Passionate Fashion ???

I had to share this on Facebook and my Instagram today because it was just too good not to share!  At lunch today, the music teacher said to me, "Wow! Your fashion is passionate today!"

My co-teacher told me to take it as a compliment!  :)  Thanks H&M!

"Moving out and moving on!"

According to my "Big Day" iphone app, I've got 39 days left in Korea...

With 39 days and counting, I knew it was about that time to start sorting through stuff and packing boxes to ship home. So, yesterday, Aaron and I walked over to the post office (yes, we walked ... and yes, it's that close...) to pick up the boxes. We only bought three boxes for now, but we're probably gonna end up using 3x's that many!  eeekkk.  How could I possibly part with all of my cute Korean coats, and how could Aaron possibly part with all of his new camera equipment and H&M sweaters!?  lol That's the question we've been wrangling with around here!

We poured some wine last night and toasted to:

before we tackled the packing!

For anyone living in Korea, looking to send stuff back to the US when they're finished with their contract, here's the deal.  For the slow shipping (which takes approximately 2 months), you can use ANY box, as long as the dimensions are within these measurements:

length + height + width = 2 meters (and they can't be longer than 1.05 meters)

Or, you can just pick up box #5, the largest box available at the post office.  It'll run you 1,600 won. 

Then, pack to your little hearts content... as long as you don't fill it with more than 20kgs!  That's the limit, for ALL boxes being shipped to the US.  And 20kgs will run you  51,200 won per box.  It'll obviously be less if you have less than 20kgs inside. :)

As you can see, Maverick is a big fan of his "new cardboard toys!"  I had to lay a heavy pot over the one in the background because I woke up to him, more than once, playing inside of it, on top of the stuff we had packed!  Oy vey! Speaking of Maverick... He got a bath today because he'll be meeting his potential new mom tomorrow afternoon! :)    

A WOMAN President!

I am SHOCKED!!! In a country where most women are still expected to cook, clean, take care of the children, stay home, and basically be a servant to their soju drinking husbands, a WOMAN has been elected president!  Social progress is in full view today!
Congratulations Park Geun-hye.

Although, she's not just ANY woman. She's incidentally the daughter of Korea's assassinated dictator, Park Chung-Hee, who served as dictator from 1961 to 1979, and she actually grew up in the Blue House (Korea's equivalent to America's White House) 

"Many hope the elevation of the first woman to the presidency will help shatter the old patriarchal Confucian habits which permeate South Korean society." - BBC
FOR THE SAKE OF ALL MY KOREAN FEMALE FRIENDS, I SURE HOPE SO!

 Here's the rest of the BBC article about Korea's newest President!

"Ludoph the Led Nosed Leindeer!"

Anytime we've traveled to another country where English isn't the first language, we'll hear funny pronunciations of English words that make us giggle a little!  Korea is no exception! There's actually no "R" sound in the Korean language. The closest is an "L" sound, and looks like this in Hangul: 르. I'm constantly hounding my students to repeat words like 'red, rainbow, reindeer, and right', over and over again until their pronunciation is better! We're making progress, slowly, but progress none the less!

Last weekend, Aaron and I took a 4 mile walk around the neighborhood, through the fish market, Gukje Market and Nampodong, where we stood and watched this darling kids choir singing 

 
Bless their sweet little hearts! Someone just needs to send them to my English classroom!  :)

Rock, Scissor, Paper

Just about every decision made in Korea is done with a quick game of rock, scissor, paper, or as the Koreans call it 가위 (kawi=scissors) 바위 (bawi=paper) 보 (bo=rock).  But, if we say it fast, it sounds more like kai-bai-bo.  

All that to say, this morning I came to work and asked my co-teacher, Loola, what the plan was for our classes today.  Her response was, "Just a Movie!"  YYYEEESSS!!!  We have 3 classes together on Fridays and since only 1 of us needs to be in the classroom to supervise the kiddos during the movie, we decided to play kai-bai-bo. The winner would babysit 1 class and the loser would babysit 2!  I was taught, by some of my students to never throw paper 1st, because you'll probably lose.  So, I took their advice and threw scissors and WON!  So, not only is it Friday, but I only have to babysit 1 class today!  The rest of the day will be spent putting together our 1st ever Osteen Christmas cards and addressing them!  Woot woot!

Nampodong's Christmas Extravaganza!

Last night, Jeff, Aaron, Ashley, Adam, Grace and I all met up in Nampodong for dinner at our favorite cheese bi bim bap restaurant, a quick stop at Starbucks, and a nice stroll down Gwangbok-ro to see the Christmas lights!  

I always love Christmas time in Nampodong!  It seems like the only place in Busan that comes close to mimicking the outlandish Christmas decorating that happens in America!  It definitely has it's own little Korean flare, but I love it none the less!

Ashley's been collecting Starbucks stickers on her Starbucks sticker card all winter and finally collected her 17th and final sticker to get her yearly Starbucks planner!  Aaron and I gave her our 2 stickers tonight, so we technically own 2/17th's of it!  Congratulations Ash!

After we all had our warm coffee's in hand, we made our way over to the main street where all of the festivities were going on!  Tonight's entertainment was a darling little kids choir!  We made it just in time to hear their very last song.  

Out of 8 pictures, this was the only one where these two weren't goofing off and looking ridiculous!

I knew if I kept snapping I'd get a decent one! :)

Koreans must love having their pictures drawn, because the whole street was lined with artists, 

sketching away!

Jeff and Grace!

There are Christmas trees lining the main street with these hand written Christmas wishes hung from the branches. I liked this one because it said, "I love father and mother" in English! 

Me and my love...

And for your entertainment, a more realistic photo of what we're really like!  :)

And this is what our kids would be like if we had some!  They'd always be goofing around like their dad and always appear overly excited and friendly like their mom!  Awesome, right?!   

How beautiful is my friend Grace!?

And how adorable are they?! 

We don't see this often in Korea, so when we do, we get extra excited and always throw some cash in the case to support their love of music!

 And I'll leave you with this amazing picture!  I snapped a couple photos of this little guy holding his cotton candy, when out of nowhere, this old Korean womanlkiterally stuck her face next to it and started licking the side of it!  It was quite possibly one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time!

 I couldn't have asked for a better way to end our weekend than with good friends, yummy coffee, and beautiful lights!  

"Merry Christmas".... from Nampodong!

I now present to you...

My adorable Korean students and their even more adorable, talents! :)

Behind the scenes...