The sweet sounds...

When my Korean kindergardners sing, they put the biggest smile on my face and the greastest joy in my heart! I can't explain it! I love them! Here are 2 songs I taught them in the last couple weeks.

The gift that keeps on giving!

Most of the teachers at my school have these bouquets of "foam flowers" scattered around their classroom that were gifts from former students over the years! I like to think of them as the gifts that keeps on giving! I'm not so sure I'd rather have foam roses, than real ones... but it's creative, none the less!

...And yes, Koreans think all that crazy pink toule is a beautiful way to package bouquets! Their motto is, "The more toule, the better!"

I'm a traitor!

I'm a traitor!

But before you judge me, let me explain!

I've traded my allegiance to CANON for NIKON, and I've traded my scratched up-rusted- blurry taking picture- CANON Rebel XTI camera for a brand new NIKON D5000 camera, which happens to also take video!

I can't explain my excitement for this purchase! Aaron has been researching Nikon cameras for months, deciding which one he wants to upgrade to, so he happened to know just which one I should get! Gotta love having someone around to do the research for ya, huh?!

The battery is charging as I type this, so I'm planning to give you all a little sneak peak at the new camera's skills by tomorrow afternoon! *** This means my Philippines pictures will be nice, clear, and beautiful! 17 more days!

Off to Africa!

Don't worry Mom! It's not me who's off to Africa!

This is 김 민 자 (pronounced: Kim Min-Ja) She is the intern teacher at my school, which means she basically helps all of the teachers with stuff that they don't have time to prepare, tutors kids, helps with discipline, etc... she's a total sweetheart and is one of the most friendly people I work with!

Unfortunately, today is her last day of work here. She is going to be moving to Rwanda in August to teach elementary school PE for 2 years! What an amazing experience huh?! She said she doesn't know the language at all, but will be taking a month long class to learn the basics, as well as a little about the culture of Rwanda! What a brave girl huh?!

Good luck friend! We'll miss you!

Pen Pals Part 2!

Today was my 6th grade afterschool English class, which is usually only 5 students, but I decided to invite the entire 6th grade class to be part of the pen pal letter writting part 2! Boy was that a headache!

I had a class full of 6th graders yelling, "Teacher! Teacher! I want a girl pen pal!" or "Teacher, I want USA boyfriend penpal!" .... "Teacher, I don't understand this letter"..."Teacher, How do you spell____?" I quickly popped in a Chris Tomlin CD that Rachel Shin sent me last year to help calm my soul! Thank goodness I had that little piece of heaven to drown out my crazy, overly excited, and abnormally loud kids! :)

I think the CD calmed them down too, because before I knew it, they were focused on their letters and not asking so many questions! :) This is Brad and John:

This is Erin! She wants to be an English teacher one day! ** Pegg, notice she is holding your sparkly letters! They can't get enough of those darn things!

Anna is one of my best students! :) This made me laugh because she wrote, "Happy Valentine's Day" on the front of her card, since her penpal wrote it to her! I'm pretty sure she has no idea what it means!

And here are the letters... in all their glory! I need to find 4 more kiddos to write a letter, and then they'll be ready to be sent to the US! My kids can't believe their penpals are gonna write them back and they'll get to do this again! Ahh, to be a kid again!

Music Mondays!

Group Name: 2NE1
Song Name: Follow Me

This is the closest to Lady Gaga as we get around here in Korea!

Thursday Party BBQ!

My two friends Crystal and Anne have headed up a once a month BBQ / potluck type thing for local English teachers, at a place called Thursday Party at Gwangali Beach! They have become good friends with the owner and the bartenders, and have somehow convinced them to allow us to take over the place, before it officially opens on Sunday's, for these BBQ's! I'm not sure how, but I'm glad they did, because it was a blast!

As soon as I got there, I was put straight to work! Crystal and Anne were chopping veggies in the bar kitchen, and before I knew it, I was manning the grill! It was fun to work in a real Korean bar kitchen! It was about the size of a small walk in closet, mind you! Check out these delicious hamburgers that I grilled! :)

Lunch was beyond delicious! We had steaks, hamburgers, hot dogs, salmon fillets, salads, pasta, and fresh bread to chose from! Here's Anne and I, chatting after lunch! While the weather was kinda yucky, you still can't beat lunch with a beach view!

My friend Chooch was there, who I met at orientation when I first arrived in Korea! He is married to a gorgeous Korean woman, and this is their incredibly handsome son, Hyden! (I think that's how you spell it) I asked Chooch if he had seen the movie "Sweet Home Alabama," because one of my favorite lines is when Reese Witherspoon says, "You have a baby... in a bar!" Totally made me think of that when Hayden was playing on the floor while all the adults were hanging out! To Chooch's credit... this may make him sound like a bad dad, but he is, in fact, one of the most amazing fathers I've seen to date! So caring, loving, and fun!

The guys who work at Thursday Party in Gwangali are all so nice, and so sweet! They let us completely take over the place, and helped us with whatever we needed! :) True gentlemen!

There were many more picture opps, but unfortunately, my camera battery died! I know, I know... I will eventually learn my lesson to charge it before I leave the house!

Dear Togi...

For the 100th time! Will you please eat the carrots and lettuce I give you, and NOT my power cords! This is starting to get expensive, and not having internet for a couple days really puts a damper on my blogging abilities!!

Love, your bunny mommy!

Pen Pals!

My old college friend, Charity Joy, she sent me a package today filled with pen pal letters from her students to mine and tons of delicious treats for my tummy - I'm eating the bag of sourpatch kids as I type!! ... and all kinds of amazing teaching supplies! Thank you friend!

I am sooo excited for my kids to have pen pals, and the teachers who have seen the cards are all saying how lucky our students are to have this opportunity to write back and forth with kids from America! So, Charity, thanks for making this happen!

I immediately laid the cards out on the table, for my 5th grade after school class to chose their penpal! As you can see, Charity's been holding onto these since February! haha

... And then laid out all the fun crafting supplies I have for my kids to make cards! (thanks to Aaron's mom for the fun sparkly rhinestone words! My girls loved using those rhinestones!)

I also wrote some sentences on the board, since let's be honest... If I didn't, their cards wouldn't make ANY SENSE at all! :)

They were so creative with their cards and wanted to make sure they were fully decorated with as many jewels and marker drawings as possible! They took this project VERY seriously! :)
They all made little envelopes for their cards to fit inside! This is Tommy!

This is Andrea!
... and here they all are, 45 minutes after class was finished, still perfecting their pen pal cards! :)

When i told them they could take their letters home from their American pen pals, they were exstatic! It's days like these that make teaching English so much fun! Thank you Charity for your special package and including something for my kids! We may never know how much this fully means to our kids!

"Chal-mogodt-sumnida!"

This afternoon I received a text from Stella saying,

"Gyo Gam Sun Seing Neim (Vice Principal) just ordered pizza for the teachers because he won a lot of money in a soccer bet! Come down to the teachers room right now!"

I love how the Vice Principal and Principal at my school are so generous! They are always bringing the teachers rice cakes, rice water, pastries, coffee, and in this case, PIZZA! This is the music teacher, and one of my good friends, April!
Nothing brings a staff together like a spur of the moment pizza party!!

Whenever someone buys or prepares food for you in Korea, it's polite to tell them "Chal-mogodt-sumnida" after finishing... This means "I ate well!" ... which you can believe I said over and over again! My tummy is very happy... but my summer body is currently telling me I'm a bad girl! To which I am replying, "Lay off summer body! A little pizza never hurt anyone!"

Top 16!

At 3:30am, this morning, the Korea vs Nigeria World Cup game aired on TV, and you better believe I was up to see it, along with the rest of this country! I woke up and looked out my window to see a flood of lights from other Koreans, up, in their homes, watching and cheering! When goals were made, you could hear the cheers around the neighborhood - at 4:00am, mind you! Talk about super fans!

The final score was 2-2, which means we've advanced in the tournament! We're now officially in the top 16!

Here's hoping that the next few Korea games air at a better time of the night!
"Korea, fighting!"

Jess and Carlos - on TV tonight!

Two of my best friends, Jess and Carlos, are making their television debut tonight on Korean TV! A camera crew went out to their place and spent 2 weeks with them, filming their life for a documentary on THEM! It airs tonight, in Busan, at 11:30pm (Korean time!)

If you want to watch it and get to know Jess and Carlos, you can watch it live! :) Just click on this link... http://www.arirang.co.kr/Tv2/Tv_PlusHomepage_Intro.asp?PROG_CODE=TVCR0528&MENU_CODE=101079&sys_lang=Eng ...and then click on the tiny TV on the top left corner of the screen (When you scroll over the TV, it will say "Korean Arirang") but you have to watch it at the right time!

Cali and AZ people - that's 7:30am Monday and Tuesday morning!

North Carolina and Boston people - that's 10:30am for you Monday and Tuesday morning!

Scooter Lessons!

Before yesterday, I had yet to get behind the wheel (or handle bars in this case) of our new scooter!! I preferred the backseat, and was happy spending my ride back there as Aaron navigated the mayhem of Korean traffic! But yesterday Aaron told me it was time I stepped it up and learned how to drive it - just incase I ever needed to! So, he took me to his school, on the island, where there was plenty of open cement to hone in on my skills!!

This may look like I'm driving REALLY fast, but I was probably only going 10 miles an hour, which is where I like to be right now! The slower I go, the safer I am, right?! :)

The best 3 parts about my scooter lesson were

#1) the fact that I didn't fall (whew!!)...

#2) When I would pass the old Korean women walking laps around the school, they would cheer me on and yell "fighting!"...

#3) Seeing the look on Aaron's face as I made another lap without crashing! He was so proud of his girl and cheered me on the whole time!!

Music Monday!

Group Name: BROWN EYED GIRLS
Song Name: ABRACADABRA

Okay friends... Every Monday I post a popular Korean song, in hopes that it will make you smile, laugh, or just plain wanna dance! This week I'm hoping you'll do a little dancing! So, hook it up to those computer speakers, turn up the volume, and get your groove on!!

Spell check!

Last night, Carlos took the train down to Busan to spend the weekend with Aaron and I! We all went to Seomyeon to watch the Netherlands - Japan World Cup game! You may not know this, but Koreans DO NOT LIKE Japanese... so the bars were packed with Koreans cheering AGAINST the Japanese team! When the Netherlands scored a goal, the whole street would erupt with cheers and clapping!

We ended up spending the night watching the game at a place called METAL CITY. I had to share the contents of their menu with you, because the spelling was so bad!

These were the english translations on the next page!

SIDE DISHES:

Spioy Source With Fride Park

Park Cutlet

Fine Apple, Life Log

Dry baby squid & Half Beak with Walleye pollack

Mixing Sticed Fruits

COCKTAILS:

Jack Cock

Rum Cock

Jin Tonic

Matini

And this folks, is why it's important to always use your Spell Check!

"De Han Meen Gook!"

Last night, Aaron, Scoot, and I rode over to Seomyeon to watch Korean's world cup game # 2 against Argentina!! First though, we stopped into Lotte's 7 Luck Casino (My choice this time!) to see if my new roulette idea would work! Unfortunately, 50,000 won later, I realized it didn't! Luckily the casino hooked me up with a free dinner and drinks, so I didn't feel so bad! :)

I snapped this picture while we were in the elevator, to show off our red Korea shirts! Aaron thinks it's funny to make faces when I take self portraits! I happened to think this one ACTUALLY was really funny!

After the casino, we jumped on "Scoot" and headed for WA Bar to watch the game! When we arrived, the game had already started, so the place was packed! Luckily, there were 2 bar seats, right in front, with our names on em! We ended up getting the best seats in the house! :)

The bar was filled with women! Aaron and I thought this was so funny, because in America, typically sports bars are filled with men! Sweet irony huh?! It made for some interesting background noise! Picture 1992, a NKOTB concert and all the screaming girls... I kid you not, that's what it sounded like everytime Korea took possession of the ball!

You can't see it well here, but I actually repurposed some beads and sequins from my old WD and sewed them onto my shirt, to make it a one of a kind Korean soccer fan shirt! Aaron and I received lots of smiles, waves, and claps because of our Korean pride last night! I rode on the back of the scooter with the flag tied like a cape!

Tonight though, we'll be sporting our Red, White, and Blue, from my apartment, where we'll be watching the US - Slovenia game while it pours outside! How I love summer rain storms!

Go USA!

ATTENTION Designer Whores!

Are you a self proclaimed designer whore? Do you shop at ROSS, TJMaxx, LAST CHANCE, and NORSTROMS RACK, looking for the name brand stuff at cheap prices? Well, then look no further! Take a trip to Korea and save yourself the cash....

Yesterday I went on a mission to snap some photos of stores selling knock off name brand stuff in my area! I had to be stealth, as this is not something these people want getting out!

This is the Dolce & Gabana / True Religion jeans booth in Namoodong! You can get knock off jeans for $40!

Have you always wanted a Chanel cell phone cover? Well, look no further! For a mere $7.00, you can have one!

Need a new US baseball team hat? How abaout a Titelist, Chanel, North Face, or Ferrari hat? For $8.00, it's yours!

Don't bother paying big bucks for GUESS, NIKE, POLO, or LACOSTE t-shirts! Get em here for $8.00!

How about a designer belt? Burberry?! Louis Vuitton?! Levi's?! Gucci?!

No outfit is complete without a wig, right?! For $20, you can be a whole new woman!!

Unfortunately, the baby isn't for sale....

All you girls, with small dogs, know you want them to sport a chanel or adidas dress, don't you?!(eeeehhhh!)

Designer sunglasses, for 1 / 50th of the price!

Want a really nice knockoff ROLEX, Chanel, Burberry, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, or Hermes watch! If you have $20.00, it's all yours! (I'll be honest, I gave into this store last year and bought a chanel watch!) Maybe I have a little bit of that designer whoreness in me!

Well made knockoff wallets at your service!

How about some knockoff NEW B'S or TOMS!

Coach platforms in pink, anyone?

Some polo kicks for the kids?!

Or if you're a little more hoity toity, you can get some Gucci and Burberry knock offs for your baby! Talk about setting them up for becoming designer whore adults!

Need a designer scarf?!

How much hotter would your husband look in these designer undies, ladies?! haha

Trust me... if you're looking for a designer wallet, this place definitely has the knockoff of it!

Want a team jerseys...

... or a Harley Davidson leather (or maybe pleather) jacket...

.... Gucci, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, and D&G socks for 80 cents a pair... anyone?! anyone?!

If you wear scrunchies (as a side note... you shouldn't! They were big 20 years ago people!) But, like I said... if you wear scrunchies, you can have one of these!

Want a hair rubberband with a Chanel emblem?! These are $1.50!

I feared I would be chased down if I took pictures of the designer purse knock off places... so you'll just have to trust me on those! There are plenty to chose from! So, like I said, you can find anything and everything you want in Korea to assist in the upkeep of your designer whore ways!

Hey, if teaching doesn't work out... maybe I'll start importing knockoffs!!! Who wants to be my business partner?