Packing it all up!

So if you haven't heard the amazing news, I'M MOVING TO A NEW APARTMENT! YAYYYYYYY! How did this happen you might ask??? Well, at my end of the year review mtg, I mentioned that I had a really hard time living in my apartment because it's TINY. I just explained that I might not want to stay at CCA one more year if I had to stay in that place. I really didn't think it would do anything mentioning it, because that's kind of how things go around here, but it made me feel better just to talk to them about it. BUT much to my surprise, I got a phone call two days later saying they had a new apartment for us! Woohoo! It's in Acropark which is AMAZING. It's so beautiful and I can't wait to show you all pictures when I move in. The kicker though is that I had to have everything I own here COMPLETELY packed and ready to move by Tuesday. I have a big thing Monday night, so that only gave me Saturday and Sunday to pack. Let's just say I procrastinated on Saturday and I might not have done any packing, so I did all of it today. The only thing I have left to pack is my desk, and that shouldn't take too long. Also, I have Caroline to thank for helping me pack up the kitchen on Friday night! I'll be home in 2 days. I absolutely cannot believe it!!! CRAZY! It's going to be a whirlwind these next two days before I make it home. I have to dance in a talent show at CCA with 7 other kindergarten teachers. AHHH. Scary. Hopefully no one I know is there! haha. If you're lucky, maybe I'll get someone to video it :)

So, I got my haircut this week. It's really short. I'm turning in to my sister... every time she gets her hair cut it gets shorter and shorter! haha. And this is post packing all day... so don't judge me! Have a great week! See you REALLY soon! Oh, and sorry there's no pictures, I accidentally left my camera at school on Friday...

CHECKED OUT

So, I'm at school right now enjoying a wonderful cup of coffee compliments of Ken Jun. That's the only thing that's entertaining me right now. I'm so bored it's kind of unbelievable. We're finished planning, and I'm officially done teaching preK until next year. I have one day of teaching left for this semester... so you can't blame me for being checked out mentally and emotionally from this place. I'm so ready to get home it's not even funny, but amazingly enough, I'm actually excited about coming back too. Wierd. I'm just ready to experience all the new things to come next year. I had my end of the year review mtg with all the admins yesterday, and it was mostly positive, which I'm grateful for. I have to say goodbye to John, Amy, and Eden Turner tonight, so that's sad, but I wish them all the best... I'll see them over Christmas break though :) I'm getting my hair cut tonight, so I can look so fresh and so clean clean when I get home on Tuesday. Hopefully it doesn't turn out bad, or I'll be really sad when I get home! haha. This weeks 3 gift exchanges have all been a success... pictures to come soon.

See you all in 5 days!

Visit to Seoul... Round 2

So yesterday Ken, Cameron and I ventured into Seoul again just like last weekend. We still had some things we needed to pick up, thus the round 2. Enjoy~~

So, Ken fell asleep on the bus. For a long time. We couldn't resist :) Sorry Ken...

Christmas photo op!

Ken buying ice cream when it was 30 degrees outside. This was after he dropped the first one :)

Ken and I with the pretty Christmas decorations!

Ken and Cameron got Sausages on a stick. No thank you.

We went to eat at a Pub in Itaewon. The hamburgers were yummyyyyy. Too bad it was so loud in there we couldn't talk to each other!

Stephanie joined us for dinner!

Cameron enjoying his monster hamburger!

That's all for now! I'll be home in 9 days!!!! Oh my goodness!!!! YAY!

Open Arms

As I was hanging out with one of my kindergarten classes today, they were working on a bead activity that required a certain precision for their little hands. One of my students, Sung Seo, would get about half way through with her project, and decide to change tables. As she sat down, all the beads would move and she would have to start from square one again. I said to her, “Sung Seo, there is a better way, please be more careful,” and showed her by example the correct way. Even after I showed her the way, she continued to make the same mistake. Every time she did, she would breathe that exacerbated sigh of frustration, knowing that she had made the same mistake again. Once more, she would have to start from the beginning. I was thinking to myself, “Why hasn’t she learned that she will mess it up every time she does that? Why doesn’t she listen to my instructions?”

Reflecting on the actions of my kindergarten student, I am only reminded of myself. As I sat and watched one of my students make the same error over and over again, I can’t help but think my creator looks down on me and sees the same thing. I wonder if the Lord is thinking, “When is she going to learn? Haven’t I shown her a better way than this?” After my mistakes, I have also found myself breathing that same exacerbated sigh in frustration, knowing that I had made the same mistake again.

When will I learn that my way is never going to be the best way? Why can’t I see that the Lord has shown me the way with purpose and precision? In Proverbs 21:30 it says, “There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD.” No matter what I do, or plan to do, I can’t compete with the Lord’s plans for me. Why do I choose to ignore his infinite wisdom and somehow justify to myself that I have it all figured out?

All I can say is that I am so grateful for new mercies everyday. I am grateful that even though I continue to make mistakes, and decide that my way is best, the Lord opens his arms wide at the end of every day. He graciously shows me the way again, knowing that I may make the mistake over and over again. What a patient and loving God we serve.

Falling is cool

Yesterday I fell. Twice.

It was awesome, and I am awesome.

The first one was the best, so I feel like I should describe it in full detail. Here's the scene. I am walking to the dry cleaners after school, so I'm carrying a giant neon green bag full of dirty clothes. That in itself has to look pretty cool. Then, I hear someone yell, "where are you going?!?" I turn to find that it's another kindergarten teacher driving home in her car (I won't name names because she was sneaking out early!). I tell her, and she asks me if I would like a ride. Of course I accept, and in my excitement, I run towards her car. Only my shoes (new ones btw), did not agree with my running, apparently. I proceed to fall on top of the hood of her car (with a loud thumpt) and then proceeded to fall onto the road. I quickly recovered, playing it "cool" to hide my hurt and embarrassment. Nothing can beat the look of shock on that teacher's face when I got into her car. I know she was thinking, "OH MY GOODNESS, did that really just happen???" (In Korean, of course). It was truly one of my finest moments while living in Korea. The real travesty is that I ruined my new pair of boots by scraping them on the pavement. :(

Round two happened in my neighborhood after seriously freaking out a lady by trying to carry one of her really heavy bags. I guess that's what I get for trying to be helpful. Korea said no, no, no, you should fall again. That's the last time I try to help someone with their bags.... :)

The end.

Oh, and another super cool thing happens this week (this really is cool, no sarcasm here). Basically, CCA wants to encourage their employees to better themselves (whether it's travel, health, entertainment, etc) so once a year they allow you to turn in reciepts from stuff you've done to better yourself. Up to 300,000 Won! That's around $300! Woohoo! Lucky for me, I never clean out my purses, so with a little digging, I was able to scrounge up over a hundred dollars worth of movie tickets, bus and train tickets, and sight seeing tickets after digging through all my bags. Apparently it pays to not throw away your trash around here! And after I include my reciepts from my Hong Kong trip last semester, I will have definitely acquired 300,000 Won. Woohoo! That's like an end of the year present from CCA! So excited.

That's all now. It's late again. I need to stop doing this. I'll be at home sleeping in my own bed at this time two weeks from now. Hooray!

Can't sleep...

Hello everyone! I hope this finds you well. It's 1:30 in the morning and I have to be up at 6, so that's neat. This morning I slept through my alarm and woke up at 1:30 pm. I must've been DEAD. I didn't wake up once in the night. I was so shocked when I woke up and realized Sunday was half way over. Ooops. And now, I am paying for it. I did an intense cleaning/organizing of my room and closet, and I'm still not sleepy. Oh man. Have I ever mentioned how much I LOATHE Mondays?? Only 3 more of them until I'm home. Yippee. I don't know who's idea it was to put 7am chapel on a Monday, but whoever they are, they are bonkers. I don't think any CCA employee would say they enjoy being at school by 7am on a MONDAY morning. Ridiculous.

Anyway, I had a fantastic weekend. Well a fantastic week really. Mostly due to being reunited with a friend here that we haven't seen much of in a long time. I'm pretty sure we've hung out everyday since last Friday, and it's been so good. So thanks, Ken. He is responsible for my new addiction to the show Glee. If you don't watch it, you should. I find it so hilarious. Maybe that's because it's about a show choir, and I was in a show choir, but who really knows? It's like a TV show that's a musical. That's just magical to this music lover. Basically I got no sleep this week due to late night game nights and nights filled with watching Glee and hanging out, but it was worth it! I finally feel like I have a life again here, and I can only praise God for bringing an old friend back at EXACTLY the right time. I was starting to feel so issolated here, but these past couple of weeks have been fantastic. Praise the Lord.

There's a lot to look forward to these next two weeks as well: tomorrow night... girls night (dinner, sharing time, and working out!), Tuesday night: prayer walking in Seoul, Wed night: finale of the Biggest Loser!!!!!!, next Monday: ET Christmas party/gift exchange, Tuesday: Kindergarten Teachers Christmas Dinner at a fancy restaurant... and I'm sure there will be much fun to be had in between all of the above! We have to finish our season of Glee as well :)

So this weekend we planned a trip to Seoul to do some Christmas shopping (which I failed miserably at), and it turned out to snow!!! I was waiting for Cameron and Steph at the bus stop, and all of the sudden it just started snowing! It was sooo beautiful to see the snow coming down soooo hard for a while there. I felt like I was in a Christmas card. Then we went to Insadong, and Myeongdong, and it was magical! It FINALLY felt like Christmas! Here's some pics from the weekend... Enjoy :)The snow... the pic definitely didn't do it justice... it was REALLY snowing!

Cameron and Steph before we got on the bus! Oh, and yes, Cameron's hat has reindeer on it.

Cameron and I in Insadong. It was soooooo COLD. I had to by a hat, scarf and mittens. I was clearly not prepared.

Post buying my hat (comeplete with llamas on it), massive scarf, and mittens. This is in front of Forever 21 in Myeongdong.

Ended the night with Quiznos. Oh my goodness I loved my life so much at this point. They had ranch. It was sooo tasty... almost just like home! Then, we got free Krispy Kreme donuts. Amazing day filled with shopping, western food, snow, and good company! Yay!

Well that's all for now! I hope you have an amazing week! I miss you all sooo much! T-minus 15 days til I'm HOME! I can't wait! Pray that these last two weeks fly by!!!

Song for today:
I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day
Steven Curtis Chapman (Listen HERE)

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play
And wild and sweet the words repeat,
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had roll'd along th' unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

In despair I bow'd my head:
There is no peace on earth, I said,
For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men.

Thanksgiving in the Land of Kimchi...

I have a lot to say, but first, a picture update is definitely in order. These pics are from the last 2 weeks here.

The first two are from my weekend in Daegu getting my TESOL certification with Caroline

We were clearly excited about our fancy room and robes! This place had the BEST shower ever, and coming from my apt, it was soooo refreshing! Also the beds were so fluffy and warm which is really unusual for Korea...

When we first arrived, we were so excited because there were Christmas lights!
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These next pics are from our DBU Thanksgiving celebration last Tuesday. It was so lovely, and we had a surprise guest (Gracie), so it was such a wonderful time with my family here in Korea.

Kathy the cook. As usual.

Enny did a great job cutting our "turkeys" that were really chicken.

Anthony and Alyssia entertaining the kiddos (Helen and Peter Lee's). Looks like they were seeing what they could do with their hands?

Then they played Jenga...

The spread.. complete with mashed potatoes, chicken, gravy, cranberry sauce, corn, green bean casserole, stuffing, bread, sweet potatoes, and apple cobbler. YUM!

I think Anthony really missed gravy.

Don't be fooled, this is not my plate. Mine was much emptier, just like it would've been at home :) I just had already finished my food.

Cameron and I...

Anthony and I...

Cameron, Me, Gracie, and Anthony right after she told us she was Engaged!!!

Yay! Gracie's getting married in Jan! She's so cute!
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The next series are from Friday. Stephanie, Cameron, Anthony, Me, and Ken ventured to Seoul to eat at this REALLY yummy meat place Ken had told us about. Thanks tour guide, Ken! Basically at this restaurant, they just walk around with all kinds of meat on skewers, and you can have all you want. It's my dream restaurant! You don't even have to think about eating veggies!

One side of the table... the cool side we'll say.

The other side of the table... the uncool side, we'll say.

The first thing you get is a steak. YUM! It was sooo good.

The next thing we got we got was sirloin. It was the BEST by far, but we only got it once... they ran out :(

Me enjoying my meat! So good!

Outside the restaurant. Ken, Steph, Anthony and Cameron.

Anthony, Me and Ken somewhere in Seoul...

Me and Tones in front of pretty lights!

Texas Moon! We were excited at least...

We ended up in a Board Game Room. This is awesome, and America should have them. Basically, you pay like $2 an hour and can play any games that they have. I want to go every weekend. Love it.

All the Koreans were playing poker type games, and we decided to play Tumbling Monkeys. Jeaouls? Anthony was mesmorized, apparently.

Stephanie, Cam, Me, and Ken before we played Jenga.

They give you a hammer with Jenga so you can beat the loser. Muahaha.

So we played Jenga with consequences. I'm very proud of this one that I made up. If you made the tower collapse, you had to go hug the life-size nutcracker that was right by the doorway, pretty much in front of the whole room. It was awesome. Stephanie lost first! It was soooo amusing watching her do this.

It's not the clearest picture, but this is Steph hugging the nutcracker. YES.

Tones is the Jenga master. Seriously.

Stephanie afraid she will have to hug the nutcracker again... will she?

Sucess! Ken ended up hugging the nutcracker too... I missed the photo op though... sad day.
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These last pics are from our CCA Thanksgiving celebration... We could bring friends, so I brought Anthony and Cameron. This was my first big event I planned as Social Coordinator, and I felt like it was a success! We had about 30 people show, and there was plenty of food! That equals goodness to me!

Mark this day, they peeled potatoes! They did a great job helping with the Cheesy, Garlic Mashed Potatoes.

Anthony's going to be a good Daddy... so cute.

Ken and Cameron...

Me and Tones! Someone told us we looked like siblings (He is the closest thing I have to a brother!) because we smile the same and we smile with our eyes... we've never gotten that before, but I'll take it as a compliment :)

Carolina and Cameron enjoying the appetizers.

The spread! It was soooo good! So many different foods! I didn't know we could pull it off so easily in Korea.

More of the food!

Me, Cam, and Anth. What a wonderful way to spend a Thanksgiving away from home! I love them!
The whole gang minus all the kiddos and Cameron (he took a bathroom break at the wrong time)

Whew. This took forever. Hope you enjoyed! So glad it's Friday tomorrow! 2 more weeks of teaching until I get home!!! I can't believe it! YAY!!!!!