My lil' garden!

Just over a month ago, Aaron and I planted seeds for a future little veggie and herb garden... and some flowers too for my windowsil! 

I have an awesome rooftop at my apartment that I can access at all times of the day and night, so the herb and veggie babies live there and soak up the sun all day long!  I am terrible at taking care of plants, but luckily, Aaron grew up with a grandfather who owned a nursery and a mom with a big garden, so he knows exactly what to do to tend to them!  He's got the green thumbs I've always wanted I guess, or maybe it's just patience!

This afternoon, we went up on the rooftop to check on the lil babies and hang out for a minute!

These little guys were all planted from seeds we found in America during Christmas break.  They are dill, cilantro, and basil, and they were officially "born on April 21st, 2011!"   I'm especially excited about the basil...  Looks like we'll be making PESTO in no time!

The one I'm most excited about though is the cherry tomato plant!  Look at this guy go!  He's been growing like a weed and currently has 17 buds, which will produce yummy cherry tomatos in about 2-3 weeks!

I think these should be ready to devour by next week if the sun stays out!

Who would have thought you could have a garden in the middle of the city?!

Maroon 5 with the girls!

For my 30th birthday, and to celebrate Gill's last week of living in Korea, we went halvsies and bought tickets to see Maroon 5 in Busan! 

I was so excited when she brought up the idea, and I of course have been anticipating this night since we bought the tickets earlier this month!  To be honest, I don't know all of their songs or follow them closely, but to see a live concert, with English music, is enough to get me excited!  Last concert I went to was over 3 years ago, so I was long overdue! :)

She will be loved:

The concert was held at KBS Hall, which is one of Busan's largest arenas, but still felt a little bit like a glorified High School auditorium! There were no screens or big firework displays, just good ole' Adam Levine and the band, which was actually really cool!  It felt kind of grass roots-ish, like we were seeing them perform before they became huge! 

 I never knew this before, but Adam Levine is seriously effeminate! I actually picked up my iphone in the middle of the concert and checked to see if he liked girls!  Which, he does!

Outside, in the corridor of the Hall, you could buy snacks, like dried squid (eeehh) and flattened-dried fish (double eeehh), grilled baby potatoes (yummm), and these little light sticks, which most people had and were swinging around all night! 

 

 Besides the great music and extremely entertaining Adam Levine, experiencing an English concert, surrounded by Koreans was a hilarious experience!  When Adam said anything in Korean, they went totally crazy!  Here he is saying, "Kamsamnida" (thank you)!

There were people all around us who had printed out the English lyrics to every Maroon 5 song, and were holding them with tiny flash lights, so they could sing along!  The girl in front of us had actually written the Korean translation and highlighted the chorus's!  Kinda made us all laugh a little!

At one point, during the chorus of one of the popular songs, about 100 Koreans, sititing all around the arena, threw long strands of toilet paper up in the air, making it look like streamers were falling!  I'm guessing this was a preplanned thing that was anticipated for weeks, and spoken about on the internet!  Creative, Korea, very creative!

After the guys all bowed and went off stage, everyone started yelling "Anchor! Anchor! Anchor!"  Oh Koreans!  I love them and their darling accents!  Luckily, the guys from the band could see past the accents to realize they were asking for an encore, and came back out to play another 5 songs!

Literally, as soon as the guys stepped of the stage and the concert was over, the audio people began playing music over the speakers.  Their song of choice?!  The Supreme's version of Baby Love!   RANDOM!!!

Last night was the perfect way to spend one of our last nights together before these two both move back to South Africa on Wednesday!  I'll miss you!!!

Aaaahhhh!! What was that?!

There I was, sitting in my classroom, at my desk, enjoying my break before my next class when all of a sudden I hear a loud
BBBOOOOOOOMMM!!!
It sounded like crashing thunder all around me. My classroom violently shook like an earthquake, the power went out, my wall of windows rattled, the wood sliding doors crackled and creeked, and the screams of the students in the classroom nextdoor didn't help ease the feeling I had of my heart jumping from my chest!  I may or may not have said a couple innapropriate words under my breath at this moment, but can you blame me?!  I thought North Korea was bombing outside my school!

***(I should clarify: While the threat of N. Korea bombing is never a serious concern of South Koreans, you can bet that 90% of the teachers had a split second where they thought maybe, just maybe.)

As soon as the shaking stopped, there was complete silence, and the eeiriest feeling took over me! I grabbed my phone and ran into the hallway and immediatey began slamming the windows shut with the other teachers, to keep as much of the black smoke out as possible!  Hanah yelled to me, "A ship exploded!"  My heart was pounding and I ran to the end of the hallway where some students were crowding around a window.  Outside, I watched as flames shot up, and the ship's workers scurried to get off  and onto the dock! 

We all worked to settle the kids down and get them into the dark classrooms, passing out their cell phones so they could call their parents.  Within about 5 minutes, the principal ordered that all students go directly home.  The teachers gave each of their students a thick wad of paper towels to cover their mouths from the smoke and off they went, still shooken up from the blast.



I called Aaron to see if he had heard the explosion too, and sure enough, his school, about a mile away as the crow flies, heard and felt it as well.  He did some research and found that suppossedly "a worker from the electric company put a little too much oxygen in one of the oil tanks and kaboom... Two workers were injured as well as one passerby.  Luckily no one was killed in the explosion."

This was, hands down, my most frieghtening moment while living in Korea and it reminded me just how much I hate earthquakes and thunder!  Good news is, my afternoon class was cancelled... It wouldn't be like me to not look at the bright side of this, right?!

Extreme Slurping!

Soup is served with every meal in Korea, and slurping it's contents is a nationwide norm... a norm neither I or Aaron, or many of our foreign friends can stomache!  Today for example, I was sitting down to a lovely lunch at the local kimbap restaurant when a Korean man began tackling his bowl of ramen noodles!  I couldn't resist... I had to take a video!  The extreme slurping begins at 0:40 seconds!

Happy slurping!

Spring time is here!

For some of you, this may look like just your average wardrobe full of clothes, but for me, this represents the END OF WINTER and the beginning of sunshine, outdoor adventures, beach days, and scooter rides!!  Unfortunately, my winter days in Korea have been spent cozying up in bed all day watching movies, drinking hot chocolate, and packing on the lbs!  haha!  It's true though!

So, this morning, I packed away all my winter clothes in exchange for a closet full of bright colors, short sleeves, and flowy skirts and dresses!  I've been waiting A LONG TIME for the day I could pack away all those thick winter coats!

Cheers to spring time FINALLY arriving!