Thanks Math!

I've always been a big lover of math!  In high school, I used to beg my algebra teacher to let me teach our class, just once! He never obliged, sadly, but I got my chance after graduating from college (with a degree in digital media production by the way), when my friend Tiffany called and asked if I would take over a high school algebra class at the school where she was working. The lady who was teaching the class had left on a Friday and had never come back to work! MY DREAM COME TRUE!  Or, so I thought!  There was a reason she left, and I found out the very next day, when there I was, a 23 year old untrained teacher, standing in front of my new class of high school students who were CRAZY and completely undisciplined!  Not only were they like small wild animals, it felt like every kid in my class felt like this....

 It took me all semester to re-train them to act like normal human beings and to actually do their homework!  By the end of the semester, I was exhausted, but was so thankful for the job and the experience and actually began to love and build relationships with a lot of those kids!

All that to say, today's 6th grade classes at my school are going on a math field trip, so I don't have ANY classes today! Hence the whole THANKS MATH thing!! I just finished checking my e-mails, painting my nails, and am about to address some Christmas cards, all while getting my regular pay for the day!  Sure beats that math job I had in America! :)

Please vote!

In about 3 months and counting, Aaron and I will no longer have a paycheck to rely on and will quite possibly end up starving photographers! (Cross your fingers and PRAY that doesn't happen!)  But, just in case, I've entered 6 of our travel photos into a little photo contest on the Smarter Travel Website called "Your Best Travel Photo of 2012"!

We actually have a decent chance of winning because we won an honorable mention for 2 of our photos in last years contest!  So, please help us win the big prize this year - roundtrip airfare for two with a value of up to $2,500 from Vayama!  Honorable mentions will win between $25 and $250! Hey, every dollar counts when you're trying to start a business! 

I entered the following 6 photos into the contest. Vote by clicking on any/all of these photos (which will take you to the Smarter Travel website) and click on the "5 stars" underneath the pic!  Vote once a day and I'll love you forever!

Nampodong's Christmas Extravaganza!

Last night, Jeff, Aaron, Ashley, Adam, Grace and I all met up in Nampodong for dinner at our favorite cheese bi bim bap restaurant, a quick stop at Starbucks, and a nice stroll down Gwangbok-ro to see the Christmas lights!  

I always love Christmas time in Nampodong!  It seems like the only place in Busan that comes close to mimicking the outlandish Christmas decorating that happens in America!  It definitely has it's own little Korean flare, but I love it none the less!

Ashley's been collecting Starbucks stickers on her Starbucks sticker card all winter and finally collected her 17th and final sticker to get her yearly Starbucks planner!  Aaron and I gave her our 2 stickers tonight, so we technically own 2/17th's of it!  Congratulations Ash!

After we all had our warm coffee's in hand, we made our way over to the main street where all of the festivities were going on!  Tonight's entertainment was a darling little kids choir!  We made it just in time to hear their very last song.  

Out of 8 pictures, this was the only one where these two weren't goofing off and looking ridiculous!

I knew if I kept snapping I'd get a decent one! :)

Koreans must love having their pictures drawn, because the whole street was lined with artists, 

sketching away!

Jeff and Grace!

There are Christmas trees lining the main street with these hand written Christmas wishes hung from the branches. I liked this one because it said, "I love father and mother" in English! 

Me and my love...

And for your entertainment, a more realistic photo of what we're really like!  :)

And this is what our kids would be like if we had some!  They'd always be goofing around like their dad and always appear overly excited and friendly like their mom!  Awesome, right?!   

How beautiful is my friend Grace!?

And how adorable are they?! 

We don't see this often in Korea, so when we do, we get extra excited and always throw some cash in the case to support their love of music!

 And I'll leave you with this amazing picture!  I snapped a couple photos of this little guy holding his cotton candy, when out of nowhere, this old Korean womanlkiterally stuck her face next to it and started licking the side of it!  It was quite possibly one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time!

 I couldn't have asked for a better way to end our weekend than with good friends, yummy coffee, and beautiful lights!  

"Merry Christmas".... from Nampodong!

Sneak Peak of Meagan and Dave

Aaron and I had a photo shoot with Meagan (originally from Texas) and Dave (originally from Perth) this afternoon at Beomeosa Temple, and there was actually a little bit of SNOW! The 4 of us romped through the snow, slid on the ice, and froze our little tushies off in the freezing temperatures, but it was all worth it, and all for the sake of beautiful photos like this one!

The full post will be up soon at Aaron Nicholas Photography, so be on the lookout!

I say tomAto, he says tomato!

During the afternoons at work, Aaron or I will always message the other asking, "What should we make for dinner tonight?"  Just like clockwork, the same conversation happened this afternoon and Aaron asked what I thought of this recipe for roasted tomato soup!  I obviously had absolutely no hesitation, especially since I'd never had tomato soup!  Yay for firsts!

Aaron got right to work on the tomatoes when he got home (while I visited a car rental place to see if we could rent a car for Aaron's birthday weekend next weekend. Sadly, they said no to me because I'm not Korean. Boooo!)  When I got home, the tomatoes were roasting in the oven...

... and Aaron had 2 glasses of cabernet tempranillo wine poured for each of us to drink while we cooked dinner together!

After pulling the tomatoes out of the oven, we poured them into our lil blender and pureed them for the soup! 

After they were pureed, we poured them into a pan and added thyme and red pepper flakes and let it simmer for 20 minutes while we played with Maverick!

Can you believe this fat cat?  As we were cooking, I looked down and Maverick was laying with his arms literally wrapped around his food bowl waiting for us to fill it for dinner time!  Such a fatty!!

After the soup was finished pureeing, we scooped it into our bowls!  Look at that delicious tomato yuminess!

Tomato soup is never complete without a side of bread to dip it in, right?!  Well, Aaron took it to a whole other level and whipped up gouda and mild cheddar grilled cheese sandwiches to go with it!  

I couldn't have thought of a better meal to cook up for the first snow day of the year!  

***Yep, you heard it right... It snowed today! :)