Music Mondays!

Group Name: 2NE1
Song Name: Follow Me

This is the closest to Lady Gaga as we get around here in Korea!

Thursday Party BBQ!

My two friends Crystal and Anne have headed up a once a month BBQ / potluck type thing for local English teachers, at a place called Thursday Party at Gwangali Beach! They have become good friends with the owner and the bartenders, and have somehow convinced them to allow us to take over the place, before it officially opens on Sunday's, for these BBQ's! I'm not sure how, but I'm glad they did, because it was a blast!

As soon as I got there, I was put straight to work! Crystal and Anne were chopping veggies in the bar kitchen, and before I knew it, I was manning the grill! It was fun to work in a real Korean bar kitchen! It was about the size of a small walk in closet, mind you! Check out these delicious hamburgers that I grilled! :)

Lunch was beyond delicious! We had steaks, hamburgers, hot dogs, salmon fillets, salads, pasta, and fresh bread to chose from! Here's Anne and I, chatting after lunch! While the weather was kinda yucky, you still can't beat lunch with a beach view!

My friend Chooch was there, who I met at orientation when I first arrived in Korea! He is married to a gorgeous Korean woman, and this is their incredibly handsome son, Hyden! (I think that's how you spell it) I asked Chooch if he had seen the movie "Sweet Home Alabama," because one of my favorite lines is when Reese Witherspoon says, "You have a baby... in a bar!" Totally made me think of that when Hayden was playing on the floor while all the adults were hanging out! To Chooch's credit... this may make him sound like a bad dad, but he is, in fact, one of the most amazing fathers I've seen to date! So caring, loving, and fun!

The guys who work at Thursday Party in Gwangali are all so nice, and so sweet! They let us completely take over the place, and helped us with whatever we needed! :) True gentlemen!

There were many more picture opps, but unfortunately, my camera battery died! I know, I know... I will eventually learn my lesson to charge it before I leave the house!

Dear Togi...

For the 100th time! Will you please eat the carrots and lettuce I give you, and NOT my power cords! This is starting to get expensive, and not having internet for a couple days really puts a damper on my blogging abilities!!

Love, your bunny mommy!

Pen Pals!

My old college friend, Charity Joy, she sent me a package today filled with pen pal letters from her students to mine and tons of delicious treats for my tummy - I'm eating the bag of sourpatch kids as I type!! ... and all kinds of amazing teaching supplies! Thank you friend!

I am sooo excited for my kids to have pen pals, and the teachers who have seen the cards are all saying how lucky our students are to have this opportunity to write back and forth with kids from America! So, Charity, thanks for making this happen!

I immediately laid the cards out on the table, for my 5th grade after school class to chose their penpal! As you can see, Charity's been holding onto these since February! haha

... And then laid out all the fun crafting supplies I have for my kids to make cards! (thanks to Aaron's mom for the fun sparkly rhinestone words! My girls loved using those rhinestones!)

I also wrote some sentences on the board, since let's be honest... If I didn't, their cards wouldn't make ANY SENSE at all! :)

They were so creative with their cards and wanted to make sure they were fully decorated with as many jewels and marker drawings as possible! They took this project VERY seriously! :)
They all made little envelopes for their cards to fit inside! This is Tommy!

This is Andrea!
... and here they all are, 45 minutes after class was finished, still perfecting their pen pal cards! :)

When i told them they could take their letters home from their American pen pals, they were exstatic! It's days like these that make teaching English so much fun! Thank you Charity for your special package and including something for my kids! We may never know how much this fully means to our kids!

"Chal-mogodt-sumnida!"

This afternoon I received a text from Stella saying,

"Gyo Gam Sun Seing Neim (Vice Principal) just ordered pizza for the teachers because he won a lot of money in a soccer bet! Come down to the teachers room right now!"

I love how the Vice Principal and Principal at my school are so generous! They are always bringing the teachers rice cakes, rice water, pastries, coffee, and in this case, PIZZA! This is the music teacher, and one of my good friends, April!
Nothing brings a staff together like a spur of the moment pizza party!!

Whenever someone buys or prepares food for you in Korea, it's polite to tell them "Chal-mogodt-sumnida" after finishing... This means "I ate well!" ... which you can believe I said over and over again! My tummy is very happy... but my summer body is currently telling me I'm a bad girl! To which I am replying, "Lay off summer body! A little pizza never hurt anyone!"