Saturday Walk!

Not much is going on around here today! My internet is down at my house, so i'm stuck with my iphone's 3G network when it comes to connecting with the world! It was raining this morning, but the blue skies started to peer through around noon, so I took a long walk through the neighborhood! Here are some fun pictures I took with my iphone! :)

This was on top of the giant Lotte Department Store building near my apartment, on the 11th floor, looking North towards Nampodong!

At the Sky Park, on the roof of the Lotte building, young lovers come and hook padlocks onto the walls and throw the keys inside a glass heart shaped holder in the wall, never to be retreived again... signifying that they will be together forever!  I thought this one was fun!  It says, "Will you marry me?  Yes!"

Last but not least, I spotted this bundle of dried frogs for sale in the dried section of the Jagalchi Fish Market... poor little guys!

You can choose your name...

...at COSTCO!

I didn't have to work today because it was my school's birthday!  How awesome is that?  So, I headed over to the other side of town to pick up some stuff at COSTCO.  Last year, Aaron and I split the price of a membership, but only put his name and picture on the card.  So, when I went today and tried to use his card I got the big X, which means "not gonna happen"!  Since it was going to expire in a month anyway, I went ahead and applied for a new card.  

When I got to the name section, I wrote "Jill Osteen Anderson" (I added Aaron's last name, hoping that when we go next time, Aaron could get a free spouse card because our names are the same.)  Genius, right?!  Well, I got past the initial name check (or lack there of)... no problem!  Then when my card was printed, "Anderson" was completely omitted!   

Made me kinda wish I had written something crazy like Minney Mouse, Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, or Marilyn Monroe! Good ole' Korean COSTCO!  Thanks for the laugh, and the fun name change!  I'll have to admit, I did get butterflies in my tummy when the lady called me over to give me my new card by yelling, "Jill Osteen"! 

Pasta Muffins!

Last night, Aaron came up with quite possibly the GREATEST invention of all time for our Sunday dinner together! ...Chicken pasta muffins! Well, not really muffins, but he baked them in silicone muffin cups! GENIUS, I tell ya!  GENIUS!

Inside is bow tie pasta, small slices of ham and chunks of chicken (seasoned with cayenne pepper and salt), mozarella cheese, jack cheese, 1 small dallop of cream cheese, green and red bell peppers (small slices), 1 onion, a little bit of garlic and some oil.

After everything was sauteed on the stove, he mixed it all together, and began the layering!  He put a little bit of the chicken pasta mixture in the muffin cups.  Then he put a layer of mozarella cheese and the dallop of cream cheese.

 

Then, he added some more of the pasta mix and covered the top with some jack cheese!

Then he baked it in the oven at about 400 degrees for 10-15 mins!

It was seriously the most incredibly creamy and delicious dinner I'd eaten in maybe years! Try it! You won't be sorry!

Thanks A!

I'm no Martha Stewart

They were suppossed to look like this:

But they turned out like this:

Aaron said not to be fooled though. Under the burnt tops is delicious carrot cake and cream cheese goodness!

I love his optimism!

I hate my inability to bake. 

Friday Update!

So, I realize I just wrote a blog about how Aaron and I had swapped our plan A (working at a University) with our Plan B (working at our same schools) for next year... BUT, we went ahead and gave the University job a try!  We decided to only apply at 1, which happens to be where our dear friends Jessica and Carlos work, up in Seoul!  We've decided that if we don't both get hired, we'll stay in Busan at our current schools. For the sake of including a picture, I'll leave you with this: a picture looking out from the back of my classroom, at the harbor, with a new iphone app called "PHOTO SYNTH!"

Secondly, the last couple weeks have been an absolute breeze for me at work!  Monica and Okk have been scrapping the regular English lessons for the past 2 weeks in order to prepare the students for the Nation Wide English Test, which was yesterday!  With that said, I think about 10 of my classes, in total, were canceled!  That left me with lots of time to look around on http://www.pinterest.com/, http://www.facebook.com/, http://www.blogger.com/, and http://www.sidereel.com/, where I watch TV shows.  I know, I'm living the life over here.  I'm proud to report that the scores are in, and NONE of my classes scored under an average of 86% percent!  Again, for the sake of including a picture: This was taken on Wednesday, when one of my three 5th grade classes was doing a practice test. (Photo taken with my iphone app: INSTAGRAM)

Aaron's been busy with his photography, taking gorgeous pictures around the island, and posting some to his flickr account.  He's modest though, and his own worst critic, so many of my favorite pictures never even make it onto the site.  He's also been working, one on one, with one of the teachers at his school who will be moving to Atlanta for a year with her husband.  Today was their last day of studying together, so along with a nice envelope full of cash, she brough him a homemade carrot cake from her church's bake sale!  I may or may not have eaten 1/2 of it for dinner tonight!

Winter weather has definitely set in, and I've been bundling up in my scarves and winter coats for my 1/2 mile walk in the 45 degree weather, to work every morning!  Brrrr.  Last weekend, I switched out my summer clothes for winter clothes, and put 2 huge bags full of unwanted clothes and shoes out on my street for any takers!  Both bags were gone within 5 minutes!  Aaron said he can't wait for the moment when we see an old Korean woman sporting one of my old dresses!

For the last couple weeks, I've been working with one of my 3rd graders to prepare her for the countywide Storytelling Contest.  She would come to my office for 10 minutes everyday after lunch, and I would help her with her intonation, and hand motions!  Last Friday, she went up against over 50 3rd and 4th graders, and placed 3rd!  I was so proud of her!  This is her and her mom after she performed!

We found out on Monday that she placed 3rd!  The next day, she came to class with a gift for me from her mom: A giftbag of special Kiehl's face creams to thank me for helping! 

(Worth over $60)  How nice is that?!  I've used it every night and morning since.

Tomorrow is the yearly fireworks show on the beach in Gwangali!  I've been looking forward to it all year, but when I checked the weather forecast, it said it's suppossed to rain all day tomorrow!  Uggghhh...   Such a bummer.  On a bright note, I may end up staying in and getting creative!  

Aaron just said to me, "Love, I know you don't like to talk to me when you're writing a blog. But, it kinda makes me sad."   My sweet sweet boy!  Time for this girl to sign off and give him some love! :) 

Happy Friday.