The Ultimate Top Ten List

So ladies and gents, this is the top ten greatest and not so great things about my life in Korea.... Please enjoy!

Greatest:
1. Public Transportation: I can get anywhere I want to go with the simple swipe of my T-Money card, and I love it. For less than $1 I can get anywhere I need in and around Suwon.
2. People here are so nice, especially the teachers at my school. They've been SOOOO helpful! I know that if I ever needed anything I would have Koreans who would be willing to help!
3. Karaoke: going to Karaoke here doesn't make you uncool, and you don't have to go to a bar to find it. You get your own little room with enough English songs to spend days in there singing. It's awesome and everyone should try it.
4. I definitely don't mind looking over the Korean guys! haha. Korean guys are definitely the best looking of all the Asian races. Too bad none of them want to date Americans.... maybe this should be on my not so great list?
5. Korean BBQ. This is definitely my favorite thing to eat here, and it's sooo yummy. I will definitely miss this.
6. Everything here has to be cute. Every paper or product has some little character or sparkle on it. It's amazing how they can take socks, pencil cases, coffee shops, coffee, waffles.... virtually anything and make it cute. I love that.
7. You can basically wear whatever you want and no one would ever say anything. When I see adults wearing cute little socks with characters on them and girls wearing converse with their skirts.... I am so happy. I also love that I can basically put together anything in my closet with any pair of shoes, and I know I'm good to go. No one would ever say anything.
8. My kids are so cute. I wish I could record them constantly because the things they do are awesome. Also if you could hear their little voices struggle to put together English sentences... it's just beyond cute. LOVE them.
9. I love being here with my best friends. Anthony and Cameron, you are the greatest.
10. Most of Asia is just a $300ish plane ticket away. I definitely need to do more traveling and see more of this part of the world!

And the not so great....
1. Most of Korean food is not my favorite. A lot of Korean food is soup, veggies, and kimchi. None of which I like. Also, it's A LOT of seafood. My very least favorite thing.
2. For some reason, I've found that a lot of things done here don't make a lot of sense. My logical mind can't grasp it. Things are never as logical or efficient as I like them to be.
3. My kids are crazy. I know I said they were cute, but that doesn't mean they're disciplined! Oh man these kids need a good spankin. Running around the classroom, grabbing my stuff and running with it, and hitting each other are some how acceptable in the classroom here. Why???
4. I love having Anthony and Cameron here, but they're so busy we haven't really gotten to see Korea. I don't want to have to explore without them, but they're rarely free for longer than like 4 hour increments... and sometimes that's a stretch....
5. Anytime I'm out with Caroline, we get shhhhed by an Ajushi (older man) on the bus. I don't know if it's because Caroline talks loud or it's because we speak in English, but it happens to us without fail every time we get on a bus. I would understand if everyone sat in silence on buses... but they aren't quiet places most of the time!
6. I miss Chili's, Chick fil a, and Sonic.
7. The attitude here is EXTREMELY superficial. Girls and guys alike are pressured to look a certain way, and if you don't you should just get plastic surgery. Expectations are SOOO high, and I think that's why the suicide rate is very high here, especially for high school/college aged girls.
8. I hate not being able to shop!!!! I can't tell you how awful it feels to go into a store and them say "we don't have big sizes" or "big sizes this way...." Also, you can't look at something without 8 people running towards you and talking to you in Korean. They keep talking even though I don't acknowledge them. Oh my goodness this drives me crazy. It's not worth it to go shopping and not be able to do it in peace.
9. I miss cooking and baking. Food is expensive here, especially meat and baking supplies. I really love to cook for people and make tasty things, but I rarely do here because it's so difficult. That makes me very sad. Also, I don't have an oven, so that makes it a little difficult. Luckily, Anthony and Cameron do, and they're gracious enough to let me use it.... if I am willing to share what I'm cooking :)
10. I'm wayyyyyy to far from home. I miss the lake. I miss my family. I miss my girls. I miss DBU friends... etc.
11. Sorry I needed an 11, I forgot about this. I HATE food bags. Basically any food you don't eat or goes bad has to go in these yellow food bags. You can't put food down the sink or in the trash. So we keep a food back in the freezer full of old food until it gets full and then we throw it out. It's disgusting. They then are placed on the street to be picked up and it does not smell pleasant. No way. Also, it gets soooooo unbelievably dusty in my apt. I have to sweep like 2-3 times a week and it's still out of control. I'm amazed at how fast it accumulates.

Ok. So I hope that was some insight into my life here. Have an amazing week. Much love.

Thank you for the music....

It's true. I let a Korean woman chop like 8 in off my hair. It was sooooo long. But I'm pretty happy with it. My favorite part was watching my bangs get shorter and shorter and shorter.... but oh well. It's more "Korean"

Hello everyone! I hope this finds you well. Tonight the kindergarten teachers took me to Ashley restaurant, which is pretty famous here in Korea. I think that's why everyone remember my name.

Restaurant for LASSIE women. Whatever that means. Maybe it's supposed to be classy??? I don't know?

I made confettie cake and it was awesome. This is my hair short and curly. It's amazing how curly it is when it doesn't weigh 100 lbs.

yummy yummy. It was soooo good.

Caroline playing with Eden in our office.

Cameron and Anthony at the Mexican food place! Yummy!

Caroline and I at the Mexican food place.


These next pictures are from our field trip. I'm not going to caption them all, but most of them are from my 4 yr old classes because i was assigned to them on the field trip days. It was a lot of fun. We went to Samsung children's museum I think it was called. Enjoy :)

One of our teachers having just as much fun as the kids!

Don't even try to tell me you've seen anything cuter than this!

This is one of our special needs students. He has really captured my heart! He used to be terrified of me and would run when I walked into a room (he's scared of foreigners) but now I think he likes me. He came up to me and posed for this picture. So cute.

Ummm the little girl in this video is probably the cutest girl I've ever seen. LOVE her.

Please pray for me... my throat is really hurting! I hope I'm not getting something! Anthony probably infected me with his sicknesses.... I think he's finally getting better though!

I'm going through a SERIOUS Abba phase right now, so I'm going to leave you with some lyrics from "Thank You For The Music"

Im nothing special, in fact Im a bit of a bore
If I tell a joke, youve probably heard it before
But I have a talent, a wonderful thing
cause everyone listens when I start to sing
Im so grateful and proud
All I want is to sing it out loud

So I say
Thank you for the music, the songs Im singing
Thanks for all the joy they're bringing
Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty
What would life be?
Without a song or a dance what are we?
So I say thank you for the music
For giving it to me

J is for Jello!

So I know you have been anxiously awaiting my list of pros and cons about living in Korea, but I have some really cute videos and pictures of my kids that I just can't resist, so here they are:

In this video it's mostly just my kids speaking in Korean at the end, but their little voices are so cute, I couldn't resist filming it. Oh goodness. Enjoy. And don't be alarmed. There is a white kid in my class. I promise I'm in Korea!
This is Joo Ha and Joon Ha. I always get their names mixed up.

This is Jean with her K worksheet. She has the cutest little voice ever.

This is Rae Won. She's so cute.

This is Yoo Nah, Rae Won, and Yoo Min. They're great.

This is Joo Won, Jae Joon, and LIon. Yes, his English name is Lion. He's awesome.

This is girl who's name I can never remember, and Yeh Lyn. They're sweet.

This is Sea Hyun. He thinks he's pretty cool in this picture I think.

So the videos took reallly really really long to load, so that's why there's only one. I have more though, and I will put them up next time.

2 more weeks til spring break!!! woohoo!

So I just realized I didn't post pictures of my $50 hair clip I got for my birthday from the teachers. I wore it yesterday!

It's designer. Be jealous.

So I've had some requests to post more regularly... So I'll try to do my best. I guess I just figured it's not very fun to read my blog unless there's pictures.

This week is going by really quickly, so that's nice. Tomorrow (Wed.) is my last day of teaching for the week and then field trips on Thursday and Friday! Woohoo! Then, two more weeks of class, and SPRING BREAK!!!! Oh my goodness I can't wait! No exciting plans yet, but anything is better than school!

Basically, I've just decided that I'm not very good at being a grown up. Having a job and responsibilities is not my favorite thing. Especially when you're single. Then you have to endure the boringness of being adult by yourself. So lame.

Tonight, Amy, Caroline, Krista and I went and had Indian food. There's a lot of people from India in Suwon because we have a huge Samsung building here. So, it was my first experience with Indian food, and I really liked it. I was pleasantly surprised. People have always told me it has such a unique, strong taste, but it was good to me. Maybe it's because most things are better than kimchi and Korean cafeteria food :) My hands still smell like it though... I'm hoping it comes out! haha.

In other big news, I got another great package from home... thank you Kathy and Annie (friends from DBU)!!! It was such a lovely surprise. Basically, I really need to get baking because now I have so many mixes!!! I can't wait! They also sent a really cute purse/teaching bag and a necklace. I love everything!!!

My next post I'm going to make a list of the things I love and don't love about Korea... should be a real treat... please plan accordingly.

Happy Birthday To Me!

So these were the beautiful flowers I found on my desk on my birthday from Anthony and Cameron :) Such a wonderful surprise!

At the American breakfast food place called "Butterfingers".... please read the green text. It makes no sense.

My yummy breakfast! It was so wonderful to eat bacon!

This is John (Amy's husband) and Darrick (Krista's fiance)

All the girls... from the left it's Sarah, Krista, Me, baby Eden, and Amy

Me and Eden :) Love her!

At the park we went to go see the cherry blossoms in.... the park was nice and huge, but the flowers were really disappointing. Apparently since it's been so cold the flowers haven't bloomed much :(

Some of the cherry blossoms

The park

Sarah, Me and Amy in front of Confucius maybe?

Some really pretty flowers!

At my birthday celebration with the boys :) we went to Kraze burger, the waffle place, and Karaoke (of course) It was a wonderful night. I can't thank them enough for making my birthday so special! They are such a blessing to me here!!!

AND best of all!!! They got me a COACH wristlet!!!! I haven't been so excited about a present in a long time.... This was a complete shock!!!

Ummm the cutest teacup set ever!

Sorry this is random.... but some of my kids making crowns today! The left is Ha Eun and the right is Juwon. So cute!

This is the wristlet they gave me!!! Sorry, when it's Coach my materialistic side comes out :)

Ummm I'm sure most of you will not get this, but these are the characters from my favorite Korean TV show, and April got me socks with all of them for my Bday! This was a really fun gift. If anyone is interested in wasting hours of your life, please go to www.mysoju.com and watch the Korean drama, Boys Over Flowers. Be careful though, you will get addicted. It's fantastic. Don't worry, there's English subtitles.

So, today I got this AMAZING package in the mail!!! The box was soooo heavy though, so it was not a fun walk home from school. BUT it was worth it!!! I am soooo excited about everything! Thanks Mom, Dad, Amy, Brandon, and the Reynolds' family!!! So amazing!

The entire spread! In case you can't tell, it's Rosetta Stone (Korean obviously), a really cute polka dot nighty, TONS of baking mixes, seasonings, candy, EmergenC packets, Twighlight, Kelly Clarkson CD, and pasta mixes (which I partook of tonight! So yummy!) THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

And this is me with my kids today!!! They're so cute! This is my afternoon class, but I really love them. The kid I'm holding in my left arm is Seok Hun. He's a handful, but I really love him!!! I'm finally starting to really love being with my kids! And how could you resist these cute little faces??


Some important news: I think I'm going to be able to make it home for Tara's wedding this summer!!! Amy Turner is going to fill in for me, so if all goes as planned, I should be able to come home around July 23/24th ish.... I can't wait!!!! So, not only does that mean I'll be home an extra week, I'll get to be home for the wedding! Yay! Please pray that it all works out for me to make it home :)

Also, something else exciting: Peter Lee (the boss at DBU Asia) is really taking care of me, and is trying to work with CCA so that Anthony, Cameron, and I can all go to Japan together to get our Visas. He's so considerate to think of me... he told me he didn't want me going by myself. He's such a nice man. He really takes care of us :)

Anthony and Cameron are doing well, but are busier than ever! Sometimes I can't wrap my head around the amount of work they have... but I do my best to encourage them in any way! Keep praying for them as their workload continues to be stressful and time consuming! They really are so encouraging to me though because they really have such good attitudes about everything! They remind me to stay focused and do all that the Lord asks of me without complaining or arguing!

Well, I hope everyone has a great week as you remember the resurrection of our beloved Savior. Enjoy and cherish the time you have with your families.