Chocolate class!

I finished teaching my kindergarden English class yesterday and as I was leaving the classroom, their teacher was carrying in a tray full of chocolate bars for their weekly cooking class!  I literally stopped in my tracks!  She laughed and asked if I wanted to join!  Um, yes please!

So, there I was, a student in a kindergarden cooking class.  That should tell you a lot about me and my cooking skills!  This weeks lesson was "making chocolates!"  I learned how to melt chocolate by placing it in a metal bowl (and stirring), while it floated in another bowl filled with 50 degree celcius water!  Good to know!  Then, I helped pour it into special holiday molds.  I'm not gonna lie... it was informative, and I REALLY appreciated them allowing me to participate!  :)  ***  

What I appreciated even more though was when Nicole, one of my students, walked all the way up to my classroom, on the 4th floor, to give me the chocolates I made, along with some popcorn, and a banana! 

That's cereal (special K) on the tops of the chocolates in the front!  It's to die for!

To say "I love my job" is a bit of an understatement!  Don't ya think!?

Welcome Christmas!

Christmas season has officially begun as far as I'm concerned!  I've been playing Diana Krall's Christmas Album, and The Rat Pack Christmas album (thank you Jessica Perlaza for the recommendation) for the past couple days!  There's something about having Christmas music on that makes me wanna cuddle up close to Aaron, with a comfy blanket, and a cup full of Korean coffee (the one's from the sticks!), and maybe sneak a kiss or two!

Aaron helped me decorate this year, and I thought this was a fitting picture!  My mom gave me this ornament a couple years ago to match a "J" that I already had.  When she originally gave it to me, it stood for Anderson, but Aaron likes to think it's HIS ornament!  I guess he's right... A for Aaron!

I love this picture!  Thanks for helping A.

Ever since I was a little girl, I've dreamed of having a HUGE Christmas tree with a beautiful home to decorate for Christmas!  I lived that dream for a couple years, and loved it while it lasted, but I'm more than happy with my mini Christmas tree and handmade stockings this year!  Less to tear down in January too!

Now, time for some shopping, so I can lay presents under the tree!

Merry Christmas family and friends!  

20,000

Are you the 20,000th visitor of my blog?!  (Look above at the counter)  If you are, you're getting a prize!  Just leave me a comment to let me know you were the 20,000 visitor, and there will be a little something special for you in the mail! :)

Happy Tuesday!

RED neon crosses

(person A)  

Excuse me.  Where is the closest church?

(person B) 

It's easy.  Just look for the neon crosses.  Every church in Korea has one!  

It's true!  Every church in Korea adornes it's building with a bright RED neon cross! My guess is that someone, somewhere on this peninsula, decided that his church would look pretty darn fancy with a nice red neon cross on the top.  Soon after that, red neon crosses (blue, green or purple just isn’t done) popped up all over the country!  

Really? No water for 39 hours!

I was told, on Friday, that from Saturday at 8am to Sunday at 8am, I may not have running water at my apartment because the city was working on reconstructing the water mains around Busan.  You can image my excitement when I woke up Saturday morning to a full flowing faucet! 

Not sooo fast though... I should learn by now that Busan is, in fact, as Dynamic as it's city slogan says it is!  Because, at 3:00am, Sunday morning, I realized that I couldn't flush my toilet!  Lovely! ... and let's just say that I STILL, at 9:05pm (Monday night), have no running water at my apartment!  

With that said, I ventured over to the neighborhood jim jil bang! (public bath house)

You might remember this place from a blog I wrote back in April 2009.  It's the jim jil bang that almost killed me!  Although, they've done a tiny bit of renovation since that dreadful night in April, so I had faith that this would be a better experience!  As you can see, they've added an outdoor coffee shop now - with comfy chairs to relax on!  ***  

   

Seriously, I had no other option! 

So, I walked into the lobby and was immediately given "the X" from the man behind the glass.  "The X" is when a Korean crosses their arms in front of their chests.  It basically means "No."   hmmm, that's strange.  I wondered, if he was denying me access because I was a foreigner...  So I began speaking Korean to him, and sure enough, he said "Asoseyo, saw chun, o beg won."  (Welcome, It's 4,500 won), handed me some soap, and pointed towards the woman's bath house door.  Whew!

When I got inside, I was met by about 10 old Korean women who were sitting around naked, just chatting up a storm.  When they saw me, they immediately said, "Ahh, Meegook, asoseyo!"  (ahh, American, welcome!)  We chatted for a minute or two, and one of the ladies said, "I meet you 2 year ago here, in bathtub."   Sure enough, she was right!  I did meet her last time I was there!

I stripped down and headed to the bathing area.  As I was showering, I looked over and smiled at a korean women in her 50's.  Then, I kid you not, 3 minutes later, she came over, grabbed a brillo pad type scrubber, and started scrubbing the crap out of my back!  I'm pretty sure there is NO dead skin left!   This is actually something that korean friends do for each other, so I'd like to think she was trying to be my friend!  I showed my appreciation with a smile and she continued to scrub away!   I'm pretty sure she scrubbed off all of the tan I had left from the Phillippines!  

While it was a much better experience at the neighborhood jim jil bang this time, I do hope my water turns back on soon so I can not only shower, brush my teeth in the sink, and wash my dishes, but have my pottie time in a regular fashion again!  The whole pottying into a bag thing was getting a little old.  (Aaron made me admit it!)  ***