Happy Birthday Ashley!

Two days ago was my sweet, adorable, spunky, dance loving, crazy girlfriend Ashley's 25th birthday, and last night Aaron and I went over to her place, along with 15 of her closest friends, to celebrate!

Adam and Ashley

Introducing Jeff... one of the coolest, funniest, laid back guys I've meet in Korea.
Loved these pics of him. 

 Everyone brought a little something to share! With 15 people crammed into a tiny apartment, it was bound to get messy!  But, that's the fun of it right?!

I walked into Ashley's bedroom, later in the night, and saw these three laying there chatting, with their feet up on the wall, and had to snap a photo.

I didn't realize, until I got home, that I had barely taken any pictures while I was there. :(

Regardless, Aaron and I had a blast, and Ashley was celebrated to the max, just the way she deserved to be!

Happy Birthday Post-Rad. :)

Long walks on the beach...

I know it's cliche to say, "I like long walks on the beach," but it happens to be true.  Last Thursday, the sunset was abnormally beautiful, so Aaron and I jumped on Scoot and headed up the mountain, on the island, to get a good view of it.  Unfortunately, there are just way too many little homes, stacked one on top of the other, to get a good view of anything from up there!  Don't think we didn't try! We took the elevator to the roof of two apartment buildings, but the doors were locked. :(

Sooo... we got back on Scoot and drove to the side of the island, parked, and had ourselves a little walk along the cliff.  

Aaron and I have always talked about doing this before we leave Korea.  I love the idea of it!  Maybe after the wedding when we're DEFINITELY locked together for life!  

The beach was tempting us to come down, so we took the 297 steps (yes, I counted) down to meet it.

We both had our cameras with us... What's new?!  So, I asked Aaron to sit here and let me practice doing some sunset shots where the lighting it really awkward.  I definitely have a lot to learn when it comes to shooting on MANUAL. You really have to know your camera, and what all the different settings are, in order to get a nicely composed shot.  I'm still very much in the process of learning all of that.

The sun was setting really fast and the rocks were getting a little hard to navigate through in the dark, so we hurried over to the last stairway on the beach, and made our way back up the 297 stair cliff on the far end of the beach.

There was a little look out point about 3/4 of the way up the cliff.  We were shocked, to say the least, at how beautiful the island looked at nighttime, from this spot.  

We made it back to the top and started our trek back to Scoot... 

but stopped here when we spotted this FREE telescope!  You could literally read the restaurant signs and see the people walking, over where the lights are in the background.

... and I could perfectly see the craters on the moon.  I'm not sure I've EVER actually looked through a telescope, unless I was really young and just can't remember.  It's pretty amazing what you can see with those things.

No Scoot ride is complete without a stop at Serry's!  Tonight, she was on her leash, outside, enjoying the perfect weather.  As soon as she saw us, she jumped up, tail wagging and barked for us to come closer.  Gotta love being loved by a dog.  So we sat with her for a while and talked with Emo while we drank our banana milk that she insisted on us taking from her.  

Tonight was the perfect little school night adventure! 

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!

"Maverick, watch out!"

I left Aaron alone, with Maverick, for 10 minutes while I went to pick up some dinner, and this is the video text he sent me!   It made me laugh so hard that I had to share it.


You can make one yourself with the Action Movies FX app on iphone.

89 cents!

I took a run over to the grocery store, tonight, to pick up some veggies!  Then, on my way home, I walked through the outdoor market to pick up the rest!  The last thing on my list was cherry tomatoes.  I knew of a lady who was selling a bowl of them for 1,000 won (89 cents), so I went straight to her.  She shook her head, telling me in Korean, that the 1,000 won bowl of tomatoes weren't delicious, and that I should get the bigger ones for 5,000 won.  Nice strategy lady... but you can't fool me!  I grabbed one from the bowl, and sure enough, it was GREAT!  So, I went ahead and bought them!  She poured the bowl of tomatoes into a black plastic bag for me and then literally reached her hand into a giant pile of cherry tomatoes and added about 4 heaps more to my bag!  I kept saying, "Wow, thank you!  Oh my gosh, Thank you!"  With a big smile, she handed me about 150-200 cherry tomatoes for... 89 cents!  

She's definitely my new favorite market lady!

My weekend get away!

When you're planning a wedding, it can feel as if ALL of your free time is spent planning, researching, organizing, crafting, and dreaming about the big event!  It can be overwhelming, and even the best of em' need a little weekend getaway sometimes!  I was no exception!

On Friday, after work, I treated myself to a visit at the hair salon, where the stylist curled my hair in gorgeous waves (crap, this was actually as a trial run for the wedding to see if my hair would hold curl...)  Guess it is kinda hard to completely pull away from planning sometimes!  I felt like a million bucks and just ended up going home and watching TV with my styled hair!  I'm so boring sometimes...

Saturday, I got up, threw my Adidas on, and jumped on a city bus to the back of the island, where I got off and ran/hiked up and down the coast!  It's times like this that I'll miss when I leave Korea. (iphone pic)

  I say I "hiked", because check out these stairs!  The coast-path is up and down, up and down, up and down, for about 2 miles!  It's a killer on your legs, but that's the point, right?! (iphone pic)

Later Saturday afternoon, I took a bus over to Gill's apartment in Kyungsung to meet up with her and Sam for some relaxing girl time!  They are sooooo on the same page as me when it comes to weekends!  We love just laying low and watching movies together, or talking about life, love, relationships, travel, the future!  They're the kinds of friends I seriously thank God for on a daily basis! :)  At around 7:30pm, we walked over to a Moksal (pig neck BBQ) restaurant for dinner.  Sounds disgusting, tastes amazing!  You'll just have to trust me on that one!  Then, we capped off the night at Fully Booked, a quaint little American owned and run, English book cafe/bar in Kysungsung.  (google images)

There are hundreds of used books that you can sit and read for free, or buy for a minimal price. Or, you can grab a board game and have at it!  We went with the later and grabbed Scattegories, which oddly enough, neither of them had ever played!  Guess that's what happens when you grow up in South Africa! ***  It didn't matter, Gill still worked both of us!  It really wasn't even close!

Sunday was another fantastically mellow, wedding-planning-free day!   Aaron and I rode the scooter over to Seomyeon to meet Meg and Dave for lunch at Fuzzy Navel Tacos!  They wanted to treat us to lunch for doing their photos last weekend!  Before we all knew it, 3 1/2hours had gone by, and we were still lounging, laughing, and sharing stories at our table!  

... well, and drinking Margaritas too!  YUM!

This weekend was the PERFECT wedding weekend getaway!  Not sure I'll be able to pull it off again in the next month, but I'll sure try! :)

I'm toxic...

...Or at least I WAS toxic, before I stuck these magic detoxifying pads on my feet!  

Aaron and I were at Daiso the other day and he grabbed these off the shelf and said, "We gotta try these!"   I'm always up for a fun herbal medicine remedy (as long as I don't have to drink or chew it! Those always seem to be more trouble than they're worth.)  A sticker on my foot that pulls toxins out of my body though?  Well, that's about as easy as it gets, right?

So, off I went!  I stuck it right onto the sole of my foot and sat at my kitchen table, working on the wedding music playlist!  (My typical Friday night activity for the last couple weeks.)  I left it on for an hour... although I read later that you should sleep overnight with them.  Oops!  Funny side note, they start to smell like BBQ, and I kept thinking, Wow, the BBQ place under my apartment smells really great tonight!  They must have a lot of business. That, of course, was before I read online that they smell like BBQ when applied! 

After an hour, I pealed them off, and was horrified!  OMG!  That's disgusting!  I knew they would turn brown, but gross!  

I DID buy these at the equivalent of the America's dollar store, so I'm not totally sure they're legit, but according to their website, the benefits are: 

1. To promote sleep, relieve fatigue, improve constipation, bad breath, and abdominal distention.

2. To get rid of impurities, body and foot odor. 

3. To activates cells to reproduce healthy skin and anti-aging. 

4. To balance the body organ function, blood fat, lower blood pressure, and reduce blood sugar.  

So, with that said, who's gonna try em'?!

Kind of a shame...

I've found myself getting really frustrated, lately, with the type of English I'm forced to teach my students in my English classroom!  Korea is paying me a lot of money to teach their kids English, yet the book my school was given by the government wasn't even written by a native English speaker.  For instance, I will spend the next 4 weeks teaching my 6th graders key sentences that are NEVER used in English speaking countries!  Why don't I scrap the book you ask?  Well, because Korea is TEST CRAZY and the government tests match the textbook to a tee, so I have to teach straight from it!  Are you feeling my frustration yet?  If not, maybe this will do the trick!

These are the sentences I'll be teaching my 6th graders for the next 4 weeks straight!

A: What will you do this weekend?

B: I'll work for my pocket money.

A: Oh, what will you do for it?

B: I'll walk the dog and feed it.

A: Good for you.

Can you imagine having that conversation with one of your friends during recess when you were in 6th grade?

A: What will you do this weekend?

B: I'll go to my uncle's farm in Daejon.

A: Daejon? How will you get there?

B: I'll go there by train.

A: Good!  Have a good time!

I'd be lying if I said I didn't cringe teaching this stuff... If I had it my way, it would be native English teachers writing the English books, and there wouldn't be government test.  Unfortunately, that'll likely never happen.  With that said, tonight I'm meeting my friend Meagan for dinner in Centum city and I'm excited about that!  How will I get there you ask?  Oh, I will go there by subway of course!   lol

Check it out!

The photos of Dave and Meg have been posted to our photography blog!  :) I'm so excited about how they all turned out! 

aaronnicholasphoto

Sharing

I like to think of myself as a really great sharer! (Is that a word?) I share my clothes, shoes, apartment, money, time, talents, and even money! I share everything, unless it's.... FOOD!

For whatever reason, I've always been terrible at sharing my food! If Aaron takes a bite of my sandwich I feel like the world is over, or if one of my older coworkers asks if they can have my last piece of fruit at lunch I have a hard time not holding a grudge! Seriously! It's intense!

Today was no exception! A huge box of Clif bars that I had ordered from America arrived at my desk after lunch, and my two co-teachers instantly swarmed around me asking if they could please have one! AAAAAHHHH! My precious Clif bars!!! I handed them each one with a smile on my face and sadness in my heart and quickly sealed the box!

Then, when I was walking home, I ran into another co-worker who inquired about what was in my giant box and I had to give one to her too! Nnnoooo!!

Korea is a culture built on sharing food with one another... It's one of the only things I won't miss when I leave. For now, I'll just suck it up, try and figure out what my issue is with sharing food, and hide my precious Clif bars under my bed until I've learned how to share nicely! Hey, we've all got our issues, right?!

Meg and Dave

Aaron and I had the pleasure of doing an anniversary photoshoot with Meg and Dave Rushbrook for their 5 year wedding anniv!  They happened to have come to Korea at the exact same time as us, 3 1/2 years ago, yet we had never gotten together until now because they live on the far, far, far end of Busan!  :(

We decided to meet at a bus stop on the back of Yeongdo island and hike to our location, which happened to be about 200-300 steps down to the beach... great on the leg muscles!  Luckily, we were able to stop and take a couple breaks on the beautiful pathway leading down to snap some photos!  Here's a lil sneak peak of the photoshoot.  Wait till you see Aaron's photos!  Eeekkkk!  Stunning, as always! 

They are totally in love and you can tell with every kiss!  Anytime we would snap a kissing photo, Dave would ask if we needed another take!  It was so cute and endearing. He definitely adores his wife!

I happened to have discovered this beach on Wednesday when I was out jogging around the island.  I completely fell in love and knew it would be perfect for a photoshoot!  Problem is, there's no easy way to get down there, or back up for that matter, but when Meg and Dave said they loved the location and didn't mind the trek, I was thrilled!  Meg went above and beyond and packed and ENTIRE picnic for the shoot!  Then, after the sun went down, the four of us got comfy on the blanket and chatted for a long time while the waves crashed nearby and the moon lit up the water!  It's was GORGEOUS!!!

    

We were having so much fun getting to know each other that they asked if they could take us to coffee before they headed home!  We weren't about to turn down a coffee date, especially with these two! :)  So, we spent the next two hours in a coffee shop on the island laughing and sharing stories!   It was such a fun, fun night with these two!  The full photo shoot will be up on www.aaronnicholasphoto.blogspot.com in the next week or so, so be looking out! 

Honeymoon!

Since I've been running with the wedding, Aaron went ahead and took charge of the honeymoon, which I LOVE!  There's nothing better than traveling somewhere and not having to do any research!   In the last couple days, he decided that we're going to stay our first night in the adorable Red Rocker Inn, which happens to be RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from the house we're getting married at, so we can literally walk there!  YAY! 

It was built back in 1896 and has all the charm you would imagine something that old having!

The next morning, we'll drive to Charlotte to catch a flight to....
Munich, Germany, then rent a car and drive through Salsburg, Austria and spend a couple nights in the quaint and charming lake village of Hallstatt, Austria.

 Have you ever seen something more charming?!  It's so different than anything we've seen in the last 3 1/2 years of living in Asia.  I think that's why we instantly fell in love and knew it was where we wanted to spend the majority of our 4 day honeymoon!

The village of Hallstatt can easily be covered by foot in under and hour, and while we love the intimacy of small foreign villages, we weren't sure we'd be up for spending a full 60 hours here, which is where our little rental car comes in!  Say hello to our teeny tiny mercedes that we rented!  Aaron has found a few other darling villages nearby that we can jump in the car and drive over to to explore and maybe have lunch or a quick hike at...  pretty excited about what this lil guy is going to be able to allow us to see!

Now to the hotel!  Aaron found an awesome place for us to stay, and it's right on the lake!  Yes please!  Not only is it the OLDEST hotel in Hallstatt (built in the 15th century as a family theater and renovated into a hotel in 1882) but it's right in the center of town, has a lovely restaurant right on the lake, breakfast is included, and there's a free canoe for us to take out on the lake whenever we please!

The car and the hotel have been booked and I am soooo excited to get there and enjoy my first couple days as a wife with my sweet husband by my side! :)

Adam + Ashley Sneak Peak!

The photo's are up of our photoshoot with Adam and Ashley!  ENJOY

www.aaronnicholasphoto.blogspot.com

Boxes of wedding treats!

Aaron's custom made wedding suit from Seoul arrived at my school today along with my wedding shoes that I ordered from America!  Such a fun day of wedding mail treats!

45 days till the big day!

"It's a..... "

I was playing a guessing game with my 5th graders today where I would show them a picture of a place and they had to say, "It's a park" or "It's a department store."  When this picture came up on the screen, one of my quieter students excitedly raised his hand, thrilled that he knew the answer, and blurted out

"It's a cafeteria!"  

Uuuuummmm.... I guess for some of the older Korean generation, that's not too far off!  But, NO!  A pet shop is not a cafeteria!  Gotta love teaching ESL!

Wedding wood signs!

When we decided on having a backyard wedding, I immediately dreamed of having yard games, hand picked garden flowers all over the place, fabric flags, hanging bulb lights, paper lanterns hung from the tree, bamboo parasols, cute chalk boards, lots of black and white photo's hung on twine with clothespins, and my favorite: hand painted wood signs!  

Crafting resources are definitely scarce in Korea, but lucky for us, there is absolutely NO lack of old distressed wood pallets laying around! Aaron and I jumped on the scooter yesterday afternoon and rode around the neighborhood, looking for wood crates to take apart and use for the wood signs that I'd dreamed of having!  

We found a place with an awesome old wood crate leaning up against a wall, and asked the old guy working there if we could have it.  Lucky for us, he was more than happy to give it to us and actually even grabbed a crow bar and took the pieces of wood apart for us and hammered the old rusty nails out!  YAY!  

Aaron found some sand paper and a small saw at the local DAISO ($4.00 total) and went right to work on the rooftop of my apartment building, sanding and cutting the pieces of wood!
We love the character in this wood!

No rooftop project is complete without a beer, right?!  Aaron likes to keep it classy in a fancy wine glass!

 

This morning, I scoured the internet in search of home made wood stains, since I have NO idea where to buy any in Korea.  I found a website that said if you soak steel wool in a cup of vinegar for 24 hours, it can be used as a dark wood stain!  PERFECT!  So, I walked next door, to the corner market, and grabbed a package of steel wool... but then as I was walking to the checkout stand my eye was drawn to a small display of brown shoe polish... and the wheels started turning!  If it works on leather, it should be strong enough to work on wood, right?!  For $2.00, it was worth a shot!

I was right!  Not only did it work, but it stained it the perfect color!  SCORE!
The wood only needed one coat, which meant only 1 bottle was needed! 

The next part was something that made me a bit anxious!  If I messed up the writing, I'd have to start all over!!   I grabbed a piece of newspaper and free handed the font for each sign on a piece of newspaper, then set it in front of the wood to help as a size and orientation reference.


I used a white paint pen (bought from DAISO for $1.00) to write the fonts, and I'm soooo excited with how the signs turned out... if I don't say so myself!  For a total of $7.00, I was able to make 4 one of a kind wood signs for the wedding!  YAY!!!

Hope my wedding guests are up for playing a couple of my favorite games!

Let's do this thing!

Aaron and I have talked a lot about what we would do for jobs when we move back to the US one day.  I seemed to always revert back to being an admin assistant, while he would throw around things like: being a teacher, a personal trainer, or something related to sports... but would always say that his DREAM is to do photography full time!  I am such a HUGE fan of his work that I couldn't resist being supportive of him pursuing this DREAM!  

So with that, I'd like to officially introduce the humble beginnings of our new business and photography blog!

Remember to save it as a favorite place, or subscribe by e-mail, to see what we're up to!  

If you happen to live in Busan or are planning to be in the area, and are looking to have some photo's taken, shoot us an e-mail, or leave a comment on the blog and we'll work on setting something up!  We're currently offering FREE photo shoots as we are building our portfolio!  Free photo's for you, free practice for us! :)  I'd call that a win win!

Health kick

I've been on a pretty big health kick for the past couple weeks! While I haven't lost a huge amount of weight, I AM feeling really great and am loving being outside more and eating healthy! I woke up early this morning, threw on my Adidas shoes and headed for the stationary store, 3 miles away! Why take a bus when the weather's nice and your squeezing into a tight white dress in 2 months?!   Eeekkk

I used an awesome app called Map My Run. If you're a runner and have a smart phone this is a must have!

6:67 miles baby!  

Cat nap

School was cancelled today for memorial day, so I spent most of the day working on wedding crafts while this little fatty cuddled up on my Thai floor pillow next to me!   Seriously, have you ever seen a fatter cat?!

Ashley and Adam

Aaron and I have been pretty seriously throwing around the idea of starting a photography business when we eventually move back to the US.  How could we possibly work an 8-5 office job after all the freedom we've had for the past 3 1/2 years!  Plus, we love the creativity of photography, and would rather be together than not during the day, so why not try doing something we love, and do it together, right?!  

We're pretty sure we'll end up settling in Charleston, SC, and lucky for us, there happens to be a good market for wedding photography in that area!  With that said, we figured we'd get our feet wet (literally) and get a little practice in.  Our sweet friends Ashley and Adam allowed us to do a couple's photoshoot with them for 2 1/2 hours!  Hey, free photo's for them, free practice for us!  It's a win win! 

We decided to meet up at Da Daepo Beach, on the west end of Busan.  Pretty, right?!

 I ended up being more of an artistic director, while Aaron snapped photos, which was really fun for me and actually more my speed!  I did, however, snap a few of my own little behind the scenes photos, just for kicks! These solo shots of Adam (& later Ashley) turned out REALLY stunning! 

You'll have to wait to see those though!  SORRY!

They were so fun to work with!  Neither of them had ever done something like this, but with a little direction, they were total pros!

Aaron climbed up on this huge rock to get them from above. (Another EPIC pic that you'll have to wait on!) 

Oh yes, there was a dirty dancing move!

Lots of laughing was involved in making this one work!  The final photo is really cool!  They look like couple ice skaters that just happen to be practicing their lifts on the beach! ***
I'm not sure I'd be as brave as Ash!   Props to these two!

I snapped this one while Aaron was changing his lens!  How great is this heart rock that Aaron found as we were walking along the beach!  

More behind the scenes of Ashley and Adam...

I had to get in a little artistic shot between giving directions to the gorgeous couple! :)

The sun was setting perfectly in front of them as we were working on this shot.  The one Aaron got of them kissing with the sun between them makes me practically drool!  

Another fun one that I caught between positioning them!

Aaron's going to be working on putting together a little photography blog for us in the next week or so, so you can check there to see the final pics!  I'll keep you posted when it's up and running!

HUGE thank you to Adam and Ashley for being our guinea pigs!  You guys were AWESOME!