All you need to know in life, you learn in kindergarten...

My beautiful pink bike. I LOVE having a bike. The weather has been so beautiful this week that I've gone on a bike ride multiple times daily. I really love the chance to get the exercise and enjoy my little neighborhood.

This is Amy and Eden. These girls make my time here in Korea so amazing. Most afternoons I spend with them just chatting and playing. I love those times. And yes, Amy takes Eden around town this way... haha. Just kidding.

These next pictures are some of the 150 pictures I took of Amy and Eden for her husband, John, for Father's day. If you know John, don't tell him :) it's a surprise! I've been wanting to get back into photography again, and I am so glad I had the opportunity to do this shoot! Thanks Amy and Eden! Please enjoy... Eden is the cutest baby girl ever!

Update for this week: I found this and really liked it...

All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten.
These are the things I learned:

• Share everything.
• Play fair.
• Don't hit people.
• Put things back where you found them.
• Clean up your own mess.
• Don't take things that aren't yours.
• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
• Wash your hands before you eat.
• Flush.
• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
• Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
• Take a nap every afternoon.
• When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
• Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
• And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

It's officially 44 days until my sister is here. Not that I'm counting :)

No lost children this week. I think? I might have wanted to lose some on purpose though. That's all I'm saying.

6 more weeks of teaching until summer!!!! WOOHOO!

Hope everyone has a lovely week!

Confessions of the fat teacher...

Exhibit A: REALLY crowded amusement park (Everland).

Exhibit B: Really sad girl second from the left, Yeh Joon. (I think this picture was an omen of what was to come)

Pause from the missing child story to look at my sweet Jean. Love her.

My other favorite student. Min Joon. He's SOOO cute.

Jean and Yoon Ah riding a ride just before the "incident" occured.

So, story time. For security purposes I changed the names in this story. Haha.

One beautiful spring day, an English teacher and her students went on a zoo adventure into the Korean theme park, Everland. The park is a zoo and an amusment park. 2 for the price of one. Anyway, the English teacher was frustrated the whole day because her Korean partner, a homeroom teacher, was walking SO fast the whole day. She thought to herself, common, they're FIVE. How could they possible move their little legs that fast? This power walk continued throughout the day, much to the English teacher's dissatisfaction. Although the pace was annoying, it was a really good day. The English teacher loved getting a day off with her kids away from teaching. However, this happy story was about to reach its demise. Korean teacher did not keep track of time and the class was running very late getting to the buses. So, of course, Korean teacher starts HAULING it towards the entrance of the park. At this point, the English teacher noticed two little boys unwilling to walk that fast and keep up. So, she stops, puts one boy on her back, and basically drags the other to try to catch up with the speedy gonzales heading up the group. When English teacher and said children FINALLY reach the group, kids start saying, "teacher, teacher, Yeh Joon is missing." The English teacher thinks carefully about this and wants to see if the Korean teacher knows. The Korean teacher says, "Yeh Joon is missing." But, what happens next really startles the English teacher. The Korean teacher keeps walking like nothing happened! So, the English teacher decides she must've misunderstood (which happens like 1090398472934 times a day, so nothing new) and keeps on walking. She thinks, maybe she meant Yeh Joon is with another teacher. However, children keep saying to the English teacher, "Yeh Joon is missing!" It is at this point that the class finally reaches the front gate. The Korean teacher then procedes to tell the English teacher that she should go back and look for the lost child. This is when panick mode sets in with the English teacher. She thinks to herself, "how will I find a child in these thousands and thousands of people? I don't even know the park. What am I supposed to do? I can't even read Korean? How will I find my way out of here??? AHHHH." Basically, English teacher begins to really freak out and starts running through the park to find Yeh Joon. She calls English teacher 2, Caroline, and explains the situation. However, Caroline exclaims the good news that Yeh Joon had been found in the lost and found and everything was okay. The scared and flustered English teacher makes her way through the maze that is Everland and finally gets back on the bus.

The End.

And these are two boys sleeping on the bus on the way back to school. So precious!

So that was my week last week.

Memorable quotes from these week:

Monday:

Justin and Joo Ha: "Teacher Ashley, you are a tomato."
Teacher Ashley: "Why sweetheart?
Justin and Joo Ha: "Because you are so round."

Teacher Ashley: "Justin and Joo Ha, where are Kyung Yoon, Gi Min, Jin Hee, and Jong Woo?"
Justin and Joo Ha: "You're probably hiding them in your stomache. "

My kids are so nice right? Love being called fat by 6 year olds.

Tuesday: *After a much heated argument between Teacher Caroline and Teacher Krista about flashcards:
Teacher Ashley: "Don't bring my flashcards into this."

I felt like such a nerd after that. So awesome.

Ok, that's it for my week. I hope this gave you as much joy as it did me. Ha.

Oh, and I know you are all dying to see my awesome pink bike with a cute basket, but my camera died and my charger is MIA for the time being. I'll try to update more often :)

Seeing Japan in 2 days...

The 3 of us on the plane about to begin our 2 day Visa adventure in Osaka, Japan. The guy next to us was named Andrew. We figured they looked at all our names and put all of us together. He was really friendly, so we talked to him for a while.

They gave me a mask at the airport because I had been to the states in the past 7 days. It was awesome. I'm sure I was supposed to wear the mask while I was there, but I didn't. :)

Cameron and I on the RAPIT train from the airport to Namba station in Osaka.

Trying to figure out how the Subway system worked in Japan. I must say we were pros at taking the subway by the time we left. I was pretty proud. We didn't get lost once I don't think! Woohoo!

We're really mature and the first thing we did was put on the free robes at the hotel and take a picture. It was pretty awesome. I should've kept it.

We wore these out to sight see after that. Not.

The giant ferris wheel (One of the largest in the world apparently) that was by the aquarium right on the ocean. Yeah, we rode it.

Our food choices for lunch the first day. I bet you can't guess who ate KFC. Haha. Cameron had some omlet thing stuffed with rice and covered in ketchup (side note about Cameron: he hates ketchup), Anthony had this crazy mystery seafood pile of egg, noodles, octopus, shrip, and mayonaise. Sounds awesome right? My thoughts exactly. I might have had KFC. Don't judge me.

Cameron and I with the fishies.

Petting zoo alert! This is Anthony petting the sharks.

Cameron and I petting a sting ray! That was pretty awesome. That is, if you like touching really slimy things.

I almost had an arm casualty. Don't worry, I was able to escape before the trechorous beast devoured it completely.

Anthony and Cameron outside the front of the aquarium. I'm pretty sure this aquarium is also one of the biggest in the world. It was 7 floors I think. Unfortunately everything in Japan is EXTREMELY expensive, so it was lik $20.00 to go in. But, we were on vacation, so we did it.

Cameron and I in front of the ocean!

Anthony and Cameron in front of the ocean as well. It was beautiful.

The three of us while we were riding the ferris wheel.

This sign makes a lot of sense. It says, "It is strong in time, and it is gently to time tough at time." I thought it was pretty awesome.

Cameron and I with an angry man in the downtown area we were in.

The downtown area. It was pretty cool. Lots of lights and really really interesting looking people.

Eating some Japanese food. I forget what it is called. Starts with a T. But it's basically deep fried veggies and meats and fruits. It was like the state fair all over again. But the beef ones were really yummy.

Some more of the downtown area. Cameron and I went and did karaoke while Anthony walked around. They had sooooo many English songs. It was much better than Korean karaoke. (I'm even more biased because we got majorly ripped off at a karaoke place here in Korea last night. I'm still bitter about it)

In front of Osaka castle. This was the start of day 2 in Japan. Our last day.

Shitinojii temple (Or something like that). This was basically located in the Buddhaville of Osaka. I've never seen so many temples and Buddhas. Very interesting.

Anthony and Cameron went and had sushi. I had McDonalds. They paid $22 for 10 pieces of sushi. No thank you.

So that concludes this update. As you can see, we all made huge sacrifices to go on this trip and miss teaching for 2 days. It was rough. I'll try to update again soon. Tune in next time for the story of how I lost one of my kids at a huge amusment park on our field trip yesterday.

Finally legal in Korea,
Ashley, Cameron, and Anthony

RIP Brown Cannon

Some pics from back home :) (Max and Marty who will be in Korea in like 8 days!!!! I can't wait!)

Me and Megan... yes, I'm a blonde again and I LOVE it!

Amanda and Samantha.... Miss them soooo much.

Mom and Dad with her fish!!

News for this week:

I somehow lost my camera yesterday. It is very sad, especially since I leave for Japan in the morning. It was in my pocket, and then it wasn't. It either fell out or someone stole it... it was crowded. It's very sad because I had just talked to Cameron and Anthony about the awesome pictures I was going to have for my blog this week. Basically we went to this cool temple, climbed a hill/mountain thing (more like anthony did and took pictures), saw a HUGE golden Buddha, another giant statue, and this cool wall/fortress thing. We'll have to reenact it another day. So, Anthony will be our photographer for Japan. We'll only be there for two days getting our visas, and then it's back to the lovely teaching world on Wed. Yay. (not)

It's really really hot here. I have no AC. Hate my life.