No turkey for you! Come back 1 year!

Well folks ... one holiday down and how many to go?? Yes, we survived our first holiday all alone (just us and 47 million other people). Not wanting to sit around and mope about missing the festivities back home, we spent our Thanksgiving in the big city. A day of shopping took our minds off missing everyone for a while and this time we actually bought stuff. Dongdaemun Market is the largest shopping district in all of Asia and we decided today was the day to tackle it. There are only 30 malls, hundreds of vendors lining the streets, and a soccer stadium turned flea market so you can imagine how it is lacking in product. Yeah right! We spent 4 hours in one mall and only shopped 3 floors (there are 10 floors in this particular one and it's not even the largest). I had my first "Lady, you like purses, come with me" experience. This guy whipped out a catalogue filled with Louis, Gucci, Prada, etc. and offered me my choice for a mere 250,000 won (that's $300, way more than I was looking to spend, but a darn good price for the goods!) A few trinkets were found here and there and we left in search of our turkey.

It is interesting to learn the traditions of a new country and take part in the festivities, but still being newlyweds, we are trying to start our own holiday traditions to carry on through the years, and it's not easy when the things you would normally want to have and do are not accessible. Finding a turkey dinner in a country that doesn't celebrate the holiday you are trying to have is not an easy task. We decided Marche was our best chance. If there wasn't turkey we knew there was no chance of us going hungry. The best we came up with was rotisserie chicken, squash, salad, and potato soup. I loved the squash (even though Darin didn't) and Thanksgiving isn't complete without it, even when it's called pumpkin, as it is here. We even found pumpkin (squash??) pie for dessert.

No holiday here will even come close to what we have at home with our families and you have to know that we think about you all constantly! The best part is we have each other, our own little family of two, and in a short one year's time we will be able to do it up right with the rest of our family (as holidays should be spent). Happy Thanksgiving everyone ... we love you.