New Year

Happy Lunar New Year! You're all now a little bit older according to the lunar calendar. It's February already, can you believe that? This year started off pretty good, I went to a pension (Korean style guest house) to celebrate the start of the year.

The owners converted this house into 4 or 5 apartments. Each apartment was private and had a private shower and kitchen. It's was okay, considering it was in the middle of nowhere. 

To get to this place, I had to drive on the expressway for the first time. I'm not really sure what we call expressways back home. It's similar to a dual carriageway like the A1 but with tolls. I had only passed my driving test in the middle of December, so it was a little scary. 

David and I were supposed to go ice fishing in Jinbu too, but the river wasn't frozen over yet. But, we did go a couple of weeks after. 

We didn't catch anything sadly. But, we were offered fish from other groups who had caught more than they could take out of the fishing area. 

I also took a wee drive down the coast to a place called Jeongdongjin. I'm trying to drive to as many places as possible, to get used to driving and to explore Korea. 

There's a huge ship situated on top of a cliff. I don't think it's a real ship. Apparently, it's a hotel and restaurant. It was freezing too, but it was nice getting out of the apartment and exploring. 

January also saw me eating Shabu Shabu for the first time. I've had Chinese style hot pot before, but not the Korean version. Actually, I think Shabu Shabu originated in Japan. 

It was good. I do prefer the Chinese version because the broth has more flavour and there's an option for two kinds too. Anyways, it wasn't bad. 

On January 22nd, David proposed! HE PROPOSED! We were walking along the river with the dog, where we usually go with the pooch. It wasn't an easy walk mind, even the dog had trouble. A couple of days before, the heavens opened and dumped about 6inches of snow on the ground. Anyways, we were talking about random things and my nickname came into conversation. My family calls me "GaGa" because my middle name is Kaman (Pronounced Ga-Man). David calls me Ga, so we were discussing how he now calls me it in front of other people. I then told him that he pronounces my surname wrong, and even I do too. After, I joked about being called Kelly Kaman Crozier and laughed because it would sound funny due to the KKC having the name phonetic sound. In Korea, kkk means hahaha. After, he said "Ga" and got down on one knee...in the snow. 

My first reactions was "eh? what? huh? really? is that real? what?"...and apparently I said "alright then". I'm pretty sure I said yes by the way. 

I'll put a photo of my ring up later when I get it. Right now, it's in the jewellers getting resized and having a diamond fitted. Usually back home, they sell them with the diamonds already in! Korea...is different, they do the resizing the diamond fitting at the same time. David proposed with a different ring anyways because the real one was getting the diamond fitted and he didn't know when he would get it back. The silly sausage, I would have said yes to a haribo ring. Rings don't matter. 

So yes, that's the news from my January. It was great and it ended well too. We went to Sokcho for our lunar new year vacation to see some friends. I drove again and drove us up to see the DMZ at Goeseong. There was an observatory where you could see right across to North Korea. I'm not sure how legit it is but, the mountains you can see is Mount GeumGang. 

Anyways, we're hoping for a relaxing February. No big adventures as we have to save for our wedding...in 2019! We're hoping to book the dates soon at the place we both met and worked together. We would have chosen next year to get married, but my mother is getting married then and it would be way too close together. 

I hope January was good to you too. 

Kelly.