Rap Box!

There's a section in each lesson of the 5th grade textbook where the students sing an English song that goes with the words in the chapter.  This weeks lesson wasn't a song... it was a rap (Aka: RAP BOX)!  

I gave the group of students who rapped the loudest and had the best "rapping hand gestures" an extra point for their team!  It was quite possibly the funniest thing I've ever seen in one of my classes in Korea!

A full, fun weekend!

After work on Friday, Aaron and I had a nice dinner date at The Pan in Nampodong and then did some DAISO shopping! 

Saturday, I woke up early and headed off to Busan Jin Market, which is like a glorified Joanne's Fabric Store, to look for fabrics for the wedding!  Unfortunately, Korean style is a bit different than American style, so I had to get really creative with what they had!  I ended up finding these 6 fabrics to make flag banners to hang along the fences.  I'm going to go back and get a dull blue color as well, to make it feel a bit more springy! :)

At 1:00pm, Aaron and I met Emo (Serry's mom) for lunch at a beef restaurant near my apartment!  She is the sweetest woman we know, and always feel so loved after spending time with her!

The rest of the afternoon, I sat around, petting Kitty and cutting triangles from the fabric I had bought, and then Aaron and I headed over to our new friends Ashley and Adam's apartment for a little party with some more new friends!  It's funny how we think we don't have enough room to entertain 15 people in our big American homes... try doing it in a room the size of your childhood bedroom!  It definitely feels nice and cozy!

After Ashley's, Aaron and I met Meagan at Thursday Party in Nampo for a drink, before heading home for the night! :) 

On Sunday, I went over to Gill's to have a homemade lunch with her and Sam!  I love spending time with these two, but unfortunately we can only do it on the weekends!  They both work at private academy's from 2pm-10pm Monday through Friday, which is when I'm FREE! :(  It's okay though, we make it a point to spend time on the weekends! :)

After leaving Gill's, I went back to my apartment and decorated Easter eggs with Aaron!  He is teaching his students how to decorate them in his culture class this week, so I thought it would be a good idea to make some examples!  Wink wink!  I'm a sucker for doing stuff like that! 

After finishing, I layed in bed and read about 5 chapters of the Hunger Games!  I'm trying to finish reading it before the movie comes out on Friday here in Korea!  

I think I'm gonna make it!

So, that's what happened over here!  Hope you had a great weekend too! :) 

Are we dreaming?!

About a month ago, Aaron and I started looking for roundtrip flights to America, for the wedding, and were shocked at how much it was going to cost us!  Usually it's about $1,800 per person, but this time it was going to be closer to $5,000 total... and that's not including flights that we would pay for to go for a honeymoon!  Ugghhhh!  We were discouraged and frustrated with how much of our savings would go to stupid flights! 

We decided to put our resourceful caps on and came up with and idea!  Aaron's aunt Vicki travels a lot for work and has been saving air miles for years.  We thought maybe she would be up for making a little deal with us!  Who doesn't love a good deal, right?!  She books our tickets with her miles, and we pay her $1,000 per ticket!  It's a win, win right?!  She'd make $2,000 bucks!

Well, Aaron contacted her last week and she said she would see what she could do, but that she wasn't confident that there would be frequent flier seats available this close to the wedding.  But, she went ahead and called a bunch of different airlines, looked at a million different routings, and basically spent hours and hours of her free time figuring out the routing from Busan to North Carolina and back!

Well, today, we got an email from her that she had found seats and had them on hold, but realized later that she booked them under JILL (my maiden last name) ANDERON, instead of JILL (my middle name) ANDERSON, which is the name on my passport.  She said the only way she could book the reservation was if I changed me name on my passport!  Well, we all know that can't happen!  So, she decided to start all over and try a new routing! 

By the GRACE OF GOD, and Vicki's persistence and resourcefullness, she was able to book roundtrip flights for us with an even better routing!!!  We'll have a 3 days layover in Germany for our HONEYMOON!  What?!!  We were beyond thrilled!  We never imagined, in our wildest dreams that we would be able to go to Europe for our honeymoon! 

Then... when we thought we were the luckiest people alive, it got even better!  Vickie went on to tell us that she wouldn't accept the $2,000 we had promised her, because she wanted this to be her gift to us! 

WHAT??  ARE WE DREAMING?!!

We are feeling beyond blessed this beautiful Saturday afternoon, and very loved!!  We joked that with the extra money we're able to save, we won't have to stay in a youth hostel for our honeymoon!  LOL

Vicki, your gift was beyond generous and we are forever greatful! 

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

I'm not a cat lady...

... but I do love my new kitty (thanks to Anthony and Violet for allowing me to take him as my own!)  He's starting to finally become accustomed to living with me and has found all his favorite hiding spots!  I've come home from work the last couple days to find him asleep under my bed covers!  

Last night I followed him through the apartment, snapping pictures, so I could share with all of you, and document the progress of his diet!  Yes, he's on a diet! 
This cat is F-A-T (which I secretly kind of love)!!!

He loves to sleep on his back with his paws up in the air...  I snapped this as he was starting to fall to the side!  Usually, he's perfectly straight on his back!  I love it!

He loves to follow me from room to room, and is usually rubbing up against my leg or arm, looking for a good head scratch, which I'm always willing to give! :)

This is his favorite toy.  It's a little squeaking rabbit/bear stuffed animal.  I see him stomping on it with his hind legs once in a while, trying to make it squeak!!  Violet and Anthony said "it's his oldest friend in the world, and he can't live without it!"   

He's curious and smart!

... and he's almost perfectly symmetrical!  He has a target shape on both sides, and stripes that run parallel to each other, all the way down his back!  My favorite is the heart right smack dab on the top of his head!  

He loves, loves, loves treats!  What cat doesn't?!  But he only likes to eat them when they're hand feed them to him!  Not sure why, but I don't mind! 

I just love him!

Overwhelmed!

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit overwhelmed this year with my teaching schedule!! I'm teaching 24 (40 minute) classes a week, and when you're teaching ESL, that means you're basically performing all 40 minutes of every class!  There isn't ANY downtime, and I never sit down during my classes here!  In fact, sitting down is a big no-no in the Korean teaching culture!  

Whenever I feel overwhelmed about something, I make a list... It's the OCD in me!  This time my overwhelmed-ness transformed itself into a lesson plan chart!  If any of you are teachers in Korea, I highly recommend making yourself one of these!  I have a print out for each week, with my class schedule, the grade and class I teach, and who I teach it with.  After it's printed, I write notes in each class box so I know what to do, and can look back to see what I taught the last week or the week before that!
It's the only way I feel like I can stay on top of it!!

You can easily make the template in Microsoft Excel, and if you're like me, it'll give you a piece of your sanity back!  Here's hoping I have at least 1 class cancelled this week!

Happy Monday everyone!