I'm a korean housewife!

I don't know what's gotten into me lately, but I've been cooking Korean food - from scratch!  I've never been one to bake or cook, but it seems I've been hit with the cooking bug and I like it!  Tonight I made a korean inspired dinner for Aaron and I!

Tonight's Menu was:

* Dwenjang soup

* Brown rice with oats

* Spicy pajung

* and chicken, potato, garlic, onion, carrot, and go-choojang stew 

(As a side note, I bought an entire raw chicken at the open-air market after work tonight and watched the lady chop it into pieces and throw it in a bag!  Then I cooked with it when I got home!  Best part was, it was only $2.40!  NO JOKE!)

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Baby Clemence!

Two of my dear friends, Jeremiah and Shelly Sazdanoff, who I've known for the past 7+ years are some of the most gracious, caring, compassionate, artistic, socially passionate, and wonderful people I know!  This is a picture of them that I took years ago, when they first began dating and everyone was so excited they had found each other!

They have been married now for 4+ years and I am beyond ecstatic tonight, thinking about the fact that there's a baby inside Shelly's belly that's a MIX of the 2 of them!  God is probably having a hay-day creating this one!  

I knew that I wanted to send something special to baby Clemence as soon as I heard Shelly was prego.  I had a hard time thinking of just the right gift for such a special girl... and then it dawned on me: a Korean Dojong (name chop)!  I've blogged about these before, and how much I love mine... so I decided Clemence needed one of her very own!  Why? Well, because, let's get real - with parents like Jeremiah and Shelly, she's bound to be creating art from a VERY young age!  So, now she'll have her very own signature stamp to stamp in the bottom corner of her masterpieces!  Heck, she can use it before she even knows how to write her name!

So, last night I went on the search for a dojong stand and found this kind Korean man in the center of downtown Seomyeon! 

I wrote out Clemence's name in Hangul (Korean language), picked out the stamp that I liked, and 20 minutes later, her name had been carved into it!  

There's not another one like it - in the whole world, which is why I think it's so perfect for baby Clemence!  It's one of a kind... just like she'll be!

Can't wait for you to get here baby girl!

Love you!

Auntie Jillers!

Trip to the gyno!

I had heard horror stories of foreigners visiting gynecologists in Korea and have been terrified to book my yearly exam!  Did you know they only make you take your undies off, and you're not given a gown?  So, if you're wearing jeans, pants, shorts (you get the idea) the doctor will walk into the room and you'll be naked from the waist down! haha In Korea, you're always supposed to wear a skirt or a dress to the gyno!  Who knew?!

I did a little research online and stumbled upon a medical tourism agency called Medina, who offers a completely free service to English speakers!  They set up a doctors appointment for you, meet you at the appointment, and translate everything the doctor says!  All for FREE!  How awesome is that?!

So, I e-mailed the company and received a response from Shinji, their company translator, within about 5 minutes! (Free and quick!  I like it!) 15 minutes later, my gyno appointment had been booked for the following day, and she was telling me where to meet her!  We ended up totally hitting it off!  She's a native Korean, 26 years old, cute as a button, and speaks english more fluently than any other Korean I've met to date!  I felt completely at ease at my first ever Korean gyno appointment because of her!

For anyone living in Busan who would like an english translator to help you with a visit to the doctor (any kind of doctor), contact Medina!

Thank you Shinji!

Hajeema!

하지마, pronounced ha-jee-ma, is one of my favorite Korean words!  It's the english equivalent of "Don't do that!" 

 Sometimes I've yelled "hajeema" because my students have done something that shocked, scared, or angered me at the time, but when re-telling the story to friends, over dinner or drinks on a later date, the stories seem to bring belly laughs to all around!  This blog is dedicated to some of the stories that I've heard that have given me nice long belly laughs!   

So, thanks, in advance to Gill, Aaron, Truchen, and Jenna for being the brunt of these stories and for sharing them with me so I could share them with the whole world wide web!

This is Gill... and her story takes place in an elevator!

Gill was on an elevator one day and an ajuma (older korean woman) got on with her.  That day, Gill was wearing a low cut shirt, which you will NEVER, in a million years, see a Korean girl wearing!  (They never show cleavage!)  Gill was standing, staring at the ceiling of the elevator, when all of a sudden, the ajuma reached up and squeezed her right boob!  Shocked, Gill turned in surprise and gave her a dirty look!  The ajuma then disapprovingly grunted at her and walked off the elevator!  Gill thought, What, was I suppossed to do?!  Let you just freely squeeze both of my boobs and then say Thank you and bow as you left?

This is Aaron... and his story takes place in the boys bathroom at his school!

A little background for ya: There's a 4th grade girl at Aaron's school who's, lets just say, freakishly special!  So special in fact, that she has her own personal teacher who follows her around to make sure she doesn't kill anyone.  (I'm not exaggerating!)  There are no special school's in Korea for mentally unstable children, or those who are a danger to society, because Koreans chose to ignore mental health issues!  So, unfortunately this VERY scary young girl is amongst hundreds of other children and teachers who are all terrified of her! Aaron compares her to the freaky girl in The Ring, and I would agree!  I saw her one time!  

So, here's the story!  Aaron was using the urinal in the boys bathroom at his school one day, and had just zipped his pants, when he heard a loud slam in the bathroom stall next to him.  Shocked, he turned to see what was happening, and all of a sudden the bathroom stall door swung open and that crazy girl came out with her pants pulled down to her ankles and her shirt pulled up to her chin, grunting and jumping around!  Needless to say, Aaron went running down the hallway like a schoolgirl!  

This is Truchen... and her story takes place in her kindergarden class!

Truchen was sitting with her darling little kindergardeners, reading a story, when all of a sudden she felt something on her leg.  She moved the book out of the way, and looked down to see what it was.  One of her kindergarden girls was actually humping her leg! 

This is Jenna... and her story takes place during recess!

There's a thing in Korea we call "Dong Cheem!"  It's nothing you ever want to experience, and luckily it's almost always the boys who do it to the male teachers!  It's basically where students put their pointer fingers together, come up behind you, and shove it where the sun don't shine!!!  Yes, I'm serious!

Jenna was talking to one of her students during recess, when all of a sudden one of her female students (elementary age) came up behing her and, as she recalls: "popped me right up the butt with the infamous poop needle!"  She was shocked, as she should be!  So, she took the girl to the side and told her not to do that to teachers!  Obviously it didn't stick, because a week or so later she struck (literally) once again!  Long lived the "dong cheem!"

Last, but NOT LEAST!  I'm going to leave this person anonymous!  Sorry for all you inquisitive peeps out there, but you're just gonna have to deal with it!

This story also takes place in a kindergarden class!  At the end of my friend's class, his students always run over to hug him goodbye!  This time, though, one of the little boys ran over to hug him and went head first into his penis and bit it!  Needless to say, that kid got a big push out of the way and a well deserved "hajeema!"

Jess and Carlos came to town!

On Wednesday afternoon, Aaron and I were talking on skype with our friends Jessica and Carlos and said, "Why don't you guys come to Busan and hang out for a couple days!"  8 hours later, they were knocking at our door, and 4 days after that we were sadly saying goodbye, only because we all have to go back to work tomorrow!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from their stay in Busan with me!  We all love having PJ time and lounging around the apartment!  We played a great game called Celebrity the first night, where Jess and I beat the guys!

The next night, the 4 of us (plus Stella, one of our dear Korean friends who we met back at our orientation in Feb 2009) all went out to a cool Dong Dong Joo Makoli place in the heart of Seomyeon!

Makoli makes us all a little fiesty! :)

We had a great time, drinking, laughing, and eating the leftover pa jung from the couple sitting next to us who got up and left it uneaten! mmmm  It may, or may not, have been my idea! **

On the last night in town, Jess decided to grace us with her incredible cooking skills and made all 4 of us, plates full of delicious home made chicken curry!

I love this girl for so many reasons!!!  It was so nice to have her around!

We had some really delicious wine with dinner, and ended up feeling a bit uninhibited, hence the dance party these two had in my kitchen!

After about 45 minutes of dancing, we decided to get dressed up and head over to Kyungsung University area for some real dancing!  It's been a LONG time since I've been at a dance club with my 3 favorite people!  It was great!  (and no, Aaron didn't really wear his sunglasses at night!)

I did a little photo shoot with Jess before we headed out that night, and thought I'd share this pic with you!   Is she not drop dead gorgeous?!

It's been quiet tonight, around my apartment.  I imagine this is what the empty-nesting-parents feel like when their kids all leave after a big holiday...  On the brighter side, Jessica and Carlos are contemplating moving back to Busan next school year to be closer to Aaron and I!  Hallelujah!