So long, farewell.

This weekend was my last weekend in Korea and the last time I saw most of the foreign friends that I've made here.  Believe it or not, no tears were shed by this girl!  I'm just really blessed to have met great people and to have formed deep and meaningful relationships with them, so while we may never be in the same physical place again, we'll be in touch.  So, in my eyes, it was a bit of a celebration before moving on to all of our own separate adventures.  

On Saturday, we met Adam, Ashley, Jeff, Priscilla, Stella and Chris at Ashley's Buffet in Nampodong.  They have unlimited wine at the buffet, so it always seems to be a top contender when dinner parties are being planned with this group!  Hey, at least we're keeping it classy with wine, right? 

Or maybe we're not so classy, actually.








One of the things that's making this move so much easier is that so many of our friends are leaving Korea at the same time as us! Adam and Ashley are leaving Korea the Wednesday after Aaron and I and are traveling through Japan, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Cambodia for 6 weeks before moving back to Southern California!

Chris is moving to California to go back to school and Stella is planning to stay in Korea a little longer...

Jeff is staying in Korea 1 MORE YEAR without all of us. He's a brave man!  Priscilla is heading back to her home country of New Zealand after she spends a month traveling!

After closing down the restaurant, the 8 of us walked over to the batting cages in Gukje and spent the next couple hours hitting balls and playing doubles on the basketball machine game.  Aaron and I dominated, of course... We play that game every time we pass an arcade!

 I love this group of friends, but I'll especially miss this gem and our Monday night Revenge nights when we watch the newest episode of Revenge and catch up on EVERYTHING from work, celebrity gossip, love, life, travel, etc... all while downing popcorn like it's our job!

 It's by chance that we all met, but by choice that we became friends!  I'd say it's one of the best choices I made while living here! I'll miss you guys!  

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!

Movie and Eel for dinner!

Today was our school's "Culture Day" for 5th grade, 6th grade, and English teachers!  This basically means that we're allowed to leave work 2 hours early to go do something "culturally Korean!"  Good news is, we never actually HAVE to do something Koreanish, we just have to say and write that we are!  YAY!  So, all of us left school at 2:30pm and headed to Nampodong to see a movie!  Most of the teachers saw a Korean movie, but Loola, Hyun Jung and I went to see TAKEN 2.  There was A LOT of violence, so poor Loola had her hand over her face almost the whole movie!  

Okk, Loola, Me, Hana, and Hyun Jung outside the theater in Nampodong.

Next stop was Amnam Park, where we all met for a group photo (typical Korean style)!

*** These are all of the 5th grade, 6th grade, and English teachers.

... as we were perusing through the park, Loola asked if she could try using my camera to take a picture of Hyun Jung and I on the steps.  She took this picture, looked at it and immediately squeeled, "I want one with Chelsey too!" Awe! 

hence... the same photo, with Loola!  :)

We all headed down to a seaside seafood BBQ tent!  How awesome is this place?  There are plastic windows in the back of the tent, that were zipped down tonight so that we could enjoy the gorgeous view of Yeongdo Island across the water and the giant bridge connecting Songdo to Yeongdo!  It was one of the coolest eating atmospheres that I've experienced in almost 4 years of living here!

There are perks to eating at little whole in the wall beach side tents, like having a cozy and charming place to eat... but then there are negatives to it, too.  Like when you find a worm in your edamame!   I'm guessing there aren't a whole lot of food regulations around these parts!

After waiting about 20 minutes, the lady brought out thie GIANT tray of shellfish!  Clams with chopped veggies, octopus in a red sauce, more clams in red sauce, covered in cheese, and a giant bowl of hot pepper clam soup!

These were something I would never have touched in America!  Now they're one of my favorite foods!

When the lady brought this basket of freshly slaughtered eel, I almost threw up.  Turns out though, once eel is cooked up, dipped in a little oil and salt mixture, it's fantastic! :)

I had another first tonight!  I ate the creatures growing inside of these seashells.

Here it is, up close!  

Slimy? - You bet'cha! 

Rubbery? - Oh yes!  

A little sandy? - Yep!  

Yummy? - Surprisingly so!

The 9 of us all stayed huddled around these two round BBQ tables, cooking, eating, talking, laughing, and drinking (our table just had cider - but still!) until the sun went down and the lights of the island lit up the ocean water! 

I'd venture to say that this was my all time favorite teacher dinner in 3 1/2 years! :)

Cheers to that!

Co-teacher Vietnamese dinner!

Last night, Okk, Loola, Monica (my co-teacher from last year) and I all went to dinner at a fancy Vietnamese restaurant in Lotte, to celebrate the wedding!  Not only did they take me to dinner, but they had wedding gifts!  Eeek!  My very first wedding related presents!  

Loola and Okk gave me a 100,000 won gift certificate to Lotte so that I could go shopping and buy "something for me, that Aaron would really like!"  hahahaha 

...and even Monica brought me a wedding present!  She's such a sweetheart!  She had recently gone up north to a traditional village and bought these Korean couples-slippers for Aaron and I!  

With a wedding celebration dinner, and only 1 month left before the big day, it sure is starting to set in a little...  

I'm only days away from being Mrs. Osteen!

Slumber party with Jessi!

Jess came down for the weekend to attend a wedding, so we had a slumber party at my apartment last night and did a little shopping and lunch in Nampodong this afternoon! Here are a few fun pictures from the morning / afternoon.

Jess spotted this bag in one of my favorite clothing stores, called POPCORN!

These two girls are the epitamy of Korean post-college age girls... lots of makeup, very fashionable, and wearing the newest korean trend - headbands that look like they should be sold at Gymboree!

It's really common to walk by boutique stores and see cats or dogs lounging by the door! This cat's name was Dong-chi (or at least something close to that...)! I especially loved her because she looked like my Mimmy and Grandaddy's cat, Smokey!

I snapped this picture to give you an idea of how cool the clothing boutiques are in Nampodong! The one next door looked like you were walking into a chic beachside boutique in the hamptons!

We had lunch at a brand new Italian restaurant called "The Pan," where we drooled over delicious mushroom risotto and shared a creme brulee the size of a strawberry! haha! It was the perfect night and morning with my Jessi! Miss you already friend!