Thoughtfulness!

This afternoon, I got a box!!! This is one of my favorite things!

I received a package from my "new" friend Cassie Robertson! Cassie is a family friend of the Andersons, and a recent "new" friend of mine! She sent me one of the sweetest cards, 2 bars of the most deliciously smelling honey lemon soap, and a book for me to read that she thought parallelled my experiences in Korea!

I love, love, love getting care packages! This totally made my day! Thanks Cassie!

You wear your shoes in the house?!

I was telling my 6th grade class how Americans wear their shoes in the house. You should have seen their faces!! It was classic! They must have thought we were the dirtiest people in the world!

Oh an P.S. These are my new winter slippers for work! MHS teachers: How jealous are you that I get to wear slippers at work while I teach?! You're not even allowed to wear tennis shoes!!

Korean Reality TV

Korea has taken reality TV to a whole new level! I just dryed my hair and painted my nails while watching an entire 1/2 hour of Korean city boys shearing a sheep in the middle of a field. Believe it or not, it was really entertaining and funny!

Bennegol Weekend Retreat!

This weekend, Jessica, Carlos, Aaron, Luda, Billy and I all took a train into Bennegol (a famous valley in korea to see the fall leaves). It's about an hour and a half train ride from my place and was the equivalent of $22.00 for transportation and accomodations!


We all rented a condo together in this mountain...


We spent the weekend laughing, talking, playing black jack and circle of death...

...taking walks...


... skipping rocks in this river (the other side of the river had a bit more water)...


...taking pictures of nature...


... sitting high up on hay stacks...

...enjoying the wildflowers...

... checking out old, run down, Korean homes along the road...


...picking apples from an apple orchard... (This was especially exciting for me because I'm a freak about apples and this was the 1st time I'd ever seen apples growing on a tree!!)

The owner of the apple orchard gave me a bunch of free apples when he saw how excited I was to pick one!

... admiring the gorgeous fall leaves...

... taking pictures of each other...

...attempting to catch the butterflies...

...watching people scoop water from the stream inside this mountain...

...holding puppies...

...walking a mile to get to the restaurant...


... enjoying all the FREE fruit around...

...searching for crawdads and heart shaped rocks (which we found 5 of!), listing to music, BBQing together and just plain having a great weekend together!

Bbbrrrrr!

It's the last month of Fall, and it's already FREEZING in my school! The walls of my classroom are floor to ceiling windows, so insulation is basically 없어요 (obsayo) which, in this case, means "non existent!" In addition, my school hasn't been turning the heater on, because they are afraid it will become a breeding ground for the swine flu!

I snapped this picture of one of my 4th grade students all bundled up in class today...


...and this is one of my 5th graders sitting next to the floor heater (that I bought and brought to school) in my office a couple minutes ago... Poor girl!

I've reluctantly come to terms with comfort over fashion the last couple weeks at work!! It was a long battle, but my down coat has been winning over the cute dress and boots every morning! :(

After reading this blog, my mom sent this to me: "The winter climate in Busan, from December to February, is considerably colder, when daytime temperatures average just 3°C / 37°F and often fall below freezing at night. March heralds the arrival of spring in Busan, with temperatures quickly rising and daylight hours increasing."

I'm gonna die here!!