Happy Thanksgiving!

For most of you, it's about 8:30pm on Thursday, November 27th! I hope that you have all had a fun filled day of relaxing and lounging with family and friends, eating the most amazing food you've tasted all year, cheering for your favorite football team, drinking coffee while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, and most of all, reflecting about what you're thankful for!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Thanksgiving, Italian Style!

I couldn't get over the fact that this would be my 1st thanksgiving away from family and was determined not to spend my Thursday night at home, eating cereal! So, mid afternoon, yesterday, I called up Jessica, Carlos, and Aaron and asked if they were up for getting together for a special dinner, since it was Thanksgiving afterall! I was so excited when they all jumped at the idea! We ended up going to an awesome Italian restaurant in Kyungsung (a college area of Busan) called Aiola.


We ate risoto, seafood alfredo, caprese salad, garlic bread....

and drank the most delicious wine I've ever tasted!

My Korean Thanksgiving family!! :)

Throughout the restaurant, they had these really beautiful trees, where you could write notes on little circle cards and hang them on the trees. I wrote this note to commemorate my first Thanksgiving overseas with friends! While I missed Kevin's mom's mashed potatoes and my mom's delicious Turkey, I'm thankful for the chance to experience having Thanksgiving dinner overseas with amazing, amazing friends!

Learning to Drive at 40!

Remember when I told you about the 40 year old teacher at my school who just bought her 1st car and hasn't driven in over 20 years!? Well, yesterday, as I was leaving my classroom, I looked outside and she was driving around the playground!

At first I was shocked and thought it was really funny, but then when I thought about it, I realized I don't blame her! I would never, in a million years, drive for the 1st time on the streets of Korea! People cut each other off, drive like maniacs, and definitely don't care if the light is red! Hopefully she'll get the hang of it soon and offer to drive me home from work everyday!

Good luck Charity!

Wait, "Kitchen" or "Chicken" ???

Stella always gets kicthen and chicken mixed up and ends up saying the funniest sentences in class! Last night though, she asked me where the chicken towels were at my place... I looked at her like she was crazy, and then we both realized what she was trying to ask for and died laughing! She was so embarrassed when I picked up my camera to document the moment!


I love this girl!

Culture Day!

Once every 2 months or so, some Korean schools have what they call "Culture Day," for the teachers, where after the students leave school, the teachers are free to leave and do something pertaining to the Korean culture. This can be visiting a museum, going to see a movie, taking a walk through a park, etc... Anything basically!

So, yesterday was my school's Culture Day! All of the teachers went to see a Korean movie at the movie theatre in Nampodong, but Stella, Josh and I went to a DVD Bang to see The Taking of Pelham (Josh's choice)!! I assured them I would be fine watching a Korean movie with the rest of the teachers, but they insisted that we go to the DVD bang instead! It was sooo much fun!


Us in the elevator...


This is my favorite DVD bang because it's really nice and clean! Some of them are pretty shady looking...


After the movie, we realized we had 40 minutes to kill before the other teacher's movie was over, so we walked through Nampodong...


... and ended up at a pool hall (AKA: Pocket Ball Room as the Koreans say)! Stella and I were on our game and beat Josh in the 1st round! We like to think we're pretty great at pool!

After playing a couple games, we met up with some of the other teachers and went to a really great Italian restaurant! (from left to right: April, Ella, Lisa, and Jason... Those are the English names I gave them!)


Josh and Stella

After dinner, they decided it would be fun to move the party to my place!! This was the 1st time I'd ever had work friends over (other than Stella). This is actually not a common thing to do in Korea, but they all wanted to see my place and hang out!! Little did I know it would turn into quite the party!

We stopped by the local market and picked up some anju (Korean appetizer type food) and Josh did the cooking! :) We had Kimchi Chamchi Chigeh (Kimchi-tuna soup), Ohdeng (disgusting fish thing), Whey (raw fish), and some vegetables! It was soooo great!

They played some Korean drinking games (which I think is really weird to be doing on a work night... but for them it's totally normal!)

and basically just laughed and had a great time together! :)

It was such a funny experience to have a bunch of people at my place for a party and them to not be speaking English! Just imagine... When they left, around midnight, they thanked me profusely (in English!!) for letting them come over and stay till midnight, and kept saying how comfortable and great my place was... which is always a nice thing to hear, since I love decorating!

Overall, Culture Day was fabulous! I still can't get over how awesome it is that I get paid to do this stuff!