Dae Gyo Fighting!

"Fighting" is a Konglish word that Koreans use to encourage each other, believe it or not.  Sweet irony, huh?!  Examples are as follows:

Me: Gosh, I feel terrible today.  My head hurts so bad!

Monica: Chelsey, Fighting!

Co-worker: I have to go home tonight and cook for my mean husband and spoiled kids.

Me: Fighting!

Student: Chelsey, I have a big science test tomorrow (exhausted and defeated).

Me: Fighting!

Me: My open class (teacher evaluation class) is next Tuesday! I'm so nervous!

Co-worker: Chelsey, fighting!

Get it?!  It can't be directly translated to one particular english word, but it basically means any and all of the following; Cheer up!... You can do it!...  Try your best!... Don't let it get you down!... and Go, go go!"

So you can imagine, when we got down to our final match tonight, in the once-a-year Yeong-do Island Teacher Volleyball Tournament, that "DAE GYO FIGHTING!" was the most common phrase heard between plays!  Unfortunately no amount of "fighting" cheers could have helped our team! We were given our heads on a platter... and to add insult to injury, it was against Aaron's school!  The 2 women's games lasted less than 45 minutes total and my school's team never made it past 7 points on either game! haha!

The good news was, we had a lot of fun and proudly sported our matching tacky blue and white polyester polo uniforms (which were $70.00 each and paid for by the school)!  

(Me and 헤란)

Water break!

Individual team picture!

Check out that hideous form!!  

Come on guys, lighten up a little!  This is supposed to be fun!

"Spike it Chelsey!"   Eeehhhhh

I'll sum up our last chance at the Yeongdo Teacher Volleyball Championship with a common Korean phrase, "Aye go!"  Which I like to directly translate as "Uhh, that was terrible!"  FIGHTING!!!

A shopping spree?! Is this for real?!

After work on Friday (May 13th) Aaron asked me to look inside a bag that he had put on my kitchen table.  As I grabbed the bag, he said, "This marks the beginning of your birthday weekend!  Look inside!" Inside was a coupon book that he had wrapped in traditional Korean paper!  It was adorable and my heart melted with each coupon!  What was even better was he made it himself on the paint program at work!  Schmooch!

I'll tell you right now, I used the fruit smoothie, 1 hour massage coupon and the chick flick viewing right away!

We spent Saturday afternoon at Songdo beach, relaxing in the gorgeous weekend weather!  After lunch, we rode scoot to Nampodong in search of a gift for Aaron's childhood friend Bill for his upcoming birthday.  As we were walking through my favorite street, Aaron asked, "Do you want your birthday present today, one day early?"  I quickly exclaimed "YES, please, please, please!"  His response was, "Well, it's not something tangible.  It's something you can experience."  Hhhuuuhhh?  Come again?!  

Then he said...

"You know when girls date really rich men and the men take them on shopping sprees?"  Yyyyeeeesss?!  "Well, for your 30th birthday I want to take you on a shopping spree!"  WWhhhhhhaaaaaatttt?!!  This is awesome!!!  "You can get whatever you want... just don't make me broke!"

Let me just start by saying, SHOPPING SPREES ARE AWESOME!  I've never been on one, and probably never will again!  After everything I picked out, Aaron would walk up to the counter, whip out his money and pay for it!  Yea, that's right girls!  My boyfriend just bought me that!  

Since I know you're wondering, here's what I picked out!

A beautiful long black and gold necklace with a lovely ring to match, 

a pair of chunky gray and black earrings, 

a black leather handbag, 

a navy blue and cream dress, 

a brown belt,

a stunning long chained Tiffany key necklace,

a gorgeous flowy white skirt for summertime,

and a pair of small silver heart earrings to match the Tiffany's heart necklace he gave me for Christmas!

If you can believe it or not, He was encouraging me to keep shopping by the point, but I felt that this was a gracious plenty and that I was more than content with all my presents!  

Tell you what though Aaron, if you wanna take me on a shopping spree again next year though, I definitely won't complain!  Thanks love! :) 

Unfortunately, I woke up sick on my birthday, so I spent most of the morning and afternoon in bed!  I was able to talk to some of my favorite people on skype though, and for dinner, A made Pad Thai from scratch!  Yum, yum!

I've been told that 30 is the new 20, and now that I have 4 days of experience, I can confidently say that I COMPLETELY AGREE!  I love being 30!

Surprise!

If you know me well, you know I prefer Diet Coke over a cold Beer and a good conversation over a night of partying!  I may sound like a dud, but now that I'm 30, I feel these things even more so than before!  Don't get me wrong, drinking cocktails and dancing till 3am is definitely fun once in a while, but when Aaron asked me if I wanted a big party for my 30th, my answer was simply, "No, thanks.  I just want something low key with good friends."

So... He told me earlier today that he wanted to take me somewhere special later in the night, so to dress nice and be hungry!  When we jumped in the taxi at 6:00pm, and he said, "Haeundae juseyo," an area of town where we hardly go, I was really excited to see where we were headed! 

When we got out of the taxi, we walked a couple blocks towards the restaurant and out jumped my sweet friends Anne and Crystal who said, "Wow, fancy meeting you guys here", both doting mischievous grins!  Low and behold, Aaron had invited my closest girlfriends to dinner with us to celebrate my birthday, Jillers style - nice and low key!

We went to "Hello Thai" which is one of my favorite Thai restaurants, and Gill's too!  

Speaking of Gill, bless her heart, has a terrible fear of dropping cakes!  Low and behold, she tripped in the subway, on her way tonight, and dropped this one!  NO JOKE!  So, she bought another one!  haha! There was plenty of cake to go around!

 Even thought I don't get to see Crystal and Anne very often, I still consider them two of my favorite girls in Korea, and was so happy they were there! :)  Crystal kept talking about how much she loved my hair, so I did hers before the food came out! :)

Aaron got up from the table to talk to the waitress and all the girls told me how he had put so much effort into tonight!  He wanted to make sure they were all able to be there! :)  Aaron and Anne.

Gill loves "kitchy things!"  She'll admit it herself!  She brought me this "kitchy" birthday hat, some Disneyland style lollipops, and a Korean style single rose wrapped in tacky yellow lace!  She said she couldn't resist! 

Aaron, thank you for such a nice birthday dinner and for hanging through all our girl talk!  You're a champ!  I love you!  ...WE love you!

Teacher's Day!

Teacher's Day is always on May 15th in Korea, which is also my birthday!  This is one of my favorite days in Korea, because well, let's be honest, I get to be celebrated for 2 different reasons!  haha!!

Unfortunately, May 15th happens to fall on a Sunday this year!  That didn't stop my darling students from making me feel special and appreciated on Friday (today) though!  Bless their little hearts!  I was given a bouquet of soap roses (a common gift for teachers), a box of chocolate, some rice snacks, balloons, lavender potpourri, gel pens, and some fuscia lipstick... but my favorite gifts of all were the handwritten letters!  

Tell you what!  Having this pile of notes, balloons, and presents on my desk all day sure gave me that special boost to keep teaching and loving on my kiddos!   I feel like I could teach forever... and gosh darn't, I just might!  Happy teachers day to all the teachers out there!

My work birthday party!

My co-teacher Monica planned an awesome birthday party for me for my birthday today!!  This is not common for Koreans!  They simply don't really celebrate their birthdays, much less tell people when their big day is, especially at school!  But Monica knew that birthdays are a big deal in America and that turning 30 was an even bigger deal, so she threw me a party!  I can't fully explain how much this meant to me!  They even sang happy birthday to me... In ENGLISH, and in Korean!

Monica bought me a gorgeous and really yummy cake from a famous bakery in Korea!  I may, or may not, have eaten 3 pieces!  Eeehhh

And we ate it Korean style, in cups, with chopsticks! 

My two co-teachers are the best! They had been planning this for weeks!

하나 (in the middle) brought me a huge dried squid as a gift!  haha  

(from left to right: 유미, 하나, 경화)

As if one cake wasn't enough, 나래 brought 2 roll cakes too! These are sooo delicious!

Monica wrote me the my heartfelt note, and was so proud when I told her her English grammar was almost perfect.

미희 and 유미

민정 is my Korean 언니 (sister).  We are the same age, so we've become really close!  She presented me with a card that a bunch of the teachers had written in!

Sweet, sweet 현정... one of the sweetest women I've ever met! 

This is our special education teacher!  He made me a little card where when you open and close it, the mouth moves.  He said, "Chelsey. This card is magic. Watch!"  Then he slowly opened it and said "Happy birthday Chelsey" while opening and closing it to look like the mouth was saying it!  haha

I was given some of the funniest presents...  The ones that made me laugh the most were:

My Vice Principal gave me a toothbrush and toothpaste, and another teacher gave me a protractor, a shapes stencil, 2 pencils, 2 scissors, 1 eraser, 2 mini staplers, and some stickers!  Bless her heart, she wrapped each item too!  haha  Oh Korea!   

Who doesn't love a birthday party in the middle of the workday?!  

I was thrilled to say the least!  Thank you Monica!

In just a couple more days I'll be the BIG 3-0!  Never thought I'd be living in another country at 30, or speaking an Asian language, or celebrating with my Korean co-workers after teaching my elementary students!  Life is full of surprises!  Can't wait to see where I'm at on my 40th!   Cheers to health, love, being blessed, and turning 30!!