US Bound Wish List

As you all know from many past posts, things are a little different in Korea than at home. I can't say that I have truly been deprived of anything that I've needed. However, there have been so many things that I have wanted but I just haven't bought because of the inconvenience of shipping from the US to Korea and then having to worry about transporting back once the time comes to head home. I have bought as little as possible in Korea as well because I just know that there will be an urge to buy many things once I'm back home. I'm in the process of creating a wish list, but I'm trying to be reasonable at the same time. I periodically find myself browsing different websites trying to figure out what it is that I'm just dying to spend money on once I get home. Today's post is very superficial, but I can't help it! I'm getting pretty pumped about the things that I haven't got to do or buy while living in Korealand. Here's a glimpse of some of the things on my US Bound Wish List:

1. eyebrow waxing--not happened all year due to language barrier





2. phone--I would love to have an iPhone, but I think I may have to stick to Verizon as my carrier. So, I don't know if that's gonna be possible???
   




3. tires--I know this seems out of place on my list, but my car honestly needed new tires before I left home. I put it off because I knew it wouldn't be going anywhere all year, but it's probably unsafe to drive at this point!





4. swimsuit--Victoria's Secret swimsuits are the greatest! Actually, I think it may be the models that really make the them look so good. Who doesn't wanna look like that on the beach!
   




5. perfume--I brought one bottle with me. I loved Very Sexy before coming here, but after a yr of the same smell...HATE IT! Nothing personal if you love that stuff.




6. quality mascara--I'm not an eye make-up person for the most part, but I bought some mascara here. It looks great for the first 30 minutes, but after that I always regret having used it...eww!





7. clothes--I know this is very general, but I've been wearing the same things over and over so much that I could never look at any of it again! I really don't know what's "in" right now, but I can't wait to get home and walk through a mall!





8. heels--My height has always warranted heels for almost any occasion. Teaching is completely different! teaching+walking a lot=short Amber :) I can't wait to throw on a cute pair of heels with jeans. Which leads me to my next item...





9. jeans--All of my jeans are torn at the bottom because they drag the ground since I wear flats all the time. I may splurge for True Religion. I've always wanted them, but just never wanted to drop the money. Either way, I can't wait to get new jeans...I don't think it will really matter what brand they are!!!




10. collision doritos--buffalo and blue cheese to be more specific! O man, I've had dreams about those chips
    
    
    
11. whitening toothpaste--I think my teeth have gotten yellow in Korea. Probably all the coffee I drink to keep me going at school.




12. watch-- I've never really been a die hard watch fan, but for some reason I find myself looking at them all the time. I know the yellow isn't that practical, but I just love it!

* Disclaimer* I'm extremely aware of the difficult financial times going on in the US and the world, and this post is only a reflection of my excitement for things that I have missed over the past year :)

the first of many goodbyes

Well, I feel like we have reached a major turning point in our time in Korea. The goodbye process has begun, but not because we're leaving. This week a fellow foreigner friend left to go back home. Well, she's going to travel some on her way, but she's gone from Korea. Kristen was a teacher at another ELC, and she had been in Korea for a month and a half when we got here. I was not extremely close to Kristen, but I thought a lot of her. I woke up this morning feeling so anxious for her and all the changes that she's about to go through. I wish her the best in everything she does. Here are a few pictures from her goodbye party.

Kristen is the girl on the far left in the picture below. After dinner we went to a karaoke room...very fun!

Sunshine Makes Me Smile :)

It's so nice that no matter how good or how bad of a day you might be having the sunshine always makes it better. Today was a great day in Korea! The sun was shinning, and we took full advantage of it and spent the day at the beach! This was the first true summer beach day we have had this year. It was great, and there was even a Sand Festival! There were many different sand castles, or I should probably say "sand sculptures" because the majority of them were not castles at all. The beach was more crowded than what you usually see back home, but I think this was mainly due to the fact that the sculptures were taking up all the room on the beach! Supposedly in August, the most popular beach in Korea has a tendency to draw a crowd of close to a million people. We will not be venturing out to take part in that chaos!

As soon as we arrived at the beach I bought a huge sombrero looking hat. This had absolutely nothing to do with thinking I would look cute in a hat that was 10x's the size of my head! It was very embarrassing because I felt like people were looking at me. Plus, it was so big and the area had so many visitors that when I was walking people would knock into it and jar my head :) I'm sure they were thinking, "Dumb and ridiculous looking foreigner!"Anyway, back to my point... I am sooooo WHITE right now that the reason I was wearing the hat was because I had this fear of being badly sun burnt! This probably seems crazy to those of you who know how easily I tan, but for some reason I've become much more reluctant about tanning since being away from the US. Maybe it's just because most Koreans do not want to be darker but lighter, and they all carry umbrellas around to shade themselves from the sun. OR, it could be that having just turned 24, I know that aging happens naturally. So, there's really no need for me to help it along! Whatever the reason is, I know it's better for my skin to be white even if it looks much better with a tan. I guess I'll wear the hat and look stupid for now. However, I'm sure as soon as I see all of you and your fresh summer bronzed skin, I may have a change of heart.

We searched for sea creatures on these rocks...Chris found a tiny crab!

Our entire day was very relaxing! I enjoyed every moment of being outside and under the sun. The transport back was not as enjoyable. However, it was humorous! See, we made it to the station just in time to buy a ticket and hop on the train, but all of the seats were sold out! We had to buy a standing ticket, but we were both so exhausted that we ended up sitting in the floor behind the last seat in our car. Yet AGAIN...we look like stupid foreign people!!!

Wii

Tonight we went to a Wii Cafe with some friends! It was so much fun. I have to admit that the business concept is very clever. They sell you coffee and then put you in a room with as many Wii games as you can possibly imagine. Obviously, after consuming caffeine, people are not gonna want to quit playing. Here are a couple of pictures from the night!

I'm not sure if it's possible to look normal while playing Wii.. at least we don't! :)

Party Like It's Ya Birfday

As long as I can remember, May has been a month of celebrations. Not only is my birthday coming up next week, but my brother, Alan Craig's birthday is on the 20th. A.C. and myself are exactly one week short of being exactly 2 years apart. Alan's son, Cullen was born the day before his birthday on the 19th, and it doesn't stop there. It's always seemed that everyone I know has a birthday in May! I have 2 cousins with birthdays in May, Kelly and Dustin...Happy Birthday!!! Then, 2 of my best friends in the world also have birthdays in May, Lauren and Ashley. I've included some old pictures of some of my birthday buddies as a tribute to all the May birthdays. I know most of your big days have past, but here's to you guys...Love you and Happy Birthday!

My favorite birthday boys (this picture was taken around Christmas '07)

Greatest friends a girl could ask for, aka"La and Ash."

Lauren and I have been friends since before I can even remember. Our friendship was destined to be a forever thing. Our parents were great friends before our existence was ever imagined. The Mom's got pregnant around the same time, and then we were born 3 days apart. We've experienced so many steps of life together, and now, she even has a baby girl of her own. I can't imagine my life without La!

Ashley and I met one summer via Casey (Case, I love you too!!!). I was coming out of the Jay relationship and on my way back to UK, but I needed a roomie. She was coming out of the sorority house and also needed a roomie. I think we bonded as I applied sunless tanner to her nearly naked body before heading to the lake (this was the first time we ever met...haha). We aren't very shy. I'm so thankful that God brought Ash into my life at the exact time that I needed her most. We lived together from that semester until we both graduated!

I feel so blessed to have the greatest group of friends and family! Happy Birthday to all my May Birthday people, and Happy Birthday to anyone I may have forgotten this month or any other time this year. I'm sure I have probably missed a lot of birthdays unintentionally. I should also add that the pic of the girls was taken on a cruise our senior year of college, as was this party picture. I thought this looked so fun that it had to be included in my "party post" :)

Don't you just love cruises??? :)

Rain over Ilsan

Last weekend, we planned to go to Ilsan beach with Andy and Jen to eat some fresh seafood. It ended up raining. So, it really wasn't the best beach day, but we decided to go anyway! I'm glad we did, but we're gonna have to go back sometime when the weather is nice. The seafood was wonderful. We went and picked out what we wanted from actual fish tanks, and they scoop the fish up, kill it and cook it right there! We picked 2 large fish, and we ate one round raw (sashimi style) and the other was fried. They were both really good, but you can't ask me to compare raw fish to fried, obviously the fried had much more taste! They were both really good, and as with any Korean meal, we got a ton of sides! The restaurant was seaside, and even though it was raining, we got to watch the waves roll in as we ate...big plus :) After eating, we trekked up a ton of stairs and made our way back into this national park. At the end of our long walk was a treasure that was well worth the walk. It was probably the coolest natural scene that I've been exposed to while in Korea. It was all of these rocks sitting on the water, and there were trails and a bridge built so that you could walk out onto the rocks that were in the water. It was really beautiful. Unfortunately, on the journey there I lost my camera battery. I wasn't able to get pictures on my camera. :( When I talk Chris into putting his pics on the computer, I'll do a recap from pictures he's taken over the last couple of months.

my apologies

I know, I know...I have completely neglected my blog for over a week now!!! Sorry... I will try to give you a quick run down of what has been going on in our lives over the past week or so.

Last weekend , we went to the movies to see Star Track. I was not very excited about going, but I actually ended up enjoying the movie! After the movie, we went out for coffee with this Korean couple that we met, Andy and Jen. They are so much fun, and they both speak great English. Then on Sunday, we went to Eonyang cave. We even got to take a little boat ride inside the cave! It was a lot of fun, but the best part about Eonyang was the scenery! The cave is up on a mountain, and all around you can see green!!! It was so nice and pretty, and the air was even fresh and clean! After the cave, we played pool, but I'm awful at pool. Anything that requires hand eye coordination is really just not my thing, this my explain my driving record :) Then we were introduced to a new Korean meal by our new Korean friends! I can't remember what the name of the meal was, but I do remember the repercussions of the meal! It was blowing and breathing as if I were a woman in labor (this was seriously the spiciest meal I've had in Korea) followed by awful stomach pains, which lasted all night long!!! On a side note, I do not understand why people so this to themselves! i enjoy spicy food for the most part, but when it is so hot that it really hurts....WHY? I've asked myself this the entire time I've been in this country, and it is still a mystery to me. I have students who by these hot snacks, and bring them into my class and then make ridiculous noises because of how spicy it is. I ask "Why do you eat it then?" And they always respond, "Delicious." I laugh and say "Whatever, but don't ask me if you can go get water!" I know it sounds harsh, but I usually give in when their faces start turning red and it looks like tears my follow! Such a mean teacher...MWAHAHAHA!!!

Let's see...what else have we been doing??? Oh, we watched a mountain burn! I know, that sounds awful, but it was actually entertaining. I hope no one got hurt! We spent about an hour up at the sky park on the 17th floor just watching huge clouds of smoke roll off of this mountain, and then they sent out the helicopters that drop water from the sky. I had never seen this in person, so it was actually really neat!

In other news, Teacher's Day was also this past week! It was such a good day because the students made us feel very appreciated. We got all kinds of goodies like: fresh bread from the bakery, flowers, lotion, body spray, hair clips and lots of really sweet notes. Not to mention, a parent bought this huge cake for all the teachers, which sat right beside my desk all day long! I managed to only eat 2 huge pieces! I don't know why the cake always sits beside my desk, but I'm not gonna lie...I kinda like it! All the other treats we get always sit at the other end of the teachers office and I always feel awkward if I want to get seconds because I feel like everyone notices. However, the cake (which I happen to prefer more than Korean rice dough cake) is always right beside me..what a great desk I got :) An interesting observation that I have made while teaching is that the students that bring me gifts are typically not the ones that I would expect gifts from. You see, since I have been teaching, I've had about 4 or 5 students who have brought me a number of gifts throughout the year. In most cases, these have been students that seem to cause more problems in my classes! I've decided that the parents realize that their child is a little bit on the difficult side, and thus, they feel the need to compensate with gifts!!! Listen to this note that I received from a parent on Teacher's Day and you tell me if you think I'm right.

Dear Amber,
This is Ji Won mother. I am happy you are teacher of my
daughter. I hope you know she is apple of my eye. You may sometimes
think she spoiled because of this. I hope for you rebuke
her when she is wrong~ I do not mind.
Have a happy teacher day,
Ji Won Mommy

Last, but not least...Chris got a bad haircut!!! So, I had to include a picture :) He decided to go to a different place than he normally goes, and he ended up being sorry that he did. She gave him the Korean cut, where it looks like she just cut a circle around his face. It's not awful, but it's not what I would call a good cut either...hahaha!

Take care and keep in touch,

~Am :)