He proposed!

No, no, not Aaron!  Although, be patient, that day will probably come as well!  But this post is in celebration of my BEST FRIEND Sarah and her new fiance, Caleb!

Sarah was the first person I met at Vanguard University, at orientation actually!  She was one of my very best friends all through college and someone I cherish, admire, and love!  In the past 11 years of our friendship we have shopped and crafted, knitted and watched movies, painted and decorated, stolen clothes from each other, cooked and feasted, worked out and lounged, prayed and worshipped, loved and lost, laughed and cried, traveled, and lived... TOGETHER!  She is someone who deserves the best life partner that God could possibly provide!  And I think he did her well with Caleb! :)

Introducing my best friend, her fiance, and her stunning new ring!  

The future Mr. and Mrs. Caleb Thatcher!

coming August 13th, 2010

In Sarah's own words:

"Once again, God proves to be a God who fulfills his promises, provides, and restores all things in my life.... and this time, he truly out-did himself!  It's official, I am the future, Mrs. Caleb Thatcher!" 

Congratulations you two! 

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Pumpkin Searching!

Gooodbye to the days of hay rides through pumpkin patches, and hello to the days of hanging onto the back of a parked Hyundai work truck filled with the overgrown squash!! Yes, this how we do it in Korea!! Sure takes some of the fun out of picking out a pumpkin, eh??!!

As far as pumpkins go though, Aaron and I thought this one was nice... 

But how were we to carve a face into such a short and smooshed pumpkin?!  And so, with a sigh of dissapointment and a realization that a pumpkin would not be carved this halloween afternoon, Aaron and I scooted over to McDonalds to raise our spirits! 

Happy Halloween!

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Art Festival... In the subway?!

Last night, I was getting off the subway in Seomyeon (the center station of Busan) and heard someone singing and people clapping along!  Hmm?  What could it be, I thought?!   I walked towards the music and found this - The Humetro Art Festival!

Yes, an art festival in the subway!  Only in Korea!  Last night's featured art was:
SINGING! 

Can't wait to see what I stumble upon next in this creative country!

New dog in the neighborhood!

Aaron found this adorable dog, in my neighborhood, on one of his walks to my place from the gym!  

She is a huge fan of Aaron, as he has spent time, in the past, petting and loving on her!

They even know how to high five! Very impressive!  Seeing her, really made me miss my old dog Macy who I had to adopt out before coming to Korea!   I know she and Macy would have been great friends!  

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Bon Appetite and books!

I've had a lot of fun in the last couple days, but haven't taken any pictures to prove it!  So you'll just have to read all about it instead!  :(

On Wednesday night, I had a teacher dinner at my absolute favorite Galbi restraurant!  

The drinks (yes alcohol at a staff dinner) were flowing (In fact, the Principal had brought a kettle of plum wine and was filling the teachers shot glass over and over again) and there was enough meat and shrimp to serve a small army!  Not the greatest thing when you're trying not to intake a lot of calories!  But made for a delicous dinner and fun night!

After dinner, I hopped over to Annie's house for Text In the City (our book club!)  We had 2 new girls there who I'd never met before, which was great! The more the merrier!  Then I stopped in at Truchen's apartment to hang for a little bit before bedtime.  In a way, it feels a little bit like college all over again with all these single girlfriends living in apartments closeby!  Makes me feel like I'm not pushing 30!

Then last night, Aaron and I made dinner for our friend Brian and his new girlfriend Amber.  I wish I would have snapped a picture of the spread and the 4 of us together!  I don't know what I was thinking!  We made Vietnamese Rice Paper wraps, which you dip into hot water and then add whatever ingredients you want - chicken, tuna, crab meat, ham, carrots, cucumber, tomotoes, lettuce leaves, cheese, fried egg, and or mushrooms, and then top it off with some dipping sauce!  It's to die for and we made it all from scratch!  Feel free to call us by our alter egos - Emerel and Martha!  We'll be happy to respond!

No plans for the weekend yet... which is actually quite nice!  I'm looking forward to book reading, stroll taking, market shopping, and TV show catching up time! Happy Friday everyone!

Oh and a quick shout out: 

Happy Birthday to my sweet nephew Caeden!  Auntie Jillers loves and adores you and hopes your pizza and Chuckee Cheese time was great!  It was sooo nice to talk to you this morning!

Tough Guy!

There have been a couple cases of child abduction in Korea this year, so the Principal at my school decided to hire a security guard to watch over the school!  He picked one of his friends to do the job and gave him a green sash to wear and an orange stick to hold to make him look more official!   I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that no one would be afraid of our security guard!   

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Fireworks Festival!

Last night was the HUGE Fireworks Festival at Gwangali Beach, which is said to have had around 2.5 million spectators!  We knew we were going to need to get there early to get a good seat on the beach, so we left 5 hours before the show and fought the crowds on the subway, all the way from my place, 23 subway stops away!  Crazy huh?!  Our early departure paid off and we actually landed a seat in the VERY FRONT row of the sand!!  I'm showing off the security tape we're sitting right by!

It was pretty cold when we got there, so Aaron and I cuddled up next to each other... 

... while Amy sat, close by, reading her HUMUNGOUS book! 

The old Koreans behind us were smart, and brought a traditional korean card game to play, to pass the time!

All .86 miles of the white sand beach filled up REALLY fast... This picture was probably taken around 5:00pm, 3 hours before the show even started!  

We stocked up on Korean treats to share: fried chicken, chips, cookies... you know, all the things you should eat when you're trying to be healthy!  (Insert sarcasm here!)

Gill was able to come and meet us before the show started!  This was her 1st time seeing it!

Unfortunately Truchen wasn't so lucky and ended up getting stuck in this human traffic in the streets!  

I love these 2!  (My sister and Aaron)

This year, they had dancers on the beach who were getting the crowd all rawled up!  The only thing this guy did though was dance like a crazy person and make everyone laugh!

I couldn't resist getting out there and dancing with him!  The crowd cheered me on, which was very sweet of them!

There were 130,000 fireworks and tons of lasers in last nights show!   How they organized that to go with the music was beyond me!  The show was spectacular!  These are some of my favorite shots from the night!

This video is of the fireworks set to "New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra!

And this one is to Beyonce's "Halo"!  AMAZING!

The finale was beyond amazing!  This video is definitely worth watching!
FYI: MUTE YOUR COMPUTER VOLUME before watching!  The sound is really distorted!  

The show lasted about 45 minutes and as soon as it was over, the koreans jumped up and practically ran to their cars, buses or subway to beat the traffic!  We, on the other hand, lounged around the beach and enjoyed the gorgeous night air and cool sand in our toes! 

Who doesn't love a good piggy back ride?!

... and a shmooch for good measure!  :)

The whole gang together!  Gill, Me, Aaron and Amy!  

Amy said it was the most awesome fireworks show she'd ever seen and was really happy we went!  So, even though 1/2 our day was fighting crowds and steaking out our spot on the beach, it was all worth it!   Can't wait for next years show!  Who wants to be my special guest next October?!

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Friday fun day!

Today was a big day for my students!  They were meeting another foreigner, MY SISTER!   For about 90% of my students, Amy was the 2nd foreigner they had ever even seen in person, let alone talked to!  She was a celebrity all day!  My 2nd graders were the luckiest because she helped me teach this class!

After lunch, Ella presented Amy with this gigantic pecan cake that she had picked up for the big occasion!  We all sat around the table in the teachers lounge and stuffed our tummies while students came, in droves, to get an up close and personal look at Amy and talk to her!  I was so proud of their extravertedness [sic] - None of them were shy today!  

Today was the big storytelling contest in Busan, and my student Lisa was going to be competing, so we asked her to present her story to Amy!  It's really cute, about a little girl who picks her nose and her finger gets stuck!

Ella told us that the Principal invited us to have tea in his office with him, and since denying an invitation from the principal is a no no, we headed over!  He literally can say 3 sentences in English, so it was a lot of motioning and smiling!   The best part was when he picked up a bouquet of flowers he had grown himself, wrapped in a piece of printer paper, and handed it to Amy to welcome her!

 Definitely one of the sweetest gestures I've ever seen from a Korean Principal!  This is Amy, my Principal and Ella (my co-teacher).

My Principal told Ella that I could cancel my afternoon classes and leave early to spend time with my sister today!  (AMAZING and soooo nice!)  So, we left my school around 1:45pm and took a taxi to Song Do Hesoopia Jim Jil Bang!

Since you can't take pictures inside, I stole these from their website!

This is the bath house part of the Jim Jil Bang!  It's huge and has about 10 different pools of all different temperatures and minerals to lounge in!  One of the best parts of this place were the floor to ceiling windows with a gorgeous view of the ocean and Yongdo Island across the water!

After soaking for an hour or so, we put on our Jim Jil Bang outfits and headed upstairs to see what they had to offer!  We went back and forth between this ice room....

... and this warm sea salt room, which is heavenly as far as I'm concerned!  You actually lay in the salt!

After trying out the different rooms we decided to take a nap in these little cubby holes in the wall...

but then we found these massage chairs and couldn't resist!  We went 3 rounds in these chairs and ended up saving ourselves about $30 by not getting the real thing!  We both agreed we probably got a better massage from the chairs anyway!

Amy's first Korean Jim Jil Bang experience was a big success!  She was practically glowing as we were leaving the place!

My mom's birthday is coming up and she's been asking for a pink tank top that I bought in Nampodong last summer, so we walked the streets of Nampo in search of the infamous pink tanktop, but to no avail - sorry mom!  Our trip to Nampo wasn't a total loss though, we had delicious street food for dinner...

... and Amy found 4 things to add to her suitcase!

I walked Amy through the thrift store part of Gukje market to see what bargains we could find. While we didn't find anything worth buying, we did find a dog worth taking a picture of!  The shop owner was letting his poodle lay in this basket of ties that were for sale!!  Gotta love thrift stores!  

Since we were close by the "Chicken Poop House!" (Yes, this is a real restaurant), I knew I had to take Amy!  It's the most awesome, underground, college hangout restaurant, run by drunken old Korean women who serve CHICKEN ANUS!  No joke!  

Amy was so excited to try it!

Here it is friends, CHICKEN ANUS, served with french fries!  And yes, we both ate some!  Add it to the list!

 We've been lounging around my place tonight, and are about to head to bed!  Tomorrow is the huge fireworks show on the beach!  Should be a great day!

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