Thanks for dinner!

I recently began tutoring a junior high aged boy in my neighborhood 3-4 times a week for the unbelievable price of $30.00 an hour!  Easy money?  YES!  He's REALLY shy and doesn't talk much, but is overly respectful and courteous to me.  He's great at reading and writing, but will barely say a word, so I'm working on that with him!  

Last night, after our lesson was finished, his aunt, who he lives with, invited me to join them for dinner! She treats me like her own daughter and even pats me on the butt sometimes when I leave, so to be invited to have dinner with them was just another little added fun surprise to our growing relationship.

So, we walked down the street to this nearby Samgyupsal restaurant, slipped off our shoes, and sat down at our table on the ground for dinner!  

 

They ordered a huge platter of pork, mushrooms, octopus, sausage, and shrimp to share and grilled it at our table!  YUM!  

This is Mike (경민- Gyung Min), who I tutor... and his 38 year old cousin, who he lives with, along with his aunt. Nice guy, but every time I see him, he's playing computer games!  Eeehhh.  He actually cooked the whole meal for us last night, which I thought was very sweet!  He let his mom and I just sit back, relax, and enjoy the delicious food!  

Oh, and he paid too! :) 

As a side note... Aaron and I were on a run last Saturday and stopped to look at 5 darling little white puppies outside a storefront.  They were being sold by one of our Korean neighbors!  I held, and played with, one of them for the longest time before I reluctantly set him back down with his brothers and sisters!  Then..... when I showed up to tutor Mike on Monday, that same puppy was at his apartment!  That's right, Mike's family bought that puppy!  My lucky day!  Now, when I tutor him, 마로 (Mah roh), the puppy, sits with me in my lap!  Life is sooo good!

My apartment... turned photo studio!

Last night, my tiny (approx 250 square foot) apartment was transformed into a photo studio for Keely and Aaron to practice their photography!  Between the two of them, they have enough equipment to start a legitament studio!  We had Alex, one of Keely's friends (who happens to be a model!), and Meagan, one of my friends (who should be a model!), come over for a little photoshoot!

Meagan had never done something like this, and was nervous at first, but once we gave her a cocktail, she was good to go and took some gorgeous shots! :)

I was happy to be out of the eye of the camera this time!  Instead, I was the director of sorts... and was in charge of wardrobe changes!  Most of the clothes were Aaron's and mine! :)  I was also "the fan girl," in order to give a little wind blown look for Meagan in a couple shots!  It was hard work, but I've been working out!

I did get in on a little action with a mini photo shoot of Meagan and I that I asked Aaron to do!  Everyone needs some good friends pics, right?!  P.S. The following 3 are pre-processed pictures that Aaron took, straight out of the camera!

Alex!

I am totally in love with this picture!  Neither of them had modeled with another person before, so when I explained what I wanted them to do (which is obviously a little close and seductive!), neither could keep a straight face!  Aaron did manage to snap a couple amazing ones between all the laughter! 

I'm itching to see how Aaron post-processes this one!



Thank you Keely, Aaron, Alex, and Meagan for coming over last night and filling my tiny apartment with more photography equipment than could possible fit in there, your beautiful faces, and lots of laughter! 

Let's do it again sometime, eh?!

2 years ago today...

If I would have known 2 years ago, today, that I would be about to meet a passionate, patient, funny, adventurous, creative, athletic, caring, hot southern boy, and one of the best things that'd happened to me, in Korea, I'm not sure I'd believe it!  In fact, I'm SURE I wouldn't!   But, as I've been taught since I was a little girl, God  works for the good of the people who love Him, and let me tell you, I do! 

This picture is actually from exactly 2 years ago, the VERY FIRST TIME we hung out!  Thank you Julie for having your camera that night to capture this moment!

In the past two years, Aaron and I have experienced life to the fullest together! 

I love you A.  Thank you for loving me, wholeheartedly, and for taking me out on the town tonight to celebrate!!

40,000

Today, I hit 40,000 views on my blog!  WOW!  I hope that by sharing my life, thoughts, and experiences so openly for the world to see, that I've somehow inspired you to live the life you want to, and to enjoy it to the fullest!  I know I do! 

Thanks for sharing in my adventure!

Get this thing out of me!

So, I went back to the dentist near my apartment yesterday and instead of pulling my tooth, he took a laser to it and cut off a bunch of the gum around it and said to come back tomorrow for the same procedure!  WHAT?!  I don't want the gum cut, I want this stupid painful tooth out!

So, when I got to school this morning, I told Okk and NaRae (another teacher) what happened and that I was in more pain this morning than ever.  Luckily, NaRae speaks English perfectly AND is related to a dentist that specializes in wisdom teeth extraction!  So, she immediately called and made me an appointment for this afternoon! Talk about an answer to prayer!

So, after classes were finished, Okk and I jumped in NaRae's car and drove the 45 minutes to the PNU area, where the dentist is!   THANK YOU NA RAE!

We arrived in the area while the dental staff was at lunch, so we stopped in at Mr. Donut to grab something to eat!  They both said, you should eat a lot, because you'll be really hungry after the surgery and won't be able to eat anything!  So, with their excellent advice (wink, wink) I ordered myself two yummy glazed donuts and a berry smoothie!

Then, when 2:20pm came around, we packed up and walked over to the dentist office nextdoor!  The girls both came back with me to talk to the dentist about my condition and what had happened at the previous dentist!  This was so nice, and so much better than me trying to explain it on my own!  The language barrier seems to feel much larger when the topic at hand is medically related!  I don't know all those big fancy words, you know?!  Luckily I have two wonderful bi-lingual friends who could translate for me!  Once everything was worked out and the dentist agreed to take out my wisdom tooth, the girls headed over to the waiting room, and chatted till I was done! (All of these pics were taken with my iphone, hence the less than great quality!)

Within about 2 minutes of sitting down, he gave me 6 shots into my gums!  I may or may not have cried during that part!  I'm 30... I'm a big girl... but ouch!  6 shots into my gums!  NO THANK YOU!  At this point, I was clawing at the arms of my chair in excruciating pain! 

After the shots were given, my face quickly numbed up and my smile became crooked!  This, of course, made me laugh, and in turn, everyone else laugh!  I was taken to the Xray room, where they took 1 Xray, and then sent me back to my chair.  Within a minute, this image popped up on my individual TV (attached to the chair) and he explained what was happening with my teeth!  Don't mind the multiple fillings... I ate Jolly Ranchers like it was my job as a kid!

The tooth on the far right is my wisdom tooth!  I hate that tooth!

While the shots were definitely painful, the actual tooth extraction was PAIN FREE!  Thank goodness!  Something I thought was kind of funny was they set this green cloth over my face, with a little hole over my mouth and nose, so I could breath... but everything else was covered up.   Maybe they don't like making eye contact with their patients, so they cover us up!  haha.  The dentist yanked and chisled, and yanked and chisled some more, for about 10 minutes, until it was all extracted! 

Then he stitched me up, threw some gauz on the hole, told me to bite down and not talk for 1 hour, said farewell with a smile, and sent me home!

Stubborn little tooth!

I think it's worth noting that for 6 shots, an X ray, and a wisdom tooth extraction, my total dentist bill, without dental insurance, was 21,100 won ($20.04)!!  And, my prescription pain medicine and antibiotics were 1,300 won ($1.23)!

I was told that the worst pain will be tomorrow... but, for now: my aching wisdom tooth is GONE... The pain meds are currently in full effect... I'm comfy in my bed about to watch a movie... and I'm about to eat ice cream and mashed potatoes for dinner... !

What more could I ask for?!