Japanese Mickey Mouse!

Aaron and I decided that since we haven't been able to go to Disneyland in America together, that we would go while we were in Japan together!  (Monday, September 12th)

I know, we live a tough life, don't we?! 

Admission was $80.00, which I thought was less than Disneyland CA, but it looks like it's the exact same price.  Oh well, it was worth it!

They gave me an English and a Japanese map.  Wish I knew how to read both!  Maybe one day!

This is the main street at Tokyo Disneyland, which they call "The World Bazzar."  It wasn't quite as cute or quaint as CA Disneyland. :(

We headed straight for Tomorrowland to go on Space Mountain, but stopped in our tracks when we saw that they have Captain EO in 4-D!  It's a classic from our childhoods, and ended up being the first thing we did!

Space Mountain had a 90 minute wait, so we grabbed a fast pass and headed for the cars!  You may think that was a lame choice, but when you haven't driven a car in almost 3 years, it's kind of fun again!  At Tokyo Disneyland, they have a sensor on the cars where they automatically stop when you get within about 5 feet of the car in front of you!  Smart, very smart!  I've had my fair share of whiplashes on this ride in CA!

 Call us crazy, but we went to Toontown next!  Tokyo Disneyland is kind of set up in a circle, surrounding the castle, so it was the next area to see!  We headed straight for the roller coaster, which had a 5 MINUTE WAIT!!  Amazing, right?!

It may be for kids and only last 30 seconds...

but I loved it and laughed the whole ride!  We were sat in the very back, which as everyone knows feels like you're going much faster! I know, I'm such a thrill seeker, aren't I!
(insert sarcasm here)

Toontown was darling, and most of the little Japanese girls were dressed up, head to toe, in their princess outfits!

Such a schmooch, huh?!

I kid you not, nearly 90% of the girls between the age of 12 and 20, were wearing one of these Minny Mouse headbands... literally, 90%!  I, on the other hand, just modeled it for the photo and placed it right back on the shelf where it belongs!

No trip to Disneyland is complete without a visit to Small World!

For whatever reason, the USA area was limited to 2 small cowboys and a whole room full of Hawaiian hula dancers!  

Thunder Mountain Railroad is, and will always be, one of my favorite rides at Disneyland! Unfortunately, I didn't get to hear the guys say: "Hang on to your hats and glasses folks, cause this here's the wildest ride in the wilderness!"  Or maybe I did, but it was in Japanese! As you can see, I've ridden it a time or two, or 100!

 Sooo fun!

Tom Sawyer Island and the river...

You can't go to Disneyland without taking a castle picture!

Like I said, 90% of the girls were wearing Minney Mouse ear headbands, but what I didn't mention was the fact that about 30% of the groups of girls there that day were ALSO wearing matching Disney t-shirts like these girls!

I was sooo happy they had Splash Mountain, which Aaron kept calling "the flume ride!"  Made me laugh every time!

They sat us in the very front of "the flume" as Aaron would say, and we got drenched on the big drop!  It felt sooo good to be cooled off after being in the sun all day!

For those of you who went to HS with Aaron, you'll love this picture... The good ole' "raptor" came out for the drop picture!!  Yes, Aaron and his friends used to imitate raptors... weird, I know!  I guess it's what kids do when they grow up in the mountains!

Somewhere in Critter Country...

These cute little popcorn stands were set up all throughout the park, selling strange flavors of popcorn.  This one, for instance, offered "curry popcorn!"  I know it may sound gross, but it smelled heavenly!

I begged Aaron to come with me to the Jungle Cruise!  Who doesn't love the Jungle Cruise? ...Relaxing on a boat, while riding through what seems to be a real jungle, and listening to a comedian tell funny jokes!  Who wouldn't love that?!  Aaron said, if the wait was 20 minutes or less, he'd do it!  You can't tell from this picture, but it was exactly 20 minutes! haha! Sadly though, we didn't understand the jokes. :(

The jungle cruise...  We joked about how it looks like some of our recent travel pictures to South East Asia!

The Jungle Cruise...

Hello strollers!

An American girl... wearing a sombrero... at Disnyeland... in Japan?!  Does anyone else see the irony of this picture?

A soy sauce and butter popcorn stand!   hmmmm...

By this point, we were pretty hungry and were ready for some good ole Disneyland food for dinner, so we headed to this restaurant in The World Bazzar for some hotdogs!

Aaron is such a fat kid in a thin body!  He ordered a foot long hot dog!  I didn't even know those existed!

The castle with the moon beside it was so beautiful at night time!

I was so excited about the Electrical Parade!  I know parade time is the best time to ride the rides, but I didn't care...

It was actually better than I remembered! :)

After the parade we raced to Thunder Mountain just in time to beat the crowds and rode it for the 2nd time!

Then we finished off the night with another stop at Splash Mountain and 2 more rounds of Space Mountain, (Aaron's favorite!) before calling it a night and closing out the park!  I was really looking forward to the fireworks show at 9:30pm, but it was canceled due to the weather, which was strange, because it was a gorgeous clear night!  Who knows!  Anyhow, we had such a fun day; full of good food, lots of walking, tons of laughter, and some grade A people watching!  Farewell Mickey Mouse!  See you next time in California!

Tokyo on a whim!

This was a vacation on a whim if I've ever seen one!  Aaron and I decided last week that we should spend 5 days of our 6 day Chuseok vacation in Tokyo!  It seemed as if we purchased the tickets, pinned down a hostel, and packed our bags (or in this case suitcase!) and we're off in a blink of an eye!  

Since I began writing this blog over 2 1/2 years ago, I have never missed a complete documentation, in blog form, of an overseas vacation!  So, you might have wondered why you weren't getting the scoop while we were gone on this trip to Tokyo.  Well, this time I decided that I was going to force myself to chill, relax, spend far less time on my computer, and not worry about remembering and recounting all the details of the trip!  Don't get me wrong, I love doing it, and thrive off of putting together pictures and creating a story for my family and friends to enoy!   But this time, I wanted the trip to just be about me and Aaron, not the blog!  So, that's what I did. :) 

I couldn't leave you completely out of the loop though.

With that said, I'm home now, and loaded some of my favorite pictures from thet trip. Most are loaded on facebook if you want to see the whole shabang!

Aaron and I had such a great time together in Tokyo!  This was our first vacation away from the beach, and solely spent in a big city, which was a completely different feel!  I even got to wear heels and a dress one day!  We ate fancy dinners and cheap ones, walked miles and miles and miles everyday, people watched, watched Elvis impersonators dance at the entrance of a park, played Japanese Pachinco, went to the zoo, talked and laughed a lot, lounged in parks, took photographs, rode bikes, ate at McDonalds one too many times (It's so cheap!), paid for 5 minutes showers everyday, slept on the floor, gambled (kind of), ate yummy noodles, went to shrines and temples, played Japanese style arcade games (which are super fun!), drank coffee, did a little shopping, saw the city from the 45th floor of a highrise building, and ultimately fell more in love in the process of it all!  Can't beat a trip like that!

Just so you know... there's one more day to tell about!  When I have some extra time, I'll load some pictures from Tokyo Disneyland, which is where we spent our last full day! 

I may or may not still be on a bit of a high from it all! :)

It's raining packages!

I am blessed with some of the most fantastic, creative, inspiring, caring, forgiving, understanding, supportive, loving, encouraging, funny, and thoughtful people to call my friends!  I am literally blown away sometimes by their love!

My love language (the way I feel most loved by people) is through words of affirmation and small/thoughtful gifts.  So when people compliment me or send me a little something in the mail, it makes me feel like a million bucks, and VERY LOVED!  In the past month alone, I've had three packages arrive on my desk at work, from 3 different friends!  I don't know what I did to deserve all this love, but I will say, I am incredibly thankful!

The first package to arrive were these delicious Butterscotch See's Candies (from my sweet friend Karyn Hill in Arizona).  She knows I'm obsessed with these and that I can't get them in Korea, so she and her son Austin have gone out of their way TWICE to send me some! :)  Love you guys!  Thank you!  

 

Then, my darling friend (and old college roommate in Orange County, CA) Krista Palmer, sent me a gorgeous card, handmade by a woman living in a Nairobi slum, who, with her friends, make these cards in hopes of transforming their lives and community!  I adore anything handmade, and absolutely love when the proceeds from their sales go back to people in need around the world. Thank you for your sweet note, and the gorgeous card Pestoni!  I love you!

Then, today, my co-teacher Monica handed me a package from my old college friend Bri Moore in Boston! http://www.briana-moore.com/ She's also a fabulous photographer by the way! She had bought and sent me this darling card, which she said reminded her of Aaron and I, (love it!), and this book, "One Day", which she recently read and thought I would love because of where life has taken me in recent years. She said I'll laugh, cry, groan, and cheer!  Sounds like my kinda book Bri! I can't wait to jump into it!  Thank you friend!  Maybe it'll even make it into my backpack for Tokyo tomorrow!

Then, as if that wasn't enough love coming my way, Aaron and I went to dinner at a fancy restaurant last week, and were served loose leaf tea after the meal!  I instantly fell in love with it, but didn't have a strainer or loose leaf tea to use at home.  I had seen a picture of one of these little tea houses, and thought they were so cute, but had no idea where to find them!  Aaron had found one and surprised me with it a couple days ago!
I was so excited!

It's the little things that brighten my day!

"I get by with a little help from my friends."
- John Lennon

Yeong-do Meet Up # 3

A couple months ago, Aaron, Meagan and I came up with the idea to get on Facebook and invite all the English teachers working on the Island to a little get together, so we could all meet each other!  Island people should stick together, right?!  Tonight, we had our 3rd get together and met some great newbies who just arrived in Korea a couple weeks ago!   

We met up at an awesome little Dak-galbi restaurant, where you can grill your own meat at the table!  Seriously delicious!!  We all ate until we couldn't possibly eat anymore, and each only owed $9!  Such a deal!  

The 4 boys... Craig, Aaron, Phil, and James.

and the girls... Meagan, Me, and the Roxanne's.  

(sorry, I only brought my phone to take pics with tonight... hence the crappy quality.)

After dinner, an Irish couple: Dave and Susan, and a sweet girl names Ali who also live on the island, came and met us for some bowling across the street!   For $3,50 a game (including shoes) it's a sure way to have a cheap laugh and a great time getting to know each other!  Really, why do bowling shoes always have to look so lame?!

 

The score boards... guys on the left screen, girls on the right!

You're looking at the two best bowlers of the night!  I don't know that that's necessarily something to boast about, but fun none the less!  And for the record, I beat Aaron by 18 points!   That's right!!

Can't wait for our next big get together!