.  It was then that we found out that the downstairs is full of private little corners for you to hang out in, complete with a hammock chair and study rooms.  Next time we go, we'll have to hang out downstairs!  Oh, their drinks were yummy and well presented also.  Between the three of us, we had an Oreo shake, lemonade and a mango smoothie.  The Oreo shake was the least sweet somehow but they were all adorable and delicious.  We will be going back there again, but not too soon.  It is definitely a 5 pound cafe. 

Ooh.  What did Lilly and Elise do?  They partied.  They did ceramics, went to Daegu Stadium (there is a big park there) and finished off their day at the Jjimjilbang.  One thing I didn't tell you about Jjimjilbangs is that they have a lot of stuff for kids to do.  They have a play area, a movie room, a restaurant and an ice room in the sauna area.   They came home right before midnight and crashed.I'm so grateful for friends in Korea!