AND THE WINNER of the Copper Gifts 12 Days of Christmas Cookie Cutter set is...
" I'd love to win this set! I love how you designed them!
Please keep the Korea tour going!
Thanks Georganne!"
Congratulations Dotty and THANK YOU to everyone who entered.... and to everyone who let me talk about Korea for 12 days in a row. You're the best!
Wow. 12 days. I'm kind of impressed with myself that I actually posted all of them. Oh sure, I took a day off in the middle to really find myself, but I came right back and just powered through. And now that we're here, I'm not altogether sure that I'm ready for it to end. Actually, I totally am. I get all stressed out when I set imaginary deadlines for myself and I convince my fragile emotional state that you will all hate me if something happens and I don't post. So then I start talking to myself all afternoon while I'm actually pretending to talk to you as a warm-up for the post that I will write later that night. And my kids think I'm weird. And also, my husband thinks I'm weird. But he would never say that, because he kind of likes me. A lot. I'm pretty sure of it.
1. Outline the drum with a #2 tip and thick black icing. I found it easiest to start with the bottom edges of both rims and then the top edges and the middle part last. Let it dry for 30 minutes or so. You know, just long enough to enter the giveaway here and at CopperGifts.
2. Fill everything in, being careful not to overfill the lines. Let dry overnight.
3. Pipe a straight line with thick gold icing and a #2 tip. Pause at the end to create the tip of the drumstick. Let it dry for 15 minutes.
4. Pipe a zig-zag across the front of the drum with thick white icing and a #2 tip. Finish with the last drumstick.
5. Show your creations to everyone you know. (Not pictured.)
KOREA TOUR DAY 12
When I first started, I wasn't sure that I could fill 12 days of posts with pictures of Korea. And now, I find that I have too many pictures and things I want to show you. I had a really hard time narrowing it down. And there are still a lot of pictures. But I know you just want to go enter that contest, so I'll try to be quick.
They have lots of ponds here in Korea. And all of the bigger ponds have duck boats. Seriously, every one of them. They are paddle boats and you can rent them for 20 minutes. And there is NEVER anyone renting them. Except my children.
There are NOT, however, a lot of parks here. Space is a bit of a premium, as I am sure you can tell by the incredible number of tall apartment buildings. But there are lots of rivers. And next to every river is a river walk. This river actually has 3 parallel sidewalks that go along the river. This is the middle one. There is one higher and one lower. Everyone exercises, and walks, and talks and socializes on the river walk. It's where you go. They have playgrounds and exercise equipment and AEROBIC CLASSES for crying out loud. And people are nice and chatty. And if you go... you should go at night. That's when life slows down and people notice other people.
75% of Korea is mountainous. That's a lot. The mountains really are pretty. And again, at the very top of most of them... you will find exercise equipment. So no matter how proud of yourself you are for climbing to the top of that huge mountain, you're always going to feel rather pathetic when you take that last ragged breath and look over to see some old grandma working out on the elliptical a few meters away.
In case you are wondering, this is what the grocery store ads look like. This particular store has a very interesting sales method. On the back it will have pictures of 5 groups of items. The first group is on sale on Monday, the next on Tuesday...and so on through the week. It took me a while to figure it out. Not that I ever really acted on that information once I figured it out...
And this is what my children look like at the grocery store...and pretty much everywhere else in South Korea for that matter. I know it's a super-blurry picture, but they kept moving and laughing and talking to my infant. My infant who has since grown up believing that every single person in the world adores her and wants to take her picture and smile at her.
Also, you should know that you can buy octopus at the grocery store if you want to. These are about $30 each. And, I have no idea how you cook them. We always just bought the pre-cooked kind. I'm not kidding you. My husband actually likes it.
McDonald's delivers. On motorbikes. Actually, nearly every single establishment of any kind (food, plumbing, fabrics...etc) delivers. On motorbikes.
There are shopping districts here. If you want to buy a wedding dress, you go to the wedding neighborhood. Every store in Daegu that sells wedding dresses is in that neighborhood. But the neighborhoods are extremely specific. Hammers are in one neighborhood and nails are in another. You can buy office chairs down one street but the office desk street might be on the other side of town. This is the flower district. I know it looks like a regular ol' flower store. Because it is. But it is next to 30 more regular ol' flower stores. And one big flower mall. 3 floors of flowers. And they all sell the same things. Right next to each other.
They also sell produce out of trucks with speakers. They drive slowly down the streets with a recording that says what they are selling and how much you can expect to pay for it. Produce is sold in these bowls all over South Korea.
This is how they clean the streets. A big truck comes and sprays a lot of water on the road. And then those two guys with branch-stick brooms sweep the dirt off the road. And then the truck sprays it again and they sweep it again over and over until the street is clean. And then they move on.
Monsoon season is no joke here. It comes out of nowhere and rains for weeks. My husband and I learned very quickly here that if you walk outside and people are carrying umbrellas on a completely cloudless day... you go back inside and get your umbrella too.
Because when it starts raining...it POURS. While we were at this restaurant, it rained so hard that it covered two lanes of traffic...and the EXIT to the parking lot. Luckily, it was a nice restaurant and we didn't mind staying for a while.
Also, I've learned that many of the Asian stereotypes are around because they are real. Like...sumo wrestling, apparently.
And gorgeous and intricate paper lanterns that are simultaneously gorgeous and terrifying dragons that also breathe fire. They really exist here in South Korea. It's a country of history and tradition and people that take care of each other. I love this country.
Tell me-- What's YOUR favorite thing about YOUR country?
