Quick overview of the past few days...

Let's see I've spent the last 6 days with Jesse...Friday night was spent at Tyler's house for his birthday. His birth mother and sister were there as well as his aunt. Then his wife and wife's friend, and a bunch of adoptees, myself and Jesse. Jesse was the only non-korean person there. lol Which was kinda funny.

Saturday was spent walking around in the RAIN and a trip out to COEX Mall with Jesse.

Sunday, Jesse and I went to Boramae Park.

Monday, last day of school!!!! I met/participated in the interview for my substitute co-teacher. The Vice-Principal hired the one I was hoping he would hire! Her English was very good and she just seemed like a great person to work with. YAY! Monday after school we went to Myeong-dong for some shopping.

Tuesday we went to the Korean War Memorial. We only got to talk outside, we didn't get a chance to go in the museum because we were going to do CrossFit with Tyler. If you're ever heard of CrossFit you know that we went through the ringer. If not, here is a video that kind of shoes you some of the stuff you might do. We actually did partner work so together as a pair we did 800m run, 100 pull-ups, 100 push ups, 100 squats, and 100 burpies or up-downs. It was killer and I think I tore or damaged a tendon in my right arm in the process. But Jesse and I are going back tomorrow for day 2.

Today, Wednesday, Jesse and I went out to some Tomb WAY out in the middle of nowhere!!! We rode the subway North for about an hour and 15 min. Found a Pizza Hut, then took a bus for a good 45 min. We eventually made it by 5:00. lol Here are some pics from our crazy, hot day!!!

Quick update with pics- ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

First, I will be trying my best to update my blog now at least once or twice a week. I really will try!! haha And I will try to at least post 1 or 2 pics every post. I downloaded a new app on my iphone thanks to Jesse who found it and it's SWEET!!! It's a Korean photo app called Pudding Camera. If you have an iPhone and want a better camera app download Pudding Camera!

Also, I would love to get more feed back from you all!! If you can't figure out how to comment, or use the chatbox, feel free to shoot me an e-mail!!!!

Tomorrow starts my last week of school!!!! WHOO!!!! Then I'll have three weeks of sleeping in til 8. lol I'll be working my butt off this week making my curriculum for camp and trying to start learning some more Korean. I ended up buying two books the other day when I was at Technomart getting another book for camp. Who knows if I'll actually use one of them. lol

Friday after school I decided to try to clean my apartment. It's super dusty, so I brought my little mask the school gave us during the war drill which won't even protect anyone from gas much less protect me from dust. haha Thing didn't work at all. But, I did dust and vacuum some. Then did dishes and broke my faucet. I have one of those retractable ones, but the handle that pulls out pulled completely off. haha So I called my coteacher to see if she could call my land lady to explain what happened. The land lady's husband came down first, started speaking Korean to me, turned on the water and it sprayed all over my floor yet again. He then left, and eventually came back and put another handle on! Faucet back in action!!

Saturday, Jesse and I went to Itaewon, walked around trying to find Dos Tacos. Never found it. Ended up eating at Quizzno's and then Cold Stone. lol Then we met Justin at Technomart. Then Justin and I went back to my apartment and he fixed me my favorite...Mandu...which are dumplings. We had mandu, kimchi, rice, and hotdog weiners. haha It was amazing! I cooked the rice of course, but he did the mandu and hotdogs.

Sunday, Jesse and I went to Times Square so I could get the audio CD for camp, then ate lunch at On the Border. Then we went to Seonyudo Park that was pretty cool and walked around down by the Han river. The sun eventually came out, which was great. But still very humid all day long. Lots more pictures posted of Facebook!!!

OK, well I must get up on time tomorrow, so it's off to bed for me!

Nighty Night!!

P.S. I hope my parents and grandpa are having fun without me while they are up in the Northeast...and congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Simon...so sad I couldn't be at your wedding cuz!!!

Tried to take a picture of my new earrings. For those of you who don't know, I hate anything gold. But, I LOVE LOVE LOVE these earrings. haha Mostly because Justin made them for me. haha But still, they're pretty sweet and I love them to death! Such a sweet boy!

Long time...

Lots and lots of news to catch people up on.

So there are 11 days of school left! I find myself becoming more and more stressed out as the end of school approaches. I’ve got to plan two weeks of summer camp on my own. No curriculum was given this year, so I’m starting from scratch. I’m teaching 1st and 2nd graders, so that should be interesting. I do have a co-teacher, but I’m the one who is in charge of camp. She’s just there to be a helper and rally the kids if need be. I do have one week before camp of desk warming/preparation where I have to be here at school the entire week, most likely by myself. I do have 14 days off. One week is paid vacation, the other week is “research at home.” Haha Apparently I have to write a research paper about what I did over that week at home. So very strange!!!

Last week I didn’t end up getting home at night until late all but one night. Monday after school I had dinner with a friend, Tuesday I had dinner with a guy from IECEF which is the organization that helped me get this teaching job, Wednesday I was invited over to one of my adult student’s home and she is the grandmother of one of my 5th grade students, then Friday night was at a salon getting my hair cut and magic straight, which is basically the opposite of a perm. I love it, but it’s just too dang hot to keep my hair down. After getting my hair did, I met up with my friend Jesse from high school. Being in Korea we managed to eat at western places for every meal. Haha Anyways, then Sunday the two of us eventually met up and went to Itaewon and Myeong-dong. Again, eating a western places. I probably gained about 2 pounds last weekend, which is not a good thing. Lol But, my pants are still way too big, so I’m not too worried.

Tuesday, there was a Dillon International Adoptee dinner at Eastern Social Welfare Society which is the agency I was at when I was born before I came to the states. There really wasn’t an “ah ha” moment, but it was good to meet Jann and see Dukkyung again. Dukkyung was actually my social worker when I was born. She knew me before my parents did. I had also met her a while ago when my mom and I visited Deniese Dillon at Dillon International in Tulsa. There were only two adoptees at the dinner, but it was great meeting her. We had Pizza Hut pizza which was very good. No corn on the pizza, so I was a happy girl! After dinner I decided to go see Cookin’ Nanta with the birth land tour group that was here with Jann and Dukkyung. The best decision I’ve made since I’ve been here. It was an incredible show. It’s basically a Korean cooking version of Stomp. It’s been on Broadway and it’s playing around the world. If you ever get a chance to see it, I HIGHLY recommend it! It was great meeting Jann. We got a long great, which was surprising to me. Just the fact that I’m pretty reserved when it comes to meeting new people. But with Jann it seemed like we were old friends. That hardly ever happens with me. Lol Anyways, I heard that someone (not naming names…*cough* Fetzer *cough*) gave Jann the link to this blog. So Jann if you are reading this…It was great meeting you and I want to thank you and Dukkyung for dinner and then for letting me tag along to Nanta.

Another happy note! I’ve received 3 care packages from friends back home!! One from my amazing Sunday School class along with a card from the church staff. Thanks guys!! And then 2 from my friend Joanna aka ICE!!!! I loved getting the pictures, book, mac and cheese, jiffy pop, hot cocoa, and trail mix from the Sunday School class. Then the AWESOME “Ride the Bee” mug, twizzlers, and the most AMAZING pair of sunglasses on earth from ICE!!!!!!

I went ahead and got a membership to Costco. It was 35,000W for a year. So not too bad. I ended up buying Dr. Pepper, pasta, popcorn, and pesto sauce. I can't believe I ever found pesto. I've been looking for it everywhere and this is the first place I've seen it! I was so happy. It might be a gigantic tub of it, but I bought a LOT of pasta with Mia, so we decided to split it. lol So I'm pretty excited, tortellini with pesto sauce is going to be my dinner tonight with a Dr. Pepper...life is good!!!

Taeyang...singer of Wedding Dress that is on my player on here just came out with a full length album today called "Solar," I downloaded! lol It's incredible! Does have the songs from his mini album, but then 8 new songs! The entire album has such a great beat, a bit R&B, hip-hop, pop, it's great!!!