Let's meet!

My phone has been ringing and beeping off the hook this week from friends wanting to get together once more before I leave Korea!  I loved the attention (I'm being honest) and was excited each time I wrote a new dinner date in my calendar.... On the other hand, it makes leaving just that much harder after seeing all of the people I've gotten to know and love over the last 4 years!

Tuesday was a fun dinner after work with Craig (from CANADA) and Aaron at CHAM, on the island.  Craig lives down the street from us and teaches with Okk twice a week. He's a gem as far as we're concerned!

Wednesday was dinner with Crystal (from AUSTRALIA) and Anne (from WISCONSIN) at the Casino in Seomyeon!  Yes, we had dinner at the casino, and no we didn't play any games! haha  I happened to have 3 free dinner vouchers. and no, it's not because I'm a frequent casino goer!  One of Aaron's student's moms works there and when she saw us last time, she gave us a handful of free dinner vouchers! So I "took the girls out" for dinner and we ate there for FREE! haha. (iphone photo because I had to sneak in a shot.  No cameras are allowed inside.)

Thursday night I took the 113 bus to the other side of town...


... for REVENGE night at Adam and Ashley's (from CALIFORNIA), except this time we channeled our inner teenager and watched Pretty Little Liars since there wasn't a new episode of Revenge this week.  I happen to think you're never too old to watch High School based TV dramas and no REVENGE night is ever complete without a giant bowl of popcorn!

Oh and in addition to watching the show, I dyed Ashley's hair dark brown in her living room!  It turned out beautiful and now we're both brunettes!  Yep, you heard that right, I'm a brunette again!  Did it last night!

Friday night was dinner with my own husband at home - YAY!  We made a stir fry with carrots, green bell peppers, bak choy, onion, garlic, tofu, brown rice and a ridiculously delicious homemade Thai peanut sauce that Aaron makes.  He kills it every time! 

Saturday afternoon was an amazing Italian feast of a lunch with Meg and Dave (from WEST VIRGINIA) at The Pan in Nampodong!  They surprised us and paid for the whole thing as a thank you for me helping Meg with her AWESOME BLOG!  She's a wealth of knowledge when it comes to healthy eating, vegan cooking,  crafty stuff and being an inspiration, so I love reading her blog!  She'll kill me for choosing this picture to post of the 2 of them, but it's them to a tee... Meg is poised and refined - Dave is just plain silly!  I love them.


Pizza at The Pan is my favorite!

 The "new brunette" Me and A!

We weren't ready to say goodbye after lunch, so we walked next door for some tea and coffee!  We chose the Terrace Cafe because "The Terrace cafe care about you."  Plain and simple. :)

See what I mean about Dave being "silly"?

We're not sure if we'll get to see Meg and Dave again before we leave, so this was an especially special coffee date.  Lucky for us, they've been discussing a possible move to Asheville, NC when they leave Korean NEXT year, which would be a 5 minute drive from Aaron's family!  So, we said goodbye with the belief that we WILL see them again! :)

Since Meg LOVES quotes, this one's for her,
"Don't be dismayed at goodbyes.  A farewell is necessary before you can meet again... and meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends!"  - Richard Bach

After coffee, I jumped on the subway and headed north east to Kyungsung to meet Lauren (who just moved to Korea last weekend), Salome and Gill (all from SOUTH AFRICA) for Korean BBQ, which I didn't even touch!  I was still stuffed from the giant lunch...


We all love this restaurant in KSU...  It's rough around the edges and the floors and walls are dirty, but the food is delicious, the service is always GREAT and we could never find anything like it back home!

I'm a homebody, for the most part, but this week was so much fun and filled with so many great and meaningful conversations out on the town.  I have been blessed with great friends in Korea, the kind of friends who REALLY, TRULY love and support me... I am feeling especially THANKFUL tonight. 

My 5th floor 친구's!

The co-workers on my floor at school asked me to bring my camera yesterday so we could get some group shots of all of us together before I leave Korea.  I obliged of course!  It's not often that Koreans ask to have their pictures taken you know?!  Gotta take advantage when the time comes! The 7 of us have gotten together every morning at 9:30am for the past year, to sip tea or coffee and hang out together before our 2nd classes of the day.  I really love these 6!

We joke though that we wish the 2 boys weren't around sometimes so it could just be the 5 of us girls!

... Mostly just so we could be girlie and do things like jump around while taking timer photos!  For the record, it was THEIR idea to do a jumping picture... Although somehow I'm the only one in the air - SAD.

It would be an understatement to say that I have been blessed with GREAT co-teachers!  This year is absolutely NO exception!  I love these two girls like sisters and think it's gonna take a while for me to get used to not working with them 5 days a week!

But alas, the end has to eventually come, right?!  12 more English classes to be taught, 4 more tea times to attend and plenty of goodbye hugs to give!

Shaky Shaky Earthquakey!

Aaron just experienced his very first earthquake! ... and in Korea of all places!

It was a little baby one, 3.5 magnitude and only lasted 10-15 seconds, but it was cool nonetheless!  We thought Maverick had jumped on the bed, but when we realized he was laying down on the other side of the room and our bed and walls were still shaking and neither of us were moving, we knew it was a shaker!  Fun, fun, fun!  

Happy Trembling - Tremorous - Tremulous Tuesday from Korea!

"It's teeth!"

I was playing a PowerPoint trivia game with my 3rd grade class today where I would give the kids 4 hints about a word and they would have to guess what it was!  So, I gave these four hints:

So, after all of these hints, one of my sweet little smart ones proudly raised his hand and waited for me to call on him... When I did, he yelled "It's teeth" and then cheered with his group mates... Until I showed this slide of the PPT!

 

3 more weekends!

It's Sunday night here now, which means I only have 3 more weekends left of living in Asia!  WHAT?!  I've been dead set on getting out of the apartment to see some of my favorite places in Busan one last time before we go!  So, Friday night Aaron and I went to a really cool makgeolli and pajung place in Seomyeon that had actual built in lofts (think bunk bed style) where you could climb a ladder and sit on the floor up above everyone else! Sadly our group was too big (Me, A, Stella, Chris, Ashley, Adam, Priscilla, Grace, Jeff, and JuhYe) so we got sat at a table in the back next to the piles of makgeolli bottles!  It's a good thing we don't NEED a built in loft to have a good time!   The pajung was to die for!  I didn't take any photos, but if you live in Busan and are interested in checking out a cool makgeolli joint, this is where it is:

On Saturday I met Gill at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Seomyeon for Tea for Three. Sam is visiting her family in South Africa for Winter vacation, so it was just the two of us!  The two G/Jill's!

This morning Aaron and I took the express bus out to Haeundae to meet our friend Chooch, his son Sheldon...

 

... Chooch's wife Rachel, Anne and Crystal at the BRAND NEW Park Hyatt Hotel in Haeundae for a little tour around the place!

Pretty cool looking huh?!

Why you ask, did we take a tour of the new Park Hyatt? Well, because Aaron was commissioned to do some photography for the hotel!  His photographs are on ALL of the room keys and the shopping bags in the gift shop, and since Chooch's wife works for the hotel, she was able to grab the master key and show us around the place before it opens in a couple weeks!  We spent about and hour together lounging in the Presidential and Diplomatic Suites, as if we were guests!  Sadly, lounging for an hour is the closest we'll ever get to staying in the $2000 a night rooms!  But Rachel told us we could lay on the ridiculously soft and all white beds when she saw Crystal and I drooling over them, so I plopped down with her and Anne and took it all in... aahhhh, pure bliss!  (I snapped these two photos with my iphone)

That bathtub... That view!  29 floors up!


The hotel has an UNOBSTRUCTED view of the famous Gwangan Bridge!  AMAZING, right?!  Aaron taught me how to combine the three photos I took out the window into 1 panorama!  This definitely won't be the last panorama I post!


After playing in all of the fancy rooms / spa / pool / restaurant and bar, we walked over to Quiznos for lunch together and then over to a fancy cafe for coffee and chocolate cake!  mmm

Chooch, Crystal and Anne (We were all in the same EPIK orientation class back in February of 2009!)

After our tummy's were full off of delicious lattes, coffee and cake, we took a walk over to the SSG Food Market (basically a market with any and every foreign grocery item you could ever want!  Ahhh, how I wish we lived closer to this little gem.)  As a side note, this is the building where Chooch and his wife and two little boys live!  It's across from the hotel and coffee shop where we'd been hanging out all day. How cool are the apartment buildings in Haeundae?! 

Aaron was so excited to find Basil in the SSG Food Market and is already planning what he's gonna cook up for dinner for us tomorrow!

I love to see my guy in the grocery store!  There aren't a whole lot of things sexier than that!  :)

 I'm home now and cozied up in my bed, ready to watch the latest episode of Grey's Anatomy and then fall asleep... Tomorrow starts the LAST FULL WEEK of classes that I'll ever teach in Korea... and 3 more weekends to enjoy my little corner of Asia!