"Maverick, watch out!"

I left Aaron alone, with Maverick, for 10 minutes while I went to pick up some dinner, and this is the video text he sent me!   It made me laugh so hard that I had to share it.


You can make one yourself with the Action Movies FX app on iphone.

89 cents!

I took a run over to the grocery store, tonight, to pick up some veggies!  Then, on my way home, I walked through the outdoor market to pick up the rest!  The last thing on my list was cherry tomatoes.  I knew of a lady who was selling a bowl of them for 1,000 won (89 cents), so I went straight to her.  She shook her head, telling me in Korean, that the 1,000 won bowl of tomatoes weren't delicious, and that I should get the bigger ones for 5,000 won.  Nice strategy lady... but you can't fool me!  I grabbed one from the bowl, and sure enough, it was GREAT!  So, I went ahead and bought them!  She poured the bowl of tomatoes into a black plastic bag for me and then literally reached her hand into a giant pile of cherry tomatoes and added about 4 heaps more to my bag!  I kept saying, "Wow, thank you!  Oh my gosh, Thank you!"  With a big smile, she handed me about 150-200 cherry tomatoes for... 89 cents!  

She's definitely my new favorite market lady!

My weekend get away!

When you're planning a wedding, it can feel as if ALL of your free time is spent planning, researching, organizing, crafting, and dreaming about the big event!  It can be overwhelming, and even the best of em' need a little weekend getaway sometimes!  I was no exception!

On Friday, after work, I treated myself to a visit at the hair salon, where the stylist curled my hair in gorgeous waves (crap, this was actually as a trial run for the wedding to see if my hair would hold curl...)  Guess it is kinda hard to completely pull away from planning sometimes!  I felt like a million bucks and just ended up going home and watching TV with my styled hair!  I'm so boring sometimes...

Saturday, I got up, threw my Adidas on, and jumped on a city bus to the back of the island, where I got off and ran/hiked up and down the coast!  It's times like this that I'll miss when I leave Korea. (iphone pic)

  I say I "hiked", because check out these stairs!  The coast-path is up and down, up and down, up and down, for about 2 miles!  It's a killer on your legs, but that's the point, right?! (iphone pic)

Later Saturday afternoon, I took a bus over to Gill's apartment in Kyungsung to meet up with her and Sam for some relaxing girl time!  They are sooooo on the same page as me when it comes to weekends!  We love just laying low and watching movies together, or talking about life, love, relationships, travel, the future!  They're the kinds of friends I seriously thank God for on a daily basis! :)  At around 7:30pm, we walked over to a Moksal (pig neck BBQ) restaurant for dinner.  Sounds disgusting, tastes amazing!  You'll just have to trust me on that one!  Then, we capped off the night at Fully Booked, a quaint little American owned and run, English book cafe/bar in Kysungsung.  (google images)

There are hundreds of used books that you can sit and read for free, or buy for a minimal price. Or, you can grab a board game and have at it!  We went with the later and grabbed Scattegories, which oddly enough, neither of them had ever played!  Guess that's what happens when you grow up in South Africa! ***  It didn't matter, Gill still worked both of us!  It really wasn't even close!

Sunday was another fantastically mellow, wedding-planning-free day!   Aaron and I rode the scooter over to Seomyeon to meet Meg and Dave for lunch at Fuzzy Navel Tacos!  They wanted to treat us to lunch for doing their photos last weekend!  Before we all knew it, 3 1/2hours had gone by, and we were still lounging, laughing, and sharing stories at our table!  

... well, and drinking Margaritas too!  YUM!

This weekend was the PERFECT wedding weekend getaway!  Not sure I'll be able to pull it off again in the next month, but I'll sure try! :)

I'm toxic...

...Or at least I WAS toxic, before I stuck these magic detoxifying pads on my feet!  

Aaron and I were at Daiso the other day and he grabbed these off the shelf and said, "We gotta try these!"   I'm always up for a fun herbal medicine remedy (as long as I don't have to drink or chew it! Those always seem to be more trouble than they're worth.)  A sticker on my foot that pulls toxins out of my body though?  Well, that's about as easy as it gets, right?

So, off I went!  I stuck it right onto the sole of my foot and sat at my kitchen table, working on the wedding music playlist!  (My typical Friday night activity for the last couple weeks.)  I left it on for an hour... although I read later that you should sleep overnight with them.  Oops!  Funny side note, they start to smell like BBQ, and I kept thinking, Wow, the BBQ place under my apartment smells really great tonight!  They must have a lot of business. That, of course, was before I read online that they smell like BBQ when applied! 

After an hour, I pealed them off, and was horrified!  OMG!  That's disgusting!  I knew they would turn brown, but gross!  

I DID buy these at the equivalent of the America's dollar store, so I'm not totally sure they're legit, but according to their website, the benefits are: 

1. To promote sleep, relieve fatigue, improve constipation, bad breath, and abdominal distention.

2. To get rid of impurities, body and foot odor. 

3. To activates cells to reproduce healthy skin and anti-aging. 

4. To balance the body organ function, blood fat, lower blood pressure, and reduce blood sugar.  

So, with that said, who's gonna try em'?!

Kind of a shame...

I've found myself getting really frustrated, lately, with the type of English I'm forced to teach my students in my English classroom!  Korea is paying me a lot of money to teach their kids English, yet the book my school was given by the government wasn't even written by a native English speaker.  For instance, I will spend the next 4 weeks teaching my 6th graders key sentences that are NEVER used in English speaking countries!  Why don't I scrap the book you ask?  Well, because Korea is TEST CRAZY and the government tests match the textbook to a tee, so I have to teach straight from it!  Are you feeling my frustration yet?  If not, maybe this will do the trick!

These are the sentences I'll be teaching my 6th graders for the next 4 weeks straight!

A: What will you do this weekend?

B: I'll work for my pocket money.

A: Oh, what will you do for it?

B: I'll walk the dog and feed it.

A: Good for you.

Can you imagine having that conversation with one of your friends during recess when you were in 6th grade?

A: What will you do this weekend?

B: I'll go to my uncle's farm in Daejon.

A: Daejon? How will you get there?

B: I'll go there by train.

A: Good!  Have a good time!

I'd be lying if I said I didn't cringe teaching this stuff... If I had it my way, it would be native English teachers writing the English books, and there wouldn't be government test.  Unfortunately, that'll likely never happen.  With that said, tonight I'm meeting my friend Meagan for dinner in Centum city and I'm excited about that!  How will I get there you ask?  Oh, I will go there by subway of course!   lol