My last 2 weeks!

Aaron and I have been busy bees lately!  We've been studying up on how to start a small business and all the tax laws / legal mumbo jumbo that goes with it.  Kinda feels like I'm back in college all over again, except without the giant student loans - Man, I LOVE the internet!  

Two Friday's ago, I got to have dinner with my old friend Colin, who I met when I first came to Korea (remember him?).  He's traveling Asia for 7 weeks and was in Busan, visiting old friends.  We met up at Fuzzy Navel Tacos in Seomyeon and spent 2 1/2 hours catching up on lost time - It's amazing how much can happen in 2 1/2 years!
*Iphone pic

Last Saturday, we had a really fun Anniversary photo shoot with an English teaching married couple, 

Noelle and Mark,

... at a local amusement park in Busan.  We all bought the unlimited ride pass and laughed, screamed, and said our prayers that the rides didn't break, pretty much our whole way through the night!  We had a blast hanging out with these two while building our portfolio and getting some great experience and fun images!  They were up for anything, which allowed us to try a lot of different things, some of which worked beautifully and others of which were disasters, no fault of theirs!  lol  We learned an important lesson that night: If we're trying to get nice couple photos, don't attempt doing it in a crowded Korean Amusement Park, no matter how fun and cute the backdrop is!  Lesson learned!  

Thanks for being our guinea pigs you two!

Last week we had a Typhoon roll in (Typhoon Bolaven), which I blogged about here.  It was scheduled to come right through Busan on Tuesday morning, but unfortunately took a detour further west.  That didn't stop Aaron and I from enjoying some of it's powerful winds though!  Aaron picked me up from work, and we rode the scooter over to the west end of the island and watched the usually calm ocean waters crashing against the bridge, sending water 30 feet in the air!  It was a sight to be seen!  Not to mention, the wind was so powerful it nearly blew me over a couple times.
*Iphone pic

Last Sunday night, we had a couple's date night at the Lotte Giant's game with 3 other couples who are English teachers in Busan!  These 6 have become friends of ours over the last 2-4 months, and we absolutely love being around them.  Aaron and the boys are like peas in a pod and us four girls are just as close!  It's a special friendship that's begun to form over the short time we've known each other, and we're lucky to have them!  Oh, and to make things even better, the Giants WON!
*Iphone pic

On Wednesday, I took the day off work!  :)  Since living in Korea, I've tried my best to mold to the Korean "workhorse mentality" and only use my sick days if I'm literally keeling over.  (My old co-teacher, Monica, worked as a teacher for something like 25 years and NEVER took a sick day... and that's actually common in Korean society!)  But, I decided that since it's my last year here, I'd reward myself for the hard work I've put in all these years and take a sick day to relax and stay in bed!  (My neck and back were really really sore, so that was my excuse.)   I spent the day lounging in bed, watching teeny bopper movies like Katy Perry's movie Part Of Me, playing with Maverick and basically just being a lazy bum!  

Yesterday, we did a photoshoot with the most adorable 2 month old baby boy.  His mom and dad, who happen to be from Indiana and Michigan, have been living and working in Korea for 2 years now as English teachers.  Katelyn, the mom, actually had an all natural birth here in Korea, which is amazing to me!  What's even more amazing is that her ENTIRE delivery bill was $300!  Heeellllloooo!  Here's a little sneak peak of their bundle of joy, Trip!  Schmooch!!!!!

Last night was Jenna's 25th birthday (far left of the picture above at the baseball game)... So she invited us, the other 2 couples in the picture, plus some other close friends to a party at her apartment.  I made my "semi-famous" chocolate chip - oreo stuffed cookies once again.  They've become my go-to when potlucks come around and to see people's fingers immediately grab for them as soon as I pull the lid off the tupper ware is a nice compliment for me! The party was so much fun! ... so much fun in fact, that Aaron and I arrived home in a taxi at 4am. Ahh, to be young again! :) 

*Iphone pic

This morning we watched some college football (Clemson vs Auburn), a bit of a rival game between Aaron and my mom!  Then we spent a couple hours on skype with my mom and dad, which is always a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon!  Later, naps were had, a movie was watched and a Mexican style dinner was jointly prepared, cooked and devoured - thanks for the recipe Pinterest!

There's not much on the schedule this week except for a couple's photo shoot with a gorgeous married couple on Saturday and a birthday party for our friend Adam later that night!  Looks like I'll be making more cookies... (and exercising all the sugar away!) Hope everyone's doing well on the other side of the world.  

5 of a kind...

I was organizing some paperwork in my room yesterday and came across a bag of wedding cards that I had saved to put in my memory box (yes, I have one of those).  These 5 were especially great because each of them was from one of Aaron's childhood friends!  They're like brothers and are pranksters through and through... so, of course they got together and bought us the 

EXACT SAME WEDDING CARD 

from a local art store in Black Mountain... Love these boys!  

Typhoon Bolaven!

They say it's coming tonight, and it's supposed to be intense, but Korea is dynamic and I'm not so sure I believe all the reports that Typhoon Bolaven will be the BIGGEST tropical storm to hit the country in over 50 years!  So far, it seems like your average night... It's not even raining yet!  And from the looks of the weather satellite, the center of the typhoon is moving more and more east towards China... But either way, Aaron and I are excited about the possibility of a big storm coming!  Our windows are cracked just enough to hear the potential downpour during the night and my new Hunter rain boots are laid out by the door, ready for their adventure to work tomorrow morning.  The students have been told to stay home from school, but the teachers are required to come and desk warm...  Not sure how that makes sense, but things around here usually never do!  I just go with the flow and chalk it up to a cultural difference! :)  I guess the "glass half full" side to it would be that my school classroom has a better view than my apartment, so I can watch the storm from a better vantage point while I sip coffee and read a book! :)    

P.S. My little storm chaser husband just jumped on the scooter (11:15pm) and headed towards the ocean to see what's a brewin'!  I, on the other hand, am cozy in my PJ's in bed!  

Bring it on Bolaven!  We're ready for ya!

The wedding photos are here!!!

... Even better, the wedding photos AND an incredibly heartfelt and thoughtfully written blog post by my college friend / wedding photographer extraordinaire, Briana Moore, are here!  Thank you Bri!!! 

CHECK THEM OUT HERE!

The Honeymooners!

Oh what the heck!  I couldn't wait to post these honeymoon pictures!  Last week, Aaron posted a bunch of gorgeous photos onto our photography blog of our Honeymoon in Europe, but today, I'm giving you my side of the photo story, because my side counts too, right?! :)

The wedding was beyond our wildest dreams and we were both still on a high from it when we boarded our plane from Charlotte, NC to Munich, Germany (business class AGAIN - Thank you Vicki)!  

Who doesn't love a glass of white wine just before take-off, just to settle the nerves a bit?!

It was an overnight flight, so Aaron woke up to a Blood Mary for breakfast...

I couldn't get enough of the massage function that was built into my seat, or all the up and down, right and left settings that would make my seat back recline, go up or down, and elevate the footrest. YES, there was a footrest! AAahhh, heaven!

We arrived in Germany early in the morning...

...grabbed our bags from the baggage claim, and went straight to the AVIS rental car desk, where we were handed the keys to a GERMAN car that we'd never heard of.  We were sooo excited and headed out to the parking lot to find out what our rental car looked like!  ... It was a VAN!  Seriously?!  A Van?! We reserved a compact car, and you give us a VAN?!  We were not very pleased to say the least, so, we drug our 3 suitcases BACK to the AVIS counter and asked demanded that they give us something else!  They huffed and puffed and said they didn't have any compact cars available.  Really?! We stood our ground though and after about 30 minutes, we were handed the keys to a new VW Passat!  Yep, much better!  

Check out the GPS!  AWESOME!

We got right onto the highways and made our way south on Interstate 95 towards Lake Stamberger!  Aaron had read that it was a beautiful drive, and it definitely was!  We stopped the car and took a little walk along the lake... 

...and had lunch at a quaint little bakery, boasting delicious pre-made sandwiches!  Bread just doesn't get better than this people! 

We continued our drive through the countryside, making our way over to Austria!  The towns between Germany and Austria were lush, quaint, charming, and sooo European!

I could totally live here!

 Photo credit to Aaron on this one... 

Look, it almost looks like OSTEEN!

No European road trip is complete without sugary and aspartame filled drinks, right?! 

We spent most of the day driving the scenic routes, stopping for pictures and snacks along the way, and finally made it to Hallstatt, Austria around 6:00pm!  We checked into our 15th century guesthouse, right on the lake! (Gasthof Simony) 

 

We were showed to our very small room, dropped our stuff and Aaron headed down to park the car.  As I was leaving our room to meet Aaron in the lobby, I noticed that the door to the room next door was open... So, I tapped it open, just a tad, to see if anyone was in there (I can be nosy sometimes) and low and behold, it was vacant!  I quickly ran downstairs and very politely asked if it would be okay if we switched rooms!  We had 3 suitcases after all and could totally use the extra room! To my delight, Valentine, the darling grandson of the guesthouse owner agreed... and just like that, we were upgraded, for FREE! 

I could definitely get used to living somewhere with views like this outside my bedroom door!

 The guesthouse had about 15 rooms, all with different views... but Valentine said our room was his favorite in the whole house!  I'd agree!

For a reasonable $20 an hour, Aaron and I rented a little boat and boated around Hallstatt Lake!

My guess is that people from Salsburg probably own these little cabins on the lake and come out here on vacation!  They were darling and perfectly rustic!

Not sure how much use this diving board actually gets, because the water was FREEZING, but I would have loved to have seen someone taking the plunge!

This beautiful castle was on the opposite side of the lake.  I tried doing some research on it, but couldn't find any articles about it online... The mystery castle!

Our guesthouse is just to the left of the yellow hotel (Our room was on the top floor).

Gastof Simony

Our beloved VW Passat!

Gosau Lake, just outside of Hallstatt.

After spending 2 1/2 days in Hallstatt, we headed back to Munich, checked into our modest but charming hotel...  

... and took a walk over to Marienplatz, Muncih's main square since 1158!

We splurged a bit and had lunch right inside the Marienplatz building's courtyard.  It was pretty cool to think about all the history of such an old place!

Fancy macaroni and cheese! :)

Then it was off to the Hofbräuhaus, Munich's (and maybe the world's) most famous brewpub!  It's been around since 1644.  

We ate GIANT pretzels...

... and giant beers!

Our morning breakfast in Munich was perfectly German!

So was our first meal on our plane back to Korea! :)

Before we knew it our wedding trip and Honeymoon had come to an end and we were arriving back in Korea! 

 

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard

If anything, this trip made us hungry for more traveling and you can bet there will be many more adventures in store for Aaron and I! :) 

For more pictures of our honeymoon and days leading up to the wedding,
click here: Aaron Nicholas Photography!