April Fools!

I love April Fools Day! It's the only day you can say something completely outrageous and get away with it! How could you not like a day like that?! Today I played 2 April Fools jokes on my students (4th graders).

The first 4th grade class came in and sat down. I told them we were having a very big English spelling test and that I would grade it and give it to their homeroom teacher! They were all freaking out, and really nervous because they can't spell very well! I said, "Okay, # 1: Dinosaur" There was a group sigh, as they realized they had no idea how to spell Dinoasur. Then I said, "#2: Excavator" haha. Then came, "Cyber, Halucination, Procrastinator, Gruffalo, Station, Information, spinach, and ambulance!" It makes me laugh, just thinking about it! Their faces were so funny! They were really stressed out! I should probably tell you that they barely know how to spell 3 letter words! Ella kept saying, "We taught these words to you last class. You should know them!" They kept looking at her like she was crazy, knowing that they had never studied these words before! Finally, when I had said all 10 words, we shouted, "April Fools!" They all bursted out laughing! It was perfect!

The second 4th grade class came in and sat down. I did my normal intoruction and then proceeded to tell them that today was my last day of teaching and that I would be flying back to America tomorrow morning. They looked at me with the most adorable puppy dog faces and couldn't understand why I was leaving. One of the students, very concerned, asked Ella, in Korean, "How will we learn English if Alexis leaves?" Another said he would write me a letter, and one girl said she would ask her mom to let her call me with her international calling plan! haha. They were all so sad... But we had apparently taken it too when sweet little Robert started crying - real tears! Ella and I noticed him, so she asked, "Oh no, are you sad that Alexis is leaving?" He nodded and another little tear ran down his cheek! I quickly ran over to him, threw my arms around him, and said, "April Fools!" They all started laughing... but this time it was at Robert expense, because he was fooled! :) Ella and I are such good actresses, huh?!

Oh, and to those of you who fell for my facebook post about me quitting my job and moving back to America, all I can say to you is: APRIL FOOLS!

Now that's a Bible Study!

This is April! She is the music teacher at my school, one of my closest friends at work, and she is also a devout Christian.


During lunch today, we started talking about her bible study that she attends at her church. I was really interested in the differences between bible studies in America and Korea (considering Koreans love studying everything, every moment of their day!) So, here's a little glimpse into how her's works!

1. She has to pay $10.00 a month to be a part of it.

2. She has to read 100 pages of the bible each week! (That's a LOT!)

3. She meets with her bible study group, at her church, once a week from 8pm -10pm (That's pretty normal)

4. She has to answer 40 in depth questions, each week, about what she's read! (Wow!)

5. She has to turn in her questions each week... Her answers are then graded by the pastor! (I've never heard of a church grading bible study questions!)

6. If she "passes" her bible study at the end of the year, she will get a prize! Wanna know what the prize is? She will be given a certificate and a Christian book!

*** I've been a Christian for a long long time, and have always enjoyed studying the bible... but it would take a serious amount of discipline, on my end, for me to read 100 pages a week and answer that many questions! Uh oh... Am I a slacker?!

Dried fish snacks!

Koreans love, love, love their dried fish snacks! Here is an entire display of them! Any dried fish, squid or octopus you could ever want to eat, is here! mmmmmm

Jeju Island!

It's on a whim, and the idea came to me today... What better way to spend my birthday than on an island!?

Flights have officially been reserved to Jeju Island (Korea) for my birthday weekend! I had so much fun traveling with Aaron in Indonesia that I invited him to come along! So, he's coming with me! We're hoping to bring you all lots of fun pictures, adventures, and stories from the island!

April and May are when these yellow flowers bloom all over Jeju! I'm hoping to be able to romp through a huge bed of them like this! :)

If we have enough time, I'm hoping to be able to hike Mt Hallasan (a volcano!) Better pack my tennies!

I'm pretty sure this will be an unforgettable birthday! ... Now how will I ever top it next year when I turn 30!?

Korean Pizza!

Long gone are my days of eating regular cheese or pepperoni pizza! In Korea, it's unheard of to order a pizza with just cheese! The look on the workers faces when I ordered cheese and pepperoni one time, was of utter confusion and disbelief! Why you ask?! Well, because here are some examples of what Koreans believe pizzas should look like!

The more toppings, the better! Yes, the center pizza has waffle fries on it!

Pretty fancy, huh?!

Sweet potato pizza!

This is a seafood pizza!

And lastly... This is an ad for a korean shrimp pizza! Looks pretty yummy huh?!

I've learned to try a lot of new things living here and have surprised myself by the way I've loved most of what I've tried! Case in point, I drank another cup of coffee during tea time today at school! That's 3 cups in 3 days! (The only 3 cups of coffee I've ever drank!) All the teachers keep telling me, "Alexis, you are becoming Korean!" While I'll always be an American at heart, I'm definitely a little Korean too now! :) Anyone wanna meet for pizza!? Flights to Korea are only $800 from LA right now! Tell you what... If you pay for your flights, the pizza's on me! :)

International Kite Flying Contest

Today, Aaron and I ventured over to Da Daepo beach for the International Kite Flying Contest!

As we were walking along the beach, I spotted this man selling cotton candy in a slushy cup and had to get some!!! mmmm

This man was literally unraveling his kite from within a huge cardboard box. It just kept going, and going, and going!

This one did some pretty awesome swirls in the air...

Kites of all sizes filled the beach sky!

This was my favorite kite of the day!

We brought our little handmade, hand painted Indonesian kite along with us for it's virgin journey in the sky!

Unfortunately, it wasn't cooperating very well! This is about as high as it would fly!

We tried our best to fix the strings by re-tying them all different ways... but ultimately, it just wouldn't fly!

So, we said our goodbyes, and placed it in the trash. :( Note to self: If you want a beautiful kite, buy one in Indonesia! If you want a beautiful kite that actually flies, try Target!

Aaron saved the day by finding an old Korean woman who was selling kites out of a makeshift cart! What a beauty, huh?!

We sat in the sand, on my sarong, and relaxed, enjoying the blue skies and kites all around us... and of course, our own new kite that was actually flying!

Me and Aaron

This should give you a good idea of how huge this octopus kite was... look in the bottom left hand corner and you'll see our kite!

We decided to take a walk over to the new viewpoint staircase! We tied our kite to the back of my backpack and Aaron, being the good sport that he is, offered to hold it on the walk!

What a cool view huh?! I'd love to come back at night and take some pictures of the city lights, reflecting off the ocean water! That's for a later blog!

We spotted this family, relaxing and cooking seafood on the rocks.

While Aaron searched for rocks to skip in the water, I went on the lookout for heart rocks! Look what I found!

We walked over to our favorite play area, and did some hoop shooting! We cheat and do it together at the same time! We're really good and are always crowd pleasers, but we can never seem to get past the 2nd level...

We noticed the area had trampolines, so we jumped for a little while and I showed off my flipping abilities! Aaron was really impressed! Apparently, so were the 3 boys on the trampoline behind me!

Tah dah!

We walked over to the best Samgyupsal restaurant in Busan! (Well, that's our opinion at least!) Maybe it's the food, maybe it's the fact that it overlooks the beach! Regardless, we both love it!

This was the first time I had ever cooked Samgyupsal, all by myself, without the servers help, at my table! I'm becoming such a Korean!

After dinner, we walked over to the Fountain show! Aaron was making me laugh so hard, doing funny dance moves as we walked along the sidewalk! Here's just a fun glimpse! He channelled his inner snoop dog in this version of the cryp walk!

The fountain show started back up this month, so we headed over to watch it! The sun was setting in the background, filling the sky with a beautiful tone of pink!

It was far too cold for both of us to stay through the whole show, so we called it a night and jumped on the bus to go home! There's never a dull moment in Korea! Chalk this up to another fun filled Sunday! :)

Dinner at the Che's house!

Aaron and I have become really close with the family of 2 students from his previous school. The Che family has invited us over to their home 3 times now for dinner! It's always so fun to hang with them!

Last night was a blast! Julia (the mom), who doesn't know much english and simply calls herself "Wendy's mom" made the most awesome shmorgasboard of food for dinner! The white circles below are vietnamese rice papers. You place one at a time into a bowl of warm water, on the table, and it instantly softens. Then you load whatever you want in it, wrap it up, and enjoy the deliciousness!

After dinner, we sat around the table drinking Kenyan coffee and eating Korean snack food. I say this because I drank my very first cup of coffee, EVER, and I actually liked it! mmm fresh ground Kenyan coffee beans with milk and honey is where it's at!

played a really fun Japanese game called "Yanuri " (I think). Before we played though, we needed to pick teams, so we used a common Korean method. Everyone shakes their hands and then at the same time either faces their palm up or down. When there are equal palms up as down, the teams have been made! So creative huh?!

It's played by throwing 4 sticks and moving 8 pieces on a gameboard! If you're a game lover, you definitely need to add this one to your game closet!

Candy, their oldest daughter, is a junior in HS, Wendy is in 7th grade, and Emily is from Kenya and lives with them! They met her when the family visited Kenya on a missions trip years ago!

Jason, "Wendy's mom", and me!

After playing Yanuri, we watched Korean music videos on TV. This group was really funny because there were 3 guys, but the groups name was "4 men"... hmmm!

As we were leaving, Emily gave us this awesome panther carved from wood and made in Kenya! I love it! She helped us give it a Kenyan name... So, I'd now like to introduce my newest pet, "Mazzuli!"

The whole gang together! Teju (Jason), Aaron, Me, Julia (Wendy's mom), Wendy, Emily, Candy, and Mr. Che.

*** Just a fun side note. I've been noticing that all of the high school and junior high girls have the EXACT same haircut! So, I asked Candy and Wendy about it. Apparently in Korea, there is a hair limit length for girls and boys in middle school and high school. Each school has it's own rule, but hair basically has to be short, and only black! At Wendy's school, the rule is no longer than 10 centimeters past your ear. There are often hair checks, so if a girl's hair is past the limit, it is cut on one side... Then the girls have to go home or to a salon to have the rest cut evenly! The whole reason for this is... "Girls shouldn't be focusing on their hair, but rather their school work!" Can you imagine if this were the case in America! WOW!

Spring is here...

Well, it's still REALLY cold, but Spring is starting to show, here and there! These are 2 huge trees near my apartment that just began flowering this weekend! :)

Cherry Blossom Tree

I'm not sure what this one is called, but I love it!

I've joined a gym!

I've given in and joined a gym! Believe it or not, I actually have enjoyed it so far! My gym's name is Good Morning Health Club... It's tiny, fairly ghetto, but gets the job done! This afternoon, I walked in and there were only 2 people working out! I love the privacy!

This is the shelf of public workout clothes, organized by size! I can bring my own, OR, I can borrow a t-shirt and shorts from the gym and throw them in the laundry basket when I leave! Um, yes please! Oh, and I have my own shoe locker there, so I can leave my workout shoes! I can basically go straight from work, hop off the bus, and get started! No gym bag needed!

This is a gigantic painting in the stairway, leading to the gym, of some guy who beat Arnold Schwarzenegger's weightlifting record. I like to pay homage to him when I enter! :)

I ended up getting a 3 month membership, and it ended up being $40 a month... What's funny is, I think that's more than I paid in Arizona for LIFETIME FITNESS, which is basically 5 star resort, with 3 pools, 2 watercslides, a full service cafe, a salon, 2 aerobics studios, a yoga room, a huge workout area, 2 basketball courts, 4 raquetball courts, and a rock climbing wall!

Come to think of it... I think I might be getting ripped off in Korea! :(